Hiruko

In the Land of Rain, within an abandoned village, Obito, clad in a straw raincoat, darted ghostlike through the buildings. Yet after half an hour of searching, he had found nothing.

"Could this mission really have been meant only to lure me away?"

Obito's expression was desolate as he stood blankly in the rainy night, allowing the rain to slowly soak through his raincoat.

Outside the abandoned village, Orochimaru hid in the shadows and waited quietly.

He had followed Uchiha Obito from the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire, yet even now, he had seen no sign of Uchiha Houka.

Didn't he catch up?

Orochimaru's eyes flickered. Without revealing anything, he continued to lie in wait, because no matter how things developed, he would be the final winner.

In this plan, Danzo was responsible for purging the Uchiha Clan. To keep Uchiha Houka from interfering, Danzo had deliberately sent Uchiha Obito to the Land of Rain and lured Houka into following him. Orochimaru, meanwhile, had contacted Uchiha Shin and invited him to deal with Uchiha Houka. Once the two sides had wounded each other, it would be time for Orochimaru, the fisherman, to make his move.

Not long after, an eerie sound suddenly came from deep within the rainy night, like some enormous reptile scraping across the ground. It sounded all the more sinister in the darkness.

Obito's expression sharpened as he looked up. A strange figure was slowly approaching from outside the village.

The newcomer seemed severely hunched over, bent so low that his back nearly touched the ground. Wearing a black cloak patterned with red clouds and a straw hat, it inched closer like a crawling insect.

"Who's there?!"

Obito shouted coldly, warily drawing a kunai.

Hiruko slowly stopped before Obito and snorted.