The Soon-to-Be-Born Naruto

Orochimaru dismantled White Zetsu and began studying him.

He discovered that White Zetsu was a treasure trove from head to toe.

This thing was 99.99% identical to a human, yet it didn't seem to be human. It was another unique kind of creature.

It was a shame he'd only caught one. If only he could catch a few more.

Orochimaru wanted so badly to raise a whole bunch of White Zetsu in his laboratory.

However, Obito seemed to know where White Zetsu could be found.

He'd have to find an opportunity to get Zhengyi to trick Obito into revealing where White Zetsu lived.

Since Obito could be useful to him, Orochimaru naturally began paying attention to him.

Using what remained of White Zetsu, he made Obito a flesh-colored body.

After a series of operations, Obito opened his eyes and looked at his hands. "I'm finally not a half-pale monster anymore?"

"Of course."

Not only that, Orochimaru had also restored Obito's face.

There was no way Orochimaru would give him back that Three-Tomoe Sharingan. He planned to use it to strengthen his student, Zhengyi. So Obito still had an empty eye socket, which he usually covered with his Forehead Protector.

Obito was already very satisfied with that.

If his face was so frightening that it scared Rin, and he lost to Zhengyi, he couldn't bear to imagine how despairing he'd feel.

"Arigatou! Fourth Hokage uncle!!" Obito bowed to Orochimaru at a ninety-degree angle.

Orochimaru!

Orochimaru was practically the benefactor who'd given him a new life.

Waaah...

During these few months of Konoha's encouragement to have children, the heads of the various clans in Konoha had all welcomed new babies.

It heralded the arrival of Konoha's next generation.

Zhengyi still hoped the higher-ups would have more ordinary civilians like him, raised right and loyal to the village.

Freedom!!!

October.

The due date for Konoha's Jinchūriki was drawing near.

At every meeting, Orochimaru noticed the strange way Minato looked at him. There was worry, misgiving, and wariness in his eyes. Orochimaru was so exasperated he could barely stand it.

You can use the Flying Thunder God, so are you afraid I'll do something to you during a meeting?

He admitted he'd thought about taking Minato out, but definitely not now. The Shinobi World was eyeing Konoha covetously. It wasn't a good time for infighting.

Zhengyi had recently reminded him to be careful not to get ambushed by Minato during a meeting, too.

Nowadays, Orochimaru and Zhengyi never attended the same meetings. If they both showed up, they might get taken out in one fell swoop.

Obito was fourteen this year, and he'd successfully become a Konoha jōnin. He was quite tall in the conference room, standing over six feet and even taller than Minato. Naturally, he noticed Minato's worried gaze.

After the meeting, he went to ask Kakashi what was going on.

The Night of the Nine-Tails.

"What?! Sister Kushina will be killed while she's giving birth?!"

"Who did it?! What kind of monster could do something so vile?"

Obito punched a dent into the nearby telephone pole.

Sister Kushina was such a good person. Why would anyone be so cruel as to kill her?!

Kakashi shook his head. He couldn't tell Obito that Orochimaru was the likely culprit; with Obito's temper, he'd surely show hostility toward Orochimaru.

The grown-ups' conflicts had nothing to do with them kids.

He was on good terms with Zhengyi, and he was Minato-sensei's student.

Whichever side ended up with the Hokage title, he'd rise smoothly through the ranks and reach the heart of power. So as long as he didn't openly support either side, his future would be comfortable no matter what.

Obito thought his teacher wanted the Fourth Hokage to take the matter seriously, which was why he often watched the Fourth Hokage with worry during meetings. It was impolite, but his teacher loved his wife, so it made sense.

He channeled his anger into motivation and went to the gym. He'd train hard for a few days. Then he'd see which bastard dared to hurt Sister Kushina!

Zhengyi was at the gym today, too.

So were Guy, Ebisu, Gekko Hayate, Asuma, and a few other students from their year.

As the Third Hokage's son, Asuma was such a rebellious guy that Orochimaru didn't know what to do with him. In the end, he'd simply kept him as a hostage to make the Third Hokage think twice.

"Guy, you!"

Obito stared in astonishment at Guy, who was built like a bull.

Guy was practically born for bodybuilding. His muscles never hit a plateau. There were 365 days in a year, and if his body didn't need rest, he'd have lived at the gym. To him, working out was pure enjoyment.

And so the muscular Might Guy came to be, with shoulders nearly as wide as a child was tall.

The only downside to his physique might have been sacrificing some speed for strength, but Guy was still among the fastest of his peers.

"Youth means exercising without stopping! Obito! Kakashi!"

Might Duy, the best fitness coach around, came over with muscles bulging all over.

The father and son had so much muscle that everyone present felt inadequate.

They wondered just how powerful the pair's Taijutsu could be.

"Ah, it's a shame I'm already getting on in years." Seeing everyone's envious expressions, Duy sighed.

His body had already reached its limits, and he was no longer young. No matter how hard he trained, he lost a little muscle every year.

"I see." Obito was glad he was an Uchiha. The Uchiha had much stronger bodies than ordinary people.

He thought of Zhengyi.

Lately, Zhengyi had been slacking off in the office every day.

Obito trained his body harder every day, and his physical strength kept improving. When the time came, it'd be obvious who little Rin liked, wouldn't it?

Obito always remembered the way Rin had secretly peeked when he lifted Zhengyi's shirt that day.

As one side wanes, the other waxes! The advantage is mine.

"The Jinchūriki is about to give birth."

At that moment, the higher-ups were discussing the headache of Kushina's delivery.

If the Nine-Tails escaped, Konoha would be in real trouble.

Utatane Koharu suggested that Kushina give birth outside Konoha, and the proposal passed unanimously.

What was Minato so worried about? If Orochimaru released the Nine-Tails, Kushina died, and Orochimaru then sealed the Nine-Tails inside one of his own people, weakening Minato's faction while strengthening the Hokage faction?

Minato thought Orochimaru was capable of doing something like that.

Minato was being rather unfairly suspicious.

First of all, neither Orochimaru nor Zhengyi had even thought of such a despicable plan.

Second, he was the Hokage now. That position meant he couldn't play too dirty with his own people, or they'd lose faith in him.

It was the lingering effect of what Zhengyi had done to Shikaku and the others. He'd turned the tables and become Hokage from such a weak position, so they suspected every dirty trick would be used against them.

The cautious Shikaku was constantly telling Minato to watch out for this and that.

Both sides were on guard and had their own plans, so they grew suspicious of each other, and those suspicions only grew.

"Now that Obito's back, will anyone still come and cause trouble?" Zhengyi thought, rubbing his chin. Come to think of it, what Obito did later in the original story was pretty vile!

But Zhengyi was an Obito player, and he'd always had a soft spot for him because of the game. He was the kind of person who'd get mad whenever someone banned Obito.

Ten-Tails Obito, Drift Obito—he loved playing them.

He suddenly really wanted to play a mobile game.

But Konoha hadn't even reached the steam age yet. Getting a phone seemed pretty difficult.

Was his Zhengyi Prize really that unknown? No one had applied for it yet.