"Aaaaa, my god! Help me, Suki" Touki shouts, appearing in the basement of a house, in a small town more than a hundred kilometers from Konoha. His armor is fractured in several places, emitting high temperatures from most of its modules, and one of his arms is clearly dislocated.
"Master! What happened?"Asks a worried Suki, who was prepared to receive him. Despite being blind, she knows every part of the armor she helped build, so she immediately notices its poor condition.
"The damn calculation failed, that wasn't supposed to happen... the damn explosion almost killed me" The man says in agony from the pain.
"Did you fight with someone?"
"Aaaaaaa, me and my great ideas, I had to try, I had to try, everything was perfect... But the damn bomb was stronger than I expected. It was supposed to just warp space and force that bastard to materialize, but everything went wrong… I don't know what the hell happened to him, I had to retreat immediately"
Suki doesn't know what her master is talking about, so she decides to ignore him and focus on treating his wounds, putting his arm back in place, and calming him down.
Touki, for his part, is in a completely paranoid and delusional state. As a result of his research into storage seals and his search for a way to counteract Obito's abilities, he decided to experiment with overloading storage seals, eventually causing a storage dimension to collapse. On a small scale, the experiments were quite promising visually, causing spatial vibrations in a fairly controlled and focused manner, with almost no influence on the physical plane. The idea was to try to affect Obito in his immaterial state to force him back to the material plane. But the small-scale tests resulted in very small explosions, on the scale of centimeters, so the power had to be increased if it was to be used practically.
Unfortunately, Touki didn't get the chance to test his new bomb. The math said the blast radius would be a maximum of 4 or 5 meters, but nothing predicted that the detonation would literally shatter space itself, which in turn created an instant vacuum within the blast, an effect so violent that his armor could barely defend itself.
Due to the impact, the man fractured dozens of bones, suffered a severe concussion, and dislocated an arm, although he was lucky enough not to fracture his spine when he hit the house.
Several artifacts are placed around Touki, which begin to emit a green aura, causing his burns and superficial wounds to heal rapidly. His internal injuries, on the other hand, will take much longer and require repeated sessions. The man is out of action for a long time.
"We did it, Suki… the artifacts managed to oppose one of the strongest ninjas in the world. With many tricks, but the result is what matters" Touki exclaims, once the pain is bearable.
Suki is first surprised by Touki's words, but then a big smile appears on her face. "Congratulations Master"
Touki nods, then finally gives in to exhaustion and falls asleep on the floor. Suki, not knowing what to do, simply covers him with a blanket and sits next to him to take care of him.
…
In a deep cavern, located in an unknown location, three very different individuals find themselves arguing about a mission that didn't go very well.
"Zetsu, what the hell happened in Konoha?" Obito says, lying on a bed of roots, with his body complete, although in the process of healing. The roots, in particular, interconnect around and within his skin, accelerating the union of his body parts.
"When I received your signal for help, I had to cross too many barriers within the village, I could only arrive a few moments before you used the kamui to flee. I tried to search for your enemy, but all I saw was young Itachi" Says white Zetsu, with a serious voice.
"How did you get into this state?" Black Zetsu asks.
Obito thinks for a few moments, trying to organize his memory.
"We met someone strange at Itachi's house, a man in samurai armor. He knew about what was going on, he knew how to fight us, he blinded me several times and I could do nothing but defend myself, I couldn't use the kamui to transport myself, but I managed to become immaterial... then something happened, I don't know what exactly, but it was big and I ended up cut in two. The attack crossed into my dimension and left chaos... I could barely use it to escape" Obito says.
"That doesn't make sense, who could intervene like that, Danzo? He doesn't know about your abilities" Says Black Zetsu.
"Very few know of my abilities and are still alive… He said he knew Madara"
Both Zetsus look at each other, trying to search their memories of a similar individual.
"But that doesn't matter, he's just another enemy in this world, one we'll inevitably defeat. In the end, the plan must continue. The Uchihas were annihilated, and Itachi must be recruited. We must inform Nagato of the situation with this new individual, perhaps there is a new force behind him" Says Obito.
"Your wounds are serious, the cuts left a strange energy that resists healing, even with Hashirama's cells it will take you a couple of weeks to heal completely" White Zetsu adds.
"Then someone else will have to recruit Itachi" Obito comments, while he directs his gaze to black Zetsus, who responds by nodding and then disappears into the earth.
Obito stares at the cave ceiling for a moment, then sighs. "Since Minato no one defeated me so decisively, I was lucky to escape alive. I have been overconfident, this world still has opponents capable of surprising me"
…
At nightfall, a tragedy erupts in the village of Konoha. At the Uchiha compound, hundreds of ninjas search through the houses looking for survivors of a massacre that makes no sense to anyone, except for a weary Hokage, who seems to have aged ten years overnight.
Everywhere the same pattern is discovered, Uchiha members murdered and their bodies without eyes, except for one place in particular, the house of Fugaku, the leader of the clan, or what remains of it.
"There was definitely a fight here" Hiruzen comments as he analyzes the place.
"The sensory ninjas detected traces of a large explosion around the crater, as well as a strange radiation" Says an anbu with an eagle mask.
"What kind?"
"Spatial and some electrical traces"
The Hokage frowns and approaches the edge of the crater, but stops long before reaching it, completely changing his attitude and beginning to execute seals with his hands.
"Doton: Doryuu Heki" Hiruzen pronounces, hitting his hands on the ground and forming a wall of earth around the crater almost 10 meters high.
"No one is to approach the crater" the Hokage orders in a serious tone. "The radiation is dangerous; there's natural energy mixed with something chaotic. If my suspicions are correct, prolonged exposure should cause the body's cells to die. This entire area must be quarantined"
At the Hokage's words, all the ambu present began to cordon off the area. That night, two great mysteries arose in Konoha: the reason for the massacre and what lies within the forbidden area.
A few hours later, still at night, a secret meeting takes place outside the Hokage's house, where Hiruzen and a clone of Itachi discuss what really happened at the Uchiha compound.
Itachi told him exactly everything that happened during the confrontation against the strange individual, as well as the fact that he stole his parents' bodies, including Fugaku's Mangekyou.
Hiruzen can't help but pace nervously in circles while puffing on his pipe. "This is wrong on so many levels that I don't know how to deal with the consequences. We lost one of our strongest clans, you can no longer be part of the village, and I have two potentially extremely dangerous individuals lurking around our village, one who thinks he's Madara and another who has a Mangekyou in his hands… Why didn't you tell me before you acted? We could have done something different"
"There was no choice. It was this or civil war" Itachi replies.
"It was Danzo, wasn't it? He convinced you"
"That doesn't matter anymore, the fault is mine and that's what people should know. I'm going to infiltrate this Madara's organization, if he's still alive, and I'll find out everything I can about the man in the demon mask. The only positive thing is that it seems they both hate each other, because the man never used lethal force against me or Sasuke" Itachi said.
"Let's hope all he wanted was Fugaku's mangekyo. And don't worry, Sasuke will have all the protection the village can provide, even against Danzo" the Hokage added.
Itachi nods, and his body dissolves into a flock of crows that fly off in all directions. Hiruzen, for his part, stares up at the night sky for a long time.