"What did you just call me?!"
"Obito."
Kabuto said, "Uchiha Obito."
"The entire ninja world knows now… don't tell me you still didn't know?"
Obito really didn't know about this.
Ever since digging out the One-Tails chakra that Uchiha Itachi left behind, these past two days Obito had no appetite for tea or food, he put all his focus on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
Whenever he got tired or sleepy, he thought about the humiliation Ryosuke had given him, thought about Rin waiting for him in the world of Tsukuyomi, and then squeezed out more strength to continue working.
With the black box opened, the timeline and memories overlapped, and Obito indeed remembered the "light-man" from the night of the massacre, and also remembered that his mask had shown slight movement.
But… this sort of thing couldn't be verified, and couldn't be resolved.
Obito simply treated it as an illusion.
He figured that even if Ryosuke had seen his face, he probably wouldn't recognize who he was.
After all, the young Obito was just a nobody.
The people familiar with him, Uchiha clan members, Namikaze Minato, Rin, were basically all dead, with only Kakashi left.
But sometimes Obito himself couldn't even recognize his own reflection in the mirror, let alone Kakashi.
Thinking this, Obito set his mind at ease.
What he didn't expect was that Kakashi was a sentimental person, and also a smart one.
Back when he awakened the Mangekyō and learned that Kamui was a space-type ability, Kakashi already had a trace of suspicion in his heart.
The two of them, one left eye, one right eye, just happened to form a pair of Sharingan.
However, at that time Kakashi still wondered whether the masked man had stolen Obito's eye and transplanted it into his own body.
But after receiving the mass-printed photos, Kakashi confirmed his guess and immediately reported Obito's true identity.
And then…
Obito made the headlines of the ninja world news.
"You don't have to wear the mask anymore, just be yourself, of course, if that's your kink, pretend I didn't say anything."
Kabuto spread his hands, "The Great White Snake of the Evil God respects cultural diversity."
With every extra sentence Kabuto said, Obito's heart twitched in pain.
He didn't expect that after hiding it for most of his life, in the end it would become something everyone knew.
The key wasn't the identity leak.
The key was Kakashi.
Kakashi wasn't throwing things into the Kamui space for the first time.
Deidara's explosion, Uchiha Itachi's Amaterasu flames, Obito had personally experienced all of them.
"If Ryosuke discovers this secret and uses his weird little vines to find me, while having Kakashi keep throwing explosive tags into Kamui space to block my intangibility…"
"That would be certain death!"
The more Obito thought about it, the more his hairs stood on end.
He needed to find a way to kill Kakashi. At the very least… he needed to take back that Mangekyō Sharingan.
Obito regretted it deeply.
If he had known, he should have taken the eye back before Kakashi awakened the Mangekyō.
With Obito's combat power, facing the "Copy Ninja" who had not yet awakened the Mangekyō, there wouldn't have been the slightest difficulty. All of Kakashi's techniques were useless against him.
However, back then Obito believed he would eventually replace his eyes with Nagato's Rinnegan, so he needed to leave an "eye slot" empty.
And besides, giving his Sharingan away had been a decision made by his younger self.
Obito would betray Nagato, betray Uchiha Madara, White Zetsu, Black Zetsu, but the only one he didn't want to betray was his younger self.
Because the beautiful memories of Rin rested in the heart of the young Obito.
If even his younger self was abandoned completely,
Then what was the meaning of chasing Infinite Tsukuyomi?
But now, Obito felt…
"What the hell kind of crap was I spouting back then?!"
Younger self this, betrayal that, did he really think he was the protagonist of a drama?
Obito wished he could slap himself twice.
"Pack up all important equipment immediately and get out of the Kamui space."
"Why?" Kabuto couldn't understand.
Obito explained his guess.
"Once they confirm… no, even if they just suspect it, they'll start trying to explore Kamui space."
Kabuto frowned slightly, "Aren't you being overly paranoid?"
Obito stepped forward, grabbed Kabuto by the collar, and said with utmost seriousness, "You don't understand. You've never faced Ryosuke, never faced the group of lunatics who follow him."
"If you want to stay alive, don't hold even the slightest bit of luck in your heart."
Feeling the emotion Obito transmitted, Kabuto restrained his last trace of a smile, nodded forcefully, and turned to stride out.
After he left, Obito collapsed weakly onto the ground, gripping his hair hard.
The joy of obtaining the One-Tails chakra vanished.
"How… how did things end up like this?"
No matter how he thought about it, Obito could only think of one person.
Uchiha Itachi.
Dead, and still backstabbing his teammates.
Obito clenched his teeth, "You really are consistent to the end!"
———
Ryosuke sat cross-legged on top of the Slug Sage's head.
This was preparation for training.
According to the Slug Sage's instructions, next Ryosuke had to recall his own life and search for his single most important memory fragment.
After finding it, he would use that memory fragment to search the river of time for the corresponding past, ensuring the two perfectly matched.
"There are two difficulties here."
"First, perceiving the river of time."
"Second, in the chaotic river of time, finding the past that matches the memory."
The Slug Sage said, "In a moment I will connect to my own past projection and share the feeling of that connection with you."
"But the feeling I can share will be very vague."
"You have to use that vague feeling to make an even vaguer exploration… it won't be easy."
"We'll spend quite a bit of time. You can relax a little; you don't have to sit so rigidly."
The Slug Sage was referring to Ryosuke sitting cross-legged with his back straight.
Ryosuke smiled and said, "This just feels more like a training ritual."
"Then… let's begin."
The Slug Sage closed its eyes.
The next second, a faint, subtle, indescribable feeling rose in Ryosuke's heart. It was hard to put into words.
It was like a Northeasterner working in the South who one day smells the dry, cold air outside the window and suddenly remembers the silent, wide snow-covered nights of home, and from the deepest place in the heart, a gentle nostalgia spreads out.
Just as the Slug Sage had said.
The feeling of connecting to a past projection… truly was too vague.
As someone from a science-and-engineering background, Ryosuke preferred a training mode of prototype scanning, sample comparison, adaptive fine-tuning, and then replication.
This kind of thing based purely on feeling…
Ryosuke took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
"Then let's empty the mind for the first time in a while."
With his mental restraints released, memories and thoughts churned in his mind, and scenes from the past flashed by one after another.
Ryosuke was very curious, what would his most precious memory fragment be?
Was it the battle where he defeated Nagato and seized the world?
Was it when he beheaded the Daimyō of the Land of Water and let the world know that nobles and lords are not born superior?
The memories churned faster and faster until at some point they blurred so quickly he couldn't distinguish them anymore, only a vague shadow remained.
And within that shadow, Ryosuke heard his own voice, ("I want to continue this 'light of happiness' with you until the world is at peace… is that alright?")
In an instant, the memory froze.
Terumi Mei's captivating face appeared in his mind.