Adult Kakashi's bleak self-reproach and furious accusations.
He blamed himself for not continuing to save Obito back then. He blamed himself for believing Obito was dead without even seeing his body.
He accused Madara Uchiha. If Madara had not been deceived and dragged Obito into it, Obito would at least still have been a hero.
And now, the name he had stared at on the Memorial Stone for more than ten years had already been erased.
At this moment, Adult Obito and Madara Uchiha were both here.
Kakashi's self-reproach left a heavy tightness in Adult Obito's chest. As for Madara Uchiha, who was being accused, he felt it even more keenly.
Deceived by Black Zetsu, and in order to complete the Eye of the Moon Plan, he had arranged a trap. He had deliberately led Obito Uchiha, who had once been full of confidence and determined to save his comrades, into witnessing that tragedy. It caused him to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan just as Madara had, breaking his spirit, destroying his dreams, driving him to kill his teacher, and eventually slaughter his own clan.
But even if he was wrong, Madara Uchiha was not the kind of man who would quietly let someone point at his back and condemn him.
The moment he heard Kakashi's accusation, his chakra erupted with a boom. His vermilion Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan fixed coldly on Adult Kakashi.
"Kid, are you trying to die?"
Almost at the same time, Adult Obito burst out with chakra and entered battle-ready stance.
Young Obito knew he was not on their level, but he still secretly raised his guard.
Although Obito was the successor Madara had chosen, and although Madara had once said Obito resembled his former self, in terms of strength, Obito Uchiha was still not someone Madara Uchiha placed in his sights.
"Hmph! Ridiculous! You think you can?"
Ever since Madara Uchiha's resurrection, Adult Obito had kept his hatred for him buried. He only knew he could not beat him, so he had not gone looking for humiliation.
But now that Kakashi had angered Madara Uchiha for his sake, there was no way he could stand by and do nothing.
Since this involved his student, Minato also readied his Flying Thunder God Technique kunai.
The Second Hokage raised one finger as well, prepared to act at any moment.
"Hahahaha!"
Hashirama Senju let out a tactical laugh.
"Don't be so impulsive! This is the largest town in the Land of Fire. If you use Susanoo here, this place will be gone!"
"And besides..."
Hashirama Senju poked Obito Ōtsutsuki, who was also ready to move at any moment.
"I'm afraid even all of us together might not be able to defeat him, right?"
At the level of Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, no matter how well Obito Ōtsutsuki hid himself, it was useless.
He had a Chakra God Tree that had once imprisoned nearly ten billion people growing inside his own dimension. If Obito Ōtsutsuki's chakra volume and combat strength had to be measured with a number, even he himself would not know how high that number should be.
Obito Ōtsutsuki curled his lip.
"I was clearly trying my best to act like I didn't exist. Why drag me out just to kick me while I'm down?"
That said, if Madara Uchiha really made a move, he would not just stand there and watch.
With the First Hokage smoothing things over, the stiff atmosphere gradually eased.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura of Team Kakashi were stunned. They never imagined their usually lazy, laid-back Kakashi-sensei would suddenly snap like this, bold enough to confront even Madara Uchiha to his face.
Still, the atmosphere just now really had been tense.
Madara Uchiha and Obito Uchiha had been clashing with chakra.
Obito Ōtsutsuki had faintly released an aura that felt like an overwhelming, higher-dimensional threat.
The First Hokage had also opened up his own chakra while speaking to them.
Minato Namikaze and Tobirama Senju had both been gathering power as well.
In short, everyone who had been standing nearby watching the footage with them moments ago had fled far away.
They were afraid the battle between these ninjas would drag innocent bystanders into disaster.
Beside Minato Namikaze, Fugaku Uchiha, who had only recently been revived because of Sasuke's wish, noticed that something was off.
Why had Madara Uchiha saved Obito Uchiha back then? Wasn't that legendary ninja supposed to have been killed by the First Hokage when Fugaku was still young?!
He wanted to ask the Fourth Hokage what exactly had happened back then.
Why was Madara Uchiha still alive, while he, the Clan Head of the Uchiha Clan, knew nothing about it?
And what exactly was that Obito Ōtsutsuki over there?
But just then, the footage in the sky reached another climactic moment, so he had no chance to ask.
In the footage.
After Obito's "corpse" was buried in darkness by Iwa's Earth Ninjutsu, Kakashi led Rin out of the enemy's attack range.
But when they looked up, they were already surrounded by more than a dozen enemy ninjas.
The hatred from losing Obito made the young Kakashi erupt.
With the boost of the Sharingan, the A-rank Lightning Release ninjutsu he had developed, Chidori, was finally completed.
The cry of a thousand birds rang out as blue lightning gathered entirely in Kakashi's right hand. His short silver-gray hair made the blood-red Sharingan look even more eerie.
["Rin, take Minato-sensei's kunai and run. I'll hold these guys off."]
["No! Kakashi, I..."]
Needless to say, Rin could no longer bear the despair of losing another comrade.
["The person Obito likes is you."]
In the footage, Young Kakashi stared firmly at the enemy, yet spoke the gentlest words in the world.
Hiss.
Three kettles boiled at the same time.
Young Obito, Adult Obito, and Obito Ōtsutsuki.
Even though Obito Ōtsutsuki had already seen this once, it was still unbearably embarrassing.
"Now you know what social death means, right?"
He hugged his head and secretly whispered to Adult Obito.
Adult Obito did not want to know at all.
A confession was bad enough. Why did it have to be in front of the whole world?! Was this revenge for the fact that he had thought about confessing to Rin back then, only to never say it in the end?!
Young Obito: "..." He was already stunned stupid.
["But! Kakashi..."]
["Obito entrusted you to me. Even if I die, I'll fulfill his wish and protect you!"]
It was clearly such a moving moment...
"A love triangle?"
The Second Hokage suddenly spoke, stunning the Uchiha half to death.
Madara, Hashirama, Izuna, and everyone around them all turned at once and looked at Tobirama Senju with that kind of gaze.
"What is it? Why are all of you looking at this old man?"
"No, it's just..."
Minato Namikaze hesitated as he searched for the right words. "Second Hokage-sama, you're a little different from what I imagined."
"This old man is merely stating the facts."
Adult Kakashi's dead-fish eyes went blank. "No, Second Hokage-sama, I think you've definitely misunderstood something."
"Oh? Then if you say it's a misunderstanding, it's a misunderstanding."
Pfft.
Kakashi nearly spat. Even Obito was starting to look at him with that kind of gaze.
In the footage.
Kakashi, who had fought desperately until he collapsed from exhaustion, woke to find that Minato Namikaze had arrived and saved them.
Rin stood in place, gazing at the stars, wondering whether one of the falling stars in the sky might be Obito watching over them.
The Kannabi Bridge mission was a success.
["The Third Shinobi World War, after a long and grueling conflict..."]
["It was finally ended through the sacrifices of countless nameless heroes."]
["At the same time, many heroes gained fame and became legends worthy of being passed down."]
In the image, Rin and Minato Namikaze looked sadly at Kakashi.
Kakashi stood beneath the Kannabi Bridge, gazing at the quiet river. His mask hid his expression, but Obito Uchiha at least knew that the guy was grieving over his death.
[In the battle at Kannabi Bridge, Konoha gave birth to two heroes who possessed the Sharingan.]
["One was forever carved onto the Memorial Stone."]
["The other would later become known as, Kakashi of the Sharingan. Under that name, his fame spread widely through other nations."]
The screen sank into darkness.
Just like watching a movie, once the screen went black, everyone thought it was over.
Obito Ōtsutsuki let out a breath of relief in his heart, thinking that this was fine, this was fine. This round of social death was not too severe. Aside from Kakashi suddenly confessing on his behalf, everything else was still within acceptable limits.
Mm.
That was what he had been thinking.
But when his childhood self appeared again in the darkness, he knew...
It was over.
["...Where... is this...?"]
["I'm already dead, right..."]
Adult Obito grabbed Obito Ōtsutsuki and demanded, "When the hell does this count as over?! Why does it just keep going?!"
"How would I know? It's not like I can control it! Besides, this should be the mission scroll's fault. It has nothing to do with the quiz questions I ran into before! The only similarity is that it also loves making us suffer social death!"
The three from young Team Minato, Obito, Kakashi, and Rin, and the three from Team Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, all stared closely at the footage.
Adult Kakashi asked, "Obito, could this be... your memories from after that?"
After a pause, Adult Obito replied, "Yeah."
Was this precious footage from the mission scroll world, showing Obito Uchiha being rescued and...?
Fugaku Uchiha, who had just been revived, was also curious.
"Obito, since you were still alive, why didn't you return to Konoha?! Why didn't you return to the clan? And what was this about Madara Uchiha using you?"
Just as he asked, an aged face appeared in the sky, revealing a three-tomoe Sharingan.
["Uh...!!"]
That face instantly frightened the young boy in the footage, who had barely half his life left, awake from his slumber.
Young Obito said, "I remember this place! When I used Time Travel to return to our parallel world before, that was where I met the Ancestor!"
Madara Uchiha: "..."
At this moment, Madara Uchiha's mood could be described as absolutely terrible.
He had never imagined that one day, his old and dying appearance would be seen by Hashirama and the Uchiha clansmen who knew him.
"Madara..."
"Brother."
Hashirama and Izuna had already heard that Madara had not died back then, that he had used the Izanagi Technique to revive himself and then lived in seclusion inside an underground tunnel until he died many years later.
But hearing about it was one thing. Seeing it with their own eyes was another.
Madara heard both of their voices, but he did not respond.
He only frowned irritably, thinking about how he could make that thing in the sky disappear.
"Give up."
Obito Ōtsutsuki, speaking from experience, told him, "That thing is completely immune to ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Taijutsu. It's just like my Intangibility ability. Any attack will pass right through it."
"Tsk..."
Madara curled his lip unhappily.
Team Minato and Team Kakashi saw Obito in the footage, then looked at the silent Adult Obito, their gazes gaining a few more shades of helplessness.
A moment ago, when Obito had been risking his life to save Kakashi and Rin, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had all subconsciously imagined themselves in his place.
It was not that Naruto and Sasuke had forgotten that the person in the footage was the culprit who had made their childhoods so miserable. But the footage's perspective had guided them into projecting their emotions onto that Obito Uchiha.
Hatred. The inability to forgive.
Those emotions clashed against thoughts like, "That guy was once a Konoha ninja who dreamed of becoming Hokage," and "He once tried so hard, risking his life to protect his comrades."
They did not know whether they should keep hating him, or how they were supposed to hate him.
Those two conflicting emotions appeared in Naruto and Sasuke's hearts, and the feeling was unbearably painful.
…
Many people say that after the Fourth Shinobi World War, Naruto forgave Obito Uchiha. I think it was more that he understood him, but did not forgive him.
His perspective had simply expanded. It was not some saintly compassion.