Chapter 103: The instigator of the Nine-Tails Rebellion, Uchiha Obito!
"Defile a hero's reputation?" Uchiha Akira almost burst out laughing.
He looked at Kakashi, who was trembling all over due to his emotional agitation, and found it somewhat amusing.
"A hero?"
"Kakashi Hatake."
"The hero you speak of personally summoned the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox to the center of Konoha Village. The hero you speak of controlled the Nine-Tails and destroyed half the Village, killing hundreds of ninja and civilians. The hero you speak of caused the death of his own teacher, Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, and caused the death of his teacher's wife, Kushina Uzumaki. As for Naruto Uzumaki, because of him, he became an orphan without parents from birth and became the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki despised by the entire Village."
With each sentence Akira spoke, Kakashi's face grew paler.
Kakashi's body trembled violently.
"Obito... he..."
"He's already dead! He died at Kannabi Bridge! He died saving me! I saw him crushed by a giant rock with my own eyes! His name is on the Memorial Stone! I carved it there myself! How dare you! How dare you insult him with such lies!"
Kakashi pulled down his eye patch, pointing to his left eye.
"This eye! This is what Obito left for me! This is proof of a hero! Not of the demon you speak of!"
"Kakashi, you are deceiving yourself. I fought him. At that time, when I shattered his mask, was the face I saw also a coincidence? That right side of his face, crushed by a giant rock and covered in hideous scars. I'll say it again, I fought him." Akira's voice was cold.
"Not only did I shatter his mask, but I also confirmed one thing: He only has one Sharingan in his right eye socket."
These words instantly stunned Kakashi. Kakashi's left eye was Obito's. So the masked man's right eye...
A thought so absurd it sent shivers down Kakashi's spine, uncontrollably emerged from the deepest part of his heart. No. Impossible. This is just a coincidence.
"I don't believe a single word you said." Kakashi's voice no longer held its previous fury, only an empty, powerless persistence.
"Is that so?" Akira snapped his fingers.
An Uchiha Jōnin immediately emerged from the shrine, holding a scroll, which he respectfully handed to Akira. It was an old, internal Uchiha archive.
Akira unrolled the scroll and casually tossed it at Kakashi's feet. On the scroll, there was a black and white photograph attached. The young man in the photo wore goggles, with a goofy, radiant smile on his face.
Uchiha Obito.
Akira looked down at Kakashi from above.
"Perhaps he's grown a lot, and half his face is covered in hideous scars. But the outline of that face, the spirit in that eye... Kakashi Hatake, can you truly not recognize him?"
Kakashi's gaze stiffened, falling upon the photograph. That face he would trace countless times every day before the Memorial Stone, in his memories.
"No... This isn't proof... This proves nothing!" Kakashi still couldn't believe that Obito would be the instigator of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox incident.
"Stubbornness is the cheapest thing." Akira seemed to lose his last bit of patience.
His eyes narrowed, and he directly activated his Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Since you're unwilling to believe, then I'll let you see it with your own eyes."
Kakashi's body suddenly stiffened. He felt an irresistible ocular power instantly invade his brain.
Before Kakashi, a figure appeared out of thin air. That person wore the Akatsuki Organization's black cloak with red clouds, and on his face, he wore an orange, single-eyed spiral mask.
Kakashi's pupils suddenly constricted to their extreme.
It was him! The culprit who caused the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox incident, who caused the death of his teacher and his teacher's wife!
"Look closely." Akira's cold voice seemed to come from another dimension.
The next second, the masked man's figure raised his hand, slowly reaching for his mask.
Click.
A soft sound. The mask was removed.
Beneath the mask was a face that Kakashi found both familiar and unfamiliar. The left half of that face still retained the contours of his youth. But the right half was covered in hideous, gully-like scars caused by the crushing. In his right eye socket, a pair of blood-red Sharingan coldly stared at Kakashi.
Time, at this moment, seemed to stand still.
Kakashi's mind was blank. All his persistence, all his beliefs, all his self-deception... The moment he saw this face, they crumbled and turned to dust.
That was not a false image created by Genjutsu. That was Uchiha Akira, using his powerful ocular power, projecting the truth he had witnessed with his own eyes, intact, into Kakashi's mind.
The Genjutsu image slowly dissipated. Kakashi's world, however, could never go back. In his mind, only that face remained. That face, half handsome, half hideous, belonging to Obito.
Past moments resurfaced in Kakashi's mind. He was always late, always the last one to arrive, and always had the word "comrades" on his lips. This was the same fool who, crushed beneath a giant rock, entrusted his Sharingan to Kakashi.
"Kakashi... you must... protect Rin..."
His dying request, his final words, still echoed in Kakashi's ears. The phrase, "Those who don't value their comrades are worse than trash," was a creed he lived by his entire life. Now, it was like a sharp knife, plunging fiercely into Kakashi's heart.
Obito.
Did you forget? The one who said those words was you.
Why? What on earth happened to make you like this?
Could it be... that rainy night... that nightmare he could never escape his entire life... The wail of a Chidori... The warm sensation of something piercing his chest...
Rin.
Those eyes, disbelieving yet with a hint of relief. Her last words as she collapsed into his arms…
"Ka… Kashi…"
Could it be… did Obito see that scene? So… he wanted revenge? Revenge on himself. Revenge on his incompetent self, who failed to protect Rin. Revenge on Konoha.
"Ah…"
Kakashi let out a painful wail.
"Why…"
Kakashi clutched his head, stumbling backward, finally collapsing to his knees, heavily landing on the ground. He looked at his own hands, stained with the blood of his comrade.
"Why… did it turn out like this…"
"Obito…"