Inabi Uchiha had never met someone this hard to shake.
No matter how firmly he refused to talk, the other party would block his path with Shadow Clones. Sporting hair uncannily similar to the Fourth Hokage-sama's and a pair of big, round almond eyes, the guy would even hang upside down from the rooftop just to stare at him.
Inabi Uchiha was really…
Completely defeated!!
Especially when the other person kept smiling like that. The moment Inabi thought about getting a drink, water was already handed to him. When he felt like fanning himself, a Shadow Clone was already doing it. When he wanted to lie down and eat sweet dumplings, the cushion and the dumplings were delivered straight to him.
It left Inabi utterly fed up, yet he couldn't even find a proper outlet for his anger.
"Aaaah! That's enough! If you've got something to say, just say it already!!"
"Eh? Wouldn't it have been better if you said that earlier? I've been running all over the place for nothing."
"I never asked you to stick to me like this!!"
"Don't get mad, don't get mad. You bristle up when you're angry, just like Sasuke Uchiha. Guess you really are from the same clan, dattebayo."
Inabi almost choked on the spot.
Of course he knew who Sasuke Uchiha was. The second son of clan head Fugaku Uchiha, one of the core forces in the future Fourth Shinobi World War, wielder of the legendary Sage Eyes, and the owner of a Susanoo comparable to that of the legendary ninja Madara Uchiha.
"If you're going to talk, then hurry up. I'm in a bad mood and don't feel like entertaining guests."
"Don't be so heartless, Uchiha bro," Naruto said with a wide grin as he sat down across from him. "It's just that future Sasuke let slip some things about the Fourth Shinobi World War. Honestly, compared to what I went through, the villagers of Konoha are already being pretty nice to you guys."
Inabi Uchiha didn't respond, but his thoughts kept spinning.
He knew very well that the boy in front of him was the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki.
"Because my dad sealed the Nine-Tails inside me, I really went through hell!"
Right… because the Fourth Hokage sealed the Nine-Tails—
Wait, what?!
"Your dad?!" Inabi froze. "Who are you calling your dad?"
"The Fourth Hokage, of course. I only found out after Obito Uchiha and the others traveled to our era," Naruto said as he flashed a bright, sunny smile.
Sakura Haruno, sitting beside Naruto, couldn't help but recall their first time traveling back to the night of the Nine-Tails' Rampage.
In the depths of that despair, Naruto had learned the truth about who his biological parents were.
Back then, they had all hated the masked man with a burning intensity, only to later discover that he had once been Minato-sama's student—Kakashi Hatake's most important comrade…
For most people, that kind of blood-soaked hatred would have meant an endless fight to the death with Obito Uchiha.
But Naruto didn't choose that path. He even subtly influenced Sasuke, stopping him from throwing himself into a cycle of revenge against the masked man.
Thinking it over carefully, Sakura realized that Naruto was the one who lived with the clearest understanding of himself.
If Naruto had become a revenge-driven person like Sasuke once was, then no matter whether vengeance succeeded or failed, Team 7 would have fallen apart all the same.
He always knew exactly where the road beneath his feet led, and what he truly wanted.
For the sake of what he genuinely sought, he might not forgive Obito Uchiha—but he would still try to guide him toward redemption.
"Sakura, why are you staring at me like that?"
"It's nothing. I just think you're kind of unbelievable."
"Then how about we go on a date later?!"
"Rejected! Go do what you're supposed to do first!!"
Inabi Uchiha watched Naruto Uzumaki joke around naturally with his companions.
"I don't understand."
"Huh? What don't you understand?"
"After you found out you're the son of the Fourth Hokage-sama, how were you able to not hate—"
"Hate?" Naruto interrupted. "Not really. I was definitely furious, though. When I met my dad, I punched him hard!"
"That's not what I meant."
Inabi Uchiha hesitated, looking conflicted, but eventually asked anyway.
"What I mean is, how could you not hate us Uchiha? Not hate Madara Uchiha and Obito Uchiha?!"
Naruto froze for a moment. His voice grew heavier, and a trace of loneliness crept into his expression.
"Before I knew Obito was the Masked Man, of course I hated him."
"I hated him for killing my parents, for killing so many of my comrades from Konoha, for turning me into an orphan, for making me an outcast in Konoha…"
"…"
Naruto lowered his head.
"But later, the mission scroll took us back to the era when the First Hokage-sama and Madara Uchiha were building Konoha together… and we went through what happened to Obito and the others during the Kannabi Bridge mission."
"At their core, whether it was Madara or Obito, they were just like us. They wanted to protect their brothers and their comrades. But later on, they started doubting the path they were walking, denying themselves. Instead, they chose to believe in the groundless Eye of the Moon Plan and ended up being used by Black Zetsu."
"It's kind of like…" Naruto paused. "How I once hated Konoha, hated everyone in this world."
"The more you hate, the more it hurts. You sink deeper and deeper until you can't pull yourself out."
He thought of Sasuke from the Fourth Shinobi War, trapped in a spiral of victory, hatred, and obsession.
He thought of Gaara, who once lived by the belief of "fighting only for himself."
He thought of Haku, who was willing to die for Zabuza.
"I don't understand how adults think," Naruto continued, "but I do know this. If you lose what you once had for the sake of revenge, then years later, when you look back on today, you'll regret it."
"You'll regret it so much. So badly that you'll wish time could rewind so you could make a different choice!"
Inabi Uchiha was stunned into silence.
Outside, Sasuke Uchiha and the Sasuke from the Fourth Shinobi War, who had arrived slightly earlier, also said nothing.
After a long while, Inabi Uchiha finally spoke.
"You should go back."
"But—" Sakura started anxiously.
Naruto placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder and shook his head.
It seemed they still hadn't fully convinced him. Sakura looked dejected. In Naruto's eyes, he had already done everything he could.
As the two were about to step out of Inabi Uchiha's house—
"I'll give what you said some serious thought," Inabi Uchiha said to the two children, who were only twelve or thirteen years old.
Stepping outside, they ran into two Sasukes, one young and one older.
Naruto brightened immediately and went over to greet them.
However, the young master of the Uchiha clan still carried some lingering awkwardness from their earlier argument, mumbling under his breath.
"Hey, you're not planning to keep arguing with me, are you?" Naruto glanced at the Sasuke from the Fourth Shinobi War beside him, eyes wide in shock. "What, you're going to drag your future self into this too?! That's way too underhanded!!"
"Are you an idiot?!" the teenage Sasuke snapped, flustered. "I only realized this guy was here when I got here myself!!"
Sasuke from the Fourth Shinobi War: "..."
Naruto blinked. "Huh? Then did you chase after us because you were worried?"
"..."
Naruto slung an arm around Sasuke's shoulder.
"Come on, be a little more honest. Set an example for the adults in your clan, yeah?"
"Wha—" Sasuke's expression twisted. "Honest?"
Naruto thought for a moment. "Like me?"
The teenage Sasuke and the Sasuke from the Fourth Shinobi War stared intently at Naruto Uzumaki's face.
Ten seconds later…
"Sorry, I refuse."
"Yeah. Refuse. Can't learn that."
"!!!" Naruto jumped in frustration. "You two! Don't say it in unison, I'm talking here, dattebayo!!"
…
The SS-rank mission shared by Naruto Uzumaki and Obito Uchiha progressed slowly, but there were still visible results.
They soon realized that the objective was not for each of them to individually eliminate ninety-nine instances of prejudice. Instead, their efforts were counted together toward a single total.
A week passed. Sasuke from the Fourth Shinobi War, eager to return home, and the Rebellious Obito, who had come to deeply recognize his own mistakes, also joined the mission.
The SS-rank mission shared by Naruto Uzumaki and Obito Uchiha progressed slowly, but there were still visible results.
They soon realized that the objective was not for each of them to individually eliminate ninety-nine instances of prejudice. Instead, their efforts were counted together toward a single total.
A week passed. Sasuke from the Fourth Shinobi War, eager to return home, and the once-rebellious Obito, who had come to deeply recognize his own mistakes, also joined the mission.
[Mission Rank: SS]
[Mission Objective: Eliminate mutual prejudice between the Uchiha and Konoha (27/99)]
...
Watching the number jump from 25 to 27, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura immediately understood that others must have successfully persuaded two more people.
"At this rate, it'll take at least a month to finish this mission," Sasuke said, hands on his hips as he let out a long breath.
This task was honestly more exhausting than fighting.
Sakura, however, felt it was manageable. The biggest contributors this time were clearly Naruto and Obito, who took on the main workload. She and Sasuke were mostly there to assist.
Because the three of them understood each other well, this pace was already far faster than they had originally expected.
"But still, I never thought that even helping an old granny cross the street in this world would count as completing one of Obito's old C-rank missions, dattebayo," Naruto said.
His comment reminded all three of that day when they saw three Obitos sitting together. Each of them had a plate piled high like a small mountain of red bean cakes, and the expressions on their faces as they ate looked like someone was holding a kunai to their throats.
It was… hard to put into words.
Later on, even the young Itachi Uchiha of this era sought out Naruto, saying that he and Shisui wanted to join in persuading clan members and helping Konoha's villagers improve their impression of the Uchiha.
For those accustomed to the Akatsuki's Itachi, it was genuinely difficult to get used to the overly earnest boy in front of them.
He wasn't a hot-blooded youth like Obito Uchiha.
Nor did he have the aloof pride common among most Uchiha, like Sasuke.
If one had to describe Itachi…
He was a boy completely unburdened by the weight of the Uchiha clan, shy by nature, with an extreme love for sweets—especially mochi dumplings—and someone who took everything he did far too seriously.
The only downside was that he constantly dragged Shisui Uchiha into conversations about "philosophical issues" that no one else could understand.
His thinking ran so deep that sometimes even adults like Kakashi and Minato couldn't comprehend how such thoughts could come from such a young mind.
Seeing his older brother happily running in and out all the time lately, seven-year-old Sasuke couldn't help but feel that ever since Shisui-nii, yet another group of bad guys had appeared to steal his brother away from him…