Naruto hugged her parents, for the first time hugging flesh-and-blood and not chakra constructs. It was probably awkward, but Minato hugged her hard.

"I'm proud of you," he whispered in her ear.

She smiled.

"No matter what, I will never leave you," Kushina whispered as she hugged her, pushing more chakra into Naruto. Her own chakra.

Naruto hugged her fiercely.

She hugged Rin, having gotten to know her. "I'm glad to have met you," Naruto said to her. "Keep Kakashi in line, kay?" she smiled at Rin, but it was sad, too. Rin's smile faltered, but it came back and Rin hugged her.

"I'll do what I can," Rin smiled. Naruto leaned in one more time and whispered something to Rin, and Rin went pink before nodding, an embarrassed sort of smile on Rin. Then Naruto turned to Inoichi.

Naruto bowed at Inoichi. "You know, I can see your child in you," she said after a moment, startling him for a minute.

Then she turned to her cute sensei and glomped him again.

"Why?" Kakashi muttered.

"Because you're cute, and I'll never be able to do that again," Naruto replied instantly after letting him go. Saki was hugging Kushina.

Naruto's final goodbye - Obito. She almost didn't say goodbye, but... She knew she had to say it. Because she'd been with her mother all her life; and she'd known what her father had done for her.

She hugged him, and for a long moment didn't let go. She whispered three words in his ears as Minato finished the seal to the Ryuumyaku, to seal it off completely, and she stepped back, her bag on her shoulder.

Her calm aqua eyes met his wide charcoal eyes as she started to glow.

And without any fanfare, she, Neji, and Saki all vanished.

~:~

KONOHA (With Obito and his Team 7)

Minato chuckled at his team. "Settle down, you guys!" He smiled at the new jounin of the team. "Congratulations, Kakashi! I got you something." He gave his student a kunai, one of his best kunai.

"Thank you, sensei," Kakashi said, looking wary of the kunai, but accepting it.

Rin smirked. "It was an idea from N-chan," she giggled, presenting him with an orange book as well as a medical kit. Kakashi stared at the orange book with his eyes wide. His mask had slid down, meaning he was probably gaping like an idiot.

Obito snickered at Kakashi's priceless expression, knowing that when Naruto returned to the land of the living he'd have a lot of blackmail material to throw at Kakashi. Rin giggled with him.

The book was 'Icha Icha Paradise'.

That snicker was cut short as Kakashi tucked it in his bag and turned to him, face inscrutable, palm out.

"I didn't get you anything!" Obito scowled. So what? He'd forgotten. He'd think of something later.

~"~

"You... Can have my Sharingan," Obito said, making Kakashi pause, and Rin gasped. "As your jounin present."

"I don't want it! I want you!" Kakashi cried. "I don't want your eye; I want you alive!" he told Obito, his lone eye starting to water.

"Don't get sentimental on me now," Obito wheezed. "Take my damn eye and read that book with it."

Kakashi actually stopped crying. "HOW CAN YOU JOKE LIKE THAT WHEN YOU'RE DYING IN FRONT OF ME?!"

"TAKE MY DAMN EYE, OR ELSE I'LL PUT YOU IN A GENJUTSU AND MAKE RIN TRANSPLANT IT!" Obito screamed back at him, meaning it and his non-crushed eye welled with tears that Obito furiously blinked away.

Kakashi finally relented, and Kakashi looked at him with that red eye.

"Funny, I can see through it," Obito said quietly. "Protect Rin, Kakashi... Don't let her die." Kakashi's Sharingan cried, almost like both Obito and Kakashi were crying. "Go."

He tugged his hand out of Rin's.

Rin got up. "I'm sorry, Obito!"

"Don't cry, Rin," Obito murmured. "I don't want to see you cry..." His breath quieted, and Kakashi gathered his resolve. Before he left, he heard Obito say, "Let me see out of that eye, Kakashi..."

Kakashi sniffed, wiped his tears, and gathered Rin in his arms.

~:~

NOW (With Obito)

Obito jerked up into a sitting position on his bed in the Akatsuki headquarters. He stared at his ring for a moment, gazing at it. Wondering just why he'd dreamed of his team and -

He paused, going over to his chest of drawers, and rifled through it. He was certain that Sara had made them all take a photo and had sent them through runners before that mission that went awry - yes, there it was.

The photograph was framed. His own Team 7 photo was next to it, but he ignored it for the moment.

Sensei, he thought, staring at the yellow-haired man tugging the two redheads near him. It was obvious that they were family, now that he looked at it - Naruto was beaming, Kushina grinning, and Minato looking more happy than Obito had ever seen him.

Uchiha Saki stood in the photo, looking as eccentric as she could, her Sharingan eyes not visible; Kakashi stood next to her, looking bored of it all; Neji stood next to Naruto with a polite smile on his face.

Obito closed his eyes and thought. What had she said to him? What? WHAT?

He thought back. They were all gathered around the Ryuumyaku, she hugged him -

Three words; none of them having 'love' in them, but there was a v - love, shove - no, there was an o there - forge?

He couldn't remember! Angry, he stalked out into the hallway, putting his mask on and bumping into Deidara.

"Tobi is sorry! Please forgive - motherfucker!"

Obito swirled out of there, noticing Deidara's shocked face.

Well, his entire world was tossed upside down in one night; a memory that Madara had shoved down deep inside of him had finally burst out. Finally.

He swirled into existence in the office of the Mizukage, where said genjutsu'd Kage was defending himself.

"Kai!" he ordered, releasing the genjutsu from the young Kage. "Shit! She's going to kill me!" Normally, he wouldn't be so worried or so damn hysterical, but really, Naruto had forgiven him for leading her parents to their deaths and he needed to say sorry to Kakashi. "Have you come to your senses? Have you? Damn it, answer me!"

He shook the young Kage, who glared at him.

"Yes, now unhand me!"

Obito took his hands off of him.

"...Where am I?" the Mizukage finally demanded. Oh, right. Ruthless murderer. Obito had killed the last Kage and made the current Kage... Kage.

"You're the leader of Kirigakure," Obito informed him. "Because I... Er. MayhavekilledyourpredecessorbecauseIneededabijuuundermycontrol."

"You... Did... What?" the Yondaime Mizukage spat.

"I. May. Have. Killed - do I really need to say it again?! I killed your predecessor because I needed a bijuu under my control so I could capture you for the Akatsuki! I'm so sorry! Um... Stay away from the Akatsuki, because they're after you!" Obito cried, swirling back into his room. He quickly sucked up all his crap into his eye, then took off his cloak and made the ring melt through his body. Then he wrote a note and took his mask off, weighing the pros and cons.

No, he decided. I don't need this anymore.

He let it fall onto the bed, faceup.

Then he swirled into nonexistence just as the Zetsus molded in, not seeing the last of his Kekkei Genkai fade.