"Why?!"
Rebellious Obito was so agitated that his Mangekyō Sharingan flared into view.
"Why was there that cursed seal on Rin's heart?!"
He demanded an answer from the younger Obito of the Kannabi Bridge era, even as a suspicion dangerously close to the truth surfaced in his own mind.
Young Itachi Uchiha quietly glanced toward the doorway. His little brother wasn't asleep and had actually run over to eavesdrop at a moment like this. But with the atmosphere this tense, there was no way for him to step out and coax Sasuke back to bed. He felt caught in an awkward bind.
Fugaku Uchiha's brow furrowed deeply the moment the name Madara Uchiha was mentioned.
"Explain this clearly first. What does this have to do with Madara Uchiha?"
Madara Uchiha had once been the head of the Uchiha clan and one of the founders of Konoha alongside the First Hokage. But his later betrayal, and his act of leading the Nine-Tails to attack the village, was precisely why Konoha had remained wary of the Uchiha ever since.
The Second Hokage in particular had feared the emergence of another Madara Uchiha.
Young Obito glanced at his counterpart from this era.
"In this timeline, if I'd been crushed by that boulder, Madara Uchiha would have appeared and 'just happened' to save me."
"Madara Uchiha died long ago," Fugaku Uchiha said.
"No," rebellious Obito retorted. "When Madara Uchiha fought the First Hokage back then, he had already prepared the Izanagi technique."
Of course Fugaku Uchiha knew about Izanagi.
What he never expected was that the legendary ninja might have survived all the way to the present.
"He died years ago. Of old age," Rebellious Obito added, clearly guessing what Fugaku was thinking.
Naruto suddenly spoke up.
"Wasn't there intel saying Madara and Sasuke are both reincarnations of Indra? If Madara didn't die, then wouldn't Sasuke never have been born?"
Fugaku Uchiha, Mikoto Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, Rebellious Obito, and ANBU Kakashi all turned to stare at Naruto Uzumaki in shock.
"Idiot, don't interrupt the flow over something so trivial!" Sasuke snapped.
"I just thought of it…" Naruto muttered.
No, that was absolutely not a trivial issue at all.
The entire Uchiha family went pale. At the doorway, Child Sasuke listened with a blank expression, completely unable to grasp just how terrifying and powerful Madara Uchiha truly was.
"We'll talk about reincarnation later," young Obito said. "First, let me explain how Madara in this world likely used him."
He pointed at rebellious Obito.
Young Kakashi continued, "From what we understand, Madara Uchiha was misled by the stone tablet at the Uchiha Shrine and devoted himself to realizing the Eye of the Moon Plan engraved on it, a plan meant to sever all cause and effect in the world. 'Chance encounters' and 'rescuing him on a whim' were just excuses. The real reason he chose Obito was because Obito loved this world deeply and dreamed of becoming Hokage…"
"As the Second Hokage once said, the Uchiha are a clan of intense emotions, a clan capable of profound love. But that also means once they lose that love, they undergo a complete reversal. The kinder someone once was, the more extreme they become after losing what they loved."
As young Kakashi spoke, rebellious Obito's expression grew worse and worse.
The part about Madara exploiting Kakashi and Rin's place in his heart, pushing him into despair so he would carry out the Eye of the Moon Plan…
To rebellious Obito, those words sounded muffled and buzzing, as if his ears were wrapped in metal, threatening to make his head split apart at any moment.
ANBU Kakashi kept his head lowered, lost in thought.
The three from Minato's team, no matter how calm they looked on the surface, were still worried about the two of them. Once things settled down a bit, they quietly urged them to find a way to atone for their sins.
But the question remained. How was one supposed to atone for the crime of killing his sensei?
Fugaku Uchiha let out a long sigh after hearing everything. Konoha had never truly trusted the Uchiha, but the resentment within the clan had mostly taken root in the years following the Nine-Tails incident.
What none of them had expected was that, in the end, it really had all been caused by members of their own clan.
The first Nine-Tails incident, the second Nine-Tails incident, and even the Fourth Shinobi World War in another world—all of it traced back to that stone tablet within the Uchiha clan, and to Madara Uchiha, who had been deceived by it.
One could argue that Madara Uchiha was Madara Uchiha, and the Uchiha were the Uchiha. The vast majority of clan members had never lacked the willingness to contribute to Konoha, even to the point of sacrificing their lives.
But from an outsider's perspective…
The situation truly didn't look good. By the next day, people would realize that even if the Hokage told the truth about the past and carefully explained how the Uchiha had originally intended to join the fight but were stopped by Danzo Shimura, it wouldn't change certain facts.
Obito Uchiha attacking Konoha with the Nine-Tails was undeniable. And what Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke had shown the entire world—everyone trapped in an illusion, hanging from trees because of Madara Uchiha—was horrifying and deeply shocking.
First, the Uchiha clan itself fell into deep gloom.
Those who learned the truth no longer shouted about Konoha treating them unfairly. They barely wanted to step outside at all. With their sensitive dispositions, they feared suspicion, scrutiny, and hostility from the outside world.
Second, Konoha's ninja became even more wary of them.
Even former classmates from the Ninja Academy, ones they hadn't been particularly close to, went out of their way to try and persuade them that making the entire world fall into a dream was simply not acceptable.
After all, not every Uchiha was Madara Uchiha or Obito Uchiha. Why should humanity be forced to hang from trees day after day just to dream?
Finally, there was pressure from within Konoha and from the wider ninja world.
Just as the Third Hokage had predicted, by the second day—no later than the third—messenger hawks from other villages began arriving. They demanded explanations about the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and some even proposed convening a Five Kage Summit as soon as possible.
Most of Konoha's recent missions were reassigned to calming wealthy merchants and daimyō. These people were far more afraid of death than ninja. Reality already allowed them to indulge themselves; who would willingly choose to gain everything through a dream?
In short, the situation was extremely grim. Thankfully, Danzo was dead, and there were two Minato Namikaze present. Otherwise, the Third Hokage alone would never have been able to hold things together.
In a sense, the one most responsible for all of this—Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke—should have taken advantage of this rare opportunity. After attending a meeting at the Hokage Tower with Minato Namikaze on the first night, he should have returned to the Uchiha clan to spend time with his father and mother, to say what he had kept in his heart, and to make up for regrets left unfinished.
But that wasn't how things went.
Much like Naruto Uzumaki from another world, who, after falling into a limited Tsukuyomi world, initially threw a tantrum and refused to return to Menma Uzumaki's home, Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke also felt that the world before him did not belong to him.
His father, his mother, and Itachi were the family of that innocent, untainted Sasuke Uchiha. Such warmth and beauty…
…were not something someone like him deserved.
Having spent nearly his entire life as an avenger, he could no longer return to being the Sasuke Uchiha he once was.
Walking aimlessly through the streets of Konoha, Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke felt utterly out of place in the world. The murmurs and pointing fingers around him seemed to come from a distant horizon, so far away that he couldn't even hear them clearly.
By the time he reached the most remote edge of Konoha, already planning to camp out somewhere closer to the river for the next few days, he realized that the presence following him from the village streets still hadn't left.
"Come out."
Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke stopped.
The tracking was clumsy, yet even after being called out directly, the follower still refused to reveal themselves…
A purple Susanoo arm manifested along the outline of Sasuke's shoulder blades, grabbing the person who dared to tail him yet lacked the nerve to appear, lifting them straight up.
The moment he did, Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke froze.
"Put me down! Right now! Or I'll beat you with the Clone Technique they just taught us at the Ninja Academy!!"
Dangling by the collar, thin, small, and pitiful, was a little blond kid…
Wasn't this Naruto Uzumaki, the one Sasuke had actually wanted to see?
Unfortunately, this wasn't Naruto from the Fourth Shinobi World War era.
Susanoo released its grip, dropping him to the ground.
Child Naruto hit the ground and sprang back up immediately, firing off a Clone Technique at Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke.
"..."
Sasuke might not know everyone, but he knew Naruto.
This was the guy who could use Shadow Clones and a Transformation Technique to pull off a reverse harem against Kaguya. Was a high-level technique like the Shadow Clone really something Naruto Uzumaki, that idiot, was supposed to have?
Obviously not.
When Child Naruto's Clone Technique produced two tiny Narutos, barely bigger than fists, hopping around and shouting that they'd show him how tough they were, Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke went still.
He almost laughed.
An emotion he hadn't felt in a long time welled up in his chest, a strange soreness, as if something soft and fragile had been touched.
"Super idiot."
"Huh?!" Child Naruto jumped in anger. "You don't just look like that jerk Sasuke! Your personality and your mouth are just as annoying as his!!!"
Sasuke's black eyes, unobscured by his bangs, locked onto the child, making him bristle uneasily.
"Why are you following me?"