The air grew heavier, more suffocating by the second.
Rain fell in endless threads, passing straight through Uchiha Obito's body and drumming infinite ripples across the lake. He stared at Orochimaru, who had only just crawled back from the edge of death, while the lone Mangekyo in his right eye turned slowly, quietly.
He did not trust Uchiha Madara.
He also harbored doubts about the so-called Ten-Tails Jinchuriki and the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan.
After using genjutsu to control the Fourth Mizukage and seize Kirigakure, he had wiped out countless ancient bloodline clans, all to dig up the hidden histories those families recorded and to seize whatever fragments they held about the Sage of Six Paths.
He never found consistent information on Infinite Tsukuyomi.
But in an old book of unknown origin, he stumbled onto an intriguing clue.
The Kaguya Clan, a lineage that had endured for a thousand years, passed down a treasure from generation to generation.
Legend said it concealed secrets of the Sage of Six Paths. If one could decipher what was recorded within, they could obtain power like a god.
At first, he dismissed it.
The shinobi world overflowed with "legendary relics" like this, and most were either delusions of the ancients or exaggerated tales that could not be taken seriously.
Exterminating the Kaguya was simply because the clan still carried rebellious intent.
Taking anything related to "Six Paths treasures" had been, at the time, merely convenient.
But after his people annihilated the clan, he read through the Kaguya's archives and discovered something startling.
The Kaguya Clan truly did share blood ties with the Sage of Six Paths.
And within those records were details about that relic's origin and strange nature.
Its name was the Bone Jade Core.
Within the clan, it was simply called the Bone Core.
Its true origin had been lost to time. All that remained was that it had been passed down from the Kaguya ancestors, circulating within the clan for a thousand years.
Its function was unknown.
Legend claimed it contained the power of the Six Paths and could cure the Kaguya Clan's bloodline disease.
For a thousand years, the Kaguya tried every method.
Blades. Fire. Crushing force.
Nothing could leave even the smallest scratch.
No one had uncovered even the slightest secret.
That was when his interest turned into obsession.
He tore through the Kaguya territory and even flipped Kirigakure upside down, yet found nothing.
Worse, sometime during that search, the genjutsu controlling the Fourth Mizukage had been quietly broken.
Later, after deeper investigation from multiple angles, Kirigakure ANBU discovered traces of snakes crawling through a sealed chamber in the Kaguya ruins.
At the time, Orochimaru had been active nearby.
Obito locked onto him immediately and had hunted him ever since.
Kisame Hoshigaki and Uchiha Itachi were the obvious pieces on the board.
He had remained hidden in the dark.
Now that both had failed one after another, he had no choice but to step onto the field personally.
"Who are you?" Orochimaru demanded, his slit pupils fixed on the unreal figure of Uchiha Obito.
The man wasn't wearing Akatsuki attire. Orochimaru was certain he had never seen this shinobi who wielded space-time ninjutsu.
"You took something you had no right to take."
Obito's gaze was ice. There was no tolerance in it at all for an Akatsuki deserter like Orochimaru.
"That's a pretty wide category," Orochimaru replied, baring a malicious smile.
"Kaguya," Obito said flatly.
Orochimaru's eyes flickered. In his gut, he could feel the round orb, neither metal nor jade, lodged inside him.
He understood immediately what Obito wanted.
Watching the whole exchange, Konome Taketori's brow lifted faintly at the familiar name.
She still remembered how meticulous Kirigakure ANBU had been when the Kaguya were wiped out.
From street gossip she had quietly listened to in the Hidden Mist, she already knew the Fourth Mizukage, meaning Obito, had exterminated the Kaguya to seize a legendary "Six Paths treasure."
So it was Orochimaru, was it?
Byakugan allowed Konome Taketori to see Orochimaru's heart hammering in his chest. As she pieced together what had happened before, her curiosity sharpened as well.
Just what was that so-called Six Paths treasure?
Orochimaru spread his hands as if innocent, his long tongue sliding across the slime on the right side of his face.
"I have no idea what you're talking abou "
Pierce!
Without warning, the Kusanagi Sword shot from his mouth like a beam.
The blade extended at terrifying speed, and in a single instant, it punched straight through Obito's head.
Itachi and Kisame both jolted.
Ryoma's side, too, was shaken by the sudden strike.
Only Konome Taketori, watching through Byakugan, reacted in time.
"Heh. Pathetic. One hit an "
Orochimaru's smug voice died in his throat.
Because the mysterious shinobi whose head had been pierced kept his cold, indifferent stare and continued charging at Orochimaru as if nothing had happened.
His body seemed to ignore gravity, ignore air resistance, ignore the wind and rain, as if he existed in another space entirely.
In the blink of an eye, he was already in front of Orochimaru.
Drip, drip.
Rain plastered his hair to his face.
Orochimaru's golden snake eyes widened. Up close, he saw it clearly.
The man's only left eye was a crimson Mangekyo.
Instinctively, Orochimaru shut his eyes at once.
But whoosh.
The wind and rain ahead twisted into a vortex, and Orochimaru's body twisted with it.
Rip.
Orochimaru tore free of his own skin, miserable and狼狈, and immediately formed hand seals.
Kusanagi Sword: Sky Great Blade!
The sword, more than ten meters long, snapped back to normal size and flew through the air, slashing at Obito.
There was no resistance.
The Kusanagi blade passed through Obito's body, slicing even the raindrops that had also pierced through him into two.
Only the vortex in front of Orochimaru began to fade.
Half of Orochimaru's shed skin was swallowed into that warped space, while the other half fell outside, a thin sheet drifting on the water.
"When his body is intangible, the outside world can't affect him," Konome Taketori said in a cool, observational tone, as if she were merely analyzing intelligence. "But in that state, he can't attack either."
Root's shinobi looked at Obito's rain-soaked hair, the fading vortex, and then at Konome Taketori's unnervingly precise "guess."
They believed her.
Even Itachi, who had been staring intently with Sharingan, gave the smallest nod.
So sharp.
Obito glanced sideways, maintaining intangibility to evade the follow-up slashes of the Sky Great Blade.
With Kamui, he could afford to split his focus like this in combat.
Another Mangekyo Sharingan.
Orochimaru clenched his teeth and kept his head lowered, refusing to meet the Mangekyo's gaze. Fingers together, he controlled the Kusanagi Sword and hacked again and again at Obito's body.
Every strike was useless.
Obito avoided the blade easily, playing with Orochimaru.
Whenever Obito closed distance, Kamui activated, and Orochimaru had to burn massive chakra using the Great Snake Substitute technique to escape the twisting space.
He was already on the verge of collapse.
Ryoma tried to join with his kikaichu, but Samehada suddenly blocked his path.
"Yato?" Konome Taketori shook the scroll in her hand. "We already got what we came for. We've helped him long enough. Orochimaru caused this mess, let him solve it. My suggestion is we leave, now."
"The mine hasn't been blown "
"You need to understand priorities."
Konome Taketori's cold words cut Ryoma off. She had too many valuables on her right now. She had no intention of gambling her life against Obito.
The Kaguya blood debt could be settled by her main body later.
This shadow clone needed to keep the bigger picture in mind.
"Right. The Lord's item comes first."
"Exactly, Captain."
Arashi and Die supported her without hesitation. Iwaguma said nothing, but his silence was agreement.
With her status as Danzo's disciple and the fact that she had killed Kisame Hoshigaki, Konome Taketori's standing among them had already risen without anyone realizing it.
After a moment's thought, Ryoma could only agree.
Akatsuki intelligence was already in his head. The exchange was done. It was time to return to Root.
Thinking of how different Danzo now was from the one in his memories, a strange discomfort spread in Ryoma's chest.
It was his fault.
If he hadn't forgotten the task Danzo had given him, Danzo would never have become what he was now.
Remembering the agreement he'd made with Itachi in the Tsukuyomi space, Ryoma's eyes hardened.
"Withdraw!"
At the order, Konome Taketori and the others moved to leave.
Orochimaru, trapped in a losing fight, saw his "allies" retreating and panic surged through him. His chakra was almost empty.
If he kept fighting this mysterious shinobi, he would die.
He weighed the costs.
Then he used substitution again to pull distance and vomited out a milky-white orb of jade-like material.
The instant he saw it, Obito recognized it.
The Bone Core, exactly as recorded in the Kaguya texts.
"So it really was you."
Obito turned intangible and surged forward, his gloved hand reaching for Orochimaru.
Orochimaru had learned Obito's method by now. His eyes sharpened, and he hurled the orb toward Konome Taketori's retreating group.
Whoosh.
The orb tore through the rain like a bullet, shooting straight for the back of Konome Taketori's head.
Obito's gaze narrowed.
He didn't even glance at the orb's trajectory.
His palm landed on Orochimaru's shoulder, and warped space spread again.
Kamui's secret was exposed.
Today, aside from Kisame, he intended to let no one here live.
Orochimaru's attempt to redirect disaster failed.
His chakra was too thin now. He could no longer sustain substitution techniques.
So he went all in.
Clang.
The Kusanagi Sword sang sharply as it extended in an instant to more than twenty meters.
One sweeping arc.
Orochimaru severed his own arm and half his shoulder to escape.
Buzz.
That arm twisted as it was sucked into Obito's space.
Orochimaru clutched his bleeding shoulder, shot Obito a cold look, and a giant purple snake burst from the water, swallowing him whole.
Pop.
Smoke spread. A faint breeze passed.
The snake and Orochimaru vanished together.
He stepped in personally, and Orochimaru still escaped.
Obito's mood darkened.
He turned to Konome Taketori and the others.
"Mmnh!"
Samehada, greedy as ever, was already behind Konome Taketori's head, its uneven fangs gnawing hard at that white orb.
Crack.
Teeth that could contend with the Kusanagi's hardness split with fractures.
Samehada shook its head and thrashed its tail in pain.
Under everyone's stare, the orb slipped from its mouth.
And vanished.
A breeze rippled the water's surface into layered patterns.
With Samehada on her shoulder, Konome Taketori slowly turned around.
White owl mask.
Orange mask.
They faced each other across the rain and water.
Root's shinobi stopped on instinct, drawing weapons as they formed up behind Konome Taketori.
Two stared coldly.
Six watched in silence.
The scene fell into a dead hush.
"Mmnh…"
Samehada licked its cracked teeth, looking deeply annoyed, completely unaware it had just caused a catastrophe.
Clouds piled thick across the sky.
The storm did not ease, as if it meant to turn Raikōzan into an ocean.
"We probably can't leave anymore," Iwaguma said, his face already turning fully into brown-yellow rock, like the Hokage Rock carved into the mountain back in Konoha.
Arashi and Die swallowed hard. Sweat seeped into their palms around their short blade and kunai, knuckles whitening from the grip.
Orochimaru's earlier fight had made Obito's space-time ninjutsu look terrifyingly flawless.
Intangibility to ignore attacks.
Movement that came and went like a ghost.
Warping absorption that ignored defense.
Offense, speed, defense, fused into an almost perfect set with no visible weakness.
What now?
Even Itachi didn't know what to do.
He stared at Ryoma, whose face was already crawling with kikaichu, and his mind raced, searching for a way to get Ryoma safely back to Konoha.
In the Tsukuyomi space, he had accidentally awakened Ryoma's memories.
Ryoma had agreed to become his spy inside Root.
If Ryoma died here to "Uchiha Madara," everything Itachi had worked for would become meaningless.
While everyone scrambled for answers, the rain fell softly, passing through Obito's body without a sound, tapping dense ripples into the water.
He's coming.
The moment they saw those ripples change, everyone realized.
That was the signal of attack.
Whoosh.
Like a ghost skimming the surface, Obito surged in.
Ryoma raised both hands in sync. The kikaichu he had prepared poured from his sleeves like a black cloud.
Secret Technique: Insect Sphere!
Step step step.
Arashi, Die, and Iwaguma stomped the water, becoming three dark streaks charging straight at the enemy.
Shuriken.
Wind saws.
Rock fists.
Insect clouds.
A chain of attacks swallowed Obito's rushing figure.
But it was useless.
Obito phased through their ninjutsu, through their bodies, stepping across space itself, and appeared in front of Konome Taketori in an instant.
The owl mask and the orange mask were almost touching.
Obito reached out, grabbing for her mask as the crimson Mangekyo twisted into a spiral.
One touch.
That was all it would take.
Behind him, Ryoma's eyes went urgent as he forced the kikaichu toward Obito.
But the insects were too slow.
They couldn't make it in time.
He could only watch as Obito's hand closed in.
Rain-soaked black fingertips finally touched Konome Taketori's forehead.
Got her.
Obito's heart lifted with triumph.
Not everyone had Orochimaru's substitution.
Once he made contact, no matter how strange their abilities were, being dragged into Kamui meant only one ending.
Death.
Then the white owl mask tilted up slowly, calmly allowing the fingers to rest at the brow.
Through the mask's eyeholes, a pitch-black void stared back.
Obito's hair stood on end.
Bzzzzzz!
A shrieking wind screamed at Obito's ear.
His crimson Mangekyo widened in shock as sharp arcs flashed in front of him again and again.
The rain threads in the sky split cleanly in two.
"Kamui!"
Obito's terrified roar tore through the storm.
Slash slash slash!
The curtain of water overhead cleaved apart.
Kikaichu were cut head from tail.
Wind spiraled around Konome Taketori at insane speed.
Chakra, denser than raindrops, erupted endlessly from her pores.
An invisible grinder.
Anything that tried to get close was shredded without mercy.
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