Inside the house.
Hearing the sound at the door, Kushina poked her head out from the kitchen.
"Who's there, Kakashi?"
Kakashi turned back and answered, "It's Mikoto-senpai."
The next second, Kushina's eyes lit up. She hurried out of the kitchen, her face brimming with delight.
"Mikoto! Why are you here?"
She patted at the water stains on her apron and laughed happily. "I've been so bored, stuck at ho these days with nowhere to go. You ca at just the right ti!"
But then Kushina suddenly froze.
She stopped in her tracks, tilting her head ever so slightly as she studied her best friend standing before her. The bright smile on her face slowly faded, giving way to hesitation and doubt.
"What's wrong, Kushina?" Mikoto asked curiously.
Kushina didn't answer right away. Her eyes narrowed as she stared intently at Mikoto's face, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper as though she had noticed sothing terribly wrong.
For two seconds, the air in the room was heavy and still.
Then
A low hum echoed, and golden chakra erupted from Kushina's body!
Whoosh!
The blazing chakra surged forth like fire, completely enveloping her petite fra in the blink of an eye. A golden cloak of energy burned around her, patterned with black magatama and sealing marks. Her long red hair whipped about as if caught in a storm, and her aura suddenly beca sharp and overwhelming.
"?!"
Kakashi felt the suffocating pressure slam into him and instinctively took a half-step back, eyes widening in shock at the transformation before him.
[Ding! Hatake Kakashi's emotional fluctuations captured! Emotional value 500!]
The doubt in Kushina's expression was gone. Her eyes now blazed with anger and resolve.
Her hands flashed through seals, and with a deafening crash, several golden chains shot out from her back.
They whipped through the air, glowing with fiery light, and in an instant wrapped around Uchiha Mikoto, binding her tight like an unbreakable cage!
In the audience
Everyone froze in stunned silence.
Sakura cried out in disbelief, "W-what is that?! Why is Aunt Kushina suddenly glowing with golden chakra?! That aura is way too strong "
Sasuke leapt to his feet, his face pale with panic. "Why is Aunt Kushina attacking my mother?!"
Naruto stood there dumbstruck, unable to believe his eyes.
"Mom… what's happening? And what's with that golden chakra?!"
He had never seen his mother like this before.
Her entire body radiated with blazing golden energy.
For the first ti, Naruto realized his mother could look so majestic, so powerful. For a mont, she seed almost like a stranger handso, fierce, and awe-inspiring.
[Ding! Haruno Sakura's emotional fluctuations captured! Emotional value 200!][Ding! Uchiha Sasuke's emotional fluctuations captured! Emotional value 200!][Ding! Uzumaki Naruto's emotional fluctuations captured! Emotional value 300!]
Obito remained silent, cloaked in shadows. Only the lone eye behind his mask betrayed his intense focus on the screen.
"This place…" he muttered under his breath. "It defies everything I know."
"Mikoto" staggered back, fear flashing across her face.
"K-Kushina, what are you ?!"
But before she could finish, Kushina's gaze sharpened like steel.
Her voice rang out, filled with fury.
"You are not Mikoto at all! Who are you?!"Kakashi's gaze flickered between the woman bound before him and Kushina, countless thoughts flashing through his mind like lightning.
Slowly, he lifted the black cloth of his forehead protector, exposing the three-tomoe Sharingan. His scarlet eye locked onto the restrained "Uchiha Mikoto."
The Sharingan quickly traced her chakra flow, every detail of her features, every fluctuation in her presence.
And yet… nothing.
No seams of disguise, no distortion of illusion everything about her, from appearance to voice to chakra itself, was exactly Uchiha Mikoto.
Kakashi's doubts grew.
Could Kushina-senpai be mistaken?
But no… her fury had not been baseless.
His thoughts suddenly snapped into focus. He rembered what Uchiha Itachi and Shisui had revealed during Sasuke's dream not long ago
A monster capable of perfectly mimicking another person!
In that instant, Kakashi made his choice. He would trust Kushina's judgnt without hesitation.
"Let's finish this together! Take them down first!"
With a sharp shout, Kakashi whipped a kunai from his pouch, the blade gleaming as he leveled it at "Mikoto's" throat.
But then
The air itself twisted. Space between Kakashi and Kushina warped and rippled like disturbed water. From the distortion, a black vortex spiraled into existence.
The vortex spread wide, and a hand thrust out from its center, clamping down on the shoulder of the "Mikoto" pinned by chains.
"As expected of the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki," a chilling male voice echoed through the room. "Your perception is truly sharp."
"Not good!"
Kakashi's face hardened, but before he could strike, there was a whoosh!
"Mikoto's" figure vanished into nothing, chains falling slack to the floor.
Kushina's eyes blazed.
"Bastard!"
Golden chakra flared wildly around her as she glared at the shadowed figure stepping fully out of the vortex. Her teeth clenched, her voice a growl.
"It's you!"
In the audience
Sasuke let out a shaky breath. Relief washed through him thankfully, it wasn't really his mother who had threatened Aunt Kushina. It had been an impostor all along.
But before that relief could settle, his eyes widened once more.
"Wait wait a second! That mask, that cloak doesn't that look like…?"
"That's right!" Sakura bolted upright, her voice trembling.
Naruto's realization hit at the sa instant. His eyes darted from the dream screen to the audience.
The masked figure on the screen… and the masked man sitting among them in the audience they were identical. Body shape, clothing, even the tiger-striped mask itself.
The three young ninja froze, eyes wide in shock.
[Ding! Haruno Sakura's emotional fluctuations captured! Emotional value 400!][Ding! Uchiha Sasuke's emotional fluctuations captured! Emotional value 300!][Ding! Uzumaki Naruto's emotional fluctuations captured! Emotional value 400!]
"Who the hell are you?!" Naruto shouted, both shaken and furious.
The masked man Uchiha Obito remained utterly silent.
At Naruto's challenge, he rely tilted his chin upward, his single eye narrowing as he fixed his gaze on the boy. Then, with cool disdain, he looked away, choosing instead to study the unfolding dream intently.
To him, the revelations within the dream were far more important than the outburst of an impulsive child.
"Interesting…" Obito murmured softly. "I didn't expect him to appear himself."
[Ding! Uchiha Obito's emotional fluctuations captured! Emotional value 300!]On the screen, Kakashi faced the masked intruder with careful steps. He moved to shield Kushina, voice low and urgent. "Kushina-senpai, who is this? Do you know him?"
Kushina ground her teeth, eyes fixed on the masked figure, and spoke deliberately so everyone watching could hear: "He's the one who snuck into the village and caused trouble the night Naruto was born."
"If Minato hadn't arrived in ti, that villain would've taken newborn Naruto away."
Those words struck Naruto like thunder.
"The man who attacked the village the night I was born "
The mory of that tragedy, twelve years ago, which had shaped Konoha and his life, slamd into him. Naruto's pupils flared. He was not slow; he had long noticed the gap between this dream world and reality here, his father had stopped the Nine-Tails' rampage, while in the real world he had not. The trail was clear.
This man this masked man was the instigator of that tragedy, the one who had killed his parents.
"You !!"
Naruto's hands clenched until his nails bit deep into his palms without his noticing. His whole body trembled under a pressure of barely contained rage.
[Ding! Uzumaki Naruto's emotional fluctuations detected! Emotional value 2000!]
Naruto's eyes went red in an instant. With a strangled cry, he lunged and threw a punch at the masked man.
Obito only turned his head slightly, a sneer on the edge of his mouth. Then, for a heartbeat, sothing unreadable flickered in his visible eye.
Naruto's fist closed on empty air less than ten centiters from the mask. It felt as if an invisible wall had risen before his blow. No matter how he pushed, he could not force his hand forward. The masked man did not move; he rely raised a hand and pressed it lightly into the air, as if mocking the boy's impotent fury.
"Hateful "
Naruto slamd his right fist into that transparent barrier again and again, each strike driven by burning hatred, only to be bounced back every ti. The dream auditorium refused physical violence between viewers; a rule enforced by the space itself.
He scread, voice raw, "Co out, you bastard! Co out here! I'll kill you myself!!"
[Ding! Uzumaki Naruto's emotional fluctuations detected! Emotional value 1000!]
The masked man watched the blond boy's wild, uncontrolled fury in silence. After a long mont he slowly lifted one hand and twitched his fingertips in the air. He didn't touch anything yet he clearly sensed the barrier.
"Interesting," he said, chuckling twice. "This strange place can even forcibly block fighting, huh?"
Sakura and Sasuke surged forward, grabbing Naruto's arms, one on each side. "Naruto, calm down! Don't do this!"
"Sasuke, stop him!" Sakura cried.
Sasuke gritted his teeth and hauled Naruto back. "Pull yourself together! You can't hit him from here!"
"If you keep going, you'll only hurt yourself!" Sakura pleaded.
"Damn it! Damn it!!"
Naruto roared, hot tears streaming silently down his cheeks. His gaze never left the masked man. Through clenched teeth he warned, "Listen carefully! Whoever you are, wherever you hide, I know your face now! One day I'll find you, I'll drag you out "
Every word shattered with pain.
[Ding! Uzumaki Naruto's emotional fluctuations detected! Emotional value 2000!]|
....
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