Outside a roadside restroom on the outskirts of the Land of Fire, Obito came to a stop.
Do not misunderstand; Obito, who possessed Hashirama cells, had no need to eat and therefore no need to use a restroom, and the reason he had come here was that the nearest exchange station happened to be built inside this restroom.
"Wait here."
Obito said this to Uzuki Yūki behind him, then dragged Hokusuke's corpse inside.
Splash, splash, splash! The moment Obito entered, Spiral Zetsu detached from his body.
"What?"
"It's rare to visit a human restroom, so I want to study the sensation of needing to relieve oneself."
Spiral Zetsu pursued his fixation on that sensation with the same single-mindedness as always.
"Don't get any feces on yourself."
Obito had no intention of meddling with someone else's pursuits, so after that one word of warning he walked to the wall, reached out, and gave it a light push, and with a thud the hidden door dropped open and he stepped through.
Inside the dim exchange station, a row of refrigerated cabinets stood along the wall, used for storing corpses.
Obito tossed Hokusuke's corpse carelessly onto the floor with a thud, then said in a flat tone, "Exchange."
The man in charge of the exchange station was a bearded fellow who leaned against the counter with a cigarette dangling from his lips, eyeing the body on the floor.
Zetsu had already restored Hokusuke's face to a condition recognizable enough for identification, but this was the most severely damaged corpse the bearded man had ever seen, and he could not help lifting his gaze to study the young man standing before him, inwardly unsettled.
The age of this young man was a stark mismatch with the prey he had brought in.
But in the shinobi world, judging by appearances alone was an act of supreme foolishness, and the age of war produced no shortage of ninja who possessed extraordinary ability at a very young age, and the young man standing here was surely one of them.
The bearded man set down his cigarette, stepped forward, placed Hokusuke's corpse into one of the cabinets, then flipped open the bounty registry, drew a red cross over Hokusuke's entry, took a cashbox from the till, and set it in front of Obito.
The black market had its own rules, and neither party was to ask unnecessary questions: one side handed over the corpse and the other collected the payment.
Obito did not count the money the way Kyusuke might have; he picked up the cashbox, turned, and walked toward the exit.
"First time here, I take it? Aren't you going to count it?"
After the transaction was complete, the bearded man lit his cigarette again and called out to Obito's retreating back, unable to hold back his curiosity.
Obito stopped walking but did not turn around.
"No need."
The bearded man's expression grew thoughtful.
"In this day and age, trusting people so easily isn't wise. Aren't you worried I might short you, or that the money might be counterfeit?"
Obito turned around and said coldly, "That would be even better, then I would have reason to kill all of you and take every coin for myself."
Those lightly spoken words carried the absolute confidence of someone who needed no other basis for that claim.
The bearded man froze with the cigarette halfway to his lips, and even he, a man who dealt with corpses day in and day out, felt a chill run down his spine: he was serious.
Steadying himself, the bearded man said quickly, "You're joking with me, brother. Our organization only profits from the dead and would never cheat the living. We look forward to working with you again."
Obito withdrew his gaze and walked out.
He certainly would not be coming back any time soon, as his need for money was not particularly great.
Stepping out of the exchange station, what greeted Obito's eyes left him at a loss for words, because Spiral Zetsu was crouching in front of a pit latrine, poking at a long-dried lump of excrement with a stick held in his woody hand.
"Can you please not apply Wood Release to a hobby like this?"
With a clack, Spiral Zetsu tossed the stick away, clapped his hands together, and said, "Just now I invented a technique more powerful than Wood Release."
"What technique?"
"Ninja Art: Feces Release!"
Spiral Zetsu formed the hand seals.
Nothing happened, and a moment of silence settled over the air.
"Huh?? Did it fail??"
Spiral Zetsu scratched his head in embarrassment.
The cramped space was thick with an absurd energy, and Obito felt as though even the air itself had grown considerably more absurd.
"What a technique with real flavor to it."
Obito delivered that dry remark and walked toward the exit.
Spiral Zetsu spread his hands and moved to cover Obito's body, but Obito rejected him.
"Don't. You smell like feces."
Obito opened the cashbox, tossed a stack of bills onto the ground, gave Spiral Zetsu a look, and left.
"Well, fine then."
Spiral Zetsu spread his hands, picked up the money, and sank into the ground.
Uzuki Yūki, who had been waiting outside, was thus able to see Obito's true face.
He is so young! Yūki did not recognize Obito as Uchiha Obito; she was simply astonished that someone possessing such power was a young man who appeared even younger than herself.
"Where are we going next?"
Yūki composed herself and asked.
"A hundred miles from here, where I live."
"A hundred miles? Even traveling at full speed without rest, that would take two days and two nights."
"No, it will take only an instant."
Obito placed his hand on Yūki's shoulder, and his three-tomoe Sharingan shifted into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Whoosh!
The Kamui vortex manifested.
"This is a space-time dōjutsu!!"
In the midst of her astonishment, Yūki was drawn into the Kamui, and then Obito followed.
The vortex vanished.
A hundred miles away, inside the underground base.
Yūki looked at the unfamiliar surroundings, at the White Zetsu scattered throughout, at the mysterious statue, and her thoughts churned without rest.
About a minute passed.
Gurgle, gurgle! Spiral Zetsu's head rose up from beneath the ground.
"Too slow."
"I'm not like you; I can't ignore the constraints of space."
Spiral Zetsu stated the plain truth.
"Is everything prepared?"
After Spiral Zetsu had fully emerged from the floor, he placed a box on the ground.
Obito said to Uzuki Yūki, "Your room is already prepared, right next to mine, and inside that box are spare clothes prepared for you along with some shinobi-issue packed meals. Make do with them for now. I will have a dedicated hot spring set up for your use before long."
Having said all that, and without paying any mind to the look of bewilderment on Uzuki Yūki's face, Obito picked up the cashbox and walked toward his own quarters.
After standing still for a brief moment, Uzuki Yūki followed behind Obito.
At the door to his room, Obito stopped.
"When you have nothing to do at night, stay in your room and do not wander around the base. If you need anything, you can call on Zetsu, meaning those white figures."
Having said that, Obito pushed open his door and went inside.
Creak. Late in the night when all was quiet, the door to the room next to Obito's crept open, and Uzuki Yūki stepped out under the faint light.
She paused at the door to Obito's room for a moment, considering whether to charge in right now and make her move, but she shook her head and gave up the idea, since she was no fool and knew it would not be that easy to succeed.
'At the very least, I should first learn the secrets hidden in this place.'
Uzuki Yūki gazed toward the far end of the corridor at the room sealed behind a thick iron door.
Every other room along this corridor had a wooden door, but that one alone was blocked by a heavy iron door, and Yūki guessed that something of great importance must be hidden inside.
She slipped silently toward it, stopped just outside, confirmed that no traps had been set near the door, then looked up toward the skylight at the top of the wall.
She released chakra through the soles of her feet, walked up the wall, reached the skylight, took out a small mirror, and extended it through the gap, using its reflection to observe the scene inside the stone chamber.
The room was filled with large experimental apparatuses, and what drew the eye most were cylindrical vessels filled with green liquid, each containing a person, though the surface of the vessels was blurred so she could not make out any face clearly, only that whoever was inside appeared to have numerous tubes connected to their body.
Drip. Drip.
At the far end of the apparatus, an outlet released one drop of golden-glowing blood at regular intervals into a glass tube below.
That glass tube was already nearly one third full.
Standing before the apparatus was a slender man in white robes that gave him an otherworldly air, with long hair that lent him a sinuous quality, and a rope tied at the small of his back in a distinctive pattern. His back was full of mystery as he stared intently at the experimental apparatus.
For reasons she could not explain, Uzuki Yūki felt that the figure's back looked strangely familiar, resembling, to an uncanny degree, a man that the Konoha Anbu had long kept watch over, a man of extreme danger and extreme terror.
"Hmm?"
At that moment, the man stopped what he was doing with his hands and slowly turned around, and Yūki suddenly felt as though an invisible hand had seized her heart, and every breath left her body at once.
Slit!
The vertical pupils of a great serpent. A killing intent of crushing force.
"Ah!!"
Yūki let out a cry of alarm, lost her footing, and fell to the ground.
Her heart hammered wildly as she gasped for breath: there was no mistaking it, absolutely no mistaking it, that was Orochimaru, one of the three legendary Sannin of Konoha. How, how could he be in a place like this!!
Tap, tap, tap. Footsteps came to a halt behind her.
"Did I not tell you to stay in your room and not go wandering about?"
Obito looked at Uzuki Yūki, who had not yet recovered from her shock.
"I..."
"Go back to sleep."
Inside the stone chamber.
Kabuto turned an inquiring look toward Orochimaru.
"Pay it no mind. Let her be."
Orochimaru said in his hoarse voice.
"Yes."
Kabuto withdrew.
"Hehe, it seems that although Raito is powerful, he is still, at heart, a passionate and devoted young Uchiha. Whether my most perfect creation can bring about a miracle when used on Raito is truly something to look forward to."
Orochimaru gazed at the golden drops of blood being collected one by one in the glass tube, a smile of utter entrancement spreading across his lips.