Chapter 265: Kakashi — Rin Loves Me, and This Is Rin's Eye
Land of Rain
Amegakure
The Central Tower
A heavy thud sounded as a man in the Mizukage's blue ceremonial robes hit the ground.
No.
He should be called a corpse now.
Directly across from that corpse stood a grotesque idol-like figure, its third eye now open.
"With that, the extraction of the One-Tail and Six-Tails is complete."
"Next is the Four-Tails."
Kisame gave the corpse of Utakata a brief, indifferent glance, a faint, barely perceptible flicker of mockery in his eyes.
How pathetic, really.
Giving up your own freedom, pushed into the seat of Mizukage by everyone else.
But was any of it what you actually wanted?
Dying to protect so-called comrades over some meaningless title — was it worth it?
That village once soaked in blood mist has fallen this far, hasn't it.
Genuinely laughable.
"Zetsu. Any word on the Four-Tails?"
Pain didn't spare Utakata's corpse a second glance, turning his calm gaze instead toward the silent Black Zetsu beside him.
"Someone spotted the Four-Tails jinchūriki, Rōshi, in the Land of Hot Water."
Black Zetsu answered evenly, then continued:
"Though, more pressing than the Four-Tails — Boss, aren't you concerned about the current situation with Sunagakure and Kirigakure?"
Sunagakure had already engaged Amegakure directly, and Kirigakure's own forces would be arriving shortly.
"Beings that could be crushed with a snap of my fingers. No need to concern myself with them."
Pain answered — simply stating a fact, as far as he was concerned.
"The intelligence that we've been targeting jinchūriki is no longer a secret. I expect it won't be long before Sunagakure and Kirigakure reach out to the other villages."
"One misstep here, and we'll draw Iwagakure and Konoha's attention too."
Obito spoke up, drawing everyone's focus.
"Are you suggesting we haven't already drawn Konoha's attention?"
Konan looked at Obito, her calm expression carrying an edge of mockery.
"No. What I mean is that our next moves need to be more discreet."
Obito regarded Konan evenly, and her brow furrowed slightly at that.
This one... has changed a great deal...
"All right. Obito has a point."
Pain glanced at Obito, then turned his gaze toward Kisame.
"The Four-Tails jinchūriki specializes in Lava Release. Kisame — you, Obito, and Sasori go together."
"Itachi. Tomorrow, you're with me on the front against Sunagakure."
Then Pain's gaze settled on Itachi.
Itachi closed his eyes gently.
Back to the battlefield again, then.
"Understood."
Itachi answered.
But just as Pain was about to dismiss everyone, an odd shift crossed his expression.
That drew curious glances from the rest of the room.
Pain, as a rule, met everything with unshakable composure — for something to visibly affect him now...
"It's nothing. Everyone's dismissed."
Pain didn't elaborate further, simply sending everyone away.
That left only Pain and Konan alone.
"What is it?"
Konan asked quietly.
"Within the rain, in my Jigokudō sensory technique, I sensed a familiar chakra signature."
As the one person Pain genuinely trusted, Konan was never something he'd conceal things from.
"Who?"
"Jiraiya-sensei."
...
Black Zetsu walked through Amegakure's corridors, expression unreadable.
He'd realized this was an opportunity.
"What's up?"
"You've had something on your mind today, haven't you?"
Obito walked alongside Zetsu.
"Pain's grown too complacent. He needs to stumble, once."
Zetsu spoke concisely, seeing nothing wrong with the statement at all.
That simple sentence alone made Obito pause slightly.
Pain, with that arrogant, "beneath my notice" temperament of his...
Making him stumble...
That's a tall order.
Even Obito, who had little affection for Pain, had to admit — Pain had earned every bit of that arrogance.
"No matter how strong a person is, they're still human."
"And there's no human who can't eventually be defeated."
"But if that same person takes a hard lesson and still fails to grow from it — then they truly are nothing more than what they seem."
Zetsu glanced at Obito, distracted, and gave a faint laugh.
That made Obito's expression flicker with surprise.
That sounded a lot like it was directed at me.
"Are you trying to use Sunagakure and Kirigakure to defeat Pain?"
Obito asked, brow furrowed.
At Obito's words, Zetsu sighed inwardly.
Despite everything he's grown through, this one's mind is still just as slow as ever.
Then again — perhaps that was exactly why Madara had chosen him in the first place.
If Obito had been too sharp, he never would have ended up walking this particular path at all.
"No. Sunagakure and Kirigakure lack the strength to defeat Pain."
"I need to make contact with that Hokage."
The Hokage?
That pink one?
Obito blinked, surprised again.
She was, after all, Akatsuki's enemy.
Is Zetsu planning to have that Hokage teach the Rinnegan a lesson?
"That woman is no ordinary shinobi."
Black Zetsu recalled the Hokage's declaration before the entire shinobi coalition several days ago.
On the surface, it had looked like a morale-boosting speech — but in truth, it had stirred up something deeper: a rebellion, brewing in the hearts of tens of thousands of shinobi, against the nobility above them.
If Zetsu could leverage that properly, even without ever winning the Hokage over directly, he could still turn it to his own advantage.
And besides that—
"Keep an eye on any movements from the Land of Fire's nobility over the next couple of days."
Zetsu added, leaving Obito even more confused.
The Land of Fire's nobility? That pack of pigs?
Watching the plain disdain in Obito's eyes at the mention of the nobility, Zetsu sighed inwardly again.
So, on this point at least, this one shares Pain's exact same view.
Without sufficient power behind you, staying quiet and humble in front of a class that had ruled the shinobi world for a thousand years was simply the wiser course.
Even that Hokage, wielding the kind of power she did, had only ever used the Daimyo's name to funnel resources into Konoha's development — she still hadn't openly broken with the nobility outright.
Because that Hokage understood exactly how deeply entrenched the concept of aristocracy had become in everyone's minds.
Shatter the noble class through pure force, and while they wouldn't be able to resist, doing so would leave a permanent mark against her in the minds of every shinobi, every commoner, every ordinary person.
Because, as far as the entire shinobi world understood it—
Commoners and shinobi bowing to nobility was simply how the world worked.
You've already committed such an act of insubordination — is there anything you wouldn't do next?
At that point, she'd face condemnation from the entire shinobi world, unable to move a single step forward.
That was the deeply held belief lodged in everyone's minds.
Which was exactly why that Hokage hadn't chosen to break openly with the nobility yet.
Even with the capacity to overturn the whole board, if she wanted to.
Zetsu glanced at Obito's dismissive expression, and continued:
"I'll decide how to proceed after I've made contact with the Hokage."
Watching Zetsu, Obito shot back:
"And if she just attacks you the moment you approach her?"
Obito wasn't convinced Zetsu could actually escape that Hokage alive.
Zetsu paused.
This...
A surprisingly good question, for once.
Against anyone else, Zetsu could simply flee via the Mayfly Technique.
But against that particular Hokage...
She'd probably tear up the very earth to catch me.
"You'll come with me. I'll hide inside your sleeve."
Before Obito could respond to that, a burst of flame suddenly erupted somewhere within the rain-soaked, steel-forested skyline.
"Where's that coming from..."
Obito's eyes narrowed slightly, looking off into the distance.
"That's Konoha's Jiraiya~~~"
White Zetsu, popping up out of the ground, answered Obito's unspoken question.
"Konoha's... Jiraiya?"
Zetsu's expression turned thoughtful for a moment, then he shrugged it off.
"Leave that to Pain, then. Not our concern."
As the one secretly pulling Pain's strings, Nagato's connection to Jiraiya, as one of his own teachers, was something both Obito and Zetsu already understood perfectly well.
And it was obvious enough why Jiraiya had infiltrated Amegakure now — precisely because of that same student of his.
As for how Jiraiya had somehow figured out his beloved student was the mastermind behind Akatsuki—
Some things go without saying.
Still, since they needed Pain's strength for now, everyone had more or less agreed, tacitly, to look the other way on this particular subject.
Just as Obito was about to head off, a paper crane landed in front of him.
Seeing it, Obito's brow furrowed slightly.
Konan?
That woman's reaching out to me?
Is this her trying to get me to hold back on stopping Jiraiya?
Obito gave a cold laugh, not particularly inclined to bother with it — he'd been assigned to hunt the Four-Tails and had no interest in wasting energy on this matter.
But the paper crane flew right in front of him and unfolded, revealing a line of text.
Konoha's infiltration squad isn't just Jiraiya — Kakashi Hatake, Sasuke Uchiha, Karin Uzumaki, and Mei Terumi are with him too.
Zetsu saw the same message and went thoughtful again.
Obito understood Jiraiya's temperament well enough by now.
He didn't quite understand why the man had chosen to infiltrate Amegakure at this exact moment — with Rain already fighting off Wind and Water — but did that actually matter?
It didn't.
What mattered was Jiraiya's identity.
One of Konoha's own Legendary Sannin.
Jiraiya infiltrating Amegakure right now — whatever his personal motives — was itself a signal, regardless of intent.
That signal meant one thing.
While the Land of Wind and Land of Rain fought each other — Konoha had stepped in.
And what exactly that signal meant was left entirely to whoever interpreted it, from whatever angle they chose.
"No need to worry about it. Right now..."
"I'll go take a look myself."
Obito calmly tucked away the paper crane, and Zetsu's brow furrowed at that.
"Once I've dealt with Kakashi and the others, using them as hostages, I imagine that Hokage will be more than willing to sit down and have a proper conversation with you."
Watching Obito vanish from sight, Black Zetsu's face showed no reaction whatsoever.
It was only after a long moment that a smile finally crossed his features.
An unsettling, jarring smile.
"Obito's got his own ideas now. Why are you smiling?"
White Zetsu asked, confused.
"His own ideas?"
"You think Obito's actually changed?"
Black Zetsu gave a scoffing laugh at that.
"He's exactly the same Obito he's always been. Not a single thing has changed."
"It just doesn't show on the surface anymore."
"Well, this works out fine either way — let's go see exactly what kind of performance Obito's about to give us."
With that, Black Zetsu strode off in the direction Obito had disappeared.
—
"This rain is thick with chakra."
"We were spotted the moment we set foot here."
Amid a steel-forested corner of the village, a red-haired girl wrapped in a raincoat gazed grimly up at the thick clouds overhead.
"If we've already been spotted, then Lord Jiraiya's probably been discovered too."
"Karin, can you sense his location?"
Kakashi, similarly dressed in a black raincoat, looked off into the distance.
"I can."
"Roughly three kilometers northeast."
Karin reported Jiraiya's position, sensed through the Mind's Eye of the Kagura — then her expression suddenly shifted, and she spoke, grave:
"Wait. Someone's coming."
"Moving fast. Five hundred meters, northwest."
"Four hundred meters."
"Three hundred meters."
"Two hundred meters."
Karin's countdown didn't surprise Kakashi or the others in the slightest. They'd already prepared themselves for exactly this.
This was Akatsuki's home base, after all.
Running into a formidable enemy was fully expected.
Except — this particular person...
"It's been a while, Kakashi."
"You—"
Under the drizzling gray sky, the man in the black cloak patterned with red clouds stood balanced on a thick steel pipe, gazing calmly down at the Konoha squad below.
Kakashi's words trailed off, unable to finish.
Obito stared silently at Kakashi's ink-black eyes.
Whether it was his imagination or not, Obito found himself thinking that Kakashi's scarred eye seemed somehow brighter than it used to be.
As if it were...
A woman's eye.
A gentle woman's eye.
"So it's true. It's you, then."
"Obito."
Kakashi undid the fastenings of his raincoat, and it fell with a soft splash, scattering droplets across the wet ground.
"Tell me. Where's your Sharingan?"
Obito's voice was calm, but listening closely, one could catch a faint tremor beneath it — barely restrained fury.
That tremor, that fury, was swallowed almost entirely by the endless sound of the falling rain.
"Mei. You're acting squad leader now."
"Continue the mission."
Kakashi didn't turn around, his voice level.
"Kakashi..."
Mei Terumi watched the man's back with visible concern.
Obito's most recent intelligence profile had already been circulated.
Five kekkei genkai, plus a five-minute intangibility window via Kamui.
Defense, offense, speed, presence, battlefield control — nearly every category maxed out.
Frankly, Mei thought their entire squad, attacking together, might have a fighting chance against him.
And yet Kakashi was apparently planning to face him alone.
"Do as I say."
Hearing this, Mei said nothing more. She pulled her raincoat tighter, glanced once at Kakashi, then turned to Sasuke and Karin.
"Let's move."
With that, she led the two of them away, vanishing into the sheet of rain.
As a woman — and a genuinely capable one — she understood that sometimes, when a man had reached a critical, defining moment, the right thing to do was to give him the space to face it.
And right now, for Kakashi, this was exactly that moment.
So Mei chose to take Sasuke and Karin and leave, leaving this ground to him alone.
Still —
You'd better survive this, Kakashi.
Splashing through the puddles underfoot, Mei led the other two off at speed, toward Jiraiya's position.
...
Silence.
A wordless, heavy silence.
The black-haired man looked down at the white-haired one from above.
"...Answer my question."
Amid the endless rain, droplets soaked steadily into Obito's hair.
No one could see through his calm expression, could read anything of what lay beneath it.
Kakashi reached up and gently touched his own black eye, the motion slow and careful — as if handling something exceptionally precious, exceptionally fragile.
That gesture only made Obito's expression turn colder still. Colder. More distant.
"There's a secret Uchiha technique called Izanagi."
Rather than answer directly, Kakashi brought up the Sharingan's hidden technique first.
That made Obito's brow furrow.
He knew of that technique — it was one of his own trump cards, capable of reversing life and death itself at a critical moment. Not just life and death — even in a hopelessly disadvantageous situation, used correctly, it could turn an entire battle around.
"So?"
Obito's expression turned colder still.
"At one such critical moment, I used it."
"I used it to save a comrade's life."
Kakashi's words cut through the tension like a severed rope, and instantly, a dark blur lashed out through the rain.
A black rod, born of Yin-Yang Release, tore through the falling drops, streaking straight toward Kakashi's left eye!
Obito's intent was unmistakable.
Blind that eye.
Blind the eye that had replaced his own Sharingan.
But it was intercepted — by a short white blade, shaped like a fang.
"Obito."
Kakashi's dark eye carried a trace of sorrow and disappointment.
Inexplicably, staring into the gaze of that single eye, Obito felt an unspeakable unease and helplessness rising in his chest.
"You chose the wrong path. And now, there's no turning back."
"Today, you'll finally pay for it."
"With this eye bearing witness."
Kakashi didn't volunteer whose eye it actually was.
To him, the fact that Obito — who had once, supposedly, loved Rin — didn't even recognize this eye now was proof enough.
Beyond saving.
The white fang blade flashed, and black and white silhouettes clashed dozens of times through the endless curtain of rain, sparks igniting against the gray sky, scattering through this forest of steel.
Blinding sparks. Tragic sparks.
Obito's strikes were ruthless, each one aimed directly at Kakashi's eye.
That eye's gaze left him deeply unsettled.
Under its silent watch, he felt exactly like a child being scolded by a disappointed parent.
Flustered. Helpless. Hollow.
Obito had believed his own will was unshakable.
But right now, his mind was in chaos.
He didn't want that eye watching him like this. He wanted to destroy it.
Destroy the eye that made him feel this way — this unbearable, humiliating way.
Watching Obito's strikes drive relentlessly toward his own eye, Kakashi's true expression, hidden beneath his mask, broke into a smile.
A smile so sorrowful, so wretched — and yet, so unmistakably freeing.
"I thought you'd always loved Rin. Turns out you're nothing special after all."
Hearing Kakashi suddenly invoke the name of that long-buried girl, Obito's expression turned even colder, his voice icy, laced with murderous intent:
"Shut your mouth!"
"You have no right to speak her name!"
"You're her murderer! You worthless piece of garbage — you killed her with your own hands!"
But Kakashi twisted his blade, and a razor-sharp blade of chakra erupted from the white fang short-sword, cutting clean through the black rod Obito held, faster than a blink.
Obito's chest tightened at that, and he retreated two steps to avoid it.
This technique...
It's the same one Minato Namikaze used to use!
Reshaping his own wind-release chakra to make his blade sharper, keener.
He hadn't expected Kakashi to have this hidden up his sleeve.
The fang blade — his father's will.
Minato's technique — his teacher's legacy.
Rin's gaze — his comrade's trust.
Kakashi, right now, was no longer simply one man alone. On his shoulders, he carried the hopes and responsibilities of his father, his teacher, his comrade.
He had never, truly, been alone.
Gripping the fang blade, chakra humming along its edge like some blade capable of cutting through anything at all, Kakashi looked calmly, coldly, at the man before him — his once-friend, now lost beyond all redemption.
His single black eye carried an unshakable resolve, one that nothing in the world could move.
"Obito. You've fallen."
"You don't have the right to invoke Rin's name."
"Rin died protecting Konoha, protecting the village, to her very last breath."
"And you, believing yourself to have loved her — that was nothing but self-deception."
"Rin simply saw you as a comrade she could trust."
"And you, now turning your blade against Konoha itself — even Rin herself would raise a blade against you, if she saw what you've become!"
Kakashi's words left Obito's expression frozen, ice-cold.
"You abandoned your own Sharingan, abandoned your Mangekyō, and you think you have the right to say this to me?!"
"Kakashi!"
"You're nothing but a worthless failure!"
"You think you have any right to speak for Rin?!"
Obito's voice was pure venom. He'd already decided — today would be the day Kakashi died.
He would cut down this man who dared defile Rin's memory, right here, right now!
"Though I hardly deserve it..."
"Still, Obito."
"In her final moment, Rin chose to die at the hands of the person she loved most."
"I'm sorry, Obito. Rin never once loved you."
"Rin... always loved me."
Thunder tore across the sky, illuminating that endless, rain-soaked world, and the drizzle transformed into a torrential downpour, drenching this forest of steel — and drenching, too, the twisted, obsessive heart lodged inside Obito's chest.
"What... did you just say?"
"Don't... don't get so full of yourself!"
"What right do you have?!"
"WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE?!"
"WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE?!"
Obito's mind shattered into chaos.
His form blurred like a violent gale, and in a single blink, he was already in front of Kakashi again, the black rod — appearing once more from nowhere — driving straight at him!
The rod's target: that black, luminous eye that filled him with madness and hatred.
The sharp chakra blade along the fang short-sword blocked Obito's strike — but this time, unlike before, the chakra failed to sever the rod cleanly. Obito had clearly used some unknown method to reinforce it against the blade.
The two of them locked in a trembling standstill, the rod quivering, mere inches from Kakashi's eye.
That black eye stared fixedly at the rod, seemingly about to pierce straight through it, reflecting back Obito's own twisted, terrible, scar-ravaged face.
"Heh. Still haven't figured it out, have you?"
"You truly are beyond saving, Obito."
"This eye — it's Rin's."
!!!
Kakashi's words left Obito utterly stunned.
What... what is he saying?
What the hell is he SAYING?!
What kind of insane nonsense is this bastard spouting?!
Rin's eye — how could it possibly end up on him?!
IMPOSSIBLE!
IMPOSSIBLE!
IMPOSSIBLE!!!
Obito's breathing came in ragged, frantic gasps, his eyes locked, unblinking, on that black eye.
As if trying to stare straight through it, to see clearly, to expose Kakashi's clumsy lie for exactly what it was!
"Don't you dare get too—"
Obito's fury twisted his face into something manic, feral — he was going to expose this pathetic lie of Kakashi's for what it was!
But then—
Suddenly—
"Obito."
Calm, yet resolute — and in that instant, Kakashi seemed, to Obito's eyes, to become an entirely different person.
A girl with short brown hair, small in stature, purple face paint across her cheeks.
She held the fang short-sword, blocking the rod driving toward her own eye.
And behind her stood two men — one blond, one white-haired.
Minato Namikaze. Sakumo Hatake.
Both of them helping her fend off the rod striking toward her eye.
But right now, Obito's vision held no room at all for either of those two men. All he could see was the girl standing before him.
"Obito."
The girl spoke again, and something inside Obito's heart shattered into panic.
He was helpless. Utterly lost.
The girl's eyes — bright, unwavering — burned with something fierce and stubborn.
That was the look of someone whose resolve came from protecting the people she cared about.
Obito's mouth opened wordlessly. He wanted to say something.
But—
Nothing came.
And in that brief instant of stunned paralysis, the white fang short-sword seized its opening, striking like a dragon breaking from the sea, driving straight at him!
Kakashi's face and Rin's, superimposed over each other in Obito's vision, finally resolved into one — a single black, bright, resolute, unyielding eye.
Kakashi's blade tore straight through Obito's body in that instant, the sharp, blazing edge sweeping through him entirely!
And yet—
No wound.
Facing that strike, Obito took nothing worse than not so much as a torn hem on his cloak.
Mangekyō Sharingan — Kamui.
At the critical moment, Obito had once again chosen Kamui.
As if that was the very meaning behind the technique's birth in the first place.
He wanted to run. To escape everything.
"You..."
"...you actually transplanted Rin's eye."
Obito's voice carried an emotion impossible to fully parse — like a drowning man clutching desperately at his last floating straw.
But a straw was still just a straw. It could never bear the full weight of a man.
So the straw snapped.
"Rin was a medical ninja. She'd already signed up as an organ donor, in the event of her death."
"Even in dying, she wanted to give whatever last strength she had left, for the sake of her comrades."
"And I..."
Kakashi said nothing more, simply watching Obito's back with a level gaze.
"Heh. Of course it is..."
"This world truly is cruel. Just like hell itself."
Obito, his back still to Kakashi, having learned the truth at last, couldn't bring himself to face that eye directly.
"My choice really wasn't wrong, then."
"A world like this shouldn't exist at all."
"Heh heh... hahaha... HAHAHAHA!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Obito laughed. Laughed like a madman, laughed like someone possessed, laughed like a lunatic entirely lost to reason.
He laughed until tears streamed from his eyes.
This irredeemable world!
Infinite Tsukuyomi truly is the most beautiful world of all, after all!
Madara was right. This world is nothing but hell!
A hell beyond saving. A hell that makes you shudder. A hell that makes you tremble in fear!
Only Infinite Tsukuyomi is the truly perfect existence.
In that world, everyone will have everything most beautiful, at last.
And Rin, too — she'll love me. She'll belong to me.
This world is a lie. This cruel, false world has no right to exist at all!
Rin, Rin, RIN!
Memories of the past surged up in his mind — the pure, gentle girl from those old memories, rising once more before his eyes.
"Kakashi. Live on, carrying Rin's eye with you."
"For Rin's sake, I won't kill you today."
Obito's voice was drenched in despair and hollow finality. He was done — done with this dull, false, meaningless world.
He would build a world with Rin in it.
"You still haven't understood, have you?"
"Obito Uchiha."
Kakashi tightened his grip on the fang short-sword, his gaze calm, cold, fixed on the man before him — his lost, irredeemable former comrade.
"It's not that you get to try to kill me."
"It's that I'm going to kill YOU!"
Kakashi's words carried the weight of simple fact — but that only made Obito laugh again.
A wild, mocking laugh.
"You? Kill me?"
"Don't get ahead of yourself!"
"Don't think just because you're carrying Rin's eye that I won't kill you!"
Obito turned, his sickle-shaped Mangekyō eyes burning with a chilling, soul-piercing cold.
"Heh. Want to try?"
The moment Kakashi spoke, he vanished from the spot entirely!
Obito's pupils contracted sharply at that!
This bastard!
Without his Sharingan, he's gotten STRONGER?!
Riding a gust of wind, lightning wrapped around his hand, Kakashi's speed exploded, empowered by the combination of Wind and Lightning Release working in perfect tandem.
Wind Release should counter Lightning Release entirely — and yet Kakashi was somehow, impossibly, using both natures simultaneously, in perfect harmony.
Completely disregarding elemental compatibility altogether.
Exactly like—
Hiruzen Sarutobi himself!
The blade of light tore through the rain, and through Obito's black-and-red-cloud robe as well!
If Obito hadn't reacted in time, that strike would have severed his entire arm!
"You bastard!"
Obito stared at Kakashi, shocked and furious!
"This is the Third Hokage's own technique!"
With that, Kakashi twisted his body, and a sphere of condensed chakra gathered in his palm!
Previously constrained by his limited chakra reserves, Kakashi had rarely used techniques as costly as the Rasengan in ordinary combat.
But now, his chakra reserves were more than ten times what they'd once been!
"And this — this is the Fourth Hokage's technique. My own teacher's technique!"
Rasengan!
(End of chapter)
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