[Izuna: "Big bro, calm down!!"]
[Black Zetsu: "Yes, Lord Madara, don't strain yourself."]
[Madara: "At least Zetsu still has sense."]
[Minato: "Stop it, both of you! Please—stop fighting!"]
[Kushina: "Yeah!!"]
Pure Land—Kushina watched the feed with both hands clenched.
Obito and Kakashi were good kids. She didn't want either to fall.
Kakashi took his opening—snap-kick, snap-kick, snap-kick—Obito skidded, tumbled, rolled, then pushed himself up, wavering.
On the training ground overlay, Minato smiled gently as referee.
"Enough. The exercise is over. Winner: Kakashi. Now… the Seal of Reconciliation."
Young Kakashi reached out his hand.
Young Obito started to reach back—
—and adult Obito's hand clamped onto his younger self's shoulder and shoved him aside.
Kakashi's view flipped: a grown man rushed him head-on.
Two killers, one beat, both striking for the vital.
Kakashi's Raikiri-kunai punched through Obito's chest.
Obito's black receiver speared Kakashi's shoulder.
Wind washed through the Kamui space. Time felt… paused.
Obito coughed a red sheet.
Kakashi's kunai clattered to the floor—his fingers shook—then he yanked the blade free from Obito's chest.
It hurt just to watch.
They separated. Obito dropped hard, motionless.
Kakashi sank to a knee, gasping, and pulled the rod from his shoulder.
[Madara: "Obito, answer me—why the shoulder?!"]
[Obito: "Guess."]
[Madara: "Guess my—!!"]
Madara seethed under the sky-screen. Was the boy acting? Madara fought himself raw outside while Obito staged a melodrama inside?
Forget "holding back"—that was an ocean of mercy.
[Itachi: "Don't look at me. I didn't teach him mercy."]
[Boruto: "So… Uncle Kakashi wins?"]
Even Boruto frowned. Any fool could see something was off.
Why didn't Obito stab Kakashi's heart? One thrust; game over.
[Kakashi: "Obito… did you pull your blow? Because you couldn't kill me?"]
[Obito: "…"]
[Itachi: "As sandbagging goes… Obito surpasses me."]
[Sasuke: "Then why didn't you kill me that night, Obito?"]
[Obito: "Couldn't catch you."]
[Sasuke: "…"]
Kakashi steadied his breath. "It's over, Obito."
"Hmph. Then call this bout your win," Obito rasped. "But I won't surrender the war."
He blurred—and warped out.
Everyone blinked.
With a hole through his chest, he'd last minutes at best… right?
[Boruto: "I… don't get this plot."]
[Sarada: "Same."]
[Minato: "Obito, in that state you should stay in Kamui."]
[Obito: "…"]
[System: "Friendly reminder: HIGH ENERGY AHEAD!"]
Space corkscrewed above the Ten-Tails' crown.
Mid-battle shinobi looked up—what now?
A battered Obito spilled out onto the Ten-Tails' head, panting, soaked, wrecked.
"Seems that one's spent," Madara sniffed. Rinnegan, and he still lost to Kakashi?
Madara raised one hand.
Black receivers bloomed from Obito's flesh.
Pain like tearing wire—
Control slipping into Madara's grip.
"My body…" Obito choked, turning over, fighting for a breath.
Just as the devouring began—
—a white light washed over him, and in it Obito thought he saw Rin.
He smashed his palms together and roared, voice shaking the battlefield.
Bit by bit, he wrestled control back.
Every eye turned up.
Madara's face darkened; chakra flared. He tightened his hold.
And then everyone understood why Obito had let Raikiri cave his chest:
Madara had planted a seal there when he "saved" him—
a switch to force Rinne Rebirth at any time.
[Tobirama: "You see? The evil Uchiha at work."]
[Hashirama: "Madara! You tricked that boy for twenty years!!"]
[Madara: "Enough, Hashirama. He's not stupid. He's been dragging his feet instead of reviving me."]
[Itachi: "So… the ancestor's 'wisdom' is to hijack your pawn."]
[Sarada: "Then everything Obito did… was for nothing?"]
[Boruto: "Feels like he's just a piece on someone else's board…"]
[Madara: "Stop struggling, Obito. You're a disposable piece. Revive me."]
Hashirama's voice snapped, urgent. "Stop that man—now!"
Naruto and Sasuke vanished in twin blurs.
Obito's hair silvered in an instant.
It wasn't me who was wrong… it was the world. The old line rang hollow in his ears.
The field split: one force sprinted for Madara, the other for Obito.
Stop either, and this ends.
Tension braided the air; the chat barely dared to breathe.
Obito's mind floated—Rin, smiling; Sensei, telling him not to give up.
The score softened; half the viewers blinked tears.
How did something so bright become this?
When Obito's eyes opened again, Minato's kunai had already cut across his chest.
"Sensei…"
On the edge of the light, Obito finally called him that.
Minato's eyes widened—recognition.
Obito hit the ground.
A collective exhale.
[Ōnoki: "Good. Madara's failed to revive!"]
[Kurotsuchi: "We did it…"]
[Sasuke: "So useless. Looks impressive—folds like paper."]
[Itachi: "Sasuke. Manners."]
Sasuke scoffed anyway. In his eyes, Obito wasn't much at all.
…
(Next chapter: Obito absorbs the Ten-Tails—becoming the second Sage of Six Paths of the shinobi world.)
On the Ten-Tails' skull, Obito's limp fingers twitched—
and the beast's chakra surged like a tidal rift beneath him.
The sky turned the color of molten eyes.
To be continued…
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