"So, 'a better way to protect your comrades'?" Obito repeated Madara's words back at him, tilting his head. "What about it?"
Ignoring the question, Madara stated flatly, "With your body in its current state, continuing as a shinobi is impossible."
"Impossible?" Obito's voice rose, a fire igniting in his chest. "No way! I finally… I finally got these eyes! I know I can fight better with my team now! I'm finally strong enough to protect them! How can I just… stop here?!"
Madara's expression remained impassive, carved from stone. "Face reality. This world is full of things that defy our wishes. The longer I live, the more I see that this mortal plane is steeped in nothing but suffering, agony, and loneliness." He leaned forward slightly, his lone eye boring into Obito's. "Listen. Everything in this world is a duality. Where there is light, darkness is born. The concept of a 'winner' necessitates a 'loser.' The selfish will to protect peace inevitably sparks war. The desire to guard love gives birth to hatred. This is causality. They are inseparable."
"By conventional logic—"
Obito cut him off, the old man's words a tangled, annoying mess he couldn't parse. "Forget that! More importantly, where the hell is this place?"
Madara held his gaze. "There are people who were only saved because you were injured. Am I wrong?"
The memory slammed into Obito—the crushing rock, shoving Kakashi clear, the weight pinning him down. The desperate need to see Kakashi and Rin again, to know they were okay, flared white-hot.
"Enough with the rambling! I don't have time to waste here! I need to—"
A jagged bolt of pain ripped through him as he jerked, contorting his face into a grimace.
"You may leave whenever you wish," Madara said, his tone chillingly calm as he slowly turned and walked back to his stone seat. "If you can move."
A cold trickle of suspicion ran down Obito's spine. Why was an old man living alone in a place like this? He knew all the elders in Konoha. He'd never seen this face before. Which meant… this old man wasn't a Konoha shinobi anymore.
That meant…
"Old man," Obito called out, suspicion hardening his voice. "You're a missing-nin, aren't you? Who are you?"
Madara settled into his seat. "I am the lingering ghost of the Uchiha. I am Madara Uchiha."
Obito stared, dumbfounded. "Madara? As in… my ancestor, Madara Uchiha?" He shook his head, disbelief warring with the absurdity. "No way! That's ancient history! There's no way you could still be alive!"
"Would you prefer to think of me as the Shinigami?" Madara asked, utterly serene. A faint, grim smile touched his lips. "Yes, in a sense, perhaps I am. For this reality… this is hell." He gestured vaguely behind him. "Indeed. Without the Gedo Statue there, continuously supplying chakra to this withered husk, I would perish immediately."
Obito's eyes followed the gesture to the grotesque, pipe-ridden statue. A primal, formless dread coiled in his gut.
"I'm going back!"
Gritting his teeth against the screaming pain, Obito began to thrash, dragging himself off the stone slab. He hit the floor with a thud.
"Enough," Madara's voice held no urgency. "There is no exit. Bluntly, neither you nor I can leave this place—not with bodies like these."
Obito ignored him, scrabbling forward an inch at a time.
"If you keep thrashing," Madara warned, "the artificial body crafted from Hashirama's cells, so painstakingly pieced together, will come apart. Do you wish to die? I have need of you. You will serve many purposes for me. Alongside me. For the rest of your life. You barely escaped death. Do not be so eager to throw that gift away."
"What do you want?!" Obito snarled, fury overriding the pain. "What could an old fossil like you possibly want with a kid like me?!"
"To sever this world's causality!" Madara's voice dropped, resonating with a terrible gravity. "To create a world where only winners exist. Only peace. Only love. A world where only these things are real!"
"Who cares about your crazy ramblings! I just want to go back to my friends!"
"I told you. Nothing in this world goes as planned. You, too, will understand this one day."
Obito kept crawling.
Madara stopped trying to dissuade him. "Do as you wish. Seek death if you must. But in exchange… I will take your Sharingan."
"Why do you need my eyes?" Obito shot back, defiance crackling. "You already have the Sharingan!"
"No. I gave my original eyes to another. These are merely surplus, transplanted later. One can never have too many in reserve." Madara lifted the hair covering his right temple, revealing an empty, dark socket. "The Sharingan only reveals its true power when both eyes are present."
Kakashi. The thought struck Obito like lightning. Kakashi had his left eye now. Did that mean… if they fought together, they'd be stronger? They could protect Rin better. The need to move, to get back, became a physical ache.
But his battered body had reached its limit. The world swam, darkness rushing in at the edges, and he slumped forward, unconscious.
Qianyu severed the visual link, lying back on his bed, thoughts churning. The future Moon's Eye Plan… it would undoubtedly succeed. Once the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast, everyone would be dragged into it. There was no hiding, no escape. Its light could not penetrate a Susano'o wielded by the owner of a Six Tomoe Rinnegan. Those with Six Paths power were also immune. So, his options were clear: obtain a Six Tomoe Rinnegan, or attain Six Paths power. Through normal means? Impossible. A pipe dream. His only real hope was the system. But the required Witness Points… it was a number so astronomical he couldn't even entertain the thought.
Breaking the Infinite Tsukuyomi was even more fiendishly difficult. It required a Rinnegan user and someone holding the chakra of all Tailed Beasts to perform a joint hand seal. And that wasn't even considering Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself, or the rest of her clan waiting beyond the stars. To survive the coming chaos, he needed to get stronger. Much stronger.
Kaguya Ōtsutsuki… The name triggered another memory. Wasn't there another Ōtsutsuki in the world right now? And in the future, another would arrive through time, only to be killed by Naruto Uzumaki and… his future son? And when that Ōtsutsuki died, a unique power system would emerge. The Ōtsutsuki Rinnegan and that special power system… now that was an interesting possibility.
The specifics of what happened after Naruto's son's era were fuzzy to him. And that day was still far off. He needed to plan this carefully.
As for the current war… it would likely end soon, after Rin Nohara's death.
Qianyu let out a long, slow breath. Once the war was over, he could finally rest. Properly. And then, he could start plotting his next moves in earnest.
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