Jiraiya brought Nawaki to the Capital of the Land of Fire.
"Big Brother Jiraiya, did she really turn into a 'salted fish' as you said?" Nawaki asked with a frown.
Jiraiya was a bit unaccustomed to being called 'Big Brother' by a teenager.
"Ever since you and Kato Dan died, she left Konoha and wandered around, spending every day drinking and gambling."
"But recently, she hasn't been gambling as much; instead, she's immersed herself in the virtual world."
"Virtual world? What's that? An illusion?" Nawaki asked curiously.
"The virtual world? It should be considered a game! You'll know once you play it; it's a pretty good game."
And so, Jiraiya walked towards the Daimyo's Palace in the Land of Fire, explaining the current situation of the Ninja World to Nawaki.
On the other side.
Naruto and Minato Namikaze, who had returned to Konoha, were watching the live feed from Jiraiya's location.
As for Rin, she was listening to Kushina Uzumaki recount the changes in the Ninja World and everything Obito had done for her over the years.
Learning that Obito had turned dark because of her, and even killed her teacher and his wife, the kind Rin's eyes turned red.
Rin looked at Kakashi, who was also listening to Obito's dark past, and asked, "Kakashi, I'm sorry... Kakashi, I made you bear so much too."
Kakashi looked at Rin and shook his head. "Right now, let's think about how to convince Obito."
"Where is Obito? Can I see him?"
Hearing Rin's words, everyone present looked at Naruto.
Naruto shrugged and said, "If you want to see him, you'll have to wait! Right now, both you and Kakashi are Obito's psychological shadows!"
Kakashi, upon hearing this, looked at Naruto with his dead-fish eyes and thought, "Isn't it because of that little play you put on..."
Earlier, Kakashi had tried to enter the virtual world to find Obito Boss.
He did find Obito Boss, but Obito didn't want to see him and even controlled a large group of small monsters to attack him.
If all the small monsters weren't killed, Obito could avoid appearing before Kakashi.
When Kakashi eliminated all the small monsters, Obito did appear, but before Kakashi could say anything, Obito immediately chose to use his ultimate move, [Self-Destruct].
Obito's self-destruct didn't kill Kakashi's character, but he himself was instantly 'KO'd' and returned to the respawn point.
At this, Kakashi realized that the little play Naruto had created had indeed given Obito quite a psychological shadow.
Hearing that she couldn't see Obito for now, Rin felt a bit lost.
Just then, Naruto spoke again, "Rin, if you want to see him, you can go as an NPC."
"I don't think he'll have as big a psychological shadow towards an NPC."
"Huh? Can players also become NPCs?" Kakashi asked, confused.
"Tsk, just give yourself a name like 'NPC,' and it'll be fine! Anyway, Obito is such a dunce he won't notice."
Kakashi: ...
"Okay! I'll go see Obito as an NPC!"
Rin still agreed. She wanted to try and bring Obito back to the right path, as she felt truly guilty for making him live in hatred and darkness because of her.
Naruto glanced at the screen next to him and, realizing that Jiraiya wouldn't meet Tsunade for a while, decided to watch Rin and Obito's meeting first.
He took out a virtual helmet and handed it to Rin.
Rin put it on without hesitation.
Under Naruto's guidance, Rin created a character named [NPC], naturally using Rin's original appearance.
Actually, if Naruto had wanted to, he could have used his game administrator privileges to directly turn Rin's character into a real NPC.
But... Naruto wanted to see if Obito could tell the difference between an NPC and a real person.
In the virtual world.
At the border between the Ninja Zone and the Magic Area.
Many Ninja would go to the Magic Area to collect materials.
There were also many players who chose the Magic Area as their starting point and came to the more populated Ninja Zone.
Initially, one could come and go freely here.
But in the past few days, a new Boss had appeared, named [Obito].
Obito, this Boss, rarely appeared, but if someone wanted to cross the zone, they would be pulled into a strange space.
In this space, waves of small monsters would appear, and once all the small monsters were eliminated, the Great Boss Obito would appear!
This Boss could be fought in a group or solo. The more people entered the space, the more small monsters there would be, but... Boss Obito's health and attack power remained unchanged.
The only troublesome thing was that at the critical moment, Obito would unleash a self-destruct! If his remaining health was too low, he might be instantly taken out by the self-destruct.
Although Obito, this Boss, was very troublesome... many people were waiting here to fight him.
The reason was... defeating Obito had a chance to drop a very rare ring, [Unwavering Loyalty].
Ring, Unwavering Loyalty: Wearer's base attributes are doubled. If given to a loved one, both parties' attributes are doubled (Become dark for your loved one! A darkened you will be the strongest!).
Doubling attributes was an incredibly powerful piece of equipment.
So, many people came specifically for it, hoping to get the Unwavering Loyalty; that would be truly amazing!
Even the Third Hokage and Xiao Tuan Tuan were here, waiting to fight Obito. Both wanted to get the Unwavering Loyalty and give it to each other.
When Naruto and Rin arrived, there was already a long queue.
Because Obito, this Boss, was a 'real person' level Boss, there was only one. Until one group finished fighting or died, the next group had to wait.
Naturally, waiting was not Naruto's style. He directly teleported out the people who were currently fighting Obito Boss, then replaced them with himself and Rin, entering the space.
After entering the space, Naruto immediately hid himself.
Ever since he became a game Boss, Obito felt very tired.
Eliminating one group of people would just lead to the next. Sometimes, when a group had strong coordination or strong individuals, he couldn't defeat them and could only choose to self-destruct.
Now Obito finally understood what Naruto's so-called punishment truly was.
It was endless death, an endless cycle here.
The 'little play' from before was just an appetizer compared to this punishment.
The only fun here might be watching some of his former Konoha friends come to beat him up, their goal being that so-called Unwavering Loyalty.
And most of the people who came were in pairs.
Like Gekkō Hayate and Yūgao Uzuki.
Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuhi.
There were many male and female couples.
What made Obito most speechless was that Might Guy also came. Obito, in his role as Boss, asked him, "Why do you want Unwavering Loyalty? You don't even have a girlfriend."
And Might Guy's answer almost made him spit out three liters of blood.
"Of course, I want to give it to my best friend, Kakashi Hatake!"
However, thinking that the other party was Might Guy, that brainless guy, Obito felt relieved.
Finally, Obito directly chose to self-destruct.
Besides them, there was a pair named Monkey King and Xiao Tuan Tuan.
They were also the most frequent and most troublesome challengers.
Obito knew how to successfully drop Unwavering Loyalty from himself: by killing Obito without giving him a chance to self-destruct.
And Monkey King and Xiao Tuan Tuan were the only pair who almost killed him before he could even self-destruct.