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Tap. Tap. Tap.
Kabuto lowered his head slightly, letting the red hood cover the upper half of his face. He strode forward and left the area once more.
This expedition of Kabuto's hadn't taken long. But it had brought a coffin from hundreds of years ago back into the light of the world.
And Kagaya still knew nothing of this. His consciousness remained in the Pure Land. He couldn't feel the passage of time. He had no way of knowing that, at this very moment, hundreds of years had passed since his death.
The crimson figure walked slowly across the desert. Gradually, wind and sand blew past, obscuring that figure.
By the time the wind and sand settled, the crimson figure had long since disappeared.
The Pure Land.
Crack! Crackle!
Kagaya froze. He was still basking in the warmth of his parents' presence. Suddenly, the world around him began shattering rapidly, like a mirror.
"What's going on?"
Kagaya instinctively spoke, then looked toward his parents. He didn't want anything to happen to them.
However, his parents merely smiled faintly, gazing at Kagaya with faces full of gratified pride.
Uchiha Takayuki spoke unhurriedly. "It's about time you got lost, don't you think? Heh heh. This place is for your old man here. You're not qualified yet."
Kagaya froze again. Then he remembered. Right—the scene before him wasn't the Pure Land shattering. It was himself shattering!
Why? Probably because someone in the real world was summoning his soul, preparing to resurrect him. So he had begun to reject the Pure Land, and the Pure Land was slowly expelling him!
To put it plainly, Kagaya was about to leave the Pure Land. He could no longer remain there. So in his vision, it looked as if the Pure Land was collapsing.
"Yuki? Is she performing the Impure World Reincarnation on me? I see."
Kagaya muttered to himself. In the Pure Land, there was no such thing as the concept of time. Whether a hundred years or a thousand years passed, it all felt like an instant or a few minutes.
In Kagaya's perception, he had only been in the Pure Land for a few minutes. So, correspondingly, in his consciousness, only a few minutes might have passed in the real world before Yuki began resurrecting him.
No matter what, Kagaya could never have imagined that hundreds of years had already passed in the real world—that everything had long since changed beyond recognition.
"Kagaya, you..."
Uchiha Yuko looked at Kagaya with worry, wanting to say something, but she stopped herself.
In Kagaya's vision, the collapse of the Pure Land was accelerating. His soul was about to leave this place. So Kagaya hurriedly asked.
"What is it, Mother?"
Yuko smiled and shook her head. "Mm... nothing. Just... when you go back, be careful. Just as your father said—this place isn't suited for you. Live well, understand?"
"Yes! I will, I definitely will." Kagaya's answer was resolute and powerful. Only now did Kagaya realize—this experience of death might have been just a few minutes of strange adventure for him. But for his parents in the Pure Land... it might have been something they couldn't accept.
Crack, crack, crack...
BOOM!
In the end, the image of the Pure Land shattered completely into fragments and vanished. In Kagaya's vision, only darkness remained.
His soul had left the Pure Land and been pulled back to reality. But for Kagaya to awaken, one final step was needed—the one performing the Impure World Reincarnation had to awaken him.
Several days later.
Upon a massive skeletal structure, Kabuto—clad in his red robe—found Uchiha Madara (Obito). A white snake emerged from behind Kabuto, flicking its tongue.
"Allow me to greet you first, Tobi. No... I suppose I should call you Madara now."
The words themselves weren't particularly special. But something about Kabuto's tone was off. When Kabuto said "Madara," his tone was extremely flat—so flat it almost carried a hint of disdain.
Obito didn't pay attention to that detail. He stared coldly at Kabuto.
"I'm impressed you managed to find this place."
Obito's true opinion of Kabuto was known to no one. But at the very least, at this moment, Obito clearly held no goodwill toward him. The place they were in now was Obito's main base before the war. Such a secret base was never meant to be discovered. Yet Kabuto had walked right up to the entrance and blocked Obito's path. No matter what, Obito couldn't simply let Kabuto leave this place so easily.
Kabuto spoke, as if both explaining and proving himself.
"As a spy who traveled between nations, I was once a member of the Akatsuki. You'd best not underestimate my intelligence network."
Obito followed up. "You were Sasori's spy, weren't you? You're a traitor to the Akatsuki!"
That sentence was meant purely to express hostility.
With those words, Obito leaped forward, charging at Kabuto, who stood atop the massive skeletal structure.
Kabuto quickly retreated, leaping directly to the ground. He stopped and clasped his hands together!
Obito chased after him. When Kabuto stopped, Obito had the chance to rush forward and grab him. But an extremely ominous premonition suddenly surged within Obito's heart, causing him to stop instinctively.
The earth split open. Coffin after coffin rose from the ground—five in total.
Clatter, clatter, clatter.
The lids covering the coffins fell to the ground, revealing the people inside: Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, Kakuzu, and Nagato.
Obito narrowed his eyes slightly. The ominous premonition had indeed come true.
"The Impure World Reincarnation."
Kabuto spoke with a hint of pride. "A forbidden technique that only the Second Hokage and Orochimaru-sama could use. But I am the third person capable of using it. And the current me has surpassed both of them. This is a little demonstration, to make you believe in my strength. Rest assured—I didn't come here to fight."
After mastering Senjutsu and becoming what he was now, Kabuto seemed to harbor a strong desire to prove that he was excellent, that he was perfect. This tendency could be detected many times in his words.
Obito asked. "What is your objective?"
"I want to form an alliance with you!"
"An alliance? What benefit would that bring me?"
"You're about to start a war, aren't you? In other words, I can provide you with combat power. The Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, Kakuzu, and Nagato here are all experts. And the pieces I possess aren't limited to just these."
Obito narrowed his eyes again. From the people Kabuto had summoned, he could already sense Kabuto's strength. But he wasn't particularly afraid. Although these people were experts, against Obito—who was nearing the completion of the Ten-Tails—they were still lacking.
"What compensation do you require?"
"Uchiha Sasuke."
"What are you scheming?"
"Nothing at all. What interests me is the purest truth within ninjutsu. For my research, I need Sasuke. I want a living, young, and sensitive Uchiha clansman."
"And if I refuse?"
Kabuto smiled faintly. Refuse? Of course he had considered that the Uchiha Madara before him—Obito—might refuse. But how could he possibly give this man the chance to refuse?
He clasped his hands together.
"Impure World Reincarnation!"
A coffin rose from the ground. Then, its lid fell to the earth, revealing the person inside.
For the first time since Kabuto and Obito had met—Obito was truly, genuinely shocked.
"Th-this is..."
Kabuto walked over to the coffin and smiled faintly.
"Did you think I would come to meet you unprepared? That's right. You cannot refuse."
Obito's eyes flew wide open. "You bastard... where did you get this?!"
Kabuto continued smiling.
"It took a great deal of effort. Don't worry—I haven't told anyone else. Oh, and there's one more thing I can show you in advance."
With that, Kabuto raised his hand. In his palm appeared two small bottles. And within the bottles... very clearly... were the Rinnegan!
Two Rinnegan!
!!!
Obito's breathing nearly stopped.
"You—! You took them from Nagato—"
Kabuto cut Obito off. "Hmph. Let me clarify one thing: these are not Nagato's Rinnegan. I know you wouldn't let anyone else get their hands on Nagato's Rinnegan. I don't want to be your enemy, so I didn't touch them. The Rinnegan in my hand... I found them while searching for another trump card."
Obito's gaze was extremely dark and grim. He realized that Kabuto was increasingly slipping beyond his control.
"Another trump card?" Kabuto tapped the coffin beside him.
"Yes. Another trump card of the same level as the person in this coffin!"
Obito's eyes widened to their absolute limit. He simply couldn't believe what Kabuto was saying.
Because the person inside the coffin beside Kabuto... was the legendary Uchiha Madara!
Someone comparable to Uchiha Madara? And a wielder of the Rinnegan at that! At least, in Obito's understanding... no such person seemed to exist.
"Words alone won't do!"
Kabuto sneered. "Believe it or not, I've already shown you one trump card. As for the other... I won't reveal it so easily. After all... it is a trump card."
After Kabuto finished speaking, what followed was deathly silence. Obito didn't know how to respond. Indeed—never mind this other trump card Kabuto spoke of—the genuine Uchiha Madara standing right before his eyes alone was enough to shatter every psychological defense Obito had.
At that moment, Obito also remembered—when they had first met, that flat, almost disdainful tone in Kabuto's voice when he said "Madara."
So, Kabuto already knew that Obito wasn't the real Uchiha Madara! After all, the true Uchiha Madara had already been resurrected by Kabuto through the Impure World Reincarnation.
"Hmph... hahahahaha." Obito suddenly burst into laughter.
Kabuto's smile faded. He asked.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Yakushi Kabuto! I never imagined you were this kind of talent. Fighting you now would only weaken our own forces. So you chose this exact moment to come here. What a thoroughly calculating bastard. In other words... Very well. I'll form an alliance with you! However, I can only hand over Sasuke after the war ends. Before that, I won't let you see him."
"What a reasonable man. As expected of Uchiha Madara. Your capacity is extraordinary."
Kabuto once again addressed Obito as Uchiha Madara. This time, the address no longer carried that initial hint of disdain. But knowingly calling Obito "Uchiha Madara" while fully aware he wasn't the real one... was, in itself, a form of mockery.
Obito didn't mind. Kabuto's strength was enough to grant him a great deal of tolerance.
"Arrogant bastard! After confirming your combat strength, I'll revise the battle plan. Come with me."
And so, just as in the original story, Kabuto formed an alliance with Obito. The difference, however, was this: this time, Kabuto had revealed the existence of the two Rinnegan to Obito, and declared that he possessed another trump card. This was a piece of information of critical importance—both to Obito, to Kabuto, and even to the upcoming Fourth Great Ninja War.
This was a realm of darkness.
"Still not waking me up?"
Kagaya found it strange. After returning to reality, he had regained his sense of time. But he had waited for nearly an hour now, and still no one had awakened him.
With the Impure World Reincarnation technique, the caster always held the initiative. As the one being resurrected, if the caster didn't awaken him, there was nothing Kagaya could do. After all, right now, he was just a dead man—or more precisely, a soul pulled back into reality, still slumbering.
"Did something happen to Yuki?"
Kagaya thought worriedly. He didn't want anything bad to happen to Yuki. Logically, once his soul had been summoned to the living world, she should have awakened him without pause. But the fact that she still hadn't awakened him... something must have gone wrong.
"Sigh..."
Letting out a sigh, Kagaya closed his eyes in the darkness and fell back into slumber.
No matter what happened in the outside world, as long as no one awakened him, there was nothing he could do.
In the real world.
One month later.
Carefully. Carefully.
After finalizing the alliance with Obito, Kabuto had spent time finding an extremely secluded location. Then, he began a matter of paramount importance—transplanting the Rinnegan!
The power of the Rinnegan had already been demonstrated clearly through Nagato. There was no way Kabuto wouldn't be tempted by such immense power.
Since he had obtained a pair of Rinnegan, transplanting them was inevitable.
Carefully. Carefully!
But after all, this was Kabuto's first time transplanting eyes. Although he had experienced practically every kind of surgery during his time as Orochimaru's assistant, this time he was transplanting another pair of eyes into himself—and Rinnegan at that. Kabuto didn't dare be anything but careful.
Finally, relying on his own formidable medical skills, without any mishap, Kabuto transplanted the right Rinnegan!
"Heh heh."
Chuckling softly, Kabuto prepared to transplant the other Rinnegan.
However, in the very next second...
"Ugh... AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
A violent, searing agony instantly surged through Kabuto's entire body!
Rejection!
It was as if every single thought was being torn apart, ripped to shreds. His own will was vanishing at a terrifying speed. The pain spread like wildfire.
A tremendous power surged forth from the right Rinnegan. But it was precisely this tremendous power that was now relentlessly destroying Kabuto!
No! No! At this rate, I'll die!
Kabuto recognized the fact in an instant. His sense of self was vanishing at an alarming rate. If this continued even a little longer, his entire consciousness would be extinguished by the power within the Rinnegan!
He would go completely insane—or die!
Ignoring the pain, Kabuto brutally gouged out the right Rinnegan.
He could not master the Rinnegan!