The Kamui space twisted shut behind Obito's back. Uchiha Sasuke's voice and his team's suspicion still echoed faintly in his ears, but Obito had no time for their doubts. His focus lay elsewhere—on a jinchūriki who had vanished from the shinobi world without a trace.
For weeks, White Zetsu's countless spore clones had combed forests, rivers, and hidden villages across the Land of Fire, Water, Lightning, Wind, and Earth. Yet no trace of the Seven-Tails' host, Fū, had surfaced. It was as if she had been plucked clean out of existence. Not even a stray chakra residue remained. Whoever had hidden her had done so with forethought—forethought that included knowledge of Zetsu's methods. That alone unsettled Obito.
The Eye of the Moon Plan did not allow for surprises.
---
Back on the road, Taka moved under the trees in silence. Jūgo, Suigetsu, and Karin all breathed easier once Obito's space-time vortex closed. His very presence carried an oppressive weight, and the tension between him and Sasuke had nearly ignited into bloodshed.
"Let's go," Sasuke ordered curtly, his Eternal Mangekyō glimmering in the dappled sunlight. "The Eight-Tails escaped once. That won't happen again. We'll hunt him down."
Suigetsu scratched his head, water-sword slung lazily over his shoulder. "Hard to believe anyone slipped past your Sharingan."
Sasuke's expression darkened. The failure gnawed at him more than he admitted. The fact that Killer B had tricked his dojutsu was intolerable. He clenched his hand unconsciously, remembering the sensation of severing only a tentacle.
"Next time," Sasuke muttered, "I'll take his true body. No one escapes me twice."
---
Far away, Obito emerged from his vortex near jagged stone cliffs in the Land of Earth. His single Sharingan swirled, scanning the terrain. According to White Zetsu, Shimura Danzō was skulking here, away from Akatsuki's eyes.
Danzō had severed his ties with the organization once Konoha, Suna, and Kumo united to resist Pain's moves. The old war hawk thought himself clever, moving like a rat through shadows, discarding one hideout after another. He never realized that Zetsu's spores trailed even the faintest trace of his chakra.
When Obito stepped from the distortion, Danzō stiffened. His cane rattled against the stone floor of his cave. He had burned his last Sharingan long ago, and the weight of mortality pressed heavier than he let on.
"It seems you've prepared to flee again," Obito said coldly.
Danzō's visible eye narrowed. "So the Uchiha's ghost has come crawling. What business do you have with me?"
His tone was iron, but beneath it Obito heard the quickened cadence of a man afraid.
"The Seven-Tails' jinchūriki," Obito replied. "Where is she?"
Danzō's fingers tightened around his cane. "I know nothing of it. Taki's elders would blame me for every shadow in the dark if it suited them. Don't waste my time."
Obito's laugh was mirthless. "You expect me to take your word?"
He stepped forward, his Mangekyō whirling. Danzō's instincts screamed. A puff of smoke burst from the floor—a distraction. He turned, body flicker propelling him through the cavern's mouth.
Obito melted into the ground itself, phasing after him.
For minutes, Danzō pushed his aging body to the limit, lungs burning, until the inevitable grip clamped around his heel. He glanced down—Obito's hand had erupted from the earth, chakra solid as iron.
"Damn it—"
Wind Release chakra swirled in his lungs. "Vacuum Sphere!" He spat compressed blasts of air, but Obito's body flickered into intangibility, each strike passing through him harmlessly.
Before Danzō could flee again, a crushing force pulled at his body—Obito's Kamui drawing him toward another dimension. His cane clattered against rock as he strained, chakra flaring, but then Obito's hand closed on his wrist, preventing even a seal.
"Did you truly think I'd give you time to weave jutsu?" Obito's voice cut like a blade. His Mangekyō locked on Danzō's lone eye. "I'll take the truth myself."
The genjutsu crashed into Danzō's mind like a floodgate opening. His will faltered. Obito sifted through layers of ambition, betrayal, and secrets—ROOT's crimes, assassinations ordered in the dark, the massacre of innocents justified by his dream of Hokage's seat.
So much rot coiled in Konoha's foundation.
But on the matter of the Seven-Tails, Danzō's mind rang hollow. He truly knew nothing.
When Obito finally released him, the old man slumped against the stone, gasping. Obito let him live. Death would come at Sasuke's hand. That obsession would serve the Moon's Eye Plan.
---
Back at his base, Obito summoned Black and White Zetsu. White appeared first, his grin unfading even in failure.
"No trace," White Zetsu reported. "We scoured Taki, even their hidden shrines. The elders are frantic. They insist Danzō abducted their jinchūriki."
Black Zetsu's half-voice rasped with unease. "Which means someone else intervened. Someone who anticipated our search… someone who knows how we hunt."
Obito's visible eye narrowed. He disliked admitting it, but Black was right. The absence was too precise. "Whoever hides Fū is not an ordinary shinobi," Obito said. "Even if they remain in the shadows, they cannot escape this world. Keep searching."
"Understood," White Zetsu replied. His spores scattered, vanishing into the earth.
When the cavern fell quiet again, Obito sat heavily in his chair. He tapped the armrest with one gloved hand, deep in thought. An invisible adversary stalked the board. That meant the Eye of the Moon Plan's timeline had to accelerate.
---
White Zetsu delivered the report to Amegakure, where Nagato sat upon his throne-like chair within the tower. Rain sheeted down the windows, casting ripples of gray over Konan's paper blossoms.
"The Seven-Tails has been hidden," Zetsu finished. "We suspect interference from an unknown party."
Konan's lips tightened. "If they can conceal a jinchūriki from us, then they are dangerous."
Nagato's Rinnegan pulsed, endless tomoe spinning. "Then we take the Nine-Tails next."
Konan turned sharply. "Nagato! That's reckless. The Seven-Tails is lost, and the Eight-Tails escaped. To target the strongest bijū now—"
"I will not falter." His voice brooked no doubt. Chakra poured from his frail body, amplified by the White Zetsu prosthetics grafted to him. "The world's order demands it. Only through Pain will they understand peace."
Konan hesitated, then lowered her gaze. "…I trust you, Nagato."
Konoha's Response
Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office, Tsunade slid a scroll across her desk. "This isn't a mission, Naruto. It's a truth you should know. Jiraiya has gone to investigate Akatsuki alone."
Naruto froze. The word alone sliced sharper than any kunai. He had known his master's obsessions ran deep, but to march into enemy territory with full knowledge of their power? It was insanity.
"Baa-chan, you shouldn't have let him," Naruto said tightly. "If Ero-Sennin faces Pain by himself, he'll…" His throat tightened around the rest.
"I tried," Tsunade admitted. Her eyes, shadowed with worry, betrayed how little faith she held in Jiraiya's promise to retreat if things turned dire. "But he could not let go of the boy he once taught. He had to face Nagato."
Naruto clenched his fists. Jiraiya had always been reckless—his pervy antics, his bravado, his laugh. But beneath all that, his heart burned for Konoha. Naruto felt that fire in himself, too, and the thought of it being extinguished tightened something in his chest.
"Then I'll bring him back," Naruto said. His voice held no hesitation.
Tsunade gave a faint smile. She had anticipated those very words when she summoned him.
---
Far to the west, waves lapped against rocky shores. Killer B lounged on a boulder with his fishing pole, humming his endless rhymes.
"Yo, yo, cast the line, feelin' fine, sunshine—"
Inside him, Gyūki rumbled. Bi… your brother worries. We left a tentacle decoy, but Akatsuki will not stop. Return to Kumogakure before you're found.
"Don't sweat it, hachi-bro, I'm the shinobi show, can't catch me, I'll never go low!" B leapt to his feet, twirling his pole like a sword.
Gyūki sighed. His host's irreverence never waned. Yet even he could sense the shift—the world's threads drawing taut, a storm gathering.
And in the distance, the sea itself rippled unnaturally. A pale figure rose slowly from the depths, grinning as water slid from his body.
"Well, well," Kisame Hoshigaki murmured, shark eyes glinting. "The Eight-Tails jinchūriki… just waiting for me. How lucky."
The waves crashed harder against the shore, heralding the hunt's beginning.
---
A/N: Advanced Chapters Have Been Uploaded On My Patreon
Support: patreon.com/Narrator_San