The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox descended without warning into the very core of Konoha, standing atop the cliff where the faces of the past Hokage were carved.
The beast was dozens of meters tall. In its eye sockets, its pupils had taken the three-tomoe shape of the Sharingan. Between its half-human-height fangs, it constantly breathed out an icy chill that made one's hands and feet turn cold.
On top of its head stood a mysterious man in a black cloak. In that man's eyes, those blood-red pupils, whose pattern was entirely different from an ordinary three-tomoe Sharingan, were slowly rotating.
To the elderly people of Konoha who had lived from the era of the First Hokage until now, the scene before them was not too unfamiliar.
As they were escorted by their juniors toward shelter, they did not hesitate to share the fear and panic that had suddenly surged from the bottom of their hearts with the people around them.
"Madara Uchiha!? That man… that man is Madara Uchiha!"
An elder from the Hyuga branch family looked with his Byakugan at Obito Uchiha and the Nine-Tails, who had not made the slightest attempt to conceal their presence. With terror on his face, he grabbed the loose, sagging skin of his cheeks with both hands.
It was as if he had returned to that nightmarish night decades ago, when he had been a Konoha ninja on gate duty and watched with his own eyes as Madara Uchiha came with the Nine-Tails to destroy Konoha.
Before the First Hokage arrived, nearly a hundred elite ninja from Konoha's various major clans—including himself—who had lived through the Warring States Period, had once tried to work together against Madara Uchiha. They had used taijutsu and ninjutsu to block his advance with the Nine-Tails.
But what made all of them despair was that those nearly one hundred ninja, all of whom possessed quite a reputation even in the chaotic Warring States Period, were as fragile as newborn infants before Madara Uchiha.
Kunai and ninja swords were snapped casually.
The Gentle Fist and the Strong Fist, which few had dared to face directly in the past, were all violently broken through.
Ninjutsu were reflected back one after another by the fan in his hand.
Those who dared to use genjutsu at such a moment had their minds stolen by a single glance from the other party. Some threw down their weapons and waited to die. Others raised their weapons and turned to attack their own companions.
And after the First Hokage arrived and took on Madara Uchiha's offensive, the battle that shifted mountains, overturned seas, and stretched across more than a hundred kilometers of battlefield completely destroyed his understanding of the ninja power system.
So there truly were people who could rely on the power of ninjutsu to destroy heaven and earth.
So there truly were people who could trample an entire ninja village beneath their feet with one person's strength.
So there truly were people who could reshape the earth with that magnificent, overwhelming power, just like legends from myth.
After witnessing the battle between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha at the Valley of the End, a battle that lasted day and night and changed heaven and earth, the elder, who had once been quite confident in his talent for ninjutsu, suddenly lost the motivation to continue working hard.
Within a few years, he retired as a special jonin. With the Hyuga clan's help, he opened a small shop in the village and lived peacefully and without illness until now.
Originally, after so many years of quiet life, he thought he had completely forgotten the things he had constantly thought about when he was a ninja, both good and bad.
But now, seeing the Nine-Tails' Sharingan-shaped eyes, seeing that figure standing majestically atop the Nine-Tails like Madara Uchiha had back then, sweeping a cold gaze across all of Konoha and ordering the Nine-Tails to use a Tailed Beast Ball against the village, he finally realized something.
He had never truly escaped from that night that had completely shattered his life's plans.
And after hearing the Hyuga branch elder let out such a certain, grief-stricken cry, Kakashi Hatake, who was walking in the evacuation line with a dazed expression and no idea what he should do, instinctively raised his head.
He looked toward the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox gathering vast chakra beneath the moonlight, then fixed his gaze on the hooded, masked figure standing above it.
His eyes met the Mangekyo Sharingan exposed beneath the other party's mask.
Across such an enormous distance, by coincidence—or perhaps by destiny—their gazes met.
Looking at that Mangekyo Sharingan, whose pattern he had clearly never seen before, yet for some reason felt a sense of familiarity from the moment their eyes collided, Kakashi Hatake pursed his lips.
Slowly, he lifted the forehead protector covering his left eye, revealing the gift he had received from Obito Uchiha—the three-tomoe Sharingan.
Then Kakashi Hatake became certain of one thing.
The person standing on the Nine-Tails' head was not Madara Uchiha.
He was Obito Uchiha.
The living, breathing Obito Uchiha.
Not some person who had obtained Obito's other eye.
"Obito… why?"
Kakashi Hatake knew very well that Obito Uchiha could not possibly hear his question.
And even if Obito heard it, after leading members of Root to assassinate many Konoha ninja, after bringing Iwagakure and Kumogakure ninja to launch a war against Konoha, and after stealing the Nine-Tails from Kushina Uzumaki, there was no way he could return to Konoha as if nothing had happened.
But Kakashi still wanted to ask Obito Uchiha that question.
Because Rin's death had clearly been his fault alone.
No matter how much anger and hatred Obito Uchiha carried, after killing so many Kirigakure ninja, he only needed to vent all of it on him, this useless failure.
Whether it was punches and kicks, blades and swords, or even demanding that he accompany Rin in death, Kakashi absolutely would not have any dissatisfaction with Obito Uchiha's decision, nor would he resist.
"Why did you take your anger and hatred… out on Sensei and the village?"
"They clearly… did nothing wrong…"
Like a man who had lost his soul, Kakashi Hatake stood frozen in place, murmuring words that his companions, already thrown into panic by the appearance of the Nine-Tails and "Madara Uchiha," could not understand.
He did not notice that the Tailed Beast Ball in the Nine-Tails' mouth was about to finish forming and was aimed in his direction.
Nor did he notice that behind him, someone with a strange expression was gripping a kunai with a purple-glinting blade and approaching him.
"Do it, Nine-Tails."
Obito Uchiha looked at Kakashi Hatake, whom White Zetsu's clone had already approached without him noticing, and gave the order in an icy voice.
And so, the Nine-Tails violently stirred its endless, immense chakra, causing the already formed Tailed Beast Ball to swell once more. Then it adjusted its angle slightly upward from the area where Kakashi Hatake was located, preparing to fire that heaven-destroying strike.
Then, a white bone whip, almost invisible in the darkness, lashed over from some unknown distance at a speed that broke the sound barrier.
It struck the Nine-Tails' raised neck heavily, knocking its enormous body to the side. At the same time, it tightly wrapped around the Nine-Tails' neck, trying to drag its head in a direction completely away from Konoha.
However, Rei Kaguya's attempt to save Konoha ultimately fell short.
The event had happened too suddenly, and the distance between both sides was too great.
The massive Tailed Beast Ball deviated from its original trajectory and did not erupt into a blazing mushroom cloud in the very center of Konoha, but it still flew toward one corner of the village.
The Hyuga clan, the Uchiha clan, the Sarutobi clan, and several other large ninja clan compounds were all swallowed within its range.
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