Having settled matters with Nagato and the Akatsuki, Obito was not idle either, and he decided to take care of a few things before Orochimaru produced any results.
Life cannot do without clothing, food, shelter, and travel, and the world of Naruto was no different.
For clothing Obito had no particular preferences, and the black robe left behind by Madara suited his aesthetic just fine.
For travel he had Kamui, something that not even the lightning trains of the post-Hokage era could match.
His living situation was passable enough. There were beds in the underground base, and a group of White Zetsu to keep him company so it was not dull at all. The only thing missing was a woman, the kind with body warmth who could move on her own.
As for food, thanks to the First Hokage's cells, he could survive without eating anything.
But just because eating was not necessary did not mean he had no desire to eat.
For instance, he had always wanted to taste the legendary Ichiraku Ramen.
Unfortunately, there was no money. Among Madara's inheritance there were his weapons, his jutsu, and even the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, but money was the one thing conspicuously absent.
This was perfectly understandable. After all, Madara was a man who had long since removed himself from worldly life and devoted everything to the Eye of the Moon Plan, having lost all interest in the pleasures of the mortal world, so he had no need for money.
But Obito was different.
Some might ask: with Obito's abilities, what would it matter if he ate and did not pay, or simply took whatever he wanted since no one could stop him? But bullying ordinary civilians was not Obito's style.
So he needed money, and since he had none, he would have to earn some.
The methods by which a ninja could earn money were quite varied.
The lowest approach was to become a highway bandit or robber, preying on ordinary civilians and traveling merchants. Obito would naturally not consider this.
A step above that was being hired by individuals or organizations to protect specific persons or assassinate designated targets. Obito did not care for this either, since working for someone meant having to answer to them, which conflicted with the freedom he valued.
Then there was serving a ninja village and collecting mission pay. Obito was not considering this for now either.
Although he was fully capable of officially returning to Konoha under the identity of Uchiha Obito, he did not want to form ties that ran too deep with the people of Konoha, since what he was scheming would inevitably bring him into friction and even conflict with Konoha, and unnecessary bonds would only tie his hands when the time came to act.
He had once been indecisive, but in the world of Naruto he wanted only to press forward toward his goal with unwavering determination. In a certain sense his ninja way was aligned with Naruto's.
So he decided to adopt the earning method used by Kakuzu!
Hunt the ninja listed on the bounty registry and exchange them at the exchange house for a large sum of reward money!
At the Valley of the End, the waterfall cascaded down as Obito sat atop the statue of the First Hokage.
Glug glug glug. White Zetsu burrowed out from a nearby rock.
"Found it?"
Obito asked.
"Honestly, you really have too much time on your hands, looking for something this random."
White Zetsu grumbled as he placed a copy of the Bounty Registry beside Obito.
Obito picked it up and began leafing through it.
The registry was organized by the major ninja villages, with entries ranked in order of bounty amount.
Following the principle of proximity, Obito opened the Konoha ninja bounty listings.
Any ninja who made it onto the bounty registry necessarily had a certain level of ability, as ordinary genin and chūnin were not qualified.
At minimum they were of special jōnin rank, or were rogue ninja who posed a genuine threat.
Additionally, the bounty on most ninja fell between five million and ten million ryō.
Any ninja with a bounty exceeding ten million was either considerably powerful or rated as particularly dangerous.
Kabuto, Konoha spy, rogue ninja, bounty: ten million ryō.
Obito skipped over him and turned to the next page.
Hatake Kakashi, son of the White Fang, Konoha jōnin, bounty: thirteen million ryō, though the number thirteen million had a red strikethrough over it, revised down to eleven million ryō.
"Oh? Kakashi's bounty has dropped by two million ryō."
"That is thanks to you."
"Ah."
Right. The first thing Obito had done after crossing over was to take out Kakashi's eye, which had inevitably reduced Kakashi's value in the eyes of those who placed the bounty.
But thinking about it in the long run, Kakashi without the Sharingan had greater potential for development. His natural chakra reserves were not large to begin with, and acquiring the Sharingan partway through had forcibly redirected his growth, which undeniably placed a significant limit on his original potential. As the son of Konoha's White Fang, specializing in the secret techniques his father had left behind, there was no reason Kakashi could not reach Kage-level strength.
Obito turned the page again.
Sarutobi Asuma, Konoha jōnin, son of the Third Hokage, bounty: fifteen million ryō.
'I recall that Asuma's bounty at his peak was thirty-five million ryō, though that must have been after he became one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja.'
Obito murmured and continued flipping.
From there he found the bounty listings of nearly everyone in Konoha, including the elite jōnin, the Legendary Sannin, and even the Third and Fourth Hokage.
Akimichi Chōza, Yamanaka Inoshi, Nara Shikaku: the Konoha Ino-Shika-Chō trio, with bounties of twenty million, twenty-five million, and twenty-eight million respectively, roughly consistent with their strength.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru: the three Sannin's bounties were roughly comparable at fifty million, fifty-two million, and fifty-five million, with Orochimaru's being slightly higher, likely due to his reputation for dangerous experimentation.
As for the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi and the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, their bounties were sixty-six million and seventy-seven million respectively.
The strength of the Third at his peak was not beneath that of a young Minato, and the large difference was likely due to Hiruzen's gentle manner of conduct and his relatively small number of enemies.
These figures were already regulars in the bounty registry, with their amounts sitting there year after year with no one able to collect them, since anyone who tried would have to carefully weigh their own strength first.
Obito flipped to the final section of the Konoha listings and suddenly noticed a freshly added page that had not been there before.
"Hmm???"
Upon seeing it, his expression turned strange.
Uchiha Raito. True identity unknown. Assisted rogue Rain-nin, enabled their escape from pursuit by Amegakure leader Hanzō. Strength acknowledged by Hanzō, who regarded him as a ninja of equal standing.
Bounty: eighty million ryō.
Photograph: unavailable.
Abilities: unknown.
"This news leaked awfully fast."
Obito murmured.
Hanzō had truly been a man of his word. He had said Raito's name would spread across the five great nations, and it had happened even faster than expected.
"Quite a few ninja are already asking around about you, including the Anbu of the five great nations."
White Zetsu said from nearby.
"It does not matter. Any enemy that stands in the way of my path has only one fate, and that is death."
Obito said with cold indifference.
"So who is today's unlucky one?"
White Zetsu said with a teasing tone.
Obito thought for a moment, flipped back a few pages, and tapped his finger on a name: "This one."
Hokusuke. The face in this ninja's photo looked particularly vicious. A Konoha rogue ninja, bounty: sixteen million ryō.
"Oh, that guy. He was a Konoha jōnin by origin. One month ago he failed to assassinate the Daimyō of the Land of Fire and defected from Konoha. Right now Konoha's Anbu are hunting him."
White Zetsu said.
"Where is he?"
Obito asked.
"Lucky for you, he is in a forest not far from here, in a location you marked previously."
Spiral Zetsu said.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let us go collect those sixteen million ryō."
Swoosh! Obito vanished into the swirling vortex of Kamui.