Newly Acquired Underling

After coming outside, Madara glanced at Shimiya Aoba, who was frantically muttering, He can't see me, he can't see me, and didn't pursue the matter of him hiding outside and eavesdropping earlier.

Actually, if Shimiya Aoba could hide outside and eavesdrop without escaping his perception, that would really be something!

He simply didn't care.

"The person inside is in your care. Whatever he wants to do, you don't need to stop him. Just make sure he doesn't die."

"Yes, Lord Madara."

Only then did Shimiya Aoba stop pretending to be an ostrich. He answered in a convincing manner, as if he had just breathed a sigh of relief.

Madara had been acting the whole time, so how could he not put on an equally impressive performance?

Now he could finally openly interact with Obito, the future BIG BOSS who was currently just a pitiful child.

After Madara left, a glimmer flashed through Shimiya Aoba's eyes before he quickly concealed it completely. He turned and walked into Obito's room.

As soon as he entered, he happened to see Obito laboriously wriggling off the bed. With a thump... he knelt in front of him.

If this had been an anime, a long line of crows would probably have flown across the screen.

The two stared wide-eyed at each other for quite a while, and the air seemed to freeze.

"Uh, has it... already become New Year outside? I didn't prepare any lucky money."

"Enough, hurry and get up. You're pretty sensible, kid. You even know to pay your respects to the local boss. Fine, follow me from now on. I'll protect you here. As long as you don't provoke that old man from earlier, if I have a piece of meat to eat, you'll definitely have a bone to gnaw on!"

As he spoke, Shimiya Aoba stood on tiptoe and patted Obito's bewildered shoulder with an air of seasoned authority.

Sigh, he couldn't help it. This body of his was only four years old, while Obito was probably thirteen by now. Being able to reach his shoulder at all depended entirely on Obito cooperating. Yes, he absolutely wasn't making fun of how short the guy was!

"Ah! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts...!"

Seeing his newly acquired underling lying on the ground like a giant cabbage worm, cold sweat beading on his forehead from the pain, Aoba looked suspiciously at his own little palm...

Hmm, it was clean and fair. Although it didn't have much flesh, it shouldn't have been powerful enough to do this, right?

Could it be that his cheat had finally bypassed the activation quest and activated itself to protect its master?

He wondered whether a fist the size of one Wangzai Xiaomantou could beat that old bastard Madara to death.

After indulging in some wishful thinking, he saw that Obito was still stubbornly crawling toward the outside, and several black lines appeared on his forehead.

"I say, if you want to die, don't drag me down with you. Lord Madara said anything goes as long as you don't die. But if you keep struggling like this, the Hashirama artificial body That Lord pieced onto you is going to fall apart. Then you'll really be dead."

"I have to leave this place. Kakashi... Rin... wait for me."

Smack!

Aoba slapped his forehead. As expected, single-minded idiots were the most annoying!

After taking two deep breaths to calm himself, he squatted back down and prepared to reason things out with this guy properly.

Damn it, if your life or death weren't connected to whether I can complete my quest, I wouldn't bother with you!

"Listen, let me explain something to you. Doesn't this make sense? With your current physical condition, forget whether you can get out at all. Even if you do, what will you do if you run into enemies?"

"It won't matter if you die, but what if you're captured? If that Kakashi or Rin you mentioned hears the news, won't they come to rescue you? Then the enemy could set some kind of trap, and everyone who comes to save you will die. They might even get information from your heads while they're at it. Then all of you will become sinners against the village."

"And you'll be the culprit who got your friends killed and caused the village to suffer enormous losses. Can you understand what I'm saying?"

Obito finally stopped "wriggling" and fell silent, but the cold sweat beading on his forehead revealed that his emotions were far from calm.

Seeing this, Aoba chuckled inwardly.

When dealing with hot-blooded youngsters who only had one track in mind, explaining gains and losses was useless. They didn't even care about their own lives, so what else could they possibly fear?

At this point, Obito had two and a half fatal weaknesses: Kakashi, Rin, and half of the village.

That was right. The village's importance in Obito's heart was absolutely inferior to the first two. Just look at what he did after turning evil. Despite hating Kakashi so much, he had refused to kill him several times. Yet when it came to dealing with Konoha, he had been utterly ruthless, releasing tailed beasts and even Pain. He had shown no mercy.

So no matter how many reasons he gave, they couldn't compare to using Kakashi and Rin's safety to frighten him.

Thus, Obito finally quieted down.

"You're right. In this sorry state, even if I found Kakashi and Rin, I'd only hold them back. The war outside isn't over yet. I need to recover from my injuries first, then go help them."

Congratulations, you've even learned to answer before I finish asking!

Aoba gave him a thumbs-up, then slapped the ground and shouted, "Somebody get over here and help me carry him back to bed!"

As soon as he finished speaking, two White Zetsu clones emerged from underground, startling Obito badly.

"By the way, what's your name?"

Obito, who was being helped up by the White Zetsu clones, suddenly asked.

"Shimiya Aoba, a war orphan rescued by Lord Madara. I'm currently a servant here." Aoba answered with a squinting smile, seemingly not ashamed of being a servant at all. In fact, he looked rather proud of it.

Upon hearing the words "war orphan," Obito clearly froze. The guarded look on his face then faded considerably. "My name is Uchiha Obito. I'm going to become Hokage in the future. Don't worry, the war will end soon. When it does, you won't need to hide here anymore."

Aoba nodded with a beaming smile, apparently agreeing wholeheartedly with him.

But in truth...

As expected of Uchiha Naruto. His experiences and personality before turning evil are exactly those of a protagonist template. He was only missing some kind of reincarnated "spinning top," yet he still became a candidate for the role of villain BOSS. What a tragedy.

And that incredibly naive side of his was truly difficult to look at.

But whatever. What did it have to do with him?

Activating his cheat and making a quick escape was the right path. It would be best to abandon this doomed ship as soon as possible.

But perhaps he could quickly max out Obito's favorability during this period, just in case Obito became evil, disowned everyone, and killed him too. That would truly leave him with nowhere to cry.

The precociously childish Shimiya Aoba shook his head and sighed as he went to prepare dinner. Although he was the only one eating, there was nothing wrong with making it more lavish as a celebration.

What he didn't know was what kind of inspiration his words to Obito had given Madara.