Naruto Immersive Replay, The Curse of the Sharingan

【Obito's Tsukuyomi World——】

After a long day of grueling training, Obito's muscles ached and his chakra was depleted. The setting sun cast a long shadow over him as he dragged his heavy steps toward the familiar courtyard.

The wooden door creaked open, and the warm aroma of the food immediately enveloped him.

Grandma, wearing a faded apron, came out of the kitchen carrying a steaming bowl of miso soup. When she saw him, a kind smile immediately bloomed on her wrinkled face. "You're back? Training must have been hard. Go wash your hands and eat."

"Grandma!" Obito immediately cried out in grievance, tossing his ninja tool pouch aside. "That wretched Uchiha Tessho! He said my Fire Release technique is 'boiling water' again! And in taijutsu class, I lost to that Hyuga guy again..."

He kept complaining, like any child who had been wronged outside and came home seeking comfort.

Unlike other Uchiha parents, Grandma didn't scold him for "not working hard enough" or "disgracing the Uchiha clan." She simply placed the soup bowl on the table and gently touched his spiky, sweat-soaked head with her rough but warm hands.

"As long as Obito tries his best, Grandma believes in you."

With just that simple sentence, all the grievances and exhaustion seemed to suddenly find an outlet. Obito sniffed and nodded vigorously, "Yes! I'll definitely work harder tomorrow!"

His energy returned instantly, and he picked up the bowl and gulped down the soup, as if he hadn't been the dejected person he had just been.

He came in last place in the theory exam again, and several classmates blocked him on the road and teased him for being "the worst student" and "dragging down the average level of the Uchiha clan."

He stubbornly retorted, but his heart was breaking. He hid in a bridge archway downstream of the Namga River, hugging his knees, not wanting to go home.

As dusk approached, Grandma, leaning on her cane, found him, her steps unsteady. She didn't ask why, but simply took a still-hot roasted sweet potato wrapped in oil paper from her bosom and placed it in his hand.

Rough fingers wiped away the dust and lingering tear stains from his face, and her voice was gentle, "Are you hungry? Let's go home, Grandma will make you your favorite fried meatballs."

As Obito munched on the sweet and soft sweet potato, watching his grandmother's hunched back and slow-moving figure ahead, his nose stung with tears.

That sweet taste spread from the tip of my tongue all the way to my heart, melting away all my grievances and frustrations. The meaning of home became incredibly concrete in that moment.

After being assigned to Minato's team, he met Rin Nohara, who was always sunny and cheerful with a smile that could heal everything, and Kakashi, the arrogant and powerful genius who made him both jealous and resentful.

"My dream is to become Hokage!" he said resolutely as he sat cross-legged on the grass during a break from a mission.

Rin immediately smiled and clapped for him, "I believe Obito can definitely do it!"

Kakashi glanced at him lazily, his gaze so complex that Obito instantly bristled. "Hey! Are you looking down on me?!"

"I didn't." Kakashi withdrew his gaze, his tone flat.

"You clearly did! That's what your eyes meant!"

“Obito-kun, Kakashi-kun didn’t mean that…” Rin quickly stood up to smooth things over, gently persuading him.

Life flowed by amidst such noise, competition, and camaraderie.

He found himself increasingly drawn to Rin; his heart would race whenever he saw her smile, and protecting her during missions became a more pressing instinct than becoming Hokage.

But a faint voice in my heart always questions: Is this really love? Why... does it seem like something is missing? That flutter seems more like a longing for and a desire to protect beautiful things, rather than... rather than some kind of more ardent, more obsessive, more exclusive possession.

He sat down beside his grandmother, puzzled, watching her mend clothes, and asked casually, "Grandma, what's it like to truly like someone?"

Grandma stopped sewing and smiled mischievously, "Oh? Our little Obito has someone he likes?"

"No...no way!" Obito blushed instantly to the roots of his ears, loudly refuting the claim, his eyes darting around.

Grandma stopped teasing him and turned her gaze to the window, her expression becoming distant and gentle. "True love... is probably wishing the other person happiness forever, it's a blessing."

She paused, her voice lowering slightly, carrying a hint of the Uchiha's unique, deep-seated obsession, "But for the Uchiha, true love... is stubbornness, it's never letting go, even if it means falling into an endless hell together, never looking back."

Obito's mouth dropped open in astonishment. "Huh? This...this is terrifying!" This was completely different from anything he'd read in romance novels!

Grandma smiled and didn't explain further. Her withered fingertips unconsciously traced the edge of an old photo frame on the table.

Obito peeked inside and saw a photo of his grandmother in her youth with a handsome Uchiha man. The two were dressed in Sengoku-era clothing, but their smiles were so radiant they seemed to transcend time.

"Grandma... are you thinking about Grandpa?" Obito asked softly.

Grandma snapped out of her daze, put away the photo frame, gently rubbed his head, and looked at him with a complex emotion in her eyes that he couldn't understand at the time, a mixture of deep longing and heavy pain.

"Missing someone is the most enduring confession, Obito. When you finally meet that girl, you will understand... love and pain always go hand in hand."

Obito was completely confused, but he still nodded in bewilderment.

Soon, Lin's coming-of-age ceremony arrived.

She was dressed in a beautiful kimono, her cheeks slightly flushed, and quietly invited him to meet her that evening under the century-old cherry blossom tree in the village square, saying she had something important to tell him.

Obito's heart skipped a beat, then was overwhelmed by immense excitement and a secret sense of anticipation.

He immediately ran over to Kakashi to show off, bumping the other's shoulder hard. Under Kakashi's speechless gaze, which looked at him like he was an idiot, he laughed out loud, feeling that he might really be about to have the first important confession of his youth.

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom at night, their pink and white petals shimmering like falling snow under the moonlight.

Obito stood under the tree, nervously and excitedly rubbing his hands together, rehearsing countless ways to respond to Rin's confession in his mind.

Footsteps came from behind.

He took a deep breath, turned around with a bright smile, and said, "Lin! I—"

The words stuck in my throat.

Lin stood before him, her face devoid of any shyness or joy, only streaked with tears that shimmered with broken light in the moonlight.

Her eyes were filled with sorrow and emptiness, as if she were looking through him at something else, "Obito..."

Lin's voice choked with sobs, "You've forgotten her too, haven't you?"

Obito was stunned. "Wh...what? Rin, what are you talking about? Who did you forget?"

Lin approached him step by step, stopped in front of him, raised her tear-streaked face, and said each word clearly, like an ice pick piercing his heart, "Li Nu."

This name was like a rusty yet incredibly sharp key, violently piercing through the door to his memories that Tsukuyomi had sealed!

His heart pounded wildly, as if it were about to leap out of his chest, followed by a sharp, suffocating pain!

A blurry yet incredibly vivid image forcefully surfaced in my mind.

It wasn't Lin's smiling face under the sunlight, but a black-haired woman with long hair flowing in the wind, a slender yet upright figure, and when she occasionally glanced back, the complex light in her eyes made his heart tremble.

Cunning, gentle, crazy, sad... and a deep longing that he couldn't understand.

“Nagi…” he murmured unconsciously, the forgotten name finally breaking through all obstacles.

Lin's tears flowed even more fiercely. She gazed in the direction of Konoha Hospital in the distance, her voice fading as if it would disappear at any moment, "So it was all an illusion."

"No—!!!" Obito clutched his head, which felt like it was about to split open, and let out a wild, agonizing roar!

All the memories, real and bloody memories, burst forth like a flood, instantly shattering this false and warm cage!

He failed the Chunin Exams! His grandmother died long ago in the Nine-Tails' attack! Rin died under Kakashi's Lightning Blade! He watched as a boulder crushed half of his body! He participated in the Uchiha Clan Massacre; he was already... in the deepest hell!

And Uchiha Nagi...

The woman who disrupted all his plans, the woman who called him "idiot Obito," the woman who briefly pulled him out of the abyss of obsession, the woman he verbally disliked but unknowingly held in his heart, the woman who ultimately existed to correct the mistakes he made...

Even if he dies and becomes a wandering ghost, he will absolutely haunt him to the very end and never let go!

It's an Uchiha-style love, a love that would rather fall into hell than let go!

The warm and cozy world around me began to crumble and peel away frantically!

Grandma's courtyard, the fragrant food, the lively ninja school, the cherry blossom tree, Lin's tears... all of them were like a shattered mirror, bursting into nothingness.

Obito stood there, panting heavily. His eyes no longer held the naivety of a boy, but rather a deathly clarity born of countless despairs and pains, and an almost insane obsession.

He can feel it! The curse mark that originates from the same source as you is pulsating faintly yet incredibly clearly from afar! You are still alive! You are fighting! You need him somewhere!

Without any hesitation, Obito sprinted towards the direction he sensed! Chakra erupted beneath his feet, and his speed was so great that he tore through the air!

"Nagi——!!"

This time, he will never let go!

【Minami's Tsukuyomi World——】

The rain in Amegakure had never been so gentle. Konan stood atop the tower, letting the fine rain soak through her plain white robes.

Countless pieces of paper poured out from the sleeves and gathered in the air to form giant wings.

The morning light pierced through the clouds, gilding the paper wings with gold, as if she were about to take flight into the sky, no longer shrouded in gloom.

"Konan—" Yahiko's voice came from below as he hurried up the spiral staircase, his orange hair like a leaping flame. "The daimyo have relented, as long as next week's negotiations go smoothly..."

Nagato followed behind him, her Rinnegan filled with a rare warmth, "The Land of Rain will soon see the real sun."

Chapter 208 Redemption in Tsukuyomi (6)

Xiao Nan landed slowly, her paper wings shattering into thousands of white butterflies that fluttered around the three of them.

She should be happy; this is the peace they've dreamed of for years, the dawn that the Akatsuki have won through bloody battles.

But as my fingertips brushed against the paper butterfly, a hollow, piercing pain suddenly gripped my heart.

It seems she...lost something very important.

On the eve of the negotiations, Xiao Nan folded paper cranes alone.

This was her habit when she was thinking, but tonight her fingers were unusually clumsy. When she folded the ninety-ninth paper crane, it suddenly spread its wings on its own and shattered into dust before her eyes.

Where the powder fell, a fleeting image appeared: a black-haired woman biting a kunai and smiling at her.

"Who is it..." Xiao Nan pressed her throbbing temples.

At the negotiating table of the five major powers, Xiao Nan's paper flowers covered the long table.

When the Daimyo of the Land of Wind signed the ceasefire agreement, cheers erupted throughout the arena. Yahiko excitedly embraced her and Nagato, their body heat seeping through their clothes, a feeling so real it made one's heart race.

"We did it!" Yahiko's voice choked with emotion. "Finally..."

Konan suddenly saw a strange double image, Yahiko's heart was bleeding, the same venue was turned into ruins, and Nagato sat withered in the puppet bushes.

She shook her head violently, and the illusion vanished, leaving only Yahiko's worried face.

"Are you feeling unwell?" Nagato handed over a cup of tea, the base of which was stained with undried blood. When Konan took it, her hands were covered in bright red blood.

"Blood..." she murmured to herself.

Yahiko and Nagato exchanged a puzzled look. "What blood?"

Xiao Nan lowered her head; her palms were as clean as ever.

The lingering smell of blood in her nose persisted for a long time. Unconsciously, she folded a piece of paper and unexpectedly folded a corsage with a black background and red clouds. The pattern was both strange and familiar, and it stung her eyes.

At the celebration banquet, Xiao Nan left early.

The streets of Amegakure were decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers. Children chased and played with paper cranes. A child bumped into her leg and looked up to reveal wet eyes.

"My angel," the child tilted his head, "why are you crying?"

Xiao Nan wiped her face and found her hands were wet. Unaware, tears streamed down her face. Suddenly, the child turned into scraps of paper and vanished. From the street corner came a mocking laugh, "A false peace..."

She followed the sound to the edge of the Nanhe River, where the reflection in the water was not of her plain white robe, but of a Xiao robe embroidered with red clouds.

In her reflection, however, there was a hideous scar on her collarbone.

“I remember now,” the reflection in the water said. “We shouldn’t be like this.”

The floodgates of memory were suddenly opened.

The real-life scenes came flooding in: Hanzo's explosive tag trap, Yahiko crashing into Nagato's kunai, and herself being pinned down and torn apart by Iwa ninja.

Then—the person who called himself Tanuki barged into their lives.

“Watch closely,” your blade slices through the rain, “peace is not something you beg for… it’s something you steal.”

You taught them to protect their softest vulnerabilities with the ruthlessest methods, and taught Xiao Nan to turn origami into the art of six hundred billion explosive tags.

The Tsukuyomi world begins to collapse, ribbons turn into white mourning banners, celebratory goblets are filled with blood, Konan sees her true self kneeling in the rain, the ocean of six hundred billion explosive tags is torn apart by Kamui, and paper cranes turn to ashes one by one.

"Li Nu..." she suddenly burst into tears, "Where is Li Nu?"

Before their figures vanished, Yahiko and Nagato simultaneously pointed towards the Valley of the End, their lips parting to utter the same words, "Go save her."

Xiao Nan tore open her plain white robe, revealing the Xiao robe she always wore underneath.

Her paper wings, stained with ink, transformed into countless kunai wrapped in explosive tags. As she smashed through the barrier of the Tsukuyomi world, she glanced back one last time—

The false peace shattered like glass, revealing the stark reality of countless corpses beneath.

The wind from the Valley of the End carries the stench of blood. Xiao Nan sees you falling from the sky, your shoulder blade pierced by the Ash Bones of the All-Killing One, your blood splattering into a long rainbow.

A vast sea of ​​paper rose up.

Six hundred billion explosive tags caught you as you fell, each one bearing a confession that Xiao Nan never uttered.