When Uchiha Obito put on the mask and walked through the ninja world under the name Uchiha Madara, what appeared in that Mangekyō Sharingan was the afternoon he had once spent strolling through Konoha with Kurō and Rin.
The sunlight had been warm.
The streets had been noisy.
An old woman selling three-color dango was calling out to customers, and several genin went chasing after a cat as it darted past.
He walked in the middle, with Rin on his left and Kurō on his right.
Rin was saying something, a smile at the corner of her mouth.
Kurō, as always, had a blade of grass between his teeth, both hands in his pockets, his eyes half-open and half-closed as if he had not slept enough.
Back then, Obito had thought days like that would last forever.
At first, he and Kurō had not been that close.
To be precise, when they were very young, Uchiha Kurō had been an extremely annoying guy in Obito’s eyes.
Because Obito could feel it.
That guy had always been deliberately keeping his distance.
They clearly lived next door to each other.
Their families clearly had a good relationship.
Yet whenever Kurō looked at him, there was always an indescribable sense of separation in his eyes.
It was not hatred.
It was not disdain.
It was more like… he was deliberately avoiding something.
As a child, Obito had felt wronged, but he had also been confused.
Back then, he had been a good kid recognized by the whole neighborhood.
What reason did Kurō, that guy who sat at the same desk as that annoying Kakashi, have to dislike him?
Even now, Obito still had not figured out the reason.
If not for Kurō’s parents always taking care of him and his grandmother when they were young, and if not for Rin saying, “You have to get along with him properly,” Obito would never have bothered with him!
In Obito’s eyes back then, that guy was only a slightly familiar stranger.
An annoying “other family’s child.” Thinking about it now, although it was rather cruel, the moment their relationship improved had actually been when Kurō’s parents died.
During that period, the guy who always pretended to act like an adult became unusually quiet.
He was always frowning.
He had clearly only just entered the Academy, but every day he trained like a man possessed.
He practiced shuriken until his fingers bled.
He trained taijutsu until his body was covered in bruises.
He practiced ninjutsu until his chakra was exhausted and he passed out on the training ground.
He was almost like… Kakashi at the time.
Back then, Obito had not known what to do at all.
But with his grandmother’s encouragement, and remembering how Kurō’s parents had always looked after them, he still forced himself to go up to Kurō.
Then he got beaten up.
Inside the Kamui Dimension.
Obito stood at the center of the space, his mask already removed, revealing a face that was half-scarred and half-youthful.
His intact eye was looking forward.
There, countless corpses had been carefully preserved.
At the very center was Rin.
The girl lay there quietly, her face peaceful, as if she were merely asleep.
Obito looked at the girl before him, who seemed to be sleeping, and his hand unconsciously touched the Mangekyō in his right eye.
His voice was hoarse as he murmured, “To think I approached him by saying, ‘Congratulations on awakening the Sharingan’…
I really was an idiot back then.” Thinking about it now, saying that to an Uchiha who had awakened his eyes was basically no different from congratulating him on his whole family’s death.
If anyone dared say something like “Congratulations on awakening the Mangekyō” in front of him, Obito would definitely let that person understand what it meant for Kamui to fail at hiding tears, with everything in sight turned into…
Obito forcibly pulled his thoughts back and looked again at the girl in front of him.
Rin, that always gentle and understanding girl, had rarely gotten angry after learning about that incident.
She had grabbed Obito by the hand and taken him to Kurō to demand an explanation.
She stood in front of Kurō, cheeks puffed up in anger, questioning why he had hit someone.
On that face that was always smiling, there had been undisguised anger.
None of them could have imagined back then that it would become the opportunity for them to become friends.
Obito looked at Rin before him.
His hand instinctively reached out, wanting to touch the girl’s face, but stopped in midair just before it drew near.
A moment later, he slowly lowered his hand.
He, the one who had caused the Nine-Tails’ attack, participated in the destruction of the Uchiha clan, and stained his hands with countless lives, no longer had the right to touch her.
She was so clean, so beautiful.
She should have forever remained in that bright afternoon beneath the sun, not be tainted by someone covered in blood like him.
His gaze moved away from Rin and turned toward another direction in the void.
There was nothing there.
But in his mind, a pair of eyes appeared with perfect clarity.
Those eyes that had seen through all his disguises in an instant.
After he had walked through the ninja world for years as “Uchiha Madara,” even after Minato-sensei had failed to recognize him, Kurō had called out his name accurately the moment they met by chance, after only a brief silence.
Even now, Obito still remembered the shock he had felt in that instant.
In this false world, after he had personally killed countless bonds and severed every connection, there was actually still one person willing to stand by his side and accept the ideals he now held.
At that moment, the man once known as Uchiha Obito, the man he himself had denied, seemed to find a faint anchor in this false world once again.
A dim trace flashed through Obito’s eyes.
He remembered the look in Kurō’s eyes when he left.
Obito murmured in that hoarse voice, “Kurō… so you still can’t completely let go of this false world after all.” Right now, Kurō was probably very dissatisfied with his cooperation with Uchiha Itachi in carrying out the massacre.
But Obito would not regret it.
The dimness in Obito’s eyes vanished in an instant.
What remained was resolve.
It was the only thing he could still hold on to after walking through the darkness for far too long.
“Kurō, my foolish closest friend, go ahead and hate me as much as you want…” Obito’s voice echoed through the empty Kamui Dimension, carrying a gentleness and determination that did not seem like him.
“One day, you will understand me.” He paused.
In his Mangekyō Sharingan, Rin’s peaceful face was reflected.
“Before the Infinite Tsukuyomi descends, I will revive everyone and bring them all into the world I create, a world where everyone can be happy…” “In that world, you will also find true peace.
“You will no longer need to wear that fake smile in this false world.” His voice grew softer and softer, as if he were trying to convince himself.
“I will create a world… where you can smile from the heart!” His fingers tightened slightly.
The pattern in his Mangekyō Sharingan began to spin.
“…Even if that world has no place for me.” As he spoke, a spiral distortion of space appeared in his Mangekyō Sharingan.
His body began to turn transparent, slowly vanishing.
“But until everything is settled, stay by my side and wait for that day to come.” His voice drifted through the space one last time, as faint as a sigh.
“Even if you hate me for it…” ** The Land of Water, outskirts of Kirigakure.
Kurō walked through the outskirts of Kirigakure.
Mist surrounded him on all sides, hiding both his figure and the ugly look on his face.
This was not an act.
At least, not entirely.
He stopped and raised his head, looking at the sky hidden by the mist.
He could see nothing.
Only a dead, silent gray-white.
Almost exactly like his future.
“I’m clearly a transmigrator, but I haven’t changed anything.
Even living to the finale is a luxury… I really am a damn useless waste.” Kurō cursed himself under his breath.
His voice sank into the mist, scattering before it could travel far.
He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.
Kurō looked toward the vague silhouettes of buildings ahead.
The emotions on his face vanished in an instant, replaced by a calm expression.
His figure walked out of the mist, already changed into another appearance.
Whether in build or face, nothing of Kurō’s original roguish handsomeness could be seen anymore.
At this moment, his figure was not as lean and strong as usual.
Instead, he appeared somewhat slender, like a civil official who had spent too many years sitting behind a desk.
His face no longer carried that deliberately wild and handsome look.
It had become very ordinary, with a faint smile on it.
That smile was gentle and harmless, like any ordinary person who might greet you on the street.
The clothes he wore were no longer the Akatsuki’s black cloak with red clouds.
Instead, he wore a dark-blue robe that symbolized his position among Kirigakure’s upper ranks.
This was only the most basic Transformation Jutsu.
But in Kurō’s hands, it was extraordinarily refined.
He adjusted every detail of his body to its most natural state.
Even the rhythm of his breathing had been carefully altered.
Even a powerful ninja with Kage-level strength would not be able to see through it.
Kurō stepped out of the mist and looked toward the village, now prosperous enough to be called thriving, completely transformed from the place it had been when he first arrived all those years ago.
He let out a soft sigh.
Right now, he was not Uchiha Kurō of the Akatsuki.
He was Kirigakure’s Assistant to the Mizukage.
Shiina Sora.
He started walking toward the hazy buildings ahead.
Behind him, the mist closed in again, completely covering the path he had taken.