Danzo's Lair

Amid the rubble, the thick smoke and dust slowly dispersed.

Obito knelt on one knee at the edge of a collapsed wall, both hands braced desperately against the ground.

The specially made orange spiral mask on his face split open down the middle with a huge crack, followed by a sharp snap.

The mask shattered into more than a dozen pieces, clattering onto the ground.

With nothing left to conceal it, the face beneath the mask was completely exposed to the air.

The right half of his face was covered in terrifying dark brown scars, the wrinkled skin bunched together in a gruesome sight.

Chenshu Senju stood not far away and curled his lip.

Disfigured that badly and he still hadn't gone to Tsunade for treatment. Instead, he wore a mask all day pretending to be mysterious. Now that his trump card had been exposed, he was finished.

The air in the conference hall was quiet.

So quiet that only the howl of the cold wind blowing in could be heard.

Kakashi had originally been standing in the guards' section, warily watching the center of the hall.

The moment he clearly saw Obito's scar-covered profile, his entire body froze.

His exposed eye widened abruptly.

His breathing turned ragged. Veins bulged across the back of his hand, and even the kunai in his grip trembled slightly.

"Ob... Obito?"

Kakashi's voice shook, filled with utter disbelief.

His legs carried him two steps forward without his control, his gaze locked onto the figure amid the ruins.

What was going on?

That close friend who had died at Kannabi Bridge, who had been pinned beneath a boulder with half his body crushed and entrusted his Sharingan to him.

How could he be the madman before him, the one who spoke of destroying the world