Instantaneous Movement

"Obito isn't dead."

Karot's shocking words stunned Kakashi, who was still crying.

"That's impossible. Obito was buried under a massive boulder. There's no way he could still be alive."

Kakashi remembered the moment his dear friend had died, and tears streamed down his face again.

Hatake Sakumo knew his son wouldn't make such a claim without reason.

"Do you have any evidence, Karot?"

At that, Kakashi seemed to snap out of a dream. He stared fixedly at Karot, hoping for good news.

"He's still alive. His Ki is still there."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Karot gave Kakashi a definite answer. Overjoyed, Kakashi hurried to tell his teacher, Minato Namikaze, that Obito wasn't dead. Minato Namikaze, the fastest man in the Ninja World, arrived at the Hatake residence in an instant.

Kakashi relayed Karot's words to Minato, who was overjoyed as well.

"Is that true, Karot? It's not that I don't believe you—it's just too incredible."

Minato asked in disbelief. He had personally visited the place where Obito was buried, and there was no way anyone could have survived.

"Everyone has a Ki within them. If that's hard to understand, you can think of it as Chakra. As long as someone is alive, their Ki won't disappear."

Karot explained why he knew Obito hadn't died.

"You mean Obito's Ki hasn't vanished, right?"

Minato asked.

"Exactly."

"Then Obito must still be beneath the rocks in Kusagakure."

Minato was stunned. He jumped up and rushed to go rescue him.

"He's not there anymore."

"What? Then where is he?"

Minato was so anxious he was like an ant on a hot pan. He'd lost all his usual composure and was practically running around the living room. It showed just how close he and Obito were. Obito had always been the team clown, but that very lack of guile made him easy to like.

"The Land of Fire."

"How did he get out? And after returning to the Land of Fire, why didn't he come back to Konoha?"

Once Minato had calmed down, he began analyzing the situation. His insight was worthy of a man who had become Hokage. Even after his death, his legend lived on. Kakashi was nowhere near as sharp; he'd been standing there looking utterly bewildered the whole time. Perhaps he still hadn't recovered from hearing that Obito was alive. After all, discovering that someone you thought was dead was actually alive was bound to be a shock.

"You've figured it out, haven't you, Senior Minato?"

Karot looked at Minato as he asked.

"To rescue Obito from beneath all those rocks and make us think he was dead, there must be some big secret behind it. So much time has passed, and Obito still hasn't returned. He may not be free to leave."

"What would they want from Obito, then? His Sharingan?"

Minato said in shock.

"Damn them. They imprisoned my student just to get his Sharingan."

After learning Obito was in the Land of Fire, Minato had deduced the other party's intentions. He was close, but still far off the mark. Karot had the advantage of knowing everything, so the situation was simple for him to understand.

"I'll report this to the Hokage right away and have him send out ninjas to investigate. We have to find Obito."

Minato turned to leave and find the Hokage.

"There's no need to go to all that trouble, Senior Minato."

"Hm? What do you mean, Karot?"

"I'll go bring Obito back right now."

Karot spoke with certainty.

"You know where he is?"

"Why do you think I know he's in the Land of Fire?"

Minato had been so worried that he hadn't thought it through. Since Karot knew Obito's whereabouts, he must know exactly where he was.

"Then I'll go with you."

"You're both too slow."

Karot said it with a perfectly serious expression.

Minato couldn't take that. You could call him weak, but you couldn't call him slow. Ever since he'd learned the Flying Thunder Shadow, no one had ever called him slow.

"Senior Minato, your Flying Thunder Shadow is excellent in battle and can catch anyone off guard, but as a way to travel, it really is too slow."

"I know a technique called Instantaneous Movement. As long as I can sense the other person's Ki, I can reach them in an instant, no matter how far away they are."

Karot had never used Instantaneous Movement before because his body wasn't strong enough to withstand it.

"Don't believe me?"

Karot pressed two fingers to his forehead and vanished. Less than a second later, he returned, as if he'd never left his seat. The only difference was that he now held a copy of Tales of a Gutsy Ninja.

"Senior Minato, take a look. Is this your book?"

Minato took it and looked it over. Jiraiya's signature was right there on the page.

"That's right. It's mine."

Minato was deeply shocked. His house was at least a kilometer away, yet Karot had gone there and returned in an instant. Even his Flying Thunder God couldn't do that.

At home, Kushina rubbed her eyes.

"Did I imagine it? I thought someone just came by."

Then she paid it no more mind and went back to work in the kitchen. Minato had recently lost a beloved student and was in poor spirits, so she wanted to use her cooking to help him recover.

With Minato's confirmation, both Hatake Sakumo and Kakashi were stunned.

After his initial shock, Hatake Sakumo was filled with pride. His son was becoming more and more outstanding. Kakashi, meanwhile, was left dumbfounded. His big brother kept getting stronger. Now he was even stronger than Kakashi's teacher. How could Kakashi ever catch up to him?

"See you later."

Kakashi waved with his left hand, then pressed two fingers to his forehead with his right. He vanished.

In the Land of Fire, at the Graveyard of Mountains, Madara Uchiha was teaching Obito how to use his Sharingan. An uninvited guest suddenly appeared.

"Hey, long time no see, Obito."

The sudden turn of events startled Uchiha Obito so badly that he fell to the ground. He pointed a trembling finger at Karot, who had appeared out of nowhere.

"Karot, what are you doing here?"

Obito knew his nemesis Kakashi's big brother, Karot, very well. During the first week of school, Karot had cruelly taught Obito a lesson about how the world worked, leaving a deep impression on him. Obito had always wanted revenge, but he wasn't strong enough.

"I came to take you home, of course."

Karot's expression made it seem perfectly obvious. He paid no attention to the situation around him.

"Young man, you've got quite a mouth on you. You want to take him away without asking me, his master?"

A frail old man emerged from the darkness, hunched over and leaning on a cane, several tubes attached to his back. He looked like a hero in his twilight years. It was hard to imagine that the legendary Madara Uchiha, who once made people dance, now looked like this.