"As long as you can defeat him, you'll know if I'm telling the truth," Itachi's expression settled, the shock of Kakashi's Mangekyo Sharingan fading. "But, Captain Kakashi, I can only give you the result. The process of reaching it is something you must discover for yourself.
"However, I can tell you a bit about Obito Uchiha's abilities..."
Leaning on the information provided by Emiya Shirou, Itachi proceeded to cleanly and efficiently sell out every last one of Obito's secrets.
"Besides the Sharingan, Obito also has the Wood Style kekkei genkai," Itachi began. "His Wood Style isn't particularly powerful, probably on par with Captain Yamato's. The real threat is his Mangekyo Sharingan.
"It's evolved, just like ours, and possesses a unique ability. The jutsu is called Kamui. It allows him to transfer his body to another dimension for up to five minutes, making him untouchable during a fight."
"To break it, the only way I can think of is to attack him continuously for five straight minutes. Beyond that, Kamui can also suck objects and enemies into that same dimension."
"Kamui?" Kakashi silently covered his eye. He'd felt a strange ability stirring within his own Mangekyo, a power that seemed to pull things into another dimension. And this eye... it was a gift from Obito.
He didn't even need to defeat the masked man. If he could just verify that their Mangekyo abilities were linked, it would confirm everything Itachi had said.
The truth was so staggering, Kakashi didn't want to believe it.
"Please remember," Itachi continued, "I'm only giving you the answer. You have to walk the path to it yourself. Now, let's end this. Since you also have a Sharingan, you can break my Tsukuyomi. That should be a plausible enough excuse for Obito."
He prepared to release the genjutsu.
"Wait," Kakashi stopped him, his mind slowly reeling back from the shock of his dead friend's apparent resurrection. His gaze fixed on Itachi. "Why tell me all this?"
Itachi was silent for a moment. "Consider it thanks for your care when I was in the ANBU."
"Thanks?" Kakashi's pupils constricted. If Itachi were still a Konoha ninja, he'd believe it. But after what he'd done... gratitude seemed impossible.
Unless...
"Itachi, the Uchiha clan's destruction... what's really behind it?"
Itachi remained silent. The truth of that night had to stay buried, if only for his younger brother's sake.
"Then what about Anko?" Kakashi pressed, switching topics. "Who kidnapped her? If the masked man is really Obito, what are you two doing helping her kidnapper?"
"Now is not the time," Itachi sighed, shaking his head. "I will pay attention to her safety, but you alone cannot save her."
"Wait..." Kakashi still had more questions, but the Tsukuyomi world shattered around him.
In the real world, the mysterious masked man and Might Guy were still clashing—or rather, they had just re-engaged.
The genjutsu battle, however, had seemed to resolve in an instant. Itachi clutched his eye, kneeling in a sorry state, while Kakashi mirrored his pained posture.
"Kakashi!" Guy's attention immediately snapped to his friend.
The masked man glanced at Kakashi, saw he was relatively unharmed, and snorted at Itachi. "It seems you lost to this waste, Kakashi Hatake."
"It was... somewhat unexpected," Itachi said, his voice hoarse. "Captain Kakashi also has a Mangekyo Sharingan."
"Kakashi!" Guy was instantly at his side, helping him up. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Kakashi shook his head. He glanced at Itachi, then slowly looked up at the masked man, his hand falling away from his Sharingan.
The mysterious masked man's face contorted. The Sharingan in Kakashi's eye had transformed into a Mangekyo, its shape identical to his own.
There was nothing more to say. Two eyes, one design—it explained everything, especially with the information Itachi had just provided. Kakashi stared at the masked man's eye, a deathly calm settling over him.
The masked man's gaze remained fierce, as if he didn't care that his identity was about to be exposed. He had never cared much for his past identity anyway.
Good luck, Black Zetsu thought, hidden underground.
A person must eventually face their own past, Obito.
A smile nearly split its formless face. It hadn't expected Itachi's Tsukuyomi to awaken Kakashi's Mangekyo.
But this is good. At least it can make you recognize who you are.
Black Zetsu almost wished Emiya Shirou was here to watch the show. This kind of drama—former comrades, now mortal enemies—was a rare treat.
But Shirou was long gone, having whisked Anko back to the Land of Rain. He had directed this play himself and had long predicted its outcome, including Itachi's desperate gamble and the violent emotional shock that would awaken Kakashi's Mangekyo.
He'd also anticipated the fallout: Kakashi, now armed with a sliver of the truth, would never let it go.
He would dig, he would investigate, he would try to save Anko, and he would uncover the real story behind the Uchiha massacre and Obito's survival.
As Sakumo Hatake's son, Kakashi's will, forged in a lifetime of pain and loss, was even stronger than his father's.
"Guy," Kakashi's heart was a raging storm, but his voice was unnervingly calm. He looked at the masked man. "Go check on Kurenai and Yamato. Leave this to me."
"His body is hard to catch," Guy reminded him, but he knew that tone. Kakashi had already made his decision. Guy leaped away.
"You stand back too," the masked man ordered Itachi.
Itachi silently withdrew, though he wanted to stay, to use his Amaterasu to secretly aid Kakashi. But since Obito was so confident, he could only hope Kakashi would perform exceptionally.
A strange atmosphere settled over the battlefield. Everyone—Itachi, Black Zetsu, Guy, Kurenai, Yamato—was now silently rooting for Kakashi to rip that mask off.
"It's about to begin," Zetsu murmured, appearing on a nearby tree.
"That eye of yours..." Kakashi's Mangekyo held steady. He raised his fingers, just like in a training match from long ago. His voice was grim. "I will shatter that mask. I want to see if under that eye is the face I remember."
"Then I'll have to disappoint you," the masked man's Mangekyo was just as stable. He raised his own fingers in a mirror image. His voice was still arrogant. "The person you're expecting died long ago. The memories you should have forgotten should not have been retained."
The next moment, they rushed towards each other.
The masked man, forgoing his usual phasing trick, launched into a brazen physical assault. He and Kakashi exchanged blows, and Kakashi was sent flying back from a heavy kick to the abdomen. Enduring the pain, he threw a kunai. "Gale Style: Kunai Lightning Cutter!"
The kunai, infused with Gale Style chakra, became exceptionally strange. The moment its edge touched the masked man's mask, it suddenly turned, slicing vertically up the entire length of it.
The masked man instinctively tried to phase, but at the same instant, Kakashi's Mangekyo activated. With pinpoint precision, just as the Gale Style kunai missed, it was sucked into another dimension by a strange spatial power.
Crack!
The mask was as crisp as a cracker. After disappearing, the kunai inexplicably reappeared, striking the mask and cutting it open as if it were tofu.
Underneath... was half a face covered in shattered scars.
"Obito... it's you, isn't it?"
Obito Uchiha's expression was incredibly calm, as if he didn't care at all. His fingers slowly began to form hand seals again.
"Wait... Obito?" Might Guy couldn't believe it. He turned to Kurenai. "Is that our classmate, Obito Uchiha? I remember he died!"
"They look... somewhat similar," Kurenai said, her mind still fuzzy from the genjutsu battle. "I remember some girl mentioning that the boy named Obito seemed to like Rin, but the girls all thought he wasn't as handsome as Kakashi..."
"Did that happen back then?" Guy scratched his head, having paid no attention to such things in school. "I just remember he was Kakashi's teammate. We always lost to their team in the Chunin Exams because we lost to Kakashi..."
Obito's face suddenly turned black. In the face of his former classmates' idle gossip, his composure finally cracked.
These people... what nonsense were they talking about?
"Is our cover mission complete?" he asked Itachi, his voice cold.
"It should be, right?" Itachi frowned. He didn't know if their mission was complete, but with Obito's face exposed, his own mission certainly was.
And now, it seemed, Obito Uchiha was really, truly frustrated.