Swoosh! In that familiar underground cavern, a Kamui vortex materialized out of thin air, and Obito returned to the base with Orochimaru and Kabuto.
Kamui's spatial transfer also required a marker, but unlike the Flying Thunder God's formula-based marking, Kamui marked through the eye itself, meaning that any place visited even once could be freely jumped to and from using Kamui.
"This is..." Standing before the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Orochimaru's expression was shaken to its very limit, for he had traveled across all five great nations and encountered countless powerful shinobi and jutsu, yet this was the first time in his life that he had felt so genuinely small.
"This power... does not belong to this world!"
"Coming here was truly the right choice!"
Orochimaru's eyes were filled with a fevered hunger for the mysteries of the universe and the truths of the world, and Obito had opened a door to an entirely new realm for him.
"Orochimaru, do you see that artificial body of the First Hokage on the statue?"
"How does it make you feel?"
Obito asked.
Orochimaru gazed deeply at Hashirama's body on the statue and said with longing, "Subarashii, simply like that great Lord Hashirama himself in the flesh, if I had not seen it with my own eyes, it would truly be impossible to imagine..."
"Good eye."
Obito turned his head and looked at Orochimaru's profile.
"I want to merge with it completely and perfectly, do you have a way?"
Orochimaru's slit pupils lit up, and after a moment he said, "The most direct method would be to graft it onto your body, but just like organ transplantation, it would produce rejection, preventing the full power from being utilized, and once your own strength is exhausted, you risk being devoured by Hashirama's power in return, so that method is certainly out of the question, and a more advanced approach would be needed."
Orochimaru said with a serious expression.
Obito nodded, for Orochimaru had not lied, as that was precisely the method Danzō had used, and in his battle against Sasuke when he had depleted his strength, he was consumed by the Hashirama cells.
"The advanced method, what does that refer to..."
"Implanting Hashirama's progenitor cells into the body, where the progenitor cells would proliferate and divide to gradually replace the original cells, however this process would subject the host to the agony of breaking out of a cocoon, and the success rate is near zero."
Orochimaru said.
"Near zero, have you conducted similar experiments?"
"I once obtained residual bodily matter from Lord Hashirama's grave and attempted to activate it in order to extract progenitor cells, but the passage of time had been too great, and from that residual matter I was only able to extract degraded progenitor cells, which I then implanted into sixty newborns, and even being degraded, only a single one survived in the end, one out of sixty, and from that I extrapolate that with complete progenitor cells, the success rate approaches infinitely close to zero..."
Obito knew that the surviving test subject Orochimaru spoke of was Yamato, and indeed, compared to other users of Hashirama cells, Yamato was more like a person of flesh and blood, and could use a fairly broad range of Wood Release jutsu, though their potency was significantly diminished.
As the saying goes, Hashirama's Wood Release conquered the world, while Yamato's Wood Release handles landscaping, and the gap speaks for itself.
"And if one succeeds?"
Obito asked.
Orochimaru laughed with an obsessed gleam.
"The legend of the God of Shinobi will be reborn!"
"Setting aside the risks for now, are you confident you can extract the most perfect progenitor cells?"
Obito asked.
"The more perfect the original specimen, the more perfect the progenitor cells that can be extracted, and this replica of Lord Hashirama is infinitely close to the real one, though there remain slight imperfections, and just a small catalyst would make it absolutely perfect, however regrettably, that catalyst should no longer be findable!"
Orochimaru's tone carried an endless sense of lamentation.
"A catalyst, what kind of catalyst?"
"It is the one infant that survived back then, I abandoned him in the facility, and he should have died long ago..."
Orochimaru sighed.
Hearing this, Obito let out a quiet breath of relief.
So after all that, the catalyst was simply Yamato.
Obito knew that the infant had been saved by Danzō by pure coincidence and kept by his side to be raised, and was at this moment a member of Konoha's ANBU division "Root," operating under the codename "Ko."
'Danzō, oh Danzō, you committed countless sins in your life, yet you still managed to do one good deed!'
Obito thought to himself.
"As for the catalyst, you need not concern yourself with that for now..."
Obito said, having decided he would make a trip to Konoha shortly to retrieve Yamato.
Gurgle gurgle! Large numbers of White Zetsu surged in from all directions.
"Lord Orochimaru!"
Kabuto drew a kunai and took a defensive stance.
"Kabuto, do not be tense, Raito is our partner and will not be discourteous."
Orochimaru said to Kabuto at his side, still gazing at the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path with rapturous fascination.
Kabuto lowered the kunai.
"They are called Zetsu, they are my friends and assistants, and they have already transferred the experimental equipment scattered across your various bases here, so you need not have any further worries, and if there is anything you need help with, you may tell them directly..."
Obito said.
"My, how far-sighted of you, Raito."
Orochimaru laughed in his languid, alluring way.
"Hmph, we have heard quite a lot about you during our surveillance of the outside world, Orochimaru, and let us make one thing clear from the start, if you dare to try anything underhanded, do not expect to leave this place alive!"
The White Zetsu collectively warned.
"My, my, I am truly flattered, do not worry, before I lift the veil of truth, I would not so carelessly lose such an important research site, so rest easy now, Raito..."
Orochimaru said, glancing sideways at Obito.
"Heh."
Obito gave a faint smile.
"Zetsu, please show Orochimaru and his assistant to their quarters."
"Both of your rooms have been prepared, please follow me."
A White Zetsu stepped forward and led the way.
Orochimaru looked at the White Zetsu and thought to himself, 'Looking closely, every single one of these pale creatures is filled with Hashirama's cells inside, though degraded, just how much truth has Raito grasped...'
Deep in the night, Obito sat atop the great skeletal ribcage at the entrance of the base, gazing at the bright full moon hanging high in the sky, with Madara's war fan resting by his side.
He genuinely felt that the moon of the shinobi world was rounder and brighter than any moon he had ever seen before.
Before crossing over, Obito had been an unremarkable student, with no particular talents, an introverted personality, and a quiet disposition, and he had not a single friend in his life with whom he could truly talk.
His parents had divorced when he was in middle school, and after the divorce both had quickly started new families of their own, and neither was willing to care for him, leaving only the legally mandated monthly support payment while never once paying any attention to his life.
'He had disappeared now, and they probably had not even noticed yet, and even if they did... they would at most file a police report and be done with it, that was just the kind of people they were.'
After entering high school he had developed depression and had at one point harbored thoughts of suicide, and it was also during that time that he encountered the world of anime and manga, and from that point on he fell in completely without ever looking back, immersing himself in those passionate and fantastical adventure stories, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Bleach, Fairy Tail, A Certain Magical Index, One Punch Man... and Naruto most of all!
He felt that as long as he had those, it did not matter that he had no friends.
His classmates and teachers all looked down on him, considering him a worthless case corrupted by otaku culture, believing he had no future whatsoever and would sooner or later be filtered out by the brutal competition of society.
Perhaps so... but how could they ever know that it was that world of anime which had redeemed him, and given someone abandoned by life the belief and the drive to keep on living!
Obito had imagined more than once how wonderful it would be to actually be born into the world of anime.
Perhaps it was precisely his disillusionment with reality, along with his longing for the world of anime, that had become the catalyst for his crossing over.
'If this was a dream, he hoped it was one he would never wake from, and he felt truly grateful from the bottom of his heart to have crossed into the world of Naruto, after all, he had no attachment whatsoever to everything in the real world.'
Even though the shinobi world was full of conflict and the threat of death lurked at every moment, Obito felt genuinely, from the depths of his heart, that he was freer in this moment than he had ever been, and even the blood-tinged wind carried with it a faint sense of ease.
"This is where I was meant to exist, and I will live exactly as I please, with no more constraints of any kind, for I had no power before to break free from reality, but now that fate has given me the chance to cross into the world of Naruto, I will seize everything, and in this world I refuse to live by anyone else's standards any longer, and for that reason, I want power, power sufficient to meet any challenge!"
Obito poured out the ambitions in his heart to the moon, his only audience being Spiral Zetsu, who was never far from his side.
Through its bond with Obito, Spiral Zetsu could sense his inner state of mind, and it was the state of mind that only those who are truly alone possess.
Completely unlike the Obito from before, for though that Obito had been trapped, before turning to darkness he had still held Kakashi in his heart, and Rin, and Teacher Minato, and Konoha...
But in Obito's heart now, there was nothing at all, only a thirst for power and a yearning for freedom.
Spiral Zetsu understood clearly that the person it enveloped was no longer the Uchiha Obito who had once aimed to become Hokage, who had admired Kakashi, and who had harbored feelings for Nohara Rin, but rather Uchiha Raito, who knew every secret of the shinobi world, who hungered for strength and freedom, and who fought for himself alone, and Spiral Zetsu felt a genuine desire from the depths of its being to witness where such a Raito would ultimately go...
The wind picked up, and Obito gripped the war fan and rose to his feet.
Slap! The head of Spiral Zetsu coiled and shifted, forming a fresh pair of eye-mask panels, and through the hollow openings, two eyes that reflected the soul shone with a quiet glow in the darkness.