Obito wept silently in the pitch-black cave, crying like a thirty-something-year-old child.
At this exact moment, his mental state mirrored the exact same apocalyptic collapse he suffered the night Rin was killed.
He hadn't quite reached the coping phase where he actively denied reality—the stage where he would convince himself that this 'Rin' who knew his darkest, most humiliating secrets was an imposter, using that delusion to violently reinforce his devotion to the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Sometimes, possessing a fiercely simple mind came with massive drawbacks.
Originally, since Rin served as Obito's singular, absolute spiritual pillar, as long as he chanted her name in his heart, he could temporarily ascend into the unstoppable, Tier-0 war god known as Strong-Willed Obito!
But the glaring vulnerability was that the second an enemy located that pillar and violently shook it, he instantly plummeted back into the Tier-0 failure known as Broken-Willed Obito.
In that pathetic state, even if he wielded the legendary Sword of Nunoboko, he would probably snap the blade trying to stab a block of soft tofu.
Originally, since Rin was safely dead and buried, this fatal weakness was practically impossible for anyone to exploit.
But now? Rin had literally walked back into his life.
There was an old saying: No one can ever compare to the love of your past, not even the love standing right in front of you.
But the Rin currently walking around was, in essence, the exact same love from his past.
Whether she had been dragged back via Edo Tensei or completely resurrected, she remained perfectly frozen as the exact same young girl from his memories.
Her mental age, her lived experiences, her physical body—it was all identical.
How on earth was Obito supposed to withstand that kind of psychological damage?
If Madara hadn't physically branded a curse mark onto his heart explicitly forbidding suicide, Obito probably would have already slit his own throat and ascended straight to the Pure Land.
"It's time. We go in and feed him the truth about the Infinite Tsukuyomi."
After confirming via the monitors that Obito had thoroughly entered his tragic 'defeat' phase, Makoto signaled Konan.
Not too long ago, Senju Hashirama burned a massive amount of effort just to convince Uchiha Madara of a mere fraction of the truth regarding the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
If you actually wanted a paranoid rogue ninja to swallow classified intel, several strict psychological conditions had to be met.
First, the intel drop had to happen when the target was completely powerless and the captors held absolute superiority.
Only then would the target's brain logically conclude:
'They could kill me at any given second. There's absolutely no reason for them to lie.'
Second, it was always best to avoid spoon-feeding the information directly.
Letting the target organically 'eavesdrop' made the intel feel infinitely more credible.
Right now, Makoto and Konan were prepping to perfectly check both boxes.
As for whether Obito would actually believe the bombshell? They could only set the stage and leave the rest to fate.
After all, dropping this truth bomb wasn't just to give Obito a chance to regret his life choices—it was also explicitly designed to deeply disgust him.
In short, a few minutes later, Obito—whose grief had completely numbed his shattered heart—heard footsteps echoing from the corridor, accompanied by a terrifyingly familiar voice.
'That voice...'
Was that the vicious paper woman, Konan?!
Obito's mind flashed back to the ocean of explosive tags she had prepped for him, alongside the bespoke Izanami trap engineered specifically to break his mind.
If Tobirama and Konan hadn't continuously bombarded him with unavoidable damage, he never would have required Rin to conduct a full-body medical inspection!
That deepest, most soul-crushing secret never would have been exposed!
'Is Konan coming back to torture me again?!'
Obito's heart seized with panic.
Even though the agonizing humiliation regarding Rin genuinely made him want to die, he knew he literally couldn't.
He also knew that since these monsters had branded the Scorch Release: Heavenly Prison directly onto his flesh, they absolutely weren't going to let him die easily.
Trying to commit 'suicide by cop' and forcing them to kill him wouldn't work either.
Scorch Release: Heavenly Prison -> Attempting to mold chakra means instantly burning to death from the inside out.
Madara's Curse Mark -> Suicide is strictly forbidden.
The result was a fatal system conflict—an overlapping code.
It forcefully overwrote his bodily autonomy into a new rule -> Completely unable to use chakra.
If he hadn't eavesdropped on Rin's conversation earlier, he might have unconsciously flared his chakra and instantly incinerated himself.
Unfortunately, he knew the trap was there.
Therefore, the best play right now was to just lie perfectly still and play dead.
He wasn't afraid of dying, but he absolutely refused to be meaninglessly tortured by Konan.
'Wait! Not good!'
Just as Obito clamped his eyes shut, he suddenly felt a sticky, freezing dampness pooling beneath his face.
His eyes snapped wide open.
He had completely overlooked one glaring detail!
He had just suffered a total mental breakdown, given up on life, and cried his eyes out.
The stone slab beneath his head was completely soaked in a massive puddle of his own tears!
How could a supposedly unconscious, comatose patient be actively weeping?
Crying in his sleep?
He absolutely did not look like the type of guy to gently weep in his dreams, let alone sob hard enough to flood a stone slab!
What the hell was he supposed to do?!
Listening to the heavy footsteps drawing closer and closer, cold sweat poured down Obito's back.
'Got it!'
A spark of desperate genius flashed through his brain.
The stone slab was exceptionally long, so in that case...
Obito rapidly shifted his body, quietly spinning himself completely around 180 degrees so his lower half rested exactly where his head used to be.
At that exact second, Konan and Makoto stepped up to the cell door.
Standing right beside them was the actual medical-nin who had patched Obito up earlier.
He was here to deliver his final, scripted performance before wrapping for the day.
"Go inside and check if he's awake," Konan ordered coldly.
"Yes, Lady Konan."
The medic stepped into the cell.
Obito completely locked his breathing and flatlined his vitals.
Since half of his biology consisted of White Zetsu and Hashirama cells, he was basically a living corpse.
Feigning a deep coma was effortlessly easy for him.
"His respiration is extremely shallow. Looks like we'll have to hook him up to a heavier IV drip for nutritional fluids... Hm? What's this?"
The medic suddenly spotted the massive, glistening wet stain pooled on the stone slab.
There was an alarming amount of liquid!
He reached out to touch it, but suddenly paused, realizing exactly where the puddle was currently positioned relative to Obito's body.
His face instantly contorted in utter disgust, and he rapidly backed away.
Completely abandoning the rest of the physical examination, the medic scrambled back out into the hallway.
"Lady Konan, Lord Makoto, the prisoner is still completely unresponsive. His vitals are incredibly weak, and he urgently requires heavy nutritional supplements. Also..." The medic hesitated.
"Also... he wet himself! The slab is completely soaked. I'm afraid his biological functions in that specific area are severely compromised," the medic reported, trying to keep his voice low.
But whispering was entirely useless.
The cavern was dead silent, and Obito heard every single agonizing words with crystal clarity.
"It's not that his 'functions' are compromised. He literally doesn't possess those functions anymore. Go inform Rin and brief her on the situation. Apologize for the inconvenience, but tell her to come in here and clean up his mess." Konan's tone dripped with raw, venomous mockery.
Inside the cell, Obito felt his heart violently shatter.
'I knew it! This vicious, twisted paper woman is deliberately dragging Rin back in here! She actively wants Rin to see me in this pathetic state!'
And now, she was even going to tell Rin the utterly humiliating lie that he pissed himself in his sleep!
"As you command." The medic bowed and quickly retreated down the hall.
With the stage perfectly set, it was time for the main event.
Since Konan and Makoto had officially "confirmed" that Obito was still deeply comatose, they began their crucial conversation.
The two took turns seamlessly breaking down the classified lore surrounding the Ōtsutsuki clan, the true nature of the Divine Tree, and the underlying mechanics of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Then, Makoto smoothly transitioned into his "groundbreaking new discovery."
"Honestly, even setting aside the fact that the Infinite Tsukuyomi drains the population's chakra and converts them into chakra batteries until they die... the jutsu fundamentally cannot realize anyone's dreams," Makoto stated flatly.
"Konan, think about it logically. If you personally engineered a weaponized jutsu specifically designed to harvest other people's chakra, would you genuinely give a damn whether your livestock suffered or not? Would you go out of your way to program the jutsu to simulate a personalized, comfortable utopia?"
"...Why would I waste chakra making a weapon comfortable?" Konan scoffed, flawlessly playing her part.
"Isn't a jutsu strictly meant to neutralize enemies? Do I look like some kind of twisted pervert to you?"
"Exactly! The core mechanic of the Infinite Tsukuyomi isn't the illusion. The core is the chakra harvest. The genjutsu is merely a neurological tether designed to paralyze the masses and keep them docile. So why on earth would the Infinite Tsukuyomi bother feeding its victims beautiful, tailored dreams?"
"Could it be a security measure to prevent the victims from realizing they're trapped and breaking the genjutsu?" Konan asked, perfectly playing the role of the skeptical straight man.