Time rewound to the moment the masked man wearing the orange whirlpool mask—the adult Obito Uchiha—had just arrived at Konohagakure.
The instant he entered the village, he overheard several ninja speaking in hushed voices nearby.
"Who would've thought Naruto Uzumaki was actually the Fourth Hokage-sama's son…"
"I heard the Third Hokage deliberately kept it from being made public."
"That makes sense. The Fourth Hokage-sama is a great hero to our village, but the other villages probably both fear and hate him."
"During the Third Shinobi World War, didn't he wipe out more than fifty elite Iwa jōnin in just a few minutes?"
"That's not even the half of it. I heard that in one battle, Minato-sama led a surprise assault on Iwa, and he alone slaughtered over a thousand enemy ninja. That's what finally forced Iwa to sit down and negotiate with the Third Hokage."
"And Minato-sama also predicted early on that Iwa wouldn't truly honor a ceasefire. Even if the war ended, they wouldn't behave themselves. After analyzing the situation, he made a bold decision and went alone to negotiate with the Sunagakure ninja of the Land of Wind and the Kirigakure ninja of the Land of Water. In the end, he successfully brought the Land of Wind into the alliance and ended the war."
"Honestly, when you think about it now, Minato-sama's achievements sound like legends."
"But…"
After saying so much, the group of Konoha ninja ultimately summed everything up with that single word.
But how had they treated the son of the hero who ended the Third Shinobi World War?
Hatred—
Blaming him as the cause of the Fourth Hokage-sama's death.
Loathing—
Calling him a demon fox brat, treating him as something less than a normal child, as long as he didn't die.
Indifference—
Forbidding their own children from getting close to him, afraid they might catch bad luck.
"But he was still just a kid. What if he couldn't control the Nine-Tails and it went on another rampage?"
"So we didn't really have a choice, did we?"
Prejudice was humanity's original sin toward those deemed different, yet someone still raised a doubt.
"Then doesn't that make us just like the Kazekage, who tried to control his own son with assassinations and lies?"
"Speaking of that, if it weren't for 'that incident,' none of us would've known that the Suna Village's Jinchūriki had come to Konoha."
"Didn't you see that Nine-Tails kid fighting the Suna Jinchūriki? That was basically a monster free-for-all."
Thinking back to the clash of two massive beasts towering dozens of meters high, even a single leap had been enough to make distant parts of Konoha tremble.
The ninja beside him interrupted, "I think you should at least call him by his name. Even if the Fourth Hokage-sama sacrificed himself, we should still show his son some basic respect."
"Alright, alright. If that 'Red-Hot Habanero' ever found out about this, I swear she'd wipe the village clean from top to bottom."
When she lost her temper, her long red hair flared wildly like the Nine-Tails' tails, her punches strong enough to send people flying. Even Minato Namikaze would apologize first and ask questions later when dealing with her.
Kushina Uzumaki.
Hidden within his own space, the masked man listened to their conversation and couldn't help but recall that woman.
Just wait a little longer. In that perfect world, everyone would meet again.
Pulling himself out of those memories, what truly caught his attention was the "that" they kept mentioning. What kind of incident could make even ordinary Konoha ninja aware of something as secret as the Kazekage attempting to assassinate his own son, a Jinchūriki?
As he pondered this, the conversation shifted to something even harder for him to understand.
"By the way, what exactly was that 'thing' last time? Genjutsu? How did some old man show up who could revive the dying Fourth Hokage and the Red-Hot Habanero? He even mentioned the Fourth Shinobi World War."
"Right, do you guys know who this Obito Uchiha they keep talking about is?"
"I think he was a dead-last chūnin from our village who died in the Third Shinobi World War."
"But from the way they were talking, it sounds like he didn't actually die."
"Oh, that explains it. I heard someone recently vandalized his name on the Memorial Stone, but the Hokage didn't pursue it at all."
"Yeah, yeah. There were also rumors that Kakashi finally let go and settled down at the Hatake estate."
"He got married? Well, that tracks. I heard during the Chūnin Exams, someone suddenly showed up claiming to be from the future and said Kakashi Hatake would become the Sixth Hokage."
"Maybe marriage changed him. I went on a mission with him ages ago. Back then, he fought like he didn't care if he lived or died, like he was deliberately trying to get himself killed."
"Come to think of it, I've never heard Kakashi say he wanted to be Hokage. It's Naruto Uzumaki who's always shouting about becoming Hokage. But the people who took the Chūnin Exams said that same guy from the future also claimed the Seventh Hokage would be Naruto Uzumaki."
At that point, Obito Uchiha chose to stop listening.
No matter how much more he heard, it was useless. It only made things more chaotic, impossible to tell truth from fabrication.
The Sixth Hokage is Kakashi Hatake, and the Seventh Hokage is Naruto Uzumaki?
What complete nonsense!
That piece of trash who does nothing but stand in front of the Memorial Stone and repent!
How could he possibly become the Sixth Hokage?!
Hah! What a joke!
Who gave him the nerve to even think about becoming Hokage? Are they insane?!
There was no denying it. He was furious.
When he heard that the Sixth Hokage was Kakashi Hatake, he didn't even understand why his anger flared so violently. Unable to make sense of it, he simply blamed it on this so-called false world choosing a false Kakashi as its Hokage.
"Truly a hopeless world."
Yes. This world was beyond saving.
It absolutely, definitely wasn't because he regretted anything…
And even less because he felt jealous upon hearing that Kakashi had gotten married and become Hokage.
From the villagers' conversation, Obito Uchiha picked up on many suspicious points. The mention of the Hatake family residence and the vandalized Memorial Stone especially reminded him of when he had abruptly awakened within Madara Uchiha's consciousness, meeting that other self who knew everything. That version of him had already awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan during the Kannabi Bridge mission.
He went straight to the Memorial Stone to see it for himself.
The spot where [Obito Uchiha] should have been engraved had been slashed more than a hundred times with something as sharp as a kunai. The name was almost completely destroyed, reduced to a hollowed-out mess.
He said it didn't matter, but inside, the adult Obito was practically exploding with rage.
That useless Kakashi couldn't even protect the Memorial Stone.
Then again, if his involvement in the deaths of the Fourth Hokage and the previous Nine-Tails Jinchūriki had truly been exposed, this kind of treatment would have been understandable.
What he didn't know was that his identity as the Masked Man, along with his many crimes, had not yet been fully revealed. Both Minato's team and Kakashi's team had remained completely silent on the matter.
Unaware that Naruto and Obito had obtained mission scrolls much earlier, and that defacing the Memorial Stone had merely been young Obito's task, he assumed the damage was simply the villagers venting their hatred.
Kamui truly was a perfect ability. From the Memorial Stone, he passed through most of Konoha, then slipped through the fields outside the village. No one noticed him, and both distance and time were drastically shortened.
The Hatake family residence looked almost exactly the same as it had twenty years ago.
But what was that newly built wooden structure beside it?
Just as the young Obito was about to investigate, two clear voices announced that they were heading out.
One of those voices made his entire body sway.
That voice… even if he went to the Pure Land, he would never forget it.
Rin?!
Why?!
Why was Rin, who had died so many years ago, inside Kakashi's old family home?!
The young Obito froze in shock.
For a split second, he almost lost control and exposed himself by exiting the Kamui space.
After confirming again and again that Rin was not an Edo Tensei corpse but a living, breathing person, Obito couldn't be sure whether someone else in this world had used some unknown method to revive her.
The shock left him dazed for a long time, as if trapped in a dream, unable to understand what was happening. It completely disrupted his plan. He had intended to remake this false world and revive Rin in an entirely new one.
Unable to figure it out, the young Obito could only continue following them for now…
Thirteen-year-old Rin Nohara and Sakura Haruno, the same age as her, walked out of the Hatake residence. The two young kunoichi headed into Konoha, completely unaware that a man nearly thirty years old was tailing them.
As they chatted, they inevitably talked about Rin's worries over Obito and Kakashi, as well as her unease about whether she would truly be accepted as a disciple under Tsunade-sama.
Hidden within the Kamui space, the young Obito listened. At first, he was deeply confused. But as their conversation touched on keywords like "time travel," "parallel worlds," "Kannabi Bridge," "resisting Iwa ninja," "accidentally fusing Hashirama's cells," "Mangekyō Sharingan intangibility," and "someone helping Obito use White Zetsu components to balance the Hashirama cells," he gradually pieced together a rough outline of what had happened.
At the very least, the adult Obito Uchiha now understood that both this Rin and the young Obito Uchiha he had encountered before came from parallel worlds.
One was Team Minato, who had arrived in their world not long after beginning the Kannabi Bridge mission…
A storm of emotions churned inside adult Obito Uchiha. He envied them, felt jealous of his other self from another world, questioned what had caused all of this to happen, and felt utterly lost about what kind of future they would go on to create.
So he followed them the entire way.
As soon as Sakura and Rin reached Konoha's shopping district, they were called over by Ino, who was helping out at the flower shop. That was when Asuma and Kurenai saw Rin, leading to the scene of shock and surprise earlier.
When Rin saw the grown-up Kurenai Yūhi, she couldn't help remarking that Kurenai had become even more beautiful and more womanly. As a girl herself, she casually added that she wondered what she would look like when she grew up.
Hidden within Kamui's dimension, the young Obito Uchiha felt an indescribable pain.
His Rin…
If she were still alive…
Suddenly realizing that he couldn't even imagine what Rin would look like as an adult, Obito froze.
Would she have long hair or short hair?
Would she continue as a medical ninja, or become a jōnin instructor?
If they were all still alive, how would the grown Rin interact with him and Kakashi?
...
On the other side, Rin was usually very careful about other people's feelings, and mistakes like this were rare for her. Seeing how beautiful Kurenai had become as an adult made her heart flutter a little, and she couldn't quite suppress that excitement.
She quickly changed the subject and asked how everyone else was doing.
"Anko is an instructor for this year's Chūnin Exams, but she's still the same as ever. You'll probably find her at the dango shop," Kurenai Yūhi told her. "Guy is still chasing after Kakashi, just like that hot-blooded idiot back then."
That "idiot" was a familiar nickname among their class, said without any malice. The current jōnin, Might Guy, was now an outstanding ninja respected by many.
"Ebisu became this guy's nephew's private tutor," Kurenai added, poking Asuma beside her.
"And Genma and Hayate are both proctors for this Chūnin Exam," Asuma continued. "Genma is still single like Kakashi, while Hayate is in a passionate relationship with Yugao Uzuki from the class below us."
Rin Nohara sighed with emotion. These old classmates from back then had hardly changed at all.
Kurenai Yūhi and Asuma Sarutobi felt the same way.
In their eyes, the ones who had changed the most were the Fourth Hokage's Team 7.
They believed that both Obito and Rin had sacrificed their lives, and that Kakashi had gone from being a proud genius to someone who spent his days reading inappropriate books and dodging missions whenever he could.
But Rin and Sakura, who already knew part of the truth, understood that the biggest change in the previous Team 7 was that Obito Uchiha was still alive. He had killed his own sensei and sensei's wife, unleashed the Nine-Tails to wreak havoc on Konoha, ignored the fate of his clan, secretly manipulated the Mizukage, and controlled the largest rogue ninja organization, Akatsuki.
"Oh, right, Rin," Kurenai suddenly remembered something. "You said others from your era came too. You mean…"
"Minato-sensei, Kakashi, and Obito," Rin replied. "We're all staying at Kakashi's family home right now. Obito was injured because of certain circumstances, and he's feeling pretty down. I want to buy something he likes to cheer him up and help him regain his spirit."
When Rin mentioned Obito, her expression softened, though there was also a trace of melancholy that Kurenai and Asuma couldn't quite understand.
Kurenai glanced at her boyfriend and couldn't help sighing.
"You know, if you keep spoiling Obito like this, when is that kid ever going to grow up?"
Inside Kamui's dimension, Obito muttered to himself, "Like I need you telling me that?!" He couldn't even tell whether he was talking about himself or the younger Obito. Either way, as long as it was Rin, she was an angel to him, doting on him without restraint.
Kurenai Yūhi added, "By the way, did Obito ever confess to you? I remember Asuma seeing him buy roses when we were kids. Nine times out of ten, those were for you."
"!!!"
Inside Kamui's dimension, the adult Obito instantly bristled.
"Asuma and Kurenai, you two—why are you sticking your noses into this?! Damn it! Who else saw that back then?!!"