Temari felt her fists clench.
She couldn't understand how the graceful young master from the Chunin Exams had turned into a mad dog biting everyone he saw.
It wasn't just her... the representatives of the Four Great Ninja Villages were all glaring at Sasuke.
This bastard was truly hateful.
The Konoha's representatives were sweating nervously. Their Hokage was far too ferocious. He had thoroughly offended the Four Great Ninja Villages right off the bat. Would they be attacked by the angry alliance of the four villages?
Just as the atmosphere was tense, on the verge of eruption, the space at the center of the hall suddenly and without warning began to twist.
"Is that Space-Time Ninjutsu?"
"Careful! Enemy!"
"Protect the Kage!"
The guards from each nation instantly became alert, protecting their respective Kage. Weapons were drawn, Chakra surged.
Under everyone's puzzled and uncertain gazes, a figure wearing a long black robe with red clouds and a spiral mask on his face, as if stepping out from another dimension, slowly descended from the spatial vortex.
He steadied himself. His sole exposed scarlet Sharingan coldly swept over those present, finally fixing on Sasuke with undisguised malice.
"War is coming. This hypocritical peace, this world filled with hatred, is ripe for an end."
He raised his chin slightly, as if proclaiming a divine decree: "I, Uchiha Madara, hereby declare that the Fourth Great Ninja War has officially begun!"
These words struck like thunder.
'Uchiha Madara?'
'The legendary Ninja who was as renowned as the First Hokage, who ended the Warring States period, and later defected from Konoha? Wasn't he dead long ago?'
Shock, fear, and disbelief spread like a plague through everyone's hearts.
Even the four Kage, who had been furious moments before, temporarily suppressed their anger and looked with utmost gravity at this uninvited guest claiming to be 'Madara'.
'If it truly was Uchiha Madara, his threat would be far greater than the Akatsuki's.'
However, just as everyone was reeling from the appearance of 'Madara', Sasuke spoke again.
"Tch. How dare you, a defeated opponent, show your face before me?"
Obito's body stiffened almost imperceptibly. His eye beneath the mask instantly turned dark and fierce.
The others looked at Sasuke in shock, 'Defeated opponent?'
'Uchiha Sasuke had defeated Uchiha Madara? How was that possible?'
Ignoring their reactions, Sasuke continued in that mocking tone: "I've already investigated thoroughly. You are not Uchiha Madara."
"You are Uchiha Obito. A pathetic simp who couldn't get the girl and wants to drag the whole world down with him. A mad dog, scum, degenerate, the worst among beasts!"
"..."
The entire hall fell into another deathly silence.
But this silence was different from the shock of 'Madara's' appearance moments ago.
This time, they were rendered speechless by Sasuke's relentless, vicious, borderline malicious tirade.
"Simp? Mad dog?"
"Scum? Degenerate?"
"The worst among beasts?"
Even the Raikage and Tsuchikage, who had been burning with anger just moments before, couldn't help but twitch their mouths. They thought to themselves, 'It seems that kid was actually holding back when he was scolding us earlier?'
But they had to admit... hearing Sasuke use such 'refreshingly unconventional' yet precise and ruthless language to curse this 'Uchiha Madara', who was threatening them with war, was oddly satisfying.
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Obito suddenly roared. "I am Uchiha Madara! I don't know any Uchiha Obito you speak of!"
Sasuke sneered: "You can't even admit who you are. No wonder Nohara Rin liked Kakashi."
"Shut up! Don't you dare mention Rin and that bastard Kakashi in front of me!" Obito instantly lost it, letting out a nearly insane roar.
Hearing these words, which were essentially a self-exposure, Kakashi from the Konoha delegation was utterly shocked: "Obito? You're really Obito?"
With things as they were, Obito no longer tried to hide.
He reached up and removed his mask, revealing a face half-covered in ghastly scars.
"Hah." A twisted, neurotic smile appeared on Obito's face. "Kakashi, didn't expect this, did you? I crawled back from hell..."
Before he could finish, Sasuke rudely interrupted: "Uchiha Obito, I ask you: were you the one behind the Nine-Tails Incident fifteen years ago and the Uchiha Massacre eight years ago?"
Kakashi's eyes widened, while Naruto froze.
The other Kage and their guards were inwardly horrified, 'The Nine-Tails Incident? The Uchiha Massacre? This Uchiha Obito was responsible for those?'
Obito had been annoyed by Sasuke interrupting him, but upon hearing Sasuke mention his 'masterpieces', he became excited.
"Oh? You managed to figure that out? Uchiha Sasuke, I've underestimated you."
"Why?" Kakashi couldn't help stepping forward, his voice hoarse, filled with pain and confusion. "Obito! Why did you do it? Minato-sensei, he..."
"Namikaze Minato?" Obito suddenly cut off Kakashi, his voice rising sharply, filled with bitter resentment. "It's all that useless fool's fault!"
"What kind of [Yellow Flash] is he? He couldn't even protect Rin, yet he had the nerve to be Hokage?"
"I wanted revenge! To make him taste the pain of losing everything!"
Kakashi was silent for a moment, then couldn't help asking: "Even if you blame Minato-sensei, what about Kushina-san? She always cared for us, looked after us. What was her fault?"
Mentioning Kushina, a flicker of struggle passed through Obito's eyes, but he still said: "I do feel a bit sorry for her. But she was Namikaze Minato's woman. That is her greatest sin!"
Sasuke's expression remained impassive as he continued his questioning: "And what about the Uchiha Clan? Though you were just a peripheral figure in the Uchiha Clan, from what I know, the clan never shorted your parents' pension."
"Even though you, the dead last, dragged down the Uchiha Clan's average, no one in the clan targeted you, ostracized you. Why did you drag them into hell as well?"
Obito said calmly: "Because I want to create a world with Rin. This path is inevitably filled with difficulties and obstacles. So, I need some trump cards."
"And these trump cards are their Sharingan, to be used for the Izanagi."
Those present felt a chill run down their spines.
'Mad dog. This Uchiha Obito was a true mad dog.'
'Because his teacher failed to save the girl he secretly loved, he wanted to kill his teacher's entire family.'
'Because he needed 'trump cards', he drove or even participated in the massacre of his own clan.'
This was beyond description as 'antisocial'. This was a demon in human skin, through and through.
Even the most violent Raikage, as he looked at Obito, his eyes were filled with unbelievable horror and disgust.
Even Ninja, who had very low moral standards, felt that this man named Uchiha Obito was a moral black hole.
They now thought Sasuke had been too lenient with his insults.