Konohagakure – ROOT Underground Facility
Danzo Shimura POV –
The report in my hand was not paper. It was an indictment. A failure. A variable I had not accounted for, and it burned with the cold fury of a missed stroke.
The candlelight in my secluded chamber flickered, casting long, dancing shadows that mirrored the disquiet in my mind. The initial dispatch had been years ago, a footnote from a sleeper agent in Lightning's merchant guild: "Uzumaki refugee, female, medic, with male child, granted sanctuary by Raikage. The child shows exceptional chakra control. Names: Delia and Indra."
An Uzumaki brat. Regrettable that one had escaped the net cast around their crumbling village, but manageable. A medic and her offspring would be a minor boon to Kumo, nothing more. I had filed it away, a data point among thousands.
Then, the second report. This one, stained with the psychic residue of a dying Yamanaka-root hybrid operative whose mind had been shattered before he could fully transmit. Fragments: "...eyes... red and black... tomoe... confirmed Uchiha... the boy... the boy is..."
An Uchiha.
An Uchiha survivor.
The scroll had nearly crumpled in my grip. It was impossible. The purge had been thorough, orchestrated by Itachi, a perfect, contained solution. Every clan member within the compound was accounted for. Fugaku, Mikoto, the elders, the warriors, the children. Every. Single. One.
Yet, the report was explicit. A boy, aged approximately nine at the time of the massacre, was seen with active Sharingan in Kumogakure. The timeline fits. A child born outside the compound. To a half-Uzumaki mother who had left Konoha. A branch so distant, so deliberately obscured by its own members, it had slipped through the cracks of my own meticulous census.
Fujin Uchiha. I remembered him. Competent. Loyal to the clan, not to the village's broader stability. He had a family outside the walls. A sentimental oversight. My oversight.
And now, that oversight had grown fangs. The subsequent reports were a chronicle of my own diminishing returns and this boy's meteoric ascent.
Danzo: (My voice was a low rasp in the empty room) Report. The full tally.
ROOT Operative Beta: (A form detached from the deeper shadow, voice monotone) Since the confirmation of his Uchiha lineage and the posting of the Konoha bounty, we have initiated forty-seven direct or indirect elimination operations. Result: total attrition of operatives involved. Twenty-eight confirmed kills by the target or his summoned beasts. Twelve disappeared within Kumo's borders, presumed captured or neutralized by their barrier systems. Seven were compromised and eliminated by our own cleanup units to prevent interrogation. The last operation, the attempt on the mother, Delia, resulted in the loss of Cell Gamma. The target's retaliation was... disproportionate.
I closed my eye, the Sharingan implanted in my right arm aching with a phantom pulse. Disproportionate. He had crossed the border, not as a shinobi, but as a force of nature. Satellite ROOT outposts in Tea Country had simply ceased reporting. Scouts sent to investigate found not bodies, but craters. One was filled with seawater and oddly docile, massive sharks. Another was a forest of crystalline spikes that hummed with lightning. No remains. No intelligence. A message written in pure, annihilating power.
Danzo: And the latest? This 'Thunderhead'?
ROOT Operative Beta: Unconfirmed but highly probable. Our last aerial reconnaissance attempt via stealth hawk summons was intercepted at 8,000 meters. The handler's final mental image was of a sky-darkening wing span and a piercing cry that shattered the mental link. Conventional espionage is now statistically impossible. Kumo's southern border is becoming a sensory black hole.
This was no longer just a missing ninja. This was a sovereign threat incubating within our most politically adversarial rival. He possessed the genetic legacy of Konoha's founding, the destructive genius of the Uzumaki, the perceptual might of the Uchiha, and now, he was gifting it all to the Raikage. He was building a fortress with our stolen bricks.
My mind raced, calculating. Itachi's mission was to watch for external Uchiha threats. Had he known? Was this part of his own convoluted plan? No. Itachi's weakness was his brother. This variable, Indra, threatened to upend everything.
Danzo: The Hokage has issued a stand-down order.
ROOT Operative Beta: We are aware.
Danzo: You are not bound by his orders in matters of existential village security. This boy is a nexus of two kekkei genkai. He is a living repository of Uchiha and Uzumaki secrets, now in the hands of Kumo. He has personally slaughtered dozens of Konoha's finest black ops soldiers. He is not a future problem. He is a present, clear, and active threat.
I leaned forward, the wood of my desk groaning under my grip.
Danzo: The parameters have changed. No more direct assaults within Lightning. We target the network. The mother is now under an impossible shield. The Uzumaki clan is too integrated, too public. We find the other pressure points. His summons requires contracts. His inventions require rare materials. His information network has gaps. Find them. Exploit them. And prepare the Shimon unit.
ROOT Operative Beta: (A barely perceptible hesitation) The sealing corps? For a live capture extraction?
Danzo: (My eye narrowed) His value as an asset now potentially outweighs his danger as an enemy. The Raikage sees a tool for defence. I see a key. A key to the Sharingan's ultimate secrets, to Uzumaki Fuinjutsu, to technological supremacy. Failing capture… total denial to Kumo is acceptable. But the priority is extraction. He is, by blood, a child of Konoha. It is time he was… repatriated. By any means necessary.
The operative melted back into the shadows, the order accepted. The game had escalated. I was no longer just cleaning up a loose end. I was engaging in a shadow war for the future of shinobi dominance. And this boy, this Indra, had just made it personal.
Land of Rivers – Safe House
Itachi Uchiha POV –
The rain pattered a gentle, inconsistent rhythm on the roof of the safe house. A mundane sound. Inside, my mind was a tempest of controlled chaos. The Akatsuki intelligence packet lay open before me. Kisame was polishing Samehada in the corner, his shark-like eyes occasionally flicking to me, sensing the unusual thickness in my chakra.
It wasn't the details of Kumo's new barrier, or the agricultural yields, that held my focus. It was the attached profile. A photograph, grainy, taken from extreme range: a teenage boy with spiked black hair, wearing a Kumo flak jacket, standing beside the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. His face was turned away, but the profile was unmistakably Uchiha. The caption: Indra Uzumaki-Uchiha. Jonin Commander, Kumo. Threat Assessment: S-Rank (Potential).
An Uchiha.
Alive.
Thriving in Kumogakure.
The cold, logical part of my brain, the part that had orchestrated the massacre, began immediate analysis. A survivor from a branch family outside the compound. Probability is low but non-zero. His age: approximately two years older than Sasuke. He would have been a child during the massacre. His Sharingan awakening: consistent with traumatic loss. His loyalty to Kumo: a predictable outcome of being granted sanctuary and purpose by a Kage when his ancestral village had murdered his clan.
But the other part of me, the part that was still an older brother, felt a chill that had nothing to do with the rain.
Itachi: (My voice was calm, betraying nothing) Kisame. Your opinion on this report.
Kisame: Heh. Another brat with fancy eyes. Seems he's put them to good use, though. Wiped out a bunch of Konoha's ROOT dogs, according to the gossip. Made Kakuzu run away without most of his spare hearts. That's nothing.
Itachi: Indeed. He is not just a survivor. He is a force. And he is consolidating power within a village historically antagonistic to Konoha.
Kisame: Makes our job easier, doesn't it? If he and the Raikage are busy turning Kumo into a spiky fortress, they might not interfere with our… collections.
I did not answer immediately. Kisame's perspective was simplistic, tactical. He saw a distraction. I saw a cataclysm of variables.
My plan, my unbearable burden, was predicated on specific factors. Sasuke was to hate me, to see Konoha as worth protecting, to eventually kill me and become a hero. The Akatsuki were to be the universal enemy, a common threat for him to vanquish after me. The stability of the great villages, however tense, was to be maintained until Sasuke was ready.
This Indra was a wild storm crashing into this carefully arranged board.
Variable One: Sasuke – What happens when he learns of another Uchiha? Not a ghost, not a massacre, but a living, powerful peer who had not only survived but flourished outside of Konoha? Would it dilute his hatred, focus it elsewhere, or fracture his purpose entirely? Would he seek him out? The very idea sent a jolt of something akin to fear through my veins. This Indra was an unknown. He could become a mentor, a rival, or he could tell Sasuke truths I had buried in blood and lies.
Variable Two: The Akatsuki – Pain's goal was the Gedo Statue. Capturing the Jinchuriki was the means. The Two-Tails and the Eight-Tails were in Kumo. They were always high-priority, high-difficulty targets. Now, they were guarded not just by the Raikage and Killer B, but by a genius Uchiha with a seemingly limitless bag of tricks, an army of summons, and a village he was turning into an intelligent, reactive shield. The probability of mission failure for those captures had just skyrocketed. A failed capture could mean open war with Kumo long before the statue was ready.
Variable Three: Danzo – The report mentioned ROOT casualties. Danzo would not tolerate this. His obsession with the Uchiha, with controlling all variables, would be in overdrive. His operations would grow more desperate, more extreme. He could trigger the very conflict I was trying to delay, potentially dragging Sasuke into the crossfire or forcing Konoha into a war it could not afford.
Kisame: You're thinking awful hard, Itachi. Worried he's a better Uchiha than you?
Itachi: (I glanced at him, my Mangekyō spinning lazily for a second in my eye) I am considering efficiency. He represents a significant investment of Kumo's resources. A confrontation would be costly, even for us. His stated goal is the fortification of Kumo. That aligns, temporarily, with our need for the major villages to remain focused inward. However, his very existence destabilizes the status quo.
I closed the file. The face of the boy, my distant kin, was seared into my memory. He was not part of the plan. He was a question mark where there should only be periods and exclamation points.
Itachi: We will need to adjust our timeline for the Kumo targets. The Two-Tails, Yugito Nii, is often outside the village. She may be the softer target. We observe this Indra. We learn his patterns, his capabilities. And we monitor Sasuke's awareness of himself. This… changes things.
"Changes things." A vast understatement. The path to peace, to Sasuke's redemption, was now shrouded in a new, unpredictable lightning storm. For the first time since that night, I felt the plan, my life's work and sacrifice, tremble on its axis. This Indra Uzumaki-Uchiha was not just a shinobi in Kumo. He was a living mirror held up to my choices, and in his reflection, I saw only terrifying, unknown possibilities.
I looked at the rain-streaked window. Somewhere, in a village of clouds and lightning, a boy who shared my blood was building walls to keep the world out. And in doing so, he was shaking the foundations of every secret I had built to keep my brother safe.
[System Notification: Template Update: Indra Ōtsutsuki – 81% Completed. Reason: Acknowledgement and strategic consideration by major world players as a lineage successor and independent power. Rivalry/Recognition dynamics engaged.]
Akatsuki Hideout – Amegakure
The gargantuan stone visages of the Gedo Statue's fingers provided the only seating in the cavernous, damp hideout. The atmosphere was thick with rainwater and latent malice. One by one, their projections flickered into place: ethereal, purple-tinged forms of the world's most dangerous missing-nin.
Pain, the de facto leader, spoke first, his Rinnegan eyes glowing in the gloom.
Pain: The financial influx from the tailed beast operations is sufficient. However, the collection timetable faces new obstructions. Konoha's Nine-Tails remains elusive and problematic. More immediately, the targets in Kumogakure have developed new… defences.
Konan: (Her paper form shimmering) The intelligence is consistent. The Raikage has not been idle. The barrier technology reported years ago has been upgraded. Our White Zetsu probes cannot penetrate it; they are detected and neutralized by an emotion-sensing matrix before crossing the perimeter. Aerial observation is now impossible.
Kisame: (Grinning with sharp teeth) Yeah, and they've got a new pet Uchiha feeding them ideas. Kid took a bite out of Kakuzu's wallet. And his heart.
Kakuzu: (His projection seemed to radiate simmering fury) Do not trivialize it, shark-face. The boy's combat analysis is preternatural. His physical power defies his age. And his summons are not mere beasts; they are tactical assets. The elephant that trampled my water mask possessed a hide that resisted high-level lightning ninjutsu.
Sasori: (His hollow, puppet voice was contemplative) Interesting. A creator. His inventions—the barrier, the healing pods—suggest a mind oriented towards permanent, systemic solutions, not just individual power. Such a mind is often more dangerous than simple brute force. He fortifies the hive.
Itachi: (His projection was calm, inscrutable) His loyalty to Kumo is absolute, born of sanctuary and purpose. He will defend it with every resource at his disposal, including the Jinchuriki. Targeting Yugito Nii or Killer Bee now would not be a stealth extraction. It would be a siege against a prepared, technologically superior fortress.
Deidara: Hn! Art is an explosion! No fortress can withstand my C4, yeah! All that fancy tech just makes for a bigger, more interesting bang!
Sasori: Fool. Your microscopic bombs would be detected by an emotion-sensing barrier the moment you felt artistic excitement. Your Kira would be your downfall.
Deidara scowled but fell silent. Pain's Rinnegan eyes swept the assembly.
Pain: Our goal remains unchanged. The Gedo Statue must be fed. However, the strategy must adapt. The order of acquisition is now critical. The Two-Tails and Eight-Tails, while potent, are now high-risk. We will prioritize the weaker, more isolated beasts. The Five-Tails in Iwa, the Six-Tails rogue… these are simpler targets.
Obito (as Tobi): (His goofy, high-pitched voice cut through the tension) Senpais! Senpais! What about the super-scary Uchiha boy? Shouldn't we, like, invite him to play? He seems really strong!
Pain: Tobi. Silence.
Obito (as Tobi): Yes, boss!
Pain: The Uchiha, Indra, is a secondary concern. He is a defender. If we do not attack his village, he is unlikely to seek us out. Our conflict with him is conditional on our pursuit of Kumo's Jinchuriki. For now, we avoid conditional conflicts. We
observe. If an opportunity to remove him as an obstacle presents itself, with minimal risk, we may take it. But he is not the primary objective. The Biju are.
The projections began to fade, the meeting concluding. But in the minds of two members, the discussion was far from over.
Kamui Dimension
Obito Uchiha POV (Unmasked) –
The cheerful, idiotic mask of 'Tobi' was gone. Here, in the sterile, endless grey of the Kamui dimension, only Obito remained, his face a tapestry of scars and grim purpose. He stared at a swirling pool of water, not for scrying, but to see the reflection of his own Sharingan and Rinnegan.
The memory surfaced, sharp and humiliating. Two years ago. He had been monitoring Kumo, curious about the rumoured Uchiha survivor. He'd found the boy, then fourteen, on a solo A-rank mission on the outskirts of the Land of Frost. A perfect opportunity for a… closer inspection.
He'd manifested from a swirling vortex, intending to subdue the boy with the sheer, terrifying pressure of his presence and the Mangekyō. He had not expected a fight.
Obito: (Muttering to the empty void) Arrogance. A fatal flaw.
The boy, Indra, had not frozen. His three-Tomoe Sharingan had whirled to life, but instead of fear, there was a terrifying, calculating clarity. Obito had phased, letting a lightning-enhanced punch pass through him, already smirking behind his orange mask.
Obito: (In memory, his taunting voice) "Interesting eyes for a stray pup. But you can't touch what isn't—"
He never finished the sentence. As he solidified to attack, the ground beneath him had erupted. Not with earth, but with thick, writhing vines that gleamed with metallic sheen. They moved with impossible speed, not aiming to strike, but to entangle and constrain. He'd phased again, but the vines persisted, growing through the intangible space he occupied as if tracking his dimensional frequency. It was a sealing technique, woven with Uzumaki-like complexity but executed with a precision that spoke of something else—Creation.
Then, the sky had darkened. Not with clouds, but with the shadow of a colossal, four-tusked elephant—a Regal Mammoth from some primordial age—its foot descending not on him, but on the entire area, a seismic attack that made maintaining intangibility a continuous, draining effort. At the same time, a piercing shriek from a giant eagle—a Braviary—screeched, a sound that seemed to vibrate his very bones and disrupt his chakra flow.
In that moment of multi-vector, overwhelming assault, his intangibility had flickered. A single, razor-sharp feather, imbued with cutting wind and lightning chakra, shot from the eagle's wing. It didn't kill him. It grazed his masked cheek, shattering a portion of it before he could fully re-engage Kamui and retreat into his dimension.
He remembered the boy's voice, cold and clear, cutting through the chaos.
Indra (from memory): "A ghost who relies on a single trick is just a puzzle. And puzzles get solved. Tell your master his war is coming to the wrong mountains."
Obito touched the faint, hairline scar beneath his eye, a scar that shouldn't exist. The boy had seen through Kamui's weakness—its time limit and the vulnerability during attack—in seconds. He hadn't just fought power; he'd fought concept, and he'd nearly won.
Obito: (To the silence) Not just a Uchiha. Not just an Uzumaki. A thinker. A strategist who fights wars before they start. He doesn't just want to win a battle; he wants to make battle obsolete for his side. Pain is wrong. He is not a conditional concern. He is the architect of a world that has no place for the Infinite Tsukuyomi. A world fortified against despair… is a world that rejects our salvation entirely.
Deep Within the Earth
Black Zetsu POV –
Adhered to the rocky ceiling of a deep cavern, Black Zetsu was a pool of sentient ink, processing centuries of data. The reports from White Zetsu clones, the Akatsuki meeting, Obito's simmering fury—it all coalesced into a singular, startling, and perversely poetic revelation.
Mother's will pulsed within him, a constant, hungry directive. For millennia, he had manipulated the chakra of Indra and Asura's reincarnates, stoking their conflict, feeding the cycle of hatred to weaken the world for her return. Madara was to be the ultimate vessel, the culmination of Indra's line.
But Madara was gone. His plan was in the hands of the gullible, emotionally shattered Obito. And now, this.
Black Zetsu: (A whisper that rustled like dead leaves) Indra.
The name was not a coincidence. It was a declaration. The boy's chakra signature, as faintly gleaned from White Zetsu who'd been near Kumo before the barrier went up… it was dense. It resonated with a familiar, arrogant, creative potency. The first Indra, son of the Sage, had invented ninjutsu—the very manipulation of chakra into technique. He sought power for himself, to prove his worth, to dominate.
This new Indra… he was not inventing ninjutsu. He was inventing systems. He used his genius not for personal dominion, but for collective elevation. He created technology that multiplied the strength of his entire village. He integrated summon clans as military assets. He turned scarcity into plenty. He was, in a twisted way, fulfilling Indra's drive to shape the world through his will and genius, but his methodology was the antithesis of the lonely, hateful path. He was building a legacy not in the shadow of a brother, but in the light of a community he fiercely protected.
Black Zetsu: How… inconvenient. And fascinating.
This changed the calculus. Madara and Hashirama. Sasuke and Naruto. The eternal dance of lonely power versus collective will. But this Indra… he embodied the power of Indra's line, but channelled it through the philosophy of the sAthesura. He was a paradox. A fusion. A potential end to the cycle, not through understanding, but through obsolescence. If he succeeded in making Kumo a self-sustaining, impervious paradise, what need would its people have for a grand illusion? What hatred would fester in such a place?
He was a threat more profound than any single ninja. He threatened the very emotional fuel—the hatred, the inequality, the despair—that the Infinite Tsukuyomi was meant to cleanse and that Mother fed upon.
Black Zetsu: Obito fears him as an obstacle. Pain dismisses him as a conditional concern. They are both blind. He is not a piece on their board. He is someone who is building a new board entirely. The reincarnation cycle has produced an anomaly. A self-aware heir who rejects the narrative of isolation.
A plan began to form in his ancient, malleable mind. This Indra had to be studied. His fusion of legacies had to be understood. And ultimately, he had to be corrupted, or broken. The cycle of hatred must continue. If this Indra would not walk the path of lonely vengeance, then the path would have to be brought to him. His precious village, his beloved people… they would have to be made to betray him, or be torn from him. The perfect fortress could be doomed by a single crack within. And it was Zetsu's specialty to find, or create, such cracks.
He would watch Kumo more closely than ever. He would guide Obito's paranoia. And when the time was right, he would ensure this new, wrong Indra was reminded of his true, lonely heritage—in fire, and blood, and loss.
[System Notification: Template Update: Victor Von Doom – 34% Completed. Reason: Recognition as an existential threat to ancient, cyclical paradigms. Acknowledgment as a sovereign systems-architect by immortal-level manipulators.]
[System Notification: Warning: Host has attracted the focused attention of Black Zetsu. Threat Assessment: Cataclysmic. Objective: Preservation of the Cycle of Hatred. Host's existence and actions are now classified as a Cycle-Terminating Anomaly.]