Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

Black Zetsu flowed down from Uchiha Obito's body. The dark shadow slid off Obito's skin like melting asphalt, eventually pooling on the ground and reforming into the small, shadowy humanoid figure.

Black Zetsu stood at Uchiha Obito's feet, looking up at Uchiha Madara.

Uchiha Obito collapsed in response.

Losing all support, his body fell straight down like a wall stripped of its load-bearing pillar. His back slammed against the ground with a dull thud, kicking up a cloud of dust beneath him.

Sprawled out with his limbs spread wide, Obito's head lolled to the side. His eyes were half-open, revealing nothing but dark, empty sockets. His mouth hung slightly ajar, his breaths growing shallow and ragged as he barely clung to life.

He was in this state simply because his life force had been almost entirely drained, completely expended to resurrect Uchiha Madara.

It was only a matter of time before he died.

The only reason he hadn't died instantly was due to the Hashirama cells in his body, which were barely sustaining his incredibly fragile life.

Black Zetsu did not look at him. Its gaze remained fixed on Uchiha Madara as it grinned. "Lord Madara, congratulations on becoming among the living once more."

Its voice was shrill but carried an irrepressible excitement.

"From now on, our plan will proceed much more smoothly."

Uchiha Madara stood in place and glanced at Black Zetsu. The corners of his mouth, already slightly upturned from his complete resurrection, now widened into a full smile.

He raised a hand and gently stroked his own arm. His palm slid from his shoulder to his elbow, and then down to his wrist, feeling the warmth of his skin and the elasticity of his muscles. He savored the sensation of blood pumping through his veins.

Then, he tilted his head back and laughed.

"Hahaha..."

The laughter was loud, a cathartic release of something suppressed for far too long.

Soon after, his smile faded, and his face returned to an expressionless mask. The gleam of excitement in his eyes settled back into cold calculation.

"My resurrection is a good thing."

Uchiha Madara paused, shifting his gaze away from Black Zetsu.

"But our upcoming plans might not go as smoothly."

Black Zetsu immediately understood his meaning, though the wide grin on its cracked mouth remained unchanged.

"Are you referring to Uchiha Taiga?"

Black Zetsu spoke the name softly, as if mentioning something that required the utmost caution.

Hearing that name, Uchiha Madara's eyes narrowed. The Mangekyo Sharingan he had plucked from Uchiha Obito's sockets slowly spun within his own, the triangular patterns rotating within the crimson irises.

Those eyes originally belonged to someone else, but they didn't look out of place in his sockets at all. It was as if they had always belonged there.

"That brat is formidable. His talent far exceeds expectations," Uchiha Madara remarked, seemingly with a sigh of admiration.

"With him around, we will need to alter our subsequent plans."

Black Zetsu tilted its head slightly, as if deep in thought.

"So, what should we do, Lord Madara?"

Uchiha Madara's gaze fell on Uchiha Obito, who was lying on the ground.

Sprawled out like a squashed bug, Obito's breathing was so faint that the rise and fall of his chest was barely visible.

Uchiha Madara looked at him, his expression completely unchanged.

"We cannot let this guy die just yet. You know what to do."

Black Zetsu nodded immediately. The jagged slit of its mouth twitched, looking like a smile or a gesture of compliance.

"Understood, Lord Madara."

It turned around and waved toward a specific direction.

That direction was an empty clearing covered in grass. It looked no different from any other patch of grass—just an ordinary field.

But something was moving beneath the turf. A white figure rose silently from the ground.

It was a humanoid shape with a white body and a swirl pattern on its face.

His body emerged from the earth bit by bit, like a plant sprouting from the soil. First the head, then the shoulders, then the torso, until he finally stood on the grass, his body gleaming faintly in the sunlight.

Tobi.

"Use your abilities to sustain this guy's life force."

"Alright. Obito really is pitiful, isn't he."

"Speaking of which, Lord Black Zetsu is quite heartless. You two used to be such good partners."

"By the way, is Obito already dead?"

"Oh right, what does death feel like? Does it feel like pooping?"

"Lord Black Zetsu, do you know what pooping feels like? I really want to experience it."

"What about you, Lord Madara? Do you poop regularly?"

"Shut up!" Black Zetsu snapped.

"Oh, oh, are you rushing me? I'll get it done right now," Tobi replied.

Saying this, Tobi's head split open like blooming petals, unfolding outward piece by piece from the top of his head.

His head transformed into several white, petal-like structures that spread open in the air, revealing a hollow interior.

Immediately after, his body unfolded in the same manner. From his neck all the way down to his legs, his entire body bloomed like a giant flower, opening up piece by piece to expose the empty cavity inside.

Once those white petal-like structures spread out in the air, they began to morph, turning into long, thin, white tentacles.

Those tentacles reached out from all directions and landed on Uchiha Obito, wrapping him up completely. From the outside, it looked like a cocoon enveloping a human silhouette.

Then, the humanoid cocoon tightened, perfectly adhering to Uchiha Obito's body as if dressing him in a skin-tight suit.

After all this was done, Uchiha Obito's life force, which had been flickering like a dying candle, immediately stabilized. His breathing grew a bit steadier, and the rise and fall of his chest became regular.

However, Uchiha Obito's consciousness had not returned. He remained in a comatose state, still hovering on the brink of death.

But he wouldn't die—at least not now. He would simply be maintained in this exact state.

Tobi stood up from the ground. He looked at Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu, then raised a hand and waved at them.

"Well then, Lord Madara, I'll be taking my leave."

His voice was as erratic as ever, sounding like he was casually saying goodbye to friends.

With that, his body began to slowly seep into the earth. Like melting ice, he sank into the ground from the bottom up, eventually disappearing completely into the dirt. He left absolutely nothing behind on the surface, not even a single trace.

Black Zetsu watched Tobi disappear, then turned its head to look at Uchiha Madara. It was still grinning, the jagged slit on its face curving like a crescent moon.

"Lord Madara, keeping Obito alive is the right move. Uchiha Taiga's abilities are far more troublesome than imagined."

Uchiha Madara frowned slightly, the Mangekyo Sharingan spinning faintly in his eye sockets.

"You stayed by his side during this time. How much intel did you gather on him?"

Black Zetsu's smile didn't fade, but its tone turned serious.

"That guy's eyes possess space-time abilities."

It paused, as if recalling something.

"One controls time, and the other controls space. It is incredibly powerful."

Its voice dropped lower.

"Uchiha Obito has a special mark left by him. Keeping him alive now might allow us to disrupt that guy's focus in the future."

Uchiha Madara's brow relaxed, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, revealing a satisfied smile.

Nodding, Uchiha Madara raised his chin slightly, shifting his gaze away from Black Zetsu to the gray sky in the distance.

"Then we will leave it at that for now."

His voice was calm and composed.

"From now on, I need to find a way to make that brat the public enemy of the ninja world."

"That won't be easy," Black Zetsu said.

Uchiha Madara replied, "Hashirama doesn't know I've been completely resurrected yet. Furthermore, with that Orochimaru brat in Konoha, Hashirama and Senju Tobirama will be kept there by him. With Hashirama and Senju Tobirama around, Konoha will be the true threat to the other four ninja villages from now on."

Black Zetsu smiled gleefully. "Indeed. This way, the ninja world is going to become quite lively."

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