Inside the Kamui Dimension, there was a deathly silence.
Countless gray cubes floated in the void, forming the sole framework of this world—cold and devoid of life.
From the moment Minato Namikaze uttered that name, time seemed to freeze.
"Obito."
Those two syllables were like a key, turning a long-buried lock.
All the presence the masked man had fabricated crumbled in an instant.
Minato stared at Obito's solitary exposed eye. Those deep blue eyes, usually as calm as the deep sea, finally flickered with a complex swirl of emotions.
At this moment, Minato no longer possessed the sharp edge he showed toward enemies. He briefly set aside his responsibilities and stance as the Hokage. There was only regret and heartache.
In this moment, he was not the Yellow Flash, nor was he the Fourth Hokage.
He was simply Uchiha Obito's Sensei.
After a long silence, a voice emerged from beneath the mask. It was no longer the gravelly, aged tone mimicking Uchiha Madara. It was the slightly hoarse voice of a young man.
"How much... do you know?" Obito asked.
Minato let out a soft sigh that echoed clearly through the empty expanse.
"Everything about you," he paused, watching the lone eye tremble slightly with shock, before adding, "I'm sorry, Obito."
An apology?
Those words seemed to trigger a nerve in Obito. A string inside him, stretched to its breaking point, finally snapped.
"You're sorry?"
His voice spiked, filled with sharp mockery and uncontrollable madness.
"What good is an apology!"
He roared suddenly, his single eye bloodshot as rage and pain surged like a crimson tide.
"If it worked, would Rin come back?!"
"If you truly felt sorry, why were you late every single time! Every time!"
His voice shook, each word sounding as if it were being torn from the depths of his throat.
"It was the same at Kannabi Bridge! It was the same when Rin died! You never make it in time!"
"But why!"
Obito's roar turned into a demand, fueled by overwhelming resentment.
"Why were you so fast this time? You reached me in just a few breaths!"
"You stopped me. You saved those civilians!"
"Why them?!"
"Why could you save everyone else, but you couldn't save Rin? Why!"
The roar echoed through the gray space, slamming against the cold cubes before bouncing back into their ears. This was the question buried in the deepest part of his heart, the root of his descent into darkness.
Why was the world so unfair?
Why was the person he cherished most always placed last by his most respected Sensei?
Minato stood quietly, making no attempt to argue or escape. He endured all of his student's fury and interrogation, letting those sharp, blood-stained words stab into his heart one by one.
He looked at the almost frantic youth before him. He saw the face twisted by hatred and the pain nearly overflowing from that eye.
He could imagine the scarred face hidden beneath the mask. That raspy voice was the answer itself. He could imagine how this boy, who should have grown up in the sunlight, had struggled alone in darkness and despair all these years.
As Obito's breathing grew heavy and his strength for screaming seemed spent, Minato slowly raised his hand as if to reach out. But halfway there, he stopped.
He simply watched him with eyes full of sorrow.
"All these years..." Minato's voice was incredibly gentle. "You've had it hard."
Minato didn't choose to preach grandiose philosophies. He offered only a simple, heartfelt acknowledgment of Obito's suffering.
Silence fell over the Kamui Dimension once again.
Obito's body froze. The madness, anger, and resentment in his eyes were wiped away as if by an invisible hand. That boiling sea of blood froze in an instant.
He took two slow steps back on the pillar, creating more distance between himself and Minato. Then, he let out a light chuckle.
"Hard?"
Obito repeated the word, his tone carrying a bone-chilling calm.
"Sensei, you're as naive as ever."
He looked up, his single eye becoming deep and bottomless once more. The emotionally volatile youth had vanished, replaced by the Obito who had returned from the abyss.
"Hardship, pain, sadness... aren't these things a given in this world?"
His voice had regained its steady rhythm, yet it was more unsettling than his previous shouting.
"As long as there is light, there must be darkness. As long as there are winners, there must be losers."
"As long as 'love' exists, 'hate' will inevitably follow."
"This is the law of the world, an unchangeable causality."
He spread his hands as if demonstrating an absolute truth.
"You apologize to me because you feel responsible for Rin's death. You feel heartache because I fell into darkness."
"See? It's 'love' again."
The corner of Obito's mouth curled into a mocking arc beneath the mask.
"Your 'love' makes you feel 'guilt' toward me. And my 'love' for Rin makes me feel 'hate' toward you, toward Kakashi, and toward this entire world."
"What a ridiculous cycle."
Minato listened quietly, his brow furrowing slightly.
"So, your apology is meaningless, Sensei," Obito's voice turned cold. "You're just trying to ease your own guilt to maintain that 'perfect teacher' image in your mind. You don't understand what I'm pursuing at all."
"I don't need your apology, and I certainly don't need your pity."
He pointed toward the void around them.
"What I want to do isn't to scrape by in this reality full of contradictions and pain. It is to create a world of true peace—one where there are no losers, no wars, and no partings."
"A world... where Rin is still alive."
His voice held a feverish devotion.
"In that world, everyone can find happiness. The dead will return, and lost love will reappear. That is the only true salvation."
"And you," Obito's gaze locked onto Minato again. His Sharingan spun slowly, the three tomoe morphing and connecting into the shape of a shuriken. "You are nothing more than a guardian of this fake world. You cannot comprehend my vision. Therefore, you are the greatest obstacle on my path to true peace."
The moment the words left his lips, Obito's silhouette vanished.
Without a second of hesitation, Minato shifted his body instantly to the left.
Ssh!
A kunai grazed his Hokage Cloak and slammed deep into a distant gray cube.
Obito reappeared in another direction.
"Give up, Sensei."
His voice came from all directions, creating an eerie echo in the enclosed space.
"In here, the speed you're so proud of is meaningless. You have nowhere to run."