Obito's half-face—still wrapped in the spiral White Zetsu body—twitched as his muscles spasmed.
He wanted to shout, to greet them the way he always had.
But it was like something was jammed in his throat.
He lay in the bushes, mud and shredded leaves clinging to his black cloak.
That kick hadn't even been that heavy.
What Obito couldn't accept was the unfamiliarity and hostility in Rin's eyes.
"Careful—another monster just showed up!"
Among the Mist attackers, someone warned in a low voice.
Several masked Mist Anbu quickly shifted their formation, tightening the circle around Kiyohara, Kakashi, and Nohara Rin—while also watching Obito, who had appeared out of nowhere.
"What is that? Reinforcements?" a Mist jōnin frowned.
"No. I've never seen anything like it… pale skin, a face like a spiral—maybe a Grass ninja?" another replied.
"But if Konoha's attacking it, it's probably not one of theirs. Could be Grass, or another nearby village."
The Mist Anbu murmured among themselves.
Rin stared at Obito warily too.
"What… is that?" Kakashi frowned.
Even under the cloak, you could tell: his neck, face, hands, feet—everything was white.
"It's not…"
Obito struggled up from the brush. The Sharingan visible through the hole in the Zetsu flesh trembled violently.
"I'm not a monster… I'm…"
He looked at Rin.
Rin had her back to him, red thigh-high socks splattered with mud, brown short hair slightly disheveled from fighting.
That was the silhouette he'd dreamed about.
The person he'd sworn to protect with his life.
For months, he'd endured recovery and suffering in that underground darkness. The only thing keeping him going was the thought of returning to Rin.
He'd imagined their reunion countless times—Rin gasping his name, startled by his changes, then the three of them fighting side by side like before.
Or maybe he'd arrive like a hero.
But never this.
She'd kicked him away and looked at him like an enemy.
Neither Kakashi nor Rin recognized him.
They'd completely forgotten him.
If they truly remembered, how could a few "small changes" make him unrecognizable?
Watching Obito frozen in place, Kiyohara had a pretty good guess what was going through his head.
He was probably heartbroken that Rin and Kakashi didn't recognize him.
That was normal.
Canon Obito went down the same path—mask on, voice changed, fighting style changed… then he attacked Konoha, unleashed the Nine-Tails, got Kushina killed…
And later he blamed Minato for being his teacher and still not recognizing him.
Obito now was likely trapped in the same psychology.
Looking at how different Obito had become from the sunny, carefree big kid he used to be, Kiyohara honestly felt the mental wiring was very Uchiha.
Obito's arrival only made the brawl pause for a heartbeat.
The Hōzuki ninja in front of Kiyohara lunged again, and the two resumed fighting.
"Rin…"
Obito's voice was hoarse.
"It's me…"
Rin seemed to hear something and tilted her head slightly—but her eyes didn't linger on him. They snapped toward Kiyohara instead.
"Kiyohara-kun, watch out for that guy!"
Rin shouted, her voice full of concern.
That concern wasn't for Obito.
Under the mask, Obito's face twisted.
A scorching mix of grievance, rage, and despair detonated in his chest.
The two tomoe in his Sharingan spun madly; deep in the blood-red pupil, something felt like it was fermenting, struggling to burst out.
His eyes heated up. The world sharpened; everyone's movements seemed to slow.
But it wasn't enough… just a little more…
More what?
He didn't know—only a gut conviction that if he had stronger power, if he could prove himself, if he could…
"Obito."
Far away—over ten kilometers off—inside the Graveyard of Mountains, Madara formed a one-handed seal and curled his lips into a cold smile.
"Pain still isn't deep enough. Let me give you a push."
His fingers shifted. Chakra traveled through the White Zetsu network and triggered the binding talisman buried in Rin's heart.
At the center of the battlefield, Rin let out a muffled groan, clutching her chest as she dropped to one knee.
"Rin!"
Kakashi noticed immediately. He shoved back his opponent and tried to reach her.
"I… I'm fine…"
Rin grit her teeth, sweat beading on her forehead.
But the next second, her pupils constricted into feral slits.
A violent chakra—packed with hatred—exploded from her heart and flooded her meridian system.
Crimson chakra seeped out like boiling blood, bubbling as it rose.
A first tail formed behind her, then a second—two scarlet tails of pure chakra smashing the ground and cracking the mud.
"This is…"
The Hōzuki ninja, Hōzuki Kurotsuki, narrowed his eyes.
"Three-Tails chakra is going berserk… the seal wasn't stable."
The surge was impossible to miss.
Kiyohara turned.
Rin slowly stood.
When she opened her mouth, it wasn't her voice—it was a beast's low growl.
"Leave… get away from me…"
Some scrap of her consciousness forced the words out, but her body was no longer hers.
A chakra tail swept the forest like a whip.
"Watch out!" Kakashi shouted.
But the tailed-beast chakra erupted too fast.
Rin—no, the berserk Rin—began attacking indiscriminately.
Her fist, wrapped in crimson chakra, slammed down.
Kakashi barely got his arms up to block.
BAM!
Bone cracked loud and clear.
Kakashi shot back like a cannonball, denting a tree trunk before crashing into the mud, coughing up blood. His face under the mask turned ghastly pale.
Rin pivoted to the next target—the spiral-faced pale figure who'd just stood back up.
Because Obito had been staring at her, he drew her attention instantly.
Obito stared blankly at Rin charging him.
No warmth on her face now. The red tailed-beast cloak made her look alien and terrifying.
"Rin…"
Obito reached out—not to attack, but to embrace.
"It's me, Obito…"
Her answer was a punch loaded with tailed-beast chakra.
BOOM!
Obito was blasted off his feet and smashed into a tree.
If not for the White Zetsu body's abnormal resistance to blunt force, that hit would've shattered him like it did Kakashi.
Even so, it felt like his organs had been rearranged.
"Restrain her!"
Hōzuki Kurotsuki barked orders.
"Before she fully transforms and fires a Tailed Beast Bomb—reinforce the seal!"
Several Mist jōnin moved at once—clearly following a rehearsed plan. Four took positions around her and formed seals together.
"Water Release: Water Prison Formation!"
"Sealing Art: Water Formation Chains!"
Water surged from the ground, forming a half-dome prison around Rin. Four chakra chains lashed out, binding her limbs.
Her second tail slammed wildly; the water prison shook, and the chains began to crack.
"Won't hold long," one Mist jōnin grunted through clenched teeth.
"Hōzuki-sama, hurry!"
Kurotsuki nodded and began a more complex sealing sequence.
"They're trying to control Rin again," Kakashi forced himself up from the mud.
"The earlier attack put the beast inside her—now they're trying to reinforce the seal and turn her into a controllable tailed-beast weapon…"
"We can't let them," Kakashi rasped, gathering Lightning Release chakra through the pain.
Kiyohara nodded.
If Rin kept rampaging and fired a mountain-flattening Tailed Beast Bomb, Kiyohara's Steel Release probably wouldn't save him either.
They exchanged a look—then moved together.
Kakashi charged the four Mist jōnin sustaining the water prison, forming seals with one hand.
"Chidori!"
He drove the crackling strike in, interrupting their hand seals.
Kiyohara went straight for Hōzuki Kurotsuki.
"Not happening."
Without even turning his head, Kurotsuki kept sealing with his left hand while flicking his right—half-transparent threads shot from his sleeve.
Kiyohara slashed them apart, but the threads kept coming—endlessly, and shockingly tough.
Water Release: Water Snake Threads!
Kurotsuki finished the first stage of the seal, then finally spared Kiyohara a glance.
"My secret art condenses water-nature chakra into threads tougher than steel. Kid, you've got some skill—but this ends here."
He raised his left hand. Threads multiplied instantly, weaving into a web that sealed off every path forward.
Kiyohara threw up a sand-iron wall to block, thinking fast.
This was bad.
Rin was berserking, Kakashi was injured and low on chakra, and the enemy numbers were huge and coordinated.
If they completed the seal, Rin would become Mist's tool.
And prolonged tailed-beast transformation was brutal on any host.
Madara's real goal was Obito's "fall."
The simplest route was letting the people Obito loved die—making him doubt the shinobi system itself.
In canon, Obito awakened Mangekyō the instant he saw Rin get pierced—before she even died.
Kiyohara thought: I can follow that path—without killing her. With his medical knowledge, he could avoid the heart, destroy the talisman, and keep her alive.
He'd made up his mind.
Both Obito and Rin had "binding talismans" planted by Madara—and neither could remove them themselves.
That was why Obito ended up steering Kakashi into stabbing Rin's heart in canon.
And Obito hadn't removed his own talisman earlier because Black Zetsu was Madara's will; the plan wasn't finished, and Obito still "needed" Madara.
"My future self."
Kiyohara called inward, tapping the ash box in his mind.
"I'm here," Uchiha-Kiyohara answered, emerging from the box and taking in the chaos.
"Rin's heart talisman has to be destroyed without injuring the heart. My medical knowledge is enough to avoid it—but that level of precision in this environment needs the Sharingan, and chakra is critical."
Kiyohara stared at Rin trapped in the water prison, crimson chakra and sealing chains grinding against each other.
"You want me to possess you and help refine chakra—use the Sharingan's vision with your medical ninjutsu to perform the procedure?"
"Exactly. But first—I need to deal with these enemies."
Kiyohara needed space before he could operate.
Uchiha-Kiyohara paused for a beat, then laughed softly.
This was different from his own timeline.
"…Fine."
He merged into Kiyohara.
At once, Kiyohara felt his chakra recovering, his digestion accelerating.
He grabbed compressed rations from his pouch and stuffed them down to fuel the conversion.
Then his black eyes flushed red.
A single tomoe surfaced and began to rotate.
"!"
Kakashi saw it and looked like he'd seen a ghost.
Kiyohara had a Sharingan too?!
Where did that come from?
Why had Kakashi never known?
"Oh?"
Hōzuki Kurotsuki noticed too—especially that red eye.
"An Uchiha brat? No… your intel never mentioned Sharingan or Uchiha origins. Hiding your strength?"
The single tomoe rotated.
Kiyohara's view of the world changed.
Kurotsuki's water threads—once hard to track—now had chakra flow lines that were crystal clear in the Sharingan's dynamic vision.
More importantly, Kiyohara could read muscle tension in Kurotsuki's shoulder, the angle of his wrist before it moved, and predict the next strike.
"Magnet Release… rotation!"
An invisible magnetic field burst outward, generating a powerful reverse push.
It acted on Kiyohara's own body. With leg chakra, his speed jumped explosively.
"What?!" Kurotsuki's pupils shrank.
That speed—far beyond before.
He had to abort the sealing sequence and liquefy his body.
Kshhk! Kiyohara's blade cut through, splashing water, but nothing solid.
Kurotsuki reformed a few steps away, face dark.
He stared at Kiyohara's red eye.
Sharingan… a pain in the neck, as always.
…
At the same time, far away inside the Graveyard of Mountains—
Madara sat back through White Zetsu's shared vision, watching the chaos with calm, almost appreciative detachment.
"Obito's emotions are spiking… good. And that kid Kiyohara is more impressive than expected."
White Zetsu, dramatic as always, chimed in: "He even looks stronger than Kakashi!"
Madara nodded slightly.
"Hatake Kakashi has talent, but his heart is weak—he carries too much useless burden. That Kiyohara… goal-driven, direct, uses everything. As a 'tool,' his potential might be higher."
He shook his head.
Still—no Uchiha blood, no Sharingan—no need to care. Just a variable to note, not a pillar.
He was about to refocus on Obito.
Then he saw it.
Kiyohara's eyes turned red.
A tomoe appeared.
Madara's half-lidded eyes snapped open; his brow rose.
For the first time, his expression truly shifted—pure surprise.
"…Sharingan?"
White Zetsu yelped. "It's real! One tomoe! How is he—"
Madara fell silent, surprise quickly replaced by calculation.
Sharingan awakening required intense emotional trauma—usually tied to someone deeply loved.
The more emotional the Uchiha, the easier it came.
"Uchiha blood…?" Madara murmured, spinning possibilities.
"Some descendant who couldn't keep it in his pants? Or… a branch line lost during migrations?"
Madara sank into thought.
The Uchiha hadn't always lived in Land of Fire. During and before the Warring States era, they'd served many lords, moved constantly.
Madara remembered: clan records said the Uchiha had once been stationed in Lightning Country, even tasked with keeping watch over the Chinoike clan.
In those chaotic centuries, it wasn't impossible for a clansman to be stranded, marry out, and leave descendants.
And even within the Uchiha, most people never awakened Sharingan at all—so lineage could easily be "invisible" if the surname was lost.
Then Konoha was founded, and old threads like that got buried under time.
"And on top of that—Magnet Release…"
Madara suddenly found this entertaining.
In his era, he'd never seen an Uchiha with another bloodline limit like that.
Watching Kiyohara's speed and perception spike as he began to pressure Hōzuki Kurotsuki for real, Madara's mouth curled faintly.
"What was once a meaningless pawn…"
"Now deserves reassessment."
He looked again at Obito—kneeling in the mud, writhing as his Sharingan teetered on the edge of mutation—and then at Kiyohara, whose presence was blazing on the field.
Had he chosen the wrong person?
"No. It depends on what Obito awakens."
Madara stroked his chin, now invested in the play's direction even more.
Every Mangekyō awakener gained two unique ocular techniques.
The Sharingan was the eye of the heart—it answered the deepest wish in the wielder's soul.
So what would Obito awaken?
~~~
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