Huh?

At Kakashi Hatake's home, he lay on the bed with his head resting on the lap of Right Mysterious Rin, who looked like a young girl. She gently massaged his temples, her palms suffused with the green glow of Medical Ninjutsu.

Mental fatigue and trauma were usually caused by excessive strain on the brain's nerves, and Medical Ninjutsu could effectively alleviate them.

The Shadow Clone Technique was a specialty of Konoha. These tangible clones returned every memory and experience—including pain—to the original without missing a thing.

Experienced users of the Shadow Clone Technique would immediately dispel a clone after it was injured, so as to avoid returning an excessive mental burden to the original.

But some Konoha ninja, for the sake of their missions, would have their shadow clones grit their teeth through the enemy's brutal interrogations and torture... In such cases, when they finally dispelled a mangled, bloody shadow clone, the original might go straight into shock. There had even been cases of ruptured cerebral blood vessels and instant death on the spot.

In short, Konoha's medical ninja had accumulated extensive experience in relieving mental trauma because of this.

Right Mysterious Rin was equally experienced.

Under her treatment, Kakashi felt the stabbing pain in his head lessen, and his mind relaxed considerably.

"Is this someone's genjutsu?"

Kakashi Hatake lay on Right Mysterious Rin's lap, looking at Rin's faint smile, unchanged from before. He could not help but grow dazed as he murmured, "I'm sorry, Rin... I killed you... I let Obito down..."

Right Mysterious Rin flicked Kakashi on the forehead and scolded, "Idiot. I was the Three-Tails' Jinchuriki then. If I hadn't wanted to die myself, did you think your Chidori could have killed me?"

"She knows that Rin was made into the Three-Tails' Jinchuriki by the Mist Village, and even the way she died... Who exactly is this, taking Rin's form..."

Kakashi slowly closed his eyes as exhaustion washed over him like a tide.

Comforted by the green glow of Medical Ninjutsu, he fell into a deep sleep.

Right Mysterious Rin rubbed her reddened eyes. Kakashi, a genius like you should have been someone aloof above the clouds, untouched by the troubles of ordinary people. Why had you made yourself so scarred and battered?

What made you persist in living in this Impure World that had taken everything from you?

Right Mysterious Rin looked out the window. It seemed like she had not seen the village's peaceful moonlight for a very, very long time...

Wu Yu leaned against the window in Naruto's living room, quietly watching the bright moon in the night sky.

...He wondered whether the descendants of Hamura Otsutsuki truly lived there.

After all, going by the usual conventions of Japanese anime, movies were all parallel timelines—made-up nonsense that did not count.

The Tenseigan was way too ridiculous. It copied the Rinnegan outright without even trying to hide it...

Wu Yu's bangs stirred lightly.

Right Mysterious Kakashi had already climbed in through the window. Standing in Naruto's living room with his back to Wu Yu, he asked, "Original, can your kind of clone summon even the dead?"

"Now that you mention it, you really have a point."

Wu Yu remained seated by the window and pondered aloud. "I've been thinking about that too. Little Night, help us figure this out?"

Mysterious Kaguya appeared in the air, white-haired and dressed in white robes. She said indifferently, "What I would like to ask is why you two are acting as though this is so unbelievable."

Right Mysterious Kakashi hesitated. "Rin... because she's already dead?"

"Then has she completely disappeared?" Mysterious Kaguya asked coolly.

Right Mysterious Kakashi choked on his words.

Wu Yu slapped his forehead. "Ah!"

Right Mysterious Kakashi looked over, and Wu Yu explained, "Though Rin Nohara's physical body died, her soul was not destroyed. Her soul—or her Chakra—left this mortal world of the Impure World and went to the eternally peaceful Pure Land..."

Wu Yu looked at Mysterious Kaguya. "To an existence at your level, is there really not much difference between life and death?"

"Of course there is a difference."

Mysterious Kaguya said, "The living will die, and the dead will eventually fade away as well. Souls wandering the Pure Land will not exist forever. When no one in the Impure World remembers them anymore, when they themselves forget who they are and their sense of self no longer exists, it means they have merged with the Pure Land. The dead and the dead, the dead and the underworld—there will no longer be any difference between them. That is true annihilation."

"..." Right Mysterious Kakashi was deeply moved.

Wu Yu asked, "Is that also information your Black Zetsu Third Prince synced to you?"

Mysterious Kaguya frowned. "The Pure Land wasn't created by Hagoromo. Back then, I still—"

Apparently unwilling to mention the painful matter of being sealed away, the Rabbit Goddess said in irritation, "It's merely the underworld that has existed on this planet since ancient times. What's so remarkable about it!"

With that, her figure faded once more, blending into nature.

The old lady sure had some pride... Wu Yu curled his lip, then suddenly his gaze shifted as he glanced out the window. "Rin Nohara's Mysterious Clone has been dispelled."

Right Mysterious Kakashi lowered his head, and no one knew what he was thinking.

What could he think? Like Rin, he was nothing more than a strange clone.

"Oh, right. There's something I was too embarrassed to ask your original, so I'll ask you instead."

Wu Yu began to gossip. "How exactly did your father, Konoha's White Fang, die? I heard he failed a mission, was blamed and slandered by his comrades, and then committed suicide. I don't think it could have been that simple. Konoha's White Fang was a dignified Kage-level powerhouse. Could he really have been so fragile?"

"..."

Right Mysterious Kakashi clenched his fists. His father's suicide was the greatest sorrow of his life; even when the original questioned him, he seemed extremely unwilling to revisit that past.

"The mission my father carried out at the time was to cut off the enemy army's rear supply line..."

Right Mysterious Kakashi said with difficulty. "My mother was also on his squad at the time. She... she was captured by enemy ninja during the mission... My father delayed the battle plan in order to save my mother, causing the mission to fail..."

(Thoughts prompted by the dialogue above)

Right Mysterious Kakashi began gasping violently, collapsing to the ground in agony. He murmured, "By the time Father found where the enemy was holding Mother, she was already dead... The mission had failed, the war situation worsened, and Father's teammates blamed him for abandoning the mission over personal feelings..."

"..." Wu Yu had not expected this. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Do you think White Fang would have made the same decision if the one abducted had been another member of his team rather than your mother?"

Right Mysterious Kakashi panted harshly. Even recalling those events seemed to cause him unbearable pain. Covering his eyes, he muttered, "I don't know... Maybe Father himself didn't know either..."

"So he—" Before Wu Yu could finish, Right Mysterious Kakashi formed seals on his own and, with a bang, dispelled his clone, vanishing from sight.

Huh?

Wu Yu stood there blankly for a while, then slowly frowned and fell into thought.

That was true...

Shadow Clones could choose to dispel themselves voluntarily. As independently thinking physical clones, they naturally possessed a certain degree of decision-making authority; otherwise, the technique would have no strategic value at all.

However, ordinary Shadow Clones shared the same self-perception as the original body.

But Mysterious Clones... although they acknowledged Wu Yu as their original body, their self-perception followed that of their former originals. Their personalities remained independent; they were not Wu Yu himself.