"You should have noticed it, right? The curse seal on the heart. You can guess that it was Uchiha Madara who did it, so you should know what arrangements he would make."
Uchiha Yun spoke casually as he lifted a drifting leaf with two fingers. A soft breeze stirred the space, and in the stillness, he focused a thread of wind-natured chakra through his fingers. The leaf split cleanly in two, bisected with surgical precision. A minor display, yet one that emphasized the sharpness of his words just moments earlier.
This place—so removed from time and space—was rarely accessible, appearing only for the duration of a transaction. Yet Yun couldn't help but feel its spiritual resonance. If only it could be entered freely... it would be a perfect site for meditation, for training... for solitude.
Obito remained silent beside him, absorbing the implications of what Yun had said.
Yun's voice continued, breaking the silence once more. "The curse seal embedded in the puppet's body restricts your autonomy. For instance—removing it forcibly... or committing suicide. That option, too, is off the table."
A beat.
He let the thought linger in the air before adding, coldly, "Come to think of it, you can't even control your own life and death anymore. You're really... pathetic and hateful."
Obito raised a hand, dismissing Yun's commentary like an irritating buzz. "I don't need your evaluation. The only thing I want is the content of the contract—the method to remove this curse!"
Yun gave a soft sigh, shaking his head in faint amusement. "Sometimes I think that Konoha's Second Hokage wasn't entirely wrong. Because of how the Sharingan awakens, the Uchiha are indeed susceptible to mental instability."
His words cut deep, but his tone remained neutral.
"The method to remove the curse is very simple: bet your life." Yun said, turning to look Obito in the eye. "Although the curse restrains your own actions, it doesn't restrain the actions of others."
He shifted his gaze briefly to the stone tablet nearby—the memorial for Nohara Rin.
"So tell me... is there anyone left in this world whom you can still trust?"
Those words struck like a kunai.
Obito's eyes reflexively turned to the memorial. The silence that followed was not of indecision, but of reflection. Yun's question wasn't rhetorical—it was devastating.
'Anyone I can trust...?'
Could he really open his heart again? Let someone else close enough to tamper with the core of his being—his heart? Could he afford that vulnerability?
'Zetsu? That thing is just Madara's mouthpiece. The embodiment of lunacy and manipulation.'
'Nagato? Konan?'
He shook his head inwardly. 'I dragged them into hell with me. I can't trust anyone. Even during the previous battle with Uzumaki Sora... wasn't I prepared to kill them all, just in case?'
His eyes dropped to the memorial once more. Rin...
'After I fell into darkness, Minato-sensei and Kakashi became enemies. Rin... you're gone too.'
'So now what? Who's left? Who can I rely on?'
Yun's voice interrupted the spiraling thoughts. "How pathetic... I've always believed humans are social creatures. You? You're just diseased. Burying yourself underground and viewing the world as a pit of hell—that's not perspective. That's rot."
Yun wasn't wrong. No one could dwell in isolation indefinitely. Not without breaking.
He had seen them all—Pain proclaiming himself a god, desperate to impose meaning through shared suffering. Obito dreaming of an illusionary world where pain couldn't reach. Madara plotting salvation through eternal sleep, dragging everyone into his Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Even Danzo, that miserable worm, believed he could unify the entire shinobi world simply by wearing the Hokage hat. A delusional old man.
Insanity clung to them all, born from solitude.
And yet, in the silence, Yun posed another question.
"So now that you know the method, what are you going to do?"
Obito turned his head away from Rin's memorial and glared at Yun. "It doesn't matter. There's no one I can trust. Everyone I valued is either gone or has become my enemy. So what?"
He took a breath, voice cold and steady.
"It's just a gamble with my life. The old man's only concern is that I'll deviate from his script. Let him worry. When he crawls out, I'll make him understand the consequences."
Yun gave a small smile. "That old man was strong in his prime. He and Hashirama were called the Twin Heroes of the Ninja World. One of the strongest shinobi alive during their time."
A pause.
"Speaking of which... something has been bothering me. The location where Nohara Rin died—it wasn't anywhere near Konoha, right? So how did her body return to the village?"
Obito's lip curled. "What, are you offering me chips now?"
Yun scratched the back of his neck in slight embarrassment. Even so, Madara's mediums—his original body, and Madara's eyes—Nagato was probably under surveillance now. All that was left was the dead.
"You've always believed that Konoha was Rin's rightful resting place, haven't you?" Yun said, eyes narrowed. "If you took her body elsewhere, wouldn't that dishonor her? She's in the Pure Land now—she wouldn't be happy with that."
Obito's voice dropped low, his eyes shadowed. "Uzumaki Sora... next time we meet, I will kill you."
Yun exhaled slowly, then grinned and spread his arms. "That depends on whether you have what it takes. If you stay like this, I'll be the one to kill you."
Silence settled once more.
A shift in the air.
The space trembled faintly.
The deal was over.
…
In the dimly lit cavern, Uchiha Obito stirred back to consciousness. His body shivered slightly as the artificial space unraveled around him.
He blinked and looked to his side. "Zetsu... Have I been here this whole time?"
White Zetsu bobbed its head. "Yup! You've just been sitting there like always. Why, what happened? Did you sneak off to take a dump without telling me?"
Then he started to shout, "Obito! You actually took a shit and didn't call me?! I wanted to smell what the shit smelled like!"
Obito ignored the idiotic rambling, peeling away the bandages covering his right arm—crafted from Hashirama's cells. Slowly, an eye opened in the flesh, glistening with suppressed power. The three tomoe rotated, and then joined—forming the shape of the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Fugaku's Mangekyō...
'Is this the truth behind Rin's death?'
'Let's see how deep this goes.'
Pupil power surged from the eye, enough to make Obito—whose body had been enhanced with the First Hokage's cells—feel drained.
*Zzznnn...*
The eye spun faster and faster. Scenes began to flash before his inner vision, blurring past too quickly to discern.
Then, a moment of clarity.
…
Inside the Kamui space, Madara stood—one eye glowing coldly.
But before him...
A hand clutched Madara's arm.
And that hand belonged to—Obito himself!?
The vision echoed:
"I implanted a curse seal in both of your bodies. That's why you can't even die by your own hand. You're all my pawns."
"Both?"
"Yes, both of you fools. It doesn't matter how many lifetimes pass—cause and effect align again and again. To think you used exactly the same method to erase it. How amusing!"
"Rin?!"
"Yes. It was my plan. I had made the plan to let her be the Three-Tails' Jinchūriki and set her loose on Konoha. The failure of that plan was also a part of my plan. Everything went perfectly."
…
The vision ended. But Obito's body trembled.
His fists clenched.
'Madara...'
It was all Madara.
The curse seal. Rin's death. Everything.
'How could I be this stupid?'
A dry, hollow laugh escaped his lips.
Just like with Nagato, Madara had manipulated him—manufactured his despair with surgical precision.
To push someone into true darkness... you just had to make them lose the one person they held most dear.
It wasn't fate. It wasn't coincidence.
It was design.
Every step.
All of it—
'Madara!!!'
*****
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