Night! Konoha Frontline Command! A masked white-haired boy, Hatake Kakashi, sat alone on a rock, looking up at the upside-down sky dotted with silver stars. His left eye was blocked by a forehead guard that was a gift from Obito before he left, a Sharingan.

If possible, Kakashi would rather argue with Obito for the rest of his life than receive this gift.

Lin sat quietly with her knees hugged, her face buried in them, crying silently.

Minato came to Kakashi and patted the shoulders of his two disciples: "Sorry, I'm late. The special kunai I gave you was not used..."

Life is fragile, just like a dandelion in the wind. Minato has experienced much more than Kakashi. He once witnessed the death of his teammates in front of him. They were his teammates in the graduating class, and they had a deep relationship like brothers. He knew Kakakashi's pain at this moment, which was heartbreaking and beyond the reach of others. He also knew that no matter how much comfort he gave, it would be useless. Kakashi could only rely on himself to get out of the shadow.

Kakashi wiped away the tears from his eyes: "No, Minato-sensei, this has nothing to do with you. I am the captain of Kakashi's class. If I hadn't insisted on my own way and believed in the rules of ninja, Obito would not have died. I killed him. He was trying to save me at that time..."

Kakashi fell into endless regret, complaining about his own incompetence. No matter how Minato persuaded him, his mood could not get better. Having graduated from the Ninja School at the age of five, Kakashi is now twelve years old. He can be called a veteran of the battlefield. He has seen too many separations and deaths, but he can't let go of Obito, especially carrying Obito's gift, which makes him feel deeply guilty.

But no matter how you look at it, it seems like he's gloating... Well, Kakashi wants to hit someone.

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"The ancient kingdom of Loulan on the border of the Kingdom of Wind has discovered a dragon vein dormant in the desert. The dragon vein contains enormous power. Lord Hokage ordered our team to go there and, depending on the situation, destroy the dragon vein directly if necessary. We must not let the other major powers get involved." Zhiwei finished his speech and added in a low voice: "Especially the Kingdom of Wind... They have set their sights on the dragon vein."

The Grass Country is not only a thousand miles away from the Water Country, but there is at least the Fire Country and a vast ocean in between. So the question is, did this group of Kirigakure bring the sealed Three-Tails and risk being discovered by the Konoha ninjas to the Grass Country? Did they come all the way to the Grass Country just to capture Rin and make her the new Jinchūriki?

It's no wonder Minato thought so. There's a saying that goes, "Nothing tastes better than dumplings, and nothing is more fun than that." If you want to be pretty, you have to be filial... In short, Duke's current behavior is very questionable. For this reason, the gossipy young woman Kushina came to Duke's house to give him psychological counseling, telling him that his behavior was shameful and advising him not to hang himself on a crooked tree.

Before his death, the Kirigakure ninja said that the purpose of letting Rin become a Jinchuriki was to infiltrate Konoha and completely destroy the village. There are so many loopholes. Why did they have to come here and catch Rin when they couldn't catch Konoha ninjas anywhere else? Kakashi is not bad, with a handsome face, and he looks like a Hokage! Kirigakure is just too full, or do they have obsessive-compulsive disorder? Please, when Uchiha Madara was trying to trick Obito, could he make up a more complete lie, or is it that Obito's IQ is not worth his effort?

"The ancient kingdom of Loulan..." Duke leaned out from behind Minato, took the mission scroll from Zhiwei's hand and started reading it. His eyes rolled and he said, "Brother Minato, Kakakashi and I will switch shifts, you take him to Loulan!"

"Because he is full of kindness and love for people from the bottom of his heart. Obito loves his companions and the village deeply. When he falls, this love will turn into equal hatred. If you want to manipulate people's hearts, you have to take advantage of the darkness in their hearts. You don't understand." Uchiha Madara looked unfathomable.

"Minato!" Zhiwei appeared under the rock in an instant and shouted in a low voice.

"Obito has been taken away... Why hasn't Madara attacked Rin yet? Could it be that Obito hasn't recovered yet?" Duke was confused, wondering if he was being too hasty.

The Land of Grass! Duke took the map hand-painted by Lin and came to the place where Obito died. What he saw was a barren mountain covered with fallen rocks. Duke was impressed by the power of plot modification and began the civil engineering project like Yugong moving mountains.

Fight him!

Two months passed, Duke never left her side, guarding Lin like a hen protecting her chicks, and locked her up in Konoha Hospital, not letting any strangers get close to her. During this period, Minato came to him for a mission, but he turned it down, which made Minato think that Duke had feelings for Lin.

If you are poor, you should take care of yourself. Duke just needs to protect his own piece of land, and he doesn't care about the lives of others. If you don't have the diamond drill, don't take on porcelain work. It's better to leave the maintenance of world peace to Ultraman! The next day, after seeing off Minato and his party, Duke took Lin straight to Konoha without saying a word. The front line is not safe and war may break out at any time. Duke doesn't want to lose Lin accidentally. After thinking about it, Konoha Village is the safest. At least Madara has to find a reasonable excuse to get Lin out of Konoha Village.

Could it be that Rin has the physique of a one-in-a-million Jinchūriki? Don't be ridiculous, her name is Nohara Rin, not Uzumaki Rin.

Before leaving, Duke secretly attacked Lin at night. Don't get me wrong, he just set a seal on Lin's heart, a protective seal, with no other effect.

Minato motioned for Duke to comfort the two and jumped off the rock and walked over.

…

…

"That's not good!" Minato said awkwardly.

Minato patted Duke's shoulder and spoke earnestly.

Orochimaru's deliberate distance made Duke thoughtful. He exchanged glances with Orochimaru in secret, and left only after the other party nodded slightly. However, a few nights later, a small black snake found Duke, spit out a few scrolls, and turned into white smoke and disappeared.

"Brother Minato, I actually have selfish motives as well." Duke looked extremely distressed, beating his chest and stamping his feet, saying, "Obito is my best friend. I am sadder than anyone else when he dies. So I am going to dig up Obito's body and never let him lie exposed in the wilderness."

"The mission to the ancient kingdom of Loulan is just a way for Kakashi to relax. He is so depressed now that he may not be able to carry out other missions. Besides, without Obito, Kakashi's team is only in name only. It is better to separate them. It will be good for both Lin and Kakashi. It is best for them to separate for a while now." Duke said with a clear understanding: "I will stay and teach Lin medical ninjutsu to help her get out of the shadow as soon as possible."

Obito was sleeping soundly without a care in the world, blowing bubbles from his nose, and even muttering Rin's name in his sleep. How stupid he was.

Two kilometers underground, in a huge underground cave, besides Duke who didn't understand Madara's thoughts, there was another person who didn't understand either.

Think about it, why would the ninjas from the Hidden Mist Village appear in the Land of Grass? This is the battlefield between Iwagakure and Konoha. Is it really okay for the Hidden Mist Village to cause trouble here?

"But..." Minato was wavering. He missed his students and thought Duke's idea was good, but team members couldn't be replaced at will. He hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether he should listen to Duke's advice.

"Oh no, it's bad. Lord Madara, something happened." Another White Zetsu popped up on the stone wall.

Speaking of which, Duke was very contemptuous of Madara's plan to deceive Obito in the original work. It was full of loopholes, so Obito foolishly believed it.

After that, every day was spent in torment. Every day that passed, Duke's irritability was suppressed a little bit. Uchiha Madara didn't take action against Lin for a long time, so he didn't know what the other party was thinking. After a few more days, Duke was almost anxious, so he went to the mission office and accepted a C-level mission in the Land of Grass.

Zhiwei: “…”

"Uh...ah! Senior Brother Minato is right. My heart is almost broken!" Duke blinked, then quickly covered his heart, his face flushed red.

Minato: “…”

During this period, Duke did not break his promise and tried his best to teach Lin medical ninjutsu. He occasionally went to find Orochimaru, but the snake uncle had a very cold attitude recently, ignoring him and not even letting him into the laboratory. Instead, he mingled with some ninjas dressed as Anbu.

"But I'm still not optimistic about his IQ..." White Zetsu scratched his head, thought of something and said, "How about Uchiha Shisui? He also meets your standards, and he's smart, much more reliable than Obito!"

"He is indeed very suitable, and his heart is full of kindness and love, not much worse than Obito, but I don't have much time left..." Madara also felt sorry that he wanted Obito because of Shisui. But he could feel that his time was coming, so he could only settle for the next best thing.

Duke came over quietly and patted Kakashi on the shoulder to comfort him. He was not sad at all knowing that Obito was taking semen from the old man, but in order not to be seen through, he still pretended to be sad.

…

After digging through the pile of rocks, as expected, nothing was found except a pool of dried blood.

Minato was speechless for a long time because of Duke's superb acting skills. He felt that Duke might have lost his friend and his brain was out of control. Thinking of this, he decided to change the environment for Duke to calm down: "Then do as you say, but you have to get out of the shadow as soon as possible!"

Speaking of the ancient kingdom of Loulan, Duke first thought of time travel. He wanted to meet the future leader of the Mingjiao Sect, but he gave up.

Duke thinks he may have discovered the truth! If Obito is so stupid, why did Madara choose him?

Minato and Naruto reunited, father and son met across time and space, that was Minato's family affair, what was his involvement. The most important thing now was Rin, if he protected her well, Obito would not turn evil. As for whether Niban would find another Uchiha to implement his plan in his old age, Duke could not control it.

"Now?" Minato frowned. Obito had just sacrificed himself, and Kakashi and Rin needed his comfort. Minato instinctively refused this mission.

"Madara-sama, why does it have to be Obito? He looks silly and is not an ideal executor of the plan." White Zetsu said jokingly with exaggerated gestures.

But after a few seconds, he put his doubts behind him. Now that he was here, he had to dig out Madara's lair. He remembered that Madara's secret base was near the place where Obito died, underground.

It takes a thousand days to steal, but it takes a thousand days to guard against thieves! Duke decided that instead of waiting for Uchiha Madara to take action, he might as well take the initiative. He was just an old man who was about to die. He had lost his former glory, thin arms and legs, and he would be gone in a blink of an eye. What was there to be afraid of?

"You're so jumpy, so what?" Uchiha Madara said unhappily. The existence of White Zetsu lowered the IQ of the entire Grass Kingdom.

"There's a little girl digging the mountain outside! Ah, she's not a little girl, she just looks like a little girl. She's Obito's good friend, her name is Duke Mitarashi." White Zetsu jumped up and down, imitating the movements of digging sand.

Uchiha Madara had a blank expression on his face, and said coldly, "Then let him dig it, there's nothing to fuss about."

Bai Zetsu blinked, with an expression that said it was none of his business: "But he's digging deeper and deeper, and it's very likely that he'll dig right over our heads. Then there'll be a bang, and we'll be exposed, and the Outer Path Statue will also be seen."

(End of this chapter)