After all, he was Minato's student, a child she had watched grow up, the Uchiha Clan's most likely candidate to become its first Hokage, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura's teacher, and one of the Uchiha Clan's top prospects.
How could Kushina not know Obito Uchiha's abilities?!
Was there even anyone in the Ninja World who had not heard of the ninjas known as "Intangibility Obito" and "Kamui Kakashi"?!
The only people who could freely enter and leave Kamui's Dimension in that vacuum-like way were Obito and Kakashi.
All anyone had to do was look at which side the eye was on, or whether the hair was black or silver-gray. It was not hard to guess which one had suddenly appeared in the footage, was it?!
Seeing Obito Uchiha in the footage, not wearing his Konoha Jōnin uniform but a black robe patterned with red clouds and a ridiculous orange mask, Kushina could not help clenching her fists.
Her red hair flared out behind her head like nine fox tails.
"That brat must be itching for a beating, dattebane!"
"And he's calling himself Madara Uchiha? Why doesn't he just say he's the Rikudō Sennin while he's at it?!"
Her terrifying appearance made the Uzumaki Clan ninjas who had rushed over after receiving their comrades' signal share the same thought.
No mistake. She was definitely a kunoichi from their clan.
"Your chakra feels very similar to mine. Are you also from the Uzumaki Clan?"
Among them was a red-haired girl in her teens, her hair tied into two buns. She looked very cute.
Although Kushina had never seen her before, she had the Uzumaki Clan's chakra-sensing ability. Based on the era she had landed in, she immediately guessed the little girl's identity.
"Mito-sama?!!!"
This time, she really had no choice but to believe it!
"Could this really be the Warring States Period?!"
The corners of the two young Uzumaki men's mouths twitched. "So you didn't actually believe anything we told you just now?! Then the thing you told us about the Uzumaki Clan being wiped out in the future, could that also be..."
The two of them were still clinging to their last bit of luck.
"That part is true."
Now that she had seen Mito Uzumaki, Kushina naturally did not want the Uzumaki Clan to go through that tragic massacre again.
Whether it was herself, Mito-sama, Nagato, or Karin, none of them should have to endure displacement and homelessness.
The Uzumaki Clan ninjas who had come over immediately grew alert. They brought Kushina Uzumaki back to Uzushiogakure to meet the Uzumaki Clan Head, Ashina Uzumaki.
The footage in the sky continued playing.
The person in it was none other than Obito Uchiha, pretending to be Madara Uchiha and shamelessly promoting his ambition.
["The Eye of the Moon Plan!"]
As hot-tempered as ever, the Fourth Raikage immediately threw a punch at the masked man.
However, in the world of the footage, there was no well-known title like "Intangibility Obito." Seeing the masked man for the first time, the Fourth Raikage seemed to hit him, only for his fist to pass straight through the blurred figure in the next instant.
His heavy punch smashed into the wall on the second floor of the Five Kage Summit hall with a thunderous crash!
After pulling Sasuke and Karin into Kamui's Dimension, the masked man began explaining his Eye of the Moon Plan.
Watching that brat sit leisurely on the second floor of the Five Kage Summit hall, forcing the other Kage to look up at him, Kushina clenched her fists so tightly that two thick blue veins popped out.
No one would doubt that if she threw one punch, a dozen masks would shatter on the spot.
["The Uchiha Clan has an ancient Stone Monument passed down through the generations. Even now, that Stone Monument still exists beneath Konohagakure, inside the Uchiha Shrine."]
Fugaku Uchiha still remembered that whenever he and his clan members conspired to rebel, they always chose to gather there.
"It is said to be something left behind by the Rikudō Sennin, and only those with the Sharingan or Mangekyō Sharingan can decipher it," Fugaku Uchiha said. "But even though I possess the Mangekyō Sharingan, I still can't read its full contents."
Madara Uchiha said, "The remaining contents require the Rinnegan to decipher."
"What do the remaining contents say?" he asked reflexively.
Before Madara Uchiha could answer, the "Masked Man" in the footage used his voice to give Fugaku Uchiha the answer he wanted.
["The Rikudō Sennin truly existed. Only someone with the Rinnegan can fully decipher the Stone Monument. It records how he once saved the world from a certain monster, then split that monster into nine parts and scattered them throughout the human world."]
["The so-called Tailed Beasts are nothing more than 'things' created when the Rikudō Sennin divided the Ten-Tails' chakra."]
Things, huh...
Hearing this, the Nine-Tailed Fox inside Naruto Uzumaki expressed its displeasure.
Far away at the entrance of a gambling den in the Land of Fire, Naruto condensed a mass of crimson chakra in his arm and immediately started swinging.
Unfortunately, Obito's Dōjutsu was far too broken. Unless he wanted to get hit, who could possibly land a blow on him?
Well, aside from six hundred billion explosive tags.
The most ruthless one, though, was still Isobu, the Three-Tails.
Temporarily borrowing Rin Nohara's body, it said softly, "Obito really is going too far. Acting like this will make people hate him."
That single line broke Adult Obito on the spot and nearly made the Young Obito caught in the crossfire collapse to the ground, unable to get back up.
["So what exactly is your goal?!"]
["I will revive the Ten-Tails and make myself its Jinchūriki, the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki!"]
Fugaku Uchiha's brows drew together sharply as he listened.
The flood of information gave him no time to think about whether he should hate Madara Uchiha or Obito Uchiha more.
Adult Obito was suffering more than enough public humiliation.
But no emotion could outweigh the self-blame that had never once settled inside him, or his hatred for Black Zetsu and Madara Uchiha.
Damn Black Zetsu. That old bastard Madara Uchiha. Of course, the worst bastard of all was still himself, the one who had caused so many deaths.
Adult Obito watched himself in the footage disrupt the Five Kage Summit and boast about becoming the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki, then using the Ten-Tails' power to strengthen his Ocular Power so he could unleash a certain ultimate Dōjutsu.
["I will project my Ocular Power onto the moon. When the moonlight shines over the earth, the entire world will fall under the effect of my Dōjutsu."]
["Infinite Tsukuyomi."]
["I will cast a Genjutsu over all of humanity to unify the world and create a world of eternal peace, with no more war!!"]
Both the older and younger Obito Uchiha had been humiliated beyond words. The two of them wanted to dig a hole with their bare hands and bury themselves on the spot just to stop embarrassing themselves.
"Didn't he say earlier that he wanted to create a world with that little girl in it?"
"Yeah, that girl named Rin, right?"
"Maybe he was too embarrassed to say in front of all those Kage that he was going this far just to bring back a girl he liked."
The ninjas of Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools whispered among themselves.
During the Warring States Period, clans still mainly married within their own bloodlines, so when Kushina looked around, she saw waves upon waves of red heads. It was practically a sea of red.
"Rin?! Bring back?!!"
She grabbed one of the young Uzumaki men who had brought her there and demanded, "Explain. What happened?!"
In Kushina's memory, Obito Uchiha was the one who always tucked Naruto under one arm and Sasuke under the other, blending right in with his three students.
Obito Uchiha was kind to a fault for more than twenty years, unable to ignore anyone in trouble. After awakening his Sharingan, he had gone from dead last to the hope of his entire clan, and Naruto adored him so much that they had made a promise about becoming Hokage together.
That Obito Uchiha always wore his Konoha Jōnin uniform and looked bright, warm, and optimistic.
No matter what, Kushina could not overlap the Obito in her memories with the masked man in the footage.
"Didn't you see the earlier footage? The part before we found you."
"I was cooking before that, dattebane." Kushina shook the spoon in her hand. "I was planning to wait for that brat Obito to bring Kakashi, Rin, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura over for dinner. Then somehow, I suddenly ended up here."
The Uzumaki Clan ninjas exchanged looks.
In the end, it was Clan Head Ashina Uzumaki who spoke. "Before this, that thing in the sky showed two other stories, both related to the Uchiha ninja named Obito you mentioned."
"During the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, Obito Uchiha died under enemy attack while trying to save his comrades, Kakashi and Rin Nohara. But in truth, he was saved by Madara Uchiha. After that, he personally witnessed Kakashi kill Rin Nohara, awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, and became what he is now."
Through the footage's memories, the entire Ninja World of the Warring States Period had seen what a loving boy Obito Uchiha had been as a child. They had also seen what a peaceful, happy, and comfortable place that village called Konoha had been.
Because of that, the contrast with Obito Uchiha's utterly insane massacre left everyone deeply shaken.
Kushina was stunned speechless.
She knew about Kannabi Bridge. It had indeed been extremely dangerous at the time. By the time Minato arrived, all he could do was pull Obito, badly injured and unconscious, out from beneath the rocks.
In her memory, every detail was still so clear.
The heavy atmosphere when Team Minato returned.
It was wartime. No one could guarantee that comrades who left in the morning would come back safely that night.
They used a Summoning Toad from Mount Myōboku and found Jiraiya. Through Jiraiya's connection, Minato Namikaze asked Tsunade-sama to return and operate on Obito.
But because of Tsunade-sama's hemophobia, the one who actually performed the surgery was Shizune.
Although Obito's life was saved, his physical disability ended his honor as a ninja along with his dream of becoming Hokage.
She watched the light seem to vanish from the eyes of the child she had once loved so dearly. She watched gentle, strong Rin unexpectedly break down in tears again and again whenever she visited Obito. She watched Kakashi, consumed by self-blame, apply to join the ANBU and take on missions far beyond his own ability and experience. Kushina Uzumaki's heart ached just as much as Minato Namikaze's.
Only at the very end did Jiraiya and Tsunade think of one person together, the only person who could save Obito.
And that person was actually Orochimaru, the man competing with Minato for the position of Hokage!
These vivid memories did not match the contents of the footage at all.
Was something wrong with her, or was something wrong with this world?!
This was Minato's regret, the failure to save his student Obito Uchiha from Kannabi Bridge, even though that battle decided the course of the Third Shinobi World War.
***
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