Chapter 78: Prelude
Afternoon sunlight filtered through dense canopy, breeze stirring leaves in rustling whispers. This should have been a peaceful afternoon, but an unsettling presence permeated the forest air.
A sinister figure stood motionless in the woodland clearing. He wore black robes, long black hair cascading down, a large tachi at his waist. Most striking was the tiger-striped mask completely concealing his features.
"So," a cold voice suddenly came from behind. "What's your purpose in coming here now?"
The tiger mask slowly turned toward the sound's source.
Several meters away in the tree shadows, a man wearing a fox mask had appeared without warning.
The Ember organization's leader—Uzumaki Menma.
"Ember... This should be our first meeting." Tobi's Sharingan rotated slightly behind the mask's eyehole. "From your words, you're not unfamiliar with me."
"I know far more than you imagine." He stepped forward. "But I didn't expect you'd still have the nerve to return to this place."
"Because of the Nine-Tails incident, you personally pushed your own clan into hell."
Tobi fell silent for a moment, his masked Sharingan fixed on Menma. He could clearly sense the undisguised hostility in those words—not ordinary wariness or caution, but substantial disgust and anger.
"It seems..." Tobi slowly spoke, "you do know quite a lot."
Menma quietly observed Tobi. His shadow clone had spent an entire day staking out this forest, finally succeeding in intercepting this elusive figure.
Tobi warily assessed this unplanned variable before him. The Ember organization's leader—this mysterious powerhouse who'd suddenly risen in the shinobi world, possessing the terrifying strength to challenge great villages single-handedly, yet claiming to seek peace. A troublesome individual.
"The Nine-Tails incident? That was indeed my doing." His gaze swept over the Hiraishin kunai Menma was casually handling, inwardly alert—he hadn't expected anyone to master this troublesome technique since sensei's death.
"But my objectives don't conflict with your ideals," Tobi continued. "Both seek permanent peace."
"You seem to hate me intensely? Though you want to maintain peace through force deterrence, your methods are quite naive."
This statement carried obvious mockery. Tobi understood clearly that unlike himself, this man had killed no one during his assault on Konoha—such bleeding-heart weakness seemed laughable to him.
"I don't wish to be your enemy now." Tobi's body began gradually phasing, spatial distortion ripples emanating around him. "Perhaps in the future, that naive heart of yours will become more pragmatic."
Menma didn't move to stop him, because with Tobi determined to avoid battle, the techniques he currently possessed couldn't break those Mangekyō Sharingan's space-time jutsu.
'This is all I can do for now...'
Menma watched Tobi's form completely vanish into twisted space. At least on the night of massacre... he had to keep this guy out of the equation.
Silence returned to the forest as Menma's figure gradually faded, finally dispersing like wisps of smoke.
---
On the path to the Uchiha compound, Naruto wore the obviously oversized deep red scarf around his neck. After leaving Konoha's commercial district, Satsuki had forcefully demanded he put on the scarf, saying things like "what if you catch cold" and "people will blame me for not taking care of you properly."
Now, looking at Satsuki beside him, Naruto couldn't help but sigh.
"Satsuki... aren't you cold dressed like that?"
Satsuki was hugging her arms, body trembling slightly—she wore summer short sleeves and shorts, pale arms and legs exposed to the gradually cooling autumn wind. But what left Naruto speechless was how obviously fake her act was. Not only did she deliberately exaggerate her shivering, she kept stealing glances at the scarf around his neck.
"Cold?" Satsuki immediately straightened up. "Don't say stupid things! As a genius of the Uchiha clan, how could I be cold from something this minor?"
That was actually true—with Satsuki's physical condition, this weather wouldn't make her shiver.
"Then let me lend you the scarf..."
"What?!" Satsuki whipped her head around. "How could that work! How could I use the gift, I gave you—achoo!"
The most obviously fake sneeze imaginable.
After sneezing, she secretly peeked at Naruto, obsidian eyes sparkling with anticipation.
'...Could this be any more obvious?!'
Naruto watched as Satsuki moved closer to him. "But the wind is getting rather strong..."
"...Want to share it?" Naruto finally cut to the chase. "This scarf you bought too big seems perfect for two people."
Finally hearing these words, Satsuki forcibly suppressed her rising smile, struggling to keep her voice calm. "Is that so?... Fine!" She deliberately sighed. "But this is the only way for both of us to stay warm—there's no other choice."
Though in Satsuki's mind she'd perfectly assumed a "reluctantly resigned" expression, to Naruto she looked positively triumphant.
Eventually, the deep red scarf was shared between them like in anime scenes. Satsuki still couldn't control her blushing, but she quietly leaned closer to Naruto.
"This should work... it's less likely to come undone this way..."
She turned away, but a satisfied smile played at her lips like a cat who'd finally gotten her favorite toy.
But Naruto's mood was anything but light.
His gaze moved past Satsuki's head toward the distant Uchiha compound where lights were beginning to flicker. In just a few hours, the most terrible events would unfold there—blood, betrayal, endless darkness.
'I must save Satsuki's parents...'
Naruto swore silently in his heart. He absolutely wouldn't let Satsuki lose everything like in the original, left with only the obsession for revenge.
Evening wind stirred as Satsuki leaned closer still, completely unaware of the gravity flashing in Naruto's eyes.