Chapter 483: New Life and Death
The root of everything traced back to an earlier time—when Uchiha Yuu and her only remaining blood relative in this world, the sister she treasured as life itself, Uchiha Satsuki, had that complete and merciless rupture.
Yuu could still vividly recall Satsuki's cold eyes burning with fury and resolute killing intent, along with those words that severed all sisterly bonds and any possible future:
"If—you dare appear before me one more time..."
"...I will kill you immediately."
For those carrying Uchiha blood, intense emotions required an anchor—perhaps some lofty ideal, perhaps burning ambition, or perhaps someone of vital importance.
In Uchiha Yuu's heart, ranking first without question was her sister Satsuki, into whom she'd poured all her protective devotion.
For an Uchiha, when that anchor holding all their passionate emotions not only completely distanced itself but transformed into undying hatred toward oneself, becoming irredeemable... this was tantamount to complete spiritual collapse, the most fatal blow to the Clan of Love.
Without exaggeration, if Shisui hadn't been beside her then, forcibly supporting her crumbling consciousness, Uchiha Yuu would likely have already lost all will to survive in that enormous despair of being completely denied and abandoned by her closest kin, her heart walking toward destruction.
Right at that edge of collapse, to grasp at a final lifeline and prevent her heart from being completely devoured by emptiness and pain, Uchiha Yuu made an instinctive choice—she transferred those fierce emotions with nowhere to go, emotions that would burn herself, onto Shisui who was the only one still beside her, someone she'd grown up with since childhood.
Simultaneously, within despair remained a trace of weak, unwilling-to-surrender hope: What exactly should she do to make Satsuki change her mind? To salvage that seemingly severed relationship?
In the dark emotions bred from the pain of abandonment, torment of self-doubt, and obsessive desire for "redemption," a "reasonable" thought took shape in her mind.
If... if the Uchiha clan could revive again, becoming the shinobi world's premier clan once more, wouldn't things turn around? Might Satsuki possibly... recognize her elder sister's worth again?
This heavy goal of "reviving the Uchiha" naturally connected with Shisui beside her in her fragile and obsessive cognition.
Thus, on that night when emotions burst their banks, Uchiha Yuu begged Shisui with a humble posture carrying desperate sobbing, like a drowning person clutching driftwood. She said she didn't know how to continue living, said she needed to grasp something to prove her existence still held meaning. She spoke incoherently about guilt toward her sister and desire for redemption, plus that vague delusion of "reviving the Uchiha"... Ultimately, all words and emotions converged into one clear and direct request carrying self-sacrifice and emotional transference—requesting that kind of relationship.
Facing such a Yuu, Shisui's feelings were complicated to the extreme.
His emotions toward Yuu were particularly complex. They were childhood companions, had shared similar ideals and troubles. He'd watched her go from a sister caring for her sibling to gradually walking a radical path that ultimately disappointed him... yet those bonds from shared growth memories had never truly vanished.
Even if it wasn't pure romantic love, it contained concern, regret, responsibility, and old affection he couldn't completely sever.
He couldn't bear watching Yuu wander like a soulless shell through despair's shadows.
Even more, he couldn't endure Yuu using such a self-destructive attitude humble as dust to "request" this kind of thing.
Perhaps... there was also the part where he himself was ultimately a young man who, facing such intense and complex emotional impact plus that plea mixing vulnerability and temptation, couldn't completely maintain composure.
Under that combination of multiple emotions and impulses, boundaries were broken.
But—
Shisui abruptly pulled himself from memories, his fingers unconsciously tightening.
So... so fast?!
He rapidly calculated time in his mind. From that chaotic night until now, the medical ninja said approximately one month... the timing matched almost perfectly!
Could it be... the first time resulted in this?!
---
"Fourth Hokage, stay away from the jinchuriki immediately. Otherwise this child's lifespan will only be one minute."
"Don't you care about this brat's life or death?"
"Good, come out now, Nine-Tails."
"The Uzumaki clan is truly impressive. Even after having the tailed beast extracted, you don't immediately lose your life?"
Finally came those words that froze Rin's blood, filled with malice:
"You were once the Nine-Tails jinchuriki. Let this thing kill you."
"BANG—!!!"
Accompanied by a heavy impact sound, in the images, the massive Nine-Tails claw under the masked man's control struck viciously toward Kushina's body!
"No...!"
Nohara Rin released a short exclamation as if her throat had been seized, finally unable to endure this cruel reality far exceeding her imagination.
As if burned, she abruptly released both hands, letting that mirror reflecting sin and suffering clatter to the ground with a crash, light and shadow instantly dispersing.
A pain more intense and deeper than her own death viciously seized her heart, making her unable to breathe.
The development of events was a million times worse than her most terrible expectations!
Obito hadn't merely fallen, hadn't merely sunk into grief over losing her. He completely believed that "Moon's Eye" illusion woven by Uchiha Madara, taking it as faith and embarking on a path of achieving goals by any means necessary.
He wanted to "bring her back" in that illusory world, yet because of this committed unforgivable sins in the real world.
He abandoned the name "Uchiha Obito," donning a mask symbolizing lies and concealment, walking through darkness in "Uchiha Madara's" name.
That figure in the mirror, whether in methods or emanating aura, felt utterly unfamiliar to her—completely different from the somewhat clumsy yet sunny comrade in her memories.
Even watching Obito begin scheming and manipulating for his plan, even personally killing many innocents, deep in Rin's heart remained faint hope. She prayed, wished that in the mirror's next frame, she might see Obito suddenly awakening at some moment, struggling to crawl from that dark quagmire, becoming the Obito she knew again.
But he didn't.
The timeline in the mirror advanced ruthlessly until the scene just witnessed—Obito personally participating in causing Kushina's death—completely shattered her final hope.
Rin didn't dare continue watching. She feared seeing more images she couldn't bear next...
She staggered back a small step, her body trembling slightly beyond control. One hand unconsciously raised, tightly covering her mouth. Scalding tears escaped her will's control, silently, torrentially sliding down her cheeks, dripping onto the Pure Land's grass.
These tears no longer flowed only for Obito's fall, but also for those hurt and killed because of him—tears filled with helplessness and anguished grief.
Then, in reality—or rather, the Pure Land's reality—she raised her tear-blurred eyes, looking toward that "grown Obito" standing several steps away, face pale as paper, eyes filled with enormous terror, regret, and desire to escape.
Rin didn't pick up that mirror revealing everything, didn't look at the possibly more terrible continuation within. She only used all her strength, step by step, walking before the rigidly frozen Obito.
Her voice was hoarse from enormous emotional impact, barely coherent.
"Obito... you..." She took a breath, each word carrying tremendous weight. "...afterward... how much more... did you do?"
Obito watched Rin's tear-stained face and bottomless sorrow in her eyes, feeling every inch of his soul being torn apart.
He almost activated Kamui to completely remove himself from this scene where he had no place to hide his shame, to flee. But ultimately he didn't move. He deeply lowered his head, using all his willpower to squeeze out an answer brokenly, with difficulty, from between his teeth.
"I... I... afterward... in Konoha's center... I summoned the Nine-Tails..."
"Then... Sensei... to reseal the Nine-Tails... protect the village... he... lost his life..."
These words struck viciously at Rin's already overburdened heart.
"Wha...?!"
The instant Rin heard this answer, her vision went black. Intense dizziness struck, making her nearly unable to stand. Her body swayed, almost completely fainting.
She didn't know how she steadied herself or how she could still produce sound. Only on instinct, in a tone filled with endless pain and self-doubt, she asked that most core question—one that terrified both her and Uchiha Obito.
"Obito... you did those things... was it... all because of me? Is it... my fault..."