Looking at the photo frame Hyūga Shinichi pointed to, Kushina's expression became momentarily stunned.
She turned to look at Shinichi's sincere face, then turned back to confirm the photo frame Shinichi was pointing at. After a brief hesitation, Uzumaki Kushina slowly stood up, walked to the display cabinet, took down the photo frame, and confirmed with Shinichi:
"Shinichi, is this the photo you're referring to?"
"You said the person you saw..."
At the moment Kushina asked, Shinichi also stood up and came closer to Kushina. He pretended to examine the photo in her hand carefully, then pointed to the young Uchiha Obito in the picture and confirmed:
"Yes, what I saw should be correct."
"The intact half of the masked man's face is extremely similar to this boy's appearance, just slightly more mature."
"And I noticed that one of the masked man's eyes should be a Three-Tomoe Sharingan."
"That guy should be from the Uchiha Clan!"
Saying this, Hyūga Shinichi's expression suddenly relaxed, and he pretended to speak casually:
"Since he's from the Uchiha Clan, there shouldn't be any problem, right?"
"I heard my father say that the Uchiha Clan members are often arrogant and conceited. It's not surprising for him to have that kind of chakra. Since he's a clan member of the Uchiha, he's a person of the Village. I was just being overly sensitive."
Shinichi spoke with a relaxed expression, but for the listener, Uzumaki Kushina, a storm was already brewing in her heart.
Looks like Minato's student, Uchiha Obito?!
The Uchiha Clan?!
Half his face disfigured?
The information Shinichi revealed about the masked man was far too coincidental!
But....
Uchiha Obito should have died during that mission. Why... why did all the details Shinichi mentioned line up?
What if... what if Uchiha Obito didn't die in that battle and survived?!
In that case... everything Shinichi said seemed to match!
Kushina held the photo frame, her mind unable to settle. As if to confirm the accuracy of the information again, Kushina asked once more:
"Shinichi... you're saying the person you saw looks very much like the boy in this photo?"
Kushina's tone sounded calm, but Shinichi could detect a slight tremor.
"Yes, my Byakugan would never be wrong. He looks very much like the person in this photo."
"It's just that, for some reason, half of the masked man's face is disfigured."
"Sensei Kushina, do you know that Uchiha clan member?"
Shinichi asked with a seemingly innocent look, but his words were deliberately leading Kushina.
"It shouldn't... be the same person..."
Even now, Kushina couldn't completely believe Shinichi's words. It wasn't because she didn't trust Shinichi, but because she couldn't imagine that Uchiha Obito, who had died years ago, was still alive. Her subconscious told her that Shinichi was right, and the man he saw was Uchiha Obito, but her reason made Kushina want to find more evidence to prove Shinichi's words.
To this end, Kushina gently caressed the photo and began to tell Shinichi the story of Minato's three students.
"This child's name is Uchiha Obito."
"But many years ago, he died during a mission."
"That was Konoha's..."
Kushina's eyes filled with reminiscence. Although the sky outside was darkening, Kushina, having opened up the conversation, showed no sign of stopping. She began recounting the details of Obito's life to Shinichi.
The Kannabi Bridge Battle was the turning point in the Third Great Ninja War between Konoha and Iwagakure, and it was also the lifelong sorrow of Kushina's husband, Namikaze Minato. In that battle, Minato completed the mission assigned by the high command, blowing up the Kannabi Bridge, but simultaneously, Team Minato suffered its first casualty. Minato, an elite Jōnin of Konoha at the time, had long witnessed life and death, but the death of a student was his first experience of it, naturally leaving a deep scar on him.
During the battle, the kind and enthusiastic Uchiha Obito was accidentally crushed by falling rocks while saving Kakashi. On his deathbed, he gave his newly awakened Sharingan as a gift to Kakashi. This allowed Kakashi, who had lost an eye in the battle, to regain his sight, and for the "first time" in Konoha, a non-Uchiha possessed the Sharingan. This incident caused a considerable stir in Konoha at the time.
The Uchiha, as a bloodline clan, could not tolerate the leakage of their bloodline limit, but the internal dissatisfaction was suppressed by Fugaku, the clan head at the time. The will of the hero Obito and the influence of Namikaze Minato played a decisive role in this matter.
Undoubtedly, in Kushina's view, a child of Hyūga Shinichi's age could never know the events that occurred back then. Furthermore, some details were only known to a few people: the direct participant Kakashi, and those informed of the details afterward, like Minato and Kushina.
Outsiders didn't even know that the Uchiha Clan was unable to recover Obito's body at the time, and the grave of Uchiha Obito in the Konoha Cemetery was an honorary cenotaph.
As Kushina detailed Uchiha Obito's story, the look on Shinichi's face grew firmer.
"Sensei Kushina, then there's no mistake!"
"That person must be Uchiha Obito!"
"Didn't you say he was crushed by rocks while saving Kakashi, resulting in half his body being damaged? Doesn't that match the man's Yin-Yang face?"
"The appearance, the fact that he only has one Sharingan—it all perfectly aligns!"
"Although I don't know how the young man named Uchiha Obito survived, neither you nor Big Brother Minato nor the Uchiha ever saw that man's corpse, did you?"
"We need to see a person alive, or a corpse dead. If there is no corpse..."
"Although I don't know why that person concealed the fact that he was alive, if it truly is him, Konoha must be on guard against that person!"
"Living, yet pretending to be dead—that guy's mindset must have changed for some reason."
"He is likely plotting against Konoha!"
Shinichi speculated malevolently about Uchiha Obito. Of course, it was precisely because he knew Uchiha Obito that he chose this method to "unbox" Obito's identity and warn Kushina.
After listening to Shinichi's analysis, Kushina lowered her head in deep thought. At this moment, she felt somewhat lost. Kushina desperately wanted to see Minato, to relay the information and intelligence she had gathered to him, and let him help her analyze it.
As for Shinichi's words, they had already left a mark on Kushina's heart. Her reason told Kushina that the information Shinichi analyzed was probably correct. But her emotions denied all of Shinichi's conjectures and deductions. Kushina felt that even if Obito was truly alive, he wouldn't plot against Konoha. He must be... suffering from some unspeakable difficulty.
That innocent young boy, how could he possibly...
"Was Uchiha Obito saved by someone? Would that 'benefactor' use that to threaten him? To keep him from appearing openly in the public eye?"
"There must be many techniques that control someone's life!"
Shinichi's words struck a chord with Kushina again. At this moment, she suddenly thought of the death of the third member of Team Minato, Rin Nohara. Rin had chosen to die precisely because she was sealed with the Three-Tails by Kirigakure and placed under a curse seal!
Could Uchiha Obito also be involuntarily controlled...?
Kushina thought of many possibilities. Seeing her deeply contemplative expression, Shinichi said nothing more, allowing Kushina to process the information herself.
"Uchiha Obito..."
"Heh!"
Shinichi's lips curled into a faint smile, an expression of "everything is under control."
The man behind the scenes, huh?
Now, let's see if you can continue to hide in the shadows, brandishing Uchiha Madara's authority to stir up trouble!
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