Chapter 21: The Second Pillar's Style Is Quite Different
The turmoil of the Five Kage Summit gradually subsided. Although the Raikage had been killed in battle, the other four Kage were no longer too concerned about this matter.
If it had been another Kage who died, the situation would have been dire. But since the Raikage was the one who proposed the Five Kage Summit, the political disputes following his death were not too troublesome. Moreover, one of the Raikage's guards had survived. The Raikage's death could only be attributed to his own lack of strength, with no direct connection to the other ninja villages.
The four Kage were not overly worried about this, but Mifune of the Land of Iron felt like hanging himself. The Raikage had died on their turf, and no matter how you looked at it, the Land of Iron could not escape blame.
Mifune, his head wrapped in bandages, was deeply anxious. If news of the Raikage's death reached Kumogakure, he even suspected that the militant faction there would directly attack.
This was not impossible. Kumogakure was notorious for being unreasonable, as evident from the Raikage's domineering attitude.
Just as Mifune was considering how to appease Kumogakure, a spiral-shaped spatial vortex appeared. Seeing this spatial vortex, the four Kage became alert. Space-type ninjas were mostly very strong, with the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, being prime examples.
The spatial vortex spun, and soon a figure appeared out of thin air—it was Obito, who had been observing the situation from nearby.
Obito stood on a largely shattered conference table, with Sasuke, who was half-conscious and covered in burns, slung over his shoulder.
Although Sasuke's aura was weak, he was not in danger of dying. As for the whereabouts of Sasuke's subordinates—Karin, Jugo, and Suigetsu—Jugo and Suigetsu had disappeared. After Jugo was sent flying by the Raikage, he had used a samurai's corpse to recover most of his injuries, but he was still heavily wounded and could only choose to retreat from the tower amid the chaos.
As for Suigetsu, he had already fled. In his view, confronting the Five Kage head-on was equivalent to seeking death.
As for Karin, she had been moved by Obito to a sealed space connected to his Mangekyo Sharingan, also known as the Kamui dimension.
"Uchiha Sasuke is not dead."
Seeing the unconscious Sasuke, the Mizukage, Mei Terumi, showed a puzzled expression. She had personally witnessed Sasuke being buried by lava earlier, but thinking of the enemy's space-type ability, Mei guessed what had happened.
Obito suddenly appeared, and the eight guards of the four Kage immediately surrounded him. Among them, two of Danzo's guards charged straight forward.
Whoosh, whoosh~
Two kunai flew over, one of which had a purple tip, presumably coated with poison. In reality, it was not poison but a nano-sized venomous insect.
Obito's eyes narrowed. As a member of the Uchiha clan, his eyesight was definitely top-notch among ninjas.
"The Aburame clan's secret technique."
Although Obito knew that these nano-sized venomous insects were troublesome, he did not dodge.
The kunai pierced into Obito's body, passing through without any resistance. This was Obito's space ability—intangibility, specifically the ability of his right eye.
Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan had two abilities: one was intangibility, and the other was absorption. Intangibility was easy to understand—it used space ability to move oneself into another dimension. After entering another dimension, Obito did not disappear completely but left behind a phantom, making attacks from enemies seem ineffective against him. Sometimes he would only make part of his body intangible, which consumed less chakra.
As for the second ability, absorption, this was Obito's spatial movement ability. His right eye could absorb people or objects into the Kamui dimension at close range.
The two kunai passed through Obito and lodged firmly into the wall behind him. The eight Kage guards formed a semicircle, blocking Obito from the four Kage.
"My name is Uchiha Madara."
Obito stood on the conference table, slightly lowering his head to look down at the four Kage and their guards.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The room was dead silent. The Tsuchikage and others did not seem surprised by this revelation, as Danzo had already mentioned it earlier and even vouched for it with the Hokage's name.
A few seconds later, Obito's expression under his mask showed slight surprise. Why were these people not surprised at all when he claimed to be Uchiha Madara? Was the identity of Uchiha Madara no longer effective?
That was not the case. Uchiha Madara was no ordinary figure—he was a powerhouse who had fought a life-and-death battle with the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju. Although he lost, not long after, Hashirama Senju, who was in his prime, died due to the severe injuries sustained in that battle.
After a few seconds of silence, Obito broke it.
"I came here to tell you something. After you understand my plan, I want to hear your opinions."
As he spoke, Obito activated his dojutsu, absorbing Sasuke into the Kamui dimension so that Karin could treat him.
"Stand down."
The Tsuchikage, Onoki, signaled his guard to retreat. Akatsuchi jumped behind Onoki, while Kurotsuchi, who had been controlling Deidara, was nowhere to be seen. The other Kage guards also stepped back. Attacking Obito now was meaningless, and opportunities to negotiate with the Akatsuki were rare. Understanding the Akatsuki's goals would be ideal.
"What is your plan?"
The Kazekage, Gaara, spoke. Except for Danzo, the other three Kage stood side by side in front of Obito, vaguely forming an alliance.
"The Moon's Eye Plan."
Obito did not hide his plan, for reasons unknown.
"Moon's Eye?"
The Tsuchikage, Kazekage, and Mizukage were clearly puzzled, but Danzo narrowed his eyes, seeming to have some understanding of the Moon's Eye.
"Setting aside your goal for now, why did you recruit Uchiha Sasuke? His behavior is completely different from the other members of the Akatsuki."
Gaara voiced his confusion. In his view, although Sasuke was not weak, he acted too recklessly. Compared to other Akatsuki members, he was not on the same level.
Leaving aside strength, just looking at this operation: the masked man (Obito) had been observing the situation, Su Xiao had taken advantage of the Raikage being isolated to successfully kill him, Deidara had lured the Tsuchikage away at the start of the battle to reduce the Five Kage's combat power, but Sasuke had been running around everywhere and eventually barged into the conference room on the sixth floor of the tower, simultaneously facing the Mizukage, the acting Hokage, and numerous guards. It was far too reckless.
"Recruiting Sasuke naturally has its reasons. A Mangekyo Sharingan capable of using Susanoo is very rare. I wanted to keep these eyes, but unfortunately, they are still too weak. So I arranged for him to fight the Five Kage in actual combat to train his dojutsu."
Obito still did not lie. In fact, one of his purposes for coming here today was to negotiate with the Five Kage. Killing them would have been ideal, but if he could not, he would have to resolve things through negotiation.
"There is nothing to discuss. The Raikage died at the hands of your Akatsuki member. This matter cannot be let go."
Mifune, who had been thinking about how to deal with Kumogakure, spoke up. He now wished he could skin the Akatsuki members alive.
"Lord Mifune, this is a conflict between ninjas. Please calm down for now."
The Tsuchikage glanced at Mifune, implying that this was an internal ninja matter, and the samurai should stay out of it.