According to the plan laid out by Konoha's leadership, the heavily pregnant Uzumaki Kushina was finally moved to a secret, well-guarded location to await childbirth.
From that day onward, Hyuga Satoru—who had now mastered the rudiments of the Flying Thunder God Technique—no longer needed to visit the Namikaze household for training.
To personally oversee Kushina's delivery, even the Fourth Hokage himself would be absent from his office for a time, with the Third Hokage temporarily handling the village's daily affairs.
Meanwhile, Hatake Kakashi—who had been assigned to guard Kushina during her final weeks—had successfully completed his mission.
That morning, Kakashi could be found walking quietly through the Konoha Cemetery, a bucket in one hand and two bouquets of bright flowers in the other.
The weather was overcast, the sky draped in dull gray clouds. His mood matched the somber air of the day—heavy and subdued.
It wasn't an anniversary or a day of mourning. Rather, with Kushina about to give birth, Kakashi simply wanted to share the good news with two friends who could no longer be there to hear it.
Neither Minato nor Kushina had told him anything about the "tiger-masked man" Satoru had supposedly seen.
They had their reasons.
Kakashi, already weighed down by the trauma of his father's suicide and the deaths of his teammates, had long been in a fragile mental state.
During his years in the ANBU, he had only grown worse—withdrawn, joyless, even self-destructive. His closest friend, Might Guy, had once discovered him reading books that all but screamed suicidal intent.
It was for that reason—under the Third Hokage's advice—that Minato had assigned Kakashi to guard Kushina during her pregnancy.
As Hiruzen had put it: "Let him witness life being born. Perhaps it will remind him what it means to live."
And indeed, it worked.
The warmth and peace of Kushina's gentle, expectant life had slowly drawn Kakashi out of his own shadows.
Now, as her due date drew near, Kakashi felt something he hadn't in a long time—light. Hope.
He wanted to share that feeling with those who had once mattered most.
"Rin," he murmured softly, kneeling before her grave. "Kushina-sensei and Minato-sensei's baby is coming soon."
"I couldn't wait to tell you."
"Rin… what do you think I should give their child as a gift?"
"If it were you… what would you choose?"
He placed the bouquet in a small vase before the gravestone, then dipped his brush in the bucket of water, gently scrubbing away the dirt from the stone's surface.
The morning wind swept softly through the cemetery as he worked in silence.
It was peaceful—almost sacred.
When the grave was spotless and the weeds had all been cleared, Kakashi finally rose to his feet, his expression calm yet faintly melancholic.
Rin would never answer his questions. But perhaps, just perhaps, that morning breeze brushing against his cheek was her whisper—one he could no longer understand.
Carrying his bucket and the second bouquet, Kakashi walked only a few steps down the path before stopping before another grave.
Uchiha Obito.
He knelt again—quieter this time. There were no words, only a deep, suffocating ache.
If Rin had been his heart, Obito had been his salvation.
When the world had doubted his father, when Kakashi himself had rejected Sakumo's ideals, it was Obito who had believed.
Obito, who had challenged him, changed him, saved him.
And when Obito had given his life to save Kakashi, those ideals had taken root forever.
That single act had proved that Obito wasn't just a dreamer—he was someone who acted on his convictions.
But now both Rin and Obito were gone, and the faint light they had once cast upon his dark world had long since faded away.
Though life around him moved forward again, the place they held in his heart remained untouched.
He cleaned Obito's grave just as carefully as he had Rin's—methodically, wordlessly. Only when the bucket ran dry did he finally stop, exhaling quietly.
When he stood, his vision briefly darkened from crouching too long. After a few moments, it cleared.
"I'll come visit again soon, Obito…" he whispered.
Turning away, Kakashi began walking toward the cemetery's exit, his lonely figure framed by the pale gray light of morning.
For someone so young, the weight of death hung far too heavily on his shoulders.
Time passed in stillness.
Then, the air before Rin's grave began to warp.
A swirl of darkness spun into existence, twisting space like water circling a drain.
From that black void stepped a tall man in a black cloak, his face hidden behind a tiger-striped mask.
He gazed for a long moment at the direction Kakashi had gone—then suddenly crouched down and snatched the bouquet from Rin's grave.
With a violent motion, he hurled it aside.
"He has no right to come here!" the masked man growled, voice shaking with suppressed rage. "He failed to protect Rin… he failed me!"
His words were low and hoarse, filled with fury—but beneath that anger, there was pain. It was unclear if he was cursing Kakashi… or himself.
"Minato-sensei…" he hissed after a pause, the name trembling on his tongue.
"Even as Hokage… he couldn't protect her either!"
A crimson gleam flared within the single eye visible through the mask.
Emotions surged within him—grief, hatred, despair—and with them, his chakra swelled uncontrollably.
Among the Uchiha, such emotions were the spark that gave birth to their most fearsome power. When anguish consumed them, the Sharingan deepened.
But in that very instant—
A faint glow pulsed beneath his feet.
Obito froze.
A seal mark—intricate and deadly—had silently activated beneath him, drawn upon the soil itself. As his chakra flared, the pattern expanded in a sudden burst of light.
"Wha—?"
Before he could react, the world around him erupted in blinding brilliance.
In an instant, the masked man vanished from the cemetery—swallowed by light.
Elsewhere, deep within a stone cavern hidden beneath Konoha, Minato—who had been standing beside Kushina in preparation for the birth—suddenly stiffened.
His eyes narrowed.
He felt it.
Without a word, his chakra surged. The Flying Thunder God mark he had placed in advance had been triggered.
"…It's time."
In the blink of an eye, the Fourth Hokage disappeared from the cavern.
Back at the Hyuga compound, where Hyuga Satoru was training in silence, a ripple of powerful chakra brushed against the edge of his vast sensory field.
He opened his eyes instantly.
Even from this distance, he could feel it—that familiar pulse of space-time ninjutsu.
"The Flying Thunder God…" he murmured. "So the Fourth's trap has been triggered."
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