Madara's voice faded from Obito's mind.
The reason the genjutsu could be triggered so precisely was that, at Hi-kun's urging, Madara had made a few minor adjustments to the seal that had previously prevented Obito from revealing his identity...
That way, Madara's entire scheme would look remarkably well thought out.
As though he had seen through everything more than a year ago and had been orchestrating events from the shadows ever since...
"So it was the Hell Viewing Technique?"
"Damn it! I knew the Great Clan Head was lying to me back then! How could there possibly be a technique that would erase my memories of Hokage-sama, Kakashi, and Rin just because I said his name...?"
Bloody tears still filled Obito's eyes, but he looked like a child who had just recovered something precious he'd thought was lost. He wiped frantically at his tears.
"This is so embarrassing..."
"I've been training for more than a year, and I still got caught in a genjutsu at this level! If Mū and Gengetsu-ojisan find out, they'll make fun of me forever!"
"The Great Clan Head really does care about me, even if he's always so cold and doesn't even know how to smile..."
The Hell Viewing Technique was a genjutsu that made its victim see whatever they feared most.
But because its structure wasn't particularly sophisticated, it was easy for an enemy to notice. It was only a basic D-rank technique.
Although ninjutsu ranks were primarily based on how difficult a technique was to learn, in most cases, the difficulty of mastering a technique was directly proportional to how powerful it became once learned.
Techniques with a terrible return on the effort invested in training them were eventually phased out.
Obito, however, was still far too easy to fool.
Did he really think a Hell Viewing Technique cast with the Rinnegan was the same as the one he knew?
But simple-minded Obito still concluded that his own skills simply weren't good enough.
What he'd witnessed inside the genjutsu this time had been both a warning and a test from Uchiha Madara.
It was also a graduation gift...
Not only had he received replacement limbs made from Tobi's cells, he'd even gotten a brand-new pair of Mangekyō Sharingan...
"Oh, right!"
Only after reflecting for quite a while did Obito suddenly freeze.
He had the Mangekyō now!
And according to everything he'd learned, having Tobi—the son of the God Tree—as half of his body apparently made him somewhat different from other Uchiha...
His Mangekyō Sharingan carried no risk of blindness. Even if he overused it, all he needed was some time to recover.
"My dōjutsu is called..."
"Kamui?"
Obito absorbed the information that had come with the awakening of his bloodline. He froze for a moment, then threw his head back and burst into wild laughter.
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
This was ridiculous. A Mangekyō ability like this actually existed?
Once he understood what Kamui could do, even Obito himself couldn't keep a straight face...
It was just way too useful!
His left eye could make him intangible to avoid attacks, while his right eye could warp space for devastating offensive power.
Compared with Izuna's highly skill-dependent Ankotsu no Mikoto, Kamui was practically the ultimate crutch ability...
Without Tobi's body, Obito would at least have needed to think carefully about when to activate intangibility, judge the timing of every exchange, and calculate when to phase deliberately so he could conserve ocular power...
But since Madara had personally built the framework for Obito's entire combat system, even that concern was gone.
Or rather, neither Madara nor the other Kage had ever imagined that Obito's Mangekyō ability would turn out to be something as absurdly powerful as Kamui. Even across the Uchiha Clan's thousand-year history, it was a serious contender for the strongest dōjutsu ever awakened.
"Hehehe..."
"He even gave me an apartment! And it's huge..."
Sensing the existence of the Kamui dimension, Obito broke into a goofy grin.
"If Rin and I end up together someday, maybe we can buy a smaller place. That'd take a lot of the pressure off..."
"Maybe we could even afford somewhere in Konoha's inner district! Right near Hokage-sama's house..."
"We could just throw clothes, storage boxes, and all that other stuff into the Kamui dimension. This is so convenient!"
Konoha had already become the center of the Land of Fire, the Land of Water, and the Land of Rain. Combined with its constant stream of technological innovations, it had effectively become the center of the entire shinobi world as well.
Economically, culturally, and in terms of influence.
Naturally, if someone wanted an excellent home in Konoha's inner districts, price was a major consideration.
And whether anyone was even willing to sell was another.
A lot of the time, money wasn't the real issue anymore...
Obito walked over to a tree and made his arm intangible, pushing it straight into the trunk as he savored the strange sensation.
At the same time, he was assessing his own ocular power.
"Keeping intangibility active for three to five minutes shouldn't be a problem. If I really push it, I can probably stretch that to six or seven..."
Obito reached his conclusion, let out a long breath, and broke into a huge smile.
"Kakashi's going to have a hard time beating me now!"
"Shisui won't be able to either. Even Seisui-niisan..."
The moment Seisui came to mind, however, Obito abandoned that particular fantasy and shuddered for no apparent reason.
Judging purely by their stats, Obito actually thought he was stronger than his brother Seisui.
The problem was that real combat wasn't just a matter of comparing stats.
Unexpected variables and split-second decisions were absolutely crucial in an actual fight.
After the Third Shinobi World War, even members of the Uchiha Clan themselves had become unwilling to spar with their clan's pride and joy, "Seisui."
Everyone knew by now that he was a direct descendant of the Second Hokage. At his age, he'd already inherited an entire collection of Tobirama's techniques and had become extremely proficient at combining Impure World Reincarnation with mutually multiplying explosive tags.
And then there was the whole assortment of underhanded techniques, such as those that could imprison the soul...
Among the Uchiha, spars between members of the same generation were supposed to be fought seriously.
At the very least, neither side was supposed to hold back.
Tobirama's techniques, however, were obviously not very well suited to friendly sparring...
"Wait!"
"I think I forgot something important!"
Only then did Obito belatedly remember that Madara had ordered him not to reveal his identity after returning to Konoha.
Hokage-sama on one side, the Great Clan Head on the other...
Wasn't he getting squeezed right between them?!
"Second-sama really got blamed for things he didn't do. The Great Clan Head is ruthless when it comes to revenge. Now everyone thinks Second-sama is behind every bad thing that's happened..."
Obito muttered to himself, "Though I guess Second-sama isn't exactly innocent either! He went after Seisui-niisan's parents that hard... But I also heard he's Hokage-sama's sensei..."
More importantly...
How was he supposed to tell Hokage-sama the truth without betraying the bond between himself and Madara?
He needed Hokage-sama to know that something had gone wrong with the Great Clan Head's thinking, and that the mastermind behind everything wasn't his teacher, but the Shura of the Shinobi World everyone thought had died long ago.
"But the Great Clan Head told me..."
"If I care about our bond, I'm not allowed to say it."
"According to Hi-kun, what the Great Clan Head did just now basically counts as accepting me as his disciple, right?"
Obito felt like his head was going to split.
It seemed impossible to honor both sides at once...
"What am I supposed to do?!"
Although Obito had spent more than a year training in seclusion at the Mountains' Graveyard and had improved by leaps and bounds in practically every area...
His weakness when it came to intelligence and judgment hadn't been fixed quite as thoroughly.
Or perhaps there simply weren't many sane people among those monsters from the Warring States Period.
The Second Raikage and Mū were about the only exceptions, but neither of them was responsible for all of Obito's training. When it came to strategy, Madara had personally handled Obito's instruction...
And clearly, the Shura of the Shinobi World wasn't a particularly good teacher.
Just as Obito was racking his brain for an answer, Hi-kun slowly emerged from the ground and cleared his throat.
Obito spun around in delight and immediately threw an arm around Hi-kun's neck.
"Hi-kun! You're finally here! Please tell me what I'm supposed to do! The situation is—"
Hi-kun waved him off.
"I already know what happened! Honestly, kid, didn't I tell you Madara-sama was going to test you?"
"And you still ended up like this. I don't even know what to say to you!"
Hi-kun really had warned Obito in advance.
Even though doing so might have prevented Obito from successfully awakening his Mangekyō and cost them a major source of combat power.
After repeatedly studying the Hokage's remarks during his eleventh inspection of the Research Division, however, Hi-kun had come to understand one principle very clearly:
Uncontrolled, disorderly power would only become a liability...
If you couldn't keep it under control, you were better off without it!
That was also the fundamental principle behind Hiruzen's instructions to Orochimaru, Hiruko, and the others when researching Hashirama cells, transplanted Kekkei Genkai, and cursed seals.
What was the point of creating a bunch of freaks?
They might be powerful, but if all those side effects ultimately drove them into becoming Konoha's enemies, the village would lose far more than it gained.
What Konoha needed were warriors who carried the Will of Fire, not unstable elements who had lost themselves in the pursuit of power.
"I'm sorry, Hi-kun..."
Obito lowered his head in embarrassment, looking just like a student being scolded by his teacher.
"You might think that recklessly stumbling into awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan turned this whole thing into a blessing in disguise. Maybe part of you even thinks I'm being too hard on you?"
Hi-kun folded his arms and spoke sternly.
"I'm telling you, you only got lucky because of your talent and bloodline. But this also completely exposed your inability to stay calm, think things through, and properly judge a situation!"
"You absolutely have to keep that under control from now on. If you let your emotions take over and stop thinking about the consequences, an enemy could exploit that and trick you into doing something you'll regret. By then, it'll be too late to make things right!"
Hi-kun kept hammering the warning into Obito.
He'd gotten lucky once.
Would he really be that lucky a second time?
People tended to remember lessons most clearly when their emotions were running high.
For this particular approach to Obito, Hi-kun had taken inspiration from the way Hokage-sama had made Danzō reflect on his own mistakes during the "Fireside Chat"...
There was a proper precedent for everything he was doing!
If Obito was destined to become one of the village's leaves, then Hi-kun would be his "root"...
"I know, I know, Hi-kun..."
Obito nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking at grain, tightly gripping Hi-kun's deathly pale arm.
"Hi-kun, then what am I supposed to do now?"
"The Great Clan Head told me I'm not allowed to talk about him even after I return to the village. But I've been missing from Konoha for more than a year! Hokage-sama has even gone to visit Grandma several times..."
"The kids at the Ninja Academy have already used me as the subject of so many essays!"
"I can't just go back with a body full of Tobi's cells and a Mangekyō and refuse to say a word! And the village's rules mean they're going to examine me anyway. I can't exactly dig in my heels and fight the village over it, can I?"
Obito was getting so anxious that he was starting to sweat.
His own life was certainly important to him.
But letting down someone important to him was even more frightening.
"Well, your situation..."
Hi-kun chuckled. Watching Obito grow increasingly agitated as he deliberately hesitated, the corner of his mouth curled upward and he drew out his next words.
"There is a way to solve it!"
"Hi-kun, please teach me!" Obito exclaimed in delight.
"It's actually very simple..."
"First, if you don't want people deceiving you in the future, remember this: no matter what happens, as long as Hokage-sama is still here, you must trust him."
"Keep that firmly in mind, and you won't go wrong on the things that truly matter. Understand?"
Hi-kun spoke seriously.
"Yes. That's basically what I already thought, but I'll make sure I keep it in mind from now on!"
Obito nodded solemnly.
"So, following that logic..."
"Once you return to Konoha, find a way to avoid contact with anyone else. Go straight to Hokage-sama and report everything you've experienced over the past year."
"Your training, information about your Mangekyō, everything you know about the Mountains' Graveyard..."
"Just don't mention Madara-sama."
Obito blinked.
"Will that really work?"
"It will."
"Madara-sama only told you not to reveal his identity. Anything he didn't explicitly forbid is something he has implicitly allowed you to do."
Hi-kun shrugged.
"With Madara-sama's wisdom, he couldn't possibly have overlooked something like that."
"And you should know that Hokage-sama doesn't believe Madara-sama is actually his sensei, Senju Tobirama. In all of Konoha, he's the only one who's insisted on that from the beginning..."
"Don't overthink it. Maybe once you've confessed half of what happened, Hokage-sama will figure everything out on his own and stop you before you ever say Madara-sama's name."
"Some things are weightless as long as they're never put on the scales. The moment they're brought out into the open, they can become too heavy for anyone to contain."
Hi-kun sighed with feeling.
"Senju Tobirama is dead, so people can pile an endless amount of blame onto him. But Madara-sama will return to Konoha sooner or later. That's something you'll have to think about carefully..."
Obito stared at him blankly.
"It's normal that you don't understand yet."
"To put it simply, everything Madara-sama has done—what happened with Uchiha Yashiro, resurrecting those Kage, making Uchiha Seisui understand that the Flying Thunder God isn't unbeatable, even everything he arranged for you..."
"And the series of moves he'll make next—all of it is meant to help Konoha grow strong, so the village doesn't become a greenhouse flower after losing all external pressure..."
"You can understand that much, right?"
Hi-kun looked at Obito.
Obito slowly nodded.
If Madara's plan had been like the old one—forcing Kakashi and Rin to slaughter each other in the cruelest possible way so that his twisted emotions could be reflected in reality...
Then there was no damn way Obito could have understood it!
But over the past year and more, with Hi-kun constantly mediating and nudging things along, Obito had gotten to experience what it was like to have a "grandfather who loved him but was incredibly strict"...
And now, at the very end, after hearing Hi-kun explain what Madara had arranged for him—and seeing Madara even retreat from his position and send him back to the village...
Everything fit together.
There was no way a truly evil person could have done all this. It could only come from someone who held a profound love for the village in his heart...
That love was simply rather extreme.
And it carried the unmistakable style of the Shura of the Shinobi World.
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