["What's wrong? Did sand get in your eye again?"]
["A ninja can't cry. Besides, I'm not dead yet."]
Watching the projection, seeing that idiot Kakashi, who had lost one eye saving him, turn around and comfort him instead, Young Obito Uchiha finally understood what Obito Ōtsutsuki meant when he said social death had no upper limit.
He looked at Adult Obito and Adult Kakashi. The projection showed his self from another parallel world, and that idiot Kakashi, reliving what they had once gone through.
["I'm always like this. In the end, everyone else has to help me finish the mission. I'm a real dead last. I can't help, and I only cause trouble!"]
At that moment, the projection actually exposed Obito Uchiha's inner thoughts.
Adult Obito went numb all over. He wished he could plug his ears, as though that would somehow stop the entire world from hearing it.
Adult Kakashi was still awkward over the lovestruck girl nearby who had exclaimed, "They spoil each other so much~~~," a statement that truly defied common sense.
"Ah, so you do have some self-awareness after all~"
Young Kakashi watched the projection and did not forget to take a jab at Obito beside him.
"I've already awakened my Sharingan! I'm an elite Uchiha now! I won't drag anyone down again! Hmph!!"
"Sure, sure, crybaby."
Naruto said, "But Obito really does cry a lot, dattebayo. You're the first person I've seen who cries more than Sakura. Ah, no, maybe Sakura still cries a little more?"
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura said with a smile, "permission to beat up that idiot?"
Naruto jumped in fright and quickly backed down.
Sasuke: "..." He gave Naruto a speechless look. That gaze seemed to warn him: if you don't want it to hurt, stop talking.
Sasuke's silence meant he had not approved it, so Sakura gave a forceful huff and shook her fist in front of Naruto's face.
At the same time, Obito in the projection remembered the bold words he had spoken earlier.
["At least in my eyes, White Fang-senpai is a true hero! Someone who doesn't cherish his comrades isn't even worth being called trash!!"]
["I can't keep just talking without taking action anymore!"]
Rin said, "I noticed it just now. Besides Obito's inner voice in there, I think I also heard music?"
"That's BGM," Obito Ōtsutsuki explained to Rin. "It's probably there to stir up the viewers' emotions."
"There's even something like that?" Naruto pressed a hand to his chest. "It really does feel like I'm about to burn up, and somehow it feels familiar."
Even so, the ninja clans of the Warring States Period did not have much hope.
The difference in strength and combat experience was too great. Unless reinforcements appeared, that silver-haired brat from the Uchiha Clan was undoubtedly dead!
But only the Uchiha Clan understood clearly. At a time like this, the Uchiha Clan's latent instincts were most likely to be awakened!
A special chakra stimulated the optic nerves at the back of Obito Uchiha's eyes.
Experienced ninjas all noticed that the enemy had already reached the Uchiha boy's back.
["Die, brat!"]
["Squelch—!"]
Because of the viewing angle, all everyone saw was the stunned, frozen back of the Iwa ninja.
One second, two seconds...
That sturdy body collapsed diagonally to the side.
Gradually revealing the young Uchiha ninja's vermilion eyes.
Fugaku Uchiha, who had only recently been revived, widened his eyes. Although he had already known all this long ago after seeing Kakashi's left eye, actually witnessing the situation back then still left him shocked by Obito's talent.
Even the geniuses publicly acknowledged by the clan.
Shisui Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha had not awakened two tomoe in both eyes the first time their Sharingan opened!
Uchiha clan grounds.
"Sure enough! That kid awakened his eyes!"
"Two tomoe right from the start! Even in our era, that talent would be unmatched, wouldn't it?!"
"No wonder he awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan later! The number of people who start with two tomoe is extremely rare."
Even Tajima Uchiha, the Clan Head of the Uchiha Clan, nodded with satisfaction.
A child of his clan, even if his abilities had not stood out before, could crush adult ninjas from other clans once he gained the Sharingan.
If Tajima Uchiha felt that way, then the other ninja clans of the Warring States Period became even more wary of the Uchiha Clan.
Naruto said, "I know why it feels familiar! Back when we fought Haku, Sasuke awakened his Sharingan like that too, to protect his comrades! But when Sasuke awakened his eyes, I don't think both eyes had two tomoe."
Sasuke said, "Why do you remember something like that so clearly, you super idiot?!"
While the people of the Warring States Period buzzed with discussion, Young Obito in the projection had already finished bandaging Young Kakashi. Kakashi's left eye had lost its sight.
The Uchiha and Senju who had seen Kakashi all remembered that even after he grew up, he still only revealed his right eye.
It was easy to imagine that his left eye had been ruined.
["Rin's chakra is chaotic."]
["If I'm guessing right, she's under Genjutsu."]
[Iwa ninja: "Oh? These two brats aren't bad."]
Next, the two young ninjas fought against an elite ninja from Iwa.
Light was scarce in the dark cave. If they were not ninjas, most people's eyesight would not have been able to keep up with their movements. In the darkness, they could only faintly see the cold glint of the weapons in the three figures' hands and hear the "clang, clang" of blades striking.
Land of Fire, Hatake Clan.
"They may be a little young, but that really is excellent teamwork."
The Clan Head of the Hatake Clan could not understand how a child from his own clan had gotten mixed together with a young ninja from the Uchiha.
Land of Whirlpools, Uzumaki Clan.
"It seems we need to warn the Senju to be careful of the Uchiha. That golden-haired man from before is especially difficult to deal with. They must be cautious and not careless."
Minato sneezed for no reason, wondering who was talking about him.
In the projection.
A ninja battle often unfolded in an instant. The Iwa ninja, who had underestimated the young ninjas, suffered after Obito Uchiha's strength surged with the awakening of his Sharingan and was knocked to the ground.
The two boys successfully rescued the Medical-nin on their team.
At this point, Adult Obito and Adult Kakashi looked up at the projection in the sky without saying a word.
The moment of parting was about to arrive.
["I see. Their teamwork is good, but in the end, they're still just a few brats."]
Because the viewing angle had always followed the two young Konoha ninjas, when they heard the Iwa ninja who had already fallen speak and saw him climb back to his feet, the Warring States ninjas, civilians, and nobles could not help breaking into a cold sweat for the three children.
["Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction!!"]
The ninjas of the Warring States Period immediately realized something from the people involved. Whether in appearance or the ninjutsu he used, that man clearly carried the characteristics of a ninja clan from the Land of Earth. They were also strikingly similar to the fifty or so enemies who had fought against the blond "Yellow Flash."
Generally speaking, hiring ninjas was done based on proximity.
Nobles of the Land of Fire would choose ninjas from the Land of Fire, while nobles of the Land of Earth would choose ninjas from the Land of Earth.
A situation like this would only occur when nobles from the Land of Fire needed to travel to the Land of Earth, or when nobles from the Land of Earth needed to travel to the Land of Fire.
But in cases like that, they would usually choose a larger ninja clan and send more elite ninjas.
They would not send a few children out on a mission like this.
They vaguely guessed something, but they did not dare admit it.
The old and new grudges among the hundred clans of the Ninja World were already impossible to untangle. They truly could not imagine any way for two, or even more, ninja clans to work together for a single mission.
In the projection.
As the Earth Release ninjutsu struck, the hideout began to collapse, and huge falling rocks smashed toward the ground.
["Not good!"]
["Run!!"]
The three young ninjas named Obito, Kakashi, and Rin were fleeing outside when Kakashi, having lost the sight in his left eye, nearly got crushed by a giant boulder.
["Ugh!"]
["Kakashi!!"]
Just as the largest boulder was about to fall on him...
Time suddenly slowed.
Obito Uchiha widened his Sharingan, rushed back, picked up Kakashi Hatake, and threw him toward the cave entrance.
At this moment, Young Kakashi and Young Obito, everyone from Team Minato and Team Kakashi, and even the revived Madara, Hashirama, Izuna, Tobirama, Fugaku Uchiha, and the others all widened their eyes, focusing all their attention on the projection in the sky.
Even the people nearby fell silent, their hearts hanging tense in their chests.
Far away in the Uchiha Clan and Senju Clan, the five brothers and four brothers still thought the projection in the sky was showing something happening right now. They were so anxious they wanted to go save them.
Butsuma and Tajima stopped them.
Experienced and sharp-eyed mature ninjas like the two of them had already judged from many details that the projection in the sky was definitely not from their parallel world. It was something happening, or that had already happened, or would happen, in another parallel world.
Without the ability to travel through time and space, they did not have the honor of interfering in the affairs of another parallel world.
They could only watch from Obito Uchiha's point of view, staring through the newly awakened Sharingan as the giant boulder fell toward him.
Minato Namikaze of Kannabi Bridge watched the disaster befall his three students with his own eyes, and he knew this was the first fork in the road that shaped the Masked Man's fate. Yet he was powerless to do anything.
They could rewrite one parallel world through the mission scroll, or even two.
But the main world would never change.
And the thousands upon thousands of parallel worlds branching from the main world were not something the few of them could alter one by one.
The projection showed a pile of rubble swallowed by dust.
The "Yellow Flash" that even the watching ninjas subconsciously hoped for did not arrive.
Adult Kakashi was doing his utmost to restrain himself.
Adult Obito felt no regret over what had once happened to him. If time went backward, he would still choose to give Kakashi the chance to live.
Young Obito, Young Kakashi, and Rin stood frozen in place.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura also stared in disbelief.
["Are you okay? Rin, Kakashi..."]