The kunai in Taiseki's hand drew closer and closer to Kakashi's eye!
Young Kakashi had believed Obito's strike would be enough to take Taiseki out of the fight, and he'd relaxed his guard. Now, all he could do was watch as the sharp kunai crept toward his left eye in the painfully slowed flow of time.
Behind him, Obito Uchiha's crimson Sharingan spun, three tomoe gleaming in each eye.
Under the Sharingan's influence, time seemed to freeze.
Taiseki's body and every single movement were laid bare before Obito's eyes, including the shock flickering in Kakashi's gaze.
And the kunai bearing down on Kakashi's left eye.
The tragic future Adult Kakashi had spoken of flooded Obito's mind in an instant.
That perpetually weary, sorrow-filled Sharingan… and—
[Obito Uchiha is the true identity of the Masked Man.]
The despair and agony triggered a strange surge of chakra deep within Obito, violently stimulating his optic nerves.
A sharp, piercing whine rang out—
"!!!"
From his angle, Young Kakashi saw it clearly. Behind Taiseki, Obito's eyes changed. The black tomoe within the crimson pupils fused together in an instant, then spread apart again, forming a windmill-like pattern of three curved blades.
That was—
The Mangekyō Sharingan!!
As it awakened, blood tears streamed from the corners of Obito's eyes. Yet the timid, cowardly crybaby he once was was gone. His gaze now burned with cold, ruthless resolve.
Obito Uchiha's arm phased straight through Taiseki's back. Completely unprepared for an ability like this, Taiseki had no chance to defend himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a young man's hand protruding through his chest, and he froze instinctively.
In that very instant, the intangible arm solidified.
Obito grabbed Taiseki's wrist from behind, the one holding the kunai aimed at Kakashi's eye.
Everything happened in a split second. Kakashi didn't have time to dodge the kunai, and Taiseki had even less chance of escaping that ghostly hand.
All he could do was watch as the immense grip seized his wrist—
And guided his own hand, kunai still clutched tightly, to slash violently across his own throat.
Pshhk—!!
Blood sprayed violently from Taiseki's carotid artery. Because he was so close to Kakashi, most of the blood splattered across Young Kakashi's face.
Especially the left side, making it look as if Kakashi himself had suffered a grievous wound.
Obito's killing intent surged. Taiseki was already doomed, yet Obito still forced the hand to cut deeper, harder, slicing further in.
"Obito…"
"Obito?"
"Obito!!"
Kakashi slapped Obito hard across the face, trying to snap him out of it—
Just as Obito finished severing Taiseki's head completely. It dropped from the body and landed on the tree trunk at their feet.
Thud. Gurgle…
The head rolled several times along the broad branch before falling away.
As it dropped, the face turned toward them midair, eyes wide with terror, staring at the two of them as if determined to remember their faces even in hell.
Obito finally snapped back to himself and recoiled in shock.
He released the body and staggered back two steps.
The headless corpse collapsed with a heavy thud at their feet.
Fresh from killing someone, Obito panted heavily.
Unlike Minato-sensei and the elite prodigy Kakashi, Obito had always been the dead last. Aside from D-rank missions, he usually served as support, providing cover for Kakashi and Minato-sensei.
This was the first time he had turned the tide as the main attacker.
Kakashi patted him on the shoulder.
"Pull yourself together. We're going to rescue Rin."
"Yeah!" Obito took two deep breaths to steady his racing heart, then wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve.
"What's wrong with your eye?"
Seeing that Kakashi's left eye was still closed, Obito asked worriedly.
Kakashi tried opening it slightly. "It's fine. Blood splashed in. It'll clear up in a bit."
"Oh… don't scare me like that. You really freaked me out."
Obito finally let out a breath of relief.
"Alright, let's go save Rin."
"Mm."
Just as the two of them were about to enter the Iwa ninja stronghold, a shrill scream rang out from inside, followed immediately by the sounds of fighting.
"!!!"
Their expressions tightened. They rushed straight to the cave entrance.
But the moment they saw the silhouette of a brown-haired girl standing over an Iwa ninja beneath her feet, they both shouted at the same time.
"Rin?!!"
"Rin?!"
Rin Nohara lifted her gaze from the incapacitated, spiky-haired Iwa ninja on the ground and smiled brightly at them.
There was a cut on her arm and another on her cheek.
The wound on her cheek wasn't deep, likely just grazed by the edge of a sword strike. It wouldn't leave a scar.
Her arm, however, was bleeding heavily. That wound looked deeper.
It made Obito's heart ache.
Just as he and Kakashi were about to rush over, a small slug wriggled onto Rin's wound and began treating it first.
"This is…?" Kakashi said in surprise. "A slug from Shikkotsu Forest? Katsuyu-sama?!"
The little slug greeted them politely.
Rin then explained everything that had happened after she was transported back here.
The moment she arrived, she realized her situation was bad.
She had been bound with hemp rope, her mind slightly muddled. The spiky-haired Iwa ninja named Kakkō had been using genjutsu to interrogate her.
During the time she and Sakura had been training together the two of them had developed a competitive spirit, but neither held anything back. They shared everything they knew.
Because of that, Sakura mastered medical ninjutsu, while Rin's resistance to genjutsu increased dramatically. Together, they even signed a contract with Shikkotsu Forest and developed a more aggressive combat style.
As a result, when Kakkō used genjutsu on her again, it didn't work at all.
Still, there were two powerful Iwa jōnin present. As a chūnin, Rin wasn't confident she could defeat both of them while restrained and under constant watch.
Fortunately, Obito and Kakashi lured Taiseki away.
After that, Rin quietly severed the rope behind her using sharp chakra.
That was another technique she'd developed recently. She could only form chakra blades as thin as surgical scalpels at her fingertips, but it was more than enough to serve as a trump card.
She discreetly cut her finger and formed the hand seals for Summoning Jutsu behind her back.
The sudden appearance of the slug immediately drew Kakkō's attention.
Seizing that opening, Rin broke free from her restraints and concentrated chakra into her fist.
She might not have Sakura's dramatic battle catchphrases, but Rin wasn't about to hold back. Her punch slammed straight into Kakkō's unguarded chest.
The blow shattered his ribs, and his scream was what Kakashi and Obito heard outside.
Even so, Kakkō was an Iwa jōnin. Despite having several ribs crushed by a surprise attack, he reacted quickly and fought back against the Konoha girl in front of him.
A medical-nin capable of offense. A so-called brute-force healer.
Their strength didn't come only from being able to heal themselves mid-battle, nor solely from the monstrous power granted by precise chakra control.
More than anything, it was their deep understanding of human anatomy, far beyond that of ordinary ninja.
That punch to Kakkō's chest wasn't random at all. Even the angle of the fractured ribs had been calculated.
In the fight that followed, Rin focused on evading his blade while repeatedly striking the ribs along his side.
After three or four hits, one of the shattered ribs pierced straight into Kakkō's heart.
Having lost her medical pouch the moment she was captured, Rin Nohara killed him using his own bone as a weapon.
When she finished, both Young Kakashi and Obito stared at her in disbelief.
They looked at the girl who had always been the one they protected, eyes wide.
Only then did Rin relax her hardened expression. Her brown eyes softened as she looked at them.
Still, both of them could see an indescribable sadness hidden in her gaze.
"…Sakura and I may be kunoichi, but we shouldn't keep trading your injuries for our safety. I also want to stop the ending of the other world…"
She was thinking of what the Kakashi from another world had told them, about Obito's sacrifice at Kannabi Bridge.
"Rin—"
Whether it was her words or the shock of surviving, Obito felt a sharp sting in his throat. His overly sensitive tear ducts were on the verge of overflowing again.
The brown-haired girl took both of their hands.
"I don't want to die. I don't want Obito to become the Masked Man. And I don't want Kakashi to live forever trapped in guilt. So let's rewrite Naruto and the others' future together, as a three-person team. Okay?"
That "okay" was soft, carrying a faint hint of pleading.
Hearing it, the hearts of the two boys, who always claimed they were like fire and water and fought constantly, couldn't help but soften.
"Either way, everything's going smoothly for now. That's largely thanks to us having gone to Naruto's era ahead of time."
Obito pulled out his own mission scroll from his ninja pouch and gripped it tightly.
"Even though the final mission is for me to kill myself from another era…" Obito pressed the scroll to his forehead and closed his eyes. "Still… for being able to change such a tragic future, I'm truly grateful."
Rin and Kakashi felt the same.
"Alright, shouldn't we keep heading toward Kannabi Bridge now, Captain Kakashi?"
With a hint of teasing in his tone, Obito stuffed the scroll back into his ninja pouch.
Just as Kakashi was about to reply, he noticed Obito freeze.
"What is it?" Kakashi asked.
Obito opened his ninja pouch and saw that there was an extra small transparent bottle inside.
He immediately pulled out the mission scroll again.
[Mission Rank: A-rank]
[Mission Content: Awaken the Sharingan.]
[Mission Status: Completed.]
...
[Mission Rank: S-rank]
[Mission Content: Awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan.]
[Mission Status: Completed.]
"That thing… so it really was the reward for the S-rank mission!" Obito said in shock.
Young Kakashi suddenly realized it too.
"Right! You activated the Mangekyō Sharingan earlier!"
During the fight with Taiseki, Obito, determined not to follow the ending of the other world, had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and slit Taiseki's throat, beheading him on the spot.
So far, they had completed three S-rank missions. The rewards had been Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan technique, Kotoamatsukami, the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode, and now this third one.
Obito took out the small glass bottle.
Floating inside the liquid was—
Tree bark?