I Have Always Been the Same

Xuanye set down the scroll and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. "So you found Obito's body in the end?"

Minato faltered and said nothing.

After matters on the front line had settled down, he had sent people to search for Obito's body.

A hero of Konoha deserved to be brought home, after all.

But they had found nothing. Even after locating the place where Obito had fallen and sending Earth Release ninja into the rubble, they had recovered only traces of blood and fragments of his body.

At the time, they had assumed passing beasts had eaten the remains.

Given the severity of his injuries and the amount of blood at the scene, there was no way Obito could have survived.

It was regrettable, but that was war. In the end, Minato could only gather Obito's belongings and raise an empty grave for him.

"Obito was gravely injured. Half his body was crushed. There's no way he could have survived!"

"And if Obito had attacked me, how could I not have recognized him?"

Minato's arguments were reasonable, but Xuanye had no intention of debating him.

He remained remarkably calm.

"My greatest virtue is that I don't stoop to lying. I'm one hundred percent certain who that man is. Otherwise, I wouldn't have told you so plainly."

"Besides, you can use Flying Thunder God to go and check for yourself. I have no reason to tell a lie you could disprove so easily."

Minato fell silent again.

He had not recognized Obito at the time, but looking back, the man's appearance fit: one Mangekyō exposed in his right eye, while his left eye had been given to Kakashi.

Yet he could not imagine that the passionate boy who had cared for his comrades, who had