Identity Revealed!

Suddenly, the Masked Man felt his ocular technique being interrupted. His phasing stopped!

The vortex distorting space vanished, leaving him face-to-face with Kakashi, who had already closed in.

With Kakashi charging at him, there was no time left to dodge Chidori.

"Shnk!"

Kakashi's right hand pierced straight through the Masked Man's heart. A torrent of blood gushed from the wound and spilled onto the ground, splattering the brownish-yellow earth with strange white blood.

The Masked Man kicked Kakashi away and dodged to one side. Hunched over, he clutched the gaping hole in his chest, his expression twisting with pain beneath the mask.

He didn't look at Kakashi, who had pierced his heart. Instead, he fixed his gaze on Senya.

This guy was the real threat! His ocular technique was perfectly suited to sealing off space. The Masked Man's phasing gave him no advantage at all against Senya!

Kakashi glanced at the strange grayish-white blood on the ground, his expression turning grave. This guy was still alive even with his heart pierced!

No, something was wrong! The sensation had been completely off. It hadn't felt like a human body at all. If anything, it had felt more like some kind of plant, and even the blood looked like plant sap.

Just then, Senya raised Qianyue, which he had pointed at the Masked Man. A scarlet glint flashed through his pupils.

"Tear him apart, Qianyue."

The moment the Masked Man saw Senya raise his ninja sword, he reacted at once.

He retreated and formed a single-handed seal.

"Wood Style—Wood Golem Wall!"

Several enormous trees burst from the earth, intertwining to form a wall that shielded the Masked Man.

"Crack! Sss!"

As Senya swung his blade downward, three black, one-meter-long crescent slashes shot forward, slicing through the air. The gust they raised swept through the black hair behind him.

The Wood Style defense was as flimsy as paper. The slashes broke through it and struck the Masked Man in the chest.

His black robe was torn to shreds. The gray vest, already pierced with a hole, was slashed open again, and the torso beneath it was badly wounded. Three bloody gashes stretched from his right shoulder to above his left ribs, with white bone faintly visible.

"This is!"

Kakashi stared at the wound on the Masked Man's chest. Starting from the center of his torso, the left side looked no different from an ordinary person's, but the entire right side was the same grayish-white as the blood on the ground, like a tree. The old scar in the middle of his torso looked like it had been left by stitches.

"Obito! How can it be you!"

Senya released his right hand. Qianyue instantly turned into white mist and shrank into the seal on his right hand.

"An One-Eyed Mangekyou Sharingan. It seems Itachi's information was right. With that space-warping ocular technique of yours, you must be Obito Uchiha. The culprit behind the Nine-Tails Incident had a Mangekyō Sharingan too. I suppose that was your doing as well."

Senya backed up to the window and sat on the sill, exposing Obito's crimes.

"I'm right, aren't I, Obito Uchiha?"

A "kind" smile appeared on his face again as he looked at Obito in front of him.

The Masked Man grabbed the mask with his right hand and tore it off. His identity was exposed, so there was no point wearing it anymore. The mask had lost its purpose.

"How did you find out all this?"

His voice was calm, as if none of it had anything to do with him.

Obito furrowed his brows, meeting Senya's gaze.

Simply being found out had put him in a foul mood.

As Kakashi watched in shock, the wounds on Obito's torso began healing at a visible speed.

His identity had been exposed, and the Uchiha Vice Clan Head had disrupted his plan. He had to find a way to get out of here quickly, Obito thought.

Unfortunately, Senya's Mangekyo technique was still in effect. Obito could feel a force sealing off space, preventing him from using his ocular technique.

Damn it! If he had a complete pair of Mangekyō, he might have been able to force his way through with his ocular power.

At that thought, his gaze drifted to Kakashi.

Kakashi froze. Obito was still alive—but how had he ended up like this? Had Obito, just as Senya said, also been responsible for the deaths of Minato-sensei and Kushina during the Nine-Tails Incident?

Countless questions filled Kakashi's mind, then erupted all at once.

"Obito, if you're still alive, why didn't you come back to the village? Why did you become a rogue ninja? Why did you kill Minato-sensei and Lady Kushina?"

Kakashi rushed right up to Obito, his right hand covered in white blood. He clenched his fist and punched Obito hard in the face.

Obito stumbled back a few steps, his head turning to one side.

"Ptui!"

He spat out the blood in his mouth and wiped the blood from the corner of his lips with his left hand.

"If you want to call me by that name, go ahead. It means nothing to me."

"Whether I'm alive or not doesn't matter."

"Heh. As for why?"

"If I had to give you a reason... it's because you stood by and let Rin die."

"You, who killed Rin with your own hands, have no right to keep questioning me."

Obito's words, accompanied by that icy stare, pierced Kakashi's heart.

The sight of Rin's death appeared before him once more. Kakashi raised his arm and looked at his bloodstained right hand as the scene before his eyes began to overlap with what had happened back then.

The shadow he couldn't escape appeared again, and tears slid from the corners of his eyes.

"You're right. I killed Rin. I failed to protect my comrade!"

Watching Kakashi act so pathetic, Senya sighed again. Come on, Copy Ninja. Looks like you still haven't reached the same state of mind you'll have nine years from now. You've got a lot of room to grow.

"Kakashi, Rin used your jutsu to take her own life because she wanted to protect the village from the Three-Tails. Don't blame yourself. Don't let Rin's sacrifice go to waste."

"I'm sure Rin wouldn't want to see you like this in the Underworld."

Kakashi wiped the tears from his face with his left hand and pulled himself together once more.

He stood up and met Obito's gaze.

"Senya, you're right. Rin was a hero of the village. I shouldn't let her sacrifice go to waste."

Then his voice suddenly turned grave. He took out a Kunai and held it in a reverse grip with his right hand.

"And I won't let your will go to waste either, Obito. Even though you've denied what you once believed, I'll still carry it out!"

His fighting spirit surged again as he braced himself against Obito.

"My father's dying wish, Rin's wish, and the ideals you once held, Obito—I'll protect the village and my comrades, no matter what!"

The words he spoke were what gave Kakashi the strength to rally once more!

Obito looked at Kakashi and threw his head back, laughing.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Protect the village and your comrades?"

"What a joke. No matter what you say, to me, you're a fake because you failed to protect Rin. As far as I'm concerned, Rin wasn't supposed to die, so the Rin who died was just a fake too! The only real Rin is the one who's alive!

"And it's all because of this shinobi system, because of villages and shinobi! What truly made me despair was this world itself! I've despaired of this illusory, rotten world!"

Obito raised both hands to his chest and pressed them against the hole pierced through his heart, roaring at Kakashi.

"Look closely! There's nothing left in my heart! I can't even feel pain anymore. I'm going to reshape the Ninja World and change this chaotic system!"