A/N: Just read 651, and this happened. While I can't say for sure if this was indeed what the images Obito saw actually meant, that it was what would have happened if he'd not allowed his grief over Rin to twist and consume him, I do think that it was perhaps a very strong possibility. Whether or not he regretted it is something we can only imagine.

Dialogue in italics are quotes from chapter.

Warning: Character death


As the Susanoo and Nunoboko swords clash, one by one, images appear in front of Obito's eyes:

He and Kakashi, standing in front of Rin's grave, both youths grieving for a comrade who died to protect them all...

His classmates and friends standing around him offering support...

Once more gazing at the Hokage monument, picturing his own image there, only now with a new outlook...

Standing alongside his friends and now comrades, defending Konoha from any threat...

Himself as Hokage, his image now on the monument...

He watches these images and is stunned by them. "Why am I seeing these images now?" Why now, at the moment of his greatest triumph, the moment when the future he and Madara witnessed is about to come to fruition? He doesn't understand, just as even now, he still cannot understand why they fight so hard to prevent it from occurring. Or why he is failing.

As if from a distance, he once more hears Kakashi: "The thing everyone realizes sooner of later, is that whatever void they carry in their hearts can be filled by the people around them...And those whose hearts are filled by their friends...Can overcome any obstacle!"

No...No, he can't allow himself to doubt now, not at the moment of his triumph...

But as he focuses on the battle once more, he sees the determined gaze of the youth in front of him, his sensei's son, who kept fighting no matter what he and Madara threw at him, who refused to bend to their will in spite of overwhelming odds.

Seeing his determined expression, Obito finally understands the images...And Kakashi's words...He finally sees...

For a brief moment, he wishes he could go back, could change his actions. If only he had stepped forward to reveal himself, to take Rin's body home instead of massacring those Kiri shinobi; perhaps this vision he sees now would have come to pass, a true utopia. If only he hadn't listened to Madara or let his grief consume him. But it is too late; far too late...

With a final crack, Nunoboko breaks completely, and Susanoo strikes home.

For a brief moment, the images of what could have been again play across his vision.

Then he sees nothing more.