Those words struck like a thunderclap, instantly shattering the oppressive atmosphere.
Tsunade suddenly lifted her head, and her dim eyes burst with an unbelievable light. She stood up trembling and approached Harry step by step, her footing unsteady, as if she might collapse at any moment.
"What you said... is it true?"
Her voice shook with excitement. Her eyes were red, and her hands clenched tightly into fists, as if she were desperately restraining emotions that were about to break through the dam. As the Fifth Hokage, someone who had witnessed countless moments of life and death, she yearned more than anyone for the departed to return to the world of the living, especially the villagers who had sacrificed themselves to protect Konoha.
But after so many years, she knew too well that the cycle of life and death could not be reversed. The Reanimation Jutsu could summon souls back, but that was not resurrection in the true sense. It also required living sacrifices, which violated basic humanity.
Now, Harry's words were like a ray of dawn in the darkness, letting her see a sliver of hope, yet she did not dare believe it too easily.
Naruto's face flushed with excitement. He rushed to Harry in a few quick steps, grabbed his shoulders tightly, and shouted, "Harry, do you really have a way? You can't lie to me!"
His voice carried a sob. Familiar faces flashed through his mind, Iruka-sensei's patient teachings, Kakashi-sensei's bright smile, and the many comrades who had fallen in battle. They were all incredibly important people in his life.
If they could be revived, Naruto felt that he would be willing to pay any price.
Shikamaru abandoned his usual laziness and calm, quickly stepping forward and staring at Harry with a solemn expression.
"You're sure you're not joking? This isn't a small matter."
He understood in his heart that if the villagers could be revived, Konoha would regain its vitality. But something this heaven-defying was too difficult to believe so easily.
Choji wiped away his tears while muttering, "If everyone can come back, I'll never be picky about food again..."
His chubby face was filled with sincerity as he remembered the days of carrying out missions and sharing food with his friends. Those days that should never have returned now had a faint possibility of reunion because of Harry's words.
Ino clasped her hands tightly, her eyes full of expectation.
"Please, Harry. Bring everyone back. Konoha can't be without them."
As a sensory ninja, she could clearly feel the sorrow and despair filling the village, and she desperately wanted to break it all apart.
Shino pushed up his glasses, and the eyes behind the lenses shone with hope.
"If this is truly possible, then for Konoha, it would be an immeasurable blessing." He had always been calm, but even his voice could not hide his excitement now.
Kiba clenched his fists and shouted, "Harry, if you can do it, I'll listen to you from now on!"
Akamaru whimpered softly beside him, as if he too understood this conversation that touched life and death.
Tenten's eyes shimmered with tears, and her voice trembled slightly.
"That's wonderful... I hope this isn't a dream."
Everyone's gazes focused on Harry at once. Their eyes were filled with hope, expectation, doubt, and nervousness, as if he were the god who would decide the cycle of life and death, and the entire future of Konoha hung upon his next answer.
Faced with everyone's expectations, Harry naturally did not disappoint them. Meeting their burning gazes, he drew his wand and began continuously tracing emerald-green magic circles.
"Then watch closely, everyone. This is time magic powerful enough to cover all of Konoha."
The moment Harry finished speaking, a dense space-time magic circle suddenly unfolded with him at the center.
The space-time magic circle rapidly expanded, and in the blink of an eye, it completely enveloped all of Konoha.
Then, a change that made countless ninja wildly excited began to happen.
Everything seemed to move backward in time, returning to its former state.
The fragments of buildings destroyed by Planetary Devastation began to fly in reverse. Bricks, stone, and timber assembled themselves automatically. The broken statues on Hokage Rock healed back together, and the faces of the Hokage grew clearer and clearer.
The wounds of the injured lying on stretchers healed in reverse, and dried blood flowed back into their veins.
Tsunade stared blankly as her bloodshot hands became smooth again, and the bloodstains on her medical uniform turned into specks of starlight before fading away.
The most shocking sight was the lives that had been lost. As the blood that had once gone cold turned hot again and returned to their bodies, they actually began to breathe once more.
Kakashi, Iruka, and the other ninja who had sacrificed themselves in this disaster stood up one after another, staring blankly at Konoha as it gradually returned to the way it had been before the calamity.
All of Konoha seemed to have been rewound. Ruins turned back into bustling streets, smoke became morning mist, and damaged forehead protectors regained their shine.
When everything ended, Harry put away his wand. Konoha, which had been on the verge of death, now pulsed with new life. He looked at the villagers embracing and cheering, and a faint smile rose on the corner of his mouth.
"The gears of time should have turned like this from the beginning."
After doing all this, Harry did not stop. Instead, he looked toward a certain direction outside Konoha.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the dense forest and arrive dozens of kilometers away, where he saw two figures in red-cloud cloaks fleeing madly.
Harry twisted his wrist and drew a light line through the air. A portal opened in front of him, and then two figures walked out of it.
Those two were none other than Nagato Uzumaki and Konan, the masterminds behind everything.
When the two of them had just appeared, they looked around in confusion.
The scene before them was clearly Konoha. But Konoha had obviously already been destroyed by them, so why was it completely intact now?
What exactly had happened during the short time they had been gone?
After looking around, both of them fixed their gazes on the pink-haired girl in front of them.
It was this pink-haired girl who had easily defeated Deva Path Pain and effortlessly crushed the power of the Rinnegan. If anyone could restore Konoha after it had been completely destroyed, there was no doubt that only she might be capable of doing it.
Although he had already lost, Nagato Uzumaki was extremely unwilling to accept it. He wanted to know exactly who he had lost to, and what kind of power had defeated him.
"How did you do it? How did you restore Konoha to its former state? It's almost as if... time was reversed!"
Naruto Uzumaki jumped out and explained for Harry.
"Hahaha, you actually guessed right! This is the power of time reversal! Harry turned Konoha's time back to an hour ago, back when Konoha hadn't been destroyed by a damned bastard like you!"
After learning the truth, the last breath of defiance in Nagato Uzumaki's heart completely faded.
He truly was not a god.
The pink-haired girl before him was the real god.
A power capable of reversing time was something even the Rinnegan could never achieve.
Just as Nagato Uzumaki completely lost his will to fight, Harry handed the two of them over to the people of Konoha and told them the information he had gained by observing the timeline.
"This person with the Rinnegan is Nagato Uzumaki. He is also the controller of the Six Paths of Pain, as well as the public leader of the Akatsuki."
"Wait, public leader?" Tsunade Senju noticed the implication hidden in those words and frowned. "Are you saying Nagato Uzumaki is not the true leader of the Akatsuki?"
"That's right. Even Nagato Uzumaki, who possesses the Rinnegan, is nothing more than a pawn behind everything." Harry turned his head and looked toward the forest in the distance, then suddenly attacked.
Gravity twisted space-time and forcibly pulled a figure over.
This figure looked different from ordinary people. His body seemed to be stitched together from two different individuals, with a clear dividing line running from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, splitting his body into left and right halves. The left half was white, while the right half was black, creating a stark contrast, like some black-and-white monster from an old horror comic. The sight gave people a strong visual impact and an eerie feeling.
After being restrained by Harry's gravity, the figure struggled fiercely, trying to break free. He even transformed his body into wood and rooted himself in the ground to escape, but Harry had locked firmly onto his main body, leaving him unable to move even an inch.
After a moment, he finally gave up struggling. The round pupil on his black half contracted sharply, and he said hatefully, "Damn it, who are you? How do you know I exist?"
The people of Konoha were also confused. Tsunade Senju asked, "Harry, who is he? Could he be the real mastermind?"
Harry did not answer their question. He smiled lightly and said, "Don't rush, everyone. The development of your world is quite interesting. I'll explain it to you slowly."
Harry turned his head again and looked in the direction Zetsu had just been pulled from, then sneered.
"What, even now, you still won't come out? Are you really going to keep hiding like a coward? If you keep hiding, I'll destroy this pair of Rinnegan."
Since this concerned the all-important Rinnegan, the person hiding behind the scenes could no longer sit still.
A vortex suddenly appeared before everyone. Then an Akatsuki member wearing a spiral mask and a red-cloud cloak appeared in front of them.
"I have come, ignorant junior. What business do you have with me?" Obito Uchiha deliberately put on an arrogant, superior tone.
Seeing that the true mastermind had appeared, Naruto Uzumaki could not help questioning him.
"You're the real mastermind? Who are you? Why did you attack Konoha? Why do you want to start a war?"
Obito suddenly let out a low laugh. Half of his mask slipped, revealing twisted scars beneath it, and the Sharingan in his left eye spun wildly in the shadows.
"The mastermind? For now, you could say that. You ask who I am? I am Madara Uchiha!
"My goal as Madara Uchiha is not to start war, but to create permanent peace.
"Tragedies are constantly occurring all across the shinobi world. Only after my plan is complete can the entire shinobi world escape pain and step into an eternal, beautiful future!"
"Madara Uchiha!"
When that name appeared, the entire crowd instantly burst into uproar.
Who was Madara Uchiha? He was once the demon of the shinobi world, a man who could be mentioned in the same breath as Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi.
He possessed power that could crush the shinobi world. He was the nightmare of the other Four Great Shinobi Villages, and also a legend of the shinobi world.
Now that someone claiming to be Madara Uchiha had appeared before them, everyone's first reaction was denial.
Tsunade Senju stared at the mysterious man before her and refuted him.
"You can't be Madara Uchiha. Madara Uchiha was killed by my grandfather long ago during the battle at the Valley of the End. You're an impostor!"
Obito Uchiha remained calm. He simply said, "Could it be that you don't know my Uchiha clan possesses the forbidden technique Izanagi? I rewrote the reality of my own death at the cost of one Sharingan. Of course I could still be alive."
It was a flawless explanation, and now even Tsunade Senju somewhat believed that the person before her might truly be Madara Uchiha.
Seeing that he had temporarily intimidated everyone, the corner of Obito Uchiha's mouth lifted slightly with a trace of pride.
But he did not let down his guard, because he knew that the most troublesome person was not the people of Konoha, but Sakura Haruno, who had suddenly become someone else.
Obito Uchiha slowly walked toward Nagato Uzumaki, who was collapsed on the ground, while quietly speaking to Harry.
"Junior, I admit you have some skill. You actually discovered my true identity. But your meager ability is no match for mine.
"Of course, out of consideration for Hashirama, if you do not get in my way, I will not deliberately kill you. So move aside. The Rinnegan belonged to me from the beginning. Otherwise, all of you will remain here."
But a figure still blocked his path. Harry stood on the road Obito Uchiha had to take and looked at him with interest.
"The power of your Uchiha clan is truly interesting. You can actually turn extreme emotion into your own power.
"Just like you, Obito Uchiha. You were originally only a dead last, but after awakening an excellent Mangekyo Sharingan, you leaped straight into the ranks of Kage-level fighters."
Obito Uchiha's pupils contracted sharply. He had not expected his greatest secret to be exposed by Harry in a single sentence.
"What did you say?" Obito Uchiha's hoarse voice sounded. He subconsciously covered the mask on the left side of his face, and the Sharingan in his left eye was already filled with bloodshot lines. "I am Madara Uchiha. Who is Obito Uchiha?"
Meanwhile, Kakashi, who had been standing to the side, suddenly turned his head toward Obito Uchiha's figure after hearing Harry's words.
This time, now that he was paying attention, he carefully observed Obito Uchiha's build. Although it had been many years since they had met, and Obito Uchiha looked completely different from before, their bond was still there.
Relying on that bond in the dark, Kakashi was almost certain that the person before him was Obito.
"Obito, you're still alive? Why are you doing this?"
Obito Uchiha naturally would not admit it. But faced with Kakashi, who had once failed to protect Rin properly, Obito's tone still carried a lingering anger that would not fade.
"You useless bastard, I already told you I'm not Obito Uchiha!"
If Obito Uchiha had not answered, it might have been one thing, but the moment he did, Kakashi completely confirmed his identity.
If he were not Obito, why would Madara Uchiha talk about Kakashi's incompetence?
Only Obito, who resented Kakashi for being unable to protect Rin and allowing Rin to die, would call him that.
"Obito, it really is you!" Kakashi said, his voice filled with emotion.
Obito Uchiha still wanted to refute him and hide his identity, but at that moment, Harry directly revealed everything.
"The survivor of Kannabi Bridge, the boy who loved Rin Nohara, the teammate of Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha. Why use someone else's name to drag out your life?
"Besides, do you truly believe that what you are doing now, and what you are about to do in the future, is right?"
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