Mountain Graveyard.
"Rin… Rin… Kakashi… Kakashi…"
Obito muttered, repeating Nohara Rin's and Kakashi's names over and over.
Uchiha Madara sat in a chair woven from twisting branches, those scarlet eyes calmly watching him.
For some time now, Obito had been mumbling those two names.
Rather than finding it annoying, Madara only grew more pleased.
It proved the "bonds" between Obito and them were deep enough.
Only bonds that deep, when shattered, could produce the maximum effect.
"The sealing talisman has been fully planted," Madara thought as he looked at the slowly awakening Obito.
The fusion between Obito and Hashirama's cells had gone smoothly. After a bout of high fever, the boy was no longer in that dull, unconscious state.
Madara had also embedded a special binding seal into Obito's heart—just in case Obito tried to stray from the plan.
"…Where is this…?"
Obito's eyelids twitched and slowly opened.
He stared blankly at the dim underground chamber. There wasn't much light; it was impossible to tell if it was day or night outside.
"This is the gap between life and death… Uchiha child," Madara said as he looked at him.
"!"
Obito jolted.
He suddenly realized there was a decrepit old man staring at him.
A cold chill ran down his body. He glanced down and saw he wasn't wearing any clothes at all—just bandages wrapped around him.
"It hurts…"
He frowned.
A sharp pain was coming from the right half of his body and everything below.
"If you can feel pain, it means you're still alive."
"You fell into the underground passage I dug—right at the side of the collapsing rocks…" Madara began explaining his situation.
"So it was you who saved me, old man… Thank you," Obito said.
After Madara's explanation, he finally understood what had happened.
"It's too early to thank me. You'll be paying that debt back properly," Madara replied, meaningfully.
All gifts of "fate" come with the price marked in invisible ink.
"No way, old man. You might look pretty old, but at most I can help you clean up after yourself for a few days—I have to get back and protect my comrades," Obito said.
He'd often taken care of the elderly and knew some of them lost control near the end, so he offered with genuine kindness.
"…"
For a moment, Madara didn't know what to say.
"With that body, you'll never… return to the way things were. Accept reality," he said lightly.
"That's not right. I finally awakened my Sharingan—how could I not go back?" Obito protested.
He was only missing an arm… unless something else was gone too?
"This world will never bend to your wishes. The longer you live, the more you'll understand how reality is filled with nothing but helplessness, pain… and emptiness," Madara said.
As he spoke, images flashed through his mind.
Hashirama had promised him the Hokage seat; they'd even dreamed together about governing Konoha. Yet in the end, it was Tobirama who became Hokage under the banner of "democratic selection."
He'd chosen to leave Konoha, and not a single clansman followed.
"Heh…"
Madara shook his head.
Back then, when they were choosing Hokage, that "naturally evil" Senju old fox had jumped out saying the role needed "the people's will" and had to be elected.
But from the intelligence he'd gotten via Zetsu, Madara knew the current Third Hokage, Hiruzen, was handpicked by Tobirama.
As for "the people," "democracy"?
Tobirama hadn't even bothered with a symbolic vote from a handful of bodyguards—he simply ordered Hiruzen to succeed him.
Too many disappointments had shown Madara the truth of this world.
What is this old man even talking about… Obito thought, face full of "I don't get a word of this."
"Listen well. Wherever there is light, there will be shadow. If a world has winners, then it must also have losers.
"If you want to protect love, hatred will inevitably be born. They are bound together by an unbreakable chain of cause and effect…"
"So where is this place?" Obito cut in, feeling sure this old geezer had been hurt badly in the past. He wouldn't stop rambling, and Obito had no desire to sit through a full lecture.
"Hmph. It's a gap. You can leave if you like… provided you can walk out," Madara said with a sidelong glance.
He understood this brat's IQ wasn't high enough to grasp his meaning in one go.
"Wait…"
Obito suddenly realized something.
Thinking back, he'd met all kinds of Uchiha elders—but he'd never seen this guy.
He had a Sharingan, yet Obito had never seen him in Konoha…
"Old man, you're… a rogue-nin, aren't you?" Obito said.
He'd found a contradiction.
"Who are you really?" he demanded.
Madara didn't answer immediately. He leaned on his scythe and slowly sat back down.
"I am the vengeful spirit of the Uchiha… Uchiha Madara," his voice echoed along the tunnel.
"You mean… the Uchiha clan head?" Obito's eyes went wide.
He'd heard that name—Uchiha's greatest traitor, the taboo no one dared speak aloud.
At best, they referred to him vaguely as "that man."
"Even if you are Uchiha, once you betray the village, I'll still beat you down all the same!" Obito snarled.
The village had only one policy for dealing with rogues:
Kill.
"Why did you save me? What do you want?" he shouted.
"I will sever the chains of cause and effect in this world," Madara said, finally voicing his true goal.
"A world with only winners. A world with only peace. A world with only love. I will create that world."
"I don't care what you sever. I just want to go back to the village—to my comrades!" Obito snapped.
Rin was definitely still waiting for him.
And Kakashi, his grandma, Minato-sensei, Kushina-neechan…
If he didn't hurry back, who knew what that jerk Kiyohara might try with Rin!
"Do you remember what I said? You can't go back. Things will not always go as you wish," Madara said, the corner of his mouth lifting in the faintest smile.
Obito was his best piece.
You'd better withstand what comes next, Madara thought.
Because… Obito, I'll make you feel pain—deep, searing pain—until you finally see this world's darkness.
We'll start with that little girl. Let's see how she's taken from your side.
Reality… is just that cruel.
...
"Kiyohara, we've got a new mission,"
One day, as Kiyohara was training at home and waiting—half hopeful, half anxious—for the next Willbook to appear, Kurenai showed up at his door.
"Oh, Kurenai. What's the mission?" Kiyohara asked, shirtless and breathing hard from practice.
~~~
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