Naruto's Imminent Birth

Orochimaru disassembled White Zetsu and studied it.

He discovered that White Zetsu was valuable from head to toe.

It was 99.99% infinitely similar to humans, yet it did not seem to be human. It was another unique life-form.

Unfortunately, he had only caught one. It would have been nice if he could capture a few more.

Orochimaru wanted to raise a whole bunch of White Zetsu in his laboratory.

However, Obito seemed to know where White Zetsu could be found.

It seemed he would have to find an opportunity to have Masaichi trick Obito into revealing White Zetsu's address.

Since Obito was useful to him, Orochimaru naturally began paying attention to Obito's affairs.

Using the remaining White Zetsu material, he made Obito a flesh-colored body.

After a round of surgery, Obito opened his eyes and looked at his hand. "I'm finally not a half-pale monster anymore?"

"Of course."

Not only that, Orochimaru had restored Obito's face as well.

There was no way Orochimaru would return that Three-Tomoe Sharingan to Obito. He planned to use it to strengthen his student Masaichi, so Obito still had one empty eye socket, which he usually covered with his forehead protector.

Obito was already very satisfied with this.

If his terrifying face scared Rin, and he lost to Masaichi because of it, he did not dare imagine how despairing he would be.

"Arigato! Fourth Hokage uncle!" Obito gave Orochimaru a ninety-degree bow.

Orochimaru!

Orochimaru was practically the benefactor who had given him a new life.

Sob, sob, sob...

During these past few months of Konoha encouraging childbirth, the clan heads of Konoha's various families had all welcomed children.

It signified the arrival of Konoha's next generation.

Masaichi still hoped the higher-ups would have more commoners like him, with proper and upright roots.

Freedom!!!

October.

Konoha's Jinchūriki was nearing her due date.

Every time Orochimaru attended a meeting, he could sense that something was off about the way Minato looked at him. There was worry, hesitation, and wariness in his eyes, which left Orochimaru utterly speechless.

You could already use Flying Raijin. Were you still afraid I'd do something to you during a meeting?

He admitted that he had considered getting rid of Minato, but definitely not now. The Ninja World was eyeing Konoha like a tiger watching its prey; this was not the time for internal strife.

Masaichi had even recently reminded him to be careful during meetings, lest Minato ambush him.

At Konoha's current meetings, Orochimaru and Masaichi never appeared at the same time. If they did, they feared being caught in one sweep.

Obito was fourteen this year and had successfully become a Jonin of Konoha Village. In the meeting room, he was quite tall—over 1.8 meters, even taller than Minato—so naturally, he could see Minato's worried gaze as well.

After the meeting, he went to ask Kakashi why.

Nine-Tails Night.

"What?! Sister Kushina will be killed while she's giving birth?!"

"Who did it?! Which bastard could be this heartless?"

Obito punched the utility pole beside him, leaving a dent in it.

Sister Kushina was such a good person. Why would anyone be so vicious as to harm her to death?!

Kakashi shook his head. He could not tell Obito that Orochimaru was the most likely culprit. Otherwise, with Obito's temperament, he would definitely show hostility toward Orochimaru.

The struggles of adults had nothing to do with children like them.

He was close to Masaichi and was also Minato's student.

No matter which of those two factions became Hokage, he would rise smoothly through the ranks and enter the core of power. As long as he did not openly support either side, his future life would be easy and fulfilling.

Obito assumed his teacher wanted the Fourth Hokage uncle to pay more attention to this matter, which was why he often looked worriedly at the Fourth Hokage uncle during meetings. It was rather rude, but his teacher loved his wife, so it was understandable.

He turned his anger into motivation and went to the gym. He would train viciously for the next few days, and then he would see which beast dared harm Sister Kushina!

Masaichi was at the gym today too.

There were also Guy, Ebisu, Gekko Hayate, Asuma, and several other students from their class.

As the Third Hokage's son, Asuma was such a rebellious brat that even Orochimaru did not know how to handle him. He simply kept him around as a hostage to make the Third Hokage wary.

"Guy, you!"

Obito stared at Guy in astonishment. He was built like a bull.

Guy was practically made for bodybuilding. He had no bottleneck when it came to building muscle. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, if his body did not need rest, he would have loved to live in the gym. To him, working out was a form of enjoyment.

And so, Might Guy had become a muscular man whose body was nearly wider than a child's height.

The only disadvantage of this body was perhaps that it sacrificed some speed for strength, but Guy's speed was still among the very best for his age.

"Youth means constantly exercising! Obito! Kakashi!"

Might Dai, the best fitness coach here, also arrived with a body full of muscles.

The father and son's sheer muscle mass made everyone present feel inferior.

They were very curious just how strong this father and son were at taijutsu.

"Ah, what a pity. I'm already getting on in years." Facing the crowd's envious expressions, Dai spoke regretfully.

His body had already reached its limit, and he was no longer young. No matter how he trained each year, he would lose a little muscle.

"I see." Obito was glad he was an Uchiha. Their bodies were far stronger than ordinary people's.

He thought of Masaichi.

Masaichi had been slacking off in the office every day lately.

Meanwhile, he trained extra every day, and his physical condition was getting stronger and stronger. When the time came, there would be no need to say who little Rin would like, right?

Obito had never forgotten the furtive look in Rin's eyes when he lifted Masaichi's shirt that day.

One side rose while the other fell! The advantage was mine.

"The Jinchūriki is about to give birth."

At that moment, the higher-ups were discussing the headache-inducing matter of Kushina's delivery.

If the Nine-Tails escaped, Konoha would truly be doomed.

Koharu Utatane proposed sending Kushina outside Konoha to give birth, and it was unanimously approved.

What had Minato been worried about all this time? If Orochimaru released the Nine-Tails, Kushina died, and then Orochimaru sealed the Nine-Tails into one of his own people?

He felt that Orochimaru was capable of doing something that weakened his faction while strengthening the Hokage faction.

Minato was judging a gentleman by a petty person's standards.

First, neither Orochimaru nor Masaichi had thought of anything so underhanded.

Second, he was now the Hokage. That status meant he could not use such shady tactics against his own people, or the people's hearts would scatter.

It was still the aftereffect Masaichi had left on Shikaku and the others before. He had turned around such a hopeless situation and become Hokage, using every dirty trick imaginable against them.

The cautious Shikaku had Minato watch out for this and that every day.

Both sides were cautious and had their own thoughts, so they developed mutual suspicion, and that suspicion only grew greater.

"Now that Obito has returned, will anyone still come to cause trouble?" Masaichi rubbed his chin as he thought. Come to think of it, the things Obito did later in the original story were truly pretty beastly!

But he was an Obito player. He had developed a bit of a soft spot for Obito from the game, the kind where he would get furious whenever anyone banned Obito.

Ten-Tails Obito, Drifting Obito—fun to play, loved playing them.

He suddenly really wanted to play a mobile game.

But Konoha had not even reached the steam age yet. Getting to play on a phone would be rather difficult.

Was his Masaichi Award really that unknown? No one had applied for it even now.