From a bird's eye view over Konoha, it could be seen that signs of fighting in the southern and western districts had largely been extinguished. But the northern district was still lively. This was because a large number of Kumo ninjas were still battling with the Konoha ninjas.
After Masashi entered the northern district, he began to intervene in the fight. But they were all small fry. Although they had invaded the northern part of the city, everything was still under the Hokage's plan.
The ANBU had primarily been deployed in the north, and reinforcements from the southern and western districts of the Konoha forces would arrive soon.
Considering the defection of the Suna, the forces on the western border could also be pulled back, the enemy forces this time weren't getting away.
This way, they could wipe out this elite force of the enemy to the greatest extent possible and ease the pressure of future conflicts.
The fewer casualties, the better.
He decided to go big again. This was what he called "north-south equality." For a village like Kumo, which was always stirring up trouble, in the current situation, the best solution would be to just blow up the Valley of Clouds and Lightning. That way, they'd think twice before stirring trouble again.
Once everyone could breathe easier, he could calmly wait for Kaguya. If she could escape, that is.
Whether the plot was derailed or not didn't matter, he had never cared about the plot. He only cared before because he wasn't strong enough.
After wiping out a squad of Kumo ninjas with a surprise sand attack from the sky, Masashi ascended into the air again.
He had sensed a chakra full of vitality. And in the direction he was heading...
---
Muzo had securely pinned Obito in place, preventing him from escaping.
In life, he was one of the most well-versed users of forbidden jutsu in Konoha. Still, most of the techniques he had mastered were, in his opinion, pretty much useless, mostly just for harassment. Far less effective than just using Body Flicker to get close and slap someone hard.
As for the useful ones, the chakra cost was too high, and their actual damage wasn't worth it. Besides their "first-strike kill" attribute, they could easily be replaced by ordinary jutsu, and at least half were suicide techniques.
But all of these downsides disappeared under his Edo Tensei state.
Even though he had Obito pinned down, he was still fuming. His painstakingly hoarded army was gone!
Damn it. Whoever did this, if I find out, he thought to himself.
Now he had no choice but to fight the enemy himself. If he could use the other Edo Tensei bodies, he'd have infinite margin for error and could maneuver with ease.
Though he himself was reanimated now and couldn't summon others, it was still very annoying.
This had to be those Kumo ninjas.
As everyone knows, a ninja's body was valuable. But an Edo Tensei body was worthless, just ashes. Also, he had designed his technique carefully, if it wasn't used properly, the bodies would ascend on the spot. This was to prevent backfire.
So now he had one more reason to settle accounts with Kumo.
If this time matched up with the Chunin Exams, after he dealt with Obito, he'd go loot some high-quality items. By now, the shinobi world had produced quite a few treasures.
For example, Akatsuki was a giant treasure chest.
Once he had enough spoils, he'd use his backup materials to revive the old crew, restart the campaign, and blow up the Valley of Clouds and Lightning, that'd let off some steam.
As for whether this would mess up the plot? Who cared. It had already gone off the rails ages ago. A little more wouldn't matter.
Still, he had to admit, Kamui was quite disgusting.
"If you were born a few decades earlier, you would've been one of the top fighters of the Uchiha clan," he said, staring at Obito.
If he hadn't been chosen by Madara, he would've ended up like most Uchiha, mediocre.
Muzo didn't know what the Uchiha clan was like in this future, but he was well aware of the "cage" Tobirama had designed for them. The Uchiha clan co-founded Konoha with the Senju thanks to the friendship between Hashirama and Madara, but that path wasn't really ideal for them.
Not because the Uchiha weren't suited to founding a village, but because they weren't suited to co-founding it with the Senju of the Forest.
The Uchiha clan simply weren't suited to peace. Their Sharingan required intense emotional and battle stimuli to awaken and evolve. Tobirama gradually weakened the Uchiha clan based on this.
The Police Force was just a facade. The real tools were the refined ninja education and mission assignment systems. The education system sorted kids from a young age. Talents like Itachi and Shisui would be closely monitored and indoctrinated with "Hokage ideology." Since the Uchiha could never become Hokage, this would turn them into loyal dogs of the Hokage.
The less-talented Uchiha, or those who weren't recognized by the system, were assigned missions that kept them within the village and away from high-intensity combat.
In this way, the clan was pacified and domesticated. Most became mediocre, while the strong adopted unification ideology. The gap between genius and the average widened, weakening their strength and placing the elite under village control.
Given all this, it was no surprise the clan was massacred after Itachi defected. Once the gap was that large, numbers didn't matter.
But Muzo believed that Tobirama never planned to wipe out the clan, only to weaken them so their power could be used for the village.
This system wasn't exactly moral, it couldn't have been implemented while Hashirama was alive. He didn't quite agree with it either, but Tobirama was his second brother.
Outside the Konoha system, and with Madara's grooming, Obito could realize his true potential.
Luckily, from Muzo's observations, Obito only had the Mangekyō in his right eye. The left wasn't.
A complete Kamui would be much harder to deal with.
"I'm not one of the Uchiha," Obito said with a tired voice.
The original owner of his current face, Muzo's combat ability had far exceeded his expectations. Besides Masashi, this was the second time Kamui had failed to secure a first-strike kill.
The opponent seemed to understand his ability well.
This made the fight exhausting. Every time he tried to escape, the enemy would use a self-destruct jutsu to stop his transfer.
"Have you seen abilities similar to my eye technique?" Obito asked.
"I've walked the shinobi world for many years on the strength of one word, caution," Muzo replied confidently. "That's why I was born with a pair of keen eyes. Jealous?"
"…" Just say you don't want to answer. No need to brag.
"You don't seem to believe me, but that's okay," Muzo said, estimating the time.
Obito's Kamui should be on cooldown again. Tsuchigumo clan's jutsu was still troublesome, he had to blow himself up to use it.
Even shadow clones wouldn't work.
He didn't want Obito to realize that he actually did know Kamui's weaknesses, otherwise the guy might stop fighting predictably during cooldown windows, ruining the chance for a lethal strike.
Obito's body was likely incomplete and patched together using Hashirama cells. Unless he got a solid hit to the head, killing him in one strike wasn't realistic.
Muzo was about to attack again when he suddenly saw a figure flying toward them in the distance.
Since when did Konoha have flying jutsu?
Obito noticed Muzo's gaze, it was directed upward. He also heard a voice coming from the sky. He knew who had arrived, the last person he wanted to see right now.
He couldn't let that person find out he was currently posing as a Kumo ninja.
He subtly shifted his footing, intending to use the Body Flicker Technique to move away, but Muzo was faster. He blocked the path Obito was about to take.
At that moment, with a sound of rushing air, a figure slammed down from the sky. The impact was powerful, the ground cracked instantly, dust flying in all directions.
From within the rising dust, several sand tendrils silently lashed out toward Obito, who leaped, narrowly dodging an attack that was aimed right at his lower body, but just as he rose into the air, a much larger sand hand lunged to grab him.
"Huh?" Muzo didn't intervene, he noticed that the newcomer was using Magnet Release.
This ninjutsu had only been recently developed by Suna at the time of his death.
Controlling sand had long been a research focus of Land of Wind's ninjas, and it had been perfected by the Second Kazekage.
A Suna ninja?
No… something's off.
As the dust cleared, he saw another pair of Sharingan eyes.
Another Uchiha?
Rather than being impressed that a member of the Uchiha clan had emulated Magnet Release, what intrigued him more was that this Uchiha was wearing the garb of a Konoha ninja.
Which meant, the Uchiha clan hadn't been wiped out.
Muzo didn't buy into the idea of some lone survivor who conveniently avoided the massacre by being out on a mission, only to return and continue to loyally serve Konoha. That kind of character didn't hold water.
Uchiha fighting Uchiha, now that was something he hadn't seen when he was alive.
He became excited.
He decided he'd take on the role of a professional bomber, just block and harass, and let these two Uchiha go at each other with passion. After all, Sharingan abilities were tied to chakra. Once they ran out of chakra, they couldn't even keep the Sharingan active.
In the sky, the sand hand squeezed hard, gripping Obito tightly.
As the dust gradually settled back onto the dirt road, all three present could now clearly see one another without using any techniques.
"Obito, stop pretending," Masashi said. "Don't act like changing your face fools me, I'd recognize you even if you only showed a single strand of your hair."
Your chakra may have changed a little, but…
You just patched yourself up with more White Zetsu. You think mixing your chakra with White Zetsu's in a different ratio would trick me?
Give me a break.
We were already fighting when we were still in diapers. Let's be honest here.
Even as he spoke, his gaze landed on the "Muzo" in front of him.
Orochimaru really went and resurrected him, huh?
Muzo was also studying Masashi.
"You think I'm scared of you?" Obito said as he slipped out of the sand hand.
Seriously, when he got back, he was going to kill Orochimaru. That bastard completely ruined his plan.
"You two know each other?" Muzo glanced back and forth between Obito and Masashi.
He tried to recall, was there an Uchiha this strong in the original timeline? In Obito's "generation," there should've only been Shisui. Even Itachi was a bit younger.
But this one's ninjutsu style wasn't like Shisui's.
Masashi didn't immediately respond. It was his first time seeing himself from a third-person perspective.
So that's what I looked like back in my first life…
That confirmed his theory.
Edo Tensei was essentially an exploit of the Pure Land system. And the Pure Land itself could be seen as one of Hagoromo's techniques. No wonder, in the original timeline, he could summon the past Kage directly from the Pure Land, it wasn't souls he was retrieving in the first place.
That was why he was able to reincarnate for another round, using a chakra-based technique guided by bloodline. It just so happened to land him in the Uchiha clan, and the timing was a bit long.
Chakra, this fusion of spiritual and physical power, was truly mysterious. Being able to use space-time jutsu implied the ability to interfere with time-space itself. Since chakra was partially made of spiritual energy, it could carry a strong will. That was why Asura and Indra were still "good guys" at heart.
And because it also contained physical energy, it could follow a bloodline. So in the absence of direct descendants, being reborn into closely related clans, like the Uzumaki or Uchiha, was reasonable. That was how he ended up with the Uchiha, after all.
To retain his will so clearly, probably because he had been fighting with all his might when he ised the technique, his mind focused intensely. Unlike Asura or Indra, he had no lofty ideals like "take my chakra and win if you can."
From that perspective, chakra was the soul.
Which meant…
Masashi's eyes lit up!
At that moment, Muzo was also sizing him up. He had spent many years traveling the shinobi world, living by one principle: caution.
From the Warring States to the ninja villages, he only failed in the end due to sheer lack of power, something beyond his control. But setting that aside, he was confident in his judgment.
And this Uchiha was not ordinary.
As for the Uchiha clan, here was how Muzo saw them: The girls were usually cultured, gentle, soft-spoken. If not, they were charismatic, bold, and admirable warriors. The guys, on the other hand, almost always had something wrong with their brains, and if not their brains, then the rest of them was flawed.
This guy had shifty eyes. Definitely not a good person.
Wait a sec… Why did this guy have traces of his own technique's aura on him?
That was his anti-theft design, there was no way he was mistaken! What the hell!? So the real deal was right here all along!?
Hold on, this wasn't just his technique's aura... Why could he also sense chakra from him?
Muzo didn't have chakra-sensing abilities himself, if he did, and if he had learned the Flying Thunder God Technique, he wouldn't have died the way he did.
That meant, there could only be one explanation left.
This Uchiha had his chakra.
No way… Muzo's eyes lit up.
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, he reminded himself that he was calm and wouldn't jump to conclusions.
If it wasn't that, then it would be another theory entirely.
Could it be… his treasure?!
"What are you staring at me for?" Muzo asked. "Never seen such a handsome ninja?"
"..."
He figured his first life probably wasn't this shameless.
Though he admitted he had a pretty good-looking face in both timelines, that kind of compliment should come from others, not out of his own mouth.
"Are you also a Konoha ninja?" Masashi asked.
"Isn't that obvious?" Muzo replied, displeased. "Let me ask you, did you dig up my treasure in the Land of Hot Water?"
Whether he did or not wasn't the point; he needed to get to the bottom of this.
Do you know how hard it is to stash hundreds of those things?
"So that's it… you're the Demon of the Forest," Masashi probed.
Whether this was the real deal or a fake would be revealed with this question. In his life as Muzo, he absolutely hated being called that.
If this guy was a fake, there's no way he'd react properly.
"You're the demon! Did I ever rob your clan's grave?" Muzo snapped. "Even if I did, the Uchiha have so many people, what makes you think I robbed your specific family's grave?!"
Suddenly, his entire body expanded rapidly, then exploded with a bang.
Masashi stomped the ground and shot into the sky.
Below, a visible shockwave rippled in all directions, exposing Obito, whose body was glowing.
Masashi looked at the technique below.
How do you even use it? Suicide?
Still, it was a good technique for sealing Obito's Kamui.
He clapped his hands and opened his mouth.
Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere.
Unlike the more explosive Pressure Damage technique, the Vacuum Great Sphere had a smaller blast radius but greater concentration, perfect for use inside a village. It was a powered-up version of the Vacuum Bullet and could be used in a rapid-fire chain.
This was a jutsu from the Shimura clan.
Several wind spheres howled down from the sky. Though they didn't directly hit Obito, his Kamui wasn't functioning as smoothly as usual, he couldn't avoid damage completely.
He had to extract more chakra to protect his body.
The spheres hit the ground and exploded, flipping the street over and blowing Obito into the air.
Taking advantage of this, Masashi appeared behind him and slammed his palm on Obito's back, releasing chakra mercilessly.
The chakra burst straight out of Obito's chest, tearing his upper garments apart, and branding a Flying Thunder God mark on him.
Normally, he wouldn't fall for a hit like this, let alone allow the Flying Thunder God mark to be planted. But thanks to Muzo's self-detonation seal, his Kamui had been disrupted.
So Obito, still in mid-air, was smashed straight back into the already devastated earth below.
He felt his head buzzing and his body in immense pain.
Even though much of his body had been rebuilt with White Zetsu tissue, which lacked pain receptors, the parts that were still his own definitely hurt. Otherwise, he wouldn't have nearly died from one of Shisui's kicks before. Even worse, the White Zetsu cells' regenerative functions were now completely disordered.
Masashi landed again.
In this process, he activated his curse mark, and his eyes transformed into Rinnegan.
"Sorry, Obito. You've gone too far," he said.
Obito's stubbornness had crushed any hope he had of bringing back this old comrade. He didn't want to kill Obito, but he couldn't allow him to keep going like this.
He extended a hand and made a grasping gesture in Obito's direction.
Banshō Ten'in activated.
Still disoriented and unable to regain full control of his body, he was yanked through the air toward Masashi.
Adamantine Sealing Chains burst from Masashi's body, binding him tightly. Only now did Obito recover some self-control, but in his severely injured state, there was no way he could break free from this seal, which could even suppress tailed beast chakra.
"Masashi… just kill me already!" Obito said.
"I refuse." Masashi shook his head. His hand had already changed jutsu, once Obito touched his right hand, he would be teleported straight to the deepest level of the prison.
There, a team of guards and sealing experts were already waiting.
Obito stared in shock as he was dragged closer and closer to Masashi, especially those Rinnegan eyes, and finally felt a flicker of regret.
Not regret for everything. Just regret that trying to escape with Kamui just now was a bit… impulsive.
"I can't let you capture him here."
Suddenly, another powerful repulsive force erupted, disrupting the pull of Banshō Ten'in.
Madara appeared between Masashi and Obito in a flash. With a wave of his hand, he smacked Obito away.
Masashi immediately attempted Flying Thunder God. But the next moment, he couldn't move an inch.
"Tobirama's jutsu is indeed useful," Madara said calmly, "but I'm sure I left behind something in the archives: if the location of a Flying Thunder God mark is known, it can be disrupted."
He hadn't stopped Masashi from acting, he simply didn't care.
"I thought about it," he said, "and I'm more interested in you than those two."
"He can't escape," Masashi replied.
"If I say he can, then he can," Madara said, locking eyes with Masashi. "You haven't impressed me yet, kid."
"How about I give you a massage?" came a sudden voice from behind.
In a swirl of dust, Muzo had reformed his body.