The Dropped Mask, The Revealed True Face!

The vines' attack all landed on empty space!

Each vine passed through the Mysterious Masked Man's body as if passing through air, unable to harm him even slightly!

Akihara Kagura's Wood Style Ninjutsu was completely ineffective against the Mysterious Masked Man!

The Mangekyo Sharingan possessed by the Mysterious Masked Man granted him the ability to phase through attacks, allowing him to evade any assault and giving him an almost innate advantage in battle!

"Are you trying to hold out and wait for reinforcements with this method?"

The Mysterious Masked Man ignored the vines passing through his body and charged towards Akihara Kagura: "Brat, Konoha's people are always late. Before they arrive, I'll capture you first, so the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki doesn't face danger again!"

"Aren't you the biggest danger?"

Akihara Kagura brought his fingers together at his chest, and a vine emerged from beneath his feet, pulling his body back rapidly!

Even though Akihara Kagura knew the Mysterious Masked Man's weakness, it wasn't easy to counter his ability. This was because the masked man wouldn't stand still to be attacked; he could use his phasing ability to rush over and grab him!

The Mysterious Masked Man landed in mid-air, grabbed the retreating vine with one hand, and his right eye spun rapidly, instantly creating a spatial vortex!

The vine was rapidly pulled into the space!

Akihara Kagura's body was also involuntarily dragged towards the Mysterious Masked Man. If he were caught, he would be at the mercy of his opponent!

However...

This was also an opportunity!

When the Mysterious Masked Man used his spatial eye technique to absorb an object, his body would revert from its phased state to its physical form!

Akihara Kagura quickly condensed a wood spike and threw it at the Mysterious Masked Man, but it only forced the masked man to abandon absorbing the vine and re-enter his phased state!

"This is really troublesome..."

Akihara Kagura's brow furrowed.

Without spatial techniques, it was indeed quite troublesome to deal with the Mysterious Masked Man. He could only try to set some traps. After all, the most important aspect of the masked man's eye technique was space. If he could hide a clone in the masked man's space...

"Under the disparity in strength, one can only experience the cruelty of reality."

The Mysterious Masked Man's body charged towards Akihara Kagura once more, coldly stating, "No matter how you resist, it will ultimately be a futile struggle..."

"It doesn't matter."

Akihara Kagura took a deep breath, as if reigniting his fighting spirit, but spoke with a somewhat dejected tone: "I just need to stall until reinforcements arrive..."

Akihara Kagura seemed to want to muster more energy: "As long as Captain Kakashi arrives soon, everything will get better..."

"Hmph, Kakashi is just a piece of trash!"

The Mysterious Masked Man scoffed, as if the name ignited his anger: "In this desperate reality, that trash Kakashi can't change anything!"

"..."

Akihara Kagura ignored him and simply formed hand seals with his fingers.

Vines rapidly grew from the ground, spiraling and intertwining to form a giant sphere, and Akihara Kagura hid his body within the center of the vines!

"Wood Style: Wood Clone!"

Using the vines as cover, Akihara Kagura quickly created a wood clone. Compared to other clone techniques, the wood clone was almost on par with the shadow clone technique and could also be used for offense!

"Brat, do you think you can escape by hiding inside?"

The Mysterious Masked Man extended his palm and placed it on the giant vine sphere, his Mangekyo Sharingan spinning rapidly as his spatial eye technique activated swiftly!

Ordinary ninjas might not have any way to deal with Akihara Kagura's defense, but for the Mysterious Masked Man, Akihara Kagura's actions were no different from an ostrich burying its head in the sand to hide; it was merely deceiving himself!

Searching within the vines might waste time, so the Mysterious Masked Man decided to absorb the entire vine sphere, along with Akihara Kagura inside, into his space!

The giant vine sphere was completely absorbed by the Mysterious Masked Man!

"Plan complete."

The Mysterious Masked Man casually scanned the battlefield, glancing at Naruto Uzumaki, who was still pinned to the ground, and then at Akihara Kagura standing beside Naruto Uzumaki.

Huh?

Akihara Kagura?

Didn't this brat get sucked into his space along with the vine sphere?

The Mysterious Masked Man's eyes widened abruptly. He began to doubt what he had just done. When did this brat escape to Naruto Uzumaki's side!

"I told you..."

Akihara Kagura chuckled lightly, his gaze fixed on a leaping figure in the distance: "I just need to stall for time, stall until the reinforcements arrive..."

A white-haired ninja wearing a mask was leaping towards them from afar, and other Anbu ninjas were also rapidly closing in. Reinforcements were about to arrive!

"Hmph, what can one piece of trash do?"

The Mysterious Masked Man spoke defiantly, but the Mangekyo Sharingan in his eye socket was spinning rapidly, intending to escape by absorbing himself into his space!

Since Kakashi Hatake had arrived, Akihara Kagura shouldn't dare to harm the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. He would let this brat Akihara Kagura off the hook this time!

Just three seconds...

The Mysterious Masked Man could use his space-time ocular jutsu to escape!

Bang!

A vine from the ground stopped his movement!

"When I saw you just now, you needed three seconds to appear using your space-time ocular jutsu, and I only managed to hit your body with my 'Cane Insertion Technique' because of that. I'm guessing you need at least three seconds to absorb yourself and escape using your space-time ocular jutsu?"

Akihara Kagura held a finger to his chest, a devilish grin in his eyes. "My Wood Release only needs one hand seal, and the jutsu activation takes at most one second..."

"..."

The Mysterious Masked Man realized there was a problem for the first time.

This brat wasn't as bloodthirsty and reckless as he'd imagined. He actually paid attention to such small details, and he had even found one of his weaknesses!

"Don't rush to leave..."

Akihara Kagura looked at the Mysterious Masked Man and said with a smile, "Didn't you say Captain Kakashi was trash? When I was under Lord Danzō, I always wanted to kill him. Can you help me kill him?"

After Akihara Kagura finished speaking, without waiting for the Mysterious Masked Man's reply, he shouted loudly at the charging Kakashi Hatake, "Captain Kakashi, there's an intruder here who infiltrated the village and is trying to kill Naruto. Please hurry and help!"

"This brat..."

The Mysterious Masked Man cursed under his breath.

It was this brat who wanted to kill Naruto Uzumaki, and he had appeared here to prevent the Nine-Tails from dying!

However...

Kakashi Hatake wouldn't care about any of that!

Hearing that someone was trying to kill Naruto Uzumaki, Kakashi Hatake's mood suddenly became tense. He immediately spotted the Mysterious Masked Man!

"Who's there?"

Kakashi Hatake charged rapidly towards the Mysterious Masked Man, reaching out to grab the mask on his face, wanting to see who the person was!

The Mysterious Masked Man's body instantly phased out!

Kakashi Hatake's hand grasped empty air!

However, the most bizarre scene occurred. The Mysterious Masked Man, who had clearly dodged the attack, had his eyes widen involuntarily, as if he had seen something terrifying!

Within a strange space.

Every time the Mysterious Masked Man phased his body out, a part of his body or his entire physical form would appear in this space. All the items, including enemies, that he had absorbed with his ocular jutsu were also placed in this space.

For example, a sphere wrapped in vines.

For example, a Wood Clone hiding within the sphere.

When the Mysterious Masked Man phased out to face Kakashi's attack, his head appeared in the Kamui dimension!

Akihara Kagura's Wood Clone stood in front of the Mysterious Masked Man's head. Ignoring the terrified eyes on the head, it forcefully pulled off his mask!

In the real world.

The Mysterious Masked Man's mask suddenly disappeared!

It was as if it had been forcefully yanked off!

Kakashi Hatake was still somewhat surprised that his hand had missed, but then he saw the opponent's mask suddenly fall off. He had already seen the Mysterious Masked Man's true face!

"You are..."

Second update!

It's fallen off!

My book, and it hasn't even blown up the Kamui dimension yet!