Orochimaru, as a third party, had almost watched Kakashi's whole journey. Naturally, he knew that the problem couldn't be solved by just one Sharingan.
That day, by chance, Obito suddenly lost control of his emotions, took Kakashi's Sharingan, and forced Kakashi, who had been subconsciously avoiding the life and death of his friend, to face this possibility.
Obito hadn't been without flaws all these years. On the contrary, many of his actions were very clumsy. The reason why he hadn't been exposed until now was largely due to the convenience of 'Kamui'. After several contacts now, Obito had lost his initial mystery.
And Kakashi was undoubtedly a smart person. Smart people liked to fill in the gaps in their minds.
The same Mangekyou Sharingan, the same space-time ninjutsu, different eye locations... These pieces of evidence and doubts that already existed were all connected by just one trigger.
"But no matter how much Kakashi knows about this matter, he can't be allowed to say it for now."
Orochimaru also had his own considerations.
That little thing Obito had no parents. After the Nine Tails incident, he became even more estranged from the village. Exposing his identity wouldn't do any good. Instead, it would hurt the Uchiha Clan, which had just begun to reconcile with the village.
If it were the old man, he might seize this handle to control the Uchiha, but for Orochimaru, it wasn't necessary.
Thinking of this, Orochimaru glanced at Yamato and said lightly, "Where is Kakashi now? Take me to see him."
...
Sprawled out on the soft cushion on the tatami, Kakashi relaxed his whole body, posing in a 'big' shape.
The afternoon sun was very warm, shining on him very warmly, but it couldn't give him an ounce of strength.
"Sharingan..."
Kakashi reached out a hand and subconsciously pressed it to his left eye, as if the stinging pain still remained.
But there was no longer the emptiness of the previous day, having been replaced with a new eye - not an eye with a bloodline ability, but a normal person's eye that wouldn't burden the body.
Losing the Sharingan reduced Kakashi's observation ability, but it wasn't all bad. At least his fighting style didn't need to be limited to that of the Uchiha.
Putting aside unnecessary emotional factors, Kakashi should be grateful, but before being a ninja, he was first a person, so how could he easily put them aside.
"That guy, could he really be Obito?"
This thought appeared in Kakashi's mind the moment his eyes were taken, like a feeling of unease, not clear but lingering.
Apart from some seemingly coincidental details, Kakashi had no evidence to prove this idea, but his intuition as a ninja told him that it was probably the truth.
"What should I do?"
Kakashi was now troubled, or rather, didn't know what to do.
Could he run to the Hokage's temporary office and list all the accusationin his heart?
If it was true, that's one thing, but if it was just his wild guess, wouldn't that be smearing a former Konoha hero?
Kakashi was still clinging to hope.
Knock knock knock...
Suddenly, a knock came from the courtyard, followed by a young voice from outside the door, "Kakashi-senpai, Orochimaru-sama has come to visit you."
"Yamato? Orochimaru-sama?"
Kakashi jumped up and quickly walked towards the door, but he was puzzled, "Why would Orochimaru-sama come?"
A certain premonition was becoming clear, making Kakashi very anxious.
Click...
Opening the door, the afternoon sun flooded in, Kakashi squinting slightly, but as Orochimaru took a step forward, the sunlight that was cast at him seemed to be blocked, and shadows crept onto his face.
"I'll be direct about the purpose of my visit."
Orochimaru didn't hold back, getting straight to the point, "That Uchiha clan member wearing a mask is Uchiha Obito, who went missing."
Kakashi was first stunned, then his body shook violently, as if struck by lightning.
After a long while, he said dryly, "Does Orochimaru-sama have any evidence to say that?"
"Evidence?" Orochimaru shook his head and walked straight in, "It's not convenient to talk here."
Entering the Hatake residence, Orochimaru found a stone stool in the yard and sat down, saying, "I don't have the evidence you want, but I'm not here today to prove anything. On the contrary..."
Orochimaru gave Kakashi a deep look and said lightly, "I'm here to shut you up."
Kakashi was stunned for a moment, then asked, "Why?"
"There's no need to say it."
Orochimaru looked at Kakashi and slowly said, "I know that people like you, who have had close contact with Obito, still have some unrealistic fantasies, believing that those actions may not have been his true intentions."
"But you need to know that, in any case, after launching the Nine Tails attack and killing the Fourth Hokage couple and many villagers and ninja, the masked man is already Konoha's absolute enemy."
"Any Konoha ninja has the desire to kill him as quickly as possible."
Kakashi's face instantly turned ugly. He knew very well that Orochimaru was right.
Even before the other day, he deeply hated the mastermind behind the Nine Tails attack. If there was an opportunity to kill him, what would he regret even giving up his life?
But now, Kakashi would hesitate.
Not because that hatred had disappeared, nor because the village's previous losses were insignificant, but because he knew that Obito wasn't that kind of person.
To suddenly change from a young man dreaming of becoming Hokage to the mastermind behind destroying the village... If the reason for this change couldn't be understood, Kakashi couldn't rest easy.
After thinking for a long time, he asked the question in his heart, "Orochimaru-sama, do you know why Obito would do this?"
Kakashi himself felt it was absurd to ask. Finding out Obito's identity was already very remarkable. Understanding his entire past and even grasping his psychology would be even more of a fantasy.
"This question... Hehe."
Orochimaru chuckled, not directly answering Kakashi's question, but instead asking,
"You've been on the battlefield for a long time and have seen death. If I give you a chance now, if you could exchange the lives of half the village's people to bring them back to life, would you do it?"
Kakashi didn't know why Orochimaru asked this question, but his answer was obvious, "I wouldn't do that."
Not only because of personal intentions, but also because it wouldn't be what they wanted.
Moreover, even if they were revived in this way, would they have a place to live in the ninja world?
"What if those people's deaths were temporary?"
Orochimaru wasn't surprised, and just smiled, "After your relatives and friends are revived, they'll sink into a dream with you, and those who died will also be revived in the dream."
"If so, what choice would you make?"
Kakashi frowned, "Sink into a dream? Is being revived in a dream considered being revived?"
This was really a bit unbelievable.
"But that's the key."
Orochimaru smiled and said lightly, "Some people will treat things in dreams as real, thinking it's also acceptable."
Kakashi's expression became serious, "Are you saying that the masked man thinks that way?"
Even now, Kakashi was still unwilling to admit that the other party was Obito.
Orochimaru nodded slightly, "Almost certainly, everything he's done is to drag everyone into the dream."
Everything is possible in a dream.
Kakashi would choose the village over himself, and that girl who was willing to die at Kakashi's hands to prevent the village from being attacked by the Three Tails must have thought the same way.
And Obito himself certainly knew this.
So even though he had the opportunity to have the Rinnegan, or could induce Nagato to use the 'Rinne Rebirth Technique' to revive Rin, Obito didn't do so.
The former was exchanging lives, and Obito might not regret giving up his own life, but he was afraid that the moment he arrived in the Pure Land, Rin would come back.
Relying on Kakashi to protect Rin was impossible. Kakashi had failed once, and he couldn't be trusted.
And to induce Nagato to use the 'Rinne Rebirth Technique' would cost a lot of effort. Obito couldn't guarantee how many deaths and injuries this would cause, and he didn't want Rin to see him with innocent blood on his hands.
In the whole matter, unless Madara, who possessed the Rinnegan, immediately used the 'Rinne Rebirth Technique' to revive Rin when she died, which would be the way that would have the least impact on Rin or Obito.
But then again, would Madara work for the benefit of others?
So the only way Obito could choose was to revive Rin and create a world where Rin had no moral burden and could live safely.
This kind of world only exists in dreams.
But Obito accepted such a world, and even for the sake of reality, he wanted to drag everyone in the ninja world into the dream. This can be said to be a considerable obsession.
"This plan is called the 'Eye of the Moon' plan, and it was planned by Uchiha Madara."
Orochimaru said slowly, "For some reasons, Obito is the executor of this plan."
"Obito actually thinks that way?"
Kakashi was deeply shocked.
He didn't expect Obito to be so obsessed with Rin, to the point of doing that.
"Kakashi, I want to remind you of something."
Orochimaru licked his lips and said indifferently, "No matter what kind of relationship you had in the past, now, to Konoha, to you, he's just an enemy. The two sides are completely opposed, and there's no ambiguity."
Orochimaru didn't say who was right and who was wrong. For people like him, the boundary between right and wrong wasn't so clear.
If you agree with this approach, go ahead and do it. Otherwise, do what you should do.
"Don't even think about trying to persuade him."
Orochimaru smiled, "The Nine Tails incident wasn't just a painful blow to Konoha, it was also the night this guy made up his mind."
Once many mistakes are made, there's no chance to make up for them. Can the dead be revived?
To date, there's no perfect way to revive humans in the ninja world, especially after the bodies have long been destroyed.
Hearing Orochimaru say this, Kakashi was silent for a while.
Persuading Obito to let go of his obsession and return to Konoha... Kakashi couldn't say those words at all, and he had no right to forgive the mastermind who committed the crimes on their behalf.
"That's all I have to say."
Orochimaru stood up and said slowly, "Obito's name won't be removed from the memorial stone, because he's already dead, he died in the Kannabi Bridge battle, do you understand?"
Kakashi nodded silently.
Seeing this, Orochimaru turned and left, leaving Kakashi to digest this information.
Yamato looked at Kakashi, suddenly feeling that he might have said something unnecessary. After hesitating for a moment, he followed Orochimaru and left the Hatake residence.
...
At the same time, the atmosphere was a little noisy in the open space outside the Hokage's temporary office.
Looking at the Kappa, whose limbs and tongue were bound, the Third Hokage said in surprise, "Orochimaru, that guy, has really given me a difficult problem."
Unlike Orochimaru, Sarutobi Hiruzen was already seven or eight years old when Konoha Village was established. Having lived so long, many strange things weren't much to him.
Kappa, monsters... Sarutobi Hiruzen had seen similar monsters.
"I didn't expect there to be this kind of Moryo Moryo near Konoha."
The Third Hokage grabbed his pipe and exhaled a deep puff of smoke.
Before the Warring States period, ninjas fought and killed each other, and some of the lingering resentment remained and became entangled with the energy within the earth veins, giving birth to many evil spirits, which brought a lot of trouble to the ninja families at that time.
But as the energy of the earth veins became more and more scarce, there were few ninjas who even practiced senjutsu in this era, and the monsters born from the energy of the earth veins had naturally died out long ago.
After pondering for a moment, the Third Hokage nodded, "Orochimaru's judgment is correct. This matter should be inquired about with the priestess of the Land of Demons."
When Konoha Village was established, the priestess of the Land of Demons had also attended the ceremony to bless the newborn village and ward off disasters.
And now, after so many years, these ghosts have appeared near Konoha Village, and it's only reasonable to ask a few questions.
The Third Hokage vaguely recalled that killing ghosts in the usual way wouldn't completely deal with the resentment. There was a high probability that it would possess people and cause some kind of disaster.
It was fine during the Warring States period to divert the trouble by dealing with it near the enemy's family, which could also hit them, but this kind of immoral method couldn't be easily adopted now.
Thinking of this, the Third Hokage directly left the office and went to the building where the liaison team was located.
When the Akatsuki organization's leader attacked earlier, he didn't choose this place as a target, so this building in charge of communicating with other ninja villages wasn't damaged.
After the Third Hokage arrived here, he directly gave the person in charge an order, "Contact the priestess of the Land of Demons for me."
"Yes!"
The person in charge of the liaison team responded, and the staff in the entire building immediately became busy. After a full quarter of an hour, the Third Hokage saw the priestess in the Land of Demons through a blurry screen.
"Hokage-dono."
The priestess Miroku put her hands together in front of her chest and bowed slightly, "I wonder what business you have with the Land of Demons?"
"Priestess-dono."
The Third Hokage nodded as a greeting and said simply, "Today, a monster called Kappa was found in the outskirts of Konoha."
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