Chapter 64

Obito was shocked by Zetsu's revelation, and that's when he noticed the four-sided pattern in Shisui's eyes. When their eyes met again, he started drifting again but collected himself. However, within this split second, Shisui had flickered and planted a fuin tag on the right chest of Obito. The fuin symbols started spreading through his body. Obito could feel the threat from the fuinjutsu tag and decisively ripped off the right half of his body, using Kamui to escape. Everyone who watched this scene was dumbfounded; even Itachi and Shisui, who knew about the enemy beforehand, were caught off guard. Who the heck would expect someone to rip off almost half of their body and escape?

Itachi quickly flickered next to the right half that was now discarded and integrating with the soil, growing into a tree. He quickly pulled a tag and sealed the entire growing tree along with the body within it.

"Shisui Niisan, what are your thoughts?" Itachi questioned him after placing the scroll in his pouch. Both Itachi and Shisui were shocked because they were sure that Shisui's sneak attack had connected. The masked man had reappered a dozen meters away, as if he hadn't taken a fatal strike. The only logic that could explain the situation was some kind of kinjutsu, and both Uchiha had a vague idea about what kinjutsu it was but chose not to discuss it in front of the other Uchiha elites.

"You were right, Itachi. I don't know where you got this information from, but like you said, he is an Uchiha who has awakened his Mangekyou, just like myself and Clan Head." Shisui, after the recent developments and the peace between the clan and the village, had chosen to confess about his Mangekyou awakening to Fugaku. Shisui had yet to disclose his Mangekyou abilities to anyone because Itachi had warned him against it. In this world, even though he was in the ANBU, he was not influenced by Danzo much, as the enmity between the Uchiha and the clan had not developed much.

"So was he the one responsible for the Nine-Tails attack? If so, do you have any idea who he is, Niisan?" Itachi questioned. Although Kazuki had given Itachi hints, he did not outright disclose Obito's identity because that might end up exposing Kazuki's greatest secret.

"He has a rare form of space-time-related eye technique; this is going to be troublesome. You only told me about the Mangekyou, but our enemy seems to have mastered the Mokuton too. We need to relay this message to the clan head and Hokage-sama." Shisui had yet to retract his mangekyou as he felt a subtle feeling of being observed. From the way the masked man escaped his sneak attack, Shisui realized that there might have been a second enemy in hiding who had helped Obito escape his Genjutsu. The Uchiha Jonin in charge of the mission quickly recalled all the Uchiha elites who left in the direction of the supply outpost.

Within his Kamui space, Obito was now recuperating from his recent loss. The right shoulder, along with a part of his right chest, was missing. He was trying to contemplate what exactly was happening. Although he showed a confident look even when he was ambushed, now he displays a disturbed expression and panic as he almost died at the hands of two Uchiha younglings. Obito wanted to stay in the dark and fulfill the mission given to him by his mentor. The attack on the Uchiha elites was only to stock up on his Sharingan reserves, but he did not expect to fall into an ambush. Fugaku awakening his Mangekyou was a recent revelation to him, but now there was a second Uchiha who had awakened his Mangekyou, and it was something that could even put him in Genjutsu, although he had his own Mangekyou.

"How could this be happening? How do they know about my existence? Shit! Now they know about me. I need to be more careful, and there is someone who can counter me. I need to kill him. I cannot have such an anomaly alive; it will ruin everything," Obito thought to himself. He was someone taught by the great Madara-sama himself. He cannot fail; he needs to fulfill his mission, and only then can he live happily with Rin. He made a resolve that he needed to grow strong, so strong that such a thing would never repeat in the future.

"And the fuin tag—what the hell was that?" The fuin tag sent a shiver down his spine because Obito hadn't fallen into such a disadvantage since the day he fought his sensei, Namikaze Minato. If he had reacted a bit slower in discarding his body, he might have been killed, or even worse, captured. He had to use Izanagi to save himself from the initial sneak attack, but he couldn't use it a second time because then he would end up losing his original eye, so he had to discard a part of his body to survive. Thinking so, he dug out his now-blind eye and discarded it as if it were trash.

Back in the command tent of Uchiha Fugaku, the clan head was having a private meeting with his son and Uchiha Shisui. Fugaku walked up and down nervously at the recent revelations that he had received after getting a detailed description of the events.

"So you are saying that he was able to use Mokuton, and he even used our Uchiha's Kinjutsu, the Izanagi?" Fugaku couldn't help but ask for the third time, as he still felt skeptical about the information that Uchiha and Itachi shared.

Originally, when his son approached him with details about the man responsible for the Nine Tails attack, he didn't believe it. However, when Itachi shared the source of his information—the Nara prodigy—on behalf of the Fuin grandmaster, he was inclined to believe it. Fugaku understood that the grandmaster must be trying to help them out, as there were still many people who, deep down, blamed the Uchiha for the Nine Tails tragedy.

"Shisui, is it possible that someone transplanted the Sharingan and then awakened the Mangekyou? Because the man used Mokuton, I am not sure what to believe at this point," Fugaku shared his concern. Until recently, he didn't pay much attention to Shisui. But a day after Fugaku openly used his Susanoo to help the village, Shisui approached him and confessed that he had awakened his Mangekyou. Fugaku did not insist on knowing the eye's abilities but gave him a few pointers about the drawbacks to keep an eye out for.

"Yes, Fugaku-sama, it is very much possible. But in my personal opinion, I am inclined to believe that the person I fought was an Uchiha. His body was too in tune with the Mangekyou. I believe one cannot achieve such sync unless they are born with Uchiha blood. I met Kakashi-senpai after Tsunade-sama helped him with the compatibility issue. Even then, I could feel that, although Kakashi-senpai's issue was fixed, it did not have the sync that one could have while being born as an Uchiha." Shisui shared his opinion without holding back, knowing how important this matter was.

Fugaku pondered Shisui's words, understanding how their Uchiha Kekkei Genkai worked. For someone to achieve such a standard with their Mangekyou, they must have been born as an Uchiha. "Do you guys think that it might be Madara-sama, like how he supposedly claimed himself?" Although Fugaku addressed the question to both of them, he was specifically gazing at his son, as he knew Itachi was someone who could think outside the box, and his input in this matter would be valuable. Itachi, understanding his father's intent, answered after contemplating for a brief moment.

"I don't believe it to be Madara Uchiha. Instead, I believe it is someone from the Uchiha clan who either defected or was believed to be dead and made contact with Madara Uchiha after his loss to Shodaime Hokage at the Valley of the End. For all we know, he might be Uchiha Madara's successor," Itachi shared his thoughts, while both Fugaku and Shisui showed their shocked expressions.

"Don't tell me, Itachi, do you mean to say Madara-sama survived the battle with the First Hokage? Was it not believed that he perished after the battle?" Shisui couldn't help but ask his little friend.

"It is not possible because, going through the clan records, there is a clear mention of Uchiha Madara's body being retrieved after the battle with Shodaime-sama," Fugaku countered his son's claim. The thought of such a claim was too shocking, and if Madara had survived, why did he stay in the shadows and not attack the village after Senju Hashirama perished? As strong as Nidaime Hokage was, he was not a match for Uchiha Madara, which the Second Hokage himself had openly admitted.

Uchiha Itachi, who understood what his father must be thinking, couldn't help but explain, "Father, it was not that he didn't want to; maybe it was simply that he couldn't. The Battle of the Valley of the End should have left him at death's door, and I believe he deliberately made everyone believe that he died using some sort of Kinjutsu. He might have used a special method to create a body and substitute it. Well, these are just my speculations that I have arrived at after referring to the details that we have at hand."

Both Fugaku and Shisui were shocked by Itachi's words. No matter how logical Itachi's explanation seemed, it was simply too hard to believe. Why would someone go to such lengths, and what could be their end goal? The mere thought of it made both Fugaku and Shisui break into a cold sweat.

"If I am to believe Itachi's words, then this matter seems to be much more serious than what we initially believed. Even Minato's death might have only been a small part of a grand plan. I need to write to Hokage-sama about this. Shisui, I want you to draft a detailed report on your missions and also include everything that you could discern about his abilities," Fugaku ordered. Shisui and Itachi respectfully bowed and left, leaving Fugaku to contemplate in silence.

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As time passed, the Fourth Shinobi War progressed. It had been more than four months since the war officially started. Since the victory against the Iwagakure army, Konoha has held a lead on the Iwa battlefield. Even though the five-tail Jinchuriki, Han, tried to devastate the Konoha lines, he was thwarted by the Slug Sage. In the past month alone, the Senju Princess has clashed with Han three times, pushing him back every single time and almost coming close to killing him on one occasion. On the Kumo battlefield, with the two-tails still not deployed, Konoha held a lead, though not by a large margin. Shikaku's brilliant strategies gave the Kumo Shinobi a headache, countering all their attempts to gain an advantage. While there were only a few medium-level clashes and skirmishes on other battlefields, the Leaf Village held a comfortable lead, with Jiraiya clashing with the Raikage directly only once, where both parties chose to retreat after a brief exchange.

Contrary to other battlefields, the Kirigakure front was the fiercest. The Kiri Shinobi threw themselves at the Konoha Ninjas, and the Uchiha clan, along with the Inazuka clan, acted like a meat grinder, cutting down enemies who threw themselves recklessly. Kiri had deployed both their Jinchuriki to the front lines. However, with the presence of Fugaku and Shisui, they managed to counter the two Biju. Every attempt to control the Biju was thwarted, and they somehow managed to escape back to the Kiri line. Due to the high battle intensity, Hiruzen assigned additional resources and healing scrolls to the Kiri battlefront. Fugaku and Shisui were provided with special medicines that helped relieve the stress on their eyes to a certain degree. However, only Fugaku and Shisui knew how effective the medicines were because no one else knew the existence of such a medicine.