In a shadowed corner of the battlefield.
Behind a great tree with half its crown sheared away by the shock waves of battle, space warped slightly, and Uchiha Obito slowly emerged from the void.
He wore a black robe and a tiger-patterned mask that covered his entire face. Only his crimson right eye showed through an eyehole, its strange pattern resembling a shuriken.
Uchiha Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan turned slowly as he watched the battle drawing to a close in the distance, his gaze settling on the figure retreating through the sky with the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion in his hand.
Hyuga Yu.
His former classmate, that oddball he had never understood, a fellow with no ambition and no real dreams, was now fighting alone against two terrifying beings powerful enough to overturn the Shinobi World.
As a candidate for Fourth Hokage.
"Heavenly Ninja..."
Obito murmured the words, his voice muffled and distorted beneath his mask.
The more of Hyuga Yu's accomplishments he witnessed firsthand, the more conflicted he became. Someone else was fulfilling his old dream, while he himself had been forced to serve an enemy, carrying out brutal acts at "Uchiha Madara's" command to sever his bonds and erase his past: murdering comrades, obstructing Jiraiya, sabotaging Minato-sensei's arrangements, ordering Kirigakure to wage war on his former home...
Uchiha Obito knew his sins were unforgivable. Everything he had done to stay alive and keep Rin and Kakashi safe filled him with remorse, but more than anything, he felt powerless against reality.
Obito clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms.
Just then-rustle!
A faint rush of air came from beside him.
Obito whipped his head around, his Mangekyō Sharingan instantly locking onto the newcomer.
It was a pitch-black carrier pigeon with a slender bamboo tube tied to its