Chapter 445: Pain Makes One Grow

Because he was worried about being late, Obito left early and arrived at the cherry blossom tree in the park.

Carrying carefully selected snacks for Rin, Obito looked around expectantly.

Unlike him, who was often late, Rin was a very punctual person, usually arriving at the agreed time without making others wait.

But today seemed different. When Obito felt it was almost the appointed time, he still hadn't seen Rin, but he vaguely spotted a few familiar figures.

"Could this park have become famous recently? Why are Asuma and Kurenai here too?" As the distance shortened, Obito confirmed that the people he saw were the friends he thought they were.

"Even Gai is here—did he happen to run by?" Obito then spotted a green-clad figure.

Obito was a bit surprised. In his memory, Might Gai wouldn't have the leisure to stroll around a park like this.

What puzzled Obito even more was that Might Gai and the others were all walking toward the cherry blossom tree.

"What a coincidence, you guys are visiting the park too." Obito waved and greeted them with a smile.

Since he hadn't seen Kakashi, Obito's mood was still fairly calm, remaining optimistic about how things would develop.

"Visit the park? No, I'm here because Rin said she had something to discuss." Kurenai shook her head.

Obito's expression instantly stiffened, and the smile on his face gradually faded—it wasn't the date he had imagined.

"Same here." Might Gai nodded, indicating that he was also one of the people Rin had invited.

"Then it seems everyone was invited by Rin. That's rare, calling us all together. Could there be something very important?" Asuma rubbed his chin and speculated.

Asuma turned and scanned the group, finding that they were all mutual friends, no strangers.

"Ahaha, I guess so." Obito scratched his head with his left hand, wearing an awkward smile, and discreetly moved the snacks in his right hand behind his back.

"Maybe she's encountered some trouble."

Although Obito felt so embarrassed at that moment he wanted to crawl into a hole, he didn't blame Rin; instead, he started worrying about her.

After all, Rin had never said she was calling him over for a date—Obito had assumed it himself.

"And Kakashi wasn't called, which means in Rin's heart I'm still the one she trusts more." Obito comforted himself inwardly.

Kakashi's absence was a silver lining for Obito in this unfortunate situation.

If Kakashi had been there, he would most likely have seen through Obito's thoughts and mocked him.

"Sorry everyone, I'm late."

Just then, Rin's voice suddenly reached them. Obito looked toward the sound and saw Rin running over, breathing heavily, clutching a stack of papers in her arms.

"It's only a few minutes, that's not late. Rin, no need to rush." Seeing Rin out of breath, Obito quickly said.

Hearing Obito's words, Rin slowed her pace and jogged over to join the group.

"Making these took longer than I expected, so I was a bit late." Rin caught her breath, holding up the papers in explanation.

For context, Rin had been practicing the breathing technique for quite a while; running like this obviously meant she had been pushing herself to the limit the whole way.

"Oh, I see. I was wondering why punctual Rin was late this time." Obito chuckled, looking at the papers in Rin's hands—the culprit behind her lateness.

"Celebrating Kakashi's Promotion to Jonin Gift Planning (Secret Mission)…" Obito silently read the big characters on what looked like a poster, word by word in his mind.

Staring at the meticulously drawn chibi-style portrait of Kakashi on that poster, Obito fell silent. For some reason, the snacks in his right hand suddenly felt incredibly heavy—so heavy that Obito, a ninja who could punch down a tree with one hand, could no longer hold them.

With a clatter, the snacks Obito had been carrying fell to the ground.

Obito didn't bother with the dropped snacks. His face was burning hot, as if scorched by flames, and his embarrassment had reached its peak.

The so-called date he had imagined was actually Rin's plan to figure out how to celebrate Kakashi's promotion to jonin.

He had thought Kakashi wasn't invited because he himself was more trustworthy, but in truth, it was because Rin wanted to surprise Kakashi.

To make a good impression on Rin, he had arrived early and even carefully chosen snacks that girls liked, while Rin herself was late because she was making a poster for Kakashi.

It hurts. It hurts so much.

Standing perfectly well in the sunlight, Obito inexplicably felt a bone-chilling cold and a sharp pain in his heart.

Seeing the girl he liked working so hard for another boy was just too heartbreaking. Obito could barely bring himself to look at Rin. He tilted his head up at a forty-five-degree angle, staring at the sky, with an indescribable sadness.

"Obito, you dropped something." Rin walked over to Obito, picked up the bag of snacks, and said.

She heard the sound at once, but she hadn't expected that Obito would keep ignoring it and just stand there dazed for some reason.

"Oh, oh, thanks, Rin." Obito, snapping out of it, thanked her instinctively.

"Honestly, you're almost a jonin now—you can't just space out like that during a mission," Rin said, looking exasperated.

"Yeah, yeah." Obito's smile returned a bit.

Rin was worried about him—Rin cared about him!

"By the way, did you buy these snacks specially for everyone?" Rin casually asked as she handed the snacks back to Obito.

Obito hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, you're right, Rin."

Although they were bought specially for Rin, in this situation he definitely couldn't give them only to her—either everyone shares or no one gets any, otherwise it would be too awkward.

"I'm a bit impressed, Obito—you can actually be this thoughtful." Rin covered her mouth with her hand, surprised. Obito being so prepared was truly beyond her expectations.

Obito had always been careless, but this time he not only arrived on time but also brought snacks.

"People always improve, you know." Obito puffed out his chest. No matter what, being praised by Rin felt good.

Saying that, Obito distributed the snacks to everyone.

Watching everyone eat the snacks he had carefully prepared for Rin, Obito felt a strange melancholy in his heart.

"These taste really good—Obito, you're pretty good at picking snacks," Kurenai Yuhi praised.

Obito felt as if his heart had been pierced by an arrow. Of course they tasted good—he had chosen them specially for Rin.

"What kind of gift do you all think we should give Kakashi?" Rin brought up the real purpose of this meeting.

"For Kakashi, I think a practical gift would be good," Kurenai Yuhi said after thinking it over.

Kurenai felt that Kakashi was a very practical person. Rather than romantic gifts, Kakashi would prefer something useful and functional.

"That does seem right. Last time for my birthday, Kakashi gave me a training secret medicine." Might Guy thought about it and realized Kurenai was right—Kakashi rarely did flashy stuff.

"How about we all go find the best tempura and give it to Kakashi together? Food is practical enough, right? If you don't eat, you die." Obito said with a straight face, as if speaking without any personal feelings, purely rational.

Rin gave Obito a helpless look.

"Obito, stop joking. Kakashi doesn't even like tempura," Rin complained.

Kakashi only eats the tempura made by Muyue.

"I was just trying to make Kakashi realize how delicious tempura can be, but forget it. Teacher Muyue's tempura is already the pinnacle—there's no way there's anything better," Obito forced an explanation.

He had said it out of spite casually, not expecting it to be taken seriously.

Still, if it were actually approved, Obito would be very happy, because he thought Kakashi's expression would be just like his own a moment ago.

After some discussion, Kurenai Yuhi's idea was accepted: give Kakashi a fairly practical gift.

After they disbanded, Obito didn't leave with Rin; instead, he followed Might Guy.

Even he couldn't keep clinging to Rin after something like that.

"Guy, how's your recovery going lately?" Obito asked.

Might Guy smiled and raised his arm, flexing his bicep. "Steadily recovering, just like an ever-rising youth!"

"That's a relief. Without you around, Kakashi seems a bit lonely," Obito said deliberately.

"That's the bond between me and my best friend!" Might Guy gave a thumbs up and laughed heartily.

"I think I heard Kakashi say he really wants to fight you when you activate the Eight Gates and Rock Breathing Chakra Mode," Obito continued, looking quite serious.

"After all, I'm really strong in that state. My best friend wants to challenge a stronger me." Might Guy believed it immediately.

"But I'll have to let my best friend down. He can't experience my peak combat power. Right now I can only use the Fifth Gate and Rock Breathing Chakra Mode—I can't open the Sixth Gate." Might Guy sighed.

Back then, it was a life-threatening situation that forced Might Guy to forcibly open the Sixth Gate. For a normal spar, Guy certainly wouldn't force a higher gate—otherwise, after one fight he'd be bedridden for two months, and how could he train then?

"I believe Kakashi will understand you." Obito couldn't help but smile.

He could already envision Kakashi getting beaten up by Might Guy. This was the Eight Gates plus Rock Breathing Chakra Mode—even with just five gates open, it wasn't something Kakashi could overcome right now.

"For my best friend's expectations, I'll train even harder from now on, striving to let him feel the power of the Sixth Gate and Rock Breathing Chakra Mode as soon as possible." Might Guy clenched his fist, eyes full of fighting spirit.

"Exactly, that's it." Obito gave Might Guy a thumbs up.

……

A faint sigh came from a hidden underground laboratory in Konoha.

"Failed again. Is this direction wrong?" Nonō frowned at the experimental data.

"A ninja's talent should lie in the body, so why can't I extract ninja talent from the body?"

Dissatisfied with his own talent, Nonō had been secretly conducting research to develop a jutsu that could enhance ninja talent.

Nonō didn't want to be mediocre; he also wanted to become a powerhouse like the Sannin and shake the ninja world.

They were classmates in the same year, but Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade had already become the dreaded Sannin, while he was still an unknown Jōnin in Konoha. Nonō was truly unwilling to accept this.

"Damn it! When will I ever succeed at this rate? Even a kid like Hatake Kakashi is on the same level as me!" Nonō thought of Kakashi, who became a Jōnin at age ten, and his mentality shattered.

The rise of latecomers like Minato Namikaze and Yusheng Muyue only made Nonō a little anxious, but Kakashi truly broke his defense.

A Jōnin at age ten—he had broken Konoha's record for the earliest promotion to Jōnin.

"I need to speed up. It would be meaningless to complete the development only after I start aging." Nonō decided to abandon a steady approach and take more drastic actions.

Even the most talented ninja grows weaker with age; he had to finish developing the jutsu while he was still young.

After that, Nonō increased the frequency of his abductions and conducted even more extensive human experiments to trial and error.

As the experiments progressed, Nonō had a new inspiration.

"Since stealing talent is so hard, why not merge individuals together?" Nonō began experimenting with merging as his goal.

As if this were truly the right path, Nonō made rapid progress in his experiments with the fusion jutsu. He soon completed a fusion experiment with a summoning beast, granting an ordinary person strength surpassing that of a Chūnin, though the person's body became somewhat monstrous.

"I've done it! This is absolutely an unprecedented, great jutsu!" Nonō was extremely excited about the breakthrough in his experiments.

He believed that the Kishō no Jutsu he had developed was definitely an S-rank jutsu, even among the top tier of S-rank.

Next, Nonō began working on human-to-human fusion.

He would never fuse himself with a summoning beast; Nonō at least still wanted to remain human.

Moreover, Nonō believed that the potential of summoning beasts was lower than that of humans—he had never heard of any top-tier powerhouse relying solely on a summoning beast.

As the human fusion experiments progressed, Nonō discovered a delightful fact: fusion could preserve many traits of the fused individuals, including their Kekkei Genkai.

"This path is correct. If I master all the Kekkei Genkai, who could possibly defeat me?" Nonō had already seen the road to becoming the strongest.

Perhaps due to the wartime martial law in Konoha, or because Nonō's actions were too radical, his abnormalities were noticed, and his human experiments were discovered by ninjas sent to investigate.

But Nonō was not a fool; while conducting human experiments, he had already planned an escape route.

Although he couldn't compare with his Sannin friends, his strength was still enough that ordinary ninjas couldn't stop him. In the end, Nonō fled Konoha with his Kishō no Jutsu, becoming a missing-nin wanted by Konoha.