While Team Kakashi was being hunted down by Mist Ninja, someone not far from the battlefield was thinking of them.
It was a massive cave, its entrance sealed by an earthen wall. The interior was vast and empty, with almost no furnishings besides a single bed.
A young man lay on his back atop the bed. He wore only a tattered pair of shorts, with a blanket covering his body while his limbs remained exposed. His skin was rough and dark, his hair long and disheveled, making him look like a destitute beggar.
Most striking of all was his half-black, half-white face and his tightly shut eyes. He looked remarkably similar to Madara in his possession state. This person was Obito, who had been gravely injured at Kannabi Bridge.
After Madara took Obito away from the pile of rubble that day, he used Wood Release cells to repair Obito's battered body and pulled him back from the brink of death.
Once Obito regained consciousness, Madara revealed his identity and disclosed part of the "Eye of the Moon" plan. In the end, he invited Obito to join this great "peace" plan and become his successor.
However, having survived the disaster, Obito only wanted to return to his companions. He had little interest in Madara's so-called plan and was even deeply repulsed by it. Due to Nawaki's relentless propaganda in recent years, Uchiha Madara had become the Shinobi World's greatest terrorist, and his plan was seen as a vast conspiracy to overturn the Shinobi World. With such upright values, Obito naturally could not be swayed so easily. Thus, although he was grateful to this ancestor who had saved his life, Obito still refused Madara's invitation and asked to return to Konoha, promising that he would not reveal any information about Madara afterward.