Obito Uchiha spoke in a way that lived up to his reputation for dropping bombshells.
He addressed the people of the scroll world, saying, "In the original world, after Pain killed Kakashi, Naruto persuaded Nagato to revive the fallen of Konoha."
"After that, Nagato died, and Konan's heart went cold, like a lamp going out. She came after me, planning to kill me with her six hundred billion explosive tags."
So that was the real meaning behind the six hundred billion red bean cakes…
It referred to the number of explosive tags Konan had stockpiled in the sea of the Land of Rain.
And they were all meant to blow up Obito Uchiha.
Having to choose between choking to death on red bean cakes or getting blown apart by explosive tags was a ridiculous dilemma. Couldn't adults just choose neither?
"But we didn't die. We even killed Konan instead?" Adult Obito asked, genuinely curious.
Ōtsutsuki Obito said, "Strictly speaking, we should have died. But we were prepared. We set aside a three-tomoe Sharingan in advance for Izanagi's resurrection technique."
Itachi looked at Adult Obito's left eye, which had remained shut the entire time, and said,
"Your intangibility can only last five to ten minutes at most. After that, you can't maintain it in actual combat. That's why Konan prepared explosive tags that could detonate continuously for over ten minutes. It was more than enough to kill you."
"…"
That level of analysis was way too thorough. It was obvious that within Akatsuki, Konan wasn't the only one who wanted to kill 'Madara Uchiha'.
Adult Obito turned his gaze toward Itachi Uchiha, his eyes saying clearly: Stop pretending. I know you want to kill me.
Itachi met his stare calmly, as if replying: I'm not pretending…
Young Obito said, "The main world really feels strangely symmetrical."
"Symmetrical?"
Naruto and Young Obito both noticed the oddity as well.
"Look at this. Kakashi-sensei was killed once at that point, then revived. Not long after, Obito was also killed once and revived. That's way too much of a coincidence, dattebayo."
"And the mission scrolls for me and Obito feel symmetrical too."
[Mission Level: SSS] [Mission Content: Kill the Masked Man]
[Mission Level: SSS] [Mission Content: Rescue the Masked Man]
Thinking back on the contents of the two scrolls, Adult Obito couldn't help pressing a hand to his forehead.
"Yeah, it really is a coincidence," he complained in an exaggerated tone. "But could you not make it sound like I went to kill Konan just because Pain killed that idiot Kakashi? That's way too weird."
"That's right!" Ōtsutsuki Obito added. "Back in our quiz world, someone even guessed that I wanted to kill Konan because Pain killed my girlfriend. Seriously, what was that?"
Rin burst out laughing. "Oh no. I suddenly feel like Kakashi would actually be pretty great as a girl."
"Hey! Rin!" Young Kakashi quickly stopped her. "Don't start fooling around with Obito and Naruto too!"
Rin stuck out her tongue. After coming to this world, a lot had happened, but being able to prevent the regrets that were about to befall everyone already felt like the best possible outcome.
To redirect the fire, Young Obito immediately resorted to the shameless tactic of selling out his teammates. "Naruto and Sasuke aren't any different, are they? They both learned mouth-to-mouth resuscitation one right after the other!"
Standing beside Rin, Sakura muttered, "I seriously can't look at the four of you right now. Rin, let's just go train together."
"Hey, hey, hey! Don't do that!!"
Naruto and Obito protested loudly, panicking at the idea of the team's only two girls being split off. Sasuke and Young Kakashi, equally tsundere, both snorted coldly and made it clear they had no interest in getting involved with idiots.
Ōtsutsuki Obito brought the conversation back on track. "Come to think of it, in the main world, Sasuke is always asking Naruto what he means to him. And every time, Naruto answers that he's a friend…"
Naruto tilted his head, clearly thinking there was nothing wrong with that. After all, he and Sasuke were friends.
Ōtsutsuki Obito let out a sigh and continued,
"Anyway, that's probably the reason. In our quiz world, Naruto once obtained six hundred billion Friend Cards…"
"Ah!" Everyone around reacted at once. "You mean that thing that changed Ōtsutsuki Kaguya and Black Zetsu?!"
"Yes, exactly." Even Ōtsutsuki Obito felt a chill just thinking about it. "Six hundred billion. That's scarier than explosive tags."
"Scarier than explosive tags?"
Even the First Hokage, the Second Hokage, and the brothers Indra and Ashura were piqued by that.
Naruto blinked his big eyes as he looked at Obito, listening intently as he explained what six hundred billion Friend Cards actually meant.
Ōtsutsuki Obito swallowed. "Anyone who gets that card from Naruto becomes a good friend of 'Naruto Uzumaki.' Each card represents one point of affection. And because of a certain special reason…"
"A special reason?"
"That part doesn't matter. What matters is that in our world, both Kaguya and Black Zetsu had their affection maxed out by Naruto!"
Seeing the strange look on Ōtsutsuki Obito's face, everyone instinctively swallowed and stared at him in tension.
"What happens when affection is maxed out?"
"Even if it's not complete blind devotion, they'll still follow Naruto's words without question."
"Eh?!"
Ōtsutsuki Obito said, "So I actually have a much easier way to deal with Black Zetsu…"
"But didn't you say the Friend Cards were already used up? Just how many friends has Naruto made, anyway?"
"It's not something I can explain in a few sentences. In short, Black Zetsu listens to Kaguya. Even without Naruto's Friend Card, tossing him over to Kaguya won't cause any problems."
The others listened, still half-lost.
Kakashi repeatedly confirmed that this Obito from another world wouldn't pull anything strange.
After Ōtsutsuki Obito gave his solemn assurances, everyone reluctantly accepted it for now.
"All things considered, since that's the case, we should prioritize the SSS-rank mission in Itachi's hands as our first objective. Let's see what kind of reward we get for completing a mission of that level," the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, said.
The Second Hokage immediately voiced his agreement.
The First Hokage was the action-oriented type. Aside from matters involving the Uchiha, he almost always listened to his younger brother. Once the Second Hokage took a stance, he also agreed to first return the eyes taken from the Madara faction to their clan.
Leaves always return to their roots. Those eyes that belonged to the Uchiha clan were destined to end up in the hands of the few remaining Uchiha descendants.
With that, the plan was adjusted slightly. Before Adult Obito and Ōtsutsuki Obito traveled to other parallel worlds to seek more help and tools, and before helping Obito eat more red bean cakes, they would first head to Akatsuki to deal with Black Zetsu, the hidden threat that had been lying in wait for over a thousand years.
"If everything goes smoothly, Naruto's new mission should be completed as well."
Kannabi Bridge Minato spoke with a hint of a smile as he looked toward the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
The two exchanged a glance, once again confirming the same suspicion in their hearts…
The mission scrolls were very likely connected to their counterparts in parallel worlds.
Young Naruto was momentarily stunned by what they said.
Only after being reminded did he realize that, just a moment ago, a new mission had appeared in his scroll.
[Mission Rank: S] [Mission Objective: Help Black Zetsu reconcile with his brother.]
"Black Zetsu's brother…"
"Ah!!"
"Isn't that Hamura Ōtsutsuki? The one who was supposed to be living next door, but ran off to wander the ninja world out of curiosity?!"
"But where is he now? Does anyone know?"
"Don't worry," Minato Namikaze said. "He has a toad from Mount Myōboku with him. We can stay in contact."
Ōtsutsuki Obito nodded and raised his right hand, opening a black spatial rift beside him.
"Then we'll go straight to Black Zetsu and retrieve the Sharingan stored in the secret location."
After exchanging brief farewells, Ōtsutsuki Obito and Adult Obito stepped into Yomotsu Hirasaka and arrived directly at Akatsuki's base.
Having been away for far too long, this world Obito had completely forgotten that today was the day of Akatsuki's regular meeting.
And Ōtsutsuki Obito from the quiz world remembered it even less.
They had barely appeared in a shadowy corner of Akatsuki's base when they heard Deidara's dissatisfied voice.
"How many times has Itachi Uchiha skipped the regular meeting already?! Hmph. Why does he get to stop showing up whenever he wants?! That's not fair! Hmph."
Pain: "…"
Madara and Itachi really hadn't shown their faces in a long time.
Sasori was unhappy about it too. "I hate people who don't follow the rules, and I hate waiting even more." After a brief pause, he added, "Why don't we just treat Itachi Uchiha the same way we treated Orochimaru and label him a traitor to the organization?"
Kakuzu said, "Neither of them has carried out missions lately. That means the organization's finances are at least short two people's worth of income."
"Can you stop talking about money all day long?!" Hidan snapped. On the way over, he'd taken a detour to the black market exchange, and the stench of corpses clinging to him had only made him even more fed up with Kakuzu. He turned to Pain. "Leader! I want a new partner! Anyone's fine, but I'm not teaming up with that piece of crap anymore!"
"Anyone's fine?" Pain looked at Sasori.
Sasori: "No."
Then Pain looked at Deidara.
Deidara said, "I think Sasori's danna is pretty good, hmm. Not interested in swapping over to the zombie duo."
Pain's gaze returned to Hidan, flat and unbothered. "Forget it. No one wants you."
"What about Konan and Zetsu?!" Hidan protested. "Yeah, that pitcher plant thing doesn't really match my faith, but anything's better than my current partner, right?!"
Kakuzu couldn't have cared less about Hidan's whining. To him, standing around listening to this was a waste of time. He'd rather head back and make money.
Zetsu was one thing, but trying to snatch the leader's partner?
Wasn't that a little too bold?
Sure enough…
Pain said, "Keep teaming up with Kakuzu, or I'll seal you with Chibaku Tensei. Pick one."
"…"
Tch…
Listening from behind a rock, Obito followed the Akatsuki argument with a complicated expression. Nagato… had his temper been getting a bit too sharp lately?
Men didn't have "those days," did they?
But then again… it made sense.
How many people did the organization even have?
Itachi and Kisame couldn't be reached. The Masked Man came and went like a ghost. And apparently Zetsu hadn't been seen in ages, either. With that many moving parts out of control, Pain and Konan, as the organization's public leaders, were already right on the edge.
Obito deliberately made a small noise, letting them notice someone was there.
"Who?!" someone shouted.
Pain instantly pulled with Banshō Ten'in toward the direction behind the rock!
Unfortunately, even with the Rinnegan, techniques like Shinra Tensei and Banshō Ten'in had a deadly natural counter…
Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan.
Adult Obito stayed behind the rock, not showing himself.
Pain watched as his Banshō Ten'in veered off and latched onto a man with white hair, dressed in a Konoha ANBU uniform, wearing a black cat mask.
His first thought:
Madara…
Dyed his hair?
If the whole organization painting their nails couldn't rein in his "art," were they really going to have to deal with hair dye next?
His second thought:
You said you were going to Konoha to scout out the enemy.
And you ended up blending in as the Hokage's ANBU?!
At this rate, why not just come back next time as the Hokage himself?!