After earning a cold glare from Sasuke Uchiha, Izuna Uchiha decided not to invite more trouble.
He rewound Naruto Uzumaki's right arm—now reduced to nothing but a little bald stump—back to its original, perfectly intact state, leaving Sakura, a medical-nin, crying out in amazement.
"Your eyes really can do anything," she said casually.
It was meant as an offhand remark, but to her surprise, this Uchiha ancestor actually replied.
"Not everything can be obtained."
Sakura looked at Izuna Uchiha in surprise. Catching the faint trace of loneliness between his brows, she suddenly realized something…
If everything truly could be achieved as one wished, then perhaps the Rinnegan would never have been awakened.
The Uchiha clan's Sharingan was born from love and sustained by hatred.
After everything they had been through, she couldn't tell whether such overwhelming power was a blessing or a curse for them.
"All done."
Izuna Uchiha patted Naruto's arm and held out his hand.
Naruto froze.
Izuna Uchiha made a clear "hand it over" gesture.
Naruto naturally placed his hand into the other's palm…
From the side, the scene looked oddly familiar—
Like a golden-haired dog shaking hands with someone.
Sasuke was furious.
So furious his nose practically twisted sideways.
No—his Rinnegan nearly popped out!
Izuna laughed.
"That guy was right. You really are a natural airhead."
"Huh?" Naruto blinked.
"I mean the mission payment. The mission payment."
Although he looked almost identical to Sasuke, Izuna Uchiha's personality was worlds apart from his.
Much like the complementary brothers Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju, Izuna Uchiha and Madara Uchiha also balanced each other in many ways.
For example, Madara disliked socializing, so Izuna handled relations within the clan and negotiated mission fees with clients.
Having a brother like Hashirama forced Tobirama to be strict and rigid. Likewise, because of Madara's temperament, Izuna had to be more smooth and flexible than him—and he also had a small personal hobby…
Making money. Making money!! Making money!!!
Even though Tobirama would insist on payment when his brother suggested giving away Tailed Beasts for free, his money-making ability still couldn't compare to Izuna Uchiha's across the many parallel worlds.
Take the quiz-world parallel, for instance. After being revived through the quiz, Izuna Uchiha came up with the idea of turning Infinite Tsukuyomi into a one-on-one, budget version, selling beautiful dreams and making the Uchiha clan absurdly rich.
The taxes alone they paid to Konoha were enough to keep the Hokage smiling whenever the clan was mentioned.
Naruto and the others never expected that this guy who looked so much like Sasuke would actually charge them a mission fee. All four of them were momentarily dumbfounded.
"If there was a reward, why didn't you say so earlier?" Naruto said, his face scrunched up.
Saving the world—what rank of mission was that supposed to be?
How was he supposed to calculate something like that?
"So if I'd told you in advance, you wouldn't have hired me?" Izuna hooked a finger at them with a grin. "I won't overcharge you. One SSS-rank mission fee and one S-rank mission fee. That'll do."
Kakashi said, "I've never even heard of an SSS-rank mission."
Izuna Uchiha replied, "I just made it up on the spot. But saving the world should at least qualify for a mission at that level, right?"
"Well… that does make sense, dattebayo, but—"
"Don't fall for it, dead last."
Sasuke stared fixedly at Izuna Uchiha. It wasn't that he was refusing to pay. He simply had no intention of acknowledging the charge at all.
As the only adult among the four, Kakashi had to shoulder the responsibility Obito had entrusted to him in the end. He turned to Izuna Uchiha.
"Why not just tell us what you want? I'll relay it honestly to the Hokage-sama and the other Kage and negotiate on your behalf."
At that moment, Ōtsutsuki Obito, who had been acting as though this had nothing to do with him, suddenly spoke up.
"Enough messing around," he said, looking at Izuna Uchiha. "Or are you no longer in a hurry to go where you want to go?"
That line left Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura momentarily stunned.
Izuna pointed at Obito and laughed.
"I'm just joking with you. He'll be the one paying the mission fee later."
"Huh?"
Kakashi looked blankly at Ōtsutsuki Obito from another parallel world.
"Sorry for putting you on the spot again."
That apologetic expression made Obito feel extremely uncomfortable.
In their world, Kakashi had just been barking orders at him, telling him to take all the ninken out for a walk, buy dog food on the way back, and send them to a care center for a trap-style spa treatment. Even his small request to take a detour to buy some anko dumplings had been rejected…
Damn it.
"It's not a problem," Obito said stiffly. "I'm just taking him to the world he wants to go to."
The world Izuna Uchiha wanted to go to?
Seeing the juniors' confused expressions, Izuna Uchiha kindly explained.
"Uchiha who awaken the Rinnegan usually do so because of despair over 'what cannot be obtained.' So I abandoned that world and asked this kid to take me to a world where I can 'get what I want.' That way, everyone benefits. Isn't that perfect?"
Obito shot him a sideways glance.
"Little ancestor, you really are a genius Uchiha."
"Thanks for the praise," Izuna replied calmly. "But in your eyes, which Uchiha isn't smart?"
While Six Paths Izuna and Ōtsutsuki Obito were talking, a black spatial rift had already opened beside them.
Those who had regained consciousness during the Fourth Shinobi World War slowly gathered around. The Five Kage were the first to leap forward, blocking the Allied Shinobi Forces who were preparing to continue fighting "Obito Uchiha."
Under the watchful eyes of the Allied Shinobi Forces, the Five Kage, Team Kakashi, and everyone else, Obito and Izuna walked toward the black spatial rift Obito had opened.
"Tch. Do you believe that 'genius' of yours might send you to a world where that person never even existed?"
"You wouldn't dare," Six Paths Izuna said coldly, his tone dangerous. He clearly didn't appreciate that kind of joke.
"I wouldn't," Obito replied. "You haven't seen the Six Paths Hashirama of that world. With the two of us, four eyes total, we might only be enough to keep him half full."
"Hmph. You think I'd be afraid of him?"
"Little ancestor, has anyone ever told you you're even more arrogant than the old man?"
"Tobirama did."
"Oh. As expected of the Second Hokage."
As they spoke, the two of them stepped into the spatial rift one after the other and vanished.
Watching the pair come and go so freely, the Five Kage finally couldn't hold back any longer.
"Kakashi, what exactly happened?!"
They clearly remembered Obito Uchiha being defeated, drained of his last bit of usefulness by Madara Uchiha, and then projecting the Rinnegan onto the moon to activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
So where was Madara Uchiha?
Had he ultimately been devoured by Obito Uchiha instead?
Kakashi let out a breath.
"That's… a long story."
He briefly reported everything that happened afterward to the Five Kage—the Sage of Six Paths, Kaguya, the Ōtsutsuki…
...
And from that point on, he no longer concerned himself with how that world would develop.
After sending Six Paths Izuna to the world he wanted to reach, Ōtsutsuki Obito returned to the mission scroll world.
Seeing that he had only been gone for three or four hours before coming back, everyone assumed he had run into a dead end as well.
"Oh, perfect timing. It's dinner time."
He didn't bother being polite. Even though he technically didn't need to eat, once someone had tasted good food, it was hard to give up the simple pleasure.
"Mission finished?" Adult Obito pushed all the red bean cakes in front of him over to Ōtsutsuki Obito.
Ōtsutsuki Obito was genuinely shocked by how friendly his counterpart from this parallel world was.
"All of them for me? You didn't poison them, did you?"
Adult Obito replied impatiently, "Let's talk about the mission first. Did you help Kakashi, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura from that world free the people trapped inside the God Tree or not?"
"The Infinite Tsukuyomi has already been undone. It just happened too late, so the others are still immersed in the beautiful dream created by the genjutsu and haven't woken up yet."
Ōtsutsuki Obito stuffed a red bean cake into his mouth. Without Kakashi, the Ten-Tails caretaker, keeping an eye on him, the free life of unlimited red bean cakes was honestly amazing.
"But don't worry. I've already helped them deal with it. Everyone's alive and kicking."
Naruto asked curiously, "How did you do it?"
"I ended up in a parallel world and ran into the old man's little brother… Mmm, this sweetness is perfect! This has to be that famous red bean cake!"
Rin said in admiration, "Then that means Obito saved that world, right?"
Feeling a little embarrassed by the awkward praise, Ōtsutsuki Obito actually answered rather modestly.
"I didn't really do that much. The little ancestor did most of the work. I just paid the mission reward for that world."
"I'm kind of lost," Adult Obito said. "Even if we're the same person, our thinking can't fully sync across different worlds. I honestly don't understand what you're talking about."
"What do you mean by 'old man' and 'little ancestor'?"
Young Obito suddenly recalled how he used to address Madara Uchiha in the parallel world during the era when Konoha was founded.
"Oh! The 'old man' you're talking about wouldn't happen to be Madara Uchiha, would it?"
Ōtsutsuki Obito kept stuffing red bean cake into his mouth.
"Yeah. That's him."
The Senju brothers, who always maintained proper decorum and never spoke while eating, froze.
Hearing Madara's name, Hashirama immediately looked excited.
Tobirama Senju slowly put his bowl down.
"You're saying…"
"Izuna Uchiha?"
Hashirama reacted just as quickly. Madara's younger brother was Izuna Uchiha, Tobirama's old opponent.
Could it be…
"In that parallel world, Izuna didn't die, and we successfully founded the ninja village?!"
"Yeah. Because of some rather special circumstances."
When it came to that parallel world, Ōtsutsuki Obito didn't really want to go into detail.
Unfortunately, the First Hokage had very little sense of the situation and kept pressing for answers.
Ōtsutsuki Obito's gaze flicked back and forth between the First and Second Hokage. After a moment's consideration, he decided it was definitely better not to say anything.
He chose to tactically drink some water…
No, wait.
Tactically eat red bean cake.
The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, felt goosebumps rise all over his body when that gaze swept past him.
***
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