He dodged it...?
His wide eyes, almost filled with emerald-green flames, slowly widened further. Amid the weakening wind and sand, a strand of hair drifted lightly past those eyes, unable to conceal their shock, then floated past the cheek of the figure who had leaped up and swept out with his Ninja Sword, carried away with the wind, sand, fading sword light, and shattered rock.
Looking at the Masked Man, whose body was bent sideways at an almost twisted ninety-degree angle, Chiba's movements nearly froze.
His eyes, face, and entire body radiated shock.
Just moments ago, he had swung Sparrow Flash horizontally. The three-pronged attack had perfectly cut off every route of escape for the Masked Man. Yet at that critical moment, the Masked Man, whose body was restricted and who had lost his balance from the momentum of his own twist, already toppling sideways, had used that sideways tilt to suddenly duck. Chiba's sword light skimmed past the back of his cloak, severing every rock spike thrusting toward them! He had actually... just dodged? Yet what truly astonished and horrified Chiba was not Obito's almost miraculous duck at that critical moment, nor that razor-thin evasion. It was the fact that he had dodged at all.
To be honest, though the three attacks appeared seamless, Chiba, as the attacker, knew that Sparrow Flash had been half a beat too slow. It had not connected perfectly with the Rock Spikes' attack, while the Headhunter Jutsu had been slightly too early. It should have restricted Obito's evasive movements only after Obito had made a certain evasive motion, when his body could no longer adjust. Only then could it have linked properly with the Rock Spikes and Sparrow Flash.
In fact, according to Chiba's plan, the three attacks were not supposed to activate