That night, after Hyūga Shinichi finished his afternoon training and returned home, Kushina sat on the sofa, holding the photo frame of Team Minato, lost in thought.
"I'm home!"
"Hmm?"
"Kushina?"
"What's wrong? Why haven't you turned on the lights? Is the lamp broken?"
Minato, returning home after a busy day of "work," saw Kushina sitting in the dim living room and asked in confusion. As he spoke, Minato changed into his slippers and entered the living room, touching the light switch on the wall.
It wasn't until the bright light illuminated the room that the spaced-out Kushina snapped back to reality. She looked up at the ceiling light and then turned back toward Minato:
"Minato! You're finally back!"
Kushina hurried to her feet and, before Minato could even react to what was happening, she rushed into his embrace, hugging him tightly.
"Kushina, what happened?"
Minato could feel that his wife was extremely emotional. He gently patted Kushina's back and asked softly.
At the same time, Minato glanced out the window, sensing the chakra of Kakashi, who was hidden outside. Minato secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Kakashi was the Anbu he assigned to watch over Kushina. Since Kakashi was still present, even if something had happened, it wouldn't be a major crisis.
"Minato, that child, Shinichi... saw your dead student, Uchiha Obito!"
Seeing Minato return, Kushina finally found her anchor. She finally had someone with whom she could share the shocking news and help analyze it.
Under Minato's questioning gaze, Kushina handed the photo frame to him and began to detail everything that had happened that afternoon.
Minato first heard that Shinichi had successfully used the Mind's Eye of the Kagura in just one afternoon, and that his sensory range, upon first use, already covered the Konoha Cemetery. He was already startled by Shinichi's talent when Kushina brought up the chakra Shinichi had sensed in the cemetery.
Combining Shinichi's description of the person's appearance and the Sharingan, the "exclusive" bloodline limit of the Uchiha Clan, Minato began to guess the identity of the tiger-striped masked man Shinichi had seen.
"Obito, huh..."
Minato was a meticulous person. Combining all the clues, he reached the same conclusion as Kushina. The moment countless coincidences converged, they became a certainty. No matter how incredible the truth seemed, the truth was always the truth.
Minato did not doubt the veracity of Shinichi's words—neither Minato nor Kushina doubted it. In their view, Hyūga Shinichi, a five-year-old from the Hyūga Main Family, had no reason or need to tell such an easily exposed lie.
Moreover, Hyūga Shinichi was nowhere near Konoha when Uchiha Obito supposedly died years ago, so he couldn't possibly know the person.
If he hadn't truly seen the person with his own eyes, how could he vaguely recognize the similarity between the person's appearance and the young Obito in the photo the moment he saw it?
Furthermore, features like the Sharingan and the half-disfigured face would naturally lead anyone who knew the truth of the Kannabi Bridge Battle to suspect the mysterious person was Obito. The deduction was simply too logical.
"Minato, is it possible that child Obito is truly still alive?"
"If he is, that would be wonderful!"
Kushina, seeing Minato lost in thought, gently held his hand, speaking with a sense of relief.
However, Minato's attitude towards the matter was not as optimistic as Kushina's. His considerations were the same as Shinichi's... If Obito was truly alive, why hadn't he appeared before them all these years?! Even if Obito had suffered psychological trauma during the war and wanted to live a peaceful, non-confrontational life, there was no need for him to appear in Konoha Village dressed like that. If he truly wanted to live peacefully in Konoha, wouldn't Minato, as the Hokage and Obito's teacher, grant him that convenience?!
As Shinichi thought, the person who could save Obito in that situation must be an expert. Minato wondered about the true objective of the person behind Obito.
As he contemplated, Minato frowned deeply.
Kushina noticed her husband ignoring her and gently squeezed his hand.
"Ah?"
"Sorry, I was distracted."
"Kushina, don't worry about this matter."
"If the person Shinichi saw is Obito, then I think Obito might just want a peaceful life. If that's the case, we should pretend we don't know and let him be."
"He has the right to choose his own way of life."
"If that person is not Obito... then whoever they are, they will inevitably make another move in the coming days."
"Since we are now aware of this person's existence, we are not entirely passive."
"As long as we figure out their pattern of activity, we will eventually be able to root them out!"
Minato instantly formulated several plans in his mind. As the Hokage, he couldn't allow an unidentified individual, who was also concealing his identity, to move freely in Konoha. At the very least, he needed to ascertain the person's identity.
Since Shinichi saw the person in the cemetery, they would likely appear there again. If it truly was Obito... the reason the boy would appear at the cemetery was simple... When Obito was alive, he only had his grandmother as a relative in this world, and she passed away shortly after the news of Obito's death reached Konoha. Since she was not a ninja and was a Uchiha clan member, Obito's grandmother's funeral was handled by the Uchiha Clan, and she was buried in the Uchiha family graveyard. Besides her, Obito's closest friends were only his teammates, Kakashi and Rin. And now, the only person buried in the Konoha Cemetery among them was... Rin!
[I should set up a simple Flying Thunder God trap at Rin's grave...]
[If it truly is Obito...]
Minato continued to comfort Kushina while secretly planning in his heart. His mind had already formed a strong suspicion about the masked man's identity. All he needed to do now was confirm his guess.
Since Shinichi had pointed out the existence of Uchiha Obito, it would not be difficult for a person with Minato's ability to find clues.
If even the young Uchiha Itachi could detect Obito's movements, how could a meticulous person with excellent sensing abilities like Minato come up empty-handed when actively searching?
Obito's concealment methods were not that advanced. He had already left countless traces in Konoha Village. It was only a matter of time before he was uncovered!
Shinichi was very confident about this, so after returning home, he temporarily put the matter aside and focused on his own affairs.
Time passed peacefully day by day. Meanwhile, Kushina's belly and Shinichi's mother, Hanako's belly, were both growing larger.
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