In a desolate cave, faint traces of dark purple chakra wreathed Sasuke Uchiha, flickering like the rhythm of breathing. His eyes were tightly shut, his entire focus turned inward as he waged a perilous tug-of-war against that unruly dark power. Every attempt to guide it felt like taming a berserk beast, and the mental strain far outweighed the chakra he expended. Several brushes with an uncontrollable backlash left cold sweat on his brow, his Sharingan shifting restlessly beneath his eyelids.
Not enough... nowhere near enough... he roared inwardly. Fueled by despair and loneliness, his hunger for power grew ever more obsessive and urgent. He needed greater power, and he needed it faster-to withstand Konoha's pursuit, to face this world filled with malice, to... fill the vast void left inside him when the truth shattered everything.
Just as he forcibly suppressed another surge of dark backlash, at the instant when his mind was most exhausted and his guard at its weakest-
Without warning, the space inside the cave rippled slightly, distorting like the surface of water.
Sasuke snapped to attention, his Sharingan activating instantly. The Kusanagi Sword was already in his hand, lightning and dark purple energy intertwining along its blade as he aimed it warily at the center of the distortion.
The distortion subsided, and a figure wearing an orange-red Spiral Mask, with only one fathomless eye exposed, appeared out of thin air like a ghost and leaned casually against the rock wall. It was Obito Uchiha, who called himself "Tobi."
"Well, well, what a sorry sight, Sasuke-kun." Tobi spoke in his trademark exaggerated, teasing tone. "Hunted by the village you were born in, hiding in a place like this like a stray dog, and still wrestling with that disobedient little thing inside you... tsk, tsk. I wonder if Uchiha