Mountain cemetery.
"Rin... Rin... Kakashi... Kakashi..."
Obito kept murmuring the names of Nohara Rin and Kakashi, over and over, like he was afraid he would forget them if he stopped for even a second.
Madara Uchiha sat in silence upon a chair woven from living branches, his scarlet eyes fixed on the boy before him.
During all that time, Obito had never stopped calling for Rin and Kakashi. Rather than growing impatient, Madara only became more certain.
The deeper the bond, the greater the crack when it breaks.
"The seal has already been planted."
Madara watched as Obito slowly drifted back toward consciousness.
Obito's fusion with the Hashirama cells had gone unusually smoothly. After burning with a fierce fever, he no longer looked as close to death as before.
At the same time, Madara had already buried a special binding talisman inside Obito's heart, a safeguard to ensure that the boy could never stray too far from the path he had prepared for him.
"...Where am I?"
Obito's eyelids twitched. He opened his eyes at last, staring blankly into a dim underground chamber so dark and airless that he couldn't tell whether it was day or night outside.
"This is the gap between life and death... child of the Uchiha."
Madara's voice rang out, old and low, steeped in an indescribable weight.
"!"
Obito jolted.
Only then did he notice that an old man had been staring at him the entire time.
A chill ran through him. He instinctively lowered his head and found his body wrapped in bandages, with not a stitch of clothing on him.
"It hurts..."
He frowned and tried to move, only for a violent wave of pain to explode through the right side of his body and lower half.
"If you can still feel pain, that means you're still alive."
Madara looked at him as if he were merely stating a fact.
"You fell into an underground passage I prepared. It was directly beneath the rocks that collapsed..."
He slowly explained what had happened.
By the time he finished, Obito had pieced together the general situation.
"So... you saved me, old man? Thanks."
The gratitude in his voice was genuine.
It was so genuine, in fact, that Madara's expression turned subtly strange.
"It is too early to thank me. This favor... is one you will repay properly."
Madara looked at Obito with a gaze full of hidden meaning, as if each word carried the weight of a chain.
Every gift in fate comes with a price tag. Most people simply do not notice it until much later.
But Obito only blinked at him.
"No, Grandpa. Even though you look really old, the most I can do is help you to the toilet for a few days before I go back. I still have to protect my companions."
He spoke with complete sincerity.
After all, he often helped old people in the village. He knew that when they got on in years, some things became inconvenient. He wasn't mocking him. He genuinely meant it.
"..."
For the first time in a long while, Madara Uchiha found himself at a loss for words.
"With the state your body is in, it is no longer possible for you to return to your former life. Face reality."
Madara's tone grew colder.
"No way. I finally awakened the Sharingan. How could I not go back?"
Obito frowned.
In his mind, he was only missing an arm. Could things really be that bad?
"Things in this world do not always go as you wish. The longer you live, the more you realize that reality is filled with helplessness, pain, and emptiness."
As Madara spoke, old memories surfaced in his mind.
Hashirama Senju had once promised him that he would become Hokage. The two of them had even dreamed together about how they would govern Konoha.
And yet, in the end, it had all been decided through Tobirama Senju's so-called democracy.
Then, when Madara left Konoha, not a single member of the Uchiha clan had followed him.
"Heh..."
A bitter sound escaped him.
That old Senju devil had spoken of popular will and public election when choosing the Hokage. Yet from the information White Zetsu gathered later, Madara knew that when Tobirama himself chose the next Hokage, he had not bothered with any of that.
No public opinion. No vote. No process.
He had simply pointed at Hiruzen Sarutobi and made the decision himself.
Too many disappointments had taught Madara what the world truly was.
'What is this old man even rambling about?'
Obito stared at him, utterly unconvinced.
"Listen well. In this world, where there is light, there is shadow. Where there are victors, there will inevitably be losers."
"The desire to protect love will inevitably produce hatred. They are bound together by a causal chain that cannot be severed."
"So where exactly is this place?"
Obito cut him off without the slightest courtesy.
He had no interest in listening to some old man's philosophy lecture.
"Hmph. This is a narrow crevice between worlds. If you wish to leave, then leave... provided you can."
Madara glanced at him from the corner of his eye and finally realized that Obito's brain simply wasn't equipped to process his true intentions yet.
"Wait..."
Obito suddenly noticed something.
He had met every elderly Uchiha elder in the clan, or at least heard their names. But there had never been anyone called Uchiha Madara.
An Uchiha with the Sharingan. A man who didn't live in Konoha. A figure no one openly spoke of.
"...Old man, you're a rogue ninja, aren't you?"
Obito found what he thought was the blind spot in the story.
"Who exactly are you?!"
His voice rose sharply, full of suspicion and alarm.
If this man intended to torture information out of him, then he would never speak, no matter what.
Madara did not answer right away. He leaned on his scythe and slowly settled himself more firmly into the branch-woven chair.
"I am the ghost of the Uchiha clan... Uchiha Madara."
His voice echoed through the underground passage like something dragged out of a tomb.
"The head of the Uchiha clan... that Uchiha Madara?"
Obito's eyes widened.
That name was taboo.
The greatest traitor in the history of the Uchiha. The man everyone feared, yet no one dared mention directly. They could only refer to him as that person.
"Even if you're from the Uchiha clan, if you betrayed the village, I'll still beat you!"
Obito clenched his fists and glared at him, already preparing himself to fight at any moment.
In Konoha, there was only one rule for rogue ninja.
Kill them.
"What was your purpose in saving me?"
Finally, Obito asked the real question.
"I will sever the chain of causality in this world."
Madara's eyes darkened.
"I want to create a world where only victors exist. A world where peace exists. A world where love exists. That is the world I will build."
"I don't care what chain you're trying to cut. I just want to go back to the village. Back to my companions!"
Obito had completely run out of patience.
Rin had to be waiting for him.
Kakashi too. And Grandma. And Minato-sensei. Kushina as well.
And if he stayed here too long, who knew what that bastard Kiyohara might do near Rin?
"Do you remember what I said earlier? You cannot return to the past. Things will not always go as you wish."
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Madara's mouth.
Obito was the perfect piece.
Now all that was left was for the world to carve pain into him deeply enough.
"Hold tightly to your hope while you still can, Obito."
Madara's voice grew softer, but the malice hidden inside it only became clearer.
"I will make you taste profound pain. I will make you understand just how dark this world truly is."
"Let us begin with that girl."
His red eyes gleamed in the darkness.
"Let us begin with what it means for her to be taken from you."
Reality was never bright.
Reality was only ever this cruel.
***
Meanwhile, back in Konoha—
"Kiyohara, a new mission's been assigned."
On that day, while Kiyohara was training at home and quietly waiting for the next will to appear, Kurenai came to his door.
"What is it, Kurenai?"
Kiyohara asked, bare-chested and slick with sweat, breathing a little hard from practice.