How Could an Adult Get Mad at a Kid... Holy Crap!

"Should we contact Nagato?"

Zetsu asked.

After all, Obito only had the Mangekyō Sharingan. His ability was simply too outrageous. Even Zetsu hadn't expected Uchiha Madara to find someone with such an absurd ability.

Uchiha Madara knew the Mangekyō Sharingan too well. But after he defected from the village, and with the Second Hokage's restrictions, the Uchiha had almost no understanding of the Mangekyō Sharingan.

In a sense, half of the clan's legacy had been lost.

The new clan leader hadn't inherited the knowledge of the previous leader, Uchiha Madara.

"No need. Let's go straight there."

Obito picked up his long sword and chain, ready to stretch his body.

After all, he'd only been manipulating things from the shadows in Kirigakure and rarely acted in person. His body was getting rusty.

"Uchiha Shisui, an S-rank missing-nin from Konoha!"

The person in charge of the Akatsuki's outer base looked at Uchiha Shisui with a wary expression.

He wasn't confident he could take down this target and claim the bounty, but he could still make a profit by taking a cut of the reward for the other man's missions.

"These are all the A-rank missions. Take a look."

He handed the mission details in his hand to Uchiha Shisui.

The Black Market had places that directly assigned bounty missions. But the Akatsuki also had some regular clients who privately assigned missions to them. The Akatsuki would pass on the missions it couldn't handle to wandering ninja.

However, the price they offered was usually only half the normal rate.

The Five Great Villages offered the highest prices. Most missions on the Black Market were assassination jobs, while protection missions rarely appeared there. After all, clients couldn't trust the Black Market.

Next came the smaller ninja villages and ninja organizations. The Akatsuki had a reputation for reliability among some major clients, so it received quite a few missions.

"Only three?"

Shisui was playing his role well. He planned to take on a few missions first, so the Akatsuki would become aware of him and eventually try to recruit him.

Still, he had a feeling that the first person to come looking for him would probably be "Uchiha Madara"!

"Among the ninja organizations, we're the only ones who can offer A-rank missions. The missions on the Black Market are a lot more troublesome, and A-rank missions are in high demand. If I didn't think you were capable, I wouldn't have shown them to you."

The person in charge of this Akatsuki branch said proudly.

He had the strength of a Jonin. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been put in charge of this branch.

But in Konoha, he would at best count as a Special Jōnin, or an elite Chunin. To ninja from other places, though, he was already an important figure.

"Then I'll take this one..."

Shisui picked up a protection mission. It mentioned that ninja from the Five Great Villages might attack.

But as soon as he picked it up, his eyes immediately activated the Sharingan.

The branch leader's pupils contracted. Thinking Shisui was about to rob him, he stared at those red eyes in terror and tried to use the Substitution Technique at once.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Three Shuriken shot past his ears almost instantly.

He was confused, but the Substitution Technique had already taken effect, and his whole body vanished from where he stood.

When he saw what had happened from off to the side, he found the three Shuriken embedded in the wall behind him. A long-haired man in a gray robe and mask had suddenly appeared in front of them.

"The Sharingan!"

He saw that the masked man, whose face showed only a single eye through a small opening, also had a Sharingan.

The moment he saw that eye, he collapsed and lost consciousness.

Shisui's whole body tensed. His right hand rested on the short sword at his back.

He hadn't expected someone to find him so soon. It was much faster than he'd anticipated.

"You're so tense. Weren't you looking for me?"

Obito altered his voice through the mask, making it sound deeper.

He taunted Shisui.

He didn't believe the other man had approached the Akatsuki for no reason.

It had to be either Konoha or the Uchiha. One of those two sides had sent Shisui to get close to him.

"Are you Uchiha Madara?"

Shisui asked coldly.

"As you can see, I am Uchiha Madara."

Obito had plenty of time, so he was happy to take things slowly. After Uchiha Madara's death, he was Uchiha Madara.

"No, you're not Uchiha Madara. You're too weak. During the Nine-Tails Incident, even the Fourth Hokage couldn't do anything to him. The power I seek isn't something someone like you could possess."

Shisui immediately rejected the claim.

His role now was that of an obsessive man seeking greater power for the sake of peace.

He had to make his intentions clear: he needed power for peace.

The Will of Fire couldn't save Konoha. Only power could.

That was the persona Uchiha Gin had created for him in the scroll. And after reading it, Shisui had realized it did make a little sense.

If he really had that kind of power, then both Konoha and the Uchiha would listen to him, and their conflicts would disappear.

Chapter 41: How Could an Adult Get Mad at a Kid... Holy Crap!

"The Fourth Hokage?"

"That was only the beginning of my revenge. How could an adult get mad at a kid?"

Hearing Shisui say that, Obito was displeased.

He stubbornly defended himself.

He was completely ignoring how he'd fled in a panic after taking a Rasengan.

"Then prove it to me."

"I want the person I ask for answers to be the real Uchiha Madara."

Shisui drew his short sword, ready to clash with him.

He wanted to test this "Uchiha Madara's" strength. If he could defeat him and take him back to Konoha, perhaps he could ease the conflict between the Konoha High Command and the Uchiha.

Most importantly, a few days before coming to the Akatsuki, he'd used the First Hokage Cells that Uchiha Gin had given him.

He'd come prepared to stake his life. He had no interest in saving his trump card for later, and he trusted Uchiha Gin. He trusted Itachi even more.

When he'd fought Uchiha Gin, he'd realized that he couldn't put any pressure on him. The other man could easily deflect every attack. That had made Shisui feel pressured, and it was one of the reasons he'd used the First Hokage Cells, even though he didn't know that's what they were.

After using the cells, he'd never felt so comfortable. It was as if his whole body had been reborn.

After awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan, he no longer felt the pain he used to. It was as effortless as instinct. His chakra had increased fivefold, and his physical strength had doubled.

This gave him confidence as he faced Uchiha Madara.

"Interesting. Then give it a try..."

Obito had barely finished speaking when his pupils contracted sharply.

He had no time to think. His body instinctively activated intangibility.

Shisui's short sword sliced across his neck. If he'd been even a moment slower, Obito felt his head might have been cut off.

"So fast! This speed is just like the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God!"

Obito was shocked.

He could only think, Holy crap. Were young people this incredible nowadays?

He'd seen Shisui a few times when he was a child. He knew Shisui was called Body Flicker Shisui in Konoha, but he'd never imagined that Body Flicker could be this fast!

"Can you only dodge?"

"What happened to the power that could rival the God of Shinobi? Let me see it."

Shisui stopped attacking.

The intelligence he'd received mentioned this intangibility ability. He had to keep forcing his opponent to remain intangible until its duration ran out, or use a Space-Time Ninjutsu that could break through and attack him directly.

But Shisui had another method: genjutsu.

The only genjutsu Shisui thought could work was one that made the opponent look directly into his eyes. By manipulating their pupils, he could cast genjutsu and disrupt the chakra within their body. But against someone with the Mangekyō Sharingan, it was nearly useless. At most, it could restrain them for less than a second.

More powerful genjutsu wouldn't work either, because it required the opponent to reveal his physical form. It could only restrain him for a second at most. Those with the Mangekyō had powerful mental strength and could easily break free of genjutsu. Genjutsu was simply another way of releasing chakra; it had to touch the opponent or use some other medium, such as touch or sound.

The Kotoamatsukami eye technique was the same. If the opponent revealed his true form for even an instant, Shisui could use Kotoamatsukami to attack him.

Besides controlling someone, Kotoamatsukami had another form: it could directly and powerfully destroy the opponent's mental strength—Kotoamatsukami: Light Ultimate Storm [Kotoamatsukami: Light Ultimate Storm setting].

Once they entered the world of genjutsu, Shisui believed he could control everything.

"Have the Uchiha's descendants become this arrogant?"

"Fine. Then I'll show you the power of a god!"

Obito was getting annoyed too.

He'd thought he'd come here to relax, but instead, the fight had turned intense right from the start.

He also felt that Shisui was strong enough to become a core member of the Akatsuki. So after showing him his strength, Obito planned to make him obey and turn him into a pawn.

As soon as he finished speaking, Obito drew the long sword at his waist and charged at Shisui.

The Sharingan in Shisui's eyes changed straight into the Mangekyō. Obito couldn't figure out what Shisui's eye technique was, but he believed that if he could touch him, he'd win the fight.

Still, he knew Shisui was skilled at genjutsu, so he didn't look directly into Shisui's eyes. Instead, he used his Sharingan to read Shisui's movements and react.

Obito raised his sword and brought it down on Shisui.

But Shisui didn't move at all. His gaze seemed fixed on Obito, making him feel a chill run through his heart.

Without ending his intangibility, Obito's sword passed straight through Shisui's body, doing no harm.

"You're afraid!"

Shisui had noticed and said it aloud.

Obito didn't answer, but anger flared inside him. He abandoned his sword, reached out with his left hand, and grabbed for Shisui's face. He wanted to block Shisui's vision, then use Kamui to pull him into another dimension.

This time, Shisui fought back, slashing at him with his short sword.

Obito passed through Shisui again. When he turned around, a Shuriken passed through his body, followed by Shisui's rapid assault.

With the Body Flicker Technique, Obito had almost no chance to become tangible.

"Is that all you can do?"

"You don't even dare show your real body and fight me head-on?"

"This is Uchiha Madara?"

Shisui taunted him as he fought.

He hadn't been like this before. But after defecting from Konoha, he'd let himself go.

He'd finally realized that playing by the rules was useless, and that ruthless methods worked better.

"He's trying to force me to become tangible. Is he planning to finish me with his eye technique?"

Obito didn't respond, but his face beneath the mask grew more and more tense.

He felt he'd grown too arrogant over the years and lost his sense of caution. Maybe it was because one of the Five Great Villages had become a plaything in his hands.

"His eye technique is probably genjutsu or a ninjutsu enhancement. Neither would work on me."

"So he's confident that a genjutsu-based eye technique can decide the outcome against me, a Mangekyō Sharingan user?"

Obito searched for an opening while thinking it over.

If he hadn't started by talking so big, running away now would've been a little embarrassing. Otherwise, he'd have wanted to leave long ago.