Is it all fake?
The words themselves were not wrong, but why did they sound so familiar?
Were these not the exact lines Obito had said to Kakashi?
During their battle in the Kamui dimension in the original timeline, Obito had declared that he was not waging war for Rin's sake.
He claimed the Rin who had died was a fake and the Shinobi World that had caused her death was equally false.
Yet Obito's subsequent actions revealed that these words were less for Kakashi's ears and more for his own.
He was trying to hypnotize himself, and he had failed miserably.
But the Rin of the Limited Tsukuyomi World was different.
As she spoke, Makoto could sense she was not deceiving herself.
She genuinely believed what she was saying.
Moreover...
Though he could not fathom how she had managed it, she had actually killed the masked man of this world, even digging out his eyes to use as the core of her staff.
This proved beyond doubt that her words reflected her true convictions.
"Then what is your goal?" Makoto asked.
"The same as yours—to escape this false world and face reality. Is that not why you are collecting the Tailed Beasts?" Rin smiled thinly.
"What? Seriously?"
Konan and Mei Terumi exchanged bewildered glances with Makoto and Uchiha Hikari.
'We agreed to rebuild the Shinobi World without furry fetishists!'
'How did that turn into leaving this world altogether?'
Click—
Rin acted swiftly, waving her staff.
Two crimson chains materialized from thin air, firmly binding Konan and Mei Terumi.
"This will prevent them from interfering once they learn the truth," she explained calmly.
"I can hand over the Three-Tails and Six-Tails to you. But first, we need to seize control of the Outer Path Demonic Statue. Only then can we summon the Ten-Tails, activate the Reverse Infinite Tsukuyomi, and escape this dream world for the real one," Rin continued addressing Makoto and Hikari.
"..."
Clearly, Rin had misunderstood something fundamental about their operation.
Normally, there was no effective way to permanently kill a Tailed Beast. Rin simply assumed Makoto and Hikari had captured and hidden the others in some special location.
Makoto and Hikari exchanged a glance.
Now came the dilemma.
Should they repeat their strategy from the Allied Shinobi Forces—feign agreement and trick Rin into thinking they were allies?
Makoto shook his head internally.
It was too much trouble.
According to Nohara Rin, they would first have to travel to the Hidden Rain Village, challenge Nagato, and physically seize control of the Demonic Statue.
And that was not all.
After securing the Statue, Rin would undoubtedly order them to transfer the Tailed Beasts into it—likely demanding the One-Tail and Two-Tails first—before she surrendered the Three-Tails and Six-Tails.
If they could not produce the beasts because they had already been transferred to the real world, their deception would be immediately exposed.
A fight was inevitable regardless. There was no point in beating around the bush.
"Your plan is impressive," Hikari said to Rin, "but since you claim to have the Three-Tails and Six-Tails, allow us to visually confirm their presence first."
Knowing the location of the beasts would allow them to bypass Rin entirely once the fight began.
"Impossible!" Mei Terumi exclaimed, snapping out of her daze despite being bound.
"Kirigakure has been monitoring the Six-Tails Jinchūriki constantly. He was safe and sound when I left the village!"
"Hmph," Rin scoffed. "You place too much emphasis on the privacy of your Jinchūriki. Even your surveillance keeps its distance. Have you never considered that a Jinchūriki could be replaced by a clone at any moment without your knowledge?"
With a wave of her staff, the space around them distorted, and a massive, pale-white slug crashed heavily to the ground beside them.
It was Saiken, the Six-Tails!
Mei Terumi froze, momentarily speechless.
In truth, when Hikari suggested confirming the beasts' presence, Rin had felt a sudden surge of suspicion.
Fortunately, Mei Terumi's immediate, genuine denial struck a perfect chord of arrogance, provoking Rin to prove her power.
Now that the Six-Tails had been released, there was no need to conceal the Three-Tails any longer.
With another wave of her staff, Rin summoned the Three-Tails, which landed heavily on the ground opposite Saiken.
..
In the audience stands, Orochimaru smiled at the scene below.
"Watch closely, everyone. Makoto-kun is about to make his move."
"Huh? You mean that?" Tsunade glanced at Orochimaru, surprised. "How do you know?"
"Have you not noticed how strong Nohara Rin is in the Limited Tsukuyomi World? Observe her physique. She is remarkably flat."
"Ah?" The Impure World Reincarnation Rin instinctively touched her chest.
"She must have consumed the Yin Female Water, permanently converting her chakra into lifespan while retaining only the absolute minimum necessary to sustain her life," Orochimaru analyzed.
"This allows her to resist the gravitational pull of Fate to an unprecedented degree."
"Even more terrifying is that despite sacrificing her own chakra reserves, she can still launch high-level attacks and bind Kage-level shinobi with ease. This suggests she has mastered an alternative method of manipulating chakra. It is likely that staff she wields."
She could freely manipulate the Tailed Beasts' chakra without suffering the mental corruption it usually brought.
"I cannot even begin to guess the full extent of her abilities—there is simply too little data," Orochimaru concluded.
"But one thing is clear: her ability to kill the masked man in this world and capture two Tailed Beasts proves her power is not to be underestimated. Don't forget, the Six-Tails in this world is the 'wife' of the Sage of the Six Paths and the very origin of his legendary title."
Orochimaru's assessment was remarkably accurate!
...
Below, Makoto and Hikari moved simultaneously.
Hikari instantly activated her Susanoo.
It manifested identically to Madara Uchiha's, splitting into three distinct arms that simultaneously seized Nohara Rin, the Three-Tails, and the Six-Tails.
The Eight Thousand Spears seals were inscribed in unison.
Makoto activated Time Stop. Facing Nohara Rin, now restrained by the Susanoo, he abandoned conventional attacks.
Instead, he unleashed a flurry of devastating punches, each blow designed to shatter her body while simultaneously reversing gravity to prevent her from anchoring herself.
Makoto had already glimpsed the future using his Epitaph ability.
In that brief vision, Hikari had failed to notice that Nohara Rin possessed virtually no internal chakra.
The Eight Thousand Spears' absorption proved utterly ineffective against her true power source.
Had Makoto simply pierced her heart with a single punch in the vision, she would have immediately regenerated using the staff's reserves.
The counterattack in the vision had come swiftly. Nohara Rin shattered Hikari's Susanoo with a single, devastating kick.
Keep in mind that Hikari's Susanoo had already evolved to the point where it could fly in its initial stage, and its base strength rivaled that of a complete form.
While she was not using the towering Perfect Susanoo at the moment, the strength difference was negligible.
Her Susanoo's true explosive power came after she had infused it with Natural Energy from Makoto's stone.
After Nohara Rin shattered the Susanoo with a single kick in the vision, Hikari had urgently informed Makoto of an anomaly. The chakra of the Six-Tails and Three-Tails was not just being absorbed by the Eight Thousand Spears, it was also rapidly depleting on its own, burning away at an impossible rate.
Upon closer inspection of the future, Makoto realized the horrifying truth: She is using a bootleg Baryon Mode!
Faced with a Nohara Rin who had essentially "become the second Sage of the Six Paths," Makoto had no choice but to show her the utmost respect in the present.
He could not afford to leave her with an intact corpse!
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Translating this took a hit on my sanity... and the next arc is even weirder 😭