Yet Obito was still too naive.
In the Shinobi World, there were countless ways to pass along a message.
Perhaps the Iwagakure personnel left behind
hadn't had time to record his abilities in detail and send the information back to the Land of Earth.
But passing along a single alias was still possible.
(Suggestions for a codename! A reader suggested Crimson Eyes, which I think is pretty good. Any others?)
Minato reached out to Obito with a gentle smile.
"Come on, Obito. I'll take you home."
Obito took Minato's hand and nodded firmly.
"Yeah!"
Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye,
Minato brought Obito to Kakashi and the others.
"Minato-sensei!"
"...Obito-kun!"
The moment Rin saw Obito, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
"Don't cry, Lin-chan. I'm back, aren't I?"
Sobbing, Rin moved to throw herself into Obito's arms.
Obito waved his hands and said,
"Don't hug me, Lin-chan. I'm covered in blood!"
"I did rub some of it off on Minato-sensei just now, but... uh."
Before Obito could finish speaking,
Rin had already wrapped her arms tightly around him.
"(╥╯^╰╥) Do you know how worried I was about you? Waaaaah!"
Obito didn't quite know what to do.
"Don't cry, Lin-chan. I won't make you worry again. I promise!"
It took quite a while before Rin finally let go of Obito.
Obito thought he could finally catch his breath.
But the very next second,
Kakashi hugged him and spoke quietly into his ear.
"Next time, I won't leave you behind. Whatever happens, we'll face it together."
With that, he let Obito go.
Shikaba hugged Obito next, patting his back as he spoke.
"You're back. That's what matters..."
"I already lost one friend today. I don't want to lose another..."
After they embraced for a while, Shikaba released Obito.
Obito simply kept