Chapter 451: The Impending Revenge
And just like that, several days passed in a row.
Obito truly lived up to being someone who had awakened Kamui. The Eye of the Mind's Reflection had perfectly reflected his true nature.
After his vulnerable inner self had been completely exposed, the choice he made was to run from reality.
What did it mean to run from reality?
It meant choosing nothing at all.
Whether he chose to keep resisting stubbornly, find a way to break the Heavenly Prison seal and continue the Ten-Tails jinchūriki plan, or simply surrender outright, he would still have to face the cruel reality that Rin already knew what a pathetic person he really was.
So he chose the easiest form of escape—continuing to play dead.
Anyway, he couldn't think of any way to turn things around right now, so he had simply given up.
Whenever someone came near, he would lower his breathing and heartbeat, reduce his body temperature, and remain completely motionless.
Obito's current condition was somewhat similar to Uchiha Madara in the special body Tobirama had created.
Madara had almost no chakra left to use, which made his sensory abilities extremely poor.
Obito, meanwhile, had his chakra sealed by the Heavenly Prison, leaving him unable to use his senses even if he still possessed them.
As long as the people who came to administer medicine or clean him up didn't speak, he couldn't even tell who they were.
These past few days, even the dreams he had while sleeping had been unbearable nightmares. They only convinced him further that the Infinite Tsukuyomi might truly no longer be able to satisfy what he wanted.
And just like those two people had said at the end—if he became the Ten-Tails jinchūriki, the Infinite Tsukuyomi would be cast on everyone else. At most, it could give every person their own version of Rin, but it couldn't give one to him.
Why?
Why had he never noticed these problems before?
Could it really be because the Konoha ninja records had rated his intelligence as only a "2"?
But that rating had been from when he was a clueless child with no experience or knowledge.
Was he still an idiot now?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible!
In order to prove that he wasn't an idiot, Obito finally found a slight reason to keep living and began analyzing the situation.
He felt that something about this place was off.
Even if his act had been flawless, so many days had passed. Had Konan and the others really not realized that he had already awakened?
Taking a step back, even if he truly hadn't awakened, hadn't they at least considered using some kind of special method to force him awake?
"Uchiha Obito, I know you've been awake for two days already. Since you want to keep pretending to be dead, I won't disturb you. But there are some people coming to see you soon, so I'll leave you all to your reunion."
Just as Obito's suspicions arose, Konan's cold voice drifted in from outside.
After saying that, Konan left.
The sound of her footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
Inside the room, Obito suddenly sat upright and opened his eyes.
His suspicions had ended before they had even properly begun.
So his fake coma had really been discovered long ago.
No wonder nobody had talked near the cave entrance these past few days.
Wait. What had that vicious woman Konan just said?
Someone was coming to see him?
What did she mean?
Could Konan be arranging for Rin to meet him in person, humiliating and tormenting him face-to-face?
No… Konan had said "they."
Did that include Kakashi too? Or all the Konoha ninja who had once known him?
Did she want everyone to see how miserable he looked now?
Obito instinctively reached down to touch himself.
Crap!
Because he had been pretending to be unconscious these past few days, and an unconscious person obviously couldn't get up to relieve themselves normally…
He had simply committed fully to the act.
The clothes on his body had long since been removed—either washed or thrown away entirely.
He didn't even have anything to cover himself with.
The thought of his childhood companions, including Kakashi and Rin, seeing him like this instantly made cold sweat pour down his back.
"That woman is even crueler than Sasori. It wasn't enough to let Rin torment me—she's actually going this far too…"
At that moment, Obito desperately wanted to calm down and return to his original mindset.
But no matter how much he repeated to himself inside his head.
[This world is fake. Rin is fake. Kakashi is fake. My classmates from Konoha are fake too. I'm going to create a new world with all of them in it.]
It was useless.
Back then, that belief had worked because of the final sentence: [create a new world]. The Infinite Tsukuyomi had been the core of his ideology, the foundation that stabilized everything else.
But now, even the Infinite Tsukuyomi itself had begun to waver.
Which meant all those claims about everything being "fake" had become rootless and empty, sounding like nothing more than stubborn denial.
However, Obito had actually worried for nothing.
Konan wasn't kind and considerate enough to gather his old classmates and hold a reunion for him.
The "they" she referred to were the original members of the Akatsuki.
The very first Akatsuki members who had discovered Hanzo of the Salamander's conspiracy, tried to warn the others, only to be intercepted and slaughtered by Obito.
Ever since learning that the masked man had been responsible for this, Konan had completely scorned Obito's so-called ideals.
Obito wanted the Infinite Tsukuyomi because he believed the ninja world was too dark, that the chaotic era had ruined everyone's lives.
But how had he arrived at that conclusion?
It was like a bandit slaughtering an entire village, then standing before the survivors and saying:
"It wasn't me who harmed them. It was this dark ninja world."
Seriously.
Why do you think the ninja world is dark in the first place?
Isn't it because of bastards like you?
The original Akatsuki members had been weak, but in order to fulfill their dreams, and to help Konan and Nagato make up for their regrets, they had still asked Orochimaru to use the Reanimation Jutsu to bring them back.
Those original members were currently touring the transformed Amegakure Village, marveling at how much the times had changed and how their sacrifices had not been in vain.
But they weren't saints.
They harbored deep hatred toward the man responsible for their deaths.
Konan told them that after finishing their tour, they could head to a certain place.
The person who had murdered them all those years ago was imprisoned there.
She left only those words behind.
Whether they sought revenge, and how they chose to carry it out, was entirely up to them.
Meanwhile.
Uchiha Madara, who had returned to the Amegakure Village alongside Ōnoki several days earlier, appeared in the forest outside the village, carefully pushing his wheelchair through the woods.
Before leaving, Konan had deliberately lifted the Paper Person Technique barrier surrounding the place where Obito was imprisoned.
And after enduring in silence for so many days, Uchiha Madara had finally managed to gather the tiniest bit of chakra, just enough to perform a single sensory technique.
Through the jutsu mark he had left on Obito, he barely managed to sense Obito's location.
Now, he was heading there.
Madara wasn't certain whether the person who had used genjutsu on him back then had actually been Obito, but he already knew that Obito had been captured and imprisoned by the Amegakure Village.
He intended to go there and somehow take a portion of Obito's power for himself, so he would no longer be so weak and could gain more room to maneuver.
As for Obito himself?
He had already been exposed and captured, so what more was there to say?
He could pray for his own luck.
(End of this chapter)