At dawn, Obito gently pulled his arm out from under Tsunade, who had been holding it, then shook it hard to ease the pins and needles.
As the saying went, the field never wore out from being worked; it was the ox that died of exhaustion. Especially with Tsunade, who was at such a ripe age—the soil was unbelievably fertile.
And the most outrageous thing was that she even had the Yin Seal... Whenever he was about to lose, she'd loosen the seal just a little and bounce right back to full strength. If he hadn't taken the Three-Turn Golden Elixir, Obito might really have died from exhaustion, cut down in the prime of his life.
Obito rubbed his lower back, wondering whether he should stew that little brat Guy to replenish his strength...
He tiptoed over to pick up his clothes, quietly closed the door, prepared breakfast for Tsunade, left her a note, and went out.
Tsunade slept for another hour before she finally woke, bleary-eyed. She'd cried twice last night and drunk two large glasses of water. Without the Yin Seal, she might have lost. She'd have to train harder from now on...
As it turned out, the two of them were surprisingly of one mind. They really were made for each other!
When she woke and didn't see her little wolf pup, her mood soured at once. Last night, he'd called her his sweetie, and the moment she opened her eyes, he was gone!
She grabbed her nightclothes and pulled them on. After getting out of bed, she saw a lovingly prepared breakfast on the table beside her, along with a note. It simply said, "Something came up. I had to step out." He'd even drawn a heart.
Tsunade put down the note and hummed a little tune as she went to wash up. Her mood suddenly brightened again...
Obito already knew his way around Root's base.
"Coming to see me so openly, Obito, aren't you afraid of causing trouble?" Orochimaru asked hoarsely.
"I'm just here to catch up. What's there to be afraid of? Besides, what is there in Konoha that could scare me?" Obito said nonchalantly.
"Fair enough... Come inside," Orochimaru replied.
"You've already been ruled out as the next Fourth Hokage. Don't you have a plan?" Obito asked.
"Heh..." Orochimaru's sinister chuckle was like a cold wind.
Paired with the surroundings in Root's base, it was a perfect match...
"I never thought he'd make me Hokage. Of the three of us, Jiraiya is his favorite. Jiraiya embodies the Will of Fire he preaches. Tsunade is his pride, while I'm nothing more than the knife in his hand," Orochimaru said.
"That's a pretty accurate analysis. But it looks like he can't keep hold of that knife anymore. Don't underestimate your teacher. You might end up dying heroically in this war, becoming the perfect embodiment of the Will of Fire. He'd get rid of you, and Minato would smoothly inherit the Hokage position. Perfect."
"And what about you? That foolish woman is like a collar. No matter how fierce a beast is, once it's collared, it can only serve as a guard dog!"
"Orochimaru, have you recovered from your injuries? Or do you think you're entitled to run your mouth in front of me? Don't think I won't kill you just because you're useful," Obito said irritably.
"Just joking, Obito. You really have no sense of humor. So, what's your plan?" Orochimaru asked slyly.
"This war will be far more difficult than the Third Hokage expects. We don't need to rush. Once the fighting reaches a stalemate, the Third Hokage will beg us to go to the front lines!"
The original story didn't say much about the Third Shinobi World War, but it still revealed quite a bit. The great nations had surrounded Konoha. Konoha won in the end, but suffered heavy losses. There was a man named Ao in Kirigakure who had a Byakugan. Everyone knew that only the eyes of the Hyuga Main Family survived after their owners died!
The Hyuga were a large clan, but the Main Family had very few members. Ao had encountered Shisui when he was still a child, and Konoha had sent the Uchiha Clan into battle. From this, one could infer just how prolonged and difficult the war had been.
Of course, it was also possible that the Third Hokage, that old schemer, had deliberately sent the Uchiha, who specialized in Fire Release, to fight the Kirigakure Ninja, who specialized in Water Release, hoping to weaken the Uchiha's strength.
"Oh? What information do you have?" Orochimaru asked.
"You don't need to know. I came to see you about something else. The Third Kazekage of Sunagakure was assassinated by the grandson of that old woman Chiyo. You should know the name Sasori. Find him and give him this scroll." Obito took out a scroll and handed it to Orochimaru.
"Sasori... You're becoming harder and harder to understand. I'll give it to him." Orochimaru stuffed the scroll into his mouth, wrapped it with his wet tongue, and swallowed it...
After borrowing the Anbu chief's men, Orochimaru had taken control of Konoha's spies in the other villages. Even he didn't know that Sasori had killed the Third Kazekage! It showed that Obito Uchiha's intelligence network was even stronger than Root's, despite Root having spent years putting down roots. How had he managed it? He was the sort of person Orochimaru wanted to drag into his lab immediately!
No matter how much Orochimaru speculated, he could never have known that Obito had arrived in this world with the benefit of foreknowledge.
Obito suppressed the bile rising in his throat, waved his hand, and vanished from the room.
In Obito's eyes, Sasori and Orochimaru were both extraordinarily useful talents. Fighting wasn't their greatest value!
In Obito's grand plan for the cosmos, Sasori was crucial. He was the undisputed aerospace engineer of the Naruto World... If the Otsutsuki could descend upon this planet, why couldn't they do the reverse?
Obito was sure Sasori would be very interested in what was inside the scroll. No child who loved machines could resist Megatron! This was Obito's bait. He didn't know what Megatron would do, but hooking Sasori was enough!
There was still plenty of time. If he hurried to find old man Madara now, he could still get home for dinner... And after dinner, he could...
Madara's hideout was on a peninsula north of the Land of Fire. His base was built beneath a gigantic skeleton, so it shouldn't be hard to find.
It took Obito half a day to find the place. He had no idea what kind of animal the enormous rib cage had belonged to. The secrets of this world went far beyond the shinobi. But the original story had never mentioned it, so Obito could only explore further someday.
Deep inside the underground base, Madara sat with his eyes closed on a stone chair in front of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. At a glance, he could have been mistaken for a corpse... His dry hair and skin looked utterly lifeless.
"Looks like we have a visitor..." Uchiha Madara opened his eyes and murmured. One of his three-tomoe Sharingan eyes was still crimson!
Before you continue