Sara thought, at the beginning, she also seemed pretty cold and aloof toward Naruto, keeping people at a thousand miles' distance. Back then, Naruto actually chased after her the hardest.
'Could it be that if I want to attract Naruto, I have to be high and mighty, wearing a cold face?'
Sara's cheeks turned slightly red, and she shook her head.
'I can't keep thinking like this. This is something destined to have no result. What meaning can there be in thinking more about it?'
Her emotions were a bit down all of a sudden. Her expression dimmed as she pointed toward the city gate and said to Sasuke, "Up ahead is the exit. Whatever you need to do, just go do it yourselves."
"Wish you both a safe journey."
Sasuke nodded, didn't say anything more, and immediately led the way, walking off with Obito without another word, until the red clouds on their Akatsuki robes swayed in the wind and faded into the sandstorm.
———
[Outside the Roran, Land of Wind, Desert]
Sasuke said to Obito beside him, "Where are we going next?"
Obito thought for a moment and said, "Let's head to Konoha first, to find out what happened to the me in this world."
Originally, Obito's plan was to head to Amegakure first, to take the Rinnegan from this world's Nagato.
After all, at this point in time, Nagato's development of the Rinnegan wasn't deep yet, so he shouldn't possess that much power. Compared to Konan in his own world, he'd be much easier to handle.
But after hearing that Madara had become the leader of Akatsuki, he gave up on that idea.
In his and Sasuke's current state, if Madara still retained even a small portion of his peak power, he and Sasuke would die a terrible death.
Especially since there was still a cursed seal planted on his heart by Madara. What if the Madara of this world could influence him through it too?
He wouldn't dare gamble.
So, better to find the him of this world first.
Though the risks seemed high as well, maybe even higher than going after Konan for the Rinnegan in the other world, but how could power from an external source compare to strength that was inherently his?
If both his eyes could truly evolve into the Eternal Mangekyo and restore his vision, then no one in the ninja world could threaten him, not even Madara.
Seeing Obito lost in thought, Sasuke couldn't help but interrupt, "Your plan… is to seize the eyes of this world's you, evolve them into the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and restore your sight?"
Obito said calmly, "Yeah."
Sasuke frowned, "Although the Eternal Mangekyo requires blood relations to fuse, when it comes to bloodline, there's indeed no one more closely related than yourself."
"But this is thirty years in the past. If you and Kakashi were in the same class, then you should still be young now, right? It's impossible to have awakened the Mangekyo at such a young age, and doesn't the Eternal Eye require two pairs of Mangekyo to fuse?"
Obito's tone carried a faint trace of mockery, "You and I are not the same, so don't use your own experience to judge me."
"Although in the original timeline at this point I indeed hadn't awakened the Mangekyo yet... even so, my awakening was three or four years earlier than yours."
Sasuke immediately felt a little sour.
'Three or four years earlier?'
'Wouldn't that mean Obito awakened his Mangekyo at around thirteen?'
'Damn it, how can the gap between people be so huge? Whether it is Itachi or Obito, they are both way ahead of me when it comes to opening their eyes.'
'Am I really that much worse?'
Sasuke's mood immediately soured.
He snorted and said, "Even if you awakened earlier, you haven't awakened now, have you? Are we just going to wait until this world's you awakens? How long would that take? I don't have that kind of time to waste with you."
Obito raised a finger, "First, even if the me of this world hasn't awakened yet, I'm confident that once I replace his eyes with mine, I'll be able to awaken them myself. After all, they're the same pair of eyes."
"In fact, I'd prefer it that way."
"And... second, although Naruto didn't make this point clear when telling his story, I suspect that the me of this world might have already awakened these eyes."
"So, I might be able to directly use them to fuse into the Eternal Mangekyo."
Obito clearly remembered, the first time he had a spiritual conversation with Naruto, Naruto immediately exposed his identity. Not only did Naruto know who he was, he even knew the ability of his Sharingan.
To be able to react right away, there's a high chance Naruto had already seen those eyes.
So, this world's him may have awakened even earlier, he just didn't know what triggered it. After all, Rin hadn't died.
Could it be because… his grandmother passed away? Or because this world's Minato possessed the Great Toad Sage's prophecy abilities and told him everything in advance, and after hearing that Rin died by Kakashi's hand, he was so shocked that he awakened?
That really could be the case.
After all, no one knew better than him how deeply, how crazily he loved Rin.
Uchiha Sasuke didn't look very pleased hearing Obito's explanation.
He said, "Uchiha Obito, if the you of this world awakened the Mangekyo even earlier, you should understand. He's probably about as strong as you. That won't be easy to deal with."
But Obito said, "He's not the same as me. Even if he has those eyes, he might not be able to use them frequently. Just like your situation, every use comes with a huge cost. Maybe because he's even younger, the burden on him is heavier."
"He won't last long. That's why I'm confident I can take him down…"
In fact, there was another reason Obito didn't mention.
He and this world's young Obito likely phase into the same dimension, which meant many of their abilities could cancel each other out.
This was the fundamental reason why he was confident he could deal with the Obito of this world.
No matter how talented this world's Obito was in awakening the eyes, he was still too young right now.
What kind of person he was as a child, no one knew better than himself.
Just a tail-end loser. In terms of combat experience, how could he possibly compare to someone who had been taught everything by Madara?
As long as he dragged this world's Obito into a purely taijutsu-based battle, he'd be invincible. He could rely on his massive experience advantage to easily defeat the young Obito.
After that, he'd get the eyes.
And because the eyes were originally his, it'd be plug-and-play. No need to worry about rejection or adaptation. He could immediately regain combat strength.
At that point, even if Sasuke started plotting something, he'd be able to handle it with ease, keeping Sasuke firmly under his control as a pawn.
That was the real reason why he didn't go after Konan to get the Rinnegan first and instead came to the Dragon Vein.
Fights between ninjas are battles of information. Konan and Nagato were always wary of him, no one knew how much of his abilities they had guessed, or if they had prepared countermeasures.
By comparison, he understood his original self better. Perhaps with both Kamui eyes awakened, he was even harder to deal with than Konan, but the biggest advantage was the information gap.
So he said, "Anyway, I'll handle my own business. As long as I find the me of this world and catch him alone, I'll be able to get my eyes smoothly…"
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