Obito collapsed onto the terrace, missing an arm and a leg. Beneath his mask, his pale face held a look of relief at simply surviving. He swiftly manipulated the right half of the White Zetsu's body, the white substance flowing toward his left side. Within moments, the wound was sealed, and the bleeding stopped.
"Only my right leg is left..." he muttered.
Using his remaining leg, Obito struggled to his feet, his face ashen, and activated Kamui again. He had to get out of there.
That Four-Star Village and the man behind it, Menma, are too dangerous, he thought, his mind racing. It's not wise to provoke him now, and I absolutely cannot let him know about my connection to Akatsuki. However... I could use Itachi and Konoha to deal with him. After all, I promised Nagato I'd handle Itachi and capture the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
Obito repeatedly used Kamui to move through the dimension, sensing the marks he'd left along the way to continue his journey. His destination was the Mountain Graveyard, his secret base where he had once hidden and where the Gedo Mazo was kept. Nagato had summoned the Gedo Mazo from there using his Rinnegan.
With his body severely damaged, Obito urgently needed the Gedo Mazo to create a new White Zetsu body. Afterwards, he would investigate all the Jinchuriki and Tailed Beasts. Having almost died at Menma's hands, he wanted revenge—ideally, to cut off Menma's source of Tailed Beast chakra, causing all the subordinates he'd gathered to betray him.
Thinking bitterly about his future revenge, he felt that even hopping on one leg felt smoother and stronger.
...
On the other side, in Four-Star Village—
As Obito fled, Menma turned his gaze to the gathered Kumogakure ninja. Feeling his murderous stare, Samui felt as if she'd fallen into an ice cave, her back drenched in cold sweat. But she immediately recovered, bowing respectfully while holding up the visiting card from the Raikage.
"Four-Star Kage, we mean you no harm. This is a visiting card from the Raikage, along with a gift—a specialty of our Land of Lightning!"
At Samui's words, Karui and Omoi, quick-wittedly, led the less injured ninja to bring over the Land of Lightning's specialty, which had been placed at the back and unaffected by the earlier battle.
Seeing Menma's terrifying gaze fall on the gift, Samui breathed a sigh of relief, then quickly bowed again.
"Lord Four-Star Kage, we've come specifically to present these gifts as a token of our sincerity. We hope you'll agree to our friendly visit and the establishment of diplomatic relations. We eagerly anticipate exchanging goods and resources with you and Four-Star Village."
"Now that the gifts and our sincerity have been delivered, we won't bother you any further. What do you think..."
"Get lost."
Seeing Samui's sensible attitude, Menma didn't bother to retaliate. After all, Obito had already given him an outlet for his anger, and his initial displeasure had subsided.
"We're leaving now!"
While "get lost" usually isn't pleasant, in this context, Samui's team and the other Cloud ninja felt like they'd heard heavenly music. The lightly wounded helped the heavily injured, and the group scrambled out as fast as they could.
They'd obtained crucial information this time. Bringing it back alive would be a worthwhile investment! Moreover, they wanted to show the Raikage that Four-Star Village was no ordinary small ninja village. Not only did it possess the resurrected Fourth Hokage, capable of using the Flying Thunder God Technique, but it also had an imposter, Madara Uchiha, capable of defeating them all single-handedly.
Finally, the Four-Star Kage was even more powerful—he'd defeated the masked man who possessed bizarre space-time ninjutsu and claimed to be the real Madara Uchiha! In short, they couldn't be underestimated and had to be treated with the utmost care.
Watching the Cloud ninja disappear in the blink of an eye, Kurama looked regretful.
"Menma, you've changed. You used to be able to wipe them all out."
Shaking his head and smacking his lips, he turned to look for Minato. After all, Menma's Sharingan had been exposed, and he wanted to see the interesting expression on that blond-haired guy's face.
"Eh? Where's Minato?"
"Wasn't he just standing there looking injured?"
Not finding him, Kurama turned to Menma, but he completely ignored the foolish fox. After instructing the two gatekeeper ninja to throw the Land of Lightning's specialties out of the village, he turned and walked back the way he'd come.
Seeing Menma walking toward the central building, Kurama slapped his forehead, realizing what was happening. He immediately followed, scurrying after him.
"Menma, you're so smart!" Kurama said. "That guy, Minato, must have gone back to question Kushina! But that blondie's really out of his mind. I bet he's in for a world of hurt..."
In just a few words, Kurama had already returned to the central building with Menma. The moment he finished predicting Minato's doom, the building's wall burst open from the inside. And Minato—the blondie Kurama had called out—was sent flying through the shattered wall, his face bruised and battered.
At the same time, Kushina's furious roar echoed throughout the area.
"Minato Namikaze, you bastard! Only Uchiha are that doubting! Your whole family are Uchiha!"
"Dare to doubt me? Divorce! This divorce is final! My son is mine, and you're leaving with nothing!"
"And give me back all of my son's Tailed Beast chakra!!!"
Menma: "..."
Kurama: (￣︶￣)
...
Time, like a man over forty, seems to fly by faster each day. More than a month passed in the blink of an eye.
Since Menma reduced his share of sales to the Land of Lightning, causing the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning to be dissatisfied with Raikage A, Kumogakure had sent numerous apology gifts over the past month. However, all of them were rejected, and the Land of Lightning's share was not restored. The enraged Raikage A would have personally come to confront him if it weren't for his subordinates stopping him.
It was precisely because of Raikage A's anger that Konoha ultimately failed to obtain the right to use the Waterfall of Truth. However, Tobirama had already successfully developed a forbidden soul technique to deal with Menma. Well, saying they developed a forbidden technique was inaccurate—they'd actually developed a way to deal with Menma.
While Tobirama was a master of forbidden techniques, the soul realm wasn't ultimately his forte. Given a few years to study it, he might actually be able to develop a technique similar to the Impure World Reincarnation. Unfortunately, he didn't have that much time to allow Menma to grow unchecked. He needed to eliminate this threat as quickly as possible, or the consequences would be unimaginable.
Inside the Hokage's Office—
Looking at the empty seat, Tobirama instructed Yamato, who was following behind him.
"Go and summon Tsunade. Tell him the Personality Sealing Technique is complete."
---