Beneath the shattered mask, a face revealed itself that caused Kakashi's pupils to shrink to the size of needles.
Even Guy's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. As the two stared at Obito, their expressions froze in absolute shock.
"Is it really... Obito?"
"But he's supposed to be dead!" Might Guy stammered, feeling as though he were looking at a ghost.
Obito's right eye locked onto Kakashi's left, his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning into its shuriken shape.
"There's no mistake... It's Obito..." Kakashi said, his voice trembling with gravity as he stared at him.
"If you wish to call me by that name, feel free," Obito replied flatly, holding his giant gunbai fan. "It holds absolutely no meaning to me anymore."
"So you were alive all this time..." Kakashi's voice shook.
"Who is he?" Naruto asked, thoroughly confused.
Guy turned to explain to Naruto. "A Konoha shinobi from our generation. He was a member of the Uchiha clan. Everyone believed he perished in the last war, but..."
Kakashi voiced the question Guy couldn't finish. "If you didn't die, why did you wait until now to..."
Obito's expression remained utterly devoid of emotion. "Whether I am alive or not is entirely irrelevant."
"However... if you truly insist on a reason..." Obito let out a cold, cynical laugh before continuing. "It's because you let Rin die, failing to save her. That's why things turned out like this."
"Don't worry, there's more..."
"Don't look at me with that face, Kakashi."
Kakashi shuddered violently. In his mind's eye, the vision of his Chidori piercing through Rin's heart felt as vivid as if it had happened yesterday. The trauma he had desperately tried to bury was forcibly dragged back to the surface by Obito. That nightmare of a memory assaulted his consciousness once more, plunging him into a spiral of agonizing guilt.
"Aren't you going to curse me?" Kakashi managed to whisper, trembling.
"What would be the point of cursing such a meaningless reality?" Obito replied coldly. "I have no interest in a world that is about to vanish anyway."
Seeing Obito reduced to this state, Kakashi lowered his head in despair. Beside him, Naruto shouted fiercely, "Kakashi-sensei! I don't know what happened between you and this guy in the past, but now is not the time to be depressed!"
"I'll ask you for the details later!"
"Right now, our top priority is to stop him!"
A fierce grin spread across Might Guy's face. He raised a fist toward Naruto and laughed loudly. "Naruto!"
"Kakashi, Naruto is exactly right! The entire world is riding on our shoulders now."
In response, Obito's hands flew into a sequence of hand signs. The Mangekyō Sharingan in his right eye spun furiously, churning the atmosphere with the power of Kamui. It was the exact same jutsu Kanon had utilized before, the Storm Dance!
"I have nothing left to say to you."
"Perish within the confines of reality..."
"Fire Release..."
"Die!"
"Storm Dance!"
With a mighty sweep of his arm, Naruto unleashed the golden chakra of the Nine-Tails' nine tails, instantly dispersing the swirling vortex of the Storm Dance.
"The Nine-Tails' tails, huh?"
Before Obito's voice could even fade, a lone figure plummeted directly out of the sky.
BOOM!
A massive cloud of dust surged violently into the air. Obito turned his head slightly to look, his expression perfectly flat, as though this development was entirely within his calculations.
Might Guy and Kakashi froze in shock, and even Naruto was left utterly stunned.
"What?!"
As the dust began to settle beside Obito, the Reanimated form of Madara Uchiha calmly materialized.
"You seem to be having quite a bit of fun, Obito."
Recognizing the newcomer, Naruto's face contorted in absolute bewilderment. "That guy is..."
"Madara!"
At Naruto's exclamation, both Kakashi and Guy took on expressions of extreme gravity.
"Resisting the Reanimation jutsu... that is certainly your style," Obito noted flatly before asking, "Where is Kanon, who was with you?"
"Right here."
Suddenly, a voice echoed from between the two men as a swirling vortex of roses manifested. Obito and Madara slowly turned their heads toward the center of the crimson spiral.
Naruto, Might Guy, and Kakashi stared blankly as Kanon stepped gracefully out of her Flower Realm.
Her glossy, pitch-black hair fell elegantly past her waist, and she wore a crimson Uchiha-style overcoat. At fifteen years old, Kanon's figure was no longer as flat as it had been in her childhood, possessing striking curves. On her flawless face, a Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun languidly. Her expression was completely serene as she stood perfectly centered between the two men, her arms crossed over her chest.
With Madara on her left and Obito on her right, the three of them stood tall, casting an imposing shadow over the battlefield.
Kanon lifted her chin, her gaze locking directly onto Naruto in the distance.
"Haven't you captured them yet?" Kanon shot a contemptuous glance at Obito, a display of blatant, undisguised mockery.
"Why? Why are the Kanon and Madara from over there showing up here?!" Naruto bellowed.
"Madara? The legendary Madara? And Kanon is allied with them... Her clothes are different; it looks like this Kanon is the real deal, the original body," Kakashi said, a cold sweat breaking out across his forehead.
"Is this one a shadow clone as well? Where is your original body, Obito?" Madara discerned with a single glance that the Naruto before them was merely a shadow clone, while the real body remained alongside the Eight-Tails.
"What did you do to the Five Kage over there?!" Naruto roared at the trio.
In the background, Killer B couldn't help but grow deeply anxious for the safety of his brother, the Raikage.
"Over there, you say..." Madara looked at Naruto, then lazily gestured with a finger toward Kanon. "You'll have to ask Kanon about that."
Madara let out a sinister chuckle.
"I asked you what happened to them!" A terrifying surge of golden chakra erupted from Naruto's body, instantly blanketing the entire area with its overwhelming pressure.
Yet Kanon simply took a step forward, completely unfazed by Naruto's exploding chakra. A crazed, almost pathological smile spread across her face. Without the slightest attempt to conceal her malice, she raised her left hand.
A rose-shaped spatial vortex materialized around her left arm, swallowing it up.
"What do you think, Naruto?"
Kanon's voice cut off abruptly. In that exact instant, everyone, including Kakashi and Might Guy, froze in sheer horror.
As Kanon withdrew her left hand from the vortex, she was gripping a severed human head by the hair. It was none other than the head of Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage.
"Well, I doubt they're doing perfectly fine," Kanon said with a chilling smile, her eyes fixed on Naruto.
"You..." Naruto was left utterly speechless, his mind reeling.
"Unforgivable!" Killer B roared in fury.
With a casual flick of her wrist, Kanon tossed Onoki's severed head aside like garbage.
Naruto quickly extracted the black receivers pinning the Eight-Tails down and hurled them with extreme velocity straight toward the trio. This time, Naruto truly could not stand by and watch any longer now that the Five Kage had been executed.
Seeing the black receivers hurtling toward them at a speed faster than the binding chains of the cursed seal, Obito immediately tossed the Uchiha gunbai over to Madara.
However, it was Kanon who caught it mid-air. A shroud of crimson chakra instantly burst forth, forming a defensive shield identical to a Susanoo that effortlessly deflected the incoming black receivers.
As the rods clattered uselessly to the ground, Kanon calmly lowered the gunbai, her expression turning detached as she stared ahead.
"It seems you know how to handle the Uchiha gunbai quite well, Kanon."
"It's just my first time using it," Kanon replied smoothly, shifting her gaze back toward the Eight-Tails and Naruto.
The Eight-Tails let out a fierce shout. "I can finally move! Naruto, alright, now it's my turn!"
Suddenly, the monstrous roars of the Gedo Statue echoed violently from within the Uchiha Flame Battle Formation. The sound immediately drew the attention of Madara, Kanon, and Obito.
"Obito, did you prematurely initiate the plan before even securing the Eight and Nine-Tails?"
"As long as the Infinite Tsukuyomi is completed, what does it matter?" Kanon remarked flippantly, using her left pinky to clean out her ear as she spoke to Madara.
"The Eight and Nine-Tails are the core elements, Kanon. You of all people should understand that."
"Go scold Obito then, don't lecture me." Kanon pouted, looking at Madara with utter displeasure.
Seeing Kanon act this way, Madara felt a twinge of helplessness, but he turned a cold gaze toward Obito nonetheless. "You grew impatient, Obito."
"Is that also the reason why you had me brought back in this Reanimated state?"
Obito offered no response, but Kanon spoke up flatly. "It was my senpai who brought you back."
Madara nodded slightly, his gaze fixed icily on Obito. "Fine, it matters not. You've always been this way. I'm sure you have your reasons."
"What were you doing before this? What happened to Nagato?"
"The original arrangement was to revive me using the Gedo Art: Rinne Rebirth Technique at the perfect psychological moment."
"That guy betrayed us," Obito muttered. "He used that very jutsu to revive the citizens of Konoha instead."
Hearing this, Kanon let out a soft chuckle. "So Nagato-senpai was just a pawn of yours all along? What a pity. The plan is completely ruined now, and Nagato-senpai stands with me."
"As for Rinne Rebirth..." Kanon and Madara exchanged a knowing glance, instantly reaching a silent consensus.
Exactly. Obito was the perfect candidate left to cast the Rinne Rebirth. Furthermore, Kanon had a deep-seated loathing for him anyway; she would never show a pleasant face to the man responsible for the death of Izumi Uchiha.
"Good grief, every single one of you is like this," Madara muttered. "No matter. It isn't too late to start from here."
"I will capture the Eight and Nine-Tails myself," Madara stated flatly.
Right at that moment, Naruto charged forward, holding a massive Tailed Beast Bomb aloft and hurling it directly at Madara.
"A dead man should stop trying to interfere!"
The colossal Tailed Beast Bomb was instantly intercepted by Kanon, who leaped in front of Madara and raised the Uchiha gunbai, effortlessly halting its forward momentum.
"Kanon..." Naruto gritted his teeth, staring at his former best friend with a storm of complex emotions. But what confounded him even more was why the Tailed Beast Bomb hadn't detonated upon contact.
"Old man Madara, it's used like this, right?"
"Correct. Now, you must control the chakra flow."
"Uchiha Reflection!"
A malicious smirk played on the corners of Kanon's lips.
A terrifying explosion erupted directly in front of Naruto. The blinding golden light instantly swallowed Naruto's shadow clone, reducing it to ash.
"Kanon and I will handle the Nine-Tails and the Eight-Tails," Madara declared smoothly, stepping forward. "These two are all yours, Obito."
With those words, Madara and Kanon charged side-by-side toward Naruto and Killer B.