Cold, damp, dark.
The filthy air was thick with an intensely pungent, overpowering smell of blood.
Drip. Drip.
Water seeped from the ceiling, ran along the crisscrossing pipes, and finally fell.
The droplets landed on his skin, their icy touch jolting Obito awake from his unconsciousness.
Perhaps he had been unconscious for too long, because his mind was still muddled. For a moment, he failed to react. With confusion in his eyes, he looked around and swallowed. "Huh? How did I get here? Wasn't I supposed to be taking the Chunin Exam?"
His last memory before losing consciousness was entering the tower with Rin.
As for what came afterward... he could not remember anything that had happened after entering the tower.
"Hiss... my eye hurts so much."
Obito was full of questions. His left eye had impaired vision, but when he lowered his head, his expression suddenly changed, and he cried out in alarm, "W-What is this?!"
When he had first woken up, his senses had still been sluggish, so he had not noticed.
Someone had used iron restraints to forcibly bind all four of his limbs to a heavy chair. The chair's legs had been welded to the floor, leaving it utterly immovable no matter how he struggled.
What was even more terrifying was that he discovered a huge metal device had been fitted around his neck.
The device resembled the gaping bloody maw of a beast. Jagged spikes crisscrossed its interior, stained with patches of brownish blood, making it all the more horrifying.
A tabletop stood before the chair. On it lay a sharp scalpel and a paused alarm clock.
After trying several times, Obito was soon panting from exhaustion and gave up struggling.
Creak, creak.
The sudden sound shattered the silence.
The strange noise instantly put Obito