Early spring often brought mist, but even it gradually dispersed in the dead of night.
The night sky was like a dark-blue curtain, dotted with glittering stars. On a windless night, Konoha was steeped in a deathly silence.
Only moonlight streamed through the window, spilling into a ward at Konoha Hospital.
Obito lay quietly on the hospital bed.
Shinku Yuhi, Konoha's master of genjutsu, had guided his mind out of the illusion, yet he remained asleep, seemingly only because he had exhausted too much mental energy.
Yet now, the entire ward seemed filled with an eerie atmosphere.
Something seemed to writhe beneath Obito's flesh. A viscous white mass, paler than moonlight, slowly surged out from his side. A completely white head emerged from his body like some kind of parasite.
"What a wonderful adventure..."
In the silent night, no one seemed to have noticed the anomaly. Through the white head's eyes gleamed a dangerous light.
"I almost got discovered by the White Snake Sage of Ryūchi Cave..."
"But it seems I saw something extremely interesting. If Madara knew, he should be quite excited..."
"I really want to pull him into a dance with me..."
A White Zetsu fully detached itself from Obito's body, condensing into a white humanoid figure.
Ripples spread across the ground, and White Zetsu's figure vanished within them, as though it had completely merged into Konoha's earth, impossible to find again.
"Father... am I very weak...?"
Kurenai Yuhi had one of Konoha's greatest genjutsu masters as her father. She had always been proud, but today, she seemed inexplicably downcast.
That boy who had slowly emerged from the swarm of snakes had utterly shattered all her pride, and he had even done so using the genjutsu she had always taken pride in.
"Did you have another nightmare?"