[Itachi: "…Don't tell me we're headed for a plot kill."]
[Hashirama: "Feels like it…"]
[Tobirama: "It tracks. The moment Obito saw Naruto, his will probably wavered."]
[Darui: "So he's imagining the 'what if'—if he hadn't followed Madara, would he be living Naruto's path?"]
[Kurotsuchi: "But he's come this far… is he really going to throw it away?"]
Obito stood before a gravestone.
A gentle music-box melody glided in, too warm for a battlefield.
In the vision, a teenage Obito and Kakashi shared the silence, both gazes fixed on Rin's engraved smile.
If he hadn't followed Madara…
If he'd kept chasing the Hokage dream…
Day after day, the boy looked up at the Hokage Rock and worked.
One scene later—Obito in a Hokage cloak, wind tugging the hem, staring straight into the lens.
It shattered like a mirror.
Back in reality, the Creation Blade in Obito's hand fractured with a brittle crack… crack…
"Why are these images… inside my head?"
Jaw tight, he surged forward anyway—moth to flame. Even knowing the end, he could only choose forward.
Naruto and Sasuke flickered out of sight.
A single cut—no, a single resolve—sliced time and fantasy both.
A seam tore open across Obito's abdomen; tailed-beast chakra bled out in a shimmering stream.
Splinters of Truth-Seeking Orbs skated the air and nicked his cheek; his short hair rippled in the wind.
Silence—then gasps.
[Sarada: "That… actually worked?"]
[Boruto: "???"]
[Mitsuki: "His will wavered that hard…"]
[Shinki: "If his will didn't break, maybe we wouldn't even be born."]
The leaking chakra wriggled like living fireflies, each bijū struggling to pull free.
Naruto and Sasuke grabbed hold.
"Kid, you know the drill!" Kurama barked.
"Yeah! Tug-of-war—haul them all out!" Naruto shouted back.
But without Shukaku's and Gyūki's resonance, those two wouldn't budge—
Until Gaara vaulted in: "The one who once shared a body with One-Tail… was me. Leave it to me."
Sand lashed out, snaring Shukaku.
In the same breath Killer B slid in with that coast-to-coast swagger, linking to Gyūki.
Four anchors pulled as one.
Then came the Konoha Twelve, pouring in.
Shikamaru, through Ino's Mind-Body relay, blasted a single order across the entire front—reinforcements, now.
Naruto's hand on Obito's chin of fate—and Naruto saw Obito's childhood.
The loneliness. The empty house. The one white moon named Rin falling into a red sea.
Anyone would break. Naruto's eyes stung.
Truth was, he and Obito were cut from the same cloth—
Naruto just got what Obito never did: teachers who showed up, comrades he could trust.
[Itachi: "However you look at it… war is cruelty."]
[Sasuke: "Hn."]
[Sarada: "Thanks to the Seventh, we can live like this now."]
[Boruto: "Hey—what about Sasuke-sensei? He's the shadow of the shinobi world, protecting the other side!"]
[Shikadai: "Low-key… that's pretty cool."]
[System: "No matter how cool Sasuke is, the audience is cooler."]
Naruto's fists trembled. He understood Obito too well; he could have turned out the same.
He'd just been luckier—by teachers, by timing, by friends who refused to let go.
A sudden roar tore the air.
"Don't underestimate the power of a Ten-Tails Jinchūriki who stands neck-and-neck with the Sage!" Obito snarled.
He yanked back with brute force—the advantage Naruto's side had carved out snapped like fishing line.
Sasuke's Susanoo flared, firing a web of spectral tethers to bind the swirl; the Twelve landed and added hands to the rope.
"Naruto! You told us to lend you strength—let us fight to the last second!" Kiba grinned, feral.
"Guys…" Naruto's voice shook.
Shikamaru's mouth quirked up. "And next on stage…"
"The Ninja Alliance Technique!!"
The music exploded.
Hundreds of thousands of shinobi hurled themselves from the rim of that abyss, a storm of bodies and will, plummeting like meteors—
Hands out, jaws set, eyes bright with the most ridiculous, beautiful stubbornness in the world.
This was the War of Liberation.
The War for Freedom.
Odds near zero. Stakes: everything.
Minato split his chakra like golden silk. "Everyone—take my hand!"
Threads of warm sunlight fanned out across the ground.
The Alliance grasped the lines as one.
"Good…" Naruto drew a breath.
"On three—we pull together!"
Every village. Every flag. Every grudge put down for one grip on one golden rope.
One!
Two!!
THREE!!!
The crater howled as the massed line heaved.
Above, the moon hung cold; below, the earth's core felt close enough to touch.
[Ōnoki: "This is too hype—ow, my back!"]
[Deidara: "Useless geezer!"]
[Itachi: "I'm not crying, you're crying."]
[Hashirama: "Look at that—different villages, different nations, one conviction."]
[Tobirama: "A once-in-a-century moment…"]
The brothers' eyes shone. They knew exactly what this meant: if they won here, the next fifty years might finally know peace.
Hearts braided in fire. Enemies yesterday. Comrades today.
[Madara: "Obito… you can out-pull them, can't you?"]
[Obito: "…"]
The rope burned. The abyss screamed.
And somewhere in that storm of hands and light—
a single knot began to slip.
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