Chapter 578: The Fourth Hokage and His Wife: Beat Hiruzen First, Then Pummel Obito
Kenichi looked around.
The puppets surrounding him were completely expressionless.
Only one person among them had spoken, and he was dressed entirely differently from the others.
Kenichi recognized him almost immediately.
This had to be Otsutsuki Toneri.
Although Kenichi had not watched many of the Naruto movies, he had seen The Last.
After all, the movie had expanded on Naruto and Hinata's relationship, finally allowing the two to understand and confess their feelings to each other. Their romance had eventually culminated beneath the moonlight, in a scene that also paid tribute to Naruto's father, the Fourth Hokage.
Because of that, Kenichi remembered this movie fairly well.
However, the current Toneri had not yet reached the point where he would carry out his plan.
He had not taken Hanabi's Byakugan.
Naturally, he had not awakened the Tenseigan either.
Without the Tenseigan, Toneri was not much of a threat to Kenichi.
The version of Toneri who awakened the Tenseigan and could split the Moon with a single attack might have been slightly more troublesome.
Kenichi had no intention of wasting time talking.
The moment he confirmed Toneri's identity, he attacked.
His Mangekyo Sharingan activated.
Genjutsu struck instantly.
Toneri froze for a single second.
Within the illusion Kenichi created, Toneri saw Hinata, the woman he had already chosen as his future wife.
Except...
She seemed to like someone else.
Toneri was stunned.
By the time he recovered, Kenichi was already standing directly in front of him.
A hand closed around Toneri's neck.
Before Toneri could even speak, his consciousness went dark.
"He's still just a brat."
Kenichi clicked his tongue as he looked at the unconscious Toneri.
Since Toneri was still this young, that meant there should be another Otsutsuki somewhere around here.
An older relative, perhaps?
Kenichi could not remember the exact details, but he vaguely recalled someone like that existing.
The surrounding puppets suddenly moved.
Kenichi glanced at them.
Lightning-like markings appeared around the corners of his eyes.
"Sage Art: Wind Release: Vacuum Wave Barrage!"
Countless massive blasts of Wind Release erupted outward.
The puppets rushing toward him were immediately destroyed.
"Little pests."
Kenichi barely spared the wreckage another glance.
Then he suddenly dashed toward a particular location.
He had already identified the one controlling them.
It did not take long.
Kenichi soon found an elderly man, grabbed him, and knocked him unconscious as well.
With Toneri and the old man both secured, Kenichi prepared to take them back to the Shinobi World.
Before leaving, however, he looked around again.
Empty buildings stretched across the area.
The entire settlement felt completely different from anything in the Shinobi World.
A thought entered Kenichi's mind.
This place would actually make an excellent laboratory.
It was enormous.
Almost completely deserted.
And the route required to reach it was extremely secretive.
As long as the entrance was properly guarded, there would be almost no need to worry about intruders.
In terms of security, the Moon was excellent.
The only real problem was transportation.
Getting here was inconvenient, and moving large amounts of experimental equipment would be troublesome.
Still, the sheer level of isolation made the idea extremely tempting.
"Forget it."
Kenichi shook his head.
"I'll deal with that later."
No matter how suitable the place was, this was not his timeline.
There was little point investing too much effort into establishing a permanent laboratory here.
Once he returned to his own world, he could consider the idea again.
With that decision made, Kenichi carried Toneri back toward the Shinobi World.
When he returned, Hagoromo was already waiting.
Kenichi paused slightly.
The Sage of Six Paths really did care about his brother's descendants.
Then again, there were only one or two of Hamura's descendants left on the Moon.
And judging from the older man's condition, he looked as though he could die at any moment.
Kenichi could not clearly remember whether this old man had actually appeared in The Last.
Most of what he remembered from that movie was Naruto and Hinata openly displaying their developing relationship.
It had to be said that while Kishimoto was not particularly good at writing romance, he had at least given Naruto and Hinata a relatively clear emotional progression.
Sakura had been less fortunate.
At times, she had felt more like a tool used to push other relationships and plot developments forward.
But the Sakura of this world was already living a different life.
She still liked Sasuke.
However, she was no longer spending every day on the same team with him.
And there was no younger Naruto constantly obsessing over her either.
Because of that, Kenichi genuinely had no idea whether Sakura would eventually end up marrying Sasuke in this timeline.
"Sage of Six Paths."
Kenichi raised the two unconscious people he was carrying.
"These are the only two descendants of your brother left up there."
Kenichi remembered the basic history of Hamura's descendants.
When Hamura moved to the Moon, he had taken some of his people with him.
Others remained behind in the Shinobi World.
Those who stayed eventually became the Hyuga Clan of Konoha.
Meanwhile, the descendants who accompanied Hamura to the Moon eventually split into a Main Family and a Branch Family.
The Branch Family later misinterpreted Hamura's wishes.
They came to believe that the Shinobi World created under Hagoromo's legacy needed to be destroyed.
That ideological difference eventually caused a civil war between the two lunar branches.
In the end, the Branch Family wiped out the Main Family.
The two people Kenichi had brought back were therefore most likely members of that surviving Branch Family.
Their population had dwindled to almost nothing.
The survival rate of that lineage seemed unbelievably poor.
Considering how isolated they had been on the Moon, Kenichi briefly wondered whether generations of close-relative marriages had caused severe genetic problems.
But that explanation did not seem entirely convincing either.
Toneri's later actions proved that Hamura's descendants could travel between the Moon and the Shinobi World without easily being detected.
Toneri had even been able to observe Konoha and choose Hinata as his future bride.
Perhaps Hamura's descendants occasionally brought women from the Shinobi World back to the Moon to continue their bloodline.
Even so, Kenichi still could not understand how their population had declined this badly.
Maybe he could ask Toneri once the boy woke up.
"I know."
Hagoromo looked at the unconscious Toneri and sighed.
He knew who the boy was.
His younger brother's descendant.
More importantly, Toneri was effectively the last true successor to Hamura's lunar bloodline.
The other surviving elder was clearly nearing the end of his life.
Now both of them had fallen into Kenichi's hands.
They would probably suffer through a considerable amount of research.
But...
At least they were alive.
After confirming that much, Hagoromo left without hesitation.
Kenichi did not ask where he was going.
He simply carried Toneri and the elderly Branch Family member back to his laboratory.
His next goal was straightforward.
Study them.
Determine exactly what conditions were necessary to awaken the Tenseigan.
According to the movie, the process seemed to require an extremely pure Byakugan.
But Kenichi was not entirely convinced that was the whole truth.
After all, the person Toneri had identified as possessing the purest Byakugan was Hinata.
She had even been called the Byakugan Princess.
That title had dramatically elevated her position.
Naruto had effectively gone from marrying the Hyuga Main House's discarded eldest daughter to marrying the Byakugan Princess herself.
Yet the eyes Toneri actually stole to awaken the Tenseigan...
Were Hanabi's.
"Could it be that he couldn't remove the Caged Bird Seal?"
Kenichi looked down at the unconscious Toneri and scratched his head.
"But does that really make sense?"
Hiashi had decided to focus on Hanabi because he considered Hinata unsuitable as the Hyuga successor.
But what if Hiashi had only ever had one daughter?
If Hinata had been his only child, whose Byakugan would Toneri have stolen to awaken the Tenseigan?
At that point, he would have been forced to choose someone from the Branch Family.
But every Branch Family member carried the Caged Bird Seal.
And that seal was notoriously difficult to bypass.
There was a reason other hidden villages had obtained only a single usable Byakugan over the years.
That eye had come from a member of the Main House.
No other village had successfully acquired another afterward.
The Caged Bird Seal truly deserved its reputation.
But Toneri was Hamura's descendant.
Shouldn't someone with Hamura's bloodline possess some method of breaking the seal?
Kenichi decided he would ask Toneri once he woke up.
For now, he could use the older lunar descendant for preliminary experiments and determine whether the quality or purity of the Byakugan truly mattered.
If it did...
Then Kenichi might need to clone tissue from Hinata and cultivate a purer Byakugan through her genetics.
"Still..."
Kenichi thought about everything he had arranged before leaving for the Moon.
"By now, the things I set in motion should be starting to ferment."
"The Shinobi World must be very lively."
A playful smile appeared on his face.
"That's fine, though."
"Naruto and Sasuke won't have time to bother me."
"And with Hikari there, there shouldn't be any major problems."
...
"So... the plan has completely collapsed?"
Obito stared at Black Zetsu in confusion.
Then he looked toward Hagoromo standing beside it.
His confusion deepened.
He genuinely could not understand what was happening anymore.
Why had Black Zetsu brought the Sage of Six Paths here?
And how had Obito's identity been exposed?
According to Black Zetsu, his identity was no longer a secret anywhere in the Shinobi World.
Worse...
Kakashi was apparently coming here with two extremely furious old acquaintances.
Simply put...
Obito had been sold out.
"Yes."
Black Zetsu sounded exhausted.
It had never imagined that its centuries of planning had been taking place under Hagoromo's watch.
Nor had it expected an absurd variable like Kenichi to suddenly appear and flip the entire board over.
At this point, Akatsuki's original plan had become impossible.
With someone as terrifyingly strong as Kenichi active in the Shinobi World, even resurrecting Madara would not solve the problem.
And there was an even greater complication.
Isshiki Otsutsuki.
Although Black Zetsu was only a temporary creation left behind by Kaguya, its creator had instilled fragments of knowledge within it.
Among those memories was information about Isshiki.
Isshiki had been the Otsutsuki who originally came to this world alongside Kaguya.
He was also the person Kaguya had betrayed.
And therefore, one of her greatest enemies.
So even though Black Zetsu hated the situation, it had no choice but to help deal with him.
Compared with Black Zetsu's plan to revive Kaguya, Isshiki's continued existence posed an even greater threat to its mother.
Unfortunately, Kenichi had not stopped at exposing Obito.
That bastard had gone even further.
Before leaving for the Moon, Kenichi had performed another outrageous move.
He used Edo Tensei to bring back the Fourth Hokage and his wife.
Then, with a smile, Kenichi told Minato and Kushina the truth about the Nine-Tails attack.
Afterward, he personally showed them how Naruto had been treated while growing up in Konoha.
The consequences had been... subtle.
On the same day Minato and Kushina were revived, they learned exactly what kind of childhood their son had endured.
Minato became completely silent.
Kushina did not.
The furious Red Hot Habanero immediately marched off to find Hiruzen.
Minato quietly followed his wife.
Once they entered the Hokage's office, the door was closed.
According to the Anbu assigned to guard the area that day, several muffled groans from the Third Hokage could be heard from inside.
The legendary Red Hot Habanero had officially returned.
As for what exactly happened behind that closed door?
The normally unnamed source, Minato Namikaze, later claimed that they had merely exchanged views on family matters.
Apparently, the deeply moved Third Hokage had come to strongly agree with the Fourth Hokage couple's perspective on parental responsibility and family affection.
After resolving their disagreement with Hiruzen, Minato and Kushina left Konoha.
Their next destination was Obito's location.
Or more accurately...
They followed Black Zetsu directly to him.
Black Zetsu had absolutely no desire to face those two furious people.
Unfortunately, escape was impossible.
With Hagoromo personally watching it, there was no chance to secretly warn Obito in advance.
"Obito..."
A familiar voice sounded.
"You really are alive."
Obito's body stiffened.
He slowly turned his head.
Kakashi stood there.
His expression was painfully complicated.
Obito still wore his mask.
That mask had always been important to him.
As long as he wore it, he could tell himself that he was no longer Uchiha Obito.
He was Madara Uchiha.
Behind that identity, he could commit acts that the old Obito might never have been able to accept.
But now...
The mask remained on his face.
Yet it could no longer hide who he was.
Kakashi stared at him.
His emotions were impossible to describe.
He had cared deeply about Obito.
For years, Kakashi had regularly visited Obito's grave.
He had stood before the memorials of Obito and Rin and quietly shared things he could tell almost no one else.
And now he discovered that Obito had been alive this entire time.
Which meant Kakashi had spent all those years mourning a man who was not dead.
Worse...
Obito had orchestrated the Nine-Tails attack.
The attack that killed their teacher.
And their teacher's wife.
"I..."
For the first time, panic appeared in Obito's voice.
He did not know how to face Kakashi.
And he knew even less how to face the people coming behind him.
"Obito."
A cold voice echoed through the area.
"My student."
Obito froze.
Minato walked forward.
His expression was calm.
But beneath that calm was a rage so intense that it seemed almost tangible.
"Do you hate me that much?"
Minato's voice remained cold.
"Do you hate Kushina too?"
"The same Kushina who always cared about you and treated you like family?"
Beside Minato stood Kushina.
She said nothing.
She did not need to.
The disbelief in her eyes...
The silent pain on her face...
Those were far worse than shouting.
They struck directly into Obito's heart.
For years, Obito had convinced himself that the mask separated him from his old identity.
Rin was dead.
The current world was false.
The Infinite Tsukuyomi would create the world that should have existed.
As long as he believed that...
He could ignore the guilt.
He could ignore everything he had done.
But now...
Obito's breathing became faster.
His heart pounded violently inside his chest.
Yet despite drawing breath after breath, he felt as though no air was reaching his lungs.
For the first time in years, the mask no longer protected him.
And the suffocating weight of everything he had done came crashing down at once.
....
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