As in their childhood sparring exercises, Kakashi's kunai came to rest against Obito's face. The match was decided.
Minato offered his usual gentle smile to the two boys and laughed, "The exercise is over! The winner is Kakashi."
"Alright, time to form the Unison Sign."
The young Obito was just about to raise his hand to form the sign when his current self violently yanked him back. In reality, the grown Obito lunged toward Kakashi, a black receiver gripped firmly in his hand.
Kakashi charged at Obito at breakneck speed, his kunai fully imbued with a crackling, brilliant Raikiri.
Kakashi aimed directly for Obito's heart, but Obito purposefully altered his trajectory, steering clear of any of Kakashi's vital spots.
Seeing Obito's current, unhesitating advance, Kakashi's heart swelled with a complex web of emotions. Obito's past will had remained by his side to this very day. Now, the only thing Kakashi could do was protect the current Naruto by eliminating the present Obito and Kanon.
At this point, he finally understood a fraction of what Kanon felt toward Naruto.
He had to admit that both Kanon and Naruto had far surpassed him. They possessed so many things that belonged uniquely to the two of them. It was precisely because of this that they had become so remarkably powerful, powerful enough to make him, their former sensei, feel a twinge of envy.
Though Kanon had walked down a dark path, her resolve was incredibly unyielding. A lone, fragile woman had somehow managed to turn the entire Five Great Shinobi Nations into her enemy.
As for Naruto on the other side, even if Konoha were completely destroyed, he would never lose his way. Kanon would always hold a permanent place in his heart.
As Obito drew closer and closer, Kakashi knew he had no other choices left. He wasn't as strong as Kanon or Naruto; he could only do what was within his limited power. He wanted to protect this world, protect his comrades, and safeguard the precious, beautiful memories of the old Team 7 and the old Obito.
The only option left to him now was to completely put the current Obito to death!
Splat!
The Lightning Blade pierced clean through Obito's heart, while Obito's black receiver merely drove through Kakashi's shoulder.
It was glaringly obvious that Obito, despite wielding the power of the Rinnegan, had held back during this battle. This was a calculated play he had set up from the start.
He was using Kakashi's hand to destroy the cursed seal Madara had placed inside his heart to control him.
Kakashi's hand trembled violently as he pulled it free. This was exactly how Rin had died by his Lightning Blade all those years ago. Kakashi yanked the black receiver out of his own chest and fell to one knee, looking down at Obito on the ground.
Obito, hovering on the brink of death, forced himself to crawl up as he coughed up massive amounts of blood.
"It's over, Obito!" Kakashi said flatly.
"Hahahahaha... This battle... I'll let you have the win."
"But I won't just hand over victory in this war..."
With those parting words, Obito warped himself out of the Kamui dimension, collapsing heavily onto the head of the Ten-Tails.
The remaining members of Akatsuki looked at Obito with expressions of confusion, particularly given that he was completely drenched in blood with a gaping hole right through his chest.
"Who the hell is this? Is this supposed to be Tobi?!" Hidan asked.
"No idea," Kakuzu replied, shrugging his shoulders.
"Hey! Tobi, how did you end up in such a wretched state, un?!" Deidara called out. He already knew the man's identity was Obito, but he still preferred to call him Tobi.
Kanon locked eyes with Obito, a faint smile actually gracing her lips.
"Obito, is it about time?"
"Yeah... just about. Cover me."
"Understood."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Madara drove a weapon through Hashirama's clone.
"I told you, I have no desire to fight your clones."
"It's fine if you want to attack me, but this is far too weak. You've concentrated way too much of your strength into your original body."
"Madara, you've also been..." Hashirama was cut clean in half before he could even finish his sentence. Immediately after, Madara noticed the half-dead Obito collapsing onto the Ten-Tails.
"It looks like that piece of trash is completely done for. And here I wanted to trade blows with Hashirama a bit longer before becoming the Jinchuriki."
Sure enough, at that exact moment, black rods erupted from Obito's flesh as Black Zetsu forcefully latched onto his body.
"There's no other choice. It's time for you to use the Gedo Art: Rinne Rebirth Technique for me."
As Obito found himself falling under Black Zetsu's control, the image of Rin flashed through his mind once more. In a sudden explosion of willpower, he forcibly tore himself free from Black Zetsu's influence and began weaving the signs to become the Ten-Tails' Jinchuriki.
"How incredibly resilient. It seems that girl named Rin truly gives you an unbreakable spiritual anchor," Kanon noted, nodding slightly. Nagato and the others instantly leapt off the head of the Ten-Tails, clearing the space for Obito.
Kanon gave a subtle nod of approval.
"Begin, you man infatuated by love. At least at this moment, I am standing on your side."
In an instant, Obito let out a furious roar right beside Kanon as he slammed his hands together to form the signs.
Naruto and the others were completely struck with horror upon recognizing the hand seals, and even Minato's expression changed drastically.
"Those signs are..." Naruto muttered, staring at Obito's hands in confusion.
Madara looked toward Obito and let out a chilling laugh.
"Obito, the entire reason I saved your life back then was so I could use you to resurrect myself."
"The time has come for you to repay your debt to me."
Hashirama realized the truth instantly. Obito was currently being controlled by Madara's chakra! This was the forbidden Six Paths technique, the Rinne Rebirth Technique! Hashirama couldn't believe his eyes; they absolutely could not allow Madara to achieve a full resurrection!
"Listen up, you young shinobi closest to him! Quick, go and stop the man on top of the Ten-Tails!" Hashirama bellowed.
Standing on the opposite side within the barrier formation, Minato nodded slightly, a trace of murderous intent surfacing on his features. He stared toward Madara and muttered flatly, "Is that so? So that's how it is."
In a sudden burst, Hashirama manifested five Wood Clones, the absolute maximum he could manage while maintaining the barrier.
"Tobirama!"
Hearing Hashirama's shout, Tobirama nodded and manifested two Shadow Clones of his own.
"To think I can only manage a mere two clones... I truly am a shadow of my former self."
"Even if our numbers are few, we have no choice but to charge!"
Madara watched Hashirama and Tobirama rushing toward him and said indifferently, "Seeing as you won't make it to Kanon and Obito in time, you've chosen to attack me instead?"
"You should know better than anyone that mere clones cannot stop me, Hashirama!"
On the other side of the battlefield, Obito's hair was rapidly bleaching to a stark white. Sasuke was violently blasted backward by Nagato's Almighty Push, while Sakura and the others had their paths completely blocked by Kabuto's Inorganic Reincarnation.
Naruto, who managed to get the closest, attempted to sever Obito with a Tailed Beast Chakra Arm, only for Kanon to cleanly slice through it with a single swing of her sword. Following up with a ruthless offensive strike, Kanon's blade impaled Naruto before she sent him hurtling hundreds of meters away with a vicious kick.
His body plowed a massive trench across the earth. It was completely hopeless; with Kanon standing guard here as the ultimate protector, it was practically impossible for anyone to get close to Obito. Except for...
Right beside Kanon, Minato's figure materialized in a flash. He raised his kunai, originally intending to strike Madara, but in this split second, his blade slashed directly across Obito's torso.
Kanon merely watched the scene unfold without saying a word, her expression completely unchanged, finding the situation nothing short of tragic.
Even Minato's eyes widened in profound shock as he looked down at the white-haired Obito before him. In this single moment, Minato understood everything.
Obito was being besieged by the entire world just as Kanon had been, but the difference was that at this exact moment, Obito had collapsed under the weight of the world's assault.
The last thing he saw was the trembling, reanimated eyes of Minato, whose pupils had shrunk to tiny pinpricks.
"Sensei..."
"Obito... It was... you all along..." Minato stared at Obito in absolute horror.
Sensing that Obito had fallen, Hashirama broke out into a cold sweat as he stared at Madara.
"How did it go?"
"It failed, but it doesn't matter..." Madara let out a cold chuckle, yet he made no move to act.
"Using a Shadow Clone to execute the Body Flicker... was he marked from the very beginning?" Tobirama analyzed in shock, his mind racing with calculations.
Minato looked down at the collapsed Obito and said softly, "The Flying Raijin marking never fades. You didn't tell Obito that, did you, Kanon?"
"No," Kanon replied, shaking her head as she stood beside Minato.
"Why can you remain so completely calm?" Minato questioned her.
"There is simply no reason to feel sentimental." Kanon kept her eyes locked on Obito. She understood that Obito had already succeeded, so she paid absolutely no attention to Minato.
Minato looked down at Obito on the ground and whispered gently:
"If you were still alive... I would have wanted you to become the Hokage."
"Why do you say that..."
Right beside Minato, Kanon spoke indifferently:
"Why? I think you should know the answer to that better than anyone, Fourth Hokage."
"Kanon..." Minato looked into Kanon's empty, tranquil eyes, a wave of melancholy washing over him. "Can we talk?"
Before Minato could finish his sentence, Sasuke stepped up to his side.
"All that's left now is to seal away that Madara who failed to resurrect, stop Kanon, and then this war will be over."
"The same goes for that massive Ten-Tails. Only then can my revolution truly begin."
Kanon looked at Sasuke, her tone dropping to a chilling register:
"How incredibly foolish. What makes you think this war is going to end?"
"Sasuke Uchiha."
Kanon's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan locked directly into Sasuke's gaze. In that exact instant, a violent resonance erupted between Obito and the Ten-Tails!
The entire Ten-Tails began to violently convulse and shake. The Deity Gates were completely incapable of suppressing the beast any longer as the Ten-Tails began to collapse and condense at an extreme speed.
Minato and Sasuke were hastily dragged back by Naruto. Naruto desperately wanted to reach out a hand to save Kanon, but in the end, he never extended that chakra arm.
Kanon altered her physical form into an intangible state, reappearing beside Nagato in an instant as she looked back at the collapsing Ten-Tails.
"What's happening?! What is this change?!" Minato cried out in shock.
"Has the Ten-Tails altered its form again?" Sasuke exclaimed, horrified.
"No, it broke free from Madara's control! It was weaving hand signs to enter this specific form from the very beginning!"
From a distance, Kanon stood beside Nagato, lightly clapping her hands. "Having witnessed the Rinne Rebirth Technique before, it seems you managed to spot the difference in the hand seals."
Sure enough, the Ten-Tails condensed into a massive sphere. The sphere shattered violently, unleashing a terrifying shockwave that swept across the plains. The members of Akatsuki managed to evade the brunt of the kinetic force thanks to Kanon's intangibility, but the rest of the battlefield wasn't so fortunate.
Those caught in the immediate perimeter were instantaneously vaporized and shattered. The Allied Shinobi Forces suffered catastrophic casualties; a mere release of residual chakra carried such a horrifying amount of destructive power.
"So this is the Power of the Six Paths..." Kabuto muttered, staring toward Obito in awe.
"The current him has undergone an ascension to godhood, becoming an existence identical to the Sage of the Six Paths," Kanon said softly, her voice entirely devoid of fear as she faced this new form.
For the first time in a thousand years, an entity possessing power closely rivaling the Sage of the Six Paths had finally manifested, the current Obito!
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NOTE: This fic has been completely translated. If you want to read the whole story head over to my p-atre-on: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]