Intriguing.

Unexpected, but intriguing.

Orochimaru never expected Obito to use his Sharingan's special ability so soon after awakening it. The ability was latent within even the lowest level. That meant it was even more valuable than he'd originally thought.

And all that potential and intrigue had just escaped.

Orochimaru had found out quite a lot about this time's Obito, and knew half of his body was replaced by the Shodai's cells. It gave him the ability to use one of Madara's Rinnegan and control multiple revived jinchuuriki at once. Who knew what this version would be capable of, given time?

And if all that wasn't interesting enough, Orochimaru could no longer see through Naruto's eyes using the control tag. In fact, he couldn't sense Naruto at all. Even when the young jinchuuriki had gone back to the past, that had been possible. That meant they were somewhere else, somewhere entirely insulated against outside interference. Orochimaru grinned. There was so much about dimensional jutsu he still didn't know.

He lowered his hand from the half-ram seal and shifted his attention back to everyone below. Failing to find their escapees, Kimimaro had gone to calm Juugo before he added even more holes in the wall. Sasuke was still looking up, watching Orochimaru with narrowed eyes, and Suigetsu stood behind him.

"What now, Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru asked. "You followed me here, even after all the trouble you had to go through. I assume it's because of the scroll... unless there's more?"

"Aren't you going after them?" Sasuke said, voice flat.

"No. It's no use. They're out of my reach now." He paused. "In fact, I'm glad you came here. What I am most interested in now is helping you along whatever path you choose to take next—"

"Stop lying and tell me what you're really trying to do." Sasuke's voice cut harshly through the end of Orochimaru's statement. "Why would you still be in the war, unless you had something you still wanted to get out of it?"

Orochimaru sighed. "Sasuke-kun, what do I need to do to make you believe me? I'll follow whatever it is you want to do. You have my word. Would you like to go to Konoha?"

"Release the Edo Tensei."

Even Kimimaro and Juugo turned to look at him then. Sasuke gave a grim smirk. He was certain Orochimaru wouldn't give up his Uchiha army, especially while the war was still going on.

"I want their souls to return where they belong," Sasuke continued. "They aren't pawns to be used for your scheme."

"Things with Itachi must have gone well."

Sasuke just waited.

"Ah, well. It can't be helped."

Without any further stalling, Orochimaru ran through the signs, not bothering to hide them from Sasuke's carefully watching eyes. He held the last one for a second longer than the rest, then dropped his hands down by his sides.

Everyone turned and watched in disbelief as Kimimaro started glowing, a halo of light surrounding his body. Fine lines appeared and cracked open all over him.

Even he seemed surprised, looking down at his own disintegrating hands as if he could hardly believe it. He looked at Juugo and smiled as if. And very shortly, he was gone. A pile of ash and a corpse were all he left behind.

Sasuke watched with the rest, then turned back to Orochimaru without missing a beat. "How do I know you didn't just send him back, and not the others?"

"If you go aboveground, you'll find that our guards have also disappeared, and the barrier is gone," Orochimaru said, lifting his palms in a careless shrug. "I suppose you can't verify the rest without going to the battlefield, but I promise they've all been dispelled. Is there anything else?"

"Why did you summon them in the first place? The real reason this time. And what is it you want from me, and the war?"

"The Edo Tensei were helping with my project by keeping the Allied Shinobi Force distracted while my Zetsu clones collected living samples. The Zetsu are perfectly adapted for that task, and I didn't want them to be wiped out too quickly. And, I admit, I didn't want you to get here too soon, either. I still had one or two tests to finish on the Time-Spanning Incarnation jutsu before it could be considered complete."

"Do you plan to use it on me, as well? Or have you done it already?" Sasuke asked coldly, eyes narrowing.

"No, I won't. Not this time."

"What do you mean, this time?"

"If I am right, this jutsu will allow me to reach into as many times and dimensions as I want. To see into them, to influence them. And eventually, to travel to them myself. But that is something for much later. I will be staying here in this one a while, and for that, the path of the Sasuke right in front of me is much more appealing than reliving the old days. I am much more interested in seeing where you will go from here—the future, unfortunately, is something I can only view second by second as it happens."

"What about Kabuto?" Juugo asked, walking up beside Sasuke to look at Orochimaru. "Sasuke said you let him get killed. But we saw the younger version of him just a little while ago. Does that mean you want to relive training him? And what about the rest of us?"

"I have no intention of things with Kabuto going the same as before. He was just a test to see what would happen if a person died after I made a copy of them. I thought there was a chance dying meant all forms of a person in the same plane would be negated. As you saw, that didn't happen. Once brought into existence, one is completely independent from the other. That is, in fact, the most valuable thing about this jutsu."

"You let him die just for that." Juugo frowned.

"Don't look so disapproving. It had to be verified, and the least wasteful way was to use someone who was already going to die. His involvement with the war made it impossible for me to move freely while still being trapped within him. There is one method of separation that may not have have killed him, but it's not possible without outside help."

"That's still pretty harsh," Suigetsu muttered.

"Sometimes getting rid of the old, dead skin is necessary," Orochimaru mused. "That is why I want to stay here for the time being. After being trapped within Kabuto, I realized something. He imitated the way I lived and tried to possess everything, and failed. So now, I'm curious about the different path Sasuke has chosen. For now, that is why his future comes before anyone else's."

Sasuke considered this for a moment. Then he reached into his sleeve and pulled out the scroll Suigetsu and Juugo found. "Alright then. I will decide where I will go from here, after I can talk to them."

Naruto wandered around for a while, trying to figure out where he and Obito had ended up. Or at least, figure out if they were still in danger. It was difficult to tell at the moment.

On the one hand, no one else seemed to be here, and nothing was happening. On the other, he didn't see any end or escape from this dim, eerie place.

And Obito was still unconscious. It hadn't been long, but it was still worrying.

Naruto made sure not to wander too far. He was afraid of getting lost in this place where everything looked the same, and most of all, he didn't want to get separated from Obito at a time like this. After walking around several times in a circle with his friend's prone form at the center, Naruto came back and plopped down with a sigh. He crossed his arms and legs and leaned backward, trying to think of a way out of this.

Naruto.

"Ah! Huh?" Naruto jumped and lost his balance, wheeled his arms around, and nearly fell before righting himself. "Kyuubi! You scared me!"

Don't talk to me out loud. You don't know who could be around here.

"Huh? Oh, right." Naruto crossed his arms again and tried sending his thoughts the way he did before. 'So, do you know where this place is?'

We're in another dimension. I can't feel Orochimaru's connection with us anymore. I knew there had to be a reason he bothered summoning the Uchiha brat. He wants the boy's Sharingan ability.

'Wait, so you're saying... Obito brought us here?' Naruto looked at Obito, sprawled out on the floor. 'That makes sense. If he had some kind of special ability, of course Orochimaru would want in on it. But doesn't that mean we're stuck until Obito wakes up?'

Yes.

It seemed the fox wanted to say more, but he hesitated. Naruto tilted his head to the side. That definitely wasn't like him. But before Naruto could ask, the Kyuubi continued.

We might be in as much danger as we were before. I think this kid is Madara.

"What?" Naruto exclaimed aloud before he could catch himself. 'Do you have a screw loose or something? Madara is a geezer even older than the village, right? Obito knows my dad! He was on a team with Kakashi-sensei.'

I don't mean the real Uchiha Madara. I mean the one who's been going around calling himself that, hiding under a mask so no one can see what he really looks like.

'What are you talking about?'

I knew Madara. The person we met had something reminiscent of him, but he also felt different. And his teleportation jutsu felt exactly like the one this boy used. The Madara I knew couldn't do anything like that, even though he must have known all about the Nidaime Hokage's space-time jutsu.

'Just because you never saw him do it, it doesn't mean—'

The masked man is a fake. And he's the older version of this kid.

'Obito would never grow up to be that awful guy!' Naruto fumed mentally. 'If he brought us here, that means he just saved our lives, right? Even if it's the same ability—for all we know, Madara stole Obito's power for himself, just like Orochimaru is trying to do. I can see why they'd want it. But if that's the case, we need to hurry up and find out what happened, so we can save him from Madara in his own time. Now be quiet and let me concentrate.'

Inside the cage formed by the seal, Kurama lay down with his front legs crossed, affronted. His tails curled and uncurled slowly. Eye-stealing for the sake of gaining new abilities isn't uncommon among that clan. But that boy's chakra, his smell... it isn't exactly the same as the masked man, but any similarity is suspect.

'Concentrating!'

What are you trying to do?

'You said no one can reach us here from the outside, right?' Naruto shifted and settled as comfortably as possible in a meditative position. 'But maybe there's a chance we can call out instead. I'm going to try Sage Mode one more time, and see if I can call one of the Toads. There's nothing else we can do until Obito wakes up, anyway.'

Naruto lightly touched his hands together in his lap and closed his eyes. One advantage to being stuck in this place, at least, was its total silence and stillness.

The downside, of course, was there was no one here to save him if it went all wrong and he started turning into stone.

But that just meant he'd have to get it right this time, didn't it?

Naruto took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to activate his senses to detect the presence of Natural Energy. It never took long to get that part of it, but right now even that first step didn't seem to be working. He could sense some of it, but it was very faint, not anything like what he usually felt.

But maybe that was because of where they were? It didn't seem like any living thing was around.

Naruto sat collecting energy gradually, trying to mold it together with his own the way the Toads had taught him. That part of it felt much easier, but trying to get enough to balance with his own large energy was taking a long time. It was like trying to fill a tub of water from a dipping faucet. If he got impatient or let his mind wander off track, it could throw everything off.

But gradually, it was working. At least, Naruto hoped it was. The energy was moving, circulating with his own.

He could feel his features starting to transform like they did before, but he concentrated hard to stop the fear of losing control.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and saw that his hands had turned webbed, and his toes also looked comically frog-like. He slowly felt his face and could tell his cheeks and nose were pudged out, and warts grew on his skin.

But at least it didn't seem to be getting any worse? The energy inside of him was stable, more or less. It wasn't as refined as what Fukasaku said his older self could do, but it was something. This could work!

"This is it 'ttebayo," Naruto mumbled to himself. "Now then—"

"WhaaAAAH!"

Naruto felt when Obito moved, when he sat up, and was already lifting himself up and out of the way he swung a leg out at him. He jumped before he consciously realized he was moving, pushing off the ground with one hand and landing smoothly a few feet away. All the space around him was an extension of himself.

"Obito, it's just me!" Naruto straightened up. "You passed out—oh yeah, and we're in some kind of other dimension or something, and the Kyuubi thinks you're the one who brought us here."

"What the hell?" Obito demanded. "What happened to your face?"

"Oh, right. I should hurry before it goes away." Naruto bit his thumb and ran through the hand signs. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

He slammed his hand down on the ground, face scrunched in concentration. There was a puff of smoke, then an old toad appeared, fast asleep under a tiny blanket.

"Sennin jii-chan!" Naruto said in surprise; partly because it had worked, and partly because he'd actually managed to get the toad he wanted to get, even in this place.

"A toad?" Obito wondered, clamoring to his feet.

"...Huh? Wassat?" Fukasaku sat up slowly and blinked, then jumped up in a panic. "What? Naruto-chan? Ah—wait, am I dreaming?" He stopped jumping and pinched his arm.

"No, Sennin-jii," Naruto said excitedly, bending down. "Sorry for ruining your nap, but I summoned you here! And I used Sage Mode—look!" He held up his hands to show him, but they were back to normal. "Oh. I guess I used it up. But still, I did it! You can ask Obito."

"Was that why your face was all weird and puffed up? I thought you just got stung by something," Obito said.

"If that's what you thought, then why did you try to kick me?"

"I thought I was dreaming, too. I'm still not sure I'm not."

"Naruto-chan, I thought you went back to the past," Fukasaku interrupted, jumping in front of Naruto to get his attention. "Why are you here? And where is here?"

Naruto took a deep breath, then launched into it, talking very fast and making huge gestures the whole time. "It's kind of a long story. First I went back to the past, and then I saw you, which was really weird, 'cause we didn't know each other back then. But you said everyone was taking turns watching me, and Ero-sennin was trying to find out what happened. And argh, what I should have done right then was tell you what happened, but I thought there'd be time for that later, you know? Anyway, I could feel something pulling me and before I knew it, I was back in the future again, and Orochimaru had captured me and Obito. Obito's like me, he's from the past too. So Orochimaru used the stupid tag he had in me to take over my body and fight Obito to make him get his Sharingan—oh yeah, he's an Uchiha. Obito, I mean. And he did, and the Kyuubi thinks Obito brought us here into a separate dimension with his new eye powers."

"Um—" Obito started.

"What?" Fukasaku cried. "You were captured by Orochimaru? But how?"

"It's complicated. He said he was able to track me—but we escaped, so now we need to undo the jutsu in a way where he can't do that again—"

"Can we back up a second here?" Obito broke in, waving the conversation to a halt. "You keep saying I brought us here, but I don't even know where this is! What happened?"

"We can go into all that later. Sennin-jii, do you think you can get us out of here?"

"Maybe," Fukasaku said, perplexed. "I could try leaving here and bringing you two along. Does this young man not know how to get us out?"

"I don't know where this is, or how we got here. I guess it could have been me, but I don't know how to undo it. Why does the Kyuubi think it was me?" Obito asked Naruto curiously.

"He's really old and knows a lot of stuff. I was kind of out of it at the time, but I guess he could still see what happened," Naruto said. He didn't want to bring up the fox's accusations about Obito's identity just yet. He didn't know how to approach the topic, and it didn't matter while they were stuck in here, anyway. "But you having some kind of special ability would explain why Orochimaru decided to bring you here. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"You know..." Fukasaku said slowly, looking at Obito. "I feel like I've seen you somewhere before."

"Huh? I don't remember you, old man toad. Sorry. Oh! Minato-sensei had toad summons. Maybe he called you on a mission sometime."

"Ah! That's right! You were on Minato-chan's team!" Fukasaku clapped a fist in his palm. But then his wide smile of realization faded, and he looked deeply confused and concerned. "But wait, that doesn't seem right... I could have sworn..."

"What is it? Do you know something about me?" Obito asked, crouching down quickly to stare at Fukasaku.

"I thought..." the toad looked at Naruto then back at Obito. "My memory could be going here, but I thought you died a long time ago. Minato-chan didn't show it much, but we could tell he took it hard. They all did."

"But—what?" Obito stood up, rubbing his hands through his hair in frustration. "I'm not dead! Orochimaru basically confirmed I wasn't like one of those Edo Tensei zombies! What happened to me?" he demanded.

"Was it the Uchiha Massacre?" Naruto put in, hovering intently over the toad.

"I'm sorry, I never knew much about it," Fukasaku said, disconcerted. "Minato-chan and I didn't work together very often, because Jiraiya-chan often needed my help during the war. I only remember seeing his team once, and he came to visit Mount Myoboku shortly after... they thought you were dead. I know that much for sure. It couldn't have been the Massacre, because that was long after Minato-chan died."

"None of this makes any sense!" Obito muttered.

"When I first came here, there was a lot of confusing stuff I didn't understand, either," Naruto told him. "I eventually figured it out. We'll figure this out, too. We just need to leave this place and find Kakashi-sensei. If anyone can tell us what happened, it's him. Whatever happened, you can stop it when you get back. You can't give up, not as long as you have the chance to change things."

"Yeah," Obito agreed, clenching his fists. "Sennin-jii, can you get us out of here? I really don't know how to do it."

"I can get myself out, but I don't know about the two of you. I doubt I could sense you if I left, so I'd have to transport us all at once. It may not work. But, I'll do what Naruto-chan did, and try it using Sage Mode."

Obito and Naruto swapped looks as Fukasaku settled down to meditate. Naruto was glad his idea had at least a chance of working, but he could tell Obito was worried. Who could blame him?

Once they made it out, they had to get to the bottom of what happened, and why he no longer seemed to be around.

They appeared on Mount Myoboku in a forest of brightly-colored stalks bursting with vibrancy and life. The contrast to the pale, dead world they'd come from was almost as disorienting as the trip itself. Obito and Naruto both lost their balance upon arriving, and Fukasaku completely flopped over, breathing heavily.

"Are you alright, Sennin-jii?" Obito asked, helping him sit up.

"Thank you. That was harder than I thought it would be. I doubt any of the younger ones could have done it," Fukasaku said wearily.

"This isn't anywhere near the battlefield!" Naruto said, leaning on a stalk to regain his balance. "How are we supposed to catch up with everything that's going on in the war? Plus, we need to find Kakashi-sensei and talk to him."

"It had to be here, otherwise it wouldn't have worked," Fukasaku said, a rare note of aggravation in his tone. "Besides, I don't think you two should go anywhere near the battlefield. From what we've heard, things have gotten extremely dangerous out there. No one will be able to protect you, and I doubt anyone has time to talk. I am sorry, but maybe it's best you stay here until it's all over."

Naruto pushed off from the stalk and bent down to Fukasaku's height. "J-just hold on a second. Me and Obito don't have time to wait 'till the war is over! I bet we can handle ourselves just as well as lots of those shinobi out there. We're strong, and our new bodies are practically indestructible! Plus, I can use Sage Mode now."

Suddenly, a small toad wearing goggles and a harness jumped down between them. It croaked loudly, inflating its neck in a way that seemed particularly urgent.

"Oh? What is this?" Fukasaku took the scroll from the harness the messenger toad was wearing. It saluted and poofed away. He unrolled the scroll and skimmed over its contents quickly, eyes widening. "I—I can't believe it. The Edo Tensei has been undone! The Edo-Uchiha and the others are gone!"

Fukasaku and Naruto both turned to look at Obito, who looked just as surprised. "I guess that proves I'm really not one of them?"

"It seems that way. But I don't understand how this could have happened so suddenly. Unless you boys' escape from Orochimaru had something to do with it?"

"It was Sasuke," Naruto said resolutely. "He showed up right before we left. I bet he beat up Orochimaru and made him undo the Edo Tensei!"

"Ah... hm," Fukasaku cleared his throat. "I don't know if that's the case or not, but either way, the disappearance of all the Edo Tensei should be a great help to the Allied Shinobi Force."

"That's even more reason to let us go out there! Besides, even if you say no, we'll find a way to leave this mountain ourselves. Right?" Naruto looked at Obito.

Fukasaku crossed his arms. "You can try leaving if you want to. It'll take you months to get there, even if you figure out the right way to go."

"Sennin-jii, we can handle it," Obito chimed in. "Listen, if I'm going to die or whatever when I get back home, I need to find out how and when. And Naruto says our real bodies are still back where we came from, and he was put up in the hospital when he went back. There's a good chance we might die anyway if we don't make it home in time!"

"Hmm. That may be true. Alright. l'll take you there... if Naruto-chan shows me he can consistently enter Sage Mode."

"Haha, yes!" Naruto jumped up and punched the air. "This should be a piece of cake!"

Only it wasn't. To Naruto's immense frustration and disappointment, going into Sage Mode in the regular world was a lot harder than it had been in Obito's dimension.

He wanted to hurry and get past this so they could leave, but his impatience only made things worse. The Mode was not something that could be forced or rushed. He hated that they had run into yet another roadblock, and he hated that his older self had mastered this in a fraction of the time.

He could do the first step perfectly on every attempt, but it was still very hard to control the massive amount of energy that was drawn toward him. He could tell it would make him very powerful once he got a hold of it. The problem was getting there.

It didn't take long before Obito got bored of watching Naruto and Fukasaku train, and decided to do some training of his own while they were stuck here. He was eager to test his new Sharingan, and he wanted to figure out how to reach that other-space whenever he wanted. And after hearing he was Minato's student, the Toads were happy to spar with him.

Naruto and Obito both thought they would be leaving the mountain quickly, but they ended up staying and training until the shadows grew long.

"Y'know, Gamaden, this is actually pretty fun," Obito said, flopping backward onto the grass. They had been sparring all evening, and he'd long since discarded his jacket, but he stubbornly kept the goggles on no matter how much they made his face sweat. "When I get back home, I wonder if I could convince Minato-sensei to let me join the contract for the Toads. What do you think?"

"That would be up to him and the Boss," Gamaden said, leaning back under the shade of a leaf. "Minato was good though, really impressive for a human. We all watched his fight with the Kyuubi—Boss was in that fight too, so we all wanted to see what would happen. If you plan on saving him, you've got my vote."

Obito sat up, face set in determination. "I will. Even if I can't think of any way to stop it, I'm sure he'll know what to do once I warn him about it. Or if I never figure out what happened to me. I guess you don't know anything about it either, do you?"

"No, I don't. Sorry, kid."

Obito leaned back again with a sigh, putting his hands behind his head and frowning up at the strangely colorful sky hanging over the mountain.