Edo Tensei Hashirama Senju nearly stumbled. Why is Tobirama called "little brother," while I'm just "old man"?
What happened to that whole reincarnation thing? We're all on the same side. Why are we hurting each other?
Tobirama Senju patted his elder brother on the shoulder.
"Just watch closely. This is bound to be an incredibly spectacular battle."
"Mhm." Minato Namikaze nodded. He activated the Flying Thunder God Technique, transporting Kakashi's ice coffin along with the young Obito and the others nearby away from the battlefield.
Tobirama Senju then led his eldest brother, the Fifth Hokage, and the rest out of the area as well.
Gamakichi bounded around in a few leaps, gathering any Konoha ninja who might be caught in the crossfire. Cradling them, he carried everyone to a spot slightly outside the village perimeter.
With the distance widened, members of the Hyūga Clan suddenly became highly sought after.
Almost every viewing point around Konoha had a Hyūga ninja stationed there, providing live commentary whenever visibility was poor.
The slug left behind with Naruto also shared more precise intelligence with its fellow slugs~.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
The Animal Path of Pain summoned two more colossal beasts!
From the scroll behind Naruto, two toad sages leaped into the air.
"Sage Art: Frog Song!!"
The croaking of the frogs, enhanced by Sage Arts, turned into a wave of sonic attacks.
At the same moment, Naruto Uzumaki charged straight at Pain!
Shadow Clone Technique!
Rasengan…
No. It wasn't a Rasengan!
Minato Namikaze watched in astonishment as the Rasengan he had created took on an entirely new form in Naruto's hands and those of his Shadow Clones!!
Sage Art! Big Ball Rasengan!
The reincarnated Minato's eyes lit up as he stared at the battlefield. Sixteen-year-old Naruto Uzumaki wore a simple tracksuit, layered with a dark crimson, stylish robe. The hem of the cloak fluttered freely in the wind…
Two enormous Rasengan, one held in each Shadow Clone's hand, smashed apart summoned beasts as large as Bunta. Unable to hold back his awe at such overwhelming power, Minato couldn't help but name the technique—
"Sage Art! Heaven-Shattering Super Rasengan!!"
Nearby, the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, stood with his arms crossed, casting him a look filled with disbelief.
"Are you joking?"
Minato froze. "Huh? Second Hokage-sama, don't you think that name is amazing?!"
"Oh, never mind," Tobirama replied casually. "I thought you were just trying to lighten the mood and make everyone laugh."
"..."
Minato felt a little conflicted. The Second Hokage-sama clearly didn't understand his artistic sense.
Perhaps worried that the younger generation might feel discouraged, Tobirama added one more line—
"If the timing weren't so bad, I'd have laughed under normal circumstances."
Minato: "...…"
That didn't really help, thanks.
Still, names aside, Naruto's Sage-enhanced Rasengan was undeniably effective. With a single blow, two summoned beasts were sent flying, and three massive toads followed up with a clean, stylish combo to finish them off.
Right after that, Naruto himself appeared directly in front of Pain.
From Katsuyu, he had learned the intelligence obtained at the cost of many Konoha ninja lives, along with the information gained when Obito Uchiha directly betrayed Pain...
Shared vision. Absorption of ninjutsu chakra.
Taking Pain's abilities into account, Naruto had chosen from the very beginning to confront him primarily with Senjutsu.
"Even with the Rinnegan! You still have no way to deal with Senjutsu?!" Hashirama Senju exclaimed excitedly.
The others couldn't understand why Pain hadn't absorbed Naruto's ninjutsu. Even Naruto's taijutsu felt strange—like striking through layers of solid walls. Pain clearly dodged the attacks, yet it was as if he hadn't dodged them at all.
Minato Namikaze said, "Sage Mode boosts both danger perception and attack range. Even ordinary taijutsu can land hits by drawing on the unseen natural energy around us, so it can strike Pain even when he looks like he's already dodged."
"That's amazing!!"
The young Obito Uchiha looked a little overexcited. "I also signed a contract with Mount Myōboku! I wonder if I can become as strong as Naruto someday!"
The Edo Tensei Minato glanced at him in surprise. "You signed a contract with Mount Myōboku too?"
Facing this Minato-sensei, someone who had suffered so much at the hands of another version of himself from a different world, young Obito always felt somewhat restrained.
Edo Tensei Minato noticed it as well. He reached out and patted Obito on the shoulder.
"That wasn't your doing. You don't need to burden yourself with it. The fact that you were able to contract with Mount Myōboku and survive the Kannabi Bridge mission safely is something that makes me, as your teacher, truly happy."
Sakura, Kiba, Sai, and Shino, who had already encountered "Tobi," had been extremely curious about this Obito Uchiha for a while now.
It was just that before Naruto and Pain clashed, they were still trapped in the grief of the village's destruction and the death of their teacher, Kakashi.
Now that there was finally an opening, they naturally voiced the questions that had been weighing on their minds.
"That person earlier… wasn't he a member of Akatsuki? Why would he suddenly go against Pain?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah, exactly!" Kiba followed up. "Isn't Pain supposed to be his boss? Did that guy betray him?"
"Doesn't seem like it," Shino said after some thought. "If we're asking why, it looks like he has leverage over Pain, knows things even Pain himself doesn't, and handled Pain's attacks with remarkable ease."
Sai rubbed his chin, puzzled. "Who is this 'Konan' he mentioned? Pain seemed to care about her a lot."
"Sounds like that guy's 'special someone'!" Gamakichi said familiarly, hopping over to join their conversation. He stretched out a little pinky from his webbed hand and gestured. "You know, that kind of 'someone.' You get it, right?"
Sai immediately launched into an earnest explanation. "According to books, this gesture between male friends represents a woman, or a girlfriend. In summary, the masked man called Tobi appears to lack proper combat ethics and threatened Pain using his girlfriend's life."
After finishing, Sai felt that still wasn't enough and added, "Another book says that when strong fighters face each other, they won't resort to such despicable methods unless… the other side has unknowingly provoked them to an extreme degree. For example, accidentally killing the other person's girlfriend."
"Gasp…"
Led along by Gamakichi and Sai, the Konoha ninja couldn't help sucking in a sharp breath when they realized that people like Pain and the masked man might actually have girlfriends.
"But putting that aside," Sakura said, turning to look at the young Obito Uchiha, "are you also from the Uchiha clan? Just now, in that moment…" She pointed to when Pain attacked the masked man. "You were standing right next to him, but you weren't affected by Pain's attack either."
The young Obito straightened up. "Of course I'm from the Uchiha clan. In the future, I'll definitely become the first Uchiha Hokage in our world!"
There was no need for further explanation. That spiky-haired look and the absolute confidence about becoming Hokage…
"I feel like I'm looking at Naruto when he was younger. It's oddly familiar," Sakura sighed, pressing a hand to her broad forehead.
Besides, back at the Ninja Academy, Naruto always liked wearing goggles on his forehead too.
At that moment, Akamaru let out a couple of soft barks, then leaned in to whisper to Kiba with a series of low yips.
After hearing him, Kiba's eyes went wide in shock. "Hey! Akamaru says the scent on you is exactly the same as the scent on that masked guy. What's going on here?"
?!!
Everyone else turned to look at the young Obito Uchiha, not quite understanding what Kiba meant.
Obito stubbornly pushed the goggles on his forehead up a bit. "I already told you! I'm not the same as him! We come from two completely different parallel worlds! Even though we're both Obito Uchiha, he went down all kinds of wrong paths, even threw away his dream of becoming Hokage, and ended up as some behind-the-scenes mastermind of Akatsuki…"
By the end, Obito shook his head, looking like someone who was disappointed that iron refused to become steel.
"So what you're saying is…"
Everyone in Konoha was stunned.
"The Pain of Akatsuki isn't the real leader? There's someone else manipulating things from behind the scenes?!"
"And that person was once a ninja from Konoha?!"
"And that person is you?!"
Obito jumped in place in anger. "I already told you it's not me! Stop smearing my reputation!!"
"Alright, you're not." Sakura felt there was no point arguing with a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old. What she really wanted to know was something else…
…
"Then Kakashi-sensei really wasn't killed by him? If Pain truly did it, why would the masked man deliberately hide Kakashi-sensei's body and preserve it in such beautiful ice?"
It was almost like a fairy tale, where a princess fakes her death and is carefully placed in an ice coffin, waiting to be revived.
Sai immediately started steering things in a strange direction again. "According to books, some people have special fetishes, such as—"
Before he could finish, his mouth was firmly covered by Shikamaru Nara.
Shikamaru said, "I swear on the intelligence of the Nara Clan, Sai, if you keep talking, you're going to be in serious danger."
Because of Sai's words, Tsunade was reminded of matters related to Root.
She turned to the Edo Tensei Fourth Hokage and asked, "Did you know about Danzo Shimura's death?"
"I knew a bit," Minato said.
Young Obito added, "Everyone in Root is dead."
"!!!" Tsunade was shocked. "You knew?!"
She exchanged looks with the other two fence-sitting advisors. That old man Danzo Shimura was anything but easy to deal with.
Young Obito nodded. "The one who just left did it. And that Danzo Shimura deserved it. On his sealed right arm, he didn't just use Hashirama's cells. He also embedded Sharingan from the Uchiha Clan. By using the power of Wood Release to suppress the Sharingan, he made those eyes obey him and gave himself the ability to use them."
Tsunade had already learned about this from the tracking ANBU. But the matter was far too shocking, and with Pain attacking the village at such a critical moment, she hadn't made it public.
"What?!"
The Konoha ninja found it impossible to believe. No matter what, Elder Shimura was still an elder of Konoha. How could he have done something like that?
And what were Hashirama's cells supposed to be?!
Others might not know, but Tsunade certainly did. They were a part of her grandfather's body.
"I can confirm that as well."