Both the older and younger Kakashi no longer had any room to dwell on their bittersweet memories of their father. Young Kakashi punched Young Obito in the head to vent his embarrassment and anger.
Young Obito clutched his head and protested, "Why are you hitting me?! Don't make me take responsibility for someone else!!"
He was honestly about to lose it!
Hadn't he taken enough blame for his other self lately?! Hadn't he?!!
Adult Obito and Adult Kakashi's combat strength and experience were far beyond anything an ordinary Jōnin could compare to. The two fought their way through Taijutsu and ninjutsu alike, with tactics emerging one after another.
Kakashi was so furious that he even brought out his kunai, while a bloodstained black chakra rod emerged from the palm of Obito's black-gloved hand.
With that kind of intensity, if everyone hadn't known neither of them would seriously hurt the other, they would have rushed over and pulled them apart!
Obito finally managed to grab Kakashi's wrist, then reached out with his other hand to pull at his mask.
"Wham!"
The log from the Body Replacement Technique had Kakashi's personal touch all over it. There was even a smug little scarecrow smile drawn on it.
Adult Obito hadn't expected to be fooled by such a basic ninjutsu. For a moment, he felt a sharp sting of embarrassment.
"Oh my, it's been a while since we sparred like this." Kakashi held an orange-covered book in his hand as he teased the mastermind behind the Akatsuki organization. "Has it been so long that you've forgotten you've never beaten me even once? Hm? Dead. Last~"
In truth...
He simply liked teasing his students and training their teamwork. As for whether he truly cared that much about taking off his mask, not really. It had just become a habit.
If Obito could go back to being that same foolish, dead-last Obito from before, return to Konoha, and keep working toward becoming Hokage, Kakashi would actually be happier than anyone.
So happy, in fact, that for the first time in a long while, he felt the urge to mess around again. He teased Obito the same way he teased his students, and Obito's reactions were just as entertaining as Naruto's.
Now that Kushina-san was around, he really didn't dare tease Naruto so casually anymore. Using Obito as a substitute wasn't a bad option, was it?
The mocked Obito Uchiha was furious!
He immediately roared.
"Aaaaaah!! I, Obito Uchiha, refuse to believe it today! Just watch me catch you and rip off that mask!!"
At first, Sakura and Rin had felt a little sorry for Kakashi-sensei, who was forced to use ninjutsu and Taijutsu to resist.
But now...
EMMMMMM... Obito Uchiha was the pitiful one...
Naruto and Young Obito, especially, could empathize completely with that dead-last feeling!
Unsurprisingly, the two soon got serious, and the fight became heated and intense!!
Young Obito and Young Kakashi each took one side!
Naruto, Sasuke, and the young men from the Warring States Period cheered them on.
Everyone laughed, shouted, and egged them on. The whole scene was cheerful and lively.
Young Hashirama even tried to start a betting pool on the winner, but his younger brother forcibly shut the idea down.
It seemed that no matter which parallel world they went to, they would change everything, bringing endless smiles and laughter to that world.
Omitsu Hatake was speechless, while the Hatake Clan Head watched them laughing and fooling around with a tolerant smile, feeling even more certain that his decision to join Konoha had been the right one.
Logically speaking, Obito had turned his life around in one move. He had become the mastermind behind Akatsuki, controlled the Fourth Mizukage for so many years, inherited Madara's lifetime of experience, and on top of that, possessed an original Mangekyō Sharingan. No matter how you looked at it, his cheat was absurdly overpowered.
And yet Kakashi could still fight him evenly.
It really wasn't that Obito was holding back, nor was Kakashi holding back against Obito.
If one had to explain it, it was probably just their chemistry.
The two fought from in front of the group of teenagers up into the trees, then onto a cliff, and finally back to the teenagers' side.
Obito finally found an opening. With absolutely no regard for fair play, he used his body weight to pin Kakashi down, using the force of his shoulder to restrain him while pressing down on Kakashi with both hands and feet.
Kakashi kicked upward, and Obito grimaced in pain, but he refused to let go.
Just a little more. He was only a few centimeters away from Kakashi's mask!
Through their sparring, the two had recovered the feeling they had as children. Happy, carefree, and pure.
Obito stared at the mask right in front of him, but he had no free hands left!
What should he do?! Giving up now would be such a waste!
His next move was completely instinctive.
He lowered his head and bit Kakashi's mask with his teeth, trying to tug it off!!
"You. Two."
Madara Uchiha's furious voice suddenly rang beside their ears.
"What are you doing in front of my adorable little brothers?!!!"
Only then did Adult Obito and Adult Kakashi snap out of the joy of their youth-filled sparring.
The two of them turned at the same time to look at Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju standing nearby.
They processed what he had said, then looked at their current movements and positions.
In an instant, they were so embarrassed they wanted to die.
Madara Uchiha didn't care what happened to the brats from the Hatake Clan, but his own brat clearly deserved a beating! Besides, from the look of it, his own brat was obviously bullying the brat from the Hatake Clan!
And right in front of the leader of the Hatake Clan, who had only just integrated into Konoha!
Was he fucking born without a brain?! You idiot!!!
Before Obito could explain, Madara grabbed him and dragged him off to spar.
Obito, who had just been fighting Kakashi one-on-one, was forced into another deep exchange with Madara Uchiha.
Poor guy. He had gone looking for an easy win and ended up losing even more instead. In the end, he still never got to hear Naruto and the others obediently call him "Obito-sensei"...
Meanwhile, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura still never got to see Kakashi-sensei's real face.
Along with Madara and Hashirama came a red-haired girl.
She was none other than Hashirama Senju's original wife in another world.
Mito Uzumaki, who had come from Uzushiogakure in the Land of Whirlpools.
At that moment, her first glance did not fall on Young Hashirama. Instead, she was still frozen in shock over the bizarre position Adult Obito and Adult Kakashi had been in just now.
After a long silence, she finally squeezed out one sentence.
"Konoha's customs really are open-minded."
Hashirama, who had come with Madara, pressed a hand to his forehead. He kept feeling that the young Mito before him had seriously misunderstood.
Especially the way she looked at his younger self and Madara, and then at Tobirama and Izuna.
Help!!!
If this led to some strange outcome, he begged this world's father not to blame him! Aaaah!
...
A few days later.
In this altered Warring States Period, Konohagakure had finally been built into something resembling a proper village.
Ninja clans of all sizes from the Land of Fire had joined one after another, and at last, the time had come for the ninjas of every clan to watch as their Clan Heads cut the ribbon for Konoha together.
Because wealthy merchants and commoners had also joined in, and because the Daimyō had recognized the village earlier than before, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was bright with lanterns and decorations. Joy filled every corner.
It was nothing like the simple handshake alliance between two clans that Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju remembered.
It was like a festival. Early in the morning, small vendors and shops had already prepared their goods for sale, and among the endless stream of visitors were many ninjas who had changed out of their ninja attire.
After so many years of war and hatred, everyone could finally relax in this moment.
And Madara Uchiha, Izuna Uchiha, Tajima Uchiha, Fugaku Uchiha, Tobirama Senju, Hashirama Senju, Butsuma Senju, Kushina Uzumaki, as well as Young Obito, Young Kakashi, and Rin from Team Minato, and Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura from Team Kakashi, finally returned to the parallel world of the mission scroll.
Watching their figures gradually disappear into the white light, Young Hashirama and Young Madara expressed their thanks.
Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju took one last look at the younger brothers who had once been frozen at this age, then turned to this world's Young Madara and Young Hashirama and made a promise with them.
"No matter what, hold fast to your original intentions."
It was not about protecting their younger brothers no matter what. In the long life ahead, no one knew which would come first, tomorrow or the unexpected.
Rather, holding fast to their dreams and original intentions was the sincerest way they could remain worthy of the feelings they held for their younger brothers.
That dream was this village, warm and bright beneath the sunlight.
Parting was certainly sad.
But soon, they would have no room to dwell on that sadness, because the mission scroll world they returned to had completely changed into a world they no longer recognized, and could barely afford to live in.
So much so that after traveling back to the mission scroll world, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all thought they had crossed into another parallel world?!!
After confirming it again and again, however, they finally understood.
That was right. This world was their world, the world that had already been completely rewritten by the mission scroll.
It was clearly their own world, yet it had suddenly become a place where they could no longer afford to survive.
At that time, everyone who had just returned from the Warring States Period appeared together at Kakashi's missing-nin inn.
The moment they returned, Minato Namikaze found himself stared down by an entire room of people.
The members of Akatsuki, along with Haku, Zabuza, Kabuto Yakushi, Kimimaro, and the others, surrounded the group that had just returned from the Warring States Period.
Itachi Uchiha did not seem especially shocked to see Fugaku Uchiha. Or perhaps the impact of two sets of memories had already exceeded his CPU's capacity, leaving him able to conceal his emotions only behind a blank expression.
Sasuke had actually been looking forward to seeing Itachi's reaction when he saw their father, but now that hope was ruined. He felt a little disappointed.
The Fourth Hokage, Minato, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Kushina Uzumaki.
"What exactly happened, Minato?" Kushina asked.
Deidara said, "We're the ones who want to ask what you people did! I can't even figure out who I am anymore!"
"You can't figure out who you are?"
Adult Obito said, "If you're not Deidara, who else could you be?"
"No! Of course I'm Deidara!! But I clearly know I'm the Azure Dragon of Akatsuki, and yet for some reason, a memory of me being a ninja from Iwagakure was suddenly implanted into my head!!"