Uchiha Madara operated with extreme caution.
His previous grand scheme to hijack the cells of Asura's modern reincarnation ended in catastrophic failure.
That raid was the absolute closest he had ever come to reclaiming his former god-tier power.
Following that devastating loss, he had forcibly laid low, settling for the worst-case backup plan: relying on political strategy and pure charisma to successfully romance Chiyo.
And now...
He originally only returned to this area to explicitly warn Amegakure's leadership to intercept Obito, terrified the brat would beat him to the punch and become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki first.
He honestly never expected that Obito—a man armed with a Mangekyō ability as broken as Kamui—would actually get successfully captured and imprisoned by Amegakure.
'What an utterly useless fool,' Madara sighed inwardly.
But that insult wasn't born of emotional resentment.
He was merely stating a cold, objective fact.
In reality, it was precisely because Obito was so utterly useless and managed to get captured that Madara had just stumbled into a golden second chance to reclaim his stolen power.
After rolling his wheelchair a safe distance away from the drop point, Uchiha Madara finally stopped, locked the brakes, and slowly forced himself to his feet.
The reason he chose to walk the rest of the way is because he absolutely refused to make unnecessary noise and alert his target.
Soon enough, Madara arrived at the precise coordinates he had sensed earlier.
He pressed a trembling hand flat against the rock wall.
The initial sensory pulse had burned through nearly ninety percent of his absolute maximum chakra reserves, leaving him running on fumes.
Channeling the final ten percent into his palm, he disrupted the massive Paper Person of God disguise layered over the stone, manually tearing open a thin gap and slipping inside.
Once inside the cavern, Madara meticulously pasted the torn paper flap back into place, flawlessly sealing the entrance.
Only then did he collapse against the wall, carefully resting to extract just enough stamina to support his next phase.
After fully grasping the intricate security mechanics surrounding Obito's prison, Madara couldn't help but feel a surge of joy.
That specialized layer of origami possessed a high-tier sensory-blocking field.
Disguised flawlessly as a sheer rock face, the only way to breach the bunker was to manually inject chakra and actively disrupt the underlying Transformation Technique.
As for Amegakure successfully neutralizing Obito? They either gouged his eyes right out of his skull, or they permanently locked down his chakra network.
Regarding this specific tactical deduction, Uchiha Madara counted his lucky stars that he possessed an eidetic memory regarding every single humiliating encounter he suffered since his Edo Tensei revival!
A while back, right as his plan to steal Asura's cells collapsed, Tobirama mysteriously teleported right in front of him—completely drained of chakra and utterly paralyzed—giving Madara a brief window to humiliate his oldest rival.
Madara hadn't just drowned himself in the sheer ecstasy of mocking Tobirama.
His tactical mind actively cataloged the anomaly.
Tobirama's bizarre condition proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that someone hiding inside Amegakure possessed the terrifying ability to continuously suppress another shinobi's chakra.
Even an immortal Edo Tensei—which biologically regenerated infinite chakra—could be entirely neutralized.
If Amegakure possessed that kind of god-tier suppression, then if Obito was truly captured, his chakra network was undoubtedly crippled.
And a bunker like this wouldn't necessarily require an army of elite guards.
If they didn't need to manually guarantee Obito's basic survival, the ideal prison cell would contain absolutely nothing but Obito himself.
Because every single guard stationed inside the vault represented an active liability—a potential physical key the prisoner could exploit to escape.
And every single time someone opened the vault door to enter or exit, the shifting chakra signature would broadcast a brief, split-second signal to the outside world.
Just like earlier today, when he coincidentally detected Obito's precise coordinates.
Perhaps the ghost of the Sage of Six Paths truly favored him, allowing him to ping the signal at the exact millisecond a guard opened the door!
A while back, after getting betrayed and set up by that naturally evil bastard Hashirama, a specialized sensory formula had been permanently etched into his vessel, forcibly granting his Edo Tensei body the ability to feel physical sensation.
Every time a wave of phantom pain spiked through his nerves, it was unadulterated agony.
But this, too, was a test sent by the gods!
Because he could finally feel physical sensation, he could manually micromanage his own body through the pain, allowing him to infiltrate the cavern network with flawless silence.
After sighing inwardly and resting until his stamina stabilized, Uchiha Madara finally pushed off the wall and began creeping toward Obito's cell.
'Just as I deduced. Not a single guard in sight.'
As Madara slinked through the echoing tunnels, he confirmed the base's security was exactly as lax as he had calculated.
The ultimate path to victory laid itself bare right in front of him!
Madara casually strolled straight into Obito's holding cell.
The room was barren, save for a massive, elevated stone slab positioned dead in the center.
Hearing the soft approaching footsteps, Obito immediately locked his breathing and continued playing dead.
Even though he already knew his fake coma had been thoroughly exposed, what else was he supposed to do?
Escaping reality might be incredibly pathetic, but it was highly effective.
Obito didn't know who just walked in.
Maybe it was a medic.
Maybe it was Rin.
Who the hell cared? As long as he kept his eyes shut, and as long as the visitor kept their mouth shut, he would just pretend they were a mindless White Zetsu clone and selectively ignore them.
At least that specific delusion made him feel a tiny bit better.
'Hm?'
Obito nearly shuddered, but thankfully suppressed the reflex just in time.
The mysterious visitor actually reached out... and firmly touched his waist!
'Could the person checking on me this time actually be Rin?'
A few complicated, highly inappropriate images involuntarily surfaced in Obito's broken mind.
After physically touching Obito's skin, Madara instantly confirmed the intel: the brat's chakra network was completely paralyzed!
As for how exactly they locked him down, Madara lacked the resources to investigate further.
He had almost no chakra left in his reserve. He had to spend every single drop exactly where it counted.
What Madara was currently agonizing over was the sequence: should he rip out the Hashirama cells first, or should he gouge out Obito's eyes?
It was a brutal multiple-choice question.
Should he prioritize increasing his strength, or secure the broken game-mechanic first?
Because the second he initiated either surgical extraction, the excruciating pain would instantly jolt Obito wide awake.
After rapidly running the combat simulations, Madara decided to prioritize his strength.
His current maximum chakra ceiling was pathetically low.
Even if he successfully stole Obito's Mangekyō Sharingan, he literally didn't have chakra left to actually cast Kamui.
He might have to sit in a corner and charge his chakra for ten to fifteen days just to barely fire off a single warp.
And during that massive cooldown window, his location would definitely be compromised.
It was infinitely safer to secure his strength first.
As long as he reclaimed his physical strength, he could easily overpower a chakra-suppressed Obito and rip his eyes out as a secondary objective!
Madara finalized his decision and initiated the surgical strike.
Obito was currently lying curled on his side, his back completely exposed to the doorway, and by extension, fully exposed to Madara.
At this exact millisecond, Obito was desperately fantasizing that the gentle hand resting on his waist belonged to Rin.
It really had to be said—raw chakra and Hashirama cells truly were a miraculous biological cocktail.
Logically speaking, after a man got their dick cut off, a normal man's libido should have permanently flatlined.
Yet Obito was still Horny 24/7 for Rin.
Suddenly.
Obito felt the single hand withdraw.
A second later, a pair of strong arms wrapped entirely around his waist from behind!
Obito's scarred face immediately flushed a deep crimson.
Although people constantly clowned on Obito for being a pathetic, ruined simp, the ruined clown from the League of legend had at least canonically hooked up with Isolde at the end.
Obito, on the other hand, had at best awkwardly held Rin's hand—and even that was strictly framed as a platonic 'teammate' grab.
Obito's brain went into overdrive. 'Could Rin's current action be her silently telling me that even if I no longer possess a dick, she is still completely willing to share an intimate spiritual relationship with me?!'
That single, manic thought instantly gave Obito a brand-new direction in life.
The grand fantasy of the Infinite Tsukuyomi could absolutely be restructured around this specific dynamic...
"Ugh!"
A massive surge of pure physical agony violently ripped Obito out of his delusion and slammed him straight back into reality!
He snapped his eyes open in sheer shock, looking down in absolute horror to see that the two arms wrapped around his waist had literally stabbed straight through his flesh.
Those hands were covered in cracked, crimson samurai armor!
'That isn't Rin!'
Who the hell was it?!
Did some black-market kidney harvester actually break into Amegakure just to steal his organs?!
"Obito, what exactly are you smiling about? Does dedicating your flesh to me really make you that happy? I must say, I am deeply gratified. Now is indeed the perfect time for you to finally repay the life-saving grace I showed you all those years ago."
Uchiha Madara's raspy voice echoed directly into Obito's ear.
Obito's entire body instantly turned to ice!