Chapter 273: Outside the Plan
"It’s me."
The two short words entered Rin’s ears.
Obito... was truly alive.
The fact stood unmistakably before her.
Yet the person in front of her felt deeply unfamiliar.
She couldn’t connect him to the smiling idiot in her memories.
Rin tried taking another small step forward.
The man in black immediately retreated half an inch.
"Don’t come any closer."
The voice behind the mask was hard and cold, clearly trying to drive her away.
"I have nothing to do with the fool I used to be."
Rin didn’t stop.
The more Obito spoke that way, the more clearly she sensed the panic hidden behind his mask.
At the Ninja Academy, whenever he lied, he had also deliberately raised his voice and acted completely confident.
His behavior couldn’t deceive her.
Rin walked step by step until she stood before him, then raised her face.
"Obito, why won’t you look at me?"
Obito said nothing.
She raised both hands and reached directly for his mask.
Obito instinctively lifted an arm to block her.
But his hand stopped halfway.
He was afraid a struggle might hurt her.
"Rin, don’t touch it!"
Unconcealed panic had entered his voice.
Rin ignored the warning completely.
Her fingers found the edge of the mask and loosened the cord behind his head.
The orange spiral mask lost its support and slid down his cheek.
Clack.
It fell to the ground.
The half of Obito’s face once destroyed by boulders was revealed completely.
Rin froze.
The entire right side was covered in uneven white folds.
Twisted flesh had fused together like a piece of cloth that had been crushed and then forcibly stitched back into shape.
The injury was far more severe than Rin had imagined.
Obito turned his face aside, hiding the ruined half within the shadows.
"Have you seen enough?"
He deliberately lowered his voice, every word filled with embarrassment and self-mockery.
Rin’s tears escaped again, large drops rolling down her cheeks.
She said nothing. She merely raised a hand once more and reached toward the scarred half of his face.
Obito froze completely.
He had expected Rin to be afraid.
Even he found this monstrous appearance disgusting.
But Rin didn’t pull away.
Her soft, warm palm pressed against his rough, withered right cheek.
"Obito... it must have hurt so much back then."
Her tearful voice was very soft.
Obito swallowed.
He hadn’t cried out once when the boulder crushed half his body.
He had gritted his teeth through the process of adapting to White Zetsu’s flesh as it repaired him.
Later, after witnessing Rin collapse in blood, he believed his heart had become empty and could no longer feel anything.
But now...
Rin stood alive before him, touching his ugliest scars and asking whether they had hurt.
The resentment, madness, and cruelty he had accumulated for so long to disguise himself shattered completely before that single question.
He lowered his head and looked at her tear-covered face.
"...It hurt."
Even Obito felt dazed after admitting it.
Rin sniffed and wiped the tears from her face.
"It won’t anymore."
Obito stared at her, his lips moving.
He had countless questions.
What had truly happened that day? How had Kitahara Kaede kept her alive? Had her death been staged from the beginning?
Rin also wanted to ask where he had spent all these years.
Kaede gave them no chance.
"Save the reunion for later."
He stood several paces away, his gaze passing over Rin and settling on Obito.
"Obito, come here. I need to ask you something."
Obito didn’t respond.
Rin gently tugged his sleeve.
"Kitahara-senpai saved me, and he saved Kakashi too. He won’t hurt you."
Obito listened to her explanation.
He glanced at Kaede, and most of the vigilance in his heart faded.
"All right. I’ll go over for a moment."
After speaking to Rin, he walked toward Kaede.
Rin continued staring at his back.
She was afraid that if she looked away, Obito would once again disappear somewhere beyond her sight.
Kakashi watched the reunited pair with complicated emotions.
Rin turned and forced a tearful smile toward him.
"Kakashi, it’s wonderful. None of the three of us were lost."
She paused, her voice becoming particularly serious.
"And it’s all because of Kitahara-senpai."
The words struck Kakashi heavily.
All because of Kitahara-senpai?
The tangled clues in his mind connected at once.
Why Kaede had brought a black-cloaked person on the mission. Why he had specifically requested Kakashi.
Kaede had predicted from the beginning that Obito would appear here.
He had not only saved Rin, but even found Obito—the person who should have died at Kannabi Bridge—and brought him back alive.
And Kakashi?
From the moment they met, he had treated Kaede with hostility.
He believed Kaede was a cold-blooded tool. Throughout the journey, he had refused even to speak and deliberately maintained his distance.
Now it seemed the truly foolish person had been Kakashi himself.
He lowered his head. The coldness in his eye had vanished completely, replaced by deep shame.
"...Yes."
Several paces away, Kaede turned and looked at Obito as he approached.
"You truly came alone this time?"
Obito nodded.
Once the mask was removed, the madness and mystery surrounding him seemed to dissipate with it.
"Ask whatever you want to know."
Since Kaede had arranged the situation this thoroughly, there was no point in Obito hiding anything further.
Kaede went straight to the point.
"Is Uchiha Madara dead? And where are the creatures that stayed around you?"
Obito answered directly.
"Madara is dead."
"Those creatures are called White Zetsu. They’re creations Madara left behind."
Kaede frowned slightly.
Obito continued.
"White Zetsu and I split up. I came to capture the Six-Tails, while he went into Kirigakure to take the Three-Tails."
"We’re gathering the Tailed Beasts to revive the Ten-Tails, then activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi."
Obito concealed nothing, revealing Madara’s entire plan.
Kaede’s expression sank completely, and his tone sharpened.
"White Zetsu went alone to capture the Three-Tails?"
Obito noticed the change in his face.
"No. He has helpers. But he never told me who they were, or how many he brought."
Where had Black Zetsu found helpers?
Kaede frowned in thought.
Nagato had never been manipulated, and Obito had now defected.
Apart from those two, who else could it be?!
Why did the situation no longer seem as simple as Kaede had expected?
"Who took Nagato’s Rinnegan?"
Kaede looked directly at Obito.
"Zetsu," Obito answered.
"Where are the eyes now?"
"I don’t know."
As Obito said it, he began sensing that something was wrong as well.
He had always assumed he was Madara’s chosen successor and the person directing the entire Moon’s Eye Plan.
But in retrospect, every part of the situation seemed strange.
"He only told me that when the time was right, he would naturally hand the Rinnegan to me."
Kaede’s expression darkened.
The man who should have controlled the plan had been pushed completely outside it.
Even Obito didn’t know what Black Zetsu was arranging.
At that moment, urgent sounds cut through the forest.
Mei dropped from a tree.
Her expression was terrible. The instant she landed, she rushed straight toward Kaede.
"Kaede, something happened."
"Yagura was taken."