I Will Become the Wind

CHAPTER 24 | Two Faces

"No, he ends up looking for the real Madara's eyes instead," Naruto said quickly, remembering the ordeal they had to go through to keep Tobi from finding them in the future. "But you know, Ero-sennin, we think Orochimaru might be interested in taking older-Obito's eye."

To his surprise, Jiriaya nodded slowly. "That makes sense on some level. I could tell there was another motive for him to come to this time. Some things never change. But how, may I ask, are you suddenly so sure that's what he's after?"

"It's because we—ah, crap." Naruto smacked his forehead. "I forgot already—we're not in Obito's dimension. Orochimaru is definitely going to find out that we know."

"It was too late for that the moment we went into the future," Obito said. "Jiraiya-sama, we went to talk to the future Kakashi. I just wanted to know what we could do to save Rin. But he told us Orochimaru took the eye the other me gave him. He thinks it might be possible for Orochimaru to get the same abilities as me if he takes the right eye of my older self here."

"But can Orochimaru use it even if he has it? I mean, he's been obsessed with the Sharingan forever," Naruto said. "Maybe he can't use it. If he could, he would have done it already."

"I don't know?" Obito crossed his arms. "But there has to be some reason he took my other self's eye. He could make a bunch more clones of me, or who knows what. I don't like it."

"I see. That is a possibility," Jiraiya said. "But it's just one out of many. We can and should investigate all leads, but jumping to conclusions will get you killed against people like Orochimaru and Akatsuki. It doesn't change what we need to do."

"And what's that?" Naruto asked.

"Whatever we do, we need to find a way to tackle the problems of Orochimaru and Akatsuki separately. It would be a really bad idea to try to face them at the same time again. If they get into a fight with each other, it might help keep them away from us, but that's only good for buying more time."

"And Sasuke... he might be caught up in the middle of it, too," Naruto said. "If we could talk to Itachi again, I could let him know what we found out. Maybe he'd help us get closer to Tobito."

"Don't start that too," Obito shot at him.

"Figuring out how to use Kurama's power is the best way I can think of to fight against Orochimaru," Naruto continued determinedly. "It's the biggest weakness he gets from having a plant body, and I might be able to break his seal that way."

"I think you should train to learn how to use that energy, but we'll have to move forward cautiously," Jiraiya said. He gave a quick glance at Obito. "Besides... if you destroy Orochimaru's tag, wouldn't that mean Obito can't instantly jump to your location anymore?"

Naruto stared at him. "I... forgot about that." He looked at Obito too. "If we get rid of it and make Orochimaru leave this world, you'll be completely cut off, won't you?"

"Yeah, I think so," Obito said with a frown. "I can't get stuck here as long as I have kamui, but I wouldn't be able to come back without an anchor. Unless, maybe..." he shook his head as if to dispel the thought. "Nevermind. Just focus on beating Orochimaru, then we can figure out what to do about his tag later. For now, I'm heading home."

"Why? You said you were just gonna wait around."

"I'm worn out. Just tell me when you think I should come back."

"How about the next time you get a real day off?" Jiraiya suggested. "We're going to be away from the village for a while, so the timing doesn't matter on our end. But the Sandaime will have your team on call until the negotiations are complete, right? So don't shirk your responsibilities to talk to us."