Naruto: Puppet Master Undercover in Konoha

Obito was feeling deeply conflicted.

Although this statue was the best he had ever made, there's no pain quite like comparison. Without Shindai's sculpture for contrast, Obito might have truly believed his own creation looked great.

Unfortunately, Obito had carved his statue by copying Shindai's work.

When directly compared, even with poor judgment, Obito could see that his version wasn't as good.

After walking together for a while, Rin Nohara asked curiously, "Obito, so what did you want to talk to me about?"

Obito shuddered inwardly—here it comes. He stopped in his tracks and gathered his courage. "Rin… I-I have something I want to give you."

"Give me?" Rin Nohara asked puzzled.

Obito scratched his head awkwardly. "You know, we missed your birthday because of what happened with Kushina. So today, I wanted to give you a belated birthday present."

"Oh right!" Rin Nohara suddenly understood, smiling. "I'd actually forgotten about that already."

Taking a deep breath, Obito handed over the statue. "Rin, this is my gift for you! I hope you'll like it!"

Looking at the statue in Obito's hands, Rin gasped in surprise. "Wow, this is such a beautiful carving!"

Forcing a smile, Obito replied, "Heh, really? I'm glad you like it."

In the end, Obito didn't have the courage to give her the statue he personally carved. Instead, he secretly switched it out and gave Rin the one Shindai originally sculpted.

Sighing quietly inside, Obito realized just how much Rin truly appreciated this statue. If he had given her his inferior work, she wouldn't have reacted this excitedly.

"But Obito… don't you think you mixed them up?"

Hearing Rin's words, Obito froze. "What do you mean?"

Rin turned the base of the statue toward him. "Because it says here 'Obito big dummy, shame on you!' I don't think you'd talk about yourself like that, right?"

Obito's face twisted like he had just bitten into something foul.

Could Shindai read his mind or something?

"Achoo!"

At home conducting research, Shindai sneezed violently.

Rubbing his nose, Shindai muttered grumpily, "I wonder how things went with that guy Obito. Hmph! If he dares to give Rin my sculpture, he'll live to regret it! …Though why am I getting so worked up over someone else's love life anyway? I should focus on finishing my Kannazuki design first."

With that, Shindai dove back into his research wholeheartedly.

Right now, Obito felt extremely embarrassed, unsure how to explain anything to Rin.

After all, he had already given her Shindai's statue. If he offered his own next, the truth would inevitably come out.

Surely Rin would figure out that he must have found his own work unacceptable and ended up giving her someone else's instead.

"I, I..."

Before Obito could say he had grabbed the wrong present, Rin Nohara suddenly took a step to his left and looked at his left hand, which he had kept hidden behind his back.

"Obito, the statue you want to give me is in your left hand, isn't it?"

Obito started breaking into a cold sweat. He hadn't expected Rin to have figured it out already.

What could he possibly do now?

Seeing how eagerly Rin was watching, Obito felt really embarrassed about showing her.

With no way out now, Obito finally gave up and pulled out from his left hand the self-made statue he had been holding onto all along.

With his head bowed in embarrassment, Obito mumbled an apology, "Sorry, Rin... Actually, the one you're holding was made by Shindai. I really wanted to carve a more beautiful statue than Shindai's as a birthday gift for you, but I'm just too clumsy. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make it look right. This one's terrible—just forget it; I'll give you something else instead."

Just as Obito was about to pull his hand away, Rin suddenly caught his hand and took the rather abstract statue from him.

Looking straight into Obito's eyes, Rin said seriously, "Why are you apologizing? It's a gift from you—why would you replace it with something else? Sure, yours might not be as pretty as Shindai's, but I actually find yours more interesting. Compared to Shindai's, I like yours better.

"Obito, don't compare your weaknesses to others' strengths. You're really great, you know. And besides, I don't think Shindai's very first carving was any better than yours. Yours looks just fine to me."

Obito stared blankly at Rin, suddenly feeling his heart race.

Ah-choo! Ah-choo!

Furiously rubbing his nose, Shindai looked down at the scattered iron sand on the table—all because of that stupid sneeze. He grumbled, "What's going on? Who's badmouthing me? Whatever—it must be Obito!"

Snapping out of his daze, Obito quickly lowered his head, his face turning red like a monkey's butt.

"R-Really? If you like it, then that's all that matters."

"Obito, hold these two statues for me. Leave your left hand free, okay?"

"Huh? Oh."

Still confused, Obito used his right hand to carefully hold both statues together.

Then Rin reached out and took Obito's left hand into her own.

Obito shivered slightly as if struck by lightning, his heart instantly fluttering with joy.

Rin actually took his hand on her own! Was this a dream?

"Obito, be careful when carving next time. Look at all these wounds on your left hand—you didn't even treat them properly. Wait just a moment; I'll fix you up right away."

From his ninja tool pouch, Obito pulled out some ointment for external wounds and carefully applied it to the cuts on his left hand.

Obito felt a bit disappointed. So she didn't want to hold his hand after all.

But soon, this little disappointment vanished completely.

Isn't this considered holding hands already?

In Obito's opinion, this definitely counted as holding hands!

After Rin Nohara finished applying the ointment to Obito's wound and bandaged it,

"Alright, give it here."

Obito handed over the statue he had carved himself to Rin Nohara, but not the one Shindai made.

"Yeah."

Rin nodded slightly, since that particular statue wasn't meant as a gift for her anyway.

Looking at the statue Shindai sculpted, especially the words engraved at the bottom – 'Obito big dummy, shame on you' – Obito gave a slight frown.

"Take that!"

Obito immediately threw Shindai's statue off into the distance.

After getting rid of it, Obito felt refreshed and cheerful. Smiling brightly at Rin Nohara, he said, "Rin, I'll walk you home."

Rin cast a complicated glance toward the direction where Obito had thrown the statue, secretly hoping no one would get hit. If someone did get struck by it, seeing it was her statue, they might mistake her as the one who threw it.

"Ouch! Who the hell threw something?!"

Granny Tsuchimura, whom Obito often helped, ended up falling flat on her butt. The statue hadn't actually hit her, landing instead just in front of her feet, but she got scared enough to tumble down.

At that moment, Kakashi arrived and helped Granny Tsuchimura to her feet, asking, "Are you alright, Granny Tsuchimura?"

"I almost got hurt! Some irresponsible person was throwing things around like that."

Kakashi looked toward the ground ahead and saw Rin's statue there. His expression instantly became extremely strange.

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