"Obito… it hurts."
"Is this the afterlife?"
"I'm sorry I couldn't keep our promise. I didn't live the way we said I would."
"I wasted the life you gave me."
"I didn't want this."
"But I had no choice."
"They were too fast. There were too many of them. I couldn't run."
"They caught me. Shoved something inside my body. It hurt so much… I thought I was going to explode."
"I heard it. I heard its voice."
"It said its name was the Three-Tails."
"It hates all shinobi. It wants to destroy everything."
"It was going to take control of my body."
"I… I didn't want to become a monster!"
"I didn't want to hurt the village."
"The only way I could stop it was to die."
"I'm sorry to Kakashi too."
"I ran straight into the kunai in his hand. My blood stained his fingers."
"I made him carry pain he never should have had to bear."
"But for the village, I had to do it."
"I'm part of the village. I'm a Leaf shinobi. A shinobi's job is to complete the mission no matter what. To sacrifice everything to protect the village."
"I guess that makes me a real shinobi after all."
"Obito… I'm so cold."
"So cold."
"Can you hear me?"
"Why won't you answer?"
"Are you mad at me?"
Obito's eyes filled with tears. They spilled down his cheeks.
"Rin, I'm not mad at you."
"I'm not speaking because I'm not dead."
"I can't talk to you."
"The one who should be blamed… is me."
"If I had shown up sooner, I could have saved you."
"Kakashi wouldn't be suffering like this either."
"It's all their fault!"
"The Mist Village!"
"The Leaf!"
"The Sand Village!"
"The war!"
"Every single ninja village and their greedy, power-hungry leaders!"
Seeing Rin in the dream didn't bring Obito comfort. It brought agony.
He couldn't stop reliving that night. The pain was overwhelming. His heart felt like it was being stabbed and ripped open over and over, barbs tearing through every time.
The tragedy between Gen-no-suke and Oboro hit him like a truck. He felt every bit of it.
The daimyo in the story made Obito's hatred burn hotter. He saw the same thing in every ninja village—using people as disposable pawns for their own gain.
"Ninja villages have only existed for a few decades. Who the hell gave them the right to chain ninja lives like this?"
"This is wrong."
Obito looked back at the newspaper headline.
It only confirmed what he already suspected: Danzo was the one who got Rin killed.
Even if he wasn't directly responsible, Danzo was definitely not a good person.
"Danzo will be the first one I go after."
Then Obito read the quote below the headline.
"I'm going to make Danzo pay."
"I'm going to make him suffer."
"I'll destroy everything he cares about. I'll make him feel the same pain I felt."
"But what does Danzo actually care about most?"
Obito decided to ask someone who would know.
A Leaf shinobi. Someone who used to be in the Leaf but wasn't anymore.
Obito was sure this person hated Danzo just as much as he did. And he would tell the truth.
"Who are you?"
Uchiha Yashiro stared at the masked figure that had suddenly appeared, instantly on guard.
"I mean no harm."
Obito's voice came out rough and distorted.
"I'm here to make a deal."
"What kind of deal?"
"I need information about Danzo. In exchange, I'll help you get revenge on the Leaf."
The moment Obito mentioned the Leaf, Yashiro's interest spiked.
He didn't care who this masked man was. Anyone willing to hurt the Leaf was a friend in his book.
Yashiro's hatred for the Leaf ran bone-deep. He wanted the entire village to implode. Every elder dead. Every Uchiha still loyal to the Leaf dead too.
"You're serious?"
"Completely."
Yashiro thought for a second.
"I know some things about Danzo, but not everything."
"His power in the Leaf is second only to Hiruzen Sarutobi, but it all comes from Hiruzen turning a blind eye. He gets to do whatever he wants."
"Most of the moves against my Uchiha clan came from him."
"He's the one carrying on the evil will of Tobirama Senju."
"Twisted personality. Holds grudges forever. Cruel, vicious, does whatever it takes. No limits. No shame. He'll use any dirty trick in the book."
"He claims everything he does is for the Leaf."
"He's obsessed with becoming Hokage."
"Thanks to him the Shimura clan has gotten richer and stronger."
"He poured everything into building Root."
"Loves planting spies in other villages."
...
Yashiro kept talking. Obito only wrote down the parts he thought mattered most.
"Root. The Shimura clan. The Hokage seat. The Leaf itself. And his reputation."
Obito's eyes narrowed.
"The Leaf is too strong for me to destroy right now."
"He never actually got the Hokage position."
"As for Root and the Shimura clan…"
"Root is hidden. Destroying it won't be easy, and even if I kill some members, Danzo can just recruit more."
"Right now there are only two things I can actually do."
"One: kill members of the Shimura clan."
"Two: destroy Danzo's reputation."
A White Zetsu crawled out of the dirt nearby.
"Obito, why not bring the other Uchiha into the plan? Their strength would help a lot. And with how bad things are for them right now, they'd probably join without much convincing. Especially if you use Madara's name."
Obito glanced at White Zetsu and shook his head.
"These Uchiha are too extreme right now. Bringing them in would only cause problems. When the time is right, I'll use them. But not yet."
...
An Anbu operative rushed into the Hokage Tower.
"Hokage-sama."
"What is it?"
"A shinobi committed suicide."
"Suicide?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned.
"Why?"
"We don't know, but we found this suicide note on the body."
Hiruzen took the paper.
The next second, his face went deathly pale.