Naruto Uzumaki's mission scroll and the young Obito Uchiha's mission scroll were unfolded and laid out together, one above the other.
The newest missions on both scrolls were exactly the same.
[Mission Rank: SS]
[Mission Objective: Eliminate the mutual prejudice between the Uchiha and Konoha (0/99).]
–
[Mission Rank: SS]
[Mission Objective: Eliminate the mutual prejudice between the Uchiha and Konoha (0/99).]
…
Fugaku Uchiha, Mikoto Uchiha, the young Itachi Uchiha, and the others all stared at the scrolls belonging to Naruto and the young Obito.
"So this is it?" Fugaku asked. "The thing that brought you to our parallel world?"
"Yes," Kannabi Bridge Minato nodded. "But up until now, Naruto and Obito having the same mission has only happened once, and that was a D-rank mission."
Fugaku Uchiha's expression turned serious.
"That D-rank mission was…?"
Minato pointed to the very front of both scrolls.
[Mission Rank: D]
[Mission Objective: Have Kakashi Hatake read aloud pages 7, 8, 15, 31, 106, and 207 of Icha Icha Paradise.]
The thirteen-year-old, earnest Itachi Uchiha stared at the scrolls.
"Make Kakashi-senpai read a book? That Icha Icha—"
"Mother, why are you covering my mouth?"
"Good boy, don't say it out loud, Itachi," Mikoto Uchiha said with a smile that somehow felt dangerous. "Your mouth will rot, you know~"
Adult Kakashi: "..."
Adult Obito suddenly recalled the consequences of letting his curiosity get the better of him and buying a copy of Icha Icha Paradise.
He shot a glance at Kakashi beside him, unable to imagine how the man had managed to read that book all the way through with a straight face.
The young Obito pointed at the SS-rank mission on his scroll and Naruto's.
"What does this '0/99' in parentheses mean?"
"It seems to represent the number of dialogues," Minato said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.
It was similar to dialogue-based quests in RPG games, where players had to talk to a certain number of NPCs to gather information.
Naruto and the young Obito exchanged a look. Perhaps because of their similar personalities, they both saw the same determination reflected in each other's eyes.
"We have to do it anyway, and now we actually know what to do!" the young Obito said, jumping up and pumping his fist. "Leave all the grandmas and grandpas in the village to me!"
Rin was delighted to see Obito regain his motivation and immediately jumped up, pulling the young Kakashi along to help.
Seeing Rin do that, Sakura also reached out, wanting to pull Sasuke along with her.
Sasuke looked conflicted. He was terrible at this sort of thing, and deep down, he didn't think it would really solve the problem.
The young Itachi Uchiha spoke up, his expression subdued.
"Actually, Shisui and I already talked about this within the Uchiha clan before. But up until now, we still haven't found a single person willing to be the first to integrate into Konoha."
That sense of disappointment after every discussion was hard to bear. Even Itachi Uchiha, known as a genius, and Shisui of the Body Flicker had spent that period with furrowed brows, unable to see any hope for reconciliation between the village and the clan.
"Then we'll talk again! We'll keep talking until they're willing to try!" Naruto said firmly.
The young Sasuke snapped back, "Are you an idiot?! They already rejected you. What's the point of going again?! Do you really think you're that persuasive?!"
The two, who had only just stopped arguing, immediately started clashing again.
This time, though, Naruto was far calmer than Sasuke.
"As long as the mission hasn't completely failed, we should try a second time, a third time, even a hundred times! Have you forgotten the first question of the Chunin Exams?!"
The question back then was whether to continue participating in the exam.
What it tested was the courage of genin.
Remembering how a single sentence from Naruto, driven by sheer conviction, had led dozens of remaining examinees to pass together, the young Sasuke clenched his fists, clearly struggling.
"No matter how many times I get rejected, I won't give up!" Naruto said. "If people think giving up now is the smart choice, then I'll be the idiot who's willing to stay stupid for life. I absolutely won't give up!"
"!!!"
Inside the room, the young Sasuke stared in shock.
Outside, eavesdropping, Fourth Shinobi War Sasuke recalled a fragment from Naruto's memories—
"I'll never give up on you, Sasuke! If abandoning your friends is the smart thing to do, then I'll gladly be a fool for the rest of my life!!"
"…Such a huge idiot."
Under the stunned gazes of the adults, Naruto and Obito stood up, rolled up their scrolls, and took it with them.
Rin followed after Obito, with the young Kakashi beside her.
Seeing that Sasuke was still hesitating, Sakura looked conflicted, but in the end she chose the same path as Rin. She bowed to Kakashi-sensei and Minato-sama, then hurried after Naruto.
The Uchiha were a deeply reserved clan. With their sensitive dispositions, they protected their hearts behind hard shells.
Like crabs, unless you pried open that armor first, it was impossible to know how soft and tender they were inside.
Naruto, hotheaded as he was, lacked patience in many things, but never when it came to dealing with people.
For twelve years, no matter how much he gave, he had never received those things in return. He was already used to it.
He knocked on the door of a random Uchiha household, only to find someone he was somewhat familiar with—Inabi Uchiha.
"Big brother, I need to talk to you."
"I have nothing to talk to you about."
Bang. The door was shut right in his face.
In response, Naruto Uzumaki simply pounded on the door even louder…
…
Over on the other side, the young Obito Uchiha received a completely different kind of treatment.
He went to visit an old woman he had often helped in the past.
In the memories of these elders, the Obito standing before them wasn't some great villain of the Fourth Shinobi World War. He was the little hero who had sacrificed himself to protect the village during the Kannabi Bridge mission.
Seeing Obito alive, the old woman grabbed the three members of Minato's team and dragged them straight into her courtyard.
She served tea, Obito's favorite red bean cakes, and fruit candies she had never been able to give away.
Before any real conversation even began, Obito himself, standing in for the version of him from this world, was already rubbing his eyes hard, overwhelmed with regret and emotion, wiping away tears.
Up on the eaves, the adult Obito held onto this world's rebellious Obito, forcing him to look carefully.
Just to preserve a Rin who would never grow up in his own dreams—or in Kakashi's—was it really worth erasing all memories of Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara?
"Whether this world is the real one or the false one, that's for you to decide yourself," Adult Obito said calmly. "Chakra can connect two worlds. A ninja's true death isn't when the body is destroyed, but the moment when no one in this world remembers that you ever truly existed."
"I came to understand that when I saw my younger self again, and when I saw Minato-sensei's son. Watching the passing of the torch between Minato-sensei's team and Kakashi's team, between the old and the new, that's when it finally hit me."
Adult Obito cast a sideways glance.
The rebellious Obito wore neither a mask nor goggles. The scar on his right cheek pulled his whole face into a tight, crumpled mess as he cried silently, choking it back.
"Ugly."
"Shut up. You're uglier than me!"
"..."
The young Kakashi, ever alert, had already noticed the two other Obitos on the eaves, but he didn't say a word.
The young Obito, chewing on red bean cake, had long since derailed the conversation. He bragged about how brave he'd been during the Kannabi Bridge mission, how he'd saved Kakashi and Rin, and how he'd even obtained a precious Sharingan.
Rin watched him and Kakashi with a tolerant smile.
Thankfully, Obito still remembered to steer the topic back. Once the Sharingan came up, it naturally led to the Uchiha clan and the Nine-Tails incident from years ago.
"The Uchiha are all idiots," Obito said bluntly. "They've got way too much pride and they're stubborn as hell!"
"If no one takes the initiative to show them kindness first, they'll never realize that other people don't actually have prejudices against them! So…"
With the bamboo skewer from his red bean cake still between his teeth, Obito clasped his hands together and bowed deeply.
"So even if it's just a smile, please try to accept our foolish clan!"
Rin and Kakashi looked at Obito's earnest effort, their eyes filled with the easy acceptance of comrades.
Soon after, the two of them also joined in, pleading on behalf of the Uchiha clan, even though it had little to do with them personally.
"Yare yare~~"
With a soft, rustling sound, the old woman reached out with trembling hands and rubbed Obito's spiky head.
"Children as warm-hearted as Obito-chan really are rare in the Uchiha clan. But their nature isn't bad at all."
"There was once a young man from your clan who found my bundle. Instead of returning it right away, he carried that heavy thing behind me the whole way home, and only set it down at my doorstep."
"Huh?! That really happened?"
"But when I wanted to invite him in for a cup of tea, he'd already run off." The woman, well into her eighties, chuckled softly. "Though I did see the Uchiha Police Force emblem stitched on his sleeve."
"Uchiha… Police Force…?!"
…
Meanwhile, Naruto simply used Shadow Clones to keep the guy named Inabi tied up in conversation.
"I'm telling you, big brother, how are you even harder to deal with than Sasuke?"