At the top of the Mizukage Building, the wind howled past, dispersing some of the dense mist around them, yet unable to blow away the heavy tension between the two.
"Obito, this ends here."
Minato Namikaze's voice was calm yet resolute as it carried through the wind.
At his words, a storm surged through Obito's heart once more, but he forcibly suppressed it. Beneath his mask, his lips curled into a cold sneer as he tried to maintain the majesty of "Madara Uchiha." In a deliberately low, icy voice, he replied, "I don't know what you're talking about. I am Uchiha... Madara!"
Although, based on his earlier deductions, he believed Minato might have faked his death and gathered intelligence in secret, he refused to believe that Minato could be so certain of his true identity.
"You are not Madara." Minato denied it without hesitation, his gaze sharp enough to seem capable of seeing through the mask. "You are merely Obito Uchiha, my former student. Stop this."
Seeing how certain Minato was, Obito simply stopped pretending and no longer asked how he had learned the truth.
In a cold voice, he slowly said, "That naïve Obito died long ago beneath the boulders at Kannabi Bridge. He was personally buried by this world, filled with despair and hypocrisy..."
"Despair is never a reason to harm others at will or inflict suffering upon the innocent." Minato's eyes were filled with complicated emotions—heartache and regret alike. "The Obito I knew was a passionate boy who dreamed of becoming Hokage, one who would even sacrifice himself to protect his comrades. He would never commit such cruel acts as releasing the Nine-Tails, attacking Konoha, or even trying to kill his own teacher and teacher's wife!"
"Cruel?" It was as if Obito's most sensitive nerve had been