Amegakure's rain fell in thin needles, steady and cold. The village gates loomed under rusted metal beams, guards standing rigid as each traveler was inspected with painful detail. Papers checked. Bags opened. Questions repeated.
Then one figure stepped forward.
White skin. White hair. Glowing yellow eyes. A pale blue high-collared jacket over black pants and quiet black shoes. Naruto's apostle form—refined, unnatural, and far too calm for a place built on suspicion.
One guard lifted his hand sharply. "Halt. Documents. Headband. State your village and intent."
Naruto smiled, soft and polite. A merchant's smile—but wrong at the edges.
He leaned in and exhaled a faint breath. A shimmer rolled out—thin as mist, warm as incense, carrying the subtle push of Blessing Breath, the hive-mind charm gifted from his First Fragment.
The guards' irises wavered. Their shoulders loosened.
Naruto tapped his cane lightly. "I've come to offer my stardust products," he said with a casual merchant's tone. "I'm a famous trader, maybe you can help me a bit here?"
The guards straightened immediately and stepped aside, posture turning welcoming instead of suspicious.
"Welcome to Amegakure," one said. "Please… enter freely."
Naruto smirked faintly as he walked past the guards, the rain slipping off his coat in clean sheets—as if even the weather adjusted to him. Halfway down the street he paused, realizing the habit in his hand. The cane. Too recognizable. Too him. He dismissed it with a flick, the weapon folding into nothing.
He headed toward the nearest inn, a cramped building with warm lanterns and a creaking wooden sign. Inside, the air was thick with steam, spilled sake, and the rough chatter of mercenaries. Naruto walked to the bar, took the farthest seat, and let the room settle around him.
Then a voice cracked through the noise.
"Another sake! And bring the dice—I'm on a roll tonight! Luck favors me!"
Naruto turned his head with mild curiosity.
A woman sat at a corner table, slamming her cup down with enough force to shake the plates. Blonde hair tied in loose twin tails, diamond mark on her forehead, top barely hiding her monstrous strength—Tsunade. Beside her stood Shizune, looking exhausted, clutching Tonton like a lifeline.
"Tsunade-sama, that's enough. You've had plenty to drink," Shizune pleaded quietly. "And you've lost plenty too. We should stop gambling—"
"Bah!" Tsunade swatted the words away. "I'm just warming up!"
Naruto turned back to his drink and let his posture sink into a lazy, half-lidded calm—but inside, Weirdmageddon rippled. A spike of distortion shot across his awareness like a sonar ping. Something was approaching fast..
Phasing. Slipping through buildings like folded paper.
Naruto's fingers tapped once against the counter. Heh. So his family killer decided to join the party early.
From roughly 800 meters out, a chakra signature flickered in and out , skipping through structures as if the village were made of hollow cardboard. Naruto didn't turn his head.
The figure emerged onto the street moments later.
A white mask marked with a black flame motif. A dark cloak draped over a lean frame.
Obito—moving under the persona of Tobi—slipped out of the last building he phased through and paused at the edge of the main road. His posture was almost lazy, a drifting calm meant to deceive anyone watching. He tilted his head once, scanning the inn with that single Sharingan eye behind the flame-marked mask.
Inside, he noted two figures of interest. An outsider he didn't recognize—white hair , eyes glowing like burnished gold.
And Tsunade—drunk, loud, gambling without restraint.
Shizune hovered uselessly at her side, whispering polite warnings that Tsunade ignored entirely.
Tobi watched for another careful second.. He didn't want to spook anyone yet .
So he simply walked. He stepped into the inn with a smooth, casual gait, letting rainwater slide off his cloak as he moved toward the bar. Tsunade barely noticed. The bartender stiffened. Shizune sensed trouble but couldn't pinpoint why.
Tobi chose a seat. Not near Tsunade. He sat right beside Naruto.
Just as he considered slipping a small genjutsu into the air—nothing major, just a test—the warning hit him from inside his own body.
Guruguru, the swirling Zetsu wrapped around his frame like living bark, whispered through the wooden fibers with a low tremor.
"Tobi… the man beside you radiates a very strange energy. Best be careful ."
second voice slithered through the Hashirama cells fused into his body—Black Zetsu.
"Remember Madara's will. Your task is to win Nagato to our side and retrieve the Rinnegan. Stealth is paramount."
Tobi's fingers twitched once on the countertop. He muttered under his breath, barely audible. "You two shut up. I'll handle this. And another ally never hurts."
He angled his masked head slightly, examining the white-haired "merchant" beside him—Naruto's apostle form, calm posture, golden eyes like a sleeping sun.
Tobi tried a simple opener. "What a grief-filled day. In Amegakure… the rain never ends—"
A sudden snore cut him off. Naruto was asleep. Sitting upright at the bar. Completely dead to the world.
Tobi stared for a silent, awkward beat, then slowly turned away, deciding—wisely—to ignore the sleeping anomaly beside him. But a loud commotion burst from Tsunade's table. Several rough-looking debt collectors surrounded her, sneering.
"Oi, Legendary Sucker," one of them barked. "When will you pay your debt? You've been gambling our money again."
Tsunade, half-drunk, blinked slowly. "Muhh… huh?"
Shizune stepped in immediately, bowing lightly. "I'm sorry—Tsunade-sama isn't well right now. Please come back later."
One collector ignored her, grabbed the sake bottle from Tsunade's hand, and tossed it aside in irritation. He made one mistake. He threw it in Naruto's direction.
The bottle twisted midair—its glass turning inside out, warped as if reality folded it wrong. It dropped in a deformed heap on the floor.
Naruto opened one eye. A bright golden iris glared out, smile cutting across his face with dangerous amusement.
Tobi stiffened. Black Zetsu whispered through the Hashirama cells, voice thin and uneasy.
"This man's background is unknown. He appeared out of nowhere and claims to be a merchant."
Tobi didn't look away from Naruto's glowing eye. He muttered back under his breath, barely audible.
"Is that everything Zetsu gathered? You didn't miss anything?"
Black Zetsu responded,. "Yes. And they all report the same. This man's origins… do not exist."
Naruto rose from his seat with quiet steps. The room reacted before he even reached Tsunade's table—Shizune froze, the debt collectors stiffened, and even Tobi's posture sharpened. They had all seen the glass bottle twist inside-out the moment it entered his aura.
Tsunade, drunk and oblivious, hiccupped.
Naruto didn't speak. He simply pulled out a small slip of paper, wrote a few lines, and placed it on the table in front of the debt collectors. They leaned in and read:
Dice game.
First roll: odd.
Second roll: even.
Third roll: even.
If I win, you fuck off.
If I lose, you get this golden axe.
A golden axe materialized above Naruto's open palm, shimmering like treasure pulled straight from a myth. He didn't offer it—he just stared at them, calm, expression unreadably polite.
The collectors swallowed.
"…Let's play," one of them muttered.
They rolled.
First round: odd. Naruto wins.
Second round: even. Naruto wins.
Third round: even. Naruto wins again.
Silence hit the inn.
One collector's face twisted with outrage. "He cheated—there's no way—"
But his comrade grabbed him by the collar and yanked him toward the exit. "Shut up! You want to end up like that bottle?! Move!"
They dragged the debt collector out so fast the inn door slammed against its frame. At the bar, Tobi sat frozen. His single visible eye stared at the twisted bottle and the golden axe that had appeared from nothing. Even for Kamui-level absurdity… this was wrong.
Tobi slowly shifted his gaze to Naruto, making sure the white-haired stranger saw it. His Sharingan flashed once, a silent warning, a declaration of presence.
Naruto met it with a slow turn of his head—golden eyes locking onto the Uchiha with a menacing stillness.
Tobi's voice dropped low. "You're not from this land. You didn't use a single hand seal. No ninjutsu I know behaves like the tricks you just pulled."
Naruto's stare sharpened, predatory, amused at the same time. Whatever Tobi thought he saw in those golden eyes… it wasn't human.
He leaned forward slightly, tone smooth but razor-edged. "Take-and-give relationships. That's what I offer."
Naruto's smile widened a fraction. "So tell me, masked one… what exactly can you give me for what I have now?"
The air tightened—until Shizune hurried over and bowed politely.
"Thank you for helping Tsunade-sama settle her debt. Um… what's your name, sir?"
Naruto leaned back, enjoying the attention in his apostle form. "You can call me Tiel." He angled his head toward the masked Uchiha beside him. "And this gentleman here is…?"
Naruto's golden gaze locked onto Tobi, smiling like he knew the punchline already.
Tobi nodded stiffly. "You can call me Tobi. We just met."
Shizune blinked between them. Even she could feel the tension—something sharp, like two predators sizing each other.
"Thank you, Tiel… and Tobi." She bowed again, then hesitated as she looked at both their faces. "Um… would either of you like the leftover sake Tsunade-sama didn't finish? It's… a gesture. And maybe you two could, uh… not glare at each other like that? Just for a moment?"
She held the bottle out with both hands, hoping a drink might diffuse the silent hostility filling the room.