Outside Orochimaru's base in the forests of the southern Fire Country.
"Lord Orochimaru, all the test subjects have been disposed of..."
The young Kabuto reported respectfully.
The man standing before him wore Konoha-nin attire, a Konoha forehead protector on his brow, long black hair draped over his shoulders, golden vertical-slit pupils, purple eye shadow extending to the sides of his nose, pale skin, and teal magatama-shaped earrings, his demeanor sinister yet alluring — it was Orochimaru, in the prime of his years.
It was now the end of Konoha Year 47, the Fourth Hokage had taken office, and Orochimaru, having lost to Minato Namikaze in the contest for the Hokage seat, had secretly devoted himself to human experimentation, though he had not yet defected.
"Danzō let slip that the ANBU have taken notice of the disappearances of ninja within the village, this base has just about run its course..."
Orochimaru looked back toward the base entrance and said in a hoarse voice.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, he sensed something, his golden pupils shifting toward the darkness among the distant trees.
"Lord Orochimaru?"
Kabuto's expression was puzzled.
"It seems we have a visitor..."
Orochimaru flicked his long tongue.
"Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!!"
Tssk! From beneath his sleeve, several venomous snake hands shot out and lunged toward the shadows among the trees!
Boom! A tree was severed, birds scattered in fright, and dust billowed into the air.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes as he gazed into the rising dust ahead.
"As expected of the legendary Sannin, Orochimaru..."
Obito walked out from within the dust cloud, completely unharmed.
Swish! The snake hands retracted into Orochimaru's sleeve, and he stood with one hand on his hip, looking at Obito.
"You don't appear to be one of Konoha's ANBU, state your identity."
Obito raised his head, revealing the Sharingan in his left eye to Orochimaru.
Orochimaru's pupils flared with sudden brightness.
"Oh? The eye of the Uchiha!"
Swish! Almost simultaneously, Orochimaru activated the Body Flicker Technique and reached for Obito's left eye with his hand, smiling as he said it.
"How fortunate, a Sharingan delivered right to my door, I'll gladly accept it!!"
Whoosh! But his body passed directly through Obito as though he had phased right through him, and the smile on his face died abruptly.
"What?! What just happened..."
"Lord Orochimaru, watch your back!!"
Kabuto's startled cry rang out.
Obito's hand had already landed on Orochimaru's shoulder.
Crackle! The three tomoe spun into the Mangekyō, three windmill blades, a symbol of Kamui's power!
Whoosh! A Kamui vortex appeared, and Orochimaru's figure distorted and began to be sucked away into the space-time dimension.
'This is a space-time dōjutsu!!'
In a flash of inner shock, Orochimaru acted without hesitation, opened his great mouth, and one arm emerged from within, then his body followed, slithering out covered in mucus, his legs transformed into a serpentine tail as he shot away to a distance.
After putting distance between them, he turned to face Obito as though confronting a mortal threat, his expression stripped entirely of its earlier flippancy and replaced with absolute gravity.
Obito looked down at the deflated husk in his hand and sighed.
"Just as troublesome as expected, not so easy to catch..."
This technique of escaping the pull of Kamui was the Orochimaru-Style Body Replacement Technique, Orochimaru's signature skill, which used an outer body as a substitute and transferred the true self out through the mouth, requiring no hand seals, the most perfect substitution technique in existence, one that Sasuke had once used to evade Amaterasu, and that would consume enormous amounts of chakra for anyone other than Orochimaru to use.
"Your eyes don't seem to be an ordinary Sharingan, you've even awakened the Mangekyō, and with a space-time ability at that, when did the Uchiha Clan produce someone like you, what is your name?"
Orochimaru asked, wariness and respect mingled in his voice.
After a brief pause, Obito spoke.
"My name is Uchiha Raito."
"Then, Raito, how much do you know about me?"
Orochimaru asked, his words carrying a deeper meaning.
"I know you have been conducting human experiments and developing a power known as the 'Cursed Seal'..."
Obito said.
"You know this much about me, it seems I truly cannot let you leave alive!"
As Orochimaru said this, he cast a glance toward Kabuto, who stood before the base entrance.
Swish!
At that moment, Kabuto launched a surprise attack, his blue chakra condensing into a blade in his hand as he thrust it toward the back of Obito's heart.
"Minor nuisance, stand down!"
Without turning his head, Obito reached behind him and clamped onto Kabuto's arm with precise accuracy, then drove a kick into his abdomen.
"Ah!"
Kabuto crashed through a line of trees and fell to the ground in a heap.
Orochimaru's expression was somber.
'Though Kabuto is a medical ninja, his combat ability is on par with a jōnin, and yet with only taijutsu he was...'
"It appears you have no intention of speaking with me properly."
Obito said.
"I have no desire to hand over the fruits of my research to someone as dangerous as you!"
Orochimaru hurled a shuriken and rapidly formed hand seals, unleashing the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique, a jutsu learned from the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Bam bam bam! One became a thousand, an overwhelming barrage flying toward Obito from every direction.
Of course Orochimaru did not expect this technique to kill Obito, he simply wanted to use the wide-range assault to probe the extent of Obito's abilities.
Swish! Swish! Swish! Without exception, every shuriken passed straight through Obito's body and buried itself in the ground.
'As expected, his body can be phased through, but to strike an opponent he seems to need to become tangible, and that can only take effect in the instant of a mutual exchange of attacks, Kabuto has been defeated, so to draw him into striking, I can only summon that one...'
Without wasting the reputation of a Sannin, Orochimaru had grasped the fundamentals of Obito's ability from such a brief exchange, and he bit his finger, formed the seals for Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and Ram, then pressed both hands against the earth.
Summoning Technique: Great Snake Manda!
Boom!!
Accompanied by an enormous cloud of smoke, Manda appeared, his colossal serpentine body coiling upward dozens of meters into the sky.
Manda's fearsome vertical pupils looked down at Obito below, then roared toward Orochimaru standing atop his head.
"Damn Orochimaru, you dare summon me, the great one, just to deal with a single human, don't think I won't swallow you whole!"
"He is no ordinary human, you know, he possesses the power of the Sharingan and commands a remarkably troublesome dōjutsu, I am somewhat uncertain about facing him alone..."
Orochimaru replied.
"Hm?"
Hearing this, Manda scrutinized Obito once more.
"Looking more carefully, his eyes are indeed different, they give this great one a most disagreeable feeling..."
"After this is done, send me a hundred living offerings, or I will swallow you whole!"
Manda hissed coldly, and his enormous serpentine body surged forward with extraordinary speed.
Boom! Boom!
The ground where Obito had been standing was smashed into a great crater by Manda's head.
He leapt into midair and formed hand seals, then his chest swelled high.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!!
Roar! A massive fireball exploded outward and engulfed Manda entirely.
After half a year of relentless training, the Great Fireball Obito unleashed now rivaled the destructive force of his earlier Violent Storm Dance.
The flames dispersed, revealing a scorched and hollow shell still crumbling apart, Manda had shed his skin.
Obito looked at the pit beneath the dissolving snakeskin.
'The main body has gone underground?'
Rumble rumble rumble!!
The ground shook, Manda's enormous tail burst up through the earth, and not far away his head erupted from the ground, fangs bared as he lunged to bite Obito, only to pass straight through his body.
"What!! What in the world is this kid!!"
Manda was bewildered and at a loss.
Obito flashed to Manda's flank, formed hand seals, and struck the earth with both palms.
Earth Release: Stone Spears!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dozens of enormous jagged boulders thrust up from beneath Manda's coiled body, riddling it with wounds from head to tail!
"Now!!"
But at that very moment, Orochimaru, standing atop Manda's head, activated his technique.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Countless snake heads bored up through the soil, each one releasing a Kusanagi Sword from its jaws and thrusting toward Obito.
'He timed it for the instant I'm tangible to cast the jutsu, there is no other way...'
Obito murmured, and from his left arm a wood bud pierced outward, sprouting and growing into a towering tree, its trunks intertwining and its gnarled spines tangling outward, crashing down upon the descending snake bodies and crushing every one of them.
Orochimaru was completely stunned.
"Wood, Wood Release, you possess the power of both the Uchiha and the Senju!!"
"You worthless Orochimaru, the next time you're still breathing, this great one will settle this score with you!"
The wounded Manda cursed furiously and vanished in a puff of white smoke.
Crack! Obito twisted his body and separated from the wood on his left arm, and with a snap the spiral mask woven from Spiral Zetsu unwound and opened, revealing Obito's face, and alongside it, the other Mangekyō Sharingan that had been hidden behind the mask!
Both Mangekyō were vessels of Kamui's power, the right eye's Kamui governed defense, and when actively used it could absorb both the user and external objects into a dimensional void, and it also possessed a transcendent passive ability that required no conscious activation, automatically transferring the body into the dimensional void the instant it came under attack, granting immunity to all damage.
The left eye's Kamui governed offense, striking from range by warping the space at any point within the user's field of focus, and no existence could resist this Kamui power, not even the Ten-Tails!
Crackle! The Mangekyō pattern in Obito's left eye rotated, his focus locking onto Orochimaru's right arm.
Kamui!!
Crack!!
Space warped, and Orochimaru's arm was violently twisted off and transferred into the dimensional void!
"Ugh!!"
Orochimaru clutched the bleeding stump of his severed arm and looked at Obito in wretched desperation, ready to use the Body Replacement Technique to restore the limb.
"You can shed your skin and emerge anew, but the next time, this dōjutsu will wring your neck."
When Obito's cold warning sounded, Orochimaru ceased all resistance.
Because Orochimaru understood that before these eyes, all resistance was futile, and if Obito had ever truly intended it, he would already be dead.
"What is your objective?"
Orochimaru asked.
"The First Hokage Hashirama, not an inferior imitation, but his true power."
Obito said in a low, steady voice.
Orochimaru's pupils trembled, and after a long silence he lowered his head, and from within the shadow falling across his face came a realization wrapped in laughter.
"Hehehe, hahahahahaha, so that's it!"
He raised his head, his long tongue flicking out, his golden vertical pupils blazing as he looked at Obito, and spoke in a husky, low voice.
"It seems I am not the only one attempting to approach that domain, without a doubt, you are already ahead of me, since our objectives are the same, very well, Raito... allow me to lend you a hand."
---------------
Regarding Kabuto's appearance, I want to clarify here: the Third Great Ninja War broke out in Konoha Year 40, during which Kabuto was discovered by Danzō from Nono Yakushi and operated as a spy, and five years later, during a mission he killed Nono and turned dark, at which point Orochimaru appeared and took Kabuto under his wing. It is now Konoha Year 47, so the timeline is not in error.