To the Past?!

Chapter 4: Catching up to the Future

Obito thought hard on what had just occurred. The armored man that had led the strange group had told him a very interesting story about how the Elder Dimension was, as the name implied, the oldest one in existence, and that the Jyuubi and the Rikudou Sennin both originated from said dimension. Dokuro had then claimed that the Rikudou Sennin was the last bearer of the Elder Dimension's prize dojutsu, the Rinnegan, and deliberately split its power in two among his descendants to keep it from returning to the Elder Dimension, due to him having lost faith in its governing system. Dokuro then proceeded to explain that he was aware that Madara had been able to reunite the two halves of the power, and implanted them into a boy named Uzumaki Nagato. Then he offered to aid Obito and the organization he was going to build over the next few years in reviving the Jyuubi, and using its power for the Eye of the Moon plan.

It did not take Obito much effort to figure out what Dokuro wanted in return. "You want the Rinnegan," he had stated rather than asked. Dokuro had laughed and said that Obito was correct, though he would wait until after the Eye of the Moon was complete to take his payment, but he would expect a good faith payment as soon as Obito was finished with one of his "side projects", which Obito quickly recognized as an implication that Dokuro also knew that he was helping to stoke the Uchiha's into a revolt, and wanted Obito to provide him with Sharingan, once a few of the clan had been killed and would no longer need their eyes.

Obito had spent little time deliberating. The offer was good, for he would no longer need the Rinnegan once the genjutsu had been cast, and he was sure he could easily spare two Sharingan once the revolt had taken place, for whether or not the Uchiha won or not, there was bound to be at least a few casualties among them. If by some chance that did not occur, he could always terminate a few himself. As for what he would get in return, it was quite obvious from the aura Dokuro gave off that he would be a powerful ally, one he definitely did not want as an enemy. So he had agreed. Now he was thinking about the deal he had just struck. It seemed too good to be true, and unfortunately, that usually meant that it was.

That Dokuro was extremely shady, and Obito was sure that he was after something else entirely, and planned on using him for it. But Dokuro was too powerful for Obito to really have a hope of going up against so he would have to wait until the Akatsuki was formed and make sure he had loyal and powerful followers before he could VERY CAREFULLY plot against his new ally.

.... "I'm certain he suspects, Dokuro-sama," one of the cloaked men said to his armored master. "It is clear that he is no fool, and it is easy to deduce that you could easily take the Rinnegan yourself easily."

"Yes, but the last thing we want is to tip off the higher-ups in the world that we are here, and that the Otsutsuki clan still has a surviving member." Dokuro replied.

"If there is anything that would provoke a large reaction from them, it is the power we hold. They would send more knights than even I could handle." He laughed and continued, "So for now, we operate with and through our new pawns, discreetly gathering the pieces we need until we have our real prize within reach."

.... Minato was relieved as his paperwork neared its end. It had been two months since Kurama had attacked the village under the influence of his amnesia and the masked man. It was still a little hard to swallow the idea that he and Naruto had befriended each other, though he and Kushina both considered that to be somewhat small news compared to the whole time travel thing. The funeral service for all those who perished fighting the fox, with Hiruzen Sarotobi being one of the most mourned, had been held a week after the attack. There were many who broke the shinobi rule of not shedding tears, but Minato did not blame them at all. It was a very heavy blow to the spirits of the village.