"Orochimaru, long time no see."
A familiar voice sounded behind him. Even without turning around, Orochimaru knew exactly who it was.
"I didn't expect you to be here too, Hiruko."
The voice that had been so full of praise for Orochimaru belonged to Hiruko, someone he hadn't seen in over a year.
"Logically speaking, you've already achieved your Perfect Form. Why would someone like you serve these so-called nobles?" Orochimaru didn't quite understand Hiruko's purpose here. From what he knew of the man, Hiruko should be pursuing freedom, doing as he pleased.
"Logically speaking, no one could stop you from doing whatever you wanted."
"After you left that day, I ran into the Company's people again. I thought I was already strong enough, perfect enough, but it was only then that I realized how insignificant I was."
A person who confines himself to his own small world only sees what's right in front of him. He forgets the saying: there is always someone better, and there are always worlds beyond this one.
Hiruko didn't answer Orochimaru directly. He said those words instead.
"Oh? The Company? You mean that famous Shipping Company? I've met Hattori once before." Orochimaru's interest was evident. "If he was able to impress you, he must be very powerful."
"It's not about being powerful or not! It's... it's that rare kind of... a very special being."
Hiruko tried to describe the person he'd met, but after organizing his thoughts for a long moment, he gave up. "No matter how I try to describe it, it's not as good as you meeting him yourself."
Orochimaru replied casually, "If I get the chance, I'd like to meet him too."
"You will. You definitely will. As long as you want to meet him, you will."
Under Orochimaru's puzzled gaze, Hiruko continued, "The Company's people are everywhere. Maybe even right beside you and me."
In one of the rooms of this fortress.
"Asuma, I am disappointed in you."
The young man who had been sitting in the middle spoke slowly to Asuma Sarutobi, the former Konoha Elite Jonin.
Hearing this, a deep flush crept up Asuma's stubbled cheeks.
"I'm sorry for disappointing you. I hope there won't be a next time."
The young man didn't reproach him further. Instead, he said sternly, "There is no 'failure' in my dictionary."
"Don't forget, you are one of my Twelve Guardian Ninja. You are the key to my successfully reclaiming the Daimyo seat."
Upon hearing this, Asuma said excitedly, "I swear to support you, my lord, until you become the new Daimyo of the Land of Fire."
"We'll make those who stole the position of Daimyo and Hokage pay."
"What kind of Konoha Elite are these? Is this all they've got? Have Konoha ninja fallen this low?" After Asuma left, the young man said just that.
"And he's even a direct descendant of Sasuke of the Sarutobi Clan. At this level, he can't even compare to his ancestor." The young man's tone dripped with disdain for Asuma.
"Precisely because he's so useless, he managed to escape disaster." Another voice came from the dim room that had originally held only the young man.
Black Zetsu poked his head out, glanced around, and chuckled as he emerged from the ground.
"After all, the entire Sarutobi Clan has been decimated. There are only a handful left. And they were a ninja clan that survived since the Warring States Period."
"So what?" The young man cut Black Zetsu off roughly. "Our mighty Uchiha Clan is down to just a few cats and dogs too, aren't we? Hiding away somewhere, barely surviving."
Due to the secrecy of the Konoha Crush and the Uchiha Clan's infrequent involvement, Black Zetsu had no idea that the Root ninja had long since been replaced by Uchiha.
"The Konoha today isn't the Konoha you remember, Madara." As space twisted around them, Obito appeared in the room.
"Konoha has become his personal playground. His ambitions aren't satisfied with just a single village. He's probably aiming to become the Daimyo of the Land of Fire. If Nagato's sudden rise hadn't thrown off his plans, I think he would have started the Fourth Great Ninja War."
"But there's one thing I can't figure out. Why did he help restore the Land of Whirlpools? Why go to all that trouble to imprison the Daimyo's bloodline in the name of the Land of Whirlpools?"
That's right. This young man was Madara Uchiha, or more accurately, an incomplete Madara.
Madara hadn't been revived. He was currently in a state of Edo Tensei, but a special one, similar to Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation. So he was incomplete Madara
The reason he was here was because he now represented the Daimyo Faction of the Land of Fire.
Except this Daimyo Faction had no real Daimyo, but it did have the Daimyo's child.
Madara's current identity was the illegitimate son of the former Daimyo. He was also the person in the Land of Fire most qualified to be the Daimyo Heir.
With this identity, he now had partial control over the Land of Fire's army, as well as the allegiance of the legendary Daimyo's personal guard, the Twelve Guardian Ninja.
After all, everyone who could confirm this illegitimate son's identity was dead. They had died at the hands of the Land of Whirlpools, the Akatsuki, Naruto, or the Twelve Guardian Ninja themselves.
Was there a possibility that there never was any illegitimate son?
"Danzo, Tobirama's disciple?" Madara said after hearing Obito's words. "Hmph, I think he's got some skill. He's far better than the two of you clowns."
"Restoring the Land of Whirlpools, that's quite an idea he cooked up. How many of the Uzumaki clan are even left in the entire Shinobi World? On the surface, it's about restoring the Land of Whirlpools, but really, he's pushing the Uzumaki clan to the forefront while he pulls the strings from behind. He solved the Daimyo problem without a sound."
"Haven't you noticed? The place where the Land of Whirlpools was established is exactly where Konoha used to be. What's the difference between that and just giving Konoha a new name? Of course, it's for convenience."
"Even if he fails, he can just say it was all the work of the remnants of the Land of Whirlpools, shift all the blame onto the Uzumaki clan, and claim he was merely misled. He can advance or retreat, always remaining in an invincible position. A very clever method."
"As expected of a disciple taught by cunning bastard Tobirama. He's even more calculating than his master."
'Is that so? There's such a way to operate?'
These thoughts clicked in Obito's mind. With Madara's explanation, everything fell into place. Things he'd never understood now made perfect sense.
That old geezer Danzo actually planned this far.
'Too cunning.'
Seeing Obito's dawning realization, Madara's anger flared.
"If you weren't so damn incompetent, I wouldn't have to go through all this trouble."
A useless general exhausts three armies. Why did he have to pick such trash as his successor?
He'd arranged everything before his death. Obito only needed to exploit the information gap, trick others, use others. He'd even left him a bunch of subordinates. All Obito had to do was wait quietly in the Pure Land for resurrection.
And the result?
The eyes he'd entrusted were permanently stuck on someone else. The bluff failed. No Rinne Rebirth for resurrection. Now he had to appear in the world as a dead man.
Now Madara had to clean up after him.
Absolute trash.
They say idiots are easy to control, but this idiot thought of himself as a genius and had his own schemes, trying to carry out the Eye of the Moon Plan himself.
"Madara, don't blame us," Black Zetsu helped explain for Obito. "Too many unexpected things happened. Even a ridiculously strong Uzumaki Clan Elder showed up."
"What Elder? I've never heard of him. Only Uzumaki Ashina had any real skill in the entire clan." Madara's anger clearly wasn't fading.
"It's true. He even claimed to be your disciple, Kashin Koji." Obito recounted the events.
"And that was enough? THAT WAS ALL IT TOOK?!"
"Just based on that, he fooled you?!" Madara pressed his forehead and rubbed his temples. At that moment, he felt deeply exhausted.
Even someone like him, who wasn't good at schemes, could see the problem.
'You can borrow my name, why can't someone else? My disciple isn't an Uchiha? On what basis? What, a non-Uchiha is worthy of my attention? And you use that to suspect Black Zetsu? I've had it.'
"If it weren't for the lack of a Sharingan, I even suspected he was your illegitimate son!"
The startling words struck him without mercy. Obito's next sentence completely shattered Madara's composure.
"Pfft!"
Madara nearly choked. His eyes widened. He stared at Obito in disbelief, his hands trembling from pure agitation.
He couldn't imagine what kind of intelligence produced such a statement.
"O! BI! TO! U! CHI! HA!"
The name was practically ground out between his teeth.
'My illegitimate son, where did you even come up with that? By age calculation, was I supposed to have fathered a son at ninety? Even if having a son at ninety was possible, what woman could catch my eye? Don't you think? Use your empty brain?!'
"A pig is smarter than you!" Madara was just short of pointing at Obito's nose and cursing him outright.
If he had known, he would have chosen a pig over this one as his successor.
Maybe with a pig, the Eye of the Moon Plan would already be finished. Doesn't Hashirama's grandaughter have a pig? Maybe I should just take that and raise it...
"Madara, those guys outside aren't being obedient at all," Black Zetsu suddenly spoke, barely managing to defend Obito. Through White Zetsu's clones, Black Zetsu had gathered a significant amount of intelligence.
Currently, except for the Land of Whirlpools, where White Zetsu's clones couldn't infiltrate and had found nothing, any disturbance in other regions remained fully within his control.
"They're trying to bypass us and contact Konoha and the Land of Whirlpools."
The Daimyo of each nation and the Kage of each major ninja village weren't of one mind, let alone this hastily assembled Allied Forces.
"No matter." Madara shook his head. "We were using each other from the start."
"Their goal is to destroy the Akatsuki, and our goal is to use them to destroy the Akatsuki. The Akatsuki's existence is too much of an eyesore for the Daimyo and Kage. They're only cooperating with us temporarily because the situation forces them to."
"As for what happens to the Land of Whirlpools and the Land of Fire, what does that have to do with them? In their hearts, they'd prefer the Land of Whirlpools and the Land of Fire tear each other apart. I think they'd all be happy to split up that big chunk of land from the Land of Fire."
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