It's All This World's Fault!

Within an Illusion Space filled with green grass and little flowers, Uchiha Jin and Uchiha Obito stood facing each other, staring directly into one another's eyes.

"Oh Hisashi Buride," Uchiha Jin spoke first. "Uchiha... Runtou!"

Veins bulged on Uchiha Obito's forehead, forming a "#" symbol. He glared viciously at Uchiha Jin. "You really are as irritating as ever!"

Uchiha Jin put on a wounded expression. "Kids going through their rebellious phase really have no manners. Given my relationship with Minato, you should at least call me Teacher."

Teacher here did not mean master. It was an honorific used in ninja squads for the jonin leading the team.

Among teams with close relationships, it was common for members to call the other team's leading jonin Teacher as well.

Uchiha Obito sneered. "I don't even want to acknowledge Teacher Minato, much less an irritating bastard like you!"

When Uchiha Jin mentioned Minato Namikaze, the resentment Uchiha Obito had kept bottled up could no longer be contained and erupted all at once!

From the moment Team 7 had been formed, Minato Namikaze, their leading jonin, had borne the responsibility of teaching and protecting all three members of Team 7!

And in Uchiha Obito's eyes, Minato Namikaze, the man hailed as the Golden Flash, had possessed the ability to prevent every hardship Team 7 had suffered!

Yet every time, Minato Namikaze had arrived one step too late!

Although Uchiha Obito himself knew that war held too many unforeseen variables, and that Minato Namikaze, as a ninja, had little autonomy. He had to obey his superiors' orders and could not devote himself entirely to protecting them.

What they had gone through could not be blamed on Minato Namikaze.

But Uchiha Obito could not stop thinking: if Minato Namikaze had arrived a little earlier when he and Kakashi went to rescue Nohara Rin, would he not have been crushed by that rock? Would he not have encountered Uchiha Madara?

If Minato Namikaze had been by Kakashi and Nohara Rin's side on the Kirigakure Battlefield, would Nohara Rin not have been captured by the Kirigakure Ninja? Would she not have had to protect the village with her death?

Though he knew such thoughts were baseless, Uchiha Obito simply could not stop himself from thinking that way!

If things could have been like that, perhaps he would still have been the Uchiha Obito he once was!

"How cold and ruthless!" Uchiha Jin's expression faded as he said solemnly, "So you blame Minato for making you go through all this?"

"Shouldn't I blame him?!" Uchiha Obito shot back emotionally. "Teacher Minato is the Golden Flash, renowned as the fastest man in the Ninja World! He clearly possessed the strength to change all of this!"

Uchiha Jin did not respond. He merely watched Uchiha Obito quietly.

Uchiha Obito calmed down somewhat before continuing, "Of course, I know it was precisely because Teacher Minato was so powerful that Konoha assigned him more important missions, leaving him unable to spare himself."

"So the ones truly responsible for all these tragedies were Konoha Village's useless upper echelon!"

"They assigned Rin and me to Team 7, forcing us to follow the powerful Teacher Minato on those high-difficulty missions!"

"They put us in danger!"

Uchiha Obito's resentment toward Konoha Village was not without reason. There had indeed been issues with how teams were assigned back then.

After all, during ninja school and even the later Chunin Exam, people like Might Guy and Shiranui Genma, whose grades had been far better than Uchiha Obito's, had mostly carried out comparatively low-risk wartime missions such as escorting supplies.

Yet Uchiha Obito, a dead last, had been assigned to Minato's Team and thus had to follow Minato Namikaze deep behind enemy lines to carry out critical missions capable of changing the War Situation!

The difference between the two was obvious at a glance!

In truth, a composition like the current Minato Squad, consisting almost entirely of jonin, was far more suitable for Minato Namikaze.

In Minato's Team, only Kakashi could barely keep up with Minato Namikaze's pace. At the time, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin had both been burdens!

It was only because Kakashi's mindset had gone wrong at the time that Sarutobi Hiruzen, unwilling to let such a supremely gifted blade go to waste, sent Minato Namikaze to teach Kakashi.

At the same time, he used Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin, two sunny and cheerful people close to Kakashi, to influence him.

That was how the so-called Minato's Team had been formed!

Sarutobi Hiruzen had focused on one end and neglected the other, never considering what Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin would encounter while in Minato's Team!

Or perhaps he had considered it and simply did not care!

If it could forge Kakashi into a fine blade, what did it matter if a few insignificant dead lasts died?

Under such circumstances, it was perfectly normal for Uchiha Obito to resent Konoha Village.

After a pause, Uchiha Obito continued, "Teacher Minato was wrong, and Konoha Village was wrong. But if we trace it back to the source, the true mistake is this world, where conflict never ends and war never ceases!"

"If there were no wars, none of this would have happened!"

"So I will correct all of it!"

Uchiha Obito's tone grew increasingly resolute. It seemed that the state of mind Yahiko had just shattered had stabilized once more.

Yet Uchiha Obito's words made Uchiha Jin burst out laughing.

"HAHAHAHA..." Uchiha Jin shook his head with a laugh. "What a self-righteous little brat! I never understood where that Obito value of yours came from before, but now it seems that calling you Obito might even be overestimating you!"

"..."

Uchiha Obito's face turned livid. He dearly wanted to stomp a few times on Uchiha Jin's handsome face!

Was being handsome such a big deal?

Could he just insult people whenever he wanted because he was handsome?

The key was that Uchiha Obito had no way to refute him! After all, Konoha had recorded his Obito value and filed it away!

But aside from Uchiha Jin, no one else had ever mocked him over it!

So all of this was Uchiha Jin's fault!

"Damn it!" Uchiha Obito gritted his teeth. "You bastard, if you keep laughing, I'm going to make a move!"

"Sorry, sorry." Uchiha Jin waved his hand. Seeing that Uchiha Obito was already on the verge of exploding, he wiped the smile from his face and said seriously, "My fault. But what you said was really rather laughable!"

"What's laughable about it?!" Uchiha Obito demanded angrily. "What part of what I said was wrong?!"

Uchiha Jin said in a low voice, "First, regardless of whether your so-called plan to change the world is feasible, I admit that the wars in this world have indeed caused far too many tragedies!"

"But what I want to say is that everything you experienced actually had little to do with war!"

"Even if the Third Shinobi World War had never happened, everything you experienced would probably still have happened!"

"As for why, it is because you still know nothing about the truth behind all this!"