Obito picked things up fast, I'll give him that. He was slowly starting to hold out longer than a few seconds against me, though I almost never fought for real without eating a bunch of the cakes and I wasn't doing so here. I also wasn't incinerating half the mountain and turning it to a blackened mound of glass.

It wasn't easy to train a Jounin-level Shinobi to be on par with a Kage within a matter of weeks. Still, I like to think Obito got further along than most others. He pushed himself every morning, training from dawn to dusk, and improved by leaps and bounds… literally, I mused as he bounded past yet another streak of fire I shot at him.

I had twenty shadow clones continuously using Six Suns at him, albeit at a tiny fraction of its full strength. They were merely small fireballs any Uchiha could throw. The test for Obito was the sheer volume.

He dodged, ducked, weaved in between using his Kamui, both facets of it. Some of the arrows were pulled into Kamui while midair, others passed through him harmlessly.

"Time to ramp it up!" I called out to Obito. He was still several dozen meters away, his goal being to get in melee range of me. I saw his eyes widen, as I quickly flashed through hand seals.

Water Style: Water Wall!

A towering wave of water erupted out of nowhere, covering the whole plateau and spilling over the side. It was half again as tall as I was and crashed into Obito, sending him yelping as he was washed away. I wasn't done, though, and I channelled Lightning into the water. Obito wasn't fast enough to dodge and groaned as it passed through him.

I let up only after a second. I'd kept the voltage low, so Obito should just be feeling some numbness for a few minutes.

He groaned some more as he stood back up, rubbing at his arms. "That hurt…" He muttered.

I gave him an exasperated look, "How did you not remember to phase through the water wall? It was so obviously telegraphed.

He looked to the sides and then past me sheepishly, not meeting my eyes.

"Oh." I realized, "Come on over, Rin." I said, turning to her. She had a lunch box in her hands, most likely for Obito.

I waved Obito off. "Take a break, hang out with your lady love. We'll start again later."

The training ground, a wide rocky plateau behind the Hokage Monument, was still flooded, though. I beckoned for the two of them to move behind me, and once they were, I released Wind Style: Sweeping Gale, a wide-angle, continuous wave of wind that quickly pushed the water off the opposite side of the mountain.

As Obito and Rin sat down to ate, I gave the two of them some privacy, moving away to sit at the edge of the Hokage Monument to look over the village.

Although Obito had both Mangekyo, he had yet to manifest his Susanoo. I'd asked Fugaku to look into the clan's scrolls from any historical information, but while accounts of the Susanoo were present here and there, the actual details of using it after awakening the Mangekyou were rare.

A lot of the times, it activated instinctively as a defensive mechanism. But that wouldn't work for Obito, who already had an even better defense.

"Good morning, Hokage."

Orochimaru came within milliseconds of complete incineration. I sighed and relaxed only outwardly when I recognized the Sannin.

"How the hell did you…"

Orochimaru chuckled. It was creepy. "A new stealth technique of my own devising. It's nothing too extraordinary, but it should fool most conventional senses or detection."

"I blow shit up, Orochimaru. I'm hardly a good candidate to test something like this." I replied, "Also I'm your goddamn Hokage." I punctuated the last line with some heat.

Orochimaru continued without his eyebrows. "I've made a breakthrough with the Second's technique." He didn't sound entirely satisfied with himself, however.

"Finally," I muttered, "I'll be down at your lab later."

He nodded, then craned his head to look at Obito, tongue snaking out to lick his lips. I narrowed my eyes.

"The boy doesn't stand a chance."

"He will." I said.

"You're the strongest shinobi alive, and you lost." The fact that Orochimaru had just flat out admitted I was stronger than him was drowned under what he said.

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up." I growled through clenched teeth, "You know nothing. You're valuable, but ultimately not indisposable, so do be a little more careful."

Before he could say anything else, I added, "I know you want to mess around with Obito, make him stronger by putting a curse seal or whatever on him. You won't."

"I see." Orochimaru said with uncharacteristic demureness. "I'll take your leave, Lord Hokage."

He slipped off the edge of the cliff and vanished out of sight below Tobirama's face.

I let out a long sigh. That was a bad move. I still need him. But I'd lost my temper anyway. He'd prodded a sensitive spot. Strongest in the world and can't save a single fucking person I love.

What a fucking joke.

"A-Are you okay, Lord Hokage?" Rin ventured after a few moments of quietness. The two of them weren't eating but looking at me. I realised I was still scowling and gnashing my teeth.

I wasn't.

"No. I'm not, really." I replied.

I didn't say anything more; they didn't pry any further.

After another round of training in which Rin stood by the sidelines and watched, cheering Obito on, I called him over.

"What I'm about to tell you is… not widely known. You might as well listen in, Rin." I aimed the second sentence at Rin, who had been fidgeting by the side, unsure whether to listen in or not.

"Every Mangekyo Sharingan gives its owner a set of abilities. You already have two forms of Kamui, though others with the Mangekyou would likely have different abilities. But you'll be able to unlock a third ability, the Susanoo."

Obito looked interested right away, "What's the Susanoo?"

"Imagine it as a giant spectral avatar that manifests around your body. It armours you and gives your attacks incredible range and power. Madara Uchiha's Susanoo, at full power, could cleave mountains with a single swing.

"Are you serious?" Obito said incredulously, no doubt imagining himself in the same shoes. I bit back a light chuckle. I would've liked to fight Madara at full power, instead of barging into a cave and beheading an old man with one stroke.

"What's the catch?" He asked.

I shrugged as I said, "Well, I have absolutely no idea how to go about manifesting it."

"Oh." Obito's mood dropped.

Rin added cheerfully at that, "Don't worry! I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out with the help of the lord Hokage."

"Might as well." I said as I stood up.

"Ready for round three?"

"You overstep your bounds, Son of Suns."

Elder Rabbit loomed over me. Once upon a time I might've shrunk back, but now I held my ground.

"Our bargain was that I'd shield you and this world from the Otsutsuki. I can't do that if everyone is killed by a lunatic with a fucking Rinnegan!"

The rabbit gave out something close to a sigh, turning away from me to look up at the God Tree looming beyond. It was daytime, drawing near to dusk, and the cold sun silhouetted the flower.

"Remember, the Otsutsuki will sense the Chakra emanating from your- our world. They will come for it, and when they do, they'll also discover our refuge. That must not hap-"

"I know, I know!" I cut him off, pacing around the clearing. "We don't have to argue here. I'm indebted to you for keeping Okita's body at rest, and we have our contract. You need me to make your plans come into fruition. None of us factored Tobi into our plans. So when I tell you I'm working on bringing this whole thing back on track before it gets derailed and blasted to orbit, let me do it."

The rabbit looked at me as I spoke, before turning back away.

Of course, Tobi could very well go along with your backup plan. Destroy everything, wipe out all traces of ninjutsu, minimize chakra usage so that the Otsutsuki never even notice this world.

"So, can I take more rice cakes now?"

Elder Rabbit still didn't reply. I waited for a few moments, then internally sighed, throwing up my arms.

I took a few steps away from him. Unlike the previous time I'd been here just after Tobi's first appearance, the clearing was empty. I reached the edge and took a deep breath of the cool, fresh air, positively brimming with chakra. The endless fields of rice stretched on below me, the rabbits working on it no bigger than mites at this distance.

"Your memories weren't fully clear, when you first came to us." Elder Rabbit suddenly said, "Do you remember?"

"Yeah," I answered, "You helped me unlock most of the hazy parts."

"But not all." Elder Rabbit turned around.

I turned around at the same time too, "What? But you said-" I started.

"We were able to make the… partial memories whole. But some knowledge, some memories that should've existed, simply didn't."

My eyes narrowed, "Why're you telling me this this now, and not fucking years ago?"

"It wasn't relevant before."

"These are my memories! They're not on a need-to-know basis or something, damnit!"

"There is a possibility," Elder Rabbit continued, "That there may be a hint to your adversary's identity, or a means of defeating them, in those memories."

"Ah, great," I muttered. "Time for some inner peace, maybe meditating under moonlit skies? Or a journey of self-discovery to find the truth?"

Elder Rabbit looked excited at my answer, "Precisely!"

Sighing, I replied, "Where do I start? C'mon, give me something useful here."

"Your ancestors' lives, perhaps. The ruins of Stone, where you know your father was once, or perhaps even Uzushiogakure."

"Helpful for once. Good ideas, actually. But I still need the-"

"No. Not yet, while you have other options available. You may take the allotted amount, and no more for others."

I stared Elder Rabbit down for a moment, looking right into his great red eyes. I wasn't winning here today, apparently.

"Alright." I finally gave in.

"ARE YOU SURE THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?" Konan screamed into my ear.

"RELAX! WE'LL BE FINE! IT'S JUST A BIT OF WIND AND RAIN!" I yelled back.

I could tell she was shaking her head exasperatedly. I grinned. It felt just like home.

As much a home as a rock in the middle of the sea, amidst howling torrential winds and freezing, sheets of rain could be called home. The sea around us boiled and churned in a great whirlpool, one so big across the center of the vortex was beyond the horizon. The crag we stood upon was barely holding up, and the boat that had bought us near here had almost sunk four times, before I used Hoyui's Bone: Worldshape, to raise up a five-mile long wall from the seabed itself to get us the rest of the way.

Said wall had disintegrated within moments, even though I'd put four whole cakes' worth of chakra into it, but it had been enough to get us to this point.

"So, how does it feel?" Konan asked, still shouting in my ears. I wanted to use Taker of the Skies, but I had to conserve chakra, for the first time in my life in almost a decade, because I was burning through way too many cakes, and not getting enough extra. She was fully bodied now: the winds were just too wrong for her to control any paper, making it risky to disassemble herself.

"Like homecoming. Even though I barely remember anything!" I called back, my mouth stretching wide.

I grinned as I looked down at the Ruins of Uzushiogakure.

The next arc wasn't actually present in the original conception, but only got added recently. But it should make the overall flow better. Feel free to leave a review!