Inside a dim and cold cave.
"Tobi, is this the Konoha ninja you were talking about?" the old man in a dark-blue robe asked.
"…"
"I'm asking you a question."
"…Can you let me rest for a bit? You stood there giving orders the whole time, but the one who actually did all the digging was me…" Tobi said weakly, lying on the ground with his head drooping, looking exhausted.
"You can feel tired too?"
"What's wrong with that? Can't I experience what it feels like to be human for once?!" Tobi protested angrily. "That's blatant discrimination!"
The old man remained silent.
"...Ahem. My point is, this Konoha ninja was certainly young and promising... but he's dead now. Why did we go through all the trouble of unearthing a corpse?"
The old man's Sharingan slowly rotated as he recalled the astonishing scene he had witnessed not long ago.
He had actually seen chakra within that lightning.
Though it was extremely faint, it was definitely there.
A kind of pure Lightning Release chakra he had never seen before.
And it was more terrifying than any Lightning Release chakra he had ever encountered.
There was even a faintly familiar feeling to it.
That feeling belonged to…
His lifelong rival—Hashirama Senju, when he used Sage Mode.
Could that have been senjutsu chakra?
"The final Water Release technique he performed succeeded, but it caused a severe backlash. Then he was struck by that heavenly lightning and stopped breathing. Now that lightning chakra is devouring his body. At this moment, every cell in his body is continuously breaking down."
"But he's already dead, isn't he? So what happens to his body cells shouldn't matter, right?" Tobi asked in confusion.
"That energy will erase his existence. Every cell in his body will be decomposed until it turns into dust… and he will completely disappear from this world."
"Oh~ That lightning sounds pretty powerful."
The old man paused, then said with certainty:
"It is fate. The will of this world wants to kill him."
"What did you say?" Tobi made a motion as if to clean his ears, pretending he hadn't heard clearly—but he quickly awkwardly lowered his hand.
Because he didn't have ears.
"I don't know why fate would fear his growth."
"That sounds pretty mysterious… What do you mean by fate?" Tobi squatted down and began examining Shimizu's chest, which was no longer rising or falling.
"Have you ever touched the true essence of this world, Tobi?"
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about…" Tobi said, poking Shimizu repeatedly with his index finger, seemingly checking whether he was really dead or just pretending. "Yep… he's definitely dead."
The old man's voice grew distant and profound as he sank into memories of the past. "I once believed that by combining the powers of Uchiha and Senju, I could directly obtain the legendary power—the power that belonged only to the Sage of Six Paths."
"But I was wrong…"
Tobi looked up, finally abandoning his carefree attitude.
"The final battle at the Valley of the End… I used Izanagi to escape death and bit off a piece of Hashirama's flesh, implanting it into my wound."
"Yet during that long wait, I was never able to glimpse even a fragment of that power…"
"Until the moment of death… when I finally touched the true will of this world…"
"…Later, I finally awakened the Rinnegan."
"And now, this Konoha ninja has actually attracted the attention of the world's will itself, which has decided to completely erase him."
"What secret does he carry?!"
The old man stared intensely at Shimizu's corpse.
"Uh… come to think of it, this kid really is strange," Tobi said. "When he fought me earlier, he clearly ran out of chakra, but in just an instant he recovered back to his peak."
The old man ignored Tobi's comment and continued speaking.
"Then I discovered that there is another extremely vast life force inside his body. When that lightning chakra invaded his body, this energy began to awaken… If it weren't for that enormous life force sustaining him, there probably wouldn't even be any bones left of him now."
"No way. A weakling like him has that much energy in his body? Enough to resist the will of the world?"
"Hehehe… the 'weakling' you're talking about almost killed you."
"Ahem… that was just an accident," Tobi said awkwardly while glancing around, pretending it had simply been a moment of carelessness.
"Tobi, you are too arrogant."
"Tch…"
He absolutely refused to admit that he might be inferior to this kid.
"Although the chakra within that heavenly lightning possesses terrifying power, it's far too thin. If things continue like this… the lightning chakra will likely be devoured by the life force inside his body, and he will be fully revived."
"Seriously? Even the world's will can't punish him?!" Tobi exaggerated dramatically. Then he suddenly changed his tone.
"In that case, what are we waiting for? Let's side with the will of the world and carry out justice on its behalf. Why don't we just burn him?"
Tobi walked to the side, seemingly looking for some firewood.
"I'll handle dirty work like this," he said while searching. "I'll start the fire."
The old man's slowly spinning Sharingan glanced at him.
"A being capable of breaking free from the cycle of fate… how interesting…"
"Then you shall serve me… for the true dream of the Uchiha clan."
"…Wait… I mean… isn't this basically playing with fire?" Tobi stood up, unusually serious. ""I'm being real here. If even the will of the world wants to erase him, what makes you think you can control him?"
"Because…" the old man said calmly,
"I am Uchiha Madara."
Tobi froze for a moment, then murmured,
"…You make a very convincing point."
...
Shimizu slowly opened his eyes.
But this time, the heaviness in his body wasn't as intense as before.
"What… happened to me?"
"You insisted on getting out of bed earlier and tried to leave this place," the old man explained. "Your body had not yet recovered, so you collapsed into unconsciousness."
"Such foolish, independent actions will only result in your own death."
Shimizu carefully recalled the moment before he lost consciousness.
It did seem… something like that had happened.
"Do you want to return to Konoha?" the old man asked kindly.
Knowing that the old man before him was very likely Uchiha Madara, Shimizu didn't dare answer rashly.
Perhaps Obito had once fallen into Madara's trap because of just a single careless answer.
Before Shimizu could respond, the old man's Sharingan began to rotate.
"Let me show you what happened before you lost consciousness…"
The world sank into darkness.
Then the familiar battlefield appeared before his eyes.
Lightning flashed. Rain poured heavily.
"What is this…?"
"This is the world of the Sharingan," the old man explained. "A special ocular ability of the Uchiha clan. It can record what the eye has seen and replay it completely for others."
Soon, the old man showed Shimizu everything he had witnessed:
Minato being surrounded…
Satomi appearing at the edge of the battlefield…
Then Minato activating Sage Mode.
Minato chose to hold off the Sand ninja alone, while Satomi rushed alone to rescue him.
Then the heavenly lightning struck the cliff where Shimizu lay.
The cliff collapsed instantly.
Yet Satomi still charged recklessly toward his position, even as the terrifying landslide buried him deep.
In the end, there was only that lone, slender figure desperately digging through the mud.
She was actually trying to save him with her bare hands.
The bright red blood dripping down was painfully striking.
Shimizu's fists clenched instantly.
"She…"
For a moment, he was speechless. This girl of the Hyūga clan... had she really gone this far for him?
"…What happened afterward?"
"Keep watching," the old man replied.
Soon after, Minato's Sage Mode reached its limit.
A large group of Sand ninja swarmed forward.
Minato was gravely injured.
Satomi's life or death became unknown.
Just before the scene ended, Yoshimaru appeared in time and rescued the two of them.