Obito and Konan

Konan's amber eyes, framed by her light purple eyeshadow, stared at Obito as she said in a teasing tone, "So the face under your mask can actually make such a wary expression? By the way, should I call you Madara, or should I call you Tobi?"

"..." Obito's face was full of awkwardness, completely unable to respond.

Back then, that battle of the Paper Sea in the Hidden Rain Village—no exaggeration—was the closest Obito had ever come to the gates of hell.

He had looked completely in control from start to finish, but in truth, thinking about it afterward would send cold sweat down his spine.

600 billion Explosive Tags, and damn, she'd even rehearsed it several times. This woman's methods were utterly insane.

If this woman had obsessive-compulsive disorder and rounded it up to a trillion, then Obito would have undoubtedly turned into dirt ahead of time. No, he probably wouldn't even have left dirt behind—he'd have just evaporated from the face of the earth.

"Oh?" Madara raised an eyebrow, folding his arms with the look of someone ready to enjoy a show, thinking to himself: "Judging by the thorns in this little girl's words, she's someone Obito fooled while flying my banner, right? Seeing how guilty Obito looks, she must have gotten the better of him too... Interesting."

"Auntie Konan~~!" Tsuki's childish greeting rang out, and Obito instantly felt like he'd been granted amnesty.

The amber eyes looked down at the little head rubbing against her hip. She raised a hand to stroke Tsuki's silky princess-cut hair and said with a smile, "It's been half a year, hasn't it? Tsuki, you've grown a lot!"

"Heehee! Tsuki's goal is to be as tall as Auntie someday!"

"Then you have to listen to your mom and dad, eat well, and keep up with your nutrition~."

Hikari stepped forward, handing over a beautifully wrapped gift box. "Sister Konan, this is a little souvenir I brought for you~"

Then, in a woman's whisper, she said, "This is the latest model you can't buy on the market. Chen got it through internal channels. The effect is excellent—try it when you get home..."

Konan's eyes lit up. "Oh~! This is too precious."

"Sigh, Chen hardly ever comes around, and you have to handle all the big and small affairs of the Hidden Rain. It's just some beauty and skincare supplements, a little token of appreciation!"

"Then I'll accept it." Konan took the gift and nodded to Chen in acknowledgment. "I need to go find Kakuzu Finance to discuss the budget allocation, so I won't disturb your plans for going out. Please take these two honored guests and show them a good time."

Chen smiled and nodded. "Mm~, go ahead."

"Rustle, rustle, rustle." Konan stretched out her arms, and her body scattered into sheets of paper.

"Phew." At that, the tension on Obito's face finally eased.

He looked at Chen expressionlessly. "Bro, give me an explanation..."

Chen patted his shoulder. "Come on, let's talk as we walk."

They walked along the tree-shaded path.

"Actually, you probably already guessed it. During that battle between you and Konan, both my brother and I were there."

"Then, after Konan died, you used Omodaru to reverse her time and revive her, right?"

Chen's eyes traced back to that distant scene as he said, "Mm, but back then, my dojutsu power wasn't that strong. Omodaru could only reverse a maximum of three minutes. After you used Izanagi to escape from the Art of the Paper God and pierced Konan with Black Rods from behind, the conversation and the battle itself lasted a full five minutes... Even if I reversed time, I couldn't reset Konan to an uninjured state."

"Also." Chen paused. "Time Reversal can't reverse the state of consciousness either. The genjutsu you used to interrogate her about the Rinnegan's whereabouts caused her severe mental trauma."

"With heavy injuries and psychological shock, Konan was on the verge of death, and neither my brother nor I were skilled in Medical Ninjutsu."

"Then how did Konan end up surviving?"

Chen vaguely remembered watching helplessly as blood kept gushing from Konan's wounds, dyeing the water's surface red, powerless to change the outcome...

He really hadn't wanted Konan to die like that.

"Luckily, my brother had a flash of inspiration and suggested trying to use Mizuha to amplify my Omodaru."

Obito suddenly understood. "Ah... that's the dojutsu used to amplify the Impure World Reincarnation of me and Madara!"

Chen nodded. "Exactly. The overkill reward was unlocked then—Omodaru's deeper ability beyond Time Reversal: Time Freeze!"

Madara narrowed his eyes in thought. "Time Freeze..."

If you think this book is good, to avoid not finding it next time, remember to add it to your bookshelf.

"That's right. In simple terms, it stops the time progression of an individual, like this."

Chen stopped beside a sycamore tree by the path, reached out to touch the spiral patterns on its bark, and both his pupils emitted a vermilion light!

-- Mizuha · Omodaru!

"Crack, crack, crack...!" A layer of frost spread from the bark under his palm, expanding across the entire tree. During the expansion, neither the branches nor the leaves had their motion affected in any way, not even where the frost had already covered.

After ten seconds, the frost covered the whole tree... Every detail encompassed by this large tree entered a state of absolute stillness.

With a "crack," the sycamore tree vanished in a burst of cold mist, leaving a deep pit in the brick-framed tree bed.

Chen withdrew his hand. "This is Omodaru's Time Freeze. If you keep your palm in continuous contact with the target for more than ten seconds, you can freeze it."

Madara pondered: You need to maintain contact for ten seconds, huh. In actual combat, it's hard to get such an opportunity, unless the opponent is completely restrained or fully subdued...

He asked, "Just now, that tree—where did it go?"

Chen said, "The Otsutsuki Time Zone. Uncle Madara, you've been there."

"Ah, that white space. I remember there were a lot of white grid rooms there!"

"Yes. Those grid rooms exist specifically to store these time-frozen objects..."

Madara lowered his gaze.

"Wait, Chen... Don't you find it strange?"

"Since it's an overkill reward triggered by Mizuha... then why did the Otsutsuki Time Zone, which exists to accommodate this overkill reward, already exist in your eyes from the start?"

Chen sighed. "As expected of Madara—he spotted that blind spot instantly."

He said, "Actually, I noticed it long ago too, and I also found it very strange, but I still haven't solved this mystery."

"Could it be..." A flash of inspiration struck Madara's mind, and he formed a hypothesis: Omodaru's time-freezing ability had always existed, but it didn't fall within the scope of the Mangekyo, because Mizuha could only be awakened in advance. If, if that were truly the case, then when Chen awakened the Rinnegan in the future, that ability would be freed up, and with Mizuha, perhaps he could even go a step further.

As for the truth, it would have to wait until that day to be verified.

Obito brought the topic back to what concerned him most. "Chen, after you froze Konan's time, what happened next?"

Taking a step forward, Chen said, "She was frozen in a near-death state. That's not an injury an ordinary medical ninja can heal. I need to find someone who can save her in the shortest time possible for her to truly escape danger."

Obito pondered. "There are very few medical ninja in the entire ninja world who could handle that... and it seems none of them are people you can approach openly."

Chen's gaze deepened. "That's right. Those who walk different paths cannot scheme together. Kotoamatsukami exists precisely for moments like this."

"To be honest, two of the legendary Three Ninja have been placed under Kotoamatsukami by me. But I didn't enslave their personalities. I set it so they wouldn't hinder my actions and would give me whatever help they could when necessary—nothing more."

"Then did you use Kotoamatsukami on Konan too?"

"No." Chen smiled.

Obito thought to himself: Oh... now that's strange. Before she died, Konan raised both arms toward the rainbow in the clearing sky above Amegakure and said something like... I am darkness, Naruto is hope.

She seemed to know what you were going to do, yet she was willing to stand on your side.

Obito didn't ask for more specifics. First, he didn't want to continue the topic of Konan. Second, he had a new point of interest.

The legendary Three Ninja... he couldn't help but think of another battle that took place in Amegakure.

"As for the remaining one, he's already sunk into the sea of Amegakure. Chen, he's not in this village too, is he, like that woman?"

Turning a street corner.

The Three Ninja... Jiraiya?

Chen smiled faintly and began to speak...

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