Walking among corpses of the people that had once been his fellow ninjas, Obito was following Madara, with the great Ten-Tailed just behind, under his orders. It was time he started their big plan.

The Ten-Tailed was whole and powerful. The Moon was up. Madara was starting the seals. Everything would be over soon. Beginning, actually. This was the beginning of a new, better era, not an end.

The Ten-Tails started losing its actual form, transforming into pure energy, flying into the air and revolving around Madara in a thick circle of red light. Obito was now only watching, counting silently down, waiting for the right things to happen. He was following the spinning of the Tails' energy absently.

Bang! A blue ball smashed the ceremonial statue from behind, destroying Madara's concentration. Both his and Obito's attention were caught by the blonde boy they had thought dead, falling breathlessly to the ground just now. He had gotten up for one last shot. Unfortunately, that shot had been enough to destroy everything. Madara was rushing to the statue, trying to save it, but it was useless. It was crumbling down.

"He was YOURS to finish," Obito shouted at him, seeing all his hard work falling now to pieces.

The Tails' energy got lost in the open air. Obito knew what could that mean. The power was uncontrollably going to destroy that world. He cursed, kicking the lifeless now body of that damn Nine-Tailed container's, who'd fallen on his face. The hit turned the body around. Obito flinched, jumping back. The boy had died with eyes open. Seeing them Obito could swear, in the first moment, there were his old sensei's eyes, looking into his soul.

Calming himself, he looked around for Madara. But Madara was no longer there. Actually, no one was longer there. Actually, nothing was longer there. There was no Madara, no corpse, no tree, no rock and no earth. What was going on? The only thing he could spot in the open space was energy, Tails' energy flying freely around. What was it doing? Where was he? Where was... the world?

It was all a void and he felt he was falling asleep on his feet. It went dark and silent and for a while, he couldn't hear a thing. And when he did hear and see once more, he couldn't believe his ears and only eye, before it to be carefully taken out by a crying Rin. Little by little he sank that in. He recognized the moment too well. As if he could ever forget that day - the day he had officially died.

How the Ten-Tailed made it possible he didn't know, but he wouldn't think of that for the moment. Cold-blooded, unlike the very exact moment, eighteen years ago for him, for his mind. When the moment came, he spoke those words he remembered too well, once more, "Take care of Rin," hoping the bitterness and irony wouldn't be sensed in his voice. When the affirmative answer came, he grimaced, going really well how false the promise would be. The rocks fell around him and he fell unconscious, knowing really well what's going to come next...

When Madara first showed up this time, he didn't act like the clueless, silly way he had acted back then. Speaking in a voice too hollow to belong to the twelve year old he was again, this time he said, "I know who you are, what your plans are and, at a point in the future, I followed it. But now, I don't know anymore..." The old man was confused, but he had other things to think about now.

He knew now the mistakes he had done while following the plans. He knew what he should prevent and how. But also...

What to build an imaginary place for, a world unreal, when she was there again, licing for real once again. And he knew everything there was going to be and how and when to save her. Because he could save her. He could screw all plans of grandeour and perfection and save her for real.

He only had the time to glance at her once, yet it affected him enormously. It affected everything he had believed in for all those years, everything he had fought for. Alive. She was alive. His clan was alive. His sensei was alive. Everything that had once meant anything to him was here again, waiting outside of those stones. If he could, he would have jumped from that bed, he would have went out there to convice himself of whatever he felt, find out what he had to do now. He knew the year, month, day and even hour of the events that would happen eighteen, long eighteen years from now. Did he want to change anything? Were there things he wanted to be part of? Were there things he didn't want to be part of anymore?

But there was one thing he knew for sure. She would live. No matter what. He didn't care what would happen to Kakashi, to the Leaf, to a whole world. But she would live. For now, that was his only promise for the future to come.

A/N: Yes, this is a second Rin/Obito story started. Why? Because I wanted to analyze two different Obitos. This Obito, who saw Rin die and lived for revenge for al those years and one other Obito, in the other story, who didn't deal with all this. Of course, their lives will develop differently. The thing that is constant for both? Rin is there as part of any decision they make.