Obito Uchiha

If Obito Uchiha's chakra gave off a distinctly sinister feeling, like a huge shadow that appeared and vanished without warning, then the Zetsu underground felt even stranger. He was barely there, like an animal and a plant at once, seeming alive and yet somehow already dead. He was nothing like anything that should exist in nature.

Even Nagato thought they were seriously messed up. No wonder Katsuyu had wanted to kill them the instant she sensed them.

"Is someone coming?" Tsunade asked Katsuyu, who was healing her, when she and Nagato suddenly looked east.

Before Katsuyu could answer, a vortex suddenly formed in the air in front of Nagato. With no warning at all, a tall, short-haired man wearing a black cloak patterned with red clouds appeared.

He wore a yellow, spiral-shaped mask, and his whole body was covered in clothing. The only thing visible was his right eye. Three black tomoe turned slowly in its blood-red iris as he surveyed everyone present.

Tsunade immediately reached the same conclusion as Katsuyu: this guy was definitely bad news.

Unlike Nagato, whose outward appearance was cold but whose body radiated vibrant life energy, Obito felt cold through and through. It was as if his heart had died, turning him into an emotionless creature of darkness.

"Nagato, what are you doing here?" Obito asked after looking around.

At the same time, two green aloe-like leaves emerged from the ground behind him, joined together in a ring. They continued rising, then opened to reveal a face in the middle, half black and half white. Zetsu crawled out of the ground, looking like some kind of two-faced freak.

Like Obito, Zetsu wore the Akatsuki's black cloak with red clouds. After he had just sprouted from the ground like a pitcher plant, the more excitable white half of his personality, White Zetsu, spoke up. "Boss, this place sure was hard to find." As he spoke, he even wiggled his body playfully, like he was doing morning exercises.

In an instant, four Akatsuki members in red-cloud cloaks had gathered near the entrance to Shikkotsu Forest, including Konan and Nagato. It looked as though the Akatsuki had taken over the place.

Katsuyu's voice sounded in Nagato's mind again. "Nagato, we should kill these two!"

Because he was in Sage Mode, Nagato could clearly sense the intense killing intent that Katsuyu and Tsunade both felt toward Obito.

Their reaction amused him. Neither Tsunade, who had yelled at him in Konoha, nor Katsuyu, who had sprayed acid at his head the moment they met, had shown anything like this level of killing intent.

Katsuyu and Tsunade seemed to have very similar personalities. When they were openly shouting about fighting and killing, their murderous intent wasn't actually that strong. It was in moments like this, when they fell silent and stayed on guard, that their killing intent steadily built. They were like beasts patiently waiting to strike a fatal blow at their prey, and the feeling was almost suffocating.

"You're here," Nagato said, ignoring Katsuyu's words and greeting Obito. "Madara Uchiha."

It was a simple greeting, but the last four words struck like a thunderclap, shattering the tense atmosphere.

Tsunade let out a gasp. "That's impossible!"

Large beads of cold sweat ran down Hinata's face as she covered her mouth with a hand.

To those in the know, the name Madara Uchiha carried an incredible weight. Anyone familiar with his history understood what that name meant.

Maybe they could already hear the music playing in their heads: low and slow. I wonder if it'll clash with my own theme music? Nagato wondered solemnly.

"Is it true? Is that really Madara Uchiha?" Katsuyu asked in his mind, sounding grave.

"Fake. He's just using the name to fool people," Nagato replied at once.

Katsuyu: ...

"If he's fake, why did you make it sound so real?"

Katsuyu felt like Nagato was making her jump out of her skin over and over. She yelled in his mind.

"Show some composure. You're a sage, for goodness' sake. How can you get so worked up over a mere human?" Nagato said, unconcerned by her reaction.

Madara Uchiha was just a defeated loser at the hands of Hashirama Senju. What was so impressive about him? A mere drop in the bucket.

As for Obito, Nagato's calm reaction left him baffled. He couldn't understand why Nagato had suddenly come to Shikkotsu Forest, or why he looked so different. Even his whole demeanor had changed. He seemed completely healthy again.

Obito covertly swept his Sharingan across the others, noting their shocked expressions at hearing Madara's name. Then he asked Nagato, "What about the Nine Tails? I heard you failed to capture him."

"I've changed my mind. I'll deal with the Nine Tails my own way. Of course, if you're in a hurry and want to go after Naruto yourself, I won't stop you." Nagato deliberately raised the arm with Obito's transplanted left eye and adjusted his hair, watching Obito's reaction closely.

Obito's eyes held only confusion. Nagato seemed to have changed, and their relationship felt much more distant. How could this be? They were supposed to be each other's angels.

Nagato secretly relaxed. After he had wrapped the transplanted eye in Senjutsu Chakra, Obito couldn't use his Sharingan to see what was inside. As long as he didn't use the eye's power in front of Obito, Obito shouldn't realize that he had transplanted Kakashi's eye.

After all, the perceptive abilities of eyes in this world made no sense. Take Obito Uchiha standing right in front of him: he had once used Kamui brazenly in front of both Kakashi and Hinata. Yet neither Kakashi's Sharingan—the pair to Obito's—nor Hinata's genuine Byakugan had been able to identify Obito by the color of his chakra.

By contrast, the Shinobi World's number-one scapegoat, Danzo, had been exposed the moment he used a tiny genjutsu in front of a one-eyed man with just one transplanted Byakugan.

That showed what a jinx Danzo was. He was just plain unlucky. Even if Sasuke hadn't killed him at the Five Kage Summit, he probably would've tripped and killed himself on the way back to Konoha. Either way, he was doomed.

"What? What happens to our plan now?" Obito's voice was hoarse. He was completely stunned, wondering why Nagato had let them down at such a crucial moment. He glanced at Tsunade and Hinata, then asked Nagato, "And who are these two?"

His gaze lingered on Tsunade, ice-cold. He could sense her killing intent.

Tsunade had recovered a good amount of chakra by now, but she deliberately stayed in her old-lady form. It was obvious she was up to no good. Unfortunately for her, all her opponents had activated their eye powers. So her act didn't help her at all; instead, it made them wary. With the amount of chakra she had now, how could she look so weak? She was clearly faking it.

"This old woman is Konoha's Fifth Hokage," Nagato said. "Of course the organization's plan will continue. I'm sure of it. What about the Eight Tails? Did you capture him?"

"No. Sasuke failed."

The Eight Tails made Obito even more speechless. Sasuke had brought back an octopus tentacle. Was he a tentacle enthusiast or something?

"Hehe, both the Eight Tails and the Nine Tails slipped through our fingers," Zetsu interjected. He loved gloating when others were unhappy. One word from him and you could tell he was a master of snide remarks.