At noon, Obito stood atop the tallest building in Konoha, gazing at the Hokage Rock carved into the mountainside across from him.
Konoha and Iwagakure had signed a ceasefire treaty, the Third Great Ninja War had come to an end, the Third Hokage had resigned to take responsibility, and Minato Namikaze had assumed the position of Fourth Hokage, with his likeness on the Hokage Rock having been completed only recently.
Because he occupied Obito's body, he felt a faint sense of belonging toward Konoha.
Had he harbored no ulterior purpose, he would on this visit have taken his time to properly tour the village.
But alas, the world does not always bend to one's wishes...
Deep beneath Konoha lay the headquarters of Root.
Unlike the sunlit world above, this place was shrouded in gloom and oppression at all hours of the day and night, much like the nature of the organization itself, something that could not stand the light.
Before Obito stood two Root guards clad in ANBU armor and wearing masks.
"Who goes there!"
Though their eyes held wariness as they looked at the stranger who had appeared before them, they showed no fear.
This was, after all, the prestigious headquarters of Konoha's Root organization, and who would be so reckless as to come looking for trouble here, and seeing that this person wore a mask, they figured the visitor was most likely a direct subordinate of the Fourth Hokage's ANBU, arriving to relay the Fourth's orders.
But because Danzō was deeply hostile toward Minato, Root would not give the ANBU a warm reception either.
Obito had not come here to exchange pleasantries with them, and he raised his head as the three tomoe beneath his mask bloomed with light.
It was Sharingan genjutsu.
The two guards' eyes went wide and then lost focus, falling under the hypnotic genjutsu.
"Tell me where Kinoe is."
Obito asked in an indifferent tone.
"Underground level two, the training room..."
The guards answered in a hollow, mechanical voice.
'Oh, not out on a mission, then, I've come at just the right time.'
Obito thought to himself.
"Where is Danzō?"
He asked again.
"Lord Danzō has gone out..."
The guards answered.
During this period, Danzō had been conducting secret dealings with Orochimaru, and this outing was precisely to visit the new base Orochimaru had revealed in a coded letter.
But that had nothing to do with Obito, for he had come this time solely to take Yamato away.
Thud! The two guards crumpled to the ground, and Obito passed through them.
This scene was also witnessed by a ninja in Root's surveillance room.
"This is... quickly, there's an intruder!!"
Clatter clatter!!
At the foot of the great cross-shaped elevated walkway, the members of Root on standby converged in force, some treading along the walls and others hanging inverted from the ceiling, fixing Obito with hostile stares.
Obito advanced as if no one else existed and stepped onto the walkway.
"Anyone who trespasses in Root's domain is to be executed without exception!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Kunai and shuriken flew in from all directions, but without exception they passed straight through Obito's body and embedded themselves into the walkway, and this incomprehensible sight left the Root members stunned.
"Impossible, it passed right through him!"
"What is going on!!"
"Is that some jutsu unique to him!"
"Physical attacks pass through his body, yet I can clearly sense his chakra, how is one supposed to deal with that..."
On the ceiling, a brown-haired ninja analyzed the situation with composure, formed a peculiar set of hand seals, and took aim at Obito's retreating figure.
Hmmmm!!
Obito's advancing footsteps faltered for a moment, and in the space of his consciousness, another figure appeared.
'Yamanaka Clan, Mind Body Switch Technique...'
Obito thought to himself.
"The wind technique has taken effect, now's our chance!"
The Root members attacked in a coordinated swarm, but regrettably, all attacks once again passed straight through.
"Fire Release, Dragon Flame Chant!"
Obito formed hand seals with both hands and breathed out four fire dragons that swept across every direction...
"Ahhh!!"
"Ahhh!!"
Under this omnidirectional, no-blind-spot Fire Release technique, no one was spared, and had it not been for a water-release specialist among Root's members stepping in to salvage the situation in time, there likely would have been heavy casualties!
"Fū, what's happening!!"
"His mental fortitude is abnormally powerful, my Mind Body Switch Technique was broken free of in just a matter of seconds!!"
Yamanaka Fū said, his heart still racing.
"He's this much trouble to deal with!"
"Choosing to act while Lord Danzō is away, what exactly is his objective!"
"Fū, use the Mind Body Switch once more..."
The black-clothed boy at Yamanaka Fū's side said.
"But..."
"A few seconds is enough, with my technique, I can finish him off in an instant!"
The black-clothed boy stripped off his upper garment, and his entire body became enveloped in a layer of black.
"Torune..."
Aburame Torune, the son of Aburame Shikuro who possessed a unique constitution even among the Aburame Clan.
Both he and Yamanaka Fū would later become Danzō's bodyguards, though at this point they were still young.
Yamanaka Fū gathered chakra, formed the hand seals for the Mind Body Switch, and locked onto Obito from a distance, while Aburame Torune had already charged toward Obito.
But would the same technique work on Obito a second time?
Zzt! Obito's left eye shifted to the Mangekyō Sharingan, locking focus onto Fū's head, Kamui!!
Crack!! In an instant, Fū's head was severed from his body, his head drawn into the Kamui vortex and gone, and blood from his neck sprayed several meters high as the headless corpse collapsed to the ground with a thud...
As for Aburame Torune, with the Mind Body Switch having failed, he passed straight through Obito's body!
In the instant they crossed paths, Obito's right hand pressed down on Torune's shoulder, and his right eye released the Kamui vortex, absorbing Aburame Torune within it.
"Ow ow ow..."
Spiral Zetsu, which enveloped Obito's body, felt a wave of pain in its right hand, and indeed those nano-scale poisonous insects were something even Spiral Zetsu had to contend with seriously.
"Kamui can ignore all physical attacks and jutsu, but it seems there are weaknesses as well, if the Mind Body Switch Technique can take effect on me, then genjutsu in general should be no problem either, it seems against shinobi with exceptional abilities of this kind, I need to be sufficiently on guard, and while I'm at it, for synthesizing the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, I might as well make use of his eyes..."
Obito muttered to himself.
"Just who in the world is that person!"
Seeing two of their elite members instantly killed, the other Root members were all frozen in shock, and the hands gripping their ninja tools were trembling.
"He could eliminate Fū in an instant, and he could eliminate any of us in an instant too."
"Against an enemy like this... what are we supposed to do."
Obito remained impassive, for he had come this time only for Yamato and had no desire to go on a killing spree, but the rules of the shinobi world were harsh, and for Root especially, a measured degree of killing and intimidation was necessary!
"Hmm?"
Suddenly Obito's gaze locked onto a small-statured ninja at the rear of the crowd.
"Found you..."
That person was precisely whom Obito was looking for, the one known within Root under the codename "Kinoe," later transferred to Konoha's ANBU under the codename "Tenzō," and after becoming the jōnin instructor of Team Seven, known by the name "Yamato."
In the original storyline, Yamato had been used and manipulated, but ultimately met a peaceful end.
But what Obito sought to obtain required Yamato as a stepping stone...
"Your story ends here, Kinoe is where your road runs out..."
Obito stepped forward and walked toward Kinoe.
"We absolutely cannot let him do as he pleases on Root's grounds!!"
The Root members rose up in resistance.
But with Fū and Torune gone, every single attack they launched against Obito was meaningless, and he advanced through blades and wind and fire as everything passed through him... closing in on Ko.
"Come along quietly, and perhaps you'll spare yourself some suffering..."
"Wood Release, Great Forest Technique!!"
Ko formed the hand seals for Wood Release, extended his arm forward, and four wooden pillars sprouted from within his sleeve and stretched out to entangle Obito.
"His target is Kinoe, and while he has no physical form when defending, he will definitely have a real body when attacking!!"
Behind him, the Root members launched a powerful coordinated jutsu!
"Hmph."
Beneath his mask, the corner of Obito's mouth curled upward, and both eyes shifted to the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Susanoo!
Deep blue chakra flames ignited across his body and formed into skeletal armor, blocking every attack that came from behind...
The skeletal hand reached out and seized the wooden pillars ahead, ripping them apart in one motion!
"What!!"
Everyone was left dumbstruck.
Crack! Susanoo was released, Obito extended his right hand, and wooden branches surged out, binding Yamato tightly...
"This, this is the same Wood Release as mine, and yet the power is so much greater..."
In his agony, Yamato was strangled unconscious by Obito's Wood Release.
The wooden branches receded, Obito hoisted the unconscious Yamato onto his shoulder, and looked back at the wrecked and battered Root headquarters and the helpless, bewildered Root members.
"Farewell."
Swoosh! The low and unhurried word fell, and Obito vanished into the vortex of Kamui...
On this day, Obito left Root of Konoha with a nightmare unlike any they had ever known.