In Kushina Uzumaki's memories, Obito Uchiha really had nearly died during the Kannabi Bridge mission.
Even after Minato saved him, his ruined body was no longer capable of continuing as a ninja.
Even Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama were helpless. At most, they had only managed to preserve Obito's life.
In the end, there was no other choice.
Since proper methods would not work, the two of them recommended their former classmate, Orochimaru.
But at the time, the Third Hokage intended to nominate Minato Namikaze as the Fourth Hokage, while Danzō Shimura planned to nominate Orochimaru for the same position, so the two were more or less rivals.
Minato Namikaze could not possibly give up the Hokage position. Orochimaru had a strange temperament, and the Root behind him, led by Danzō, represented the darkness of the Ninja World.
So after several rounds of negotiation, Obito, who had regained consciousness, agreed to serve as an experimental subject and let Orochimaru study Hashirama cells. Minato Namikaze secured permission from the Third Hokage to use Hashirama cells, and only then did Orochimaru agree to research a way to treat Obito.
Because Minato Namikaze was cautious, Orochimaru was reluctant, but he still agreed to begin with animal subjects.
In short, the complexity and difficulty involved were not something outsiders could know.
After a year and a half, with a milky-white, not-quite-human thing used as a neutralizing agent, Obito's body was finally healed. Afterward, he went through a long period of rehabilitation before he could return to the battlefield.
On the battlefield, in order to save Rin, Obito and Kakashi awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan together. After that, he kept working hard toward his dream of becoming Hokage, and continued running late everywhere because he was busy helping others.
During that time, something major happened within the Uchiha Clan.
Shisui Uchiha disappeared for a while during a mission. When he returned, he was missing his right eye. With Itachi Uchiha, who had suddenly awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan, he petitioned the Fourth Hokage to abolish Konoha's Root.
Minato Namikaze had already intended to do so. Although there was no denying that Danzō had taken on plenty of dirty, thankless work for Konoha, if rotten roots were not pruned in time, sooner or later the entire tree would be eaten away by disease, leaving it strong on the outside but hollow within.
A false appearance of peace might hold for a while, but when the avalanche came, it would collapse at the first blow.
With Minato's support, rising stars of the Uchiha Clan such as Shisui Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, and Obito Uchiha moved out, along with the full ANBU force led by Kakashi on Minato Namikaze's behalf.
Those in the know, such as Shikaku Nara, all understood that Konoha's sky had finally changed.
The members of various clans who had once been forced to join Root could finally return to their own clans.
After Root was cleaned out, it was not long before the Uchiha Clan was reorganized.
After everything that happened, Shisui Uchiha seemed less easygoing than before. Itachi Uchiha had been very worried about this, and had once mentioned that Shisui often went to look at the ancestral stone tablet in the clan shrine.
Because Itachi was carrying out missions on Kakashi's team, and Kakashi trusted this junior of his very much, Minato Namikaze also treated him as one of his own people and trained him accordingly.
After learning the contents of the Stone Monument from Itachi Uchiha and Obito Uchiha, Minato Namikaze immediately raised several doubts.
First, why was the Stone Monument written in layers, so that only Uchiha clan members with a deeper level of eye activation could see its true contents? If it was only to prevent outsiders from peeking, wasn't the Sharingan alone enough to prove someone's Uchiha identity? If those with weaker Dōjutsu could only see part of the content, wouldn't that kind of half-understanding easily lead to terrible mistakes?
Second, Sasuke and Itachi already had the Mangekyō Sharingan, yet they still could not see the full contents of the Stone Monument.
And among the contents visible to the Mangekyō Sharingan, there just happened to be the method for advancing from the Mangekyō Sharingan to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
"This is almost like..."
Minato Namikaze pondered for a moment. "It is almost like it is deliberately tempting powerful members of the Uchiha Clan to keep reading the Stone Monument, pushing them to awaken the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan in order to see what comes next."
And the method for awakening the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan was to steal the light of one's blood relatives.
Obito said, "After I awakened the Sharingan, my temper obviously became more impatient than before. For a while after awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, even Rin and Kakashi said my emotions were strange."
Fortunately, Rin had learned the Senju Clan's Medical Ninjutsu from Tsunade-sama, and had used Yang-attribute chakra to help him regulate his condition for a long time.
Itachi had always been deep and reserved. Now he only seemed more mature, so the change did not look very obvious.
That made Shisui's change stand out all the more.
Fortunately, the matter of clearing out the hawkish elements within the Uchiha went smoothly, with cooperation from both inside and outside.
The hawks were divided into groups, and Obito Uchiha led them around every day, whether there was anything to do or not, bringing care and support to the elderly in the village and the welfare homes under Konoha. While letting them feel the village's warmth, he also separated them from the Uchiha who did not actually dislike the village that much, preventing their negative emotions from affecting others.
Meanwhile, those clan members who did not reject Konoha in the first place, including the similarly insular Hyūga Clan, were asked to step out of their clans. Aside from the Uchiha Police Force and the Hyūga Clan's dojo, they could also choose other professions or lines of work.
On the day this was announced, Minato deliberately asked Obito, Itachi, and Shisui about their dreams.
There was no need to mention Obito. Who in the entire village did not know he wanted to become Hokage, protect the village, and sacrifice himself for his comrades there?
Shisui Uchiha thought for a long time before saying that he hoped for peace both inside and outside the village, and that Itachi, whom he saw as a younger brother, could realize his wish.
Then it was Itachi Uchiha's turn. He was still only a young ninja, the eldest son of the Uchiha Clan Head, and a boy who acted far older than his age. Obito told him he was not allowed to say his dream was "hoping Sasuke's wish comes true."
After that, urged on by the encouraging calls of his former classmates Tenma and Shinko, as well as Izumi Uchiha, a girl from the clan who knew him well, the boy lowered his head, flushed bright red, and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"I want to become a respected dango shop owner like my father!!!"
After shocking everyone, he quickly said, "Excuse me," then fled the scene with a Body Flicker Technique even faster than Shisui of the Body Flicker.
Wait, though. That sentence was ambiguous.
Fugaku Uchiha was respected by his clansmen because he was the captain of the Uchiha Police Force, but the way Itachi said it made it sound as if his father, Fugaku Uchiha, was also a dango shop owner.
Although everyone knew Itachi had only misspoken because he was too nervous, and that what he meant was that he wanted to become someone respected like his father and also become a dango shop owner, Fugaku Uchiha was, unsurprisingly, laughed at by the entire village.
To stop his older brother from being beaten to death by their father, Sasuke quickly jumped in and said that he wanted to become an outstanding ninja who was respected like his father and protected Konoha's peace. Only then did Fugaku Uchiha feel slightly comforted.
As expected, he had underestimated Sasuke before. This was definitely his good eldest son.
Although Itachi's simple wish contrasted sharply with his entire personality, as well as with the image of the Uchiha Clan, and became a joke that made people laugh whenever it was mentioned, it somehow became a source of courage for many prideful Uchiha.
Only then did Minato Namikaze and Fugaku Uchiha learn that within the Uchiha Clan, there were quite a few people who did not want to join the Police Force, and within the Hyūga Clan, there were quite a few people who did not want to inherit the dojo.
There was even a young Hyūga who wandered outside the Fourth Hokage's house in the middle of the night just to secretly tell him that he hoped to ask Jiraiya-sama to become his teacher.
Minato had just thought the other party wanted to become his junior disciple when he heard the young Hyūga say that he possessed the Byakugan, and if he did not become an outstanding writer like Jiraiya-sama, it would be far too much of a waste.
Minato Namikaze: "..." His feelings were complicated.
In short, after the conflict between the Uchiha Clan and Konoha gradually eased, Shisui also revealed that he had once met Madara Uchiha and had been subjected to a great deal of brainwashing about the Eye of the Moon Plan. It just so happened that afterward, little Itachi had nearly fallen victim to Danzō Shimura's persecution, and Shisui had almost believed Madara Uchiha's nonsense.
But Madara Uchiha had not expected Itachi Uchiha to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan at that moment, causing his plan to fail.
This lasted until recently, when Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura took the Genin Exams. All three of them failed, but the more they were frustrated, the more determined they became, and they prepared to try again next time.
There was nothing wrong with Kushina's memories, nor was there anything that could not be explained.
But the sky told her of a different world and a different story.
After arriving in this Warring States Period, she heard from the Clan Head of the Uzumaki Clan that in the version of the story shown in the footage, Obito had been crushed beneath a boulder during the Kannabi Bridge mission and rescued by Madara Uchiha and Haku Zetsu. Later, Rin was abducted by Kirigakure ninjas and, for reasons unknown, chose to kill herself using the technique of Kakashi, the comrade who had come to save her.
Obito Uchiha, who had rushed to save them, saw the true nature of the world's darkness.
He had fallen into the arrogant Masked Man now seen in the footage, the kind of man who made the Five Kage raise their heads to look at him, who opened his mouth to say he would become the Ten-Tails Jinchūriki and closed it by saying he would unify the Ninja World.
["Let everyone enter a dream and create a perfect world within it. In a world without conflict or estrangement, where there is only love and justice, everyone will be a winner. There will be no losers and no more regrets."]
Kushina Uzumaki: Right now, I just want to watch Kakashi and Rin beat your damn head in.
The young Obito in the Land of Fire had no idea what he was about to face. He could not possibly imagine that, at this very moment in the Land of Whirlpools, Kushina Uzumaki was plotting how to beat him so badly that even Minato would not recognize him.
He only wished he could crawl into the footage in the sky.
Make that "Masked Man" shut the fuck up already!!
No wonder his parallel-world self, the one who had reverted into Obito Ōtsutsuki, ran faster than a rabbit! This kind of public humiliation was not something a human being could survive! Whoever invented watching footage like this, step forward! I, Obito Uchiha, swear I absolutely will not beat you to death!!
The Five Kage in the footage were even less likely to agree with the Masked Man's idea of unifying the Ninja World.
[Raikage: "Don't be stupid! We are the Five Kage! We would never hand the world over to some inexplicable guy like you!"]
[Kazekage: "Peace that exists only in illusion is nothing but self-deception! Only what we do in reality has meaning."]
[Mizukage: "A world where everyone is dreaming? With no hope and no dreams, that is just you running away all by yourself!"]
[Tsuchikage: "It is nothing more than an excuse for you to turn the world into your own possession!"]
Faced with their doubts, the Masked Man sneered.
["You cannot stop me anyway. This world has no hope at all. It has already rotted into worthlessness. If it has any value left, it is that it will allow me to destroy it and create a brand-new utopia."]
["Enough talk. Hand over the remaining Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails."]
[Gaara: "I will never hand Naruto over to you!"]
"Well said, Gaara!!"
Minato in the Land of Fire and Kushina in the Land of Whirlpools spoke in unison.
Young Obito, who had experienced Naruto's life of being hated, recalled the information in his mind.
"Around this time, wasn't Naruto hyperventilating because of Sasuke?"
Without comparison, there would be no sense of difference.
At that moment, even Madara Uchiha's gaze toward Sasuke Uchiha carried that unmistakable feeling.
"You lost, kid."
Sasuke Uchiha: ~!@#￥%
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