Facing the Sharingan

"Sharingan!" Kakashi frowned, staring at the face hidden beneath the hood as he desperately searched his memories for information on the other man.

Yet he could find no match, neither in the Uchiha Clan roster nor among the known Jonin and Chunin of every village.

Some people might have similar faces, but there was no way two Three-Tomoe Sharingan would appear in those eyes.

Could he be a Genin? But how could a Genin possess a Three-Tomoe Sharingan? How could he trade blows with him on equal footing?

Unless he was a ninja the Uchiha Clan had hidden away, someone who had never appeared before the public. But even if such a person existed, how could Uchiha Itachi have overlooked him?

As the Clan Head's eldest son, he should have known every secret within the clan.

"Finally willing to show yourself, Hatake Kakashi?" The face beneath the hood smiled and asked softly, "Do you still remember the owner of that eye?"

"Are you Obito?" Kakashi frowned, then shook his head and said with certainty, "No, you aren't him. He's already dead!"

Kakashi gave a cold snort. He had just been deceived by a voice-based Genjutsu, but now he would not let down his guard in the slightest.

"Kakashi, why can't I be Uchiha Obito?"

The hood was suddenly thrown back. As it lifted, a flimsy human-skin mask drifted to the ground. Kakashi's heart jolted violently. Beneath the mask was Obito's face.

He had not seen that face in a very, very long time. Every feature was identical to the Obito in his memories. This was simply the greatest desecration of the dead.

"You..." Kakashi had barely opened his mouth when the fire dragon roared toward him once more.

"Water Style: Water Wall!"

A wall of water erupted from the ground, turning the fire dragon into a billowing cloud of steam and weakening the flames blazing all around them.

"Kakashi, your reactions are still as quick as ever."

Within the steam, an enormous Great Fireball flew toward Hatake Kakashi once more, accompanied by Uchiha Jie's voice.

Kakashi reacted swiftly enough, slamming both hands against the ground. An earthen wall rose up and blocked the fireball with a muffled boom.

But the earthen wall that had just done its job was immediately struck by another fireball and blasted to pieces. Kakashi, who had been hiding behind it, had already vanished.

"The burden of the Sharingan must be quite heavy for someone like you, without Uchiha blood."

Uchiha Jie remained where he stood, speaking as he continuously formed hand seals. He intended to unleash a large-scale Ninjutsu and destroy every possible hiding place Kakashi could be occupying in one blow.

With the entire battlefield now open, it was even more suitable for him to use large-scale Ninjutsu and wear Kakashi down through sheer chakra reserves.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Song!"

Once he finished forming hand seals, five enormous fire dragons burst from Uchiha Jie's mouth. They seemed to possess lives of their own, twisting and weaving through the air as they smashed the towering trees around them to pieces.

However, Kakashi was not hiding behind a tree. He was concealed underground instead.

"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!"

A pair of hands suddenly emerged beneath Uchiha Jie's feet as he controlled the fire dragons, reaching for his boots. But before they could touch them, Kakashi frowned, gave up on his own initiative, and retreated back into the earth.

Uchiha Jie looked down. He had not expected Kakashi to be so perceptive. His boots were coated in a colorless, odorless, potent poison specifically meant to deal with elusive Earth Release users. Unexpectedly, it had been wasted.

But now that he knew Kakashi was underground, he would be much easier to deal with.

"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"

As he dispersed the fire dragons and pressed his right hand to the ground, the nature of the forest soil immediately changed. The hard earth turned into mire, and the surrounding tree roots began to sink without support.

This was a large-scale Earth Release Ninjutsu capable of completely altering the terrain around him, turning what had once been solid ground into a swamp that could swallow enemies whole.

Kakashi could use Ninjutsu to travel through firm soil, but once the surrounding environment changed, it would no longer be so easy. Earth Release could handle solid ground, but it had little answer for swamps.

He could only return to the surface, using chakra to stabilize the mud beneath his feet as he once again faced Uchiha Jie.

The situation seemed unchanged, but their differing conditions made it clear that the previous exchange had not been pointless.

At the very least, Hatake Kakashi had begun breathing heavily. Releasing several Ninjutsu in succession was a drain he could not ignore. Even the tomoe in his Sharingan were no longer spinning as quickly as before.

Meanwhile, Uchiha Jie stood in place as though nothing had happened, his Sharingan fixed intently on Kakashi. Kakashi refused to yield, meeting Uchiha Jie's gaze as he tried to see through the true identity hidden beneath Uchiha Obito's face.

After their recent battle, he was even more certain that the man before him wearing Obito's face was absolutely not Uchiha Obito. Their fighting techniques and combat habits were entirely different.

Even if Obito had grown stronger, those most fundamental things would not change.

"Who exactly are you?" he asked in a low voice.

"Don't ask so many questions, Kakashi. Think more." Uchiha Jie smiled. "I already told you the glaringly obvious truth."

"The truth..."

"The truth about your teacher, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato."

Kakashi stared into Uchiha Jie's Sharingan, but his mind returned to the Nine-Tails Rebellion, to the time when his teacher and teacher's wife had died, to the person before him and the Nine-Tails...

Sharingan!

The greatest mystery of that incident had been the two Sharingan within the Nine-Tails' eye sockets. Someone from the Uchiha Clan had used the Sharingan to control the Nine-Tails.

Could it have been the man before him...

Kakashi had only gotten halfway through the thought when he suddenly realized that the scenery around him had changed.

The once-lush forest looked as though it had suffered a raging inferno. Although the Fire Release had only ignited a dozen or so trees moments ago, the cold moonlight had vanished, replaced by a Blood Moon.

A pitch-black crow stood atop a wooden stake, its head tilted as its crimson eyes watched him. Kakashi himself hung from a blood-soaked cross, the chakra in his body like a frozen lake. No matter how he struggled, he could not break free from the iron chains binding his limbs.

"Oh, so this is what this place looks like."

Uchiha Jie suddenly appeared before the crow. Before he could reach out, it cawed loudly and flapped its wings away.

"This is..." Kakashi asked.

"Heh heh, didn't anyone ever tell you that even if you have a Sharingan too, you mustn't look directly into another Sharingan?"

Uchiha Jie chuckled as he wiped away the bloody tears flowing from his right eye. Holding a Kunai, he stood before Kakashi.