The Konoha ninja and ordinary villagers pulled into the illusion by the SS-rank mission scroll had all slowly regained consciousness.
Yet the members of the Uchiha clan were still immersed in the illusion, showing no signs of waking up.
"The Uchiha clan and the rest of Konoha didn't enter the same illusion!"
Young Kakashi glanced at Obito, who stood stiffly in place.
"Obito and future Sasuke also used the Sharingan to enter the Uchiha clan's illusion."
Itachi Uchiha's eyes were bleeding, his expression filled with deep sorrow.
It was clearly different from the emotions shown by Sasuke, Obito, and the other Uchiha.
Adult Kakashi looked at the man who had once been his subordinate in ANBU and couldn't help hoping that nothing would happen to him.
During this time, Rin and Sakura were using medical ninjutsu to treat the nerves at the back of Sasuke's eyes.
Having just awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan and then endured such overwhelming grief, blood seeped from the depths of young Sasuke's eyes and ran down the corners like tears of blood.
It took the people of Konoha a long while to fully come back to themselves.
Minato Namikaze and Kakashi Hatake quickly noticed something—after awakening from the illusion, the way the Konoha ninja and ordinary villagers looked at the Uchiha clan had changed.
Even the expressions of the Uchiha brothers, Itachi Uchiha with blood tears still flowing and Sasuke Uchiha beside him, carried a complicated mix of emotions that was hard to put into words.
What had they seen in the illusion?
What had they experienced?
And why were the Uchiha clan members and Obito still not awake?
What were they going through right now?
Naruto Uzumaki stared at Sasuke's clansmen. Without the Sharingan, there was no way for him to enter their deeper consciousness.
["You want to see, brat?"]
The sudden voice speaking to him actually came from the half of the Nine-Tails sealed inside him?!
"You…"
Naruto froze for a moment.
"You're called Kurama, right?!"
["Hmph. My name shouldn't be that hard to remember, you idiot brat!"]
Naruto laughed.
"My name should be even easier to remember. You see it every time I eat ramen."
["Idiot! I don't eat ramen!"]
Naruto didn't reply.
He knew that in the earlier illusion, both he and Kurama had been shaken by the scene of them fighting side by side during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Because of his special background, Naruto understood all too well what it felt like to be treated as a monster and rejected by others—just like the Nine-Tails.
So when he saw a future where they could form a two-man team, truly acknowledge each other, and unleash incredible power together against their enemies, the relationship between Naruto and the Nine-Tails felt as if it had suddenly leapt forward by a huge step.
Especially that tug-of-war.
Kurama, who had always regarded himself as the leader of the tailed beasts, saw Naruto leading not only the children of the Uchiha clan but practically the entire shinobi world to genuinely try to save the tailed beasts.
That feeling made the Nine-Tails, deep within Naruto's subconscious, show a sense of grievance that closely resembled what Sasuke once felt after waiting for thousands of years—finally, at long last, being seen.
["Even without the Sharingan, chakra connects all things. As long as you link your chakra with the chakra of the Uchiha clan, you'll know exactly what they're experiencing."]
Naruto said, "Really?! You can actually do that?! Like Ino's Mind Body Switch Technique?"
["Hmph! I am the embodiment of chakra itself!"]
Inside the golden cage, the Nine-Tails shook its nine massive tails, radiating an attitude that practically said, I am chakra incarnate—who do you think you're looking down on?
Once the Nine-Tails successfully connected Naruto's chakra with that of the Uchiha clan, Naruto was quickly pulled into another illusion.
Just as the Konoha ninja had become a newborn and heard Itachi Uchiha say, "From today on, I'm your older brother," the Uchiha clan members also began their experience from the moment of a newborn's birth…
"Minato Namikaze, step away from the Jinchūriki. Otherwise, your child will only remain in this world for a few minutes…"
If one were to ask what the Uchiha clan felt at that moment, the answer would be simple.
They never imagined they would be "reborn" as the Fourth Hokage's son.
But if one were to ask what Obito Uchiha felt…
That would be—
What a sin! What a sin!!
He suddenly felt himself violently flung upward, while a sharp crackling sound echoed from explosive tags igniting against his back.
The sheer shock made Obito Uchiha want to curse himself from the bottom of his heart: Obito Uchiha, damn your ancestors!
A classic diversion.
The moment Obito Uchiha and the other Uchiha clan members were placed in the crib by Minato Namikaze, they had already guessed the masked man's true objective.
After all, more than six years ago, the Nine-Tails' rampage had been the very fuse that led Konoha's higher-ups to begin suspecting the Uchiha clan.
Sure enough, not long after, a weakened red-haired woman was carried to "their" side.
As a mother who had given birth twice, Mikoto watched her close friend Kushina suffer such a calamity on what was already an extremely difficult day of childbirth. Unable to suppress her worry, she silently repeated her friend's name in her heart, anxious about what was about to happen.
"Travel safely."
"Mhm. I'll be right back."
But when he returned, the Nine-Tails still hadn't been dealt with.
The Fourth Hokage brought his wife and child onto the battlefield.
"We need to seal the Nine-Tails as soon as possible! But my chakra…"
"I can still hold on a bit longer…"
"Kushina!!"
"Cough… cough…"
Hearing "their own" nonstop cries, the Uchiha clan members were filled with bitter regret. They hated that they hadn't disobeyed orders back then and rushed straight to the front lines to help the Fourth Hokage seal the Nine-Tails.
If they had managed to protect the Fourth Hokage's family at that time, the Uchiha clan's fate today might have been completely different.
"Sorry… I woke you up, Naruto…"
"Kushina… are you planning to…?"
"After sealing the Nine-Tails, my death should be delayed for a few more years… Minato… all this time, thank you for everything you've done for me…"
The Uchiha clan all realized that this was Kushina Uzumaki entrusting her final words.
The young Obito Uchiha from the Kannabi Bridge era had experienced this once before, yet he still couldn't truly come to terms with it.
As for the rebellious Obito of this world and the Obito drawn in through the mission scroll, this was the first time they were witnessing it from another perspective.
Guilt scorched their souls as if they had been thrown into a blazing furnace. No amount of apology could ever change what had already happened.
Their consciousness, pulled into the depths of the Uchiha clan's psyche by the Sharingan, entered the illusion constructed by the mission scroll. Yet their real bodies could still be influenced by their subconscious.
In reality, the adult Obito clenched his black-gloved hand so tightly that it creaked. He ground his molars until blood seeped out.
As Naruto Uzumaki on the night of the Nine-Tails' rampage, they listened to the conversation between Minato-sensei and Kushina Uzumaki…
"Kushina… you made me Hokage… made me your husband… made me this child's father… and yet I…"
"Don't make that face. I'm already very happy. If there's anything that could make me happier… it's imagining the future life of the three of us…"
"No. I'll make sure you get to see Naruto grow up! I'll use the Eight Trigrams Seal and the Reaper Death Seal!"
"Minato! Don't tell me you intend to—"
Snake. Boar. Ram. Hare. Dog. Rat. Bird. Horse. Snake.
Reaper Death Seal!
"Believe in this child. After all, he is our son."
"That's exactly why I don't want our son to bear such a heavy burden! You know how the village treats a Jinchūriki!!"
"Kushina, if we lose the tailed beast, if we lose the Jinchūriki, can you imagine what kind of situation Konoha would face? You, who lost your homeland, understand better than anyone what happens when a village or a country is persecuted or invaded. The discrimination people suffer, the tragic lives they're forced to live…"
Fugaku Uchiha thought silently: The Fourth Hokage…
Shisui Uchiha thought: The Fourth Hokage-sama.
Young Itachi Uchiha thought: So this man… is the Fourth Hokage-sama…
Inabi Uchiha felt torn inside. When he was young, he too had once admired the Fourth Hokage who ended the Third Shinobi World War.
Their entire clan had become swaddled infants—Naruto Uzumaki—listening to the conversation between the Fourth Hokage and Konoha's Jinchūriki, Kushina Uzumaki.
Not long ago, they had attempted a coup because of the village's prejudice against them.
After a coup, regardless of whether Konoha won or the Uchiha prevailed, would the village and the Land of Fire become battlefields, carved up by the other great shinobi nations?
They had all deliberately ignored these questions.
Arrogance and pride had blinded them, narrowing their vision until they cared only about immediate interests and power.
At that moment, many Uchiha suddenly understood why Minato Namikaze, barely in his early twenties, had become Hokage, while they themselves had become an ostracized clan.
Because even without the Sharingan or the Byakugan, Minato Namikaze could see far further into the future than they ever had.
And they, despite possessing the strongest dōjutsu, had trapped themselves in their own limitations.
As these thoughts passed through their minds, Minato Namikaze had already summoned the Shinigami, sacrificed himself, and sealed half of the Nine-Tails into his own body.
As for the other half…
["Don't you dare—!!!"]
The Nine-Tails charged straight toward "their" side!!
The Uchiha clan's ninja and Obito Uchiha were all startled!
Thud.
The world before their eyes slowed, everything turning pale and blank.
***
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