"Why were you never there, sensei?"
Obito's words were like icy knives, slicing through the silent air one by one.
He did not roar or weep. His voice could even have been called calm.
But beneath that calm lay resentment frozen for over a decade, bitter defiance, and the loneliness of abandonment that had seeped into his bones.
The instant his words fell, the pattern of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in his right eye twisted and stretched, transforming into his distinctive, pinwheel-shaped Mangekyō Sharingan.
He slowly raised his hand, gripping a Samurai Sword he had picked up along the way.
Its edge was not particularly sharp, yet it seemed to bear an immense weight.
The tip pointed steadily at the blond man before him, whom he had once admired and trusted, and who had ultimately become his enemy.
"Minato-sensei, you could take down so many enemies in an instant. You were called the Yellow Flash, the fastest in the shinobi world."
Obito's voice carried a hollow echo.
"Why were you always absent when your students needed help most?"
He seemed to be questioning Minato, but also the boy named Obito Uchiha who had once worshipped his teacher.
"When an enemy's kunai slashed Kakashi's eye and blood covered his face, where were you?"
"When I was pinned beneath that enormous rock, when my bones shattered and darkness swallowed everything, where were you?"
"When Rin... when Kakashi's Lightning Blade pierced Rin's heart, when she fell before my eyes and her life went out like a candle flame..."
At last, an uncontrollable tremor crept into Obito's voice.
"Where-were you?!"
The Samurai Sword in his hand trembled slightly, not from fear, but from the surge of strength driven by his turbulent emotions.
"If you can't protect those you should protect..."
Obito stared fixedly at Minato,