"Shimura Danzō, the eminence in shadow…" Madara said smoothly as he dropped lightly into Danzō's path, just as he and his retinue started across Root Hideout's central four-way bridge. "I've always wanted to exchange a few words with the secret architect behind the plot to annihilate the Uchiha clan…"
Just as Madara had predicted, Danzō had returned to the Hidden Leaf Village in its hour of need, intending to take advantage of the Sixth Hokage's coma to return not as a missing-nin, but as a saviour. He had come to the ruins of his old haunt to meet his old comrade-in-arms, Mitokado Homura, but unfortunately for him, it was not Homura who awaited him there.
It was Uchiha Madara himself... the real one.
"…if you're expecting me to beg for my life, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you down," Danzō said coolly. "I regret nothing… if I had to order the deaths of your clan members again, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
"You're barking up the wrong tree, Danzō," Obito called from the darkness. "That man does not care one whit whether the Uchiha live or die… the only thing that is Uchiha about him is his pride."
Startled, Danzō and his men whirled about, searching for the source of the disembodied voice, and they quickly found it came from behind them. Obito was blocking the secret entrance through which they had entered, leaving Danzō and his men sandwiched between the two Uchiha.
"You were right to fear and envy the Uchiha, but you made one crucial mistake," Madara said with a laugh. "When you ordered their execution... you should have seen the job completely through!"
Would if he could.
Danzō naturally would have gladly finished off the clan of evil had he been given the chance, but Itachi was too strong to contain, and after the fiasco of the Uchiha Massacre, Hiruzen watched him like a hawk, denying him any opportunity to eliminate Itachi's little brother, Sasuke. And just as he had always feared, the Uchiha's power had once again upset the balance of the world and driven the Hidden Leaf towards ruin...
"Your arm... it's covered in Sharingan..." Madara said slowly, his gaze settling on Danzō's bandaged limb. "Being the first to dose myself with Hashirama cells, I'm undoubtedly the last person in a position to judge, but..."
Somehow, Madara had managed to see through the many layers of seals covering Danzō's eye-riddled arm. He couldn't afford to let him uncover any more of his secrets, or his advantages in the upcoming fight would be stripped away one after the other until they were all laid bare!
"NOW!" Danzō roared.
Twin detonations shook the enclosed space of the Four Bridges Chamber as two of Danzō's subordinates threw smoke bombs at their feet, filling the area with thick grey smoke. The Sharingan couldn't see through dense smoke, and neither could the Rinnegan, he had learned that from reports of Team 7's fight with Pain. Throwing up a smoke screen was the best way to gain an immediate advantage.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Gravity seemed to rotate ninety degrees, and all of a sudden, Danzō found himself falling sideways along the ground, pulled by some invisible, inexorable force. As he burst out of the smoke cloud, he found that none of his subordinates had been caught. The enemy's jutsu had singled him out with great prejudice, dragging him out alone despite the smokescreen!
Madara caught him by the throat and squeezed, snapping his neck. And thus, Danzō died a pitiful death at the hands of the legendary Uchiha Madara… not!
"I can see you behind me," Madara said calmly without even bothering to turn and face him. "Using the Izanagi to escape my genjutsu, eh? For one so opposed to the existence of the Uchiha, you do seem rather interested in our techniques..."
Danzō inwardly cursed as he realised he had wasted one of his precious revival opportunities on a mere genjutsu... and not even one based on the vaunted Saimingan Eye of Hypnotism, but an ordinary Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Jutsu! The cold grip of death had felt so real that, for one foolish instant, he had completely forgotten there was no way Madara would actually kill him, seeing as he was the One-Tail Jinchūriki. After all, the Tailed Beasts were apparently absolutely crucial to the Akatsuki's plans!
"You can see through smoke and even behind yourself," Danzō said frostily, playing it cool and brushing an imaginary piece of lint from his clothes. "To think the great Uchiha Madara would resort to stealing a pair of Byakugan… I assume you took them from that waste Orochimaru?"
Danzō had guessed correctly, and now that the gig was up…
"Obito, would you mind doing the honours, seeing as you're still using one Sharingan?" Madara called. "Izanami should put a swift end to this little farce…"
Izanagi was a genjutsu powerful enough to fool the world itself, pulling imaginary outcomes from the Spiritual Plane and manifesting them into reality to undo events that had occurred in the Physical Plane... but there was no such thing as an invincible jutsu, only invincible shinobi.
Izanami existed specifically to counter Izanagi; if an Uchiha clan member sacrificed one of their eyes to obtain a desired outcome, then another could sacrifice one in return to impose a loop upon the Spiritual Plane and force their opponent to accept reality and see the error of their ways.
"Not a chance, old man," Obito replied over the buzzing of Kikaichū. "Besides, I'm a little busy on my end as well…"
Torune had unleashed his Rinkaichū, his nano-sized venomous beetles, forcing Obito to slip into his Kamui dimension to avoid being infected; in this enclosed space, these bugs were far deadlier than they would be outside.
The five-minute countdown until Obito was forced out had started. If it was just Torune, he would easily be able to take care of him, but not with six or seven Root shinobi constantly taking swings at him…
"Those beetles are troublesome," Obito muttered to himself. "If I'm prepared to lose a limb, I should be able to briefly make contact with that Aburame's body using my Zetsu half, provided I discard it immediately afterwards, but I'd rather not do that if I can help it..."
Sword slashes and stabs slipped through his body as the Root operatives relentlessly continued their assault, but Obito still had four and a half minutes to go, he only needed to wait for an opportunity to strike… and thirty-five seconds later, he found it.
Whenever one of his comrades went in to attack, Torune would briefly part his cloud of nano-sized beetles to allow them to strike before closing it around his target again almost immediately, in order to avoid friendly fire.
In a flash, Obito turned tangible again as one of the faceless shinobi rushed to attack him. Without warning, sharp, spear-like wooden branches burst from his skin, upon which his unsuspecting assailant impaled himself.
Seizing the dying man by the neck, Obito tossed him straight into the incoming cloud of beetles. The instant he made contact with the microscopic insects, the Root operative's skin turned purple, and the next instant, he was dead… and at this close range, Obito didn't need black receivers to manipulate the corpse like a puppet.
"This is the power of the Outer Path!" Obito declared, imbuing his chakra into the corpse. "Now, return to the world of the living!"
Naturally, after going to such lengths to get the Root shinobi killed, Obito was not using the Samsara of Heavenly Life Jutsu to undo all his hard work… no, this process was part of the creation of a corpse puppet… one infused with deadly toxins that could kill with the merest touch!