Obito's scheme

Before Shisui could say anything else, the Masked Man vanished.

"..." Shisui Uchiha stood where he was, clearly caught off guard by the move, feeling both wary and helpless.

He touched the black cloth covering his face. He knew he had once lost both eyes, yet beneath that cloth, he did indeed have a pair of intact eyes.

Someone else's eyes.

The name Akatsuki had appeared in Konoha's Anbu investigation records, but only in a few brief lines describing an organization that had briefly surfaced in Amegakure.

He had never expected the organization to conceal a far greater secret.

And he... had ended up here because he had learned that secret.

Meanwhile, inside a strange space, the masked Obito Uchiha stood before a wall covered with information on various ninja throughout the shinobi world, pondering something. Suddenly, he asked, "How is it going?"

Another masked man appeared behind him just then—the same one who had been with Shisui earlier. He removed his Mask, revealing a pure white face with a sinister cast, an utterly eerie sight. "We've finished communicating with Pain and are on our way to Kirigakure now. We should be able to begin the operation in three days."

He hesitated, then looked at the absorbed Obito Uchiha and spoke again. "Are you really going to send Shisui Uchiha to capture a tailed beast alone?"

"He has enough power."

Obito casually pulled Shisui's information off the wall. "I transplanted the Sharingan of his relative, Kagami Uchiha, into him, along with Hashirama cells. Although he lost his Mangekyō Sharingan ability, Kotoamatsukami, his other abilities are stronger than before. In terms of combat ability alone, he's stronger than I am now."

"His opponent is the Fourth Mizukage. You weren't a match for that Three-Tails yourself," White Zetsu said, making a show of reminding him.

"Karatachi Yagura..." Obito's hands stopped moving, and he looked toward the information on Kirigakure pinned to the wall with a complicated expression.

The Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, was a youth with pink eyes and the Three-Tails' jinchūriki. Driven by hatred, Obito had once used his Sharingan's genjutsu to control him and instituted the "Bloody Mist Village" in Kirigakure to exact revenge on the village.

He had made Kirigakure's Ninja slaughter one another, then sent only the survivors on highly difficult missions. The result was an endless stream of defections and attacks on the village's leadership, which brought genuine pleasure to Obito, who had already descended into madness.

After all, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, they had sealed the Three-Tails inside Rin, intending to use her as its jinchūriki to wreak havoc on Konoha. Instead, it had led to Rin dying at Kakashi's hands.

Yet, for some unknown reason, not long ago, just as Obito was planning to use Karatachi Yagura's body to thoroughly investigate how to extract a tailed beast from its jinchūriki, Yagura had suddenly broken free of the genjutsu and gravely wounded him before he could react!

Had Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan ability, Kamui, not been a special form of Space-Time Ninjutsu, and had nearly half his body not consisted of Hashirama cells, he might even have died at Yagura's hands.

His opponent had actually retained his reason during Complete Tailed Beast Transformation while unleashing powerful attacks, just like the "perfect jinchuriki" mentioned in the records Madara Uchiha had left him. Yet the power he unleashed far exceeded what Madara's records on the Three-Tails had described.

After all, a jinchūriki possessing tailed beast chakra could not be controlled by genjutsu. What the Sharingan had truly controlled was the Three-Tails inside him.

Madara Uchiha had once told him that only Mangekyō Sharingan ocular power on Madara's level could control the Nine-Tails, while Obito's could control the Three-Tails. Something must have changed in the Three-Tails, allowing it to break free of his genjutsu, but he did not know how it had happened.

This turn of events had left Obito both shocked and furious. His opponent was the Fourth Mizukage, after all. Even though Obito had retreated, the memories of being controlled by the Sharingan would not disappear. Yagura might follow the trail and discover both him and the Akatsuki ahead of time.

That was why he wanted to eliminate this threat as quickly as possible. Yagura had to die before he finished cleaning up the mess Obito had left in Kirigakure!

If he truly could not deal with Yagura, he at least had to keep himself out of it. Being targeted by an entire hidden village would hamper his every move.

"Even if he loses, it won't matter." Obito gathered his thoughts and explained his plan. "I've never revealed my true identity to anyone. All they know about their enemy is that he possesses the Sharingan. If Shisui Uchiha slips up in this fight..."

"I see. Then he'll become your scapegoat, making them think Shisui Uchiha was the one controlling the Mizukage all along!" White Zetsu realized. "That's even why you haven't altered Shisui Uchiha's appearance. Konoha's Body Flicker Shisui is quite famous. If he really falls into Kirigakure's hands, then... Konoha won't be able to clear itself of suspicion."

"Hmph. After all, Konoha can't publicly present Shisui Uchiha's death as evidence," Obito said with a cold laugh. "Then we can let the hidden villages tear at each other's throats. They can even start another Fourth Shinobi World War."

"...What a clever, ruthless move. But what about the ultimate goal of capturing the tailed beasts? If you really lose Shisui Uchiha, the new fighting asset you worked so hard to obtain, won't our next operations stall again?" White Zetsu marveled, then posed the question.

"Shisui isn't the only Uchiha around now." Obito's gaze settled on the information about the Uchiha Clan on the wall. The person he was looking at was young, yet wore a mature expression—

Uchiha Itachi.

"All right, it looks like you've planned everything out. I'll go back and keep watching Shisui Uchiha for you." White Zetsu had no more doubts. A dark shadow merged into his body, turning his pure white face half black and half white and making him look even eerier. He then put on his Mask. "Still, I'm hoping he can defeat the Fourth Mizukage outright with Pain's help. That would make your plan easier to carry out."

"..." Obito did not answer, lost in thought.

He was still somewhat uneasy. There had not been many errors in the records Madara Uchiha had left behind. By all rights, the Three-Tails should not have been this strong.

Was the information on just one tailed beast wrong, a mere coincidence? Or were the other tailed beasts also...

At that moment, the Nine-Tails inside Naruto abruptly opened its eyes. Having lived for so many years while constantly receiving malice, it felt a rare surge of delight it could barely contain.

As though sensing the Nine-Tails' feelings, Minato Namikaze turned from his meditation nearby to look at it. He sensed a trace of energy that felt both unfamiliar and familiar, leaving him uncertain.

The Nine-Tails made no attempt to hide anything. Seeing Minato turn toward it, it grinned and released a little of that energy.

"This is... Natural energy!" Minato was stunned.