A few hours earlier, Obito returned to Orochimaru's base after collecting Mu's body from Iwagakure. His face immediately started twitching in irritation due to what he saw when he arrived.

The whole place was in a complete mess. Goons were running around like headless chickens and screaming about how Sasuke killed Orochimaru, while significant parts of the base and the surrounding forest were burned to a crisp.

'Are you seriously telling me that Orochimaru somehow managed to get himself killed over the short period of time where I wasn't here? That has to be a joke. Additionally, why are these retards screaming that Sasuke killed him? He might have been able to kill Orochimaru in a year or two, but right now, he is still too weak to do that.'

Obito continued pondering a while longer before he came up with a possible explanation.

'Maybe, he took over Sasuke's body and made it look like he died fighting against Sasuke to hide his tracks? That might actually be a pretty good move since this would even allow him to return to Konoha freely. Konoha would get back their beloved last Uchiha, and Tsunade would only have to make up some nonsense about Sasuke being sent on a secret mission to kill Orochimaru to pacify the non-retarded people. Well, the actual intelligent people wouldn't be pacified by such a half-assed lie, but it was still better than nothing. As a result of that, Orochimaru would be able to move around Konoha without anybody suspecting him. This might actually work!'

Obito nodded in approval at his freshly made-up theory and started moving deeper into Orochimaru's base. For now, he had to find out if his idea was correct and if it wasn't what actually happened to Orochimaru.

So, while moving deeper into the base, he occasionally put some of the goons under genjutsu to find out whether they knew any details about what happened but got only gibberish in return.

Nobody had seen anything worthwhile, and most of them only told Obito some stories about feeling incredible pressure on their bodies and that earthquakes shook the base for quite some time, which was pretty useless information to Obito. If Orochimaru wanted to make his death believable, he should at least display this level of showmanship, after all. But, the fact that no one has seen even a glimpse of such a supposedly flashy fight supported Obito's theory that Orochimaru was just putting on a shower for outsiders to see.

Something else he found rather annoying was that apparently, no one had a clue where Sasuke currently was. In fact, no one has seen him since yesterday, which made everyone shouting about him being the one to kill Orochimaru especially suspicious.

'Seems like my theory is correct. Someone is clearly attempting to muddle the waters to make it harder to find out the truth. This is Orochimaru's handwriting! Although Itachi won't be happy when he hears about this, I will just have to make sure that he doesn't, then everything will be fine. Not bad, Orochimaru, not bad at all. A very bold move and slightly reckless, but this should give us another advantage over Yuna. Although her death was already set in stone due to the line-up I prepared, now we even have the perfect opportunity to ambush her, which should make the whole ordeal even easier.'

"*Urgh* What's with all the noise today? What are these idiots screaming about?

"

While Obito was deep in thought, a young man walked out of one of the nearby doors and started sleepily murmuring to himself. From the bags under his eyes, it was rather evident that he didn't sleep very well and was still tired due to that.

Since everything was somewhat chaotic and people were running around everywhere, there was nothing noteworthy about another person appearing from a nearby room. So, Obito didn't pay much attention to him either and did the same thing he had been doing all the time and immediately used his Sharingan to put him under a genjutsu.

So far, every time he met someone inside Orochimaru's base, he put that person under a weak genjutsu so that they wouldn't see him, but this time the trick failed, as one Sharingan met pair of two.

Sasuke, who instantly activated his Sharingan the moment Obito tried to use genjutsu on him, widened his eyes in surprise when he realized that the unknown person in front of him had a Sharingan as well.

An angry scowl appeared on his face, and he immediately jumped back to take some distance from Obito.

"Who are you, and why do you have a Sharingan!?

"

Meanwhile, Obito couldn't believe what had just happened. His whole explanation for the current situation was based on Orochimaru taking over control of Sasuke's body. Suddenly, while he was still pondering on what consequences Orochimaru's action might have, Sasuke appears in front of him.

'What is going on!? This is clearly not Orochimaru but the real Sasuke. Why is he still here? How bad is my luck to not only meet him but even show him my Sharingan by accident? Why does he look like he hasn't slept for a week? What happened to Orochimaru? Could it get any worse?'

Meanwhile, Sasuke was eyeing the masked person in front of him with suspicion, but his anger flared up immediately after seeing what kind of clothing he was wearing. A black cloak with red clouds on it. The person's cloak looked precisely like what Itachi wore when Sasuke met him about two years ago. He didn't believe for even a second that that was a coincidence.

"WHO ARE YOU!? TELL ME WHERE ITACHI IS RIGHT NOW!!!

"

Meanwhile, Obito could only sigh in defeat when he heard Sasuke's words.

'Yup, it got worse. Maybe I should convince Nagato to drop the matching outfits? *Sigh* Stop thinking about nonsense. What am I supposed to do now? It's too early for me to meet Sasuke, but if this meeting doesn't go well, he might reject the offer I planned to give him after he kills Itachi.'

'Damnit, why are all my plans collapsing on their own? First, Orochimaru somehow disappears a few hours before preparations to get rid of Yuna are done. Second, I met Sasuke too early, which will make it much harder to manipulate him to do what I want him to do. I still need Sasuke to start the war and sow discord between Konoha and the other villages. Should I just discard that plan? No, I will see what I can do and see where this goes.

"I'm Tobi, and Tobi is a good boy!

"

"ANSWER ME!!! CHIDORI!!!

"

Obito could only sigh again when he saw Sasuke charging him with a lighting-covered hand.

'Fine, that one is on me. I wanted to lighten the mood, but the moment Sasuke started associating me with Itachi, he already went full

"avenger-mode

" and stopped thinking properly. If he can't fix that temper before he meets Itachi, Sasuke might actually manage to kill himself before Itachi gets a chance to get killed by Sasuke.. Oh well, let's see if I can get something out of this.'