Chapter 523: The Trio of Despair
Hearing the miserable screams, Rin realized they weren't coming from Kakashi.
That made her suspect that Kakashi was the one hurting someone.
Kakashi has been acting strangely lately. There had to be something wrong with him mentally.
Just as Rin was about to rush inside to stop him from making an even bigger mistake, she suddenly noticed something odd about the screams.
These were not Kakashi's screams, they didn't even sound completely human.
Mixed in with them were several loud barks.
'A... summon?'
Rin hesitated.
Could it be that Kakashi was simply training his ninja dogs?
Even if he was abusing his summons, it still wasn't quite as horrifying as hurting people. At least he hadn't turned his cruelty toward humans yet.
Keeping herself hidden, Rin cautiously crept closer, intending to peek through the window first and find out what was happening.
Inside the house, Obito had completely lost himself in his role.
Everything that had happened in the illusion world had already left him unable to tell reality from fiction.
'Does Kakashi actually like boys?'
'Did Jiraiya really write Icha Icha Paradise just to correct Kakashi's preferences?'
On top of that, over the past several days, Obito had acted completely in character, pretending to be the younger version of himself while using Kakashi's identity.
The result?
Rin still kept her distance from him.
It felt like he had returned to his hopelessly lovestruck days as a teenager.
Only today had Obito finally decided to get back on track.
He had endured humiliation and hardship. Every night he even licked the toilet once to remind himself that this was only an illusion.
Now, he was going to throw away every last shred of dignity and drive Rin into complete despair, forcing the Three-Tails to go berserk.
Rin was simply too kind.
It was incredibly difficult to make her experience any extreme emotional shock.
So he had to use the strongest medicine possible.
Rin looked through a crack in the window.
She saw "Kakashi" gripping his ninja dog, Pakkun, tightly.
"Three-Tails Isobu! Say you're the Three-Tails Isobu!"
"Kakashi... please... stop hitting me..."
"You're actually begging for mercy? A real man isn't afraid of taking a few punches! A man should do what a man... is supposed to do!"
To make Rin despair, Obito had borrowed some of the character settings from the Infinite Tsukuyomi novel series that Kakashi had published in the real ninja world.
He had never actually bothered reading those ridiculous novels himself.
But White Zetsu had, and so had plenty of other people in the ninja world, so bits and pieces had inevitably reached his ears.
Right now, Obito was playing one of those beast-obsessed furry-loving ninja characters from the novels.
He wanted Rin to realize that the "Kakashi" who had seemed like an infatuated puppy these past few days hadn't fallen for her at all.
What he truly desired was the furry Three-Tails Isobu sealed inside her.
As expected, after witnessing the scene, Rin's shock was quickly replaced by a wave of disgust and nausea.
She had thought Kakashi had finally become normal.
She had wanted to believe he was changing for the better.
She had never imagined he had become this horrifyingly twisted.
"Boring."
Inside the room, Obito grabbed the unconscious Pakkun by the scruff and tossed him aside before summoning another ninja dog—Bull. (Bulldog)
Bull was the largest of the eight ninja hounds.
Obito took out a pet outfit he had prepared beforehand and dressed Bull in it.
"Say it. You're the Nine-Tails!"
It started all over again.
Outside the window, Rin was stunned once more.
Not only had he set his sights on the Three-Tails...
He was even after the Nine-Tails inside Kushina-nee!
Rin stood outside the window in a daze for what felt like an entire lifetime before the beating inside finally came to an end.
In reality, it had only lasted about five minutes.
Coming back to her senses, Rin prepared to leave.
She had to tell Kushina.
She had to report everything to the Third Hokage.
If Kakashi were merely a furry enthusiast, Rin might have hidden his unusual preference out of respect for their past as teammates.
But now he had involved the Tailed Beasts.
This concerned the village's safety.
It concerned Kushina-nee's safety.
She absolutely couldn't ignore it.
She had to put justice above personal feelings.
"Pakkun, Bull. Once you've rested, get moving. Go notify Danzo and tell him things are almost ready on my end. Ask him when he'll be able to force Obito's Sharingan to evolve."
"Last time, having Obito help an old lady only awakened a single tomoe."
"I need his Sharingan to evolve into the Mangekyō Sharingan. Then, just like Uchiha Madara once did, the two of us can use the Mangekyō Sharingan to control the Tailed Beasts."
"If he controls the Tailed Beasts, he'll become Hokage."
"If I control the Tailed Beasts, I'll be able to enjoy them."
"Oh, right. Once I can control them, you two won't have to pretend to be Tailed Beasts anymore. You'll finally be free."
Inside the room, Obito coldly ordered the two ninja dogs he had just finished tormenting to carry out another task.
The contents of his orders made the still-unable-to-leave Rin tremble with fear.
Two streams of tears ran down her face as she collapsed helplessly onto her knees.
She never could have imagined that Kakashi had already turned against his own comrades.
Not only that, he had even set his sights on Obito's Sharingan.
For the sake of satisfying his grotesque obsession, he had repeatedly used schemes to torture Obito into awakening and evolving his eyes.
No wonder Obito had seemed like a completely different person before.
So this was what had happened to him.
Obito heard the dull sound of Rin collapsing onto the grass outside, but he didn't move.
He merely glanced through the gap with the corner of his eye.
The result disappointed him.
There was still no sign of Tailed Beast chakra leaking from Rin.
What was going on?
Kindness alone shouldn't have been enough to suppress it.
As long as someone experienced negative emotions, even without murderous intent, the Tailed Beast should have seized the opportunity.
Why?
Huh?
Just as Obito was wondering whether Rin's mental resilience was simply too strong or whether his script still wasn't disturbing enough, an overwhelming surge of chakra suddenly erupted outside.
A violent gust of wind blasted his window to pieces.
The Three-Tails had finally erupted!
As for why it had been delayed for a moment, Obito didn't bother thinking about it.
He was simply thrilled.
He had finally completed this step.
He was one step closer to completing the mission and escaping the illusion.
Meanwhile...
In the real world...
At a hidden location within the Land of Earth...
Kakashi's group found Han, the Five-Tails' jinchūriki, training.
Naruto was busy trying to persuade him.
Meanwhile, Kakashi took a small ninja device with a screen out of his pocket and watched the images displayed on it.
Since the engraved Tsukuyomi test version obviously couldn't rely on Obito willingly reporting the test results afterward, someone had to observe everything as a third party.
That job had fallen to Kakashi.
While promoting Sage Mode, Kakashi had been forced to accept both the surveillance device and the mission from the Second Hokage via Flying Thunder God.
Now he was monitoring Obito's every move inside the engraved Tsukuyomi test version.
Seeing Obito do all sorts of outrageous things under Kakashi's name, he had managed to endure it.
After all, it wasn't using his actual face.
Even when Obito exploited his embarrassing secrets, Kakashi held back, telling himself Obito was simply sacrificing a little dignity to complete the mission.
But after watching this...
Kakashi could no longer take it.
The Infinite Tsukuyomi novels might be absurd, but they were ultimately fictional.
The Obito inside this illusion, however, was a living, breathing person.
Well...
Perhaps he wasn't really a person anymore.
(End of this chapter)