["The longer you live, the more you realize that reality is filled with nothing but loneliness, misery, and pain. Because in the real world, wherever there is light, there will inevitably be shadow. Just as winners exist, losers must exist as well. To protect one's own beliefs by slaughtering others at will, is that so-called justice right or wrong?"]
In the footage, Madara Uchiha was once again brainwashing Obito Uchiha.
Only back then, Obito had wanted nothing more than to return to Team Minato as quickly as possible and reunite with Kakashi and Rin. He wanted to tell them he was not dead, and that now that he had the Sharingan, he would never hold them back again. He would be able to protect them both.
So in that state of mind, Obito Uchiha had thought Madara Uchiha's words were nothing more than the mad ravings of an old man who had lost everyone and spent too long underground. Only someone whose brain had rotted would come up with something as bizarre as forcing everyone to dream a great dream inside an illusory world.
But after awakening the Sharingan, after personally witnessing Rin's death and Kakashi being forced to kill Rin under Madara Uchiha's design, he surpassed his own level in an extremely short time and awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan. After brutally slaughtering more than fifty Kirigakure ninjas, his previous thoughts completely reversed.
Using Intangibility, he passed through the enemies' corpses and through the unconscious Kakashi.
When he tried to touch Rin Nohara, even his trembling hand passed straight through her.
The atmosphere in the footage was terrifying and oppressive, yet it was paired with a beautiful piece of background music.
Compared with the hellish scene beneath the blood-red moon, the footage entered a memory sequence in a white, dreamlike haze, showing Obito Uchiha's childhood.
His parents died early, and he depended on his grandmother.
Every day, he was either helping someone or on his way to help someone.
The girl he liked most was Rin. She always tolerated his lateness unconditionally. She picked up his enrollment materials for him, read his graduation speech for him, helped him pass exams...
The person he cared about most was Kakashi. He was so smug it was infuriating, and he always looked down on Obito. Everything he said was either mocking him or about to mock him. Yet for some reason, it was exactly this person who made Obito realize that before he knew it, his eyes were always drifting toward him.
The person he admired most was Minato-sensei, the hero of the Third Shinobi World War.
His dream for the future was to become Hokage, and he had already begun taking action toward it.
He trained hard and carried out missions with all his strength.
Before becoming Hokage, one of the milestones along the way might be becoming an outstanding Jōnin first. Maybe he would even become the teacher of Minato-sensei and Kushina's child.
Of course, he might also join ANBU and learn how Hokage-sama worked.
Or he might become a member of the Uchiha Police Force, carrying out justice in style and continuing to help others.
Beautiful fantasies and hellish scenes kept switching back and forth.
Then White Zetsu's voice echoed in his mind again.
"Because it's a dream, anything can be done."
"The dead can be revived. Things you couldn't accomplish can be done easily too~"
In the dream, you could be the teacher of Minato-sensei and Kushina's child.
You could also be an incredible ANBU member or a dashing member of the Uchiha Police Force.
You could let Kakashi grow up without regrets, with his father by his side. You would all stay together, protecting Rin, guarding her happiness and smile.
You could save the world in style, end the wars, and bring peace and stability to everyone.
What he had been thinking back then, even Adult Obito from the mission scroll world could no longer remember. Like everyone else, he saw himself in the footage trembling as his hand passed through Rin's body, then jerking it back in fright. Only after remembering what White Zetsu had said about the Infinite Tsukuyomi did he finally release Intangibility, pick up Rin's corpse, and sink into hell.
["This world is hell."]
["I'll create a world where you're still alive, Rin."]
Watching himself return to the gap between hell and the living world, find Madara Uchiha, the root of everything, and tell him that he had come back to sever cause and effect, Adult Obito ground his teeth until they creaked.
He hated his own stupidity, hated that he had been chosen by Madara Uchiha, hated Madara Uchiha, and hated Black Zetsu.
He had no face to show Rin.
He and Kakashi had walked down opposite paths.
He had caused the deaths of Minato-sensei's family.
He had pushed the Uchiha Clan into a fate beyond redemption.
He had made Naruto and Sasuke orphans.
He had not become Hokage, but had instead become the mastermind behind Akatsuki, the greatest Missing-nin organization.
He had not saved the world in style. Instead, he had plunged the world into an even greater disaster. If the mission scroll had not appeared, he might still have challenged the entire Ninja World and started the Fourth Shinobi World War, causing tens of thousands of deaths and injuries.
At this moment, after watching the footage, Young Obito, Young Kakashi, Rin, and Minato Namikaze from the Kannabi Bridge world all looked at Adult Obito with complicated emotions in their eyes. After the hatred they felt from knowing what he later did, watching this part of his life left them with even more sorrow.
Especially Young Obito Uchiha.
He understood too well what the world was like for "Obito Uchiha" after losing Rin.
It was just like Kamui's Dimension of the "Masked Man" that he and Kakashi had once entered.
Dark. Empty.
There was nothing but stone platforms rising one after another from the abyss.
In his own Kamui's Dimension, there was Konoha, there were dreams, and there were traces of his comrades.
Compared with him, he was far too lucky.
It was as if he had truly received the protagonist's script. He had achieved a comeback in strength, protected his comrades, and in the future, he would continue moving straight toward becoming Hokage, step by step.
And just as the emotions of "I can't forgive the Masked Man" and "Obito Uchiha of this world suffered too much and was too pitiful" collided inside him...
Something he never could have imagined happened.
"Obito!"
It was Minato Namikaze's voice.
His voice was filled with excitement and wild joy.
Since getting to know him, everyone had rarely heard Minato Namikaze sound so unable to restrain his emotions.
Because at this moment, the people here watching the footage included Adult Obito, Obito Ōtsutsuki, and Young Obito.
With Minato Namikaze's call, all three Obitos turned back at the same time.
When the three depressed Obitos saw the irrepressible delight on Minato Namikaze's face, they were more or less confused.
"Dad, are you okay?" Naruto gave him a worried look.
After watching something like this, even with just a little empathy, he knew his dad should be grieving just like Kakashi-sensei, Obito, and the others.
"Could he be laughing because he's too angry?"
Naruto was extremely worried. Beside him, Sasuke and Sakura, as well as the three students of Team Minato, all cast concerned looks over.
Adult Kakashi asked, "Did something good happen, Minato-sensei?"
His mood was low. After seeing what had happened to Obito back then, although he did not show it on his face, the pain in his heart had already reached a point where he could barely bear it.
Minato Namikaze stared at Young Obito Uchiha, took a deep breath, and forced down his emotions before reminding him.
"Look at your mission scroll."
Young Obito's first reaction was that a new mission had appeared on his mission scroll.
Only after taking the mission scroll out of his ninja tool pouch did he remember that the SSS-rank mission in the scroll had already been completed by his other self from another world through a twist of fate.
Logically, the mission scroll should now be a blank scroll that could grant all kinds of wishes.
Itachi's wish had been:
[May "Sasuke's wish" come true, and may he live a happy, smooth life.]
As for Young Obito Uchiha himself...
He had thought it might be to become Hokage, or to successfully confess to Rin in the future.
But perhaps becoming Hokage or gaining Rin's affection through such a method would be an insult to Obito Uchiha's dream of becoming Hokage and to his feelings for Rin.
Especially after learning that his other self from another world, the Masked Man, had tried to take a shortcut through the "Eye of the Moon" and ultimately caused terrible consequences, he was even less willing to become Hokage or confess to Rin through this kind of method.
So the last time he looked at his mission scroll, it had still been blank.
But this time...
He opened it with nervousness in his heart, afraid that if his brain had short-circuited for even a moment and he had made some wish like successfully confessing to Rin or wanting to be friends with Kakashi for life, he would die of social death on the spot and never have the face to see anyone again.
However, the moment the mission scroll opened, the words on it still made everyone freeze.
Mission Scroll
[May the "Masked Man" receive the chance to start over.]
Adult Obito instantly went blank.
A chance... to start over...?
Tobirama Senju rubbed his chin and guessed, "Could it be that because of this wish, you crossed into our world, gained the concept of the mission scroll, and changed many tragedies that would have originally appeared in the main storyline world? But that still doesn't explain why the Fourth Hokage and Minato Namikaze from Kannabi Bridge have the mission scroll's super-sensory ability. And strictly speaking, if only Obito Uchiha from another era gets the chance, it doesn't have much to do with the Masked Man, does it?"
"I don't think that's it either." Minato Namikaze rubbed Naruto's head.
"Maybe there's an unexpected good thing waiting~"
Naruto said, "An unexpected good thing?"
Sakura, Sasuke, and the younger Team Minato could not imagine what good thing Minato-sensei was talking about.
Adult Obito and Adult Kakashi stared blankly at Minato-sensei from the other world.
"Sensei... what does starting over mean?"
Minato winked at the two of them. "I can't really explain it clearly either. I think we'll know once we go back~"
His answer left Adult Obito, Adult Kakashi, Team Minato from Kannabi Bridge, and Team Kakashi from the mission scroll world itching with curiosity.
"You can't explain it either? The meaning of this wish?" Adult Obito's expectant gaze carried a trace of something like grievance and fear, making this man over one meter eighty look like a large dog that had wandered for years, seen its home, yet did not dare go back.
"In any case, I personally don't think it'll be a bad thing," Minato Namikaze said with a smile.
Young Obito also felt nervous. Compared with Itachi's wish, which everyone had understood as soon as they guessed, his own wish was seriously hard to figure out.
Young Kakashi even complained, "Obito and Naruto's unpredictability really goes in opposite directions. I just hope he doesn't create some new mess again."
"Tsk! Even at a time like this! Would you die if you didn't roast me a few times?!"
"It's because it's a time like this that I'm roasting you, idiot."
Their group had just finished watching Adult Obito's life experiences. Their relief at what they themselves had gone through, and even their lingering fear, still hung in the atmosphere around them.
...
Far away, on an island nation beyond the border of the Land of Fire continent, a red-haired woman in home clothes held a spoon in her hand and looked around, her face cute and dazed.
"Where is this, dattebane?"
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