[Chapter Size: 2400 Words.]
Konoha, 44.
...
...
Although some issues had been resolved, others still remained in the air.
Certainly, there would be greedy people who would see Obito as a force capable of leading the Uchiha Clan and would try to make that happen to gain his favor. This would directly impact the government that Fugaku was about to establish.
Obito had arrived home. He took off his casual clothes, took a shower, and returned to his room. He lay down on the bed and remained staring at the ceiling, still reflecting on everything that had happened that day.
There would still be complications.
He was certain that some elders would try to convince Mazu to remain as leader for a few more years, hoping that during that time Obito would mature enough to become the clan's next leader instead of Fugaku. As someone who had awakened those eyes at only 10 years old, it was only expected that many would cling to Obito.
Even Fugaku now seemed somewhat cautious. Obito could already imagine that new problems would arise.
"Damn... I should see Sensei and talk about this. No... I won't bother him. I'll do it tomorrow," he decided in the end.
Even so, he couldn't remain lying down, so he decided to do something else.
He quickly put on warmer clothes, left his forehead protector on the bed, and activated his eye. His body vanished from the room as it was swallowed by a swirling vortex, reappearing moments later within his own dimension.
Everything was dark. Even so, it was possible to see perfectly, despite there being no source of light whatsoever. The very void seemed to emit a low, constant hum.
Obito did not intend to stay there for long. He crossed the dimension and appeared in a place where no one could find him except his teacher...
Near the area where they usually trained on the other continent. He looked at all the destruction around him. Marks from every kind of attack covered that region, something that would frighten any ordinary ninja. To them, however, it was merely the exclusive training ground of the Namikaze family.
From time to time, Tsuna or Hanabi, as users of the Earth and Water elements, managed to restore the entire area.
Even so, the destruction always returned quickly. In just a few days, the mountains they had raised with the Earth element had already been destroyed. The gigantic holes had already been filled by seawater, forming enormous lakes. Craters opened by Bijūdamas were scattered everywhere, along with every kind of devastating attack from the others. Destroyed trees covered the ground, and much of the forest remained completely devastated.
Obito was already used to that scenery. Without paying it much mind, he began walking deeper into the continent.
That night, he simply wanted to take a walk. As he advanced through the forest at high speed, he passed through trees using his intangibility, weaving swiftly through the vegetation.
He liked that feeling. At least it helped ease his mind a little.
After working up a sweat, he would return home and sleep. However, he did not even realize how much time had passed.
He continued advancing for hours until something appeared in his line of sight. He had already crossed a large portion of the continent at full speed, never stopping as he used his intangibility.
That was when he came across a vast section of the forest that had been completely transformed into a desert. Obito landed there and looked around in surprise at the drastic change in the landscape.
He took a few steps forward. "What is this place?" he murmured, looking around curiously.
His Sharingan remained alert as he walked across the sand.
He knew that this scenery was not natural. As he touched the sand, he felt something strange.
Further ahead was a massive mound of sand. Obito slowly approached it. He knelt beside it, touched its surface, and finally pressed his ear against it.
The sand was vibrating. "Wait... Why does it sound like it's... snoring?"
The words escaped before Obito could stop them. He had never imagined himself saying something like that about a pile of sand.
There was so much sand gathered there that it would have been enough to form a small desert. Even so, that continent was covered almost entirely by tropical forests. There were no natural deserts there, much less large civilizations, aside from a few small villages in the far south near the coast.
That was precisely why the Namikaze family used that continent for training. There was no one there to bother them.
"Strange..." Obito took a step back as he activated his Sharingan. That was when he noticed it. "What...?" His voice faltered.
He could see an absurd amount of chakra inside that mound of sand. There was so much chakra that even he was startled.
"Is this... some kind of Bijū?"
Only one of the Tailed Beasts could possess that much chakra.
As if it had heard his words, the mound of sand began to tremble.
"What is this? Who dares disturb my sleep?" The voice echoed as all the sand vibrated.
The mound began to harden and take shape, first forming a gigantic head, large enough to swallow Obito as if he were nothing more than a grape.
"A human..." the beast of sand said.
Obito remained speechless. He had been right. That was a Bijū.
He had never imagined finding Shukaku in that place. In an instant, the entire area began to shake.
Obito immediately stepped back as the creature continued to grow, gradually revealing its true body.
Within moments, the enormous Ichibi stood completely before him. The surrounding trees looked insignificant compared to its size. Obito was nothing more than a tiny ant before that monstrous being.
"So you've finally come again, people of the Sand Village. I have to say, I wasn't expecting to be found again so soon after our last encounter... But it seems you people just keep sending more and more idiots to die."
The Ichibi's voice was shrill and incredibly irritating, like that of a spoiled child.
But Obito was far too shocked to pay attention to that. He simply stared at the Bijū. What kind of luck was this?
He had never imagined he would come across a Tailed Beast that, as far as he knew, was still missing.
He was certain that the Sand Village had already recovered its jinchūriki, or at least that was what he had heard from Sakumo and a few ninja talking with his sensei in the Hokage's office.
Apparently... that information had been false.
"Hey, wait..." Obito raised one hand in a peaceful gesture.
He had absolutely no interest in starting a fight against a Bijū that night. Nor was it as if he had any obligation to do so.
But he did not even have time to finish his sentence. The enormous sand arm simply came crashing down on his position, striking the ground as though it were crushing nothing more than a fly.
"Did you think you could enter the great Shukaku's territory and leave alive to tell the tale?!" Shukaku began to shout furiously.
A moment later, he looked around. "Come on... Where are the others? Show yourselves, you fools! Show yourselves so I can kill all of you too!" He immediately began searching for Sunagakure ninja.
But everything remained completely silent. The only sounds were those of animals fleeing in panic after his awakening and the wind blowing across the region.
"Hey... I'm not from Suna." The voice made Shukaku look at his own hand in surprise. The human should have been dead.
He quickly lifted the enormous sand paw and looked down. There stood the boy.
His hand was so gigantic that it completely covered Obito's body with room to spare, which was why he had been unable to see him earlier because of his intangibility.
Upon seeing him again, completely unharmed, surprise flashed through the Bijū's eyes. "Hey... Wait. How are you still fine?" he asked, clearly disturbed.
If that boy had used some Earth Release technique to hide underground, he could have understood it. But he was simply still standing there, clean and unharmed. It was as though he had avoided the attack without even needing to move.
"I told you I'm not from Suna," Obito repeated calmly.
Shukaku blinked a few times. Then he narrowed his eyes in irritation.
"Don't give me that! I know perfectly well that no humans live around here. Then why would you be on this continent? It's obvious you're one of them! Don't try acting friendly now after all the ninja they sent to try sealing me again. I killed every last one of them! Those idiots who brought chains... and even the ones who came hidden inside those coffins!" Shukaku roared in fury.
Obito narrowed his eyes. Apparently, Shukaku had not even paid attention to his eyes since he had appeared. Chakra began gathering in his left eye.
He already knew the Bijū was about to attack again, and as he noticed, Shukaku's belly began to swell. Then, he struck it forcefully with his other hand.
In the next instant, he spat out a gigantic blast of wind, formed from a compressed sphere of air that was almost as deadly as a Bijūdama.
It did not possess the same destructive power. Even so, it was a fatal attack for any elite jōnin.
Obito immediately activated his Mangekyō Sharingan. The blast of wind vanished completely as it was sucked into his dimension just before reaching him.
Shukaku expected to see a massive explosion. Instead... the attack disappeared halfway through its trajectory...
His eyes widened. "What?!" His shout was so exaggerated that it even resembled the Obito of old.
Obito simply watched his reaction and could not help but smile faintly. "You..."
For the first time, Shukaku paid attention to the boy's red eyes. He immediately recognized that pattern. His eyes widened.
"You're from that clan... You're an Uchiha!"
"I..." Obito tried to speak, but did not even have the chance.
Another blast came flying toward him. Obito activated his right eye once again and absorbed the entire attack while it was still in midair, making it vanish completely.
This time, however, he did not remain idle. His left eye began to spin. A massive vortex appeared before him, and in the next instant, the very blast he had absorbed reappeared, returning to its original form before firing directly at Shukaku.
The Bijū was caught completely off guard, and its head exploded from the impact.
A huge cloud of dust rose around the creature's head. When it finally settled, Shukaku's head was already reconstructing itself, though it remained misshapen in several places because of the blow.
"You...!" Shukaku growled, unable to believe what had just happened. "How did you do that?!"
"Well... it was something my Sensei taught me," Obito replied with a hint of pride.
They had tested a theory. Obito was capable of absorbing attacks, such as Bijūdamas or any other energy-based technique, storing them in a space completely separate from his main dimension.
It was a static space. Nothing there was affected by the passage of time.
Because of that, the energy of the attacks remained exactly as it had been when absorbed, without suffering any deterioration.
Whenever he wished, Obito could simply release them again. At that moment, he still had both of Shukaku's attacks stored away.
All he had to do was release them, and he had done so with one of them, returning one of the gigantic vacuum bullets. The damage caused by that technique was, at the very least, comparable to an A-Rank jutsu, perhaps even S-Rank.
To think that he could simply capture an enemy's attack and return it against its owner... Even when facing a colossal monster like Shukaku, that ability was truly astonishing.
"Hey, hey! I don't want to fight!" Obito raised both hands in surrender. "Please, listen to me." He thought for a moment about how he should address the Bijū.
It had introduced itself as the Great Shukaku. Perhaps it would be better to address it that way.
"Oh, Great Shukaku... I come in peace," Obito said once more.
He had never planned on encountering a Bijū, much less fighting one. Even so, perhaps talking was not such a bad idea.
Especially after such a stressful day. Besides, after seeing the relationship Kushina had with the Nine-Tails and watching Naruto grow closer and closer to his own Kurama over the past few days, his view of the Bijū had changed completely.
They were not irrational monsters driven only by destruction and death. They seemed far more human. Beings who had simply been unfortunate enough to be captured by the ninja villages.
That had even made him question the First Hokage's decision. Tsuna herself, Hashirama's great-granddaughter, had said that she considered her husband's decision a mistake, that her great-grandfather should never have captured the Bijū and distributed them among the great nations.
The idea had been to maintain a balance of power to prevent wars. But the result had been exactly the opposite. The Bijū ended up becoming weapons. That only increased the scale of the conflicts even further and brought about far more deaths.
Obito no longer saw the Tailed Beasts as irrational monsters. Six months ago, he might have thought that way. Not anymore.
His words seemed to reach the Bijū. Shukaku simply stopped attacking him. It blinked a few times in confusion.
"Huh? What did you call me?" it asked.
"I said... that I don't want to fight the Great Shukaku." Obito tried to sound natural, although he felt immensely embarrassed saying that.
Even so, he continued. His words had clearly pleased the Bijū.
The sand began to move once again, completely reconstructing its face. "Hm?... I never imagined I'd find a fan of the Great Shukaku out here. I can tell you're not a Sand ninja. Maybe that's why I've decided to listen to you." Shukaku closed its eyes and crossed its arms, assuming a posture full of pride.
Obito felt an overwhelming sense of secondhand embarrassment. But apparently... the strategy had worked.
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