I'm Not the Fourth Hokage!

"Did you need something from me?"

A deep voice sounded behind Obito.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

The crimson Great Fireball surrounded Obito, but Kazuna imperceptibly frowned and pushed off the ground, retreating swiftly.

As if passing through empty space, Obito walked out of the flames and stared coldly at Kazuna.

"You knew I'd be waiting for you here?"

"No." Kazuna spread his hands. "But I knew this trip outside the village was destined to be anything but peaceful, so I prepared plenty of gifts for you. Enough to make every one of you grin like an idiot."

Thinking of the Shadow Clone and Explosive Tags from earlier, Obito was so furious his lungs felt ready to burst.

The other party's timing had been perfect—precisely the instant he had let his guard down.

He had nearly been blown to pieces by those dozens of Explosive Tags.

That had not seemed like the Sharingan at all. It had seemed more like... the Mangekyo!

Obito's pupil contracted as he quickly calmed down, his single eye fixed firmly on Kazuna.

Sure enough, Kazuna was no longer using the Sharingan. He had already switched to the Mangekyo!

"The Mangekyo!? You've been using the Mangekyo all this time?"

Obito narrowed his eye, staring at Kazuna with a gloomy voice.

"What? Is that not allowed?" Kazuna said teasingly. "That strange technique you used to evade my flames and Explosive Tags just now—wasn't that the Mangekyo's power?"

"Hmph!"

Obito snorted and said nothing more, unwilling to expose any information about himself.

He took out two chains and fastened one around each wrist. "Uchiha Kazuna, I'll give you one chance. Submit to me!"

Kazuna sneered. "How much did you drink to get this wasted? You think having one eye makes you hot shit?"

"Ha!"

Obito charged at Kazuna.

With a flick of his wrist, Kazuna sent a Kunai flying, then closed in on Obito himself.

Obito phased his body, allowing the Kunai to pass through his head as he reached out to grab Kazuna.

Pfft!

Facing the oncoming Obito, Kazuna spewed a mass of blood flames from his mouth, which once again passed through Obito's body.

Obito's hand also passed through Kazuna's body.

Their bodies crossed through one another.

Clatter, clatter!

The chains behind Obito lashed toward Kazuna.

Kazuna merely glanced at them and casually blew out a stream of blood flames.

The iron chains melted instantly.

Looking at the chain broken into two pieces, Obito frowned slightly. "Blood flames? Is this a Kekkei Genkai?"

Had the Uchiha, aside from the Sharingan, developed another Kekkei Genkai?

A clan that was already powerful was truly about to become a clan of Monsters.

Kazuna planted his hands on his hips and grinned smugly. "Jealous?"

"Jealous? Of what?" Obito sneered. "Kazuna, why do you only use Fire Style? Don't tell me you focused entirely on Fire Style and never learned any other ninjutsu?"

He narrowed his eye.

That possibility was not impossible.

Blood Flame Kazuna had been famous for a long time, yet no one had ever seen him use any other ninjutsu.

Kazuna gave a disdainful laugh. "Fire Style is more than enough to deal with you. Besides, if you look down on me for only knowing Fire Style, then go ahead and show me one Fire Style technique. Stop relying on the Mangekyo all day. It's not like you're the only one who has it."

Masked Obito: "..."

Kazuna sighed. "They call you a traitor to the Uchiha, and they're absolutely right. The Uchiha excel at Fire Style, yet you don't even know it. Don't give me that look—spit out some fire and let me see it. Right now. Immediately. This instant!"

Obito took a deep breath. Kazuna's expression was truly infuriating.

Thirty percent disdain, seventy percent provocation.

He even felt the urge to crush his mask and blast him with a Fire Style technique.

I'll show you whether I know Fire Style or not!

"Hmm?"

Obito jolted in alarm and hurriedly suppressed that impulse.

His Chakra surged violently through his body as he glared at Kazuna and shouted, "What did you do to me? Genjutsu?"

Kazuna looked utterly baffled. "What?"

"I see!" Obito's eyes were no longer Three Tomoe, but shaped like shuriken. "Uchiha Kazuna, is this the power of your Mangekyo? You can actually plant suggestions in me."

If he had not possessed Hashirama Senju's power within him, he might have fallen for it just now.

"You really do overthink things." Kazuna smiled faintly and asked curiously, "Phasing through objects—is that your Mangekyo's power? And why do you wear a mask? Some special hobby? Like slapping yourself in the face whenever you use Fire Release?"

Fire Release, Fire Release, always Fire Release!

The shuriken in Obito's eyes began spinning rapidly. At last, countless shuriken shot from the warped space, slicing toward Kazuna.

Kazuna darted back and forth, evading every attack.

The next moment, Obito's body emerged behind Kazuna, reaching out to grab him.

"Hmm?" Kazuna's expression shifted slightly. A kunai appeared in his hand, and he slashed it toward Obito's head.

Obito's hand passed through Kazuna's arm, then clenched around it from behind, catching Kazuna's hand.

"Got you. I win!"

Obito had no time to celebrate.

Kazuna stared at him, the triangular symbol in his eyes slowly turning.

Obito's body suddenly went rigid.

Bang! Kazuna drove a heavy punch into Obito's abdomen.

"Urgh!" Obito's eyes widened.

"I'm not the Fourth Hokage. We both have Mangekyo—who exactly are you looking down on?"

Kazuna's airy voice sounded beside Obito's ear.

He formed a seal with one hand as a massive amount of Chakra gathered.

Fire Release again!

...There's no time to use Kamui!

Obito's expression twisted with shock and fury. He felt the threat of death.

Just as Kazuna prepared to unleash the killing blow, tree after tree rose up and blocked him.

"Wood Release?"

Kazuna's expression flickered, and he retreated like lightning.

Obito gritted his teeth and glared coldly at Kazuna. "You're not surprised that I can use Wood Release. Damn it, you know me well?"

Thinking back to their fight just now, his heart sank.

"You could say that." Kazuna smiled. "On the Night of the Nine-Tails, I was a spectator. I watched several grand performances."

So that was it!

Obito's heart sank.

No wonder Kazuna had said he was not the Fourth Hokage.

If Kazuna had watched his entire battle with the Fourth Hokage, then he was probably quite familiar with his abilities.

"Why?"

"What?"

Obito said in a low voice, "Since you were there, why didn't you save the Fourth Hokage? With your strength, if you had acted then, the Fourth Hokage might not have died."

"That's quite a thing to say..." Kazuna shook his head and smiled. "It makes it sound like I was the one who got the Fourth Hokage killed. Don't forget, the Third Hokage didn't act either. Danzo didn't act either. Mito and Mitokado couldn't even be found. I'm an Uchiha—an Uchiha ordered by the Hokage not to leave the clan grounds. What would it have meant if I had appeared there?"

"Maybe they would have treated me as your accomplice and surrounded me."

"Or they could have claimed that I controlled the Nine-Tails. Back then, even if I had a hundred mouths, I couldn't have explained myself."

"After all, Konoha High Command has plenty of experience with that sort of thing."

A name surfaced in Obito's mind.

Konoha's White Fang: Hatake Sakumo!

That ninja had abandoned a mission for the sake of his comrades.

Kazuna had abandoned his comrades for the sake of a mission.

Both had been scorned by the village.

No matter what they did, it would have been wrong. From another perspective, those in power could call a deer a horse.

The Fourth Hokage had only just begun to grasp power at the time; real authority remained in the hands of Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others.

If the Third Hokage and the others had been determined to kill Kazuna, would the Fourth Hokage have risked his life to stop them?

That was a very big question mark.

After all, the Fourth Hokage had his own concerns, and he was not that close to Kazuna.

The fact that Kazuna had been dragged from his pedestal on the eve of victory in the Third Shinobi World War and turned into someone everyone despised was enough to show Konoha High Command's malice toward him.