Konan's amber eyes, beneath her light purple eyeshadow, fixed on Obito as she teased, "So the face beneath your mask can show such a taboo expression too? By the way, should I call you Madara, or Tobi?"
"..." Obito looked utterly uncomfortable, unable to say a word.
That battle in the sea of paper at Hidden Rain Village back then had, without exaggeration, been the closest Obito had ever come to death.
He had looked composed from beginning to end, but whenever he thought back on it afterward, cold sweat would break out all over him.
Six hundred billion Explosive Tags—damn, and she had rehearsed it several times. This woman's methods were simply insane.
If that woman had obsessive-compulsive disorder and rounded it up to one trillion, Obito would undoubtedly have turned into rubble ahead of schedule. No, there might not even have been any rubble left. He would have simply vanished from the face of the earth.
"Oh?" Madara raised the corner of his mouth and folded his arms, looking as though a good show was about to begin. From the barbs in this little girl's words, she must be someone Obito once toyed with under my name. Judging by Obito's guilty look, she must have gotten the better of him too... Interesting.
"Auntie Konan~~!" Tsuki's childish greeting rang out, and Obito instantly felt as though he had been granted a reprieve.
Konan lowered her amber gaze to the little head rubbing against her waist. She lifted a hand and stroked Tsuki's smooth princess-cut hair, smiling. "It's been half a year, hasn't it? Tsuki has grown quite a bit taller!"
"Hehe! Tsuki's goal is to grow as tall as Auntie someday!"
"Then you have to listen to your father and mother, eat properly, and keep up your nutrition~."
Hikari stepped forward and handed over an exquisitely wrapped gift box. "Sister Konan, this is a little souvenir I brought for you~."
Then, in a whisper shared between women, she said, "This is the newest model that can't be bought anywhere. Chen got it through internal channels, and it works extremely well. Go back and try it out..."
Konan's eyes lit up. "Oh~! Isn't this far too precious?"
"Sigh, Chen normally doesn't come around. You have to worry about all the big and small matters in Hidden Darkness. This is just a little beauty and skincare supplement, a small token of appreciation!"
"Then I'll accept it." Konan accepted the gift, nodded to Chen, and said, "I need to discuss the funding arrangements with Kakuzu Finance, so I won't disturb your elegant outing any longer. Please take these two distinguished guests and show them around."
Chen smiled and nodded. "Mm~, go on."
"Rustle, rustle, rustle." Konan spread her arms, and her body scattered away into sheets of paper.
"Whew." Only then did Obito's tense expression finally ease.
He looked expressionlessly at Chen. "Little bro, explain yourself..."
Chen patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, we'll talk while we walk."
They proceeded along the shaded path.
"You can probably guess it. My brother and I were both present for that battle between you and Konan."
"Then after Konan died, you used Omodaru to reverse her time and bring her back to life?"
Chen's gaze drifted back to that distant scene. "Yes, but my Dojutsu Power wasn't as strong back then. Omodaru could only reverse time by three minutes at most. After you escaped from the Art of the Paper God using Izanagi, you pierced Konan from behind with Black Rods. The conversation and battle afterward lasted a full five minutes... Even if I used Time Reversal, I couldn't reset Konan to an uninjured state."
"Besides," Chen paused, "Time Reversal can't reverse one's state of consciousness. The genjutsu you used to interrogate her about the Rinnegan's whereabouts caused Konan severe mental trauma."
"Konan was on the verge of death from her grave injuries and mental blow, while neither my brother nor I was proficient in Medical Ninjutsu."
"Then how did Konan survive in the end?"
Chen vaguely still remembered watching helplessly as blood continuously poured from Konan's wounds, staining the water red...
He truly had not wanted Konan to die like that.
"Thankfully, my brother had a sudden idea. He suggested using [Mizuha] to amplify my [Omodaru] and see if it would work."
Obito suddenly understood. "Ah... the dojutsu used to amplify the Impure World Reincarnation of Madara and me!"
Chen nodded. "That's right. Overkill was unlocked at that time—the deeper ability of Omodaru beyond Time Reversal: [Time Freeze]!"
Madara narrowed his eyes in thought. "Time Freeze..."
"That's right. Simply put, it stops an individual's flow of time, like this."
Chen stopped before a parasol tree beside the path and reached out to touch the patterns in its bark. Scarlet light burst from both his eyes!
Mizuha · Omodaru!
"Crack, crack, crack...!" A layer of frost spread from the bark beneath Chen's palm toward the entire tree. During the spread, neither the branches nor leaves showed the slightest change in their motion. Even the parts already covered in frost were no exception.
Only after ten seconds, when the frost covered the entire tree, did every detail encompassed by that great tree enter a state of absolute stillness.
With a "crack," the parasol tree vanished amid a burst of cold mist, leaving behind a deep pit of soil in the brick-lined tree bed.
Chen withdrew his hand. "That is Omodaru's Time Freeze. As long as my palm remains in contact with the target for over ten seconds, I can freeze it."
Madara pondered silently. It requires continuous contact for ten seconds... In actual combat, it would be difficult to find such an opportunity unless the opponent were completely restrained or thoroughly subdued.
He asked, "Where did that tree just go?"
Chen said, "The Otsutsuki Time Zone, Uncle Madara. You've been there before."
"Ah, that white space. I remember there being many white cubical rooms there!"
"That's right. Those cubical rooms exist specifically to store these time-frozen objects..."
Madara lowered his gaze.
"Wait, Chen... don't you find it strange?"
"Since this Overkill was triggered through Mizuha... why did the Otsutsuki Time Zone, which exists to support that Overkill, already exist within your eyes?"
Chen sighed inwardly. As expected of Madara—he had instantly noticed this blind spot.
Chen said, "I discovered it long ago too, and I also found it strange. But even now, I haven't solved that mystery."
Could it be... A flash of insight crossed Madara's mind, and he formed a hypothesis. Omodaru's Time Freeze ability existed from the start, but it did not belong to the Mangekyo's category. That was why it could be triggered ahead of time through Mizuha. If, if that is truly the case... then once Chen awakens the Rinnegan in the future, this ability may become vacant. If he uses Mizuha again, perhaps it can go even further.
What the truth was could only be verified when that day came.
Obito brought the conversation back to what concerned him most. "Chen, after you froze Konan's time, what happened next?"
Chen began walking again. "She was frozen in a near-death state. Those weren't injuries an ordinary medical ninja could heal. We had to find someone who could save her in the shortest possible time before she could truly escape danger."
Obito considered it. "There are only a handful of medical ninja in the entire shinobi world who can accomplish that... and none of them seem to be people you could openly approach."
Chen's gaze turned deep. "That's right. Those who walk different paths cannot make plans together. Kotoamatsukami exists precisely for times like this."
"To be honest, I placed Kotoamatsukami on two of the Legendary Three Ninja. But I did not enslave their personalities. The condition was merely that they would not obstruct my actions and, when necessary, provide whatever help they could. Nothing more."
"Did you use Kotoamatsukami on Konan too?"
"No." Chen smiled.
Oh... how strange. Before Konan died, she had raised both arms toward the rainbow in Hidden Rain Village's clearing sky and said things like, 'I am darkness, Naruto is hope.'
She seemed to know what Chen intended to do, yet she had actually been willing to stand by his side.
Obito did not ask for further details. First, he did not want to continue discussing Konan. Second, something new had caught his attention.
The Legendary Three Ninja... inevitably made him think of another battle that had taken place in Amegakure.
"The remaining one has already sunk into Hidden Rain Village's sea. Chen, he isn't in this village too, is he? Like that woman?"
They turned the street corner.
One of the Three Ninja—Jiraiya?
Chen smiled faintly and began to speak...
Before you continue