Chapter 432: Obito
When Uzumaki Naruto had first fully accepted Regulus's power, his body had undergone a strange transformation.
At that time, he'd clearly felt his consciousness becoming light, ready to break free from the constraints of his physical body and drift toward some higher, more incomprehensible dimension.
It hadn't been painful or violent, but rather a natural sense of "sublimation." His perspective had expanded infinitely, his understanding of the world, of energy, of existence itself refreshing at a geometric rate.
I'm going to... ascend to a higher dimension.
The realization had flashed through his mind in an instant. If he continued, he would likely escape the shackles of this three-dimensional material world and step into a completely different plane composed of information and energy, with utterly different perspectives and forms of existence.
That might be a more "advanced" state, but it also meant... leaving this world of flesh and blood, of love and hate.
Leaving... this world where the one he loved existed...
The moment that thought arose, Naruto hadn't hesitated for even a second.
Universal Manifestation.
He'd immediately activated that Divine Art.
The sublimation process was forcibly halted. That consciousness and status about to depart was firmly pulled back, re-binding tightly with this human body, with this ninja world.
Naruto didn't want to leave, couldn't leave. Here was everything he cherished, the starting point and destination of his power.
The unknown "higher dimension" might be fascinating, but if it didn't contain those people and things he was willing to protect with his life, then to him, it was utterly meaningless.
---
Inside the Kamui dimension.
Uchiha Obito stared at Uzumaki Naruto, who had appeared abruptly before him, and at Uchiha Satsuki, who had followed immediately after through that pitch-black portal, her cold eyes locked onto him.
Perhaps because he knew escape was meaningless against this inconceivable spatial ability. Perhaps because of the interweaving of post-collapse numbness and final obsession in his heart.
"Uzumaki Naruto..."
Obito's voice was hoarse. "Where exactly did you... learn about those things?"
Naruto gazed at him calmly. "That's something I have no need to explain to you."
"Now... it's time to enumerate your sins."
Sins...
The word scraped harshly across Obito's heart. He instinctively avoided Naruto's gaze.
Could he even count them all at this point?
Obito smiled bitterly in self-mockery within his heart. Too many. So many he'd gone numb himself. So many that for a very long time, he'd already used the grand cause of "creating a new world" to anesthetize himself, viewing them as necessary, cleansable "costs."
But now, when that layer of self-deceptive gorgeous clothing was cruelly torn away, revealing the bloody, filthy truth underneath, that sense of sin was like eighteen years of accumulated putrid sewage, instantly drowning him.
He even felt disoriented, as though that insane, blood-soaked past had been committed by a stranger.
This was because his mental state, under the shock of learning the truth, could never return to what it had been.
That obsessed Uchiha Obito who believed in the Moon's Eye Plan, who believed sacrifices had value, who believed himself a savior—he had died along with the collapse of his faith.
Obito could be compared to a video game player.
Because he'd witnessed Rin dying under Kakashi's hand, he felt his "life game" had reached the worst, most unacceptable ending.
The entire world in his eyes had become a game full of bugs, with disgusting plot, unable to continue—garbage.
So he'd frantically wanted to delete the save file and start over, wanted to enter a brand new world created by him, to open a new save file.
In that new world, there would be a living Rin, a Kakashi, everyone he cared about. He could shed this broken body and heart full of wounds, reclaim that naive dream—to become Hokage, to become the hero who protected his comrades and was loved by everyone.
For that, he'd ruthlessly "formatted" everything in the old save file—relatives, teachers, comrades, the village, even countless strangers' lives.
In his view, those were just "data" in the old game, "redundant files" that had to be cleared to enter the new game.
However now, the truth of the "new game" was exposed—it wasn't some beautiful new world at all, but a complete and utter scam, an ultimate trap that would transform him into a monster and make him do others' bidding.
So what about the old save file he'd "deleted"? What about those people he'd personally "formatted"?
Sensei Minato... Kushina-san... the first generation Akatsuki members... the Mist Village bloodline clans... and countless others whose names he couldn't even recall...
I'm no match for them... should I give up...?
Obito looked at Naruto before him, and beside him that Uchiha Satsuki with her bizarre Mangekyo abilities. Desperate thoughts surfaced again.
He felt numbly indifferent to his own life and death. Deep in his heart, he even faintly craved death, craved using eternal silence to escape this unbearable reality, this absurd life, this overwhelming sin and regret.
But...
Rin...
That name pulsed weakly in the dark, frozen depths of his heart.
At least... at least I have to bring Rin back...
Seize the Rinnegan... use Rinne Rebirth...
This was the final obsession keeping him from completely collapsing into a walking corpse. Even if the world was a lie, even if he was deeply sinful, even if nothing had meaning anymore... at least, he had to let that smile bloom in this world again!
That was the starting point of all his pain, and perhaps... it could also become the... endpoint... of his absurd life.
In the depths of his numb eyes, insane determination suddenly burst forth!
Give up? No! Before achieving this goal, he still had to... make one last gamble!
Obito's right hand shot up abruptly, palm aimed at the gap between Naruto and Satsuki.
A wooden spike instantly burst through the skin and flesh of his palm!
The target wasn't Naruto or Satsuki themselves, but the Yomotsu Hirasaka portal behind them that hadn't yet completely closed, still connecting to the Hidden Rain Village chamber!
---
"..."
Uchiha Obito's consciousness fell into a bizarre discontinuity.
One second ago, the wooden spike bursting from his palm had just torn through the air, locked onto that pitch-black portal, chakra surging wildly through his body as he prepared for more intense, perhaps more desperate counterattacks.
The next second...
What happened?
Memory had severed the most critical process in the middle, leaving only abrupt, disconnected "before" and "after." His brain was completely blank, unable to comprehend his current state.
Somewhat stiffly, slowly, he lowered his head.
His gaze fell on his own chest.
There, a sword was thrust straight through. The blade tip protruded from his chest, stained with warm blood—his own blood—dripping one drop at a time, soundlessly, onto the cold gray stone surface of the Kamui dimension.
Heart... pierced?
There was none of the expected heart-wrenching agony, no freezing sensation of life force rapidly draining, not even much feeling at all. Like looking at a wound unrelated to himself.
Squelch.
The sound of a blade withdrawing from flesh.
Uchiha Satsuki's wrist withdrew smoothly, slowly pulling the blood-stained Kusanagi sword from Obito's heart. As the blade left his body, Obito's form swayed slightly, beyond his control.
Only now did Obito belatedly realize—the battle had already ended.
He hadn't seen how she'd moved, hadn't felt any chakra fluctuation, hadn't caught any sign of an impending attack.
It was as though... all the process during the time when "he was stabbed" had been skipped, deleted.
Tokoyo—time deletion.
For Obito, the conclusion had arrived so abruptly. No process, only result.
"I... lost."
Obito murmured, his voice as light as a sigh, carrying a deep weariness like dust settling and... relief? Perhaps.
His final desperate struggle driven by obsession had appeared so laughable and powerless before absolute strength and bizarre ocular techniques.
"Obito..."
Just then, a familiar voice, gentle yet filled with pain, softly rang out, resonating directly in the depths of his consciousness as it verged on dissipating.
With difficulty, extremely slowly, he turned his neck, his somewhat blurred vision directed toward where the voice came from.
Against the eternal gray background of the Kamui dimension, a figure stood quietly there. Golden short hair, eyes gentle but now filled with complex emotions, that face that always wore a sunshine-like smile but now was interwoven with deep regret, incomprehension, and unbearably thick guilt...
"Sensei...?"
Namikaze Minato.
The Fourth Hokage, the ninja he'd once most respected and admired... and also one of his... victims.
Obito's cracked lips moved slightly, uttering those two words that had been sealed in his heart, carrying a rust-like bitter taste.
In his vision, Minato's figure seemed somewhat illusory, not a physical body but more like a chakra remnant or some kind of consciousness projection.
But those emotions, that gaze—they transmitted with incomparable reality.
Minato looked at this disciple who had once been naive and passionate but was now covered in sins and approaching death, regret in his eyes almost overflowing.
"I'm sorry..."
Obito stared at the deep guilt in his teacher's eyes. An absurd thought flashed through his gradually darkening mind.
If...
If on that day, Sensei had... recognized that the masked enemy controlling the Nine-Tails... was actually me...
Would everything... not have developed to this point today?
This "if" pierced into his already riddled heart, bringing a belated but sharper pain than the sword wound. Unfortunately, there were no "ifs." Sins couldn't be erased, lost lives couldn't return.
This was Uchiha Obito's... final thought.
He gave up.
Gave up using the Hashirama cells remaining in his body to repair his heart's wound, gave up his final survival instinct.
Let it end like this.
Weariness like the deepest ocean water completely drowned him. His consciousness, like a kite with its string cut, rapidly plummeted and sank toward the boundless dark abyss.
Slowly, extremely submissively, he closed both eyes. His final breath dissipated along with them.
Inside the Kamui dimension, deathly silence returned, leaving only that corpse gradually losing its warmth, and that glaring pool of blood on the stone surface.
Naruto watched this scene quietly, watched his father's face full of guilt and sorrow slowly fade into the air, and sighed softly.
"Father really does like to take all responsibility onto himself."
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