Somewhere in the Land of Rain, in a dark cavern buried deep underground.
The cold, damp air was laden with moisture, which condensed into beads and slowly trickled down the jagged rock walls, producing a monotonous, lonely drip.
The man wearing an orange spiral mask, Obito Uchiha, sat casually on a rock.
He was like a frozen statue. Only the right eye exposed beneath his mask, that crimson Sharingan, gleamed eerily in the gloom.
Three black tomoe turned slowly and silently within it, like a vortex peering into reality from the abyss.
Zetsu, half black and half white, slowly rose from the ground like a plant breaking through the soil.
"There's some new information on Kakashi Hatake. It seems he's gotten himself a girlfriend lately!"
"Has he?"
Obito's voice was low and even, without any noticeable inflection, as though he were merely confirming some trivial matter.
"That guy Kakashi found himself a girlfriend?"
His voice echoed through the empty, damp cavern, absorbed by the rocks until it sounded especially hollow.
White Zetsu blinked his white eye and tilted his head, apparently expecting a stronger reaction.
"That's what the intelligence says, Obito."
Black Zetsu answered for him.
"She appears to be a spy sent to Konoha by Lockfront Village. She abandoned her village's mission for Kakashi, and in the end, Konoha made an exception and allowed her to stay. We're still gathering the details."
At those words, the tomoe in Obito's Sharingan seemed to spin a fraction faster.
Obito's posture did not change in the slightest. Only the hand resting on his knee seemed to tighten unconsciously for a moment in the shadows before relaxing again.
"Heh..."
An almost inaudible breath of uncertain meaning escaped beneath his mask, somewhere between a sigh and a cold sneer.
He paused, his voice retaining