Naruto : Akatsuki Bizzare Strategist!

The instant Obito saw Kakashi's face, his body tensed instinctively.

Then he quickly remembered that this was a digital illusion, and the Kakashi standing before him was merely a fabricated copy.

No—right now, this boy was technically designated as "Uchiha Obito."

Obito was currently Kakashi.

Having never played a video game before, Obito accepted the bizarre situation remarkably smooth, writing off the boy wearing Kakashi's face as just another NPC generated by the game.

Of course, this version of "Kakashi" was truly an NPC.

Obito was still playing on the private closed-beta test server, and he had not even left the tutorial's beginner village yet.

Whether it was the server or the village, he was currently the only actual human player logged in.

His assumption was completely correct.

"Kakashi, are you alright? Uncle Sakumo said you failed an infiltration mission, got discovered by the guards, and were beaten half to death." Rin walked over with a gentle smile and placed a fruit basket beside the bed.

"Kakashi, you're seriously pathetic. How do you fail a basic infiltration mission that badly? You've completely embarrassed Uncle White Fang."

The "Uchiha Obito" wearing Kakashi's face swaggered over, mocking him with a painfully familiar, smug expression.

After scoffing, he pulled out a small jar of ointment.

"Here. This is a special Uchiha medicine for injuries."

Obito remained completely silent, lowering his head as he absorbed the strangely nostalgic atmosphere.

His withdrawn, stoic behavior happened to match the real young Kakashi perfectly.

When "Obito" saw how deeply depressed his rival looked, he immediately stopped making fun of him.

Instead, he grabbed an apple, peeled it, and handed it over.

"Kakashi, don't you dare give up on yourself. I'll look down on you if you do!"

Those were words the real Kakashi had once said to him.

Yet, coming from this avatar, they also sounded exactly like something Obito himself would stubbornly say.

The paradox immediately snapped him back to his senses.

That's right.

How could he allow himself to become immersed in this fake, nostalgic illusion?

He had to find a tactical way to complete his quest immediately!

Unfortunately, his digital body was still badly battered from Sakumo's belt, and he could barely move.

To complete the objective, he needed a way to spend more time with the "Obito" NPC.

"Um... I can't move properly right now. Rin, could you stay tonight and help take care of me?" Obito spoke at last.

However, rather than making the request directly to "Obito," he deliberately aimed it at Rin.

"What?! Kakashi, you animal! What are you planning to do to Rin?! You want her to stay here overnight and look after you?! Y-you—!" "Obito" immediately panicked, his face flushing red with jealousy.

"Obito, Kakashi is right. He genuinely can't move, and Uncle White Fang has left on a mission. As his friends, we have a responsibility to take care of him." Rin spoke with a completely serious, innocent expression.

"We?" "Obito" blinked, then broke into a stupid, relieved grin and scratched his head.

"Oh, right! We! Heh-heh. I'll stay and take care of you too, Kakashi!"

Obito sneered internally.

As long as "Obito" remained here, there was no need to worry about him leaving.

Besides, with Kakashi bedridden, "Obito" would obviously jump at the opportunity to spend more time in the same house as Rin.

Just as expected.

Obito watched Kakashi's face scratch its head and laugh foolishly.

No one understood him better than himself.

He had merely replaced Kakashi's identity and chakra attributes within the system.

The original "Uchiha Obito" NPC still possessed Obito's exact childhood personality, even if he now looked exactly like Kakashi.

He was laughably easy to manipulate.

...

And so, several days passed.

During that time, Obito diligently worked on improving his relationship metrics with "Obito."

At the same time, he shamelessly tried to use Kakashi's handsome identity to grow closer to Rin.

After all, from his perspective, the original Rin had always been in love with Kakashi.

However, Obito discovered that although Rin showed great concern for his injuries, she politely but firmly rejected him whenever he tried to act more intimate.

What the hell did that mean?

Could Rin have actually liked him instead?

No, that didn't make any sense either.

He had never noticed anything like that back when he was himself.

After struggling with the romantic dilemma for a while, Obito decided that this was merely a fake Rin created by code, so there was no point caring about her feelings.

He returned his full attention to the quest.

...

Several more days passed.

Once his injuries had recovered slightly, Obito suddenly realized a terrifying flaw in the system's design.

Time.

The quest explicitly required him to:

[Convince a ninja of the Uchiha clan to willingly entrust you with the power of the Uchiha.]

Based on what had happened in the real world, he would need to wait at least several years before "Obito" had any reason to give him a Sharingan.

Until then, no matter how incredibly friendly he became with "Obito," all he could do was sit around and prepare for that eventual tragedy.

Could he somehow make it happen earlier? How?

First, he would have to violently lose one of his own eyes.

Then he would need to emotionally traumatize "Obito" enough to force an awakening of the Sharingan.

After that, he would have to orchestrate a scenario that placed "Obito" on the verge of death so the boy would willingly entrust the eye to Kakashi.

Originally, all those extreme conditions had been perfectly fulfilled by the brutallity of the Third Shinobi World War.

How was Obito supposed to manually trigger so many crucial, life-threatening events during a peaceful era of minor border skirmishes?

He finally understood the insidious nature of this VR game.

This was exactly how the illusion intended to permanently imprison him!

To complete the mission naturally, he had absolutely no choice but to wait for years in real-time.

And unless he was mistaken, the third quest, [Defeat Your Rival], probably referred to Kakashi decisively defeating Obito—in other words, Obito would have to definitively defeat "Uchiha Obito."

But judging by actual historical reality, Kakashi had never truly defeated him even now.

That meant completing the questline might take even longer.

Perhaps more than ten years!

How could he possibly wait that long while Hikari's system drained his chakra?!

As deep despair closed in, wicked courage rose from the darkest depths of his heart, and a highly evil idea took root.

Obito knew the fundamental principle behind Sasuke awakening the Rinnegan: Indra's reincarnation had obtained Asura's power.

In practical terms, that simply meant acquiring Naruto's cells.

In other words, surgically obtaining someone's genetic material technically counted as receiving their power.

Now, Obito knew exactly what he had to do.

Late that night, "Obito" and Rin were sound asleep in separate guest rooms.

Obito's eyes snapped open in the dark.

He sat up in bed and carefully tested his virtual body.

After several days of rest, he could finally move well enough to carry out his dark operation.

He crept quietly through the silent house and slipped into "Obito's" room.

Looking down at Kakashi's face as the boy snored loudly like a dead pig, a sinister smile slowly stretched across Obito's face.

His social advantage as the village prodigy still existed.

Only his father, Hatake Sakumo, had drastically changed his opinion of him.

Everyone else in the beginner village still believed he was the exact same disciplined, honorable Kakashi as before.

Therefore, after dinner, Obito had secretly prepared a special batch of "extra-sleepy tea" and served it to "Obito" and Rin.

While drinking it, the two innocent NPCs had even praised "Kakashi" for being so talented and thoughtful.

Soon afterward, heavy drowsiness struck, and once they fell deeply asleep, neither could be awakened by ordinary means.

So far, the master plan had proceeded perfectly!

Obito reached his hands toward Kakashi's face with pure, 'medical' intent.

In the real world, he had once surgically transferred a portion of the Hashirama cells from his own modified body into an unconscious Kakashi to prevent his former friend from going blind from Mangekyō overuse.

Now that they were trapped inside this illusion world, it was high time for Kakashi to repay the favor.

It was Kakashi's turn to give Obito his physical power!

Kakashi was currently unconscious.

If he could not physically resist, surely that counted as "willingly giving consent," right?

Obito pulled out a kunai and began carefully working on his twisted scheme.

...

Meanwhile, inside the Hokage Building...

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had become incredibly curious and deeply concerned about Kakashi's mental state after the highly disturbing rumors Sakumo had mentioned in his office previously.

So, Hiruzen pulled out his crystal ball, activated the Telescope Technique, and decided to check on the young Hatake heir in the middle of the night.

And witnessed the entire unspeakable scene.

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