Chapter 432: Targeting Uchiha Obito
"Tobi, put Naruto down. If you like him, you should pursue him openly and honestly, not take advantage of him when he's vulnerable!"
Senju Hashirama looked at Naruto, who might have already been… violated, and for a moment felt a strange sense of empathy. He immediately scolded the masked man.
"Yes, First Hokage-sama, I understand… sob, sob…"
Tobi continued sobbing in an exaggerated, almost feminine way as he slowly placed Naruto back onto the bed, clearly reluctant.
That reluctance was completely genuine.
The masked man truly didn't want to just give up the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki he had finally gotten his hands on.
If he returned Naruto, wouldn't that mean this entire trip was for nothing?
Not only had he failed to obtain the Rinnegan, he had even lost an arm and been thoroughly humiliated.
Take Naruto and leave directly?
That wasn't possible either.
If he wanted to activate Kamui and pull both himself and Naruto into the dimension, he had to remain tangible.
With the First Hokage's reaction speed, if he got hit at that moment, it would backfire disastrously.
However, what puzzled the masked man even more was why the First Hokage hadn't noticed anything unusual about him.
When he turned his head earlier, he had already used a Transformation Jutsu to replace his mask with a cute cat-girl mask, but he couldn't change his clothes right in front of the First Hokage.
He was still wearing the Akatsuki cloak. Didn't the First Hokage find it suspicious that an unfamiliar Akatsuki member had suddenly appeared?
With that doubt in mind, the masked man wasn't interrogated at all. After setting Naruto down, he simply left.
"Good kid. Don't do this kind of thing again. If you really can't help it, just go buy a cup."
As he passed by, Senju Hashirama patted the masked man on the shoulder, speaking earnestly like an elder giving advice.
"…Alright."
The masked man's lips twitched as he quickly left.
While walking down the street, he noticed several passersby also wearing Akatsuki cloaks.
Has the Akatsuki expanded their recruitment?
Curious, he sensed them and discovered they were just ordinary traveling merchants.
Has the Akatsuki cloak become some kind of fashion trend?
No wonder the First Hokage hadn't been suspicious.
The masked man let out a sigh of relief.
"Flying Thunder God Slash!"
Suddenly, a flash of blade light streaked past. The masked man felt a sharp pain rip through his body, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
He stared in disbelief at the suddenly appearing Second Hokage.
When?!
When did the Second Hokage place a Flying Thunder God mark on him?!
"Hmph, inherently evil Uchiha. Surrender now."
Senju Tobirama snorted coldly, flicking his long blade to shake off the blood.
The masked man's pupils shrank.
Because Tobirama's left hand was in the process of regenerating.
That was the regeneration from Impure World Reincarnation.
But just now, Tobirama had been the one attacking him, so why was he injured as well?
No… not injured!
The masked man suddenly realized.
Earlier, the First Hokage had patted his shoulder…
That hand hadn't been Hashirama's at all—the two brothers had swapped arms! It was all to lower his guard and plant the Flying Thunder God mark on him!
The masked man touched his shoulder and glanced over. Sure enough, he saw the Flying Thunder God seal.
He tore off his clothing, exposing his shoulder, yet the mark was still there.
"So you noticed? Foolish Uchiha. Your body is filled with my brother's cells, how could you possibly think he wouldn't notice something was wrong with you?"
Senju Tobirama mocked him.
He approved of the plan to deal with the masked man.
But before that, he believed the masked man needed to recognize his own situation.
Forcing him to abandon the idea of "redeeming" himself wasn't giving the masked man a choice, it was giving him an opportunity.
If they truly wanted to eliminate him, they could do so at any time.
They had to crush his confidence and pride first. Only then would he recognize reality more quickly and efficiently.
"… "
The masked man's expression turned grim.
He had always remained undefeated thanks to his overwhelming spatial-temporal ninjutsu.
And also because of the information gap.
His intangibility was practically invincible.
Even when facing his sensei, Namikaze Minato, who also possessed space-time technique, he had the upper hand in the early stages of their battle.
That was because Minato mistakenly believed that being sucked in meant defeat, so he constantly used Flying Thunder God to evade, avoiding being pulled in.
But this time, Tobirama was different.
When Tobirama teleported in, it wasn't his blade that arrived first, but several kunai.
The kunai targeted his waist and shoulder.
He activated intangibility, ignoring the attacks.
But precisely because of that intangibility, when the kunai passed through those areas, the portions of his waist and shoulder carrying the Flying Thunder God marks were transferred into the Kamui dimension.
As a result, Tobirama used Flying Thunder God to enter the Kamui dimension and slashed his waist, where his body existed inside that space.
Then, before the masked man could react, Tobirama immediately teleported again using the marks on the thrown kunai, escaping the Kamui dimension.
It was so fast that the masked man didn't even have time to manually close the Kamui dimension.
Of course, the masked man seriously suspected that even if he had reacted quickly enough to shut it, it wouldn't have helped.
The First Hokage was definitely nearby, rushing over.
If he trapped Tobirama inside the Kamui dimension, it would effectively seal his own intangibility.
Because the moment he became intangible, Tobirama inside the dimension would attack him.
Without intangibility, how could he face the First Hokage's fists and Wood Release?
Clutching his wound, the masked man scanned his surroundings.
As expected, the First Hokage leapt out.
His arm was also regenerating.
The two had indeed swapped arms.
How underhanded!
Slash!
Without hesitation, the masked man made a decisive move. He tore off his own shoulder and arm, the one bearing the Flying Thunder God mark, and threw it to the ground.
Facing this, Senju Tobirama remained calm, showing no urgency as if the plan hadn't been ruined. Instead, he turned to the approaching First Hokage and questioned him: "Brother, didn't I tell you to touch his pocket? If you had, then instead of cutting off his arm, he'd be forced to castrate himself right now."
"… "
"Well, I didn't really have a reason! I couldn't exactly tell him, 'Let me check if your thing is functioning properly for Naruto', could I?"
Senju Hashirama scratched his head awkwardly.
"As expected of the First Hokage who stabbed Uchiha Madara in the back at the Valley of the End. I was deceived by your honest appearance. Next time, you won't be so lucky."
The masked man delivered a classic villain retreat line as he prepared to activate Kamui and escape.
However…
A sheet of paper suddenly passed through his body.
It floated in front of him, and then exploded.
(End of this chapter)