At this moment...
Young Kakashi and young Obito Uchiha were trapped in Kamui's Dimension by the masked man. But the masked man had left, and no one knew where he had gone. The two youths were feeling a mix of complicated emotions and rising tension...
For three reasons:
First, because they had once again seen the masked man's true face. That face, identical to Obito's, with the same gruesome scars, his left eye missing, and the decades of pain etched into his features.
Second, the masked man had left in an unusually distressed state. If they really had time-traveled, where had they ended up? Who else had traveled with them? Had Minato-sensei, Naruto, Sasuke, and the others come too?
And third...
Young Obito Uchiha clutched his head, pacing anxiously.
"What if he forgot about us here?! Or... or what if he died?!!"
"Calm down, Obito."
"How can I calm down?! We're going to starve to death in here!"
"Relax, at least you won't die." Young Kakashi barely managed to hide his exasperation.
"Don't forget you have White Zetsu's components inside you. Even if you don't eat or drink, you won't starve to death."
"Ah! Right!" Young Obito said, suddenly remembering. "I still have two White Zetsu in Kamui's Dimension. If you're really starving, you can eat them?"
"..." Kakashi stared at Obito with dead fish eyes.
Obito scratched his head, grinning sheepishly. "Just kidding. It's rare that we're getting along so well now."
The fact that they were now fighting together so seamlessly, compared to when he was once a proud genius, still left young Obito feeling exhilarated.
Young Kakashi sheathed his White Fang blade. "No choice. We'll have to wait for him to come back. Or another version of me—someone who can control that guy's Mangekyō Sharingan—might come to rescue us."
Young Obito nodded in agreement.
...
Meanwhile, the masked man they had spoken of was standing amidst a sea of rubble...
Thick smoke billowed around, and everywhere he looked, he saw shattered buildings and broken tiles. The screams and cries of the wounded filled the air, drowned out by the sounds of distant explosions.
"This is... Konoha?!!"
Recognizing the distinctive architecture, adult Obito immediately realized where he was. His first thought was of the night of the Nine-Tails' attack.
But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he dismissed it. When he led the Nine-Tails to attack Konoha, it had been the night of October 10th. Clearly, it was now a bright, sunny day.
Looking up, he saw the Hokage Rock in the distance, now with the added face of the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade.
The future?!! He had somehow traveled to the future?!!
Because his other self was trapped in the Dōjutsu space, he—who had been sent as the mission's recipient—had unexpectedly traveled to the future with him?!
"Quick, over here! There's an injured person!!"
"No, he's pinned under the collapsed building!"
"Get more people! Help me move the wall above him. Be careful when you pull him out."
"Thank goodness for Tsunade-sama's slugs. Otherwise, this man wouldn't have lasted long enough for us to rescue him."
Adult Obito turned toward the voices of two Konoha ninjas. Beside them, a collapsed building had trapped an injured person. If not for the slug desperately squirming on the man's body, no one would have realized he was still alive.
Konoha had been hit by an unprecedented enemy attack. The attackers seemed to be more than one, and this indiscriminate violence suggested either a deep hatred or an attempt to force Konoha into making a difficult choice.
He approached the two ninjas. Since adult Obito wasn't wearing his mask, the Konoha ninjas, seeing his face covered in scars, assumed he was another ninja.
Without wearing the Konoha forehead protector and dressed in attire unlike that of ordinary ninja, the young man Obito's appearance immediately put them on guard. They couldn't tell if he was a Konoha ninja on leave or an enemy who had attacked their village.
"Who are you?!"
"Friend or foe?!"
The two Konoha ninjas remained silently on guard.
Obito Uchiha didn't answer them. Instead, he crouched down and reached his left hand toward the figure lying on the ground.
"Who the hell are you?!!"
"Don't move!"
With their village under attack, the Konoha ninjas were on high alert. They drew their kunai, ready to fight this strange man before them.
But then they saw him—his hand plunging into the wall?! As if unhindered by any spatial barrier, he was pulling the wounded from the rubble?!
The scarred man hadn't uttered a single word throughout.
Yet because of this action, the two Konoha ninjas automatically classified him as an ally.
"Sorry for mistaking you."
"You're a Konoha ninja too. With the village under attack, everyone's on edge. Don't hold it against us."
Obito Uchiha didn't deny his Konoha affiliation. Scanning the surrounding ruins, he asked,
"Who are the enemies? How many?"
"Only seven, but each is exceptionally powerful."
"Don't even think about going to your death. Leave repelling the enemy to others."
"Your abilities are unique. You can help us treat the wounded."
Only seven enemies could reduce Konohagakure to this state…
The only group Obito Uchiha could think of was Akatsuki—the renegade ninja organization he himself had founded.
"Akatsuki?"
"Correct. Reportedly the leader of Akatsuki! A man named Pain."
"Damn it! I thought most Akatsuki members were dead by now. They should've stayed out of sight!"
Obito took a deep breath.
"Who's dead?"
The asked Konoha ninja paused, assuming he'd just returned from a long-term mission and missed crucial intelligence. He then informed him,
"The renegade ninja Deidara from the Land of Earth, Iwa Village, and our own renegade Itachi Uchiha from the Land of Fire, Konoha Village—both are said to have fallen by the hand of Sasuke Uchiha."
"Oh, and Orochimaru too. He's said to have killed him as well." The man remarked, "It's truly unbelievable. Orochimaru was once one of Konoha's Sannin, yet he was killed by a mere teenager of sixteen or seventeen."
"Hmm, and then there's the renegade ninja Kakuzu from the Takigakure Village and the renegade ninja Hidan from the Yugakure Village. They died at the hands of Shikamaru Nara and Naruto Uzumaki."
"And the Missing-nin ninja Sasori from Sunagakure of the Land of the Wind—it seems he also died at the hands of Sakura Haruno from our village and Chiyo from the Sunagakure ninja village."
"So, it seems we've made a major enemy of the Akatsuki organization! Is that why their leader attacked us directly? Even Jiraiya-sama died at their hands..."
"..."
The ninja beside him continued chattering, but the sound seemed to drift far away.
Adult Obito Uchiha stared blankly at Konoha's ruins, his mind filled with those figures who were disasters to the ninja world yet held a different meaning for him.
Sasori of the Red Sand—
Only eternity is art.....
I hate keeping people waiting, and you hate waiting.
—They say he waited for two people his entire life, but never saw them.
Deidara—
You wanna bet I'll blow you to bits, Tobi?! Hmph.
Art is explosion. Hmph.
—Typical ill-mannered brat.
Kakuzu—
Only money never betrays me.
Shut up, you're annoying, Hidan.
—Not sure, seems he was betrayed by the elders of Takigakure.
Hidan—
Hello, interested in learning about the Cult of Jashin?
Ahhhhh, sacrifice everything to Jashin-sama!
—A perfect combination of crazy and playful.
…
They're all dead.
Nagato, Konan, and most importantly, Yahiko.
Once, he had thought their deaths were insignificant. He had sworn to carry out the Eye of the Moon Plan and lead them to a new world. But now he knew the Eye of the Moon was Black Zetsu's lie. Even he was trapped in the whirlwind of conspiracy, unable to escape. All of his past promises and oaths had turned to bubbles, shattered one by one by the truth, as fragile as a Genjutsu.
...
Watching two Konoha ninjas hurriedly carry the wounded away, Adult Obito Uchiha was lost in deep confusion. He no longer knew what to do. This future, built on nothing but lies, was cruel beyond words. He stood frozen, paralyzed, like a defeated dog. And in that moment, an even more brutal scene was unfolding, unbeknownst to him.
Elsewhere in Konoha, the destruction was even worse. The houses were unrecognizable, reduced to rubble. Beneath a small mound of debris and broken tiles, a man lay... Only part of his body was visible, the lower half buried beneath the wreckage. Exhausted, his exposed body bore several critical wounds. While not fatal, they severely impaired his mobility. His forehead protector had been knocked off, its location unknown.
His silver hair, as weary as its owner, hung limply over his face, blood dripping from its tips—his wounds still unhealed. His crimson left Sharingan eye, and the scar running through his eyelid, were now exposed, without the forehead protector to shield them. Not far from him, two plump Konoha ninjas lay motionless on the ground, their breaths faint.
"I know you're not a shadow clone. You can't move anymore."
The silver-haired ninja's enemy was none other than Pain, leader of the Akatsuki—the very foe who had attacked Konoha earlier.
...
The silver-haired Konoha ninja, drained of even the strength to crawl out of the wreckage:
"..."
He gasped for breath, trying to preserve his final bit of energy.
"Feel the pain, Kakashi Hatake."
Nails shot from Pain's fingertips, striking the silver-haired ninja's body.
Pfft
Without a sound, Kakashi's body tilted backward, pushed by the force of the nails. Buried in the rubble, only his head snapped back at an unnatural angle, exposing his fragile neck to the enemy. Then...
He lowered his head, motionless.
Deva Path Pain confirmed his death and turned away with no interest.
Moments later, the unconscious Chōji Akimichi stirred and dragged himself up from the ground.
"Father?! Kakashi-sensei!!"
Flipping his father's body over, Chōji cried out, tears streaming down his face.
"Save your tears for later... Chōji..."
The voice was weak, but it made him look toward the wreckage in shock. He wasn't dead?!
"Hurry and report to... Tsunade-sama... about Pain and the Rinnegan... its power..."
"Kakashi-sensei?!!"
"But... I..." Chōji glanced at his father lying on the ground.
"Don't let Chōza die in vain..." The silver-haired ninja's voice was barely audible.
At that moment, Asura Path Pain realized they weren't completely dead!
"Hmph, troublesome... guy." Though the voice was different, it was identical to Deva Path Pain's.
Asura Path Pain had clearly overheard their conversation and aimed his weapon at Chōji Akimichi.
"Run! Chōji!"
Kakashi Hatake shouted with what little strength he had left, urging the boy to run—to deliver the intelligence they had paid for with their lives to Hokage-sama!
Chōji, fully aware of what was at stake, sprinted toward Konoha's Hokage Tower.
But Asura Path Pain's weapon was a homing missile that tracked movement. No matter where Chōji ran, it followed him relentlessly, right on his tail...
As Kakashi watched the devastated Konoha and Chōji being chased by the missile, he made his final decision without hesitation.
To deliver the vital intelligence to the survivors, to save this village, for which Obito, Rin, and Minato-sensei had sacrificed their lives...
He closed his eyes tightly. When he opened his left eye again, the crimson Sharingan glowed, and within its pupil, the windmill pattern of three scythes had formed.
'Kamui--!'