Identity Exposed!

Suddenly, the Masked Man felt his ocular technique abruptly interrupted. His intangibility stopped!

The vortex of distorted space vanished outright, leaving him face-to-face with Kakashi, who had already closed in.

With Kakashi charging at him, it was too late to evade the Raikiri.

"Sshk!"

Kakashi's right hand punched straight through the Masked Man's heart. A massive amount of blood gushed from the wound and spilled onto the ground, covering the brownish-yellow earth beneath their feet in bizarre white blood.

The Masked Man kicked Kakashi away and darted aside, hunching over as he clutched the hole in his chest. Beneath the mask, his expression twisted slightly from the pain.

Rather than looking at Kakashi, who had pierced his heart, he stared fixedly at Senya.

This guy was the greatest threat! His ocular technique happened to seal space itself. His intangibility held no advantage before him!

Seeing the strange grayish-white bloodstains on the ground, Kakashi's expression turned grave. This guy was still alive even after his heart had been pierced!

No! The feeling had been completely wrong. It did not feel like a human body at all. Compared to flesh, it was more like some kind of plant. Even the blood resembled plant sap.

At that moment, Senya raised Qianyue, which had been pointed at the Masked Man, with a flick of his wrist. A crimson gleam flashed through his pupils.

"Tear him apart, Qianyue."

The instant the Masked Man saw Senya raise his ninja blade, he reacted immediately.

He retreated and formed hand seals with one hand.

"Wood Release—Wood Golem Wall!"

Several enormous trees burst from the earth, intertwining into a wall that shielded the Masked Man within.

"Crack! Hiss!"

As Senya slashed downward, three one-meter-long black crescent slashes shot forward, slicing through the air. The shockwave they raised tossed Senya's black hair behind him.

The Wood Release defense was as fragile as paper. The slashes broke through it and struck the Masked Man's chest.

His black robe was shredded. The gray vest, already punctured through the middle, was torn open by the slashes, and the torso beneath suffered grievous damage as well. Three bloody gashes stretched from his right shoulder to above his left ribs, with pale white bones faintly visible beneath them.

"This is..."

Kakashi looked at the Masked Man's chest wound. From the center of his torso onward, the left half of his body was no different from that of an ordinary person, but the right half was grayish-white like a tree, just like the blood on the ground. The old scar down the middle of his torso looked like one left behind by stitches.

"Obito! How could it be you?!"

Senya released Qianyue with his right hand. It instantly turned into white mist and contracted into the seal on his right hand.

"A one-eyed Mangekyō Sharingan. It seems Itachi's intelligence was correct. Combined with that ocular technique that switches between tangible and intangible, you must be Uchiha Obito. The culprit behind the Nine-Tails Attack also had a Mangekyō Sharingan. That was probably your doing too, wasn't it?"

Senya retreated to the window and sat on its sill, exposing Obito's crimes.

"Am I wrong, Uchiha Obito?"

A "kind" smile appeared on his face again as he looked at Obito before him.

The Masked Man tore the mask from his face with his right hand. With his identity exposed, there was no longer any point in wearing it. The mask had lost its purpose.

"How did you know all this?"

His tone was calm, as though none of it had anything to do with him.

Obito frowned deeply and met Senya's gaze.

Being discovered so easily simply displeased him.

Amid Kakashi's shock, the wounds on Obito's torso had already begun healing at a visible rate.

His identity had been exposed, and his plan had been interrupted by this Uchiha deputy clan head. He had to find a way to leave as soon as possible, Obito calculated inwardly.

Unfortunately, Senya's Mangekyō ocular technique was still active. Obito could still feel a force sealing the surrounding space, preventing him from using his own ocular technique.

Damn it! If he had a complete pair of Mangekyō, he might be able to forcibly break through with ocular power.

At that thought, his gaze could not help shifting toward Kakashi.

Kakashi stood frozen. Obito was actually alive, but how had he become like this? Could it be that, just as Senya said, Minato-sensei and Kushina-sensei had also been killed by Obito during the Nine-Tails Attack?

Countless questions filled Kakashi's mind before finally erupting all at once.

"Obito, since you were alive, why didn't you return to the village? Why did you become a Rogue Ninja?! Why did you kill Minato-sensei and Kushina-sensei?!"

Kakashi rushed straight at Obito. His right hand, stained with white blood, clenched into a fist and smashed viciously into Obito's face.

Obito staggered several steps back, his head snapping to one side.

"Ptoo!"

He spat out the blood in his mouth and wiped the blood from the corner of his lips with his left hand.

"If you want to call me by that name, suit yourself. It means nothing to me."

"Whether I'm alive or not doesn't matter at all."

"Heh. As for why?"

"If I had to give a reason... it's because you stood by and watched Rin die."

"You, who killed Rin with your own hands, have no right to question me anymore."

Obito's words, accompanied by that icy gaze, pierced straight through Kakashi's heart.

Rin's death appeared before his eyes once again. Kakashi raised his arm and looked at his blood-covered right hand as the scene before him began overlapping with that day.

The shadow he could never shake resurfaced, and tears slid down from the corners of his eyes.

"Yes, you're right. I killed Rin. I failed to protect my companion!"

Seeing Kakashi in such a miserable state, Senya sighed again. This won't do, Five-Five. Looks like you still haven't reached the state of mind you'll have nine years from now. You've got plenty of room to improve.

"Kakashi, Rin used your ninjutsu to kill herself because she wanted to protect the village from the Three-Tails' rampage. Don't blame yourself. Don't betray Rin's wishes."

"I'm sure Rin wouldn't want to see you like this in the afterlife."

Kakashi wiped the tears from his face with his left hand and pulled himself together once more.

He straightened up and met Obito's gaze.

"Senya, you're right. Rin was a hero of the village. I shouldn't betray Rin's wishes."

Then, his tone suddenly turned heavy. He drew a kunai with his right hand and gripped it in reverse.

"And I won't betray your will either, Obito. Even if you have now denied the beliefs you once held, I will still carry them through!"

His fighting spirit surged again as he guarded against Obito before him.

"My father's final wish, Rin's wish, and the will you once held, Obito—I will protect the village and my companions!"

The words he spoke became the strength that allowed Kakashi to rise again!

Yet Obito threw back his head and laughed wildly.

"Hahahahahahahaha!"

"Protect the village and your companions?"

"What a joke. No matter what you say, to me, you who failed to protect Rin are a fake. To me, Rin was never meant to die, so the Rin who died was just a fake too! Rin was only truly Rin when she was alive!"

"And everything that caused this was the shinobi system itself—the existence of villages and shinobi. What truly drove me into despair was this world itself! I despaired of this illusory, decaying world!"

Obito raised both hands to his chest and placed them over the hole where his heart had been pierced, roaring at Kakashi.

"Look closely! There's nothing left in my heart! I can't even feel pain anymore! I will reshape this shinobi world and change this chaotic system!"