Mahito Makes His Entrance

In the Hidden Mist Village's Mizukage office, Mei Terumi held her Teacup with practiced elegance, but her gaze was razor-sharp.

She studied the Bounty Notice Ao had brought her. "My, my. What shocking news."

Her Kurenai lips parted. "Obito Uchiha... a hero believed to be dead, now a monster attacking his own village. Konoha is even darker beneath the surface than I imagined!"

Ao's pale eyes flickered. "Mizukage, now that Konoha has issued a wanted notice, what should we do next?"

Mei set down her Teacup, a chill flashing through her eyes. "Raise the village's alert level. Contact Konoha Village and issue a joint Bounty Notice. Match their bounty!"

"Ao, personally lead a team to investigate everything connected to that name in secret. The blood our village once shed will not have been for nothing!"

Deep inside a filthy tavern at an underground Bounty Station, outlaws of every stripe crowded around a massive bounty board.

When a new Bounty Notice went up, its bounty followed by a long string of zeros, the entire place fell silent for a second. Then an uproar erupted.

"Hey, hey, hey! Is that for real?! You could live like a king for several lifetimes on that!"

"Obito Uchiha? That Mysterious Man on the sky screen? He's worth that much?!"

A seasoned hunter with a face full of scars read the list of crimes and sucked in a breath. "Controlled the Nine-Tails, has the Mangekyo Sharingan... Damn it. This target isn't just Ko, he's a Monster!"

A young hunter beside him rubbed his hands together excitedly. "What's there to be afraid of? No risk, no reward! Find him and take him down!"

The older hunter sneered and took a swig of liquor. "Go ahead if you've got the guts, kid. Going after a Monster like that is suicide. That bounty's no good if you don't live to spend it!"

Yet greed and calculation glinted in his own eyes.

That staggering bounty sent the entire underworld into a frenzy.

Inside a tower in Rain Hidden Village, Konan took shape amid a swirl of paper and placed a report before Pain.

"Konoha has issued an S-rank Bounty Notice for 'Obito Uchiha.'" Her voice was cool, betraying no emotion.

Pain's Rinnegan showed no reaction. He merely glanced at the report. "Pointless. It seems he can no longer keep his identity completely hidden."

Konan frowned slightly. "Will this affect our plan? Konoha and the entire Shinobi World will be watching."

"The plan remains unchanged," Pain said coldly. "The eyes of the world will eventually turn to the power of a god. As for his problem, let him deal with it himself."

"If he can't handle even this much trouble, then he isn't worth much."

There was a faint detachment in his voice, along with a lack of complete trust in Obito.

Konan fell silent for a moment, then nodded. Her body dissolved into paper once more, leaving Pain to gaze quietly at the ceaseless rain outside the window.

At a secret base, Obito Uchiha stood alone atop a stone pillar. Zetsu slowly emerged from the ground with news.

"Hee-hee-hee, Obito, you're famous!" White Zetsu said with exaggerated cheer. "Konoha's put a huge price on your head! Now the whole Shinobi World wants to find you!"

Black Zetsu added in a low voice, "You'll need to be more careful from now on."

"Konoha seems to have gotten hold of some solid evidence."

Obito Uchiha gave a low, indifferent laugh. Through the opening in his spiral mask, his Sharingan gleamed scarlet. "Hmph. This is nothing but Hiruzen Sarutobi's last desperate struggle."

"Wanted notices? Bounties? In the new world to come, none of that will mean a thing."

He slowly clenched his fist, his voice thick with contempt. "Let them search. Mortals' greed and fear will only hasten their destruction."

In fact, Obito Uchiha was right. Bounties in the Shinobi World were much like those in the world of One Piece: a measure of strength.

During the Third Shinobi World War, the Kage of nearly every ninja village had bounties placed on their heads. Yet by the time the war ended, not one of them had been killed by a bounty hunter.

As always, the sky screen began its broadcast that day.

[Minato's Kunai flew straight into a nearby tree.]

[But the next instant, a blue-haired young man covered in stitch marks appeared beside the tree, toying with the Snake Talismans.]

"Oh? You noticed me?" The True Person tilted his head, wearing a smile as innocent as a child's and as cruel as could be.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Minato Namikaze's voice was calm, but a specially made Kunai engraved with a Flying Thunder God formula had already slipped silently into his hand.

The stranger had been watching him from the shadows. He was far more likely to be an enemy than a friend.

"My, you're cautious! Strictly speaking, I'm one of the people helping Konoha!" The True Person tilted his head as if admiring a work of art.

"Impossible! I'm Konoha's Fourth Hokage. If we had an ally this powerful, I would know about him."

Minato Namikaze's hand was ready to form a seal. He could activate the Flying Thunder God Technique again in an instant.

"Oh, we're really just spectators taking advantage of how things are unfolding."

"When you see a marvelous play, don't you want to take part in the final act?" He drew closer, his fingers twisting and warping without seeming to notice.

Minato Namikaze's gaze sharpened as he tried to draw out more information. "'We'? What are you after?"

Even as he asked, he calculated the positions of the Flying Thunder God Kunai scattered around him.

The True Person let out a delighted chuckle. "What am I after? Hmm... If I had to say, I want to hear what kind of beautiful sound a 'perfect' soul like yours makes when it's kneaded and reshaped by despair and pain."

"Like this!"

Before he finished speaking, the True Person's arm warped and shot forward like a twisted tentacle. It moved with astonishing speed, reaching straight for Minato Namikaze's heart.

But all he caught was empty air.

"What?" The smile froze on the True Person's face.

Like a ghost, Minato Namikaze appeared just behind and to the side of him, beside the Flying Thunder God Kunai he had lodged in the tree.

"So fast! As expected of the 'Yellow Flash'!" The True Person reacted at once, whipping his twisted arm back the other way!

But Minato Namikaze vanished again. The next instant, the True Person felt a cold touch from above.

"Flying Thunder God: Second Step."

Minato Namikaze's voice was like a whisper from death. Somehow, he had already placed his hand on the True Person's head.

During his first dodge, Minato Namikaze had seized the chance to mark the True Person with the Flying Thunder God formula.

Now he had made a second jump directly to the mark's coordinates.

"Rasengan!"

A highly compressed sphere of chakra blasted from Minato Namikaze's hand, unleashing tremendous force that tore through its target!

Boom! The violent chakra instantly ripped apart and crushed the True Person's entire head and upper body. Chunks of flesh and blood sprayed everywhere!

The battle seemed to be over in that instant.