Everyone present except Rengoku felt a bit shocked.
'Someone didn't go to the Pure Land after death?'
In this world, when people die they generally go to the Pure Land and their thoughts stagnate.
Or rather, their consciousness stops.
You could say the Pure Land is a giant resting place for souls.
There is, however, a group of people who, for special reasons, do not go to the Pure Land after death.
They stay in the gap between reality and the Pure Land.
Kakashi's father, Konoha White Fang, was such a one.
So was that Rin.
Only when everyone heard Rin's crying did they learn the truth.
After Rin killed herself with Kakashi's Lightning Cutter, her soul did not immediately go to the Pure Land.
While lingering near her body, Rin had seen Obito in a furious and tormented state.
She watched Obito awaken the Mangekyo and then go on a slaughter against those from Mist.
Rin was gentle and kind by nature.
And it was her own teammate Obito who had become like that for her.
So she couldn't bear to leave Obito, and did not go to the Pure Land.
Instead she stayed in the same kind of place that Konoha White Fang had lingered. A seam between reality and the Pure Land.
Rin was not awake all the time; she only intermittently observed Obito being guided into darkness by Madara.
She watched him manipulate the Mist Hidden Village's Kiri-kage into large-scale slaughter of kekkei genkai families.
She overheard Kakashi talking to the memorial stone, and, taking advantage of Kushina's time of childbirth when her seal was weak, Obito forcibly extracted the Nine-Tails and set it loose.
Rin went from sorrow to despair and finally to numbness, waiting for Obito.
"This is all my fault. If it weren't for me, Obito wouldn't have become like this."
Rin's crying was truly heartbroken. She was a medical-nin who truly loved life.
She had only not wanted Konoha to suffer, and she killed herself for that reason; the outcome was not death but something else entirely, Obito was even preparing to overturn the ninja world.
Rin felt a huge gap between what she believed in and the result she caused.
She was filled with despair.
Those present didn't know how to comfort her. Many thoughts passed through Kakashi's head, yet he didn't know what to say.
Kushina, clearer-headed, looked directly at Rengoku.
Rengoku waved his hand and sent the others away.
Only Rengoku, Kakashi, Kushina, and Rin remained.
Rengoku sneered coldly, "Nohara Rin, aren't you taking yourself a bit too seriously?"
Rin stopped crying and looked at Rengoku in puzzlement, not understanding what he meant.
"I'll ask you, what's the strongest tailed beast in this world?"
Rin glanced at Kushina and weakly answered, "The Nine-Tails."
"Since you know the strongest is the Nine-Tails,"
"Then whoever can seal the Nine-Tails is the strongest sealing specialist in the ninja world."
Rin looked blankly at Rengoku, not getting why he was saying this.
Rengoku mocked, "Why on earth would you think your little Three-Tails is something your teacher couldn't seal?"
"You go off on your own, think yourself smart, and kill yourself. Frankly, you were a big idiot."
"Clearly Konoha could obtain another tailed beast, yet your action only created an Obito."
Rin's face was full of shock and disbelief, tears on her cheeks, her mind a mush.
She blankly turned to Kushina, and Kushina cooperated, "Silly child, I can seal the Nine-Tails, what's a Three-Tails?"
Rin dropped to the ground in a heap, utterly dejected.
Kakashi felt sympathy and could only grit his teeth and hold back.
Rengoku looked on enough and then said, "If someone is missing in this world, time will not stop flowing."
"Whether you kill yourself or not, Madara would have found another way to make Obito go dark."
"If not Obito, there would have been someone else, someone with Water, Wood, Lightning, Fire."
"Because Madara needs it, he will find a way to make a pawn."
"You were just a collateral sacrifice in this event."
"Your death was naive, it wasn't that you personally were that indispensable."
"Do you think Obito did those things because he loved you so much?"
"You're overthinking it. That's not why."
"Why not? Because Nagato, who revived you just now, originally carried Obito's talisman."
"Obito could have resurrected you at any time, but it would have consumed Nagato's life."
"But even if he revived you, what would change? You still wouldn't like him."
"Obito loved the version of you in his fantasies, the you who would love him."
Rengoku's words were merciless, but they were the truth: Obito's mental shift was enormous.
Early on, as a child he had indeed loved Rin fiercely, but later he gradually discovered Rin didn't love him.
At that critical moment, wounded and dying at Kannabi Bridge, his feelings for Rin and Kakashi were sincere, which is why he gave up his only usable Sharingan.
But when he returned and saw Rin dead by Kakashi's hand, he awakened the Kamui Mangekyo and wanted only to escape this world.
He rejected the world where Rin died and even rejected the world where Rin didn't love him.
Even if Rin could be revived by Rinne Rebirth, he never considered forcibly controlling Nagato to do so.
What he needed was a belief to change the world.
Obito's true greatest love was not Rin but himself.
Rin was stupefied, Rengoku's words hit her hard.
After all, Rin was only thirteen now; watching her climb out of her own narrowness, Rengoku's tone softened, "If you think you're that indispensable, then next time Obito appears..."
"Try to stop him yourself and see whether he'll listen to you."
Under Rengoku's bluntness and hard push, Rin stopped crying and then said with determination, "I will definitely stop Obito!"
Rengoku nodded slightly,."If you can take Obito down without bloodshed, that's best."
He then gave Kushina a look, and Kushina took Rin away to wash up.
He turned to Kakashi, "This is the new world you have embraced."
Kakashi's eyes swelled with emotion.
Tonight's events had shaken Kakashi deeply.
He hadn't known Rengoku had such methods, even the ability to bring the dead back.
"Rengoku-sama, thank you. From now on my life is yours."
Kakashi's gratitude to Rengoku was sincere.
How Rin mattered to him went without saying.
Unlike Obito's obsessive madness, Kakashi simply wanted Rin to live.
It had nothing to do with whether she loved him.
Seeing Kakashi's bond, Rengoku's appraisal shot up three stars and was still rising.
Knowing Kakashi's turn was heartfelt, he patted Kakashi's shoulder, "Good. I won't be polite with you."
"How do you want to handle your eyes? Do you need the Sharingan?"
Kakashi touched the hollow under his forehead protector where his eye had been.
"I'm not suited to use the Sharingan. I relied on it too much before, all our tactics revolved around it."
"But in doing so I abandoned the things that mattered most to me."
"I plan to ask Tsunade-sama whether the eyes can regrow." [T/N: Hell yeah!!]
Rengoku was pleased that Kakashi voluntarily abandoned the Sharingan.
Kakashi was a natural genius; he'd only been wasted by circumstances.
"Why ask Tsunade? Just tell Orochimaru."
"Orochimaru's current projects include cloning research, and there's already a successful case."
"For your eye matter, have him try to help."
Kakashi was surprised and pleased. He hadn't expected Rengoku to have such powerful biological science besides resurrection techniques.
He hesitated, then asked with some hope, "Rengoku-sama, about my fa-my father… could—"
Rengoku patted Kakashi's shoulder, "You should know all energy in this world has a cost when exchanged."
"Today we revived Rin because she was only a chunin and had little chakra."
"But your father is different. He would require too much chakra, so—"
Kakashi felt a little disappointed but Rengoku continued, "So it will take some time before that can be done…"
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