I Choose Orochimaru as Hokage, Ascending to the Moon in Ten Years Chapter 28

"Should we contact Nagato?"

Zetsu asked.

After all, Obito only possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, though his abilities were heaven-defying. Even he hadn't expected Uchiha Madara to select someone with such monstrous capabilities as Obito.

It could only be said that Uchiha Madara understood the Mangekyō Sharingan too well. However, after his defection and the restrictions imposed by the Second Hokage, the Uchiha clan had almost no knowledge left regarding the Mangekyō Sharingan.

The lineage had essentially been severed halfway.

The new clan head had not received the information passed down from the previous leader, Uchiha Madara.

"No need. Let's go directly."

Obito picked up his long blade and chains, ready to loosen up his body.

After all, he had only been manipulating things from the shadows in Kirigakure and rarely took action himself; his body had grown a bit rusty.

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

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

He wasn't confident he could take down this target to claim the bounty on his head, but skimming a portion of the profit from the man's missions was still feasible.

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

He handed the mission details to Uchiha Shisui.

The Black Market had designated locations for distributing bounty missions, but the Akatsuki organization also had private clients who came to them directly. Missions that the Akatsuki couldn't handle themselves were often parceled out to wandering ninja.

However, the pay for these was usually only half the standard rate.

The Five Great Nations offered the highest payouts. Missions in the Black Market were primarily assassinations; protection-style missions rarely appeared there, as employers didn't trust them.

Next were the smaller ninja villages and organizations. In the eyes of major clients, the Akatsuki had a reputation for reliability, allowing them to secure quite a few missions.

"Only three?"

Shisui played his role well, intending to complete a few missions to make his presence known to the Akatsuki and wait for them to try and recruit him.

However, he had a feeling that the first person to come looking for him would likely be 'Uchiha Madara'!

"Only we, the Akatsuki, can provide A-rank missions. The ones in the Black Market are far more troublesome, and A-rank missions are highly sought after. If it weren't for your proven strength, I wouldn't even have brought these out."

The person in charge of this Akatsuki sub-base spoke with great arrogance.

He possessed the strength of a Jonin; otherwise, he wouldn't have been assigned as the head of this sub-base.

While his strength would be considered at most a Special Jonin or an elite Chunin in Konoha, to outside ninja, he was already a big shot.

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

Shisui picked up a protection mission, which noted the possibility of attacks from ninja of the Five Great Nations.

But just as he picked it up, he activated his Sharingan.

The sub-base leader's pupils constricted, thinking the man was about to betray them. Seeing those red eyes, he felt a surge of fear and instinctively prepared to use the Substitution Technique.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Three shuriken flew past his ear in an instant.

This left him confused, but the Substitution Technique had already been triggered, and he vanished from the spot.

When he regained his footing nearby and saw the situation clearly, he found the three shuriken embedded in the wall behind him. In front of the shuriken, a long-haired man wearing a mask and a gray robe had suddenly appeared.

"Sharingan!"

He realized that the masked man, who only revealed one eye through the hole in his mask, also possessed a Sharingan.

The moment he locked eyes with him, he collapsed, losing consciousness instantly.

Shisui tensed, his right hand resting on the short sword at his back.

He hadn't expected to be tracked down so quickly—it was far sooner than he had anticipated.

"So tense. Didn't you come here specifically looking for me?"

Obito used his mask to alter his voice, making it sound deep and heavy.

At the same time, he asked Shisui with a hint of mockery.

He didn't believe for a second that the man had approached the Akatsuki for no reason.

It was either Konoha or the Uchiha—one of those two parties had sent Shisui to get close to him.

"Are you Uchiha Madara?"

Shisui demanded in a cold tone.

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

Obito had plenty of time, so he was interested in playing along. Since Uchiha Madara was dead, he was Uchiha Madara.

"No, you are not Uchiha Madara. Your strength is too weak. During the Nine-Tails Incident, even the Fourth Hokage couldn't do anything about him. The power I seek is not something possessed by someone like you."

Shisui retorted directly.

The persona he was to adopt next was that of a paranoid man who, for the sake of peace, was single-mindedly obsessed with obtaining greater power.

He had to manifest his intent: because he desired peace, he required power.

The Will of Fire could not save Konoha; only power could.

This was the persona Uchiha Gin had crafted for him within the scroll, and after reading it, Shisui found that it actually made a certain amount of sense.

If he truly possessed this power, then whether it was Konoha or the Uchiha, both would listen to his words, and conflict would cease to exist.

"Fourth Hokage?"

"That was merely the beginning of a vendetta; what kind of adult would get angry at a child?"

Hearing Shisui say this, Obito was quite displeased.

He spoke with stubborn defiance.

There was no trace of the man who had been struck by a Rasengan and fled in a panic back then.

"Then prove it to me."

"I hope the person I am questioning is the true Uchiha Madara."

Shisui drew his short blade directly, ready to cross steel immediately.

He wanted to test the caliber of this 'Uchiha Madara.' If he could take him down and bring him back to Konoha, it might alleviate the friction between the Konoha higher-ups and the Uchiha clan.

Most importantly, in the days before coming to the Akatsuki, he had used the First Hokage Cells given to him by Uchiha Gin.

He had come out prepared to face death, so he had no interest in holding back his trump cards until the end. Moreover, he trusted Uchiha Gin, and he trusted Itachi even more.

When he had sparred with Uchiha Gin, he realized he couldn't put any pressure on him; the man could easily neutralize his offensives every time. This had made him feel the pressure, which was one of the reasons he used the First Hokage Cells, even though he didn't know at the time what they were.

After using the First Hokage Cells, he had never felt so comfortable; he felt as if his entire being had been reborn.

Upon activating his Mangekyō Sharingan, the pain he once felt was gone, replaced by an instinctual ease. His chakra reserves had increased fivefold, and his physical capabilities had doubled.

This gave him full confidence in challenging this Uchiha Madara.

"Interesting. Then, by all means, try it..."

Before Obito's words had even faded, his pupils contracted violently.

There was no time to think; his body instinctively triggered his intangibility.

Shisui's short blade sliced directly through where his neck had been. If he had been even a fraction of a second slower, Obito felt his head might very well have been severed.

"So fast! This speed is the same as the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God!"

Obito was shocked.

He cursed inwardly, wondering if the younger generation was really this formidable now.

He had seen Shisui a few times when he was a child. Although he knew Shisui held the title of Body Flicker Shisui in Konoha, he had never imagined the Body Flicker could be this fast!

"Is that all you can do—hide?"

"What about the power that rivals the God of Shinobi? Let me see it."

Shisui did not continue his assault.

His intelligence report included this intangibility ability. Unless one could force the opponent to remain intangible until their duration ended, or possess space-time ninjutsu to bypass it and strike the target directly, it was difficult to counter.

However, Shisui had another method: genjutsu!

The only genjutsu Shisui deemed effective was to force the opponent to look directly into his eyes, using the vibration of his pupils to release a genjutsu that would disrupt the flow of chakra within the target. However, such a technique was almost useless against someone with a Mangekyō Sharingan, capable of restricting them for less than a second.

Stronger genjutsu were ineffective because they required the opponent to manifest a physical form, and even then, it would only restrict them for a second at most. Those with a Mangekyō Sharingan possessed immense mental fortitude and could easily break free. Genjutsu was essentially another way of releasing chakra, requiring physical contact or other mediums like touch or sound.

The dōjutsu Kotoamatsukami: Light Ultimate Storm was the same. If the opponent revealed a flaw and manifested their true body for an instant, he could use it to strike.

Beyond manipulation, Kotoamatsukami had another function: to forcefully shatter the opponent's mental fortitude.

Once inside the genjutsu world, Shisui believed he could control everything.

"Have the descendants of the Uchiha become this arrogant?"

"Very well, then I shall let you witness the power of a god!"

Obito was becoming irritated.

He had thought this would be a relaxing outing, but he hadn't expected to be pushed this hard right from the start.

At the same time, he sensed that Shisui's strength was sufficient to become a core member of the Akatsuki, so he prepared to make Shisui understand his place, obey his commands, and become his pawn.

As he spoke, Obito drew the long blade from his waist and charged straight at Shisui.

Shisui's Sharingan pupils shifted into the pattern of his Mangekyō. Obito couldn't gauge Shisui's dōjutsu abilities yet, but he believed that as long as he made contact with Shisui, he would win this fight.

However, he knew Shisui was a master of genjutsu, so he avoided looking directly into his eyes, instead using his own Sharingan to judge Shisui's limb movements and react accordingly.

Obito swung his blade down toward Shisui.

But he noticed Shisui didn't move at all, his gaze seemingly locked onto him, which sent a chill through Obito's heart.

Without deactivating his intangibility to restore his physical form, the long blade passed directly through Shisui's body, failing to inflict any damage at all.

"You're afraid!"

Shisui noticed this and stated it directly.

Obito did not answer, but a fire of rage ignited in his heart. Abandoning his long blade, Obito reached out with his left hand, lunging straight for Shisui's face. He wanted to obstruct Shisui's vision and use Kamui to pull him into the other dimension.

But this time, Shisui fought back, slashing directly with his short blade.

Obito passed through Shisui's body once again. As he turned around, a shuriken flew straight through him, followed immediately by Shisui's rapid-fire assault.

Combined with the Body Flicker Technique, Obito had almost no opportunity to deactivate his intangibility.

"Is this all you have?"

"Too afraid to even manifest your physical form and trade blows with me?"

"Is this Uchiha Madara?"

Shisui taunted him as he fought.

He hadn't been this type of person in the past, but ever since he defected from Konoha, he had let himself go.

He had realized that following the rules was useless, and that being unscrupulous was far more effective.

He is forcing me to reveal my physical form. Is he planning to finish me off with a dōjutsu?

Obito did not respond, but his expression beneath the mask grew increasingly tense.

He felt that he had become too arrogant over these past few years, losing his sense of caution. Perhaps it was because the Five Great Shinobi Villages had become mere playthings in his hands that he had ended up this way.

His dōjutsu is likely an illusion-type. Ninjutsu-enhancement types are completely ineffective against me.

So he is confident that an illusion-type dōjutsu can deliver a decisive blow to a Mangekyo user like me!

Obito thought to himself while searching for an opening.

If he hadn't been so arrogant with his opening remarks, making it too embarrassing to simply run away, he would have left long ago.