As a transmigrator.
Dan had known about Kamui's abilities for a long time. All the attacks he'd launched at Obito had been nothing more than deliberate openings.
Obito had fallen for it, daring to engage Dan in close combat without a care.
Now—
ZA WARUDO!
In an instant.
Hmmm.
Time Stop power spread out from Dan's body, faster than the speed of light, across the entire Ninja World. Everything in sight lost its color and turned gray.
The waters of the Naka River stopped flowing;
Itachi, watching from nearby, looked panicked, thinking his uncle was about to lose to the Masked Man;
Kamui had already activated. The warped space froze in a vortex, like layer upon layer of motionless ripples;
The first second of stopped time.
Dan broke free of the Iron Chain and turned around to face Obito Uchiha.
By then, most of Obito's body had been drawn into the warped space and was beyond reach. Except for... his hands.
The most formidable thing about Kamui was that it activated unconsciously, letting Obito phase out the instant he was attacked and become immune to any strike.
It was a passive ability.
But Kamui had a weakness, too. When Obito attacked, he had to deactivate it himself and make his body tangible.
On the night of the Nine-Tails' Attack, years ago,
the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, had recognized this weakness and used Flying Thunder God: Second Step and Rasengan to defeat Obito.
After that battle,
Obito learned from his defeat and grew much more cautious. He often used feints to deceive his opponents and never easily left his intangible state.
But this time, Dan had still tricked him.
His weakness was exposed.
The second second of stopped time.
A glint flashed in Dan's eyes. Without hesitation, he seized Obito's hands and yanked them toward himself with all his strength!
Time began to flow again.
A ripping sound.
The sound of flesh and bone tearing apart.
Obito's arms tore away from his shoulders, ripped off by Dan's bare hands.
Kamui was forcibly interrupted, too.
Staggering, staggering.
Obito stumbled backward several steps, then lost his balance and fell to the ground.
"You..."
He stared up at Dan in utter horror, his bloodshot eyes stripped of the composure and superiority he'd shown before.
He couldn't understand.
How had Dan done it? How had the tables turned in an instant, leaving Dan able to rip off both his arms?!
Obito wasn't actually very strong under pressure.
He usually relied on his seemingly invincible Kamui to put on a show, hiding behind his mask and impersonating Madara Uchiha to toy with others, acting as if he were untouchable.
But the moment someone could counter Kamui, he panicked, as though he'd become that dead-last kid he'd once been.
Overcome by terror,
whoosh.
Space warped and rippled again.
Obito didn't even have time to leave a parting threat. He activated Kamui and fled in a panic.
What a shame.
Dan, the victor, shook his head as he watched Obito escape.
In the situation just now, he hadn't had time to attack Obito's vital points, so he couldn't finish him off on the spot.
But Dan suspected that even if he could stop time for five seconds or longer, it would still be difficult to kill Obito for good.
After all, Obito had another fallback technique: Izanagi.
In the Original Work, even Konan's trap—six hundred billion Explosive Tags, painstakingly prepared after she'd exhausted Kakuzu's entire fortune—had been evaded by Obito using the "combination Ninjutsu" of Kamui and Izanagi.
Those two godlike ocular techniques worked together so well that they seemed impossible to counter.
That was why
Dan had chosen to rip off Obito's arms.
This time,
Obito had escaped badly wounded and would probably lie low for a while. And he'd left behind a pair of arms as Dan's spoils of war.
The arms were unusually pale. No blood came from the wounds; instead, white cellular tissue slowly oozed out.
As far as Dan knew,
Obito's body was made of White Zetsu flesh, reinforced with a large quantity of Hashirama Cells.
In other words,
the severed arms were of great research value. This battle had certainly yielded a rich haul.
Itachi stood rooted to the spot.
His Sharingan eyes widened in shock at the sight of Dan ripping off Obito's arms. He didn't come back to his senses until Dan walked over holding them. Then, without thinking, he called out:
"U-Uncle."
"Itachi, did you figure out the Masked Man's ability?" Dan asked, testing his nephew.
Itachi fell silent for a few seconds, then offered his theory:
"He called his Sharingan a Mangekyō Sharingan. The eye must use some kind of space-time ocular technique, allowing him to transfer himself to another space and leave behind only an intangible illusion to confuse his opponent. But when the Masked Man attacks, he still leaves himself open."
"Good. It's a truly terrifying ability."
Dan nodded, approving of his nephew's insight.
As long as the Masked Man didn't attack, he'd remain undefeated.
Even knowing his weakness, you couldn't tell when he might actually strike. It made him almost impossible to guard against.
And yet,
his uncle had still defeated an enemy who seemed all but impossible to beat.
Itachi couldn't make sense of it.
The Masked Man had clearly been winning the fight. Then, in an instant, something inexplicable had turned everything around, and Dan had ripped off his arms instead.
If he had to describe it, it was like—
a movie that was just reaching its climax, only for the best scene to be suddenly cut, jumping straight to the ending.
It was enough to drive an audience mad.
Itachi realized that his uncle was hiding a tremendous secret.
That secret was Dan's true ability.
As he tried to figure it out,
"Don't tell anyone what happened tonight. Understand?" Dan's voice sounded in Itachi's ear.
"Yes, I understand, Uncle," Itachi replied.
Then
the two of them retraced their steps.
Not long after they left,
a figure emerged from deep in the woods, his face etched with shock and disbelief.
It was Uchiha Yashiro.
The Masked Man had contacted him and told him to come to Naka Shrine that night to watch a good show.
The Masked Man planned to take action himself and bring Uchiha Dan to heel.
Who would have thought
that he'd get his show, but the one who'd been brought to heel was the Masked Man.
Still, Yashiro had confirmed at least one thing:
the man who'd been calling himself Madara Uchiha all this time was a complete fake.
The real Madara Uchiha could never have lost to Dan.
Of course,
Dan's defeat of the Masked Man was proof enough of his strength.
In Yashiro's eyes, Dan might even be able to match the strongest man in the clan, Uchiha Shisui.
Realizing this, Yashiro couldn't help thinking again of the "Shattered Jade Plan" Dan had proposed—a plan even more extreme than the Radical Faction's.
Should he... try supporting that guy?
Yashiro had always thought Dan's ideas were too crazy.
But if Dan really had that kind of strength, and could unite all the Uchiha to stage a Coup d'état together, perhaps they really could uproot Konoha's high command.
And build a Konoha that belonged to the Uchiha.
He'd wait and see.
Dan would probably attend next month's Clan Meeting. The Radical Faction and Moderate Faction would face off then, and things were sure to get lively.
If Dan could overpower the Moderate Faction's Clan Head, Fugaku, and Body Flicker Shisui, then the Radical Faction would follow him from then on.
At the thought,
a glimmer of anticipation flashed in Yashiro's eyes.
Beneath the moonlight,
the uncle and nephew walked along the banks of the Naka River.
Dan noticed that Itachi had kept his head lowered the whole way, looking thoughtful. He was probably trying to figure out his uncle's ability.
So far,
he'd demonstrated Time Stop power in front of Itachi twice. Would his clever nephew figure it out?
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