"Because Black Zetsu was created in haste," Jin continued calmly, "he doesn't possess the overwhelming power Hagoromo and Hamura had."
"What he has is something else."
"Near-immortality."
"For thousands of years, he's been scheming in the shadows, laying trap after trap across history."
"And decades ago, one of those traps finally bore fruit."
"He guided Madara into awakening the Rinnegan."
"To better execute his plan, he appeared as 'Madara's will' and began manipulating both Madara… and you."
Jin paused, letting that sink in.
"So the Eye of the Moon Plan was never the Sage of Six Paths' revelation."
"It was a fabrication."
"A lie."
Obito said nothing.
His expression was unreadable.
Pain?
Yes.
Learning that the "final hope" he clung to was nothing more than a cosmic con nearly shattered him.
But beneath that pain—
There was something else.
Relief.
A tiny, shameful flicker of relief.
Jin noticed.
"Honestly," he said lightly, "with your 'wise-two' intellect, I can understand how you ended up despairing and going extreme."
Obito's eye twitched.
"…Do you really need to keep mocking that?"
"I just wasn't interested in useless theory! That doesn't mean I'm stupid!"
He had never cared for textbook knowledge. That "wisdom score" was mostly academic theory anyway. How was that a measure of intelligence?
Jin shook his head.
"That's exactly the problem."
"If you had paid attention in class, you might've realized this world isn't as hopeless as you think."
Obito frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Jin's tone shifted—measured, analytical.
"From a historical perspective, this world can be divided into four major eras."
"Ancient."
"Early civilization."
"The Warring States."
"And the present."
"In the ancient era, humans wore animal skins, barely had food, and fought beasts daily just to survive."
"They were no different from animals."
"In the early civilization period—Kaguya's time—people had already learned agriculture, weaving, architecture."
"Basic survival became stable."
"No more constant struggle against nature."
"By the Warring States period, humanity had surplus production."
"And when there is surplus—there is competition."
"Conflict."
"Ambition."
"They weren't fighting for scraps anymore."
"They were fighting for advantage."
"And that, paradoxically, means progress."
Obito listened silently.
"With the one-country, one-village system," Jin continued, "conflict centralized."
"It scaled up."
"Yes, wars became larger."
"But inside major nations like the Land of Fire, Lightning, Earth—civilian life was relatively stable."
"That is also progress."
Obito's gaze sharpened.
He had seen suffering everywhere during his travels.
Even in wealthy nations, peasants still struggled.
He had assumed war was the sole cause.
But now—
He recalled something.
Even in times of relative peace—
The poor were still poor.
And the powerful still lived in luxury.
War or no war.
The gap remained.
"Class conflict…" Obito muttered.
Jin nodded slightly.
"Peace alone does not guarantee prosperity."
"Ending war does not automatically erase suffering."
"The root problem isn't just conflict between villages."
"It's structural imbalance."
"You and Madara misdiagnosed the disease."
Obito looked up.
"Then what's your solution?"
"You speak as if you've seen every path."
"Surely you've found one that works."
Jin's eyes gleamed faintly.
"I have."
Obito leaned forward.
"What is it?"
Jin answered in one word.
"Unification."
"Unification?" Obito echoed.
"Yes."
"Not just territorial unification."
"Cognitive unification."
"Alignment of interests."
"Reduction of class fragmentation."
Jin stepped closer.
"As long as humans exist, conflict cannot be erased."
"Where there are people, there are interests."
"Where there are interests, there is friction."
"Since the moment humanity generated surplus production, distribution imbalance began."
"Different experiences create different perspectives."
"Different perspectives create disputes."
"So we don't eliminate conflict."
"We minimize it."
"And the most effective way to minimize conflict—"
"Is unification."
He gestured outward.
"During the Warring States era, clans slaughtered each other endlessly."
"But once they became citizens of Konoha—"
"Did conflict vanish?"
"No."
"But it stopped being annihilation."
"Now scale that up."
"Treat villages like clans."
"If the shinobi world becomes one unified structure—"
"Shared interests."
"Shared identity."
"Shared direction."
"Conflict shrinks."
"This is only the first step."
Obito stared at him.
For the first time since Rin's death—
He wasn't looking at the world through hatred.
He was thinking.
Carefully.
And that alone was already a fracture in the path Madara had set for him.
Read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon -> patreon.com/warewolvesTL