"So the old man really did save me? Thank you."
After talking things over with Uchiha Madara in the dim basement, Obito finally understood what had happened.
Obito had thought he was done for, but he never expected to still be alive. The realization sent a rush of emotion through him.
As long as he was alive, he could be with Rin and Kakashi again!
To him, nothing mattered more than being with them.
Though the old man before him spoke strangely, Obito was still filled with gratitude.
"It's too soon to thank me."
Madara merely shook his head at that. He looked calmly at Obito and said,
"Don't worry. You'll repay me someday."
"Uh, someday?"
Obito froze for a moment, then asked with some concern,
"Could it be that you want me to stay here and look after you as your servant, old man?"
"That would work too."
Madara nodded calmly, wanting to see how Obito would react.
"No, I can't stay here forever!"
Obito sounded a little dejected, but he still said,
"Konoha is still at war, and my teammates are waiting for me.
I finally awakened my Sharingan. Now I can do a better job of protecting my teammates!"
"Do a better job of protecting your teammates?"
Madara shook his head slightly and sighed.
"With your body in its current state, I'm afraid you can't keep being a ninja.
Besides, what makes you think your teammates need your protection?"
"What?"
Madara's question clearly made Obito bristle.
"That's not true. I'll definitely recover.
I worked so hard to awaken my Sharingan. I know Kakashi and I can work together even better now!"
"Face reality. The world is full of things that don't go as we wish."
Madara remained calm, seemingly even a little disdainful of Obito's words.
"The longer I live, the more I feel that reality is filled with nothing but misery, pain, loneliness, and betrayal."
"What are you trying to say?"
Madara's endless talk was starting to irritate Obito. He really couldn't understand what the old man, who seemed like a lunatic, was getting at.
"What I'm saying is simple."
Madara didn't mind Obito's mood. His voice remained low.
"Everything in this world is the same. Where there is light, there must be darkness. Where there is a winner, there must be a loser.
Likewise, where there is love, there will be hate; where there is trust, there will be betrayal.
Someone was saved because you were gravely injured. But will your sacrifice really be rewarded?
Will the people you saved truly remember you?"
"You..."
Madara's question left Obito silent for a moment. He didn't know how to answer.
But Obito soon gave a snort and glared at Madara, shouting,
"I don't care what you're trying to say. No matter what, I'm leaving!
I'm grateful you saved me. Once the war is over, I'll come back."
"We can talk about something that far off later."
Madara cut Obito off and slowly turned to walk away.
"Leave if you want. But I hope you'll remember this:
You and I have both been betrayed, and we have both been forgotten..."
"I never knew the Uzumaki Clan used to be so powerful."
As the sun set, Kakashi and Haori left Kushina's home together.
Kakashi still seemed a little pensive along the way. Perhaps because he was young, he didn't know much about the Uzumaki Clan.
He had only read a little about them in textbooks and learned a bit more from his father when he was a child, and later from his teacher.
But today, he'd gotten to learn about the Uzumaki Clan alongside Haori.
"That's right. The Uzumaki Clan used to be very powerful. It's a shame things ended the way they did."
Haori nodded. Though he said it was a shame, inside, he was thrilled!
During this visit to Uzumaki Kushina's home, they hadn't spent much time discussing Sealing Jutsu.
Once Kushina gave her permission, Haori had begun carefully reading the historical records of the Uzumaki Clan.
He read them closely and with great care, which piqued Kakashi's interest too.
Kushina found it a little strange that Haori, a Uchiha, was interested in her family's history.
After all, the Uchiha and Uzumaki Clans hadn't gotten along historically. They'd fought each other plenty of times.
But just as she'd said, it wasn't a bad thing for someone to remember the Uzumaki Clan's history, even if that person had once been an enemy.
And so the afternoon passed. In what looked like a casual perusal, Haori found the information he wanted!
"The record is from over a hundred years ago, and it's very vague, but what it says is fascinating."
The records said that the Senju Clan had led people from other families to find the Uzumaki Clan, and then they had all set out together.
It didn't say who their target was, or how many casualties there had been. But one sentence in the end caught Haori's attention.
"'The Qiuyue Valley operation was a success, dealing a heavy blow to the Uchiha Clan's arrogance.'"
The date was close to that of the record in the Uchiha Clan's own archives, and there was another interesting piece of supporting evidence.
"Before then, neither the Senju nor the Uzumaki had any significant victories against the Uchiha. But this is what the record says about this operation."
It was hard not to draw some well-founded inferences from that!
"Yeah, it's a shame. No wonder Teacher Kushina said that."
As Haori pondered, Kakashi sighed, then asked curiously,
"Haori, do you really like reading history?"
"I suppose I do."
Haori shrugged. As someone from another world, history had been one of his required subjects.
"Studying history helps us understand how the world developed and changed, and why it came to be the way it is today.
Take the Uzumaki Clan, for example. History taught us about its former glory and how it fell into decline.
It also lets us learn from the past and keep improving ourselves.
And, of course, it lets us remember people and events that have vanished into the river of history, doesn't it?"
Haori's words were the sort of thing almost everyone had heard before while studying history in his past life.
But for Kakashi, they were thought-provoking, especially the last sentence. It left him silent.
Perhaps he was thinking of his father, or perhaps he was thinking of Obito.
Haori's gaze also flickered. In the history he'd studied in his past life, the remnants of a fallen dynasty had rarely come to a good end.
And since he was going to rebel against his own clan, why not go all the way?
Uchiha Satsu and the hardliners who had formed the Hawk Faction with him clearly wouldn't listen to Haori. They might even try to control him.
And their potential influence was simply too great. That was something he couldn't help worrying about.
Why had the Americans across the ocean in Haori's past life killed the man who cried out, "I have a dream"? The reason was simple enough.
If his calls could get Black people into suits to protest peacefully, what would happen if his calls got them to pick up guns?
"It seems that understanding history really is important."
Kakashi suddenly drew a deep breath, then spoke earnestly.
"Haori, I think I understand."
"Yeah, I think I understand too."
Haori nodded slightly, his gaze growing especially resolute.
Although this was a terrible thing to do, it was also the best choice for a rebel like him.
Just then, new information appeared in his system.
[New side quest obtained]
At last, the groundwork was done. It was time to make a move—and start recruiting people.
This newbie humbly begs you to keep reading! Your continued reading now will determine a book's future. Letting it pile up in your library could easily kill it.
Thank you, everyone! Onz