Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke: …
This was something even he hadn't known.
He had died over there, while Naruto and Sakura were on the other side performing artificial respiration? Had Team 7 really already cast him aside?
It felt a bit out of character, but after personally experiencing Naruto's life, Sasuke's mood at this moment was genuinely… a little subtle.
During the Fourth Shinobi War, he had been stabbed through the heart and lungs by Madara, basically dying on the spot.
The one who ultimately saved him was Kabuto Yakushi, who had regained his sense of self through the Izanami technique.
When Sasuke regained consciousness and saw Kabuto Yakushi treating him, his heart filled with longing for his brother. If his brother had killed Kabuto back then, there would have been no resurrection afterward.
Each time he faced death, Itachi had left behind a path to rebirth for his little brother.
Even Naruto Uzumaki was part of that arrangement.
—Sasuke, the one who can save and guide you from now on is no longer me.
—Naruto, you possess a power even greater than Shisui's eyes. You will definitely be able to save Sasuke.
—My brother… I'm leaving him in your care.
…
"Damn it, if only I'd realized all of this earlier…"
Now, trapped in this parallel world, he couldn't leave, and he couldn't return. He couldn't even be completely sure that that idiot was still alive, or that the people of that world hadn't already been drained of all their life force by the God Tree.
Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke was filled with regret.
The child Sasuke inside Naruto's body was only focused on yelling for Naruto—that idiot, that dead-last—to wake up and stay alive.
In his panic, the seven-year-old had forced his Sharingan to awaken all the way to three tomoe. He didn't even think about things like artificial respiration. He only hoped that Sakura's actions could somehow bring Naruto back.
But through Sakura's forced composure, her suppressed grief, and her choked sobs, he felt a deep, suffocating despair.
He secretly cursed himself for not being able to come out and help at a time like this.
Naruto was about to die!!
The three Obito from the parallel worlds were still trying to recover from the crushing defeat and regret they had experienced within the illusion, and from the fact that, like Nagato, they had placed the future on Naruto.
Naruto suddenly having the Nine-Tails extracted by Madara was something none of them had anticipated at all.
Because they knew the Fourth Shinobi World War would be won, and they also knew Naruto and Sasuke would fight again afterward, they had never even considered the possibility that either of them might die.
So when Naruto's overwhelming exhaustion and searing pain suddenly washed over them as well, all three Obito were completely stunned.
Feeling his body being cut open by a chakra scalpel, then something pressing against his lips, followed by someone blowing air into him—the fourteen-year-old Young Obito and the eighteen-year-old Rebellious Obito aside, the twenty-nine-year-old Adult Obito, an old virgin at this point, found the situation incredibly awkward.
Sasuke was one thing. They were both men anyway.
Even if something happened, that would all be Naruto's romantic debt. Pfft!
But Sakura Haruno was still just a young girl no matter how you looked at it…
Did this count as a crime?
If he showed up any later, Kakashi would probably hunt him down with a Raikiri and insist on having a very serious talk about life. facepalm
His poor first kiss… at most, he had only ever secretly kissed Rin's photo before…
…
As for Sakura Haruno, the impression held by the Uchihas within Naruto Uzumaki's consciousness was…
That of a girl who had grown.
From a love-struck little girl who spent her days orbiting around Sasuke Uchiha, she had become an outstanding kunoichi in her own right.
It was true that innate limits meant she could never truly stand shoulder to shoulder with Naruto Uzumaki, who possessed the power of the Nine-Tails, or with Sasuke, who wielded the Mangekyō Sharingan and Susanoo.
But as Princess Tsunade's successor, her medical ninjutsu and monstrous strength were more than enough to make her an indispensable presence on any battlefield.
In the current situation, what she was doing was simply the correct choice a Medical-nin should make in combat.
And with Naruto Uzumaki's heart no longer beating on its own, most of the Uchihas did not notice anything unusual about this girl's artificial respiration.
Still, some of them froze.
Especially female Uchihas like Izumi and Mikoto. In their earliest memories, this pink-haired girl had clearly looked down on Naruto, and her feelings for Sasuke had never been fake.
At times, her careless words had even made Mikoto Uchiha quite unhappy, even though Mikoto had always regarded Naruto as a child within the illusion.
That was why, when these women—also Kunoichis—saw how Sakura Haruno had changed, they were able to understand even more deeply just how much Naruto had changed and moved so many people.
Mikoto Uchiha had even grown faintly dissatisfied with her second son over many of Sasuke's actions toward Naruto, her heart filled with sympathy for everything Naruto had done for Sasuke.
At this moment, the Uchihas within Naruto's consciousness did not know that Sasuke had also been killed on the other side.
They could only hope that Sakura could hold onto Naruto's life long enough, waiting for Sasuke to arrive and find a way to save him.
Then, their consciousness split in two.
One half followed Naruto Uzumaki's consciousness completely, encountering a strange old man within a golden world.
Young Obito had seen this old man before.
He knew exactly who he was.
The legendary Sage of the Six Paths.
The worry that had been weighing on him finally eased. If it was the Sage of the Six Paths, then there had to be a way to save Naruto.
The other half of their consciousness followed Naruto Uzumaki's physical body instead, witnessing Madara Uchiha, as well as the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki Obito Uchiha, who appeared to be nothing more than an empty shell controlled by Black Zetsu.
No.
Obito Uchiha hadn't been controlled by Black Zetsu yet.
His will was so powerful that it had actually turned the tables, suppressing Black Zetsu, an existence that had endured for thousands of years?!
"Madara Uchiha, what am I to you, exactly?"
"Hmph. To me, you're nothing at all. You are Madara. Now that the goal is about to be completed, you should offer up your life as the stand-in 'Madara' for the plan. Come on. Madara."
Those words made half of the Obito from the three parallel worlds tremble with rage.
Footsteps followed.
Another Obito Uchiha was really walking toward Madara Uchiha, one step at a time.
"Puh—"
The dull sound of a blunt weapon plunging into flesh.
With Naruto on the brink of death, his eyes closed and his vision cut off, the Uchiha clan had no idea what had just happened.
"Someone who wants to become a leader would never allow their comrades to be sacrificed, even if it meant letting others step over their own corpse."
Uchiha: That's Obito Uchiha's voice!
Obito: Me?!
So it was me… Obito… who stabbed Madara?!
It felt incredibly satisfying, but at the same time—
What exactly had just been unleashed?!
"Madara Uchiha, it's obvious you don't have the conviction to become a true leader. I'm not you. And the current me is no longer the Masked Man, nor am I Madara Uchiha anymore…"
Young Obito: !!
Rebellious Obito: !
Adult Obito: !
In that instant, all three Obito seemed to hear echoes of their former selves.
The voice that had once sworn to protect Kakashi, telling him that nothing mattered more than comrades.
The voice that had sworn to Rin, in the name of the Uchiha clan, that he would save the world in the coolest way possible.
"—The me standing here now is Obito Uchiha, the one who once dreamed of becoming Hokage!!"
"Crack—!! Boom—!"
At that very moment, one of the two final bosses of the Fourth Shinobi World War actually turned against the plan.
Relying on nothing but his own will, he used the Ten-Tails' chakra shell to complete an evolution into the power of the Six Paths?!
Even though it was still far inferior to Madara Uchiha—
The Uchiha clan members lying on the ground could clearly sense it once again, coming from Obito Uchiha over there.
The power of the Six Paths!!
And the tailed beast chakra inside Madara Uchiha was actually flowing toward Obito Uchiha?!
He… my counterpart from another world… was trying to siphon the tailed beast chakra out of Madara Uchiha?!
Was he trying to seize godhood?!
But how could Obito Uchiha possibly overpower Six Paths Madara?!
"Hmph. At best, you can only pull out a small portion of the One-Tail and Eight-Tails. It's completely meaningless."
"Kakashi! Send Naruto into the Kamui dimension!"
Just from that single sentence, Adult Obito instantly understood what his future self from the other world was planning.
"Kamui!!"
"Kamui!!"
So this was it…
If the mission scroll had never appeared, the Obito who had repented would have become the one to save Naruto Uzumaki.
Even if it wasn't much, at least in the end, he would have been able to atone for his actions… even just a little.
Young Obito suddenly remembered something.
Back during the second stage of the Chūnin Exams, when Fourth Shinobi War Naruto had entered the mission scroll world, he had once said—
"Let Kakashi wake the Masked Man up!"
There was never any talk of killing the Masked Man. Only saving him.
The other half of their consciousness listened as the Sage of the Six Paths recounted a long story.
The tale of Indra and Ashura's tangled love and hatred—no, scratch that.
From brotherly harmony to brothers turning against one another, with Black Zetsu pulling strings from the shadows the entire time.
The Sage of the Six Paths had once prophesied that the one the tailed beasts were waiting for was indeed Naruto Uzumaki, once again proving just how favored Kurama was among all the tailed beasts.
At this moment, the Uchihas within the illusion split off yet another thread of consciousness, allowing them to perceive the battlefield directly.
No one should have been able to oppose Six Paths Madara under these circumstances.
And yet, one man stepped forward without hesitation.
—Might Guy!
The Uchiha clan knew almost nothing about this man.
If they had to say something, he was that watermelon-headed guy who was always hanging around Kakashi. A muscle-brained oddball who seemed off-beat in every possible way, someone who never really stood out at anything, and who had been a dead last in his Ninja Academy class.
'Hey, hey! Your courage is admirable, but mortals really shouldn't be fighting gods, right?'
'Even if you're both dead last, you're really not the same as Naruto and Obito!'
'That Kakashi, and the Fourth Hokage… aren't they going to stop him?'
'As much as it hurts to admit it, even us elites with the Sharingan would be completely useless against Six Paths Madara right now, wouldn't we?!'
"I'm going to open the Gate of Death of the Eight Gates."
"Guy! If you do that, you'll—"
Listening to their exchange, the Uchihas—most of whom had served in the police force—felt the technique sounded strangely familiar, even though they had never actually seen it used.
Until someone finally remembered.
Just a few years ago…
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had attempted to ambush the village. Before the Uchiha clan had even mobilized, news spread that all seven had been defeated by a single person.
Those Seven Ninja Swordsmen possessed strength far beyond ordinary jōnin. Working together, they were capable of wiping out an entire ninja village.
And the one who defeated them was said to be named—Might Duy?!
And the technique he used was a forbidden, taijutsu-level art…
The Eight Gates!!!
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