Tuk, tuk, tuk.
In the silent laboratory, the faint sound of typing continued without pause.
Under the pale glow of several monitors, Orochimaru sat in a chair, dressed in a white lab coat. His slender fingers moved across the keyboard while his eyes shifted between the screens before him, reading each line of data with quiet focus.
A moment later, the corners of his lips curved slightly.
It seemed he had finally obtained the result he wanted.
Reaching for the coffee beside him, Orochimaru lifted the cup with his usual grace and took a slow sip. That elegant, composed expression he wore every day had long since become a second face to him.
But just as the cup was about to touch his lips again, his hand suddenly trembled.
The faint smile on his face vanished.
Clank!
The cup slipped from his fingers and shattered against the floor, coffee splashing across the tiles.
Orochimaru did not even look down.
His pupils narrowed sharply. In the next instant, he had already turned and rushed out, heading toward a place that should never have existed in anyone's knowledge.
Aside from two people, no one in the world had the right to know of it.
Even Orochimaru himself found his memories strangely blurred, as though someone had cut away a part of them and sealed it deep inside his mind.
The only thing left was a vague impression.
His lord had once told him that there would come a time when he would understand everything. Until that future arrived, it was better for this matter to remain forgotten.
Better for it to remain unknown.
Better for it to remain irrelevant.
Cold sweat slid down Orochimaru's face.
He moved faster and faster, and when he finally arrived, he no longer cared about concealment, barriers, or any obstruction in his path.
His hand struck downward.
Boom!
With nothing but his bare hand, he tore open the floor, smashing a massive hole straight through it.
Dust and broken stone scattered into the air as Orochimaru dropped into the space below.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he froze.
Something was different.
This place had changed.
No, more than that…
The power that should have been completely stripped from him had returned.
But why?
What did that mean?
Since when had this place existed?
The more Orochimaru tried to think, the more his thoughts twisted into confusion. It was as though his mind had been covered by a thin veil, and only now was that veil being torn away.
Then, all at once, memories he had never known he possessed surged into his mind.
"Orochimaru."
"If there ever comes a future where this place stops functioning…"
"Crush that object."
The voice echoed clearly in his head.
Orochimaru's breathing grew heavy.
He did not care why the memory had awakened only now. He did not care what kind of method had been used to hide it inside him.
At this moment, there was only one thing he needed to do.
He had to crush the object Obito had entrusted to him.
Without hesitation, Orochimaru opened the hidden safe.
Inside it lay a tiny black coffin.
The instant he saw it, his hand closed around it.
Crack.
He crushed it.
The moment the tiny coffin broke apart, darkness seeped out from between his fingers.
It spread slowly at first, crawling over his hand like ink. Then it swallowed his arm, his body, and the entire space around him.
A breath later, the blackness had already flooded the laboratory.
Then it continued outward.
It passed through the walls, swept across the city, and surged toward every corner of the world.
In the blink of an eye, the entire world was swallowed by a silent darkness.
People everywhere had no time to scream, no time to run, no time to even understand what was happening before the blackness embraced them.
And yet, strangely enough, there was no fear.
There was no despair.
The darkness should have been terrifying, something that devoured light and erased everything in its path.
But everyone who was swallowed by it felt only peace.
A quiet warmth settled over them, as if they had been wrapped in someone's protection.
Those closely connected to Obito felt it even more clearly.
For some reason, a deep sense of loss and sorrow welled up within them, heavy enough to make their chests ache.
Yet none of them could understand where that sadness came from.
Soon…
Swoosh.
The wind blew through an empty street.
A single amusement park ticket drifted along the wind, rolling across the deserted road.
But strangely enough, not a single person could be seen.
The entire place felt hollow.
And it was not only there.
Across the entire world, not one human figure remained.
It was as if everything had vanished along with the darkness that had swallowed the world.
Some time earlier…
In a strange, broken space where countless cracks spread through the void like shattered glass, a lone figure stood amid the silence.
Obito's breathing was heavy.
His body was covered in wounds, his chakra and divine power both worn down to the limit, yet even then, his body refused to grant him something as simple as rest.
"Haa…"
He exhaled slowly and raised his hand by instinct, wanting to sweep his hair back from his face.
Only then did he remember.
That arm still had not regenerated.
Obito lowered his gaze, staring at the empty space where his hand should have been. A faint, tired smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"…Of course. It wouldn't be the final battle if I didn't lose an arm."
At some point, Obito had stopped counting the years.
Time had long since lost meaning in this place. Days, months, years—eventually, they had all become nothing more than empty numbers.
All he knew was that he had fought, devoured, and kept moving forward.
Again and again, he tore through the so-called gods of the Ōtsutsuki clan, swallowing their power, their existence itself.
Even Jashin had not escaped him.
The Shinigami, whose avatar he had once devoured back in the ninja world, had also been dragged out from the depths of existence and consumed.
One by one, the beings that stood above worlds disappeared into Obito's Devouring Coffin.
Now, even he was no longer certain whether the Ōtsutsuki clan still had anyone left.
Perhaps there were survivors.
Perhaps somewhere in the endless universe, some members were still hiding in a forgotten corner of space.
But Obito no longer cared.
He had already reached the end of what he came for.
His gaze shifted toward the Devouring Coffin floating silently beside him.
Inside it was the last god.
As long as he devoured that existence, recovering a lost arm would be nothing more than a passing thought.
Obito raised his remaining hand.
The Devouring Coffin opened without a sound.
Darkness surged out like a tide, wrapping around the struggling presence within as the process began.
The moment it ended, Obito felt something within him shift. By all rights, it should have followed the same path as every being who had reached this stage before him: the soul ascending into a higher dimension, leaving the body behind as nothing but an empty shell.
But he was different.
Because of the Devouring Coffin, what transcended was not only his soul.
His body went with it.
Flesh, blood, bones, chakra, eyes, power—everything that made up Uchiha Obito crossed that boundary together.
He did not become some empty, bodiless existence looking down from above.
He remained himself.
Obito felt it and could not help letting out a low chuckle.
"Heh… becoming some formless thing was never my style anyway."
But before he could fully feel the change within himself, a voice suddenly sounded from beyond the shattered void.
"So you truly reached this place."
Turning around slowly, Obito showed no obvious change in expression, but his eyes calmly took in the sudden shift in his surroundings. This dimension was different from before, carrying an aura that felt even higher than his own.
"It's a nice-looking place... But pulling me here so suddenly might give me the wrong idea. I'm not used to being the one kidnapped."
"So this is how it feels." Slowly raising a hand to his chin, Obito muttered to himself, his tone calm and almost amused, completely ignoring the danger surrounding him.
"..."
"I wondered what expression you would show after being dragged into this place… but I suppose this much is only natural for one called Obito Uchiha."
The voice paused, then seemed to look through him rather than at him.
"No… that name is meaningless now."
"Outsider."
The same voice echoed faintly, yet it felt as if the entire space itself was speaking. Obito merely put a finger in his ear, pulled it out, and blew on it.
He glanced around, his tone carrying the same careless ease.
"Outsider? That's pretty rude, don't you think? After inviting me so passionately, aren't we basically family already? Or are you the shy type? Did a few million years of isolation turn you into an introvert?"
"..."
For the first time, Shibai Ōtsutsuki fell silent.
After observing Obito for only a short while, he finally understood.
Trying to hold a proper conversation with this man was meaningless.
Obito Uchiha's thoughts did not follow the order of ordinary reason.
Shibai's voice descended like a decree, vast and majestic.
"These childish exchanges serve no purpose. With your intelligence, there is no need for me to explain why you were brought before me."
Just as those words landed, Obito felt a burning sensation in his palm.
He slowly raised his hand before his eyes, and what entered his sight was a small black dot.
How could he not understand what was happening?
This bastard was trying to steal his precious body, his very self, using Kāma.
Even Obito had never seen a Kāma of this level before—one capable of interfering with him.
So, without the slightest hesitation, he tried to cut off his own arm.
Yet the moment he intended to move, he realized something.
He couldn't move.
"So even self-harm is off the table?"
Obito's voice was calm, almost lazy, but the killing intent beneath it could be felt from miles away.
"How overbearing. Now you're actually starting to put me in the mood."
What followed was Obito trying every method he could think of.
He distorted space. Rewrote his body. Tried to erase the affected flesh, sever the connection, even forcefully devour the mark itself.
Yet no matter how many times he tried, the result never changed.
The black mark on his palm remained perfectly still.
Even when Obito tried to summon the Devouring Coffin, nothing came.
Shibai Ōtsutsuki watched in silence, offering no explanation and no mockery.
He simply allowed Obito to struggle as much as he wished.
Then, as if recalling a trivial matter, Shibai spoke in the same detached tone.
"The two beings that accompanied you… what were they called again?"
The words were calm, but Obito's actions came to a halt.
"I wonder what fate befell them after you disappeared."
A faint pause followed.
"After all, some time has already passed since I drew you into this place."
Obito knew Shibai was trying to shake his emotions.
He understood that clearly.
And yet, a part of him still allowed itself to be distracted for a single moment.
He did not know whether this bastard had truly done something to them, or if he was simply playing with his mind.
But soon, Obito forced himself to calm down.
Only by then, it was already too late.
The markings had spread across half of his arm, crawling upward as if trying to occupy half of his very being.
No matter how cold and detached you make yourself appear, in the end, you remain human, Obito Uchiha.
Shibai Ōtsutsuki watched him with quiet delight, as if observing the final struggle of an insect caught in divine hands.
Yet in the next moment, something once again slipped beyond his expectations.
Obito, who should have been resisting the merging process with all his might, suddenly ceased struggling.
His posture returned to stillness.
And the same calm expression from before returned to his face.
"What is this…?"
The voice echoed from all directions.
Unlike the detached indifference it carried before, there was now a faint mockery hidden within it, as if Shibai had already seen this ending from the very beginning.
"Have you given up hope already, Obito Uchiha?"
Obito did not answer his question directly.
Instead, he raised his eyes and asked in return, his voice calm.
"Since when?"
The markings continued to crawl across his body, yet his expression did not change.
"When did you notice me? And how much do you know?"
Shibai fell silent for a moment.
Obito's sudden question made him faintly suspicious, but that suspicion was soon buried beneath his arrogance.
After all, in this place, Obito Uchiha had no path of escape.
"From the moment you began to act differently from how you should have."
His voice echoed slowly through the dimension.
"At first, I was not certain. I only saw it as an interesting change, a slight mistake that should not have existed. Nothing more."
"But as time passed, those deviations continued to gather."
The many Jōgan eyes within the dimension seemed to open one after another, each one gazing down upon Obito.
"I watched you for years."
"And in the end, I reached a conclusion."
"You were not a being born from this reality."
Shibai's voice remained calm, but there was a strange depth hidden within it.
"You came from somewhere beyond it. A completely different reality."
Even after having the greatest secret of his existence laid bare, Obito remained silent.
Shibai merely regarded that silence for a moment, then dismissed it and continued.
"Your soul should have been the easiest answer. If I could touch it, I would have understood everything."
"But I could not."
His tone lowered slightly.
"That mysterious force protecting you… that black coffin… it prevented even me from interfering with your soul."
A brief silence followed.
"There was another way."
"But…"
Before Shibai could finish, Obito spoke first.
"But I was too weak, right?"
The moment those words fell, every Jōgan eye in the dimension fixed upon him at once.
For the first time, Shibai's voice carried a trace of genuine surprise.
"So you were aware of even that."
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