Obito's Goal

Outside Konoha, Uchiha Obito slowly materialized within the forest.

This brief interval had already made him realize that he had just been bluffed by a Flying Thunder God Kunai.

Just as he was irritably debating whether to go back and see who had dared to deceive him, a pale figure emerged silently from a thick tree branch beside him.

The figure was as white as paper, appearing like a ghost that had just escaped from the underworld.

If he were to act in a horror movie next door, he could likely terrify a crowd without needing any makeup.

"Haha, I saw it all! Obito, you actually got spooked by a dead man and ran away in a panic~"

The moment White Zetsu poked his head out, his gloating voice rang out.

Uchiha Obito was instantly incensed upon hearing this.

He turned his head to glare fiercely at White Zetsu and snapped, "Shut up! I just didn't want to stay there, and besides, I am Uchiha Madara now—you should address me as Lord Madara!"

With that, Uchiha Obito turned and walked away without looking back.

However, White Zetsu did not seem inclined to let it go; his figure flickered, sinking slowly into the tree branch like a phantom.

In the blink of an eye, he reappeared not far in front of Uchiha Obito and said with a grin, "Hehehe, aren't you curious about who that person was, Obito? I witnessed it with my own eyes, you know."

Uchiha Obito was actually harboring some doubts about the person who had used the Flying Thunder God Kunai to scare him.

After all, how could that person have judged that he would be frightened away by the Flying Thunder God?

Wasn't he afraid of guessing wrong and being killed by him?

Carrying these doubts, he was just about to ask White Zetsu who it was, but the next second, seeing White Zetsu's mocking expression, he instantly lost interest.

Uchiha Chen just roared irritably, "I don't want to know, shut up!"

Having said that, he brushed past White Zetsu and continued on his way.

After all, the purpose of this trip to Konoha had already been accomplished.

The sacrifice of Namikaze Minato and the Nine-Tails jinchūriki would cause Konoha, which had just regained its vitality and begun to flourish, to grind to a halt.

As he walked, he recalled the Third Shinobi World War he had participated in.

The fuse for this war was the disappearance of the Third Kazekage after being ambushed by Sasori.

Having lost their leader, Sunagakure chose to declare war on Konoha to divert internal conflicts.

Seeing this, other hidden villages felt there was profit to be made and joined the fray one after another.

In the total war, the first to be defeated was Sunagakure.

With the village's most powerful Kazekage missing, although they had temporarily diverted internal strife through war, the long-impoverished Sunagakure could only barely protect itself, even with the future Fourth Kazekage Rasa and Scorch Release user Pakura fighting off the invaders.

In the end, Sunagakure, the instigator of the war, became the first village to be eliminated.

On the side of Iwagakure, Kakkō led a large army and successfully pushed Konoha's defensive forces to the point where only a few remained.

However, in such a desperate situation, the suddenly emerged Namikaze Minato turned the tide of the battle single-handedly.

In this battle, all the leaders of Iwagakure's various fronts were killed.

This included Mahiru, Taiseki, Sumaishi, Kakkō, and others... which led to the total collapse of Iwagakure on the Konoha front.

What made things even worse for Iwagakure was yet to come.

Seeing Iwagakure and Konoha locked in a fierce battle, the Third Raikage seized the opportunity to personally lead an elite force, intending to raid Ōnoki's home base.

However, Iwagakure, having anticipated this, saw through the plan and dispatched ten thousand ninja to surround them.

They had intended to use these ten thousand low-to-mid-level ninja to crush the Third Raikage and his elite troops, but they underestimated the Third Raikage's power and spirit. After ordering his own troops to retreat first, the Third Raikage held off the ten thousand men single-handedly for three days and three nights before finally dying of exhaustion.

Although they killed the enemy's Kage, Iwagakure failed to achieve a single one of their strategic objectives in this battle.

Not only that, they suffered heavy losses, with countless ninja meeting their end, which was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Iwagakure.

With things having reached this point and both fronts failing, Iwagakure had no choice but to become the second village to be eliminated.

Next, the eliminated Kirigakure had truly terrible luck.

This time, Kirigakure, having rarely managed to assemble the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, were all ready and waiting to show off their skills in this war and grab a piece of the pie.

Unexpectedly, fate dealt them the strongest possible opponent.

The seven of them had just infiltrated Konoha territory and hadn't even managed to kill a few enemies when they encountered a nightmare they would never forget for the rest of their lives—Might Duy!

One must know that the strength of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist was not to be underestimated; the seven of them combined could have vied with the Kage of any nation.

If the Kage were slightly weaker, they would even have been confident in slaying them.

Yet, facing Might Duy, this Konoha genin whose attire made them laugh, they had no choice but to flee for their lives.

Might Duy, who had remained silent and obscure for many years, burned his very existence the moment he struck!

In this hasty battle, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were utterly routed.

The seven, renowned throughout the ninja world, ended up as nothing more than a "trio of mascots."

Even the three who managed to escape were severely wounded, leaving them unable to return to the battlefield for quite some time.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Kirigakure had originally planned to seal the Three-Tails inside a Konoha ninja, intending to infiltrate Konoha and trigger a Three-Tails catastrophe.

They never imagined that the large group of elite ninjas they had carefully selected would ultimately fall into a script meticulously designed by Uchiha Madara.

These Kirigakure ninjas, who had brought their own supplies and built their own stage, were wiped out in one fell swoop by Uchiha Obito, who had arrived upon hearing the news before they could even begin their performance.

With that, the unlucky Kirigakure was forced to gloomily withdraw from the war.

As for the remaining Kumogakure, although they had lost the Third Raikage, all their elites remained intact.

Unfortunately, just as the newly succeeded Fourth Raikage A and the Eight-Tails jinchuriki Killer B were about to show their mettle, their offensive momentum was halted by the Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato.

With their prestige greatly diminished, they could only begrudgingly engage in small-scale skirmishes.

They were powerless to launch another war.

Recalling this, Uchiha Obito once again thought back to that scene on the Kirigakure battlefield.

His gaze was instantly pulled back to the image of Rin being pierced through the heart by Hatake Kakashi before his eyes, and his heart was once again engulfed by pain and fury.

Fresh blood slowly trickled from his tightly bitten lips.

Since he had already struck Konoha, the village responsible for Rin's death, Kirigakure, as the primary culprit, naturally could not be let off easily.

Thus, having made up his mind, Uchiha Obito did not wait for the White Zetsu behind him to speak again; he spun his Sharingan violently and vanished without a trace in an instant.

The abandoned White Zetsu had just begun to mention that Uchiha Chen possessed a Mangekyo Sharingan when it realized Uchiha Obito had already disappeared without a trace.

It couldn't help but freeze. Looking at the spot where Uchiha Obito had stood before leaving, the White Zetsu, assuming he already knew, shrugged and slowly sank into the ground to scout for intelligence elsewhere.

Due to this carelessness on the part of the White Zetsu, an unexpected scene unfolded the next time Uchiha Obito encountered Uchiha Chen, despite the fact that he should have been fully prepared.

Uchiha Obito, having not anticipated that Uchiha Chen possessed the same power as his own Mangekyo Sharingan, suffered a bitter defeat.