Ten km to the northeast, in a hidden valley—
Kakashi leaned against a moss-covered boulder, his left hand clamped over his right ribs. A blade wound there was deep enough to show bone, and blood kept seeping between his fingers.
He was breathing hard. His silver bangs were soaked with sweat and blood, stuck flat against his pale skin. His forehead protector had slipped down to his neck at some point, exposing the crimson Sharingan in his left eye.
Even now, Kakashi didn't dare relax. He focused, listening for every tiny sound in the forest.
Behind him, Nohara Rin was kneeling, both hands glowing with a soft green light pressed against Kakashi's wound.
Her medical ninjutsu was running at full power—Mystical Palm chakra poured in like warm spring water, repairing torn muscle and blood vessels.
The wound visibly closed, but the dizziness from blood loss still wouldn't go away.
"Kakashi… hold on a little longer… it'll be done soon…" Rin said, not even stopping to wipe the sweat off her forehead. She bit her lip and pushed even more healing chakra into the injury.
Her face was pale too—not just from the strain, but because the unstable power in her abdomen, something that could "blow up" at any moment, made her feel sick.
The other medical ninja had formed a ring around them, watching the valley entrance with weapons in hand.
Most of them were genin and chūnin—there wasn't a single jōnin among them. Their faces still carried a trace of youth, but every one of them gripped kunai and shuriken tightly.
Combat-capable medic-nin were extremely rare.
That was one reason the "every squad gets a medic" idea never truly took off: training costs were huge, and it often led to more casualties.
A fight three combat ninja could finish cleanly became a fight with two combat ninja and one healer—less damage output, more variables, more risk.
A short-haired female medic whispered, "Rin, do you still have enough chakra? Do you want to rest?"
Rin shook her head. The green glow didn't dim at all.
"No. Kakashi's wound is too serious. If it isn't fully healed, the next fight…"
She didn't finish, but everyone understood.
Mist pursuit could arrive at any time—and Kakashi was the strongest combat power they had.
Among the medics here, only Rin had an A-rank healing technique. The others could manage at best B-rank treatment.
So the burden of saving Kakashi fell on her shoulders.
"I'm fine, Rin," Kakashi rasped, exhaling a foul breath thick with blood. He tried to move.
The tearing sensation was still there, but at least he wasn't bleeding anymore.
After he'd split from Kiyohara, he'd followed the intel and made it here.
The breakout had cost him dearly:
A deep gash in his right ribs. A piercing wound through his left shoulder. Chakra burned down to less than half. His left eye going dark at the edges from overusing the Sharingan…
There had been one jōnin and eight chūnin Mist ninja. Kakashi still forced his way through, killed them, and freed the medics.
"Kiyohara…?" Rin asked.
She was extremely worried about him—his face kept flashing through her mind.
"Kiyohara…" Kakashi echoed.
He noticed something: Rin had asked about Kiyohara immediately, almost impatiently. And her eyes kept drifting to the bracelet on her wrist.
Kakashi vaguely remembered—wasn't that the one Kiyohara gave her?
When had the two of them formed a bond he didn't know about?
"He's still behind us," Kakashi said.
He thought of Kiyohara staying alone to hold the rear. Without Kiyohara, Kakashi never would've reached this place so quickly.
And even if he had, it would've been far more dangerous—his chakra couldn't hold out much longer.
"Rin… what did they do to you?" Kakashi asked, turning to her.
The Sharingan could read chakra flow. He'd noticed something circling her abdomen—a crimson chakra swirl.
Unstable. Ready to erupt.
"…A monster with three tails," Rin said.
"I don't remember clearly. They captured us medics… for the first few days it was normal prisoner treatment. Then today they suddenly took me."
Even now, she sounded shaken, her voice trembling with tears.
"And after they took you?" Kakashi pressed.
"It… it went into my body," Rin said.
She explained the Mist ninja seemed to perform some kind of special ritual on her, but her consciousness had been taken away. All she remembered was a sealing pattern being drawn on her stomach.
But when she lifted her clothes afterward, there was nothing there.
"When Rin was taken away, most of the Mist guards also left," the short-haired medic added.
"We were going to fight back and escape with Rin, but then you arrived, Kakashi."
Kakashi nodded silently.
After killing the enemy, he'd found Rin in a cave behind the camp.
He had his eight ninja dogs to thank—they'd tracked her by scent.
"What Miyako said is right," Rin said quickly, panic rising. "Kakashi… after I heal you, kill me. Immediately. While I can still control myself."
"Don't say that!" Kakashi snapped—so sharply that even he sounded surprised.
"There has to be a way, Rin!"
Rin finished the healing and shoved a kunai into his palm.
"Please… I don't want to become a monster… I don't want to hurt anyone…"
The other medics fell silent.
The kunai was ice-cold in Kakashi's hand, cold enough to sting. He stared at its metal surface, reflecting his pale face… and that crimson eye.
Then he looked up at Rin.
Her face was beaded with sweat. The warm smile she always wore had vanished—there was only desperation and pleading.
He thought of Obito.
The hand reaching out from under rubble. The words: "Protect Rin."
His promise.
And now… he was supposed to drive this kunai into Rin's heart?
He couldn't.
No matter what, he couldn't.
"I won't give up," Kakashi said, tossing the kunai away.
If Kiyohara were here, Kakashi believed he'd make the same choice.
"There's always a way. We leave now, go back to Konoha—we'll find a solution."
"But—"
"No 'but'." Kakashi cut her off and forced himself to stand.
"Kiyohara should still be on the way. With him as support, our chances of getting back are much higher."
The trust in his voice was unmistakable.
And Kiyohara's sensing ability could help them avoid Mist ambushes before they happened.
Before the sentence fully settled, dense footsteps erupted at the valley entrance.
At least twenty people—closing fast.
"Found them! They're here!" Mist voices rang out into the night.
"Chidori!" Kakashi reacted instantly. The shriek of a thousand birds tore through the air as lightning gathered in his palm.
"Kill them!"
Mist ninja hurled kunai in unison.
Kakashi twisted aside and drove his lightning through the first man's chest—but four more attacks were already within arm's reach.
Then—
A green blur dropped from above like a cannonball.
"Leaf Great Whirlwind!"
Bang!
A Mist ninja was kicked clear off the ground and slammed into the rock wall with a dull, bone-cracking impact.
Might Guy landed in a fighting stance, green steam curling around him.
"Kakashi. I'm late."
Behind him, Ebisu, Yūhi Kurenai and Shiranui Genma arrived as well, along with several Konoha ninja Kakashi didn't recognize.
Kakashi guessed they were additional reinforcements.
"Guy… you're here." Kakashi finally let out a breath.
"The main force is still behind us," said one ninja skilled in genjutsu, hands already forming seals.
Several Mist ninja suddenly froze, eyes clouding, and began hacking at empty air.
"Ninja Art: Rain of Senbon."
Genma spat senbon—pinning the genjutsu-caught Mist ninja into a pincushion.
"There are too many Mist ninja… and they seem especially focused on Rin," Ebisu said, pushing his glasses up.
Kakashi's stomach sank.
So the Mist's target had never been "medical ninja" alone—they were hunting a suitable vessel.
Now that they had Rin and had stuffed something inside her, Kakashi's suspicion had finally solidified.
It was probably the so-called "weapon of war"—
A tailed beast.
Kakashi saw more and more Mist ninja converging. Even Mist Anbu were arriving in numbers.
They couldn't drag this out.
"Rin has been implanted with a tailed beast," Kakashi said tersely to the others.
"They're here to recover the vessel."
Faces went white.
"Guy—take the other medics back to the main rendezvous. I'll take Rin and go another route," Kakashi ordered.
"But Kakashi, your wounds—" Guy hesitated.
"I'm fine." Kakashi wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Splitting up disperses their forces. Their target is Rin. If Rin isn't with you, you'll be safer."
Guy looked at Kakashi's deathly pallor, then at Rin, and finally nodded hard.
"Understood. You two have to survive."
He turned and escorted the medics away with the others.
Kakashi took Rin and ran toward the Konoha camp.
Just as expected, most Mist ninja chose to pursue Kakashi and Rin—only a small number stayed behind to fight Guy's group.
…
Meanwhile, at the Graveyard of Mountains—
Obito lay on his bed staring at the ceiling.
The fusion is going smoothly. Soon I'll see Rin and Kakashi again.
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"Hiss… it hurts."
Suddenly Obito clutched his left eye.
Sometimes it stung—then strange images would flash. Just now, he'd seen Rin.
He jolted awake from his brief rest after rehab training.
His heart hammered. A suffocating dread filled his chest.
As if to confirm it, a White Zetsu head popped out of the wall.
"I just went out for a bit—and I happened to see the idiot Kakashi and Nohara Rin you mentioned. They're in trouble!"
"!!"
"What happened?" Obito sprang up. His hair had already grown down to his waist.
Hashirama cells had given him terrifying recovery—his hair growth and even his body's development accelerated.
Just a few months, and he was a head taller than before.
"They're surrounded by Mist ninja—being chased!"
Obito leapt off the bed and punched the wall with his pale right hand.
"Uwaa…"
His right arm snapped off at the elbow, drooping like melted white wax.
"You can't break rock with that body yet," Spiral-Face White Zetsu said, dropping from the wall.
"I have to go… save Rin and Kakashi!" Obito clutched his ruined arm, forcing down the pain.
"Are they… okay?" he demanded, voice trembling.
"Umm…" another White Zetsu on the wall scratched his head. "Hard to say."
"What do you mean 'hard to say'? Tell me the truth!" Obito seized the Zetsu by the collar, his two-tomoe Sharingan flaring.
"Where are they? Are they alive?"
"Calm down." Spiral-Face Zetsu said.
Unlike other Zetsu, it had no human facial features—just a spiral face.
(In the original, it would later use the name "Tobi.")
"They're alive, but… it's not great."
The Zetsu continued, "Your teammate Kakashi went to rescue captured medical ninja."
Obito's heart nearly stopped.
"And then?"
"And then he got the girl named Rin back out, but…" The Zetsu paused, watching Obito's face. "Now they're being hunted by a large Mist force, and Kakashi seems injured."
Obito frowned. "Why… why didn't you tell me earlier?!"
He roared, leapt down, and charged for the exit—
Only to find the passage sealed by thick rock.
"Open it! Let me out!"
He pounded the stone like a madman. It didn't budge.
"Useless, you know," Spiral-Face Zetsu drawled.
"Then have Madara open it! Rin's in danger! Kakashi's in danger! Did you hear me?!"
Obito spun, Sharingan veins bulging.
"If they die… if I can't protect my comrades… what's the point of me living?!"
His voice echoed in the chamber—raw and hoarse with despair.
"But even if you go back, you might be treated like an enemy," Spiral-Face Zetsu said. "After all, you've already been forgotten."
"Impossible!" Obito glared.
These things always spewed nonsense—always saying he'd been forgotten.
"I can't be forgotten. There's still… still a place for me."
His hair hung to his waist. He didn't know exactly how much time had passed, but surely not long enough for "forgotten" to be true.
"Ugh, you're impossible. Fine—wear me. Put on my body." Spiral-Face Zetsu opened like a flower, revealing its hollow interior—like it was only a layer of skin and flesh.
Then it wrapped around Obito.
The warm, tight pressure made Obito feel deeply enveloped.
This was… power.
"Aren't you Madara's subordinates? Is this allowed?" Obito asked.
"He's a good kid," the White Zetsu on the wall said—implying this was Spiral-Face Zetsu acting on its own.
"Don't you want to save Kakashi and Rin?" Spiral-Face Zetsu said.
"Thank you." Obito clenched his fist and punched the massive rock again.
BOOM!
This time, the dozens-of-meters-thick rock burst open with a hole.
"You're leaving?" Uchiha Madara lifted his head, watching Obito.
Obito's head emerged from the Zetsu "shell." Spiral-Face Zetsu's branches sprouted off his shoulder.
"I'm grateful you helped me. But I have to go now. I'll thank you properly—though I probably won't ever come back here."
"You're too impatient," Madara said, gaze heavy.
"I told you—thanking me now is too early."
"You'll come back. And when you do, that will be your real thanks—because you'll have nowhere else to go."
"…" Obito stared at him, thinking this old man was insane.
How could Kakashi and Rin not recognize him?
Obito didn't waste another word on Madara. He demanded Kakashi and Rin's location.
"The thing wrapped around you is my clone," Spiral-Face Zetsu explained. "Within that range, we can talk like wireless radio. Other clones are spread through the underground, gathering intel."
Obito surged forward.
Beyond the broken rock wall hung a cache of weapons—giant shuriken, black cloaks, blades, scythes, an Uchiha fan, and more.
Obito didn't choose carefully. He grabbed a black cloak to hide his body and charged out.
This time, he cleared every obstacle, carving a path to the surface.
Blinding sunlight poured through the opening. Obito squinted as tears spilled out—he hadn't seen light in far too long.
But he had no time to adjust.
Rin was waiting.
Kakashi was waiting.
"Wait for me… just wait…"
He whispered, sprinting into the light.
His body tore through the forest at absurd speed.
With Hashirama cells and Spiral-Face Zetsu's boost, each step launched him dozens of meters.
Trees blurred into streaks. The wind roared like thunder in his ears.
Obito prayed.
That Rin would be safe.
That Kakashi would be okay.
That he… wouldn't be too late.
Deep in the cave's shadows, Madara slowly opened his eyes.
A faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared on his aged face.
"Go, Obito."
He murmured into the empty chamber.
"Go witness… how cruel this world is."
"And then come back with despair."
"And become… the perfect piece in my plan."