[Itachi: "So… what choice will Obito make next?"]
[Obito: "Madara, you bastard—"]
[Madara: "A disposable pawn. Nothing more."]
The sky-screen blinked to black. One thin line appeared:
"My turn."
When Obito's eyes opened again, he was in white silence—a world of ice and wind.
"Am I dead?"
"Nope. I pulled you back," said a Naruto clone, then added, "but—"
He filled Obito in. The audience blinked. Ice field? Space-hopping? Where did the war go?
[Sasuke: "Hold on—where did you dump me? One second I'm on the battlefield, the next…"]
[Minato: "And where did Madara disappear to?"]
[Kakashi: "Good question. I don't like not knowing."]
Obito pushed himself upright. His time was short; his choice, simple:
Use Kamui to find Uchiha Sasuke.
Across the glacier, Naruto vs. Kaguya detonated like thunder. A single straight right from Naruto fractured an entire ridge; the shockwave sang.
[Boruto: "Wait… that's Dad at full power?"]
[Sarada: "Seventh Hokage… terrifying."]
[Iwane: "Uh, who's the long-haired white beauty?"]
[Kaguya Ōtsutsuki: "So I appear, at last."]
[Madara: "…Who are you? And where did I go?"]
[Hashirama: "Madara, maybe you turned into that pretty girl?"]
[Madara: "...Hilarious."]
[Tobirama: "Big brother, please."]
Obito knew the win condition: Naruto + Sasuke together for the seal.
Problem: Sasuke had been shunted to another dimension; no one present—except Obito—could chase him.
"I'll link her gateways with Kamui and track Sasuke," Obito said. "But if I burn out there… that's it."
"I can supply chakra!" the clone offered.
"From a clone? Not enough."
[Ebisu: "So… is Kaguya strong?"]
[Young Naruto: "Stronger than me, then."]
In the Hokage office, adult Naruto rubbed his scalp. He remembered perfectly: without Obito stepping in, that fight had a bad ending.
On the ice, Kaguya angled to bail from the arena. Obito snapped Kamui into her pathway, piggybacking the jump. The scene whirled—
—into a barren rockland. Black Zetsu sniffed out the clone, traded feints, and the decoy dispelled. Kaguya flickered back to Ice World.
Hidden in the frost, Obito and Sakura exhaled as the threat passed.
"Let's find Sasuke." Sakura flared the Byakugō Seal, pressing warm chakra into Obito's palm.
Blood wept from his eye; space peeled like paper.
Gate #1 yawned open: a volcano world, rivers of red—no Sasuke.
Meanwhile, the real Sasuke trudged a blazing desert, sand in his boots, tongue sandpaper-dry. Great. Teleported to the world's largest dehydrator.
[Boruto: "As expected of Master Sasuke."]
[Teen Naruto: "What's 'as expected'?!"]
[Teen Sasuke: "You and your son… exact same personality."]
Gate #2: a realm tiled with floating rhombi, gravity weird, physics offended—still no Sasuke.
Obito swayed. His lifespan was a candle-stub; his chakra, borrowed. Only his will kept the world from tilting.
Respect rose across the chat.
He panted; sweat pooled at his brow.
"Rest first?" Sakura asked, worry creasing her eyes.
"Chakra check."
"We still have reserve," she admitted. "But we need a return ticket…"
"If we fail to find him, you must still get back," Obito said softly. Then—teeth gritted—he cut Gate #3.
A sulfuric sky drooled acid. It hissed down like strings of glass.
Sakura stepped in front, shoulders squared. Two smoking welts carved across her arm.
She tore away the scorched sleeve, white skin welted and raw.
[Sarada: "So that's how Mom got the scars…"]
[Adult Sakura: "Mm."]
[Mikoto: "My daughter-in-law—beautiful and strong."]
[Fugaku: "For a kunoichi to stand at super-Kage level… that's remarkable."]
"Treat it," Obito urged.
"No time." Sakura reset her stance, palm on his shoulder. "Open the next one."
The audience went quiet—then warm. For all the jokes, this was the part that mattered:
a dying man burning his soul for the team, and a girl who refused to let him fall.
Obito's Mangekyō spun. Space shuddered.
Gate #4—wind howled from a slate-gray void.
Gate #5—a mirrored ocean to the horizon.
Sakura's chakra pulsed, Obito's voice ragged:
"One more… I can feel him—just beyond—"
The ice field shook. Far off, Naruto's shout cracked the sky; Kaguya's sleeve split under a Rasengan like a comet.
Obito's vision tunneled. Sakura's hand tightened—
"Obito! Stay with me!"
A final twist of Kamui.
The fabric of the world ripped—
—revealing a sun-seared dune and a lone figure turning, cloak snapping in the wind, Rinnegan gleaming.
Sasuke.
He raised two fingers to his temple, Sharingan tracking the tear in space.
"You're late," he said—voice dry as the desert.
Obito's knees buckled.
The portal wobbled, Kaguya's shadow fell across the ice world, and something black and laughing slithered along its edge.
Sakura hauled with both hands, Obito's eye blazing to ash—
Would the gate hold long enough to bring Sasuke home?
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