Obito wanted to laugh when Rin said that, but since she was the one who had said it, he had to hold it in no matter how funny he found the question.
He used all his strength to suppress his laughter.
Then he explained earnestly, “Rin, most of our clan members who have awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan serve in the Military Police Force. You could say that its headquarters is probably the safest place in Konoha. How could anyone possibly fight their way through the entire building alone?”
Rin tilted her head.
Obito had clearly wanted to laugh just now, hadn’t he?
He had tried so hard to hold it in.
She suddenly remembered Obito telling her not long ago that he would become the strongest shinobi in Konoha and felt the urge to tease him a little.
She pretended to ask curiously, “Then, Obito, what if that person were you? Could you fight your way through the entire Military Police Force headquarters alone?”
Obito froze, not expecting Rin to ask such a difficult question.
He felt a little uncertain, but when he saw Rin looking at him with anticipation, boundless ambition immediately filled his heart.
He placed his hands on his hips and raised his head at a forty-five-degree angle.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t facing the Hokage Rock.
Otherwise, he could have looked even cooler.
“If it were me, forget fighting my way through one little Military Police Force headquarters. I could take on all of Konoha without a problem.”
“But Rin, even if I possessed that kind of strength, I would never harm the village or my comrades. I’ll become Hokage and use that power to protect everyone—and to protect you.”
As Rin looked at Obito’s confident expression, she couldn’t help but feel a little excited as well.
Although Obito might have been exaggerating, wasn’t his unwavering optimism and positivity precisely why she had become his best friend?
She would continue watching Obito grow until the day he achieved his dream.
At that thought, she gave Obito a bright smile.
“Then let’s go home and visit Grandma, Obito. It’s getting dark.”
Obito nodded and took Rin’s hand again before leading her toward his home.
By then, the sun was about to set, and their long shadows stretched across the ground in the fading light…
It was already dark by the time they reached his doorstep.
Darkness covered the entire Uchiha clan compound, while a bright moon cast pale light from the sky above.
As usual, Obito stepped forward and knocked on the door.
He deliberately raised his voice and said, “Grandma, I’m home! Rin came with me to visit you too.”
However, his grandmother, who normally opened the door very quickly, did not appear.
Obito waited for a long time, but the door remained tightly shut.
Rin sensed that something was wrong.
She stepped forward and asked worriedly, “Obito, is something wrong with Grandma?”
Obito shook his head.
“Grandma’s health has been getting worse lately. Maybe her hearing has gotten worse, and she didn’t hear us.”
After saying that, he searched his pockets, found the key to the house, and opened the door.
The two entered the house, only to find the lights turned off and the interior completely dark.
Obito began to panic.
He couldn’t help but call out, “Grandma, where are you? What’s wrong? Are you all right?”
As he spoke, he turned on the lights, illuminating the room.
Once the room lit up, Rin immediately saw someone sitting in the reclining chair in the living room…
It was Obito’s grandmother.
However, her eyes were closed.
Was she asleep?
Without thinking, Rin rushed forward, bent down slightly, and gently shook his grandmother’s body.
“Grandma, are you all right?”
However, Obito’s grandmother didn’t respond.
Her expression remained peaceful.
Seeing this, Obito hurried forward.
“Rin, Grandma… How is she?”
Because Rin wanted to become an excellent medical-nin in the future, she had already begun reading basic medical books in her spare time and possessed a simple understanding of the human body.
She quickly reached out to check his grandmother’s breathing.
Her heart lurched, and a sorrowful expression appeared on her face.
“I can’t feel Grandma breathing. She… may have passed away, Obito. You need to prepare yourself.”
Obito’s expression abruptly changed.
He stood frozen in place, and his once-bright eyes suddenly seemed to lose their light.
Rin looked at Obito and suddenly felt as though he had become unreal.
Although they were standing so close together, it felt as though they were separated by an enormous distance, as if…
Obito’s soul had instantly drifted into another world.
Rin suddenly became frightened.
She no longer had time to continue examining his grandmother.
She quickly stood up, reached Obito in a few steps, and asked anxiously:
“Obito, what’s wrong?”
However, Obito numbly shook his head like a lifeless puppet and spoke in an unusually calm yet unfamiliar voice.
“Rin, I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me. Grandma was already old. I had prepared myself for something like this to happen.”
However, perhaps no one in the world understood Obito better than Rin did.
His current state was completely unlike his usual cheerful and carefree self.
How could he possibly be fine?
Moreover, as Rin moved closer, she suddenly sensed an extremely cold aura emanating from Obito and gradually concentrating in his eyes.
She suddenly remembered the knowledge she had previously obtained about the Sharingan.
[The Sharingan awakens when the strength of an Uchiha’s bloodline reaches a certain threshold and they experience intense emotional stimulation.]
Could it be…?
Rin couldn’t help but look into Obito’s eyes.
Then she saw his black irises slowly turning red.
Before long, his irises had become completely blood-red.
Within the crimson irises, his black pupils seemed to begin rotating.
They spun faster and faster until a single tomoe separated from each pupil and began revolving around it.
Rin stared in astonishment.
Could this be the Uchiha clan’s…
Sharingan?
Before she could ask, Obito’s one-tomoe Sharingan suddenly closed.
As if all his strength had been drained from his body, he collapsed directly in front of her…
Obito seemed to have entered a dream.
Within the dream, his world slowly shattered.
This had not begun recently.
It had started long ago—when his parents died, when the other Uchiha clan members ostracized him, and when he was left all alone, isolated from the rest of the world.
Cracks had existed within that world for a long time, but it had never completely broken.
Now, with his grandmother’s passing, all those cracks split open at once.
The world once filled with vibrant colors instantly vanished, replaced by one that was black and white, empty, desolate, and lonely.
However, just as this desolate world was beginning to stabilize and take shape, Obito vaguely saw a small figure.
It was Rin.
She was smiling at him, and the purple markings on her cheeks looked especially vivid.
His resolve immediately hardened.
Even if his world had already shattered, he still had Rin.
As long as Rin was there, she could fill his black-and-white world with vibrant colors again.
Suddenly, the colorful fragments that had begun to disappear returned one after another, as though responding to an unseen summons, and started piecing themselves back together.
As more and more fragments gathered, Obito’s world gradually filled with color once again.
That vibrant world had returned.
Obito suddenly heard a distant voice calling his name.
That voice…
belonged to Rin.
At that realization, Obito’s consciousness fully emerged from the chaos.
He opened his eyes.
Then he saw Rin’s small, exhausted face as she watched over him.
Obito had a thousand things he wanted to say, but in the end, none of them came out.
All that emerged was a single cry.
“Rin!”
It really helps the fic grow!