[Konoha, Year 52. Uchiha Clan Grounds]
The Uchiha present exchanged bewildered looks. The screen had directly named Uchiha Obito as the identity of "Mr. Simp," and they could hardly believe it.
Some had their mouths open, forgetting to close them. Others turned to their neighbors, trying to confirm they hadn't misheard.
This name—nearly forgotten within the clan—had just landed like a bomb in the middle of the crowd.
As the disciple of the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, Obito was naturally very well known within the Uchiha clan.
Everyone knew about his enthusiastic personality—always helping old ladies cross the street, always doing good deeds. Everyone had considered Obito an outlier among the Uchiha.
Only that, they thought, was why Minato had taken him as a student.
Now it seemed they had been mistaken. Obito's personality was that of a standard Uchiha.
No—he was the "essence" of an Uchiha! No wonder he would become the second Six Paths-level powerhouse.
It was likely a direct atavistic return to the bloodline.
Thinking that, perhaps their ancestor Indra had also had this kind of personality.
---
[Konoha, Year 50. Hokage Office]
Minato wore a bitter smile. Leaving aside the Third Hokage, now Jiraiya had also died at Nagato's hands. And now Kakashi was following the same path?
Forced to raise his hand against his own student. At least Sasuke hadn't succeeded.
But why was their lineage so ill-fated?
From Jiraiya to Nagato, from himself to Obito, from Kakashi to Sasuke—every teacher-student pair was repeating the same script.
He wondered how Naruto would fare in the future.
Beside him, Kushina gently comforted him. "Minato, it's okay. Perhaps the Sky Screen will reveal the reason for Obito's fall later."
"As long as we find the reason, we can definitely fix it!"
Minato gently held his wife's hand and nodded with a heavy expression.
He didn't tell the pregnant Kushina that in his last conversation with Obito, the reason for Obito's descent into darkness was likely related to Rin.
But Rin was already dead and couldn't be brought back.
Unless… he found one of those resurrection Jutsus the screen had mentioned earlier.
'Edo Tensei, Rinne Tensei, Kisho Tensei.'
The names of those Jutsus spun through his mind—then sank back down.
---
[Konoha, Year One]
Madara had a question mark practically hanging over his head.
What was this Uchiha Obito doing, constantly ruining his reputation?
Didn't he have a name of his own?
Not far away, Tobirama, noticing his confusion, delivered a direct jab. "Madara, for all we know, Obito might be acting on your orders."
"Otherwise, even though your name can stop children from crying at night, he wouldn't need to keep impersonating you."
Madara blinked, feeling there was some logic to it—but his expression darkened even further.
---
Amidst the discussion of the people, the tragedy of teacher and student trying to kill each other continued on the screen.
After Kakashi dodged Sasuke's Chidori, he leaped down from the bridge. Sasuke followed close behind, and the two stood facing each other on the water.
Ripples spread outward from beneath their feet, circle after circle.
"Let me show you the vast difference between your Sharingan and mine!" Sasuke declared. Ignoring his left eye, from which blood was still trickling, he activated Susano'o once more.
As his three-tomoe Sharingan transformed into the Mangekyō pattern, a purple skeletal structure instantly enveloped Sasuke's entire body. Musculature and flesh appeared, and the skeleton was quickly wrapped in cloak-like chakra.
Sasuke directly activated the second form of Susano'o.
Then, he drew an arrow and fired.
A purple chakra arrow shot toward Kakashi at breakneck speed.
The action was so fast it was hard to react. Even Kakashi had no choice but to use Kamui, transferring the purple arrow to the Kamui dimension.
The arrow twisted and vanished in midair, as if swallowed by something.
[Unfortunately, at this point, Obito hadn't yet given Kakashi the "experience card." Otherwise, he could have activated Susano'o too and had a Gundam battle with Sasuke. That would have been interesting.]
[But Kakashi kept throwing trash into the Kamui dimension. One has to wonder how Obito felt about that.]
Hearing the Sky Screen's commentary, many interested people perked up.
---
[Konoha, Year 50. Hokage Office]
Minato's heart leaped.
Kakashi's left eye… actually had the same partial ability as Obito's, capable of absorbing objects into that Kamui dimension?
And it could even absorb objects from a distance!
That made sense; it was Obito's own eye after all, so having some identical abilities was understandable.
More importantly, could their eyes jointly connect to that so-called Kamui dimension?
Did this prove that the alternate dimension Obito usually hid in was the same one?
And that this eye of Kakashi's was also a key? Could it also open that dimension too?
If so, wouldn't Kakashi be Obito's ultimate nemesis?
Thinking of this, Minato shook his head with a hint of frustration.
Obito's current strength wasn't simple. Although Kakashi was a Jōnin, he was definitely far weaker than Obito. Sending Kakashi to confront him wouldn't work.
And that would be shirking his own responsibility as a teacher onto his student.
Rin's death had already left Kakashi deeply traumatized; he must never be forced to go through something like that with Obito again.
That was the teacher's responsibility. He himself had to bear it.
He just wondered if it was possible to stop Obito through Kakashi's eye.
Minato's fingers tapped lightly on the desk, countless thoughts racing through his mind.
---
[Konoha, Year 60. A valley outside Konoha]
Hearing the Sky Screen's remarks, Kakashi was frozen in place, unable to even pay attention to his battle with Sasuke on the screen.
What did this mean?
This eye that Obito gave him… could connect to his Kamui dimension?
Then, did that mean he could enter the Kamui dimension and find Obito?
That was great!
He had to enter the Kamui dimension and ask Obito… why the boy who once dreamed of becoming Hokage had done all this.
Why he had killed their teacher. Why he had joined the Akatsuki. Why he had become what he was now.
Kakashi stared at the screen, his eyes fixed, unblinking, with a desperate plea in his heart.
'Please reveal how to use Obito's eye!'
---
Somewhere on a cliff in the Shinobi World.
Obito's expression beneath his mask was extremely grim.
'What nonsense is the screen spouting now?'
How was that possible! He would never teach Kakashi how to activate Susano'o.
Even now, Obito himself had never tried to activate Susano'o.
So why would he teach Kakashi how to do it?
To activate Susano'o, you initially needed both Mangekyō Sharingan to "unlock the code." Once the initial connection was made, you could even activate Susano'o with just a three-tomoe Sharingan.
The classic example was Uchiha Madara.
But the awkward truth was that when Obito awakened his Mangekyō, one eye was not in his possession. So he had never been able to use Susano'o.
And what angered him even more was that his weakness had just been exposed to the world.
Thinking about how Kakashi might come looking for him through the Kamui dimension in the future—and even toss junk into it from time to time—made Obito's blood boil.
Even so, Obito had no intention of taking back his left eye from Kakashi.
That eye was a gift he had given Kakashi.
What Uchiha Obito gave away, he would never take back.
He was confident that his future self had never reclaimed that eye either—and still became the second Six Paths-level powerhouse.
That was the pride of Uchiha Obito.
*****
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