The young Itachi was busy pouring out his heart to his closest friends and loved ones.
With nothing to do, Obito wandered around.
Not long ago he had just put away Fugaku's two Mangekyō, so he was in a good mood. Then he heard footsteps not far away, so he followed the sound.
Obito originally thought it was a surviving member of the Uchiha clan and planned to conveniently help Itachi deal with it.
But what appeared before him… was actually a "person of light" sitting on a bench, holding a can of iced tea.
The river of time was about to reach the boundary of the black box. Ryosuke's entire body was covered with tiny particles of space-time, as if he were a person condensed from light.
Obito frowned slightly. "Who are you?"
Clack!
Ryosuke opened the can of iced black tea, took a sip, let out a faint sigh, and casually answered, "The Terminator."
Obito's gaze turned cold.
He didn't care whether the glowing figure in front of him was the Terminator or Ultraman, anyone who appeared in the Uchiha district tonight had to die.
A kunai flew out from his wide sleeve and landed in his hand. A chilling killing intent burst out as Obito prepared to strike.
But what answered him was only a sigh.
Ryosuke took another sip of tea, leaned against the bench, completely ignoring Obito's killing intent, and said softly, "I finally understand what it means to meet the right person at the wrong time and the wrong place."
Obito snorted coldly, threw the kunai, and charged at Ryosuke at the same time.
"Trying to act mysterious!"
Ryosuke glanced at the flying kunai, then at Obito charging in so confidently without even activating his phasing. For some reason, he felt that the Sharingan spinning under that mask had a kind of clear, transparent stupidity to it.
Star Platinum appeared.
Time stopped.
Ryosuke stood up from the bench and walked unhurriedly toward Obito.
"Since I can't kill you… at least I can take a look, right?"
He reached out and lifted Obito's mask.
Under the mask was an ordinary face. The left side was covered with radial wrinkles, like scars that had healed for many years.
Besides that…
There wasn't much else.
Ryosuke felt a bit disappointed.
He had even imagined that someday in the future Obito would lift his mask and underneath would be another Ryosuke, like the masked man was actually Ryosuke's dark personality or something.
Just imagining it felt extremely chūni.
Or maybe he'd be some bigshot who had survived until now.
For a time, the masked man had even called himself Uchiha Madara. Ryosuke had specifically looked up photos of Uchiha Madara for comparison.
Now that he saw it in person, the masked man looked so plain he didn't even resemble an Uchiha.
"Got it memorized?"
Ryosuke asked Star Platinum over his shoulder.
Star Platinum nodded stiffly, then gave Ryosuke two thumbs-up, indicating no problem, it could draw this face perfectly when they got back.
Even though at this point the masked man's real identity didn't matter anymore, the fact that he deliberately wore a mask clearly meant he didn't want others to know.
"When we get back, print out a whole stack and send them to Tsunade."
Ryosuke thought as he carefully helped Obito put the mask back on.
The next second, before the time stop even ended, the light particles on his body brightened to the extreme.
Ryosuke was pulled back into the river of time, drifting upstream, returning the way he came.
From Obito's point of view, he had just grabbed his kunai and was about to kill Ryosuke when his vision blurred, the glowing figure on the bench had vanished.
"Did he run?"
Obito looked around. Suddenly he felt something was off. He touched his mask.
The angle was different from how he normally wore it.
Someone touched his mask?
Was it that glowing person?
Or… just his imagination?
Obito adjusted the mask back in place. The joy he felt from obtaining Fugaku's eyes faded, replaced by a dense shadow swirling in his heart.
———
A flash of light streaked by, Ryosuke returned to the Kingdom of Roran.
Akimichi Choza stared blankly at Ryosuke, who had suddenly disappeared and suddenly reappeared. He already felt that when he went back after this mission, he would have plenty to brag about with his buddies over drinks.
Sara asked, "He…"
"He's dead," Ryosuke said simply.
Sara clenched her fist tightly.
The Queen of Roran kneeling beside her heard the news of her beloved's death. Whether she felt wronged, hated her own stupidity, or couldn't bear to part with Itachi, the woman who had been dazed all this time suddenly broke into tears.
While Ryosuke had been gone, Sara and Minato once again completed the sealing of the Dragon Vein.
This turbulent city finally returned to peace.
Minato walked over and looked at the cracks constantly appearing on Ryosuke's skin.
"Are you alright?"
Ryosuke nodded.
"I won't die for now."
If he had simply absorbed the enormous, scorching power of the Dragon Vein, even Ryosuke would've died long ago.
Thanks to the life energy spilled out from the explosion of lunar power, plus the demon-god energy from the apparition, with Hamon harmonizing the mix, he barely maintained a fragile balance.
But no one knew how long that balance would last.
"I have an idea."
Minato glanced at the white light points reappearing on Ryosuke's skin. It wouldn't be long before Ryosuke was pulled into another space-time jump, returning to the future from this current time point.
Minato sped up his speech, "Have you heard of Lady Slug Sage?"
Ryosuke nodded.
"The Slug Sage trains in 'the past', all things return to oneself."
Minato pointed at the purple cracks constantly appearing and disappearing on Ryosuke's skin.
"When you go back, you can go to Konoha and ask Lady Tsunade for help. She's a..."
Minato suddenly pictured Tsunade with hands on hips, waving cash around and laughing arrogantly. His expression turned strange just as he was about to continue.
Ryosuke waved his hand. "I know her well."
"You know her well?"
This was Minato's first time hearing that someone besides his own teacher, Orochimaru, could be close with Tsunade.
Ryosuke smiled and didn't explain much.
Time was tight, so Minato didn't pursue it, "If you know her, then even better. The other thing is about the Great Toad Sage's prophecy you mentioned."
While walking through the underground corridor, Ryosuke had told Minato about "absolute darkness."
Ryosuke had originally wanted to ask Minato whether his research into space-time ninjutsu had given him the ability to glimpse the future.
If he could, Ryosuke was really curious what the future looked like from this past timeline that was still "clean" and untouched by his interference.
The answer, of course, was no.
Minato's mastery of space-time ninjutsu focused on space, not time.
Minato continued, "The black box triggered by you and Itachi is about to open."
"I was thinking earlier, maybe the reason the Great Toad Sage and that priestess Shion could only see darkness was because the black box cast its shadow across the timeline."
Because the past was trapped inside the black box and filled with uncertainty, the future was also trapped in darkness, impossible to see.
Ryosuke thought about it.
It was indeed possible.
"As for finding the Great Toad Sage… ah, wait, I forgot. If you can meet him, that probably means you know Jiraiya-sensei too, right?"
Ryosuke nodded again. "Very well."
Akimichi Choza laughed loudly from the side. "You seem to know almost everyone in Konoha. Is there anyone you don't know?"
Ryosuke looked at Aburame Shibi.
Shibi cleared his throat, turned around, and pretended not to hear.
"One last question."
Minato asked, "In the future you come from… will we ever meet again?"
Ryosuke opened his mouth but didn't know how to answer.
Seeing his silence, Minato's smile carried a hint of sorrow, then turned bright again. "I see…"