The light in the Kazekage's office was dim and soft, stretching the figure seated behind the desk into a long shadow.
Teizawa held a sealing scroll in his hands and unfurled it.
Dense jutsu formulas and annotations flickered in and out of sight beneath the candlelight.
Edo Tensei…
A forbidden jutsu created by the Second Hokage, Tobirama, then improved by Orochimaru into something more complete and practical.
Teizawa had already run through this jutsu in his mind countless times.
Every step, every hand seal, every rune…
He knew them all by heart.
He wanted to use this jutsu to revive Sunagakure's strongest shinobi from past generations.
The Kazekage of old…
Reto, Shamon, the Third Kazekage, and even Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage he had killed himself.
Each of them had once stood at the peak of the shinobi world.
Each of them possessed the power to change the course of a battlefield.
If he could bring them all back with Edo Tensei and keep control of them firmly in his own hands, Sunagakure's military strength would instantly rise to an unprecedented level.
At that point, forget Iwagakure and Kumogakure.
Even if Akatsuki came knocking, they would have to think twice.
But the problem was the sacrifices.
He could not just grab random people and use them as vessels.
An Edo Tensei performed with poor sacrifices would greatly reduce the revived dead's strength.
They might not even reach half of what they had possessed in life.
The best option would be to do what Kabuto had done in the original plot and use White Zetsu as sacrifices.
White Zetsu bodies were formed from the substance of the God Tree.
They contained powerful vitality.
They could bring out the dead's former strength to the greatest extent.
Unfortunately, Teizawa had no opportunity to capture White Zetsu at the moment.
Worse, the moment he made a move against them, he would alert the man hiding behind the scenes…
Obito.
The night wind blew in through the window, making the lamplight sway.
Flickering shadows danced across the walls.
Teizawa put the scroll away inside his clothes, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.
Obito, the man who called himself "Madara."
He possessed power that made the entire shinobi world wary.
His Kamui Dimension, his ability to phase through attacks, his Sharingan…
Every last one was troublesome.
Teizawa certainly was not afraid of him.
But he did not want to expose his own trump cards too early.
The shinobi world's chessboard had only just begun to move.
He could not break openly with Akatsuki too soon.
Even if Akatsuki already hated him to the bone.
Suddenly, an eerie presence appeared inside the office.
It did not come from the door.
It did not come from the window.
It emerged from thin air.
Like ripples spreading across the surface of water, a hand slowly reached out.
Teizawa opened his eyes.
At some point, another person had appeared in the chair across from his desk.
A black cloak. An orange spiral mask.
Only his right eye was visible.
In that eye, a scarlet Sharingan slowly turned beneath the candlelight.
He sat there as if he had always been present and had never once left.
"Who are you?"
Teizawa leaned against the back of his chair, his hands folded over his knees.
He looked at the uninvited guest calmly.
His voice carried just the right amount of wariness and confusion.
Obito did not speak.
He was also sizing Teizawa up, studying this young Kazekage.
He had seen this man's photograph in Konoha and heard reports from his intelligence agents.
He knew Teizawa was young. He knew Teizawa was dangerous. He knew Teizawa had turned Sunagakure upside down.
But only now, facing him in person, did Obito understand that the words in those intelligence reports could not describe even a fraction of the man before him.
Those eyes were too deep.
Deep like an ancient well, with no bottom in sight.
"Who I am doesn't matter."
Obito finally spoke, his voice low and hoarse as it emerged from behind the mask.
It carried an indescribable pressure.
"What matters is that I came to you to make an agreement."
Teizawa's brow lifted slightly.
"An agreement?" He deliberately drew out the words, as if savoring them. "What kind of agreement?"
"Assist me in completing a great plan."
Obito leaned forward slightly. A flash of scarlet light passed through his exposed right eye.
"In exchange, I will let you possess the entire shinobi world."
Teizawa fell silent for a moment.
Then he laughed.
There was mockery in that smile, amusement too, and a kind of contempt no one could quite read.
"The entire shinobi world? That sounds nice. But… why should I believe you?"
Obito did not answer.
He rose from the chair and walked to the window.
His back was to Teizawa.
Moonlight poured in through the window and fell across him.
His black cloak gleamed coldly beneath it.
"You should have sensed it already… This world is heading toward destruction."
"The wars between the Five Great Nations have never truly stopped. The hatred of shinobi is passed down from one generation to the next. The tailed beasts have become tools for the great nations' power games. The small nations can only cling to life in the cracks between them."
He turned around. That scarlet eye stared straight at Teizawa.
"I need your power to end this rotten world."
Teizawa looked at the face hidden behind the mask.
Inwardly, he sneered.
End this rotten world?
How noble that sounded.
Of course he knew what this so-called "great plan" was.
Gather the nine tailed beasts and activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Trap the entire world in an eternal genjutsu.
In the original plot, Kabuto had even said it outright.
Obito only wanted to create a world where Rin existed.
End this rotten world?
It was nothing more than an excuse for his own selfish desire.
"I refuse."
Teizawa's voice was soft, but every word struck the floor with weight.
Obito's pupil contracted slightly.
"You aren't afraid to die?"
"I am."
Teizawa stood, walked around the desk, and stopped in front of Obito.
They faced each other with only three steps between them.
"But I'm more afraid of being used as someone else's weapon."
He paused, his gaze fixed directly on that Sharingan.
"You came to me for one reason. I'm the Kazekage, and I hold all of Sunagakure's power in my hands."
"You want to use me to control the entire village."
Obito's body stiffened slightly.
He had intended to use the Sharingan to control this young Kazekage, just as he had once controlled the Fourth Mizukage.
He would turn Teizawa into his puppet.
He would make Sunagakure a subordinate force of Akatsuki.
But now, looking into Teizawa's deep eyes, an ominous feeling suddenly rose in his heart.
"You're smarter than I expected."
Obito's voice turned cold. "But smart people often don't live long."
Before the last word had even fully fallen, his figure vanished from the spot.
It was not the Body Flicker Technique.
It was not raw speed.
It was as if something had swallowed him into the void.
He left behind not even the faintest ripple of chakra.
Teizawa's pupils narrowed slightly.
His sensory perception spread through the entire room in an instant.
Behind him.
That presence had appeared less than a meter at his back.
He spun around sharply.
Lightning Release chakra gathered in his right hand as he brought it slashing toward that figure.
"Lightning Release: Raikiri!"
(End of Chapter)
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