Adult Obito's head was packed full of nothing but holy shit after holy shit.
He couldn't stop the masked man from suddenly snapping and going berserk, pouring everything he had into an indiscriminate Wood Release: Hell Stab Technique.
Was this guy seriously trying to kill him?!
From Minato Namikaze's vantage point not far away, the scene was crystal clear: the masked man, wearing layers of curled-up White Zetsu like armor, had extended countless wooden spikes from both arms and was charging straight at Adult Obito Uchiha, who was disguised as Danzō Shimura with the Transformation Technique.
And the worst part was, Adult Obito had just used his Mangekyō Sharingan to dump Black Zetsu into his Kamui space.
If he used intangibility to dodge, that meant part of his body would become intangible while another part remained "real," and the real portion would overlap into the Kamui space, exposed right in front of Black Zetsu.
For Obito, that was incredibly dangerous.
A flurry of thoughts flashed through Minato Namikaze's mind as he tightened his grip on a Flying Thunder God kunai, ready to throw.
Adult Obito was also scrambling for a way out.
But at that exact moment…
No one expected that Adult Kakashi's fight with Akatsuki would spill into this area too.
Kakashi had been alone from the start. There was no way he could truly overpower four S-rank missing-nin at once: Kakuzu, Hidan, Deidara, and Sasori of the Red Sand.
And yet, his combat experience was too deep and his brain too sharp. Or maybe he had some other mysterious buff. Somehow, he was actually keeping pace with all four, trading blows back and forth like it was almost even.
Of course, he couldn't just tank it. He was fragile and couldn't afford to take hits, so he fought while constantly dodging and repositioning.
Dodge after dodge finally got on Deidara's nerves, especially because Kakashi's Lightning Release was a hard counter to his explosive clay. To Deidara, it felt like his "art" kept getting shoved back down his throat before it could even stick.
"So annoying!! C3: Eighteen!"
A gigantic white clay doll, swelling larger and larger in midair, smashed down toward Kakashi.
Hidan, Kakuzu, and Sasori of the Red Sand were riding Deidara's massive clay bird as well, so they didn't have to worry about getting caught in the blast.
But Kakashi did.
Even if he didn't get crushed, the explosion from C3 would turn everything nearby into rubble.
This was Deidara's full-power strike, with enough destructive force to wipe out an entire village in a single blast.
"Die!! Mm."
"Hey, hey, isn't this going a little too far?" Hidan said it, but his face clearly read: Yes! Do it! More! Harder!
The timing was absurdly perfect.
It was a coincidence even Minato Namikaze hadn't anticipated.
His eyes went wide, and the Flying Thunder God kunai in his hand paused for a split second.
Save Obito or save Kakashi?!
Saving both was impossible.
And there wasn't even time to think.
In that instant, a conversation from not long ago flashed through his mind—
"Obito likes Rin the most, right?"
"W-why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?"
"But in the end, the one Obito can't let go of is Kakashi, isn't it?"
"Who says! Me and him are like water and oil. We'll never mix."
The last thing he remembered was his own smile, seeing right through everything but refusing to say it out loud.
"Whoosh—!!"
The kunai flew, exactly as planned, straight toward Obito Uchiha.
At the same time, Kakashi stared in horror at the C3 explosive clay doll dropping toward him…
With everyone's focus sharpened to the limit, time seemed to stretch, slowing to a crawl.
Just when Kakashi felt like there was nowhere left to run—
The situation Minato Namikaze had unknowingly set up happened.
Facing the masked man's reckless Wood Release: Hell Stab Technique, Adult Obito Uchiha—still disguised as Danzō Shimura—turned his head toward Kakashi…
Kamui!
He couldn't use intangibility, but that didn't mean he couldn't use Kamui. If he swallowed the attack into Kamui space, Black Zetsu could enjoy it up close.
A spiraling vortex formed beneath Deidara's C3 explosive clay doll, dragging the massive white clay figure downward by force.
The thing was simply too huge, and Kamui's pull wasn't fast enough.
Obito Uchiha squeezed his left eye shut, forced his right eye wide open, and the veins around his Mangekyō Sharingan bulged red with strain.
Kamui!!!
This time, Kakashi's left eye activated as well.
With both Mangekyō Sharingan working together, Kamui's pull more than doubled, yanking the enormous clay doll in at a terrifying speed.
It was like a gust of wind ripped through the rain, throwing everything into disarray.
The gigantic explosive clay doll vanished from everyone's sight…
Over there, nothing happened at all.
And over here, the wooden spikes of Wood Release: Hell Stab Technique all plunged into the ground instead.
Minato Namikaze used the Flying Thunder God Technique to snatch Adult Obito out of the masked man's attack range.
…
"It actually sucked up my C3 too?! Mm." Deidara stared, completely stunned.
Kakuzu, Sasori of the Red Sand, and Hidan, who were riding the giant clay bird with him, were just as shocked.
But compared to the impulsive Deidara and Hidan, Sasori of the Red Sand and Kakuzu stayed much calmer.
"We went too far. Stop here and head back," Sasori of the Red Sand said.
Deidara was unhappy, but he still listened to Sasori's words.
Kakashi knew it was Obito's Kamui that had saved everyone.
And he couldn't help thinking that even when the Akatsuki S-rank missing-nin weren't truly trying to kill, their unpredictable tempers alone were enough to make people miserable.
Once the danger passed, Adult Kakashi's gaze went first to the masked man and the Wood Release: Hell Stab Technique he'd used.
"It really is…" completely reckless.
Thankfully, Minato-sensei had arrived in time with the Flying Thunder God Technique.
At this stage, Obito was far stronger than Kakashi had been back when he served in ANBU.
If none of what came later had happened, if Obito really could have returned to Konoha, then under Minato-sensei and Kushina's guidance, it wouldn't have been impossible for him to become an outstanding Hokage.
With that thought, Kakashi naturally looked toward the Adult Obito from his own world, his eyes full of tangled emotions.
He never expected what he saw next to lock his entire body in place.
"Cough—"
Coughing up a mouthful of dark red blood, Danzō Shimura went poof and reverted to his original form: Obito Uchiha.
His left eye stayed shut, the eyeball missing. The right side of his face was covered in spiral scars, and his Mangekyō Sharingan had gone unfocused from the damage.
"Obito!!" Minato Namikaze shouted, supporting him.
Obito Uchiha looked like he wanted to speak, but another cough of blood forced its way out instead.
His chest was soaked through with dark red blood. A wooden spike as thick as a wrist had pierced him dead-on, right where his heart was.
When Minato Namikaze had pulled Obito away, he still hadn't managed to evade one backward barb from Wood Release: Hell Stab Technique, and it just happened to strike the heart with cruel precision…
"!!!!"
Kakashi's whole body went cold as the memory of losing Obito all over again surged up from his childhood.
And across from him, the masked man, seeing "Danzō Shimura" suddenly turn into Obito Uchiha, froze just as hard.
A strange sensation washed over him, as if he were caught between a man dreaming he was a butterfly and a butterfly dreaming it was a man, and reality slowly slipped from his grasp.
Why did Danzō Shimura turn into Obito Uchiha?
Wait. I am Obito Uchiha.
No… you're Madara Uchiha. Obito Uchiha is dead, dead under the Kannabi Bridge.
"Madara? What's wrong?" The curled White Zetsu armor on his body spoke up. "Don't worry about that right now. I can't reach Black Zetsu. He seems to have been sucked into the same dōjutsu space as you by that person over there."
Madara…
The masked man felt like a butterfly trapped in a dream-web, trying to peel back layer after layer to figure out who Madara Uchiha was.
But White Zetsu told him, matter-of-factly: you are Madara.
That person…
"Who is he?"
"Huh?"
"I'm asking you, who is that person?"
White Zetsu said, "Looks like someone was impersonating Danzō Shimura? The one who carried him off just now used something like the Flying Thunder God Technique of the Yellow Flash. And he called that person Obito."
Minato Namikaze. Obito Uchiha. Kakashi Hatake.
Then who was he?
He wasn't Madara Uchiha… and he wasn't Obito Uchiha anymore, either.
"I… who am I…?"
Hearing him mutter, White Zetsu sensed the turmoil in his emotions and giggled. "Oh wow, 'Madara' looks like he's about to lose it."
"Tell me. Who am I?"
He stared at the Obito Uchiha he had killed with his own hands, at Minato Namikaze back in his original form, and at Kakashi, standing there stunned like his soul had been knocked out of him.
That Team Minato in front of him made the masked man feel as though he was seeing a future that might have existed if "Obito Uchiha" hadn't died on the Kannabi Bridge mission.
White Zetsu said, "Everything in this world is fake, you know~ You're nobody, and you don't belong to this world~~"
"Right… this world is fake."
How could it be Team Minato without Rin?
"It's all a lie."
"Yeah. It's Kakashi's Genjutsu."
"It has to be."
A scene flickered through his mind—
Kakashi as a boy playing a prank, turning into an old woman who couldn't find her way home. He'd carried him on his back, both hands full, hauling "luggage" that Kakashi had made out of two piles of rocks with the Transformation Technique, trudging around Konoha three full laps until he was dead tired.
That image was like the old TV at his grandmother's house when he was little, the kind that would suddenly fill with static mid-show.
And then the picture disappeared into that snow of static…
"Yeah. It has to be."
"This world…"
"Is fake!"
Slowly, he raised his hand. A wooden spike sprouted from his palm, aimed at the Kakashi Hatake who stood there frozen like a scarecrow.
"Obito was the most worried about Kakashi all along, wasn't he?"
"When you heard about him as a kid, you couldn't help running over and asking the chūnin on his team about him, right?"
"In the end, you'd still think about coming back to help him."
"Rin was the same. Even after she was gone, she couldn't stop worrying about the two of you."
"All this time…"
"She's been watching you."
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