Uchiha Obito

At that very moment, within a lavish office deep in Kirigakure, a man dressed in an Akatsuki cloak and wearing a swirling mask sat silently across from someone reviewing paperwork.

After a long silence, the masked man spoke softly.

"Any update on the Two-Tails?"

Behind him emerged a strange humanoid figure, half black, half white.

"There's a lead… but nothing confirmed."

The two figures were none other than Uchiha Obito and Zetsu, who had returned to Kirigakure after fleeing Konoha on the night of the Nine-Tails attack.

They had laid groundwork in Kirigakure well before that assault, and now, in the aftermath, Obito had chosen this village as his place of recuperation. Though Minato's strike hadn't killed him, it had cost him greatly in time and recovery.

What Obito hadn't expected was the troubling intel White Zetsu had brought back from tracking the jinchūriki across the continent.

The Two-Tails' jinchūriki—Yugito Nii—had vanished.

"Who?" Obito asked, curiosity laced through his voice.

Kumogakure had blamed it on the Sharingan. Konoha blamed it on the stolen Sharingan lost during the Nine-Tails incident—insinuating that whoever stole it orchestrated the kidnapping.

Obito found it laughable. As if some ordinary Sharingan thief could've done that.

"Danzo. Orochimaru. Jiraiya. And… Kujo Ishiki," Zetsu said, voice flat.

Not a single Uchiha among them. Just a boy—one Obito remembered as a mere rookie with decent potential.

"Kujo Ishiki?" Obito raised a brow. "If I recall, he only graduated the Academy recently. His talent was… comparable to mine back then."

"Yes. That's him." Zetsu nodded. "Though it's hard to believe, that same Academy brat now possesses combat ability well beyond standard jōnin."

Obito flipped through the dossier. "Any problems? It says here he uses Yang Release Body Arts. That's a Kujo clan secret technique. Powerful, but nothing unheard of."

"That's not the issue," Zetsu said, flipping a few pages forward to an image—of a giant turtle.

"This is what I found while tailing one of his shadow clones near the outskirts of Konoha. The clone summoned a turtle… and Ishiki's real body emerged from its shell."

"You think Kujo Ishiki has access to a spatial mobility technique that bypasses conventional space-time rules?" Obito immediately grasped the implication.

As the wielder of Kamui, Obito's understanding of space-time ninjutsu was leagues beyond most.

He dug into a stack of intel and quickly pulled out a report on Jiraiya's movements.

This wasn't intel from Zetsu—but Kirigakure's own logs. Jiraiya had been spotted in the Land of Frost, not long after Yugito vanished.

And the incident in the Land of Frost—The Cursed House—had been Yugito's last known assignment. It was widely reported: a mysterious building that randomly appeared on the roadside and lured ninja in.

If it had been a trap, Ishiki could've simply been left nearby. When Yugito appeared, Orochimaru and Jiraiya—hiding within the nearby Konoha encampment—would've ambushed her in a perfect two-on-one scenario.

"There were Fire Release traces at the scene," Zetsu continued. "And… I sensed natural energy."

After learning the news, Zetsu had dispatched others to survey the area. The conclusion: Sage Chakra had been used there.

Outside of Jiraiya, few in the shinobi world could use Sage Mode. And most of the sage animals were affiliated with Konoha.

Suppressing the Two-Tails' chakra-infused flames would take immense power. It was likely done with fire enhanced by Sage Chakra—exactly the kind of thing Jiraiya or a Sage-capable operative like Ishiki might use.

"But what would Konoha gain from capturing a jinchūriki?" Obito tapped his fingers on the desk.

Harboring a stolen tailed beast was political suicide.

Then he understood what Zetsu was really getting at.

"You want me to contact Kujo Ishiki. Maybe see what he knows."

"Exactly. If we can determine Yugito's fate… and Kujo proves too dangerous to ignore, we either eliminate or recruit him," Zetsu said flatly. "Danzo's Root has been making moves against him too. Rumors say Kujo was involved in one of the anomalies during the Nine-Tails attack."

"What anomalies?"

"Seventeen shinobi in Konoha lost all memory of chakra manipulation that night," Zetsu explained. "Among them were a pair of Byakugan and a Sharingan. Danzo suspects Kujo Ishiki is responsible. And now, Hiruzen is investigating Root."

White Zetsu had kept a close watch on Root. Obito needed their intel, so the surveillance had never ceased.

But even for Zetsu, Root's headquarters lay so deep within Konoha's shadows that penetrating them risked exposure. Still, the fact that he'd learned this much suggested someone on the inside wanted that truth known.

Obito's eyes narrowed as he read through the scattered rumors, a cold smirk tugging at his lips.

"Fascinating. And where is he now?"

"In the Land of Grass. On assignment."

Obito's Sharingan began to spin. Space twisted around him, pulling both him and Zetsu into the void.

Across from where Obito had been sitting, the paperwork reviewer remained utterly silent, as if none of this had ever happened.

That man was none other than the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi.

Outside the mansion, rain pounded relentlessly.

All of Kirigakure lay steeped in a heavy, oppressive gloom.