Meanwhile in a gloomy cavern….
Obito stood silently in the half-lit cavern deep beneath, which looked like the roots of the world. Above, the world turned in ignorance. Below, he brooded in shadow.
The air was damp and heavy with the scent of moss. Jagged roots crept through the stone ceiling like bony fingers, and the only illumination came from the pale, glimmering fungus lining the walls and the strange, glowing veins of chakra flowing in the distant walls.
Behind him, a White Zetsu emerged from the rocky wall, half his body fused with the twisted, gnarled Black Zetsu that clung to it like a second skin.
"Obito, one of my clones went silent." White Zetsu said casually, his half-grin never fading.
Obito's Sharingan flickered behind his orange mask. Slowly, he turned his head, the single eye narrowing.
"Call me Madara," he said with practiced coolness, his voice low, flat, and soaked with forced authority.
White Zetsu didn't flinch, but Black Zetsu's contempt crackled beneath the surface like suppressed fire.
'This foolish child again… pretending to be Madara. As if wearing his name makes him worthy of it.'
But Black Zetsu said nothing aloud. He had endured Obito's delusions for the sake of the grand plan, the Eye of the Moon Plan. For the sake of reviving his mother, Kaguya. He had no love for Obito, only tolerance.
"Tch. Just explain it," Black Zetsu growled, voice deeper, and more venomous than White Zetsu's.
"Well, one of my clones… poof. Disappeared from the middle of Konoha. And not just anywhere. It was at Hatake Kakashi's house." White Zetsu smirked and scratched his chin thoughtfully.
The moment the name dropped, silence spread like smoke.
Obito's eye twitched. His fingers clenched slightly.
Kakashi.
The name was a wound that never closed, a voice that echoed from the past. The man who wore his eye. The friend who had broken the promise. The memory within him that refused to die.
With a sharp breath, he looked away.
"I'll handle it," Obito said sharply. The tomoe in his Sharingan spun, glowing red with cold resolve.
He raised his hand, and his body began to distort, sucked into a swirling void of black and white. His Kamui spiraled into motion, space bending around him.
Before he vanished entirely, Black Zetsu's gaze followed him with narrowed eyes.
'You still won't take your left eye back,' Black Zetsu thought bitterly. 'With that eye, you could be like god… but you cling to ghosts instead. You're not Madara. You're just a lost boy.'
….
The Kamui vortex released him at the edge of the dense forest surrounding Konoha. It was night, and the Hidden Leaf shimmered in the distance beneath the soft glow of village lights.
His eye flickered red as he activated the Sharingan, scanning the area.
There. Not far off. Hatake Kakashi's residence.
He focused, watching from the treetops, cloaked in darkness, in silence.
He saw them, Kakashi, walking toward his home with three women, Tsunade, Kurenai, and Anko. Laughing softly. At ease. Moving like they belonged there.
They entered the house.
Obito didn't move.
He just stood and watched from the branch, face unreadable beneath his mask.
Kakashi.
He had heard the reports from White Zetsu. Kakashi had changed, he no longer wore the mask, no longer lived alone. He had grown stronger. Created a new jutsu. Lived surrounded by people who cared about him.
People Obito would never have.
The bitterness crept in slowly, like poison in his veins.
"How dare you…" He muttered. "You were supposed to suffer. You were supposed to mourn. For Rin… for me."
He waited, his eye scanning, looking for any signs of White Zetsu's remains, chakra residue, lingering spores, anything. But there was nothing. No clone, no trace.
Kakashi had erased it thoroughly.
Obito's fists clenched.
So you even have that now. Power.
He scoffed and turned away, vanishing into the trees.
"Hmph."
And like a shadow passing in the wind, Obito left Konoha.
What Obito Didn't Know…
From behind a thin veil of trees, where shadow met moonlight, Kakashi watched silently. His Mangekyō Sharingan spun faintly, his eye cold and sharp.
He had felt the foreign chakra twist in space. He had known the moment someone warped into his vicinity. And he knew that sensation, Kamui.
And there was only one person alive who could use it that way.
Obito.
His presence had confirmed everything.
Kakashi didn't speak, nor did he react. He simply stood and watched as the masked man disappeared again into the night.
Only when the forest was completely silent did Kakashi turn and rejoin the women waiting in the house.
His expression was unreadable.
….
Back in the Hideout
Obito stepped back into the cavern, his body reforming from Kamui. Black Zetsu was still there, still watching him with cold disdain.
"No trace," Obito said simply, not meeting their eyes.
"Didn't find the clone, huh?" White Zetsu tilted his head.
"No. Kakashi might have erased it."
He said the name again with quiet fury. The syllables cracked between his teeth.
Black Zetsu folded deeper into White Zetsu's back like a shadow curling tighter.
"You went there immediately after hearing his name," he said. "You still care."
Obito didn't answer. His silence was enough.
"You still haven't taken your left eye back," Black Zetsu said, more aggressively now. "You hold back your own power… for useless sentiments."
"I don't need it," Obito replied darkly.
And with that, he vanished into the tunnel next to him.
Later, alone in the deeper tunnels, Obito sat in silence.
He pulled his mask off and stared at it. The orange spiral. His false face.
Rin's image floated in his mind again.
Her smile. Her blood. Kakashi's name.
Obito's hand clenched the mask until his fingers turned white.
"Why…" he whispered.
Why had Kakashi moved on? Why did he live with peace and laughter? Why did he grow stronger… while he drowned in darkness?
Did Kakashi regret?
Did he even remember?
Obito closed his eyes and let the silence swallow him.
One day, he promised himself. One day, he would cast Infinite Tsukuyomi into this world where no one would move on. Where Rin would smile again. Where Kakashi would never forget.