Obito Goes Offline

Obito grabbed Uchiha Rei's arm tightly. The next moment, Kamui activated. The two vanished from the battlefield, entering Kamui Space.

As always, Kamui Space was dim and silent, filled with massive rocks floating at varying heights, like mountains hanging upside down. Time seemed frozen there, and a stifling, indifferent air hung over everything. It was a secluded, higher-dimensional space, whose rules could be controlled only by the wielder of the Kamui eye.

The instant they entered the space, Obito's body shuddered slightly. He felt a little uncomfortable, but paid it no mind. He had only one target.

The masked man before him, calling himself "Fake Obito."

"Your Kamui won't work here," Obito said, his voice low and icy.

Inside Kamui Space, Obito's intangibility was useless, because his body already belonged to this dimension. Intangibility was merely his way of switching between reality and this place. And since he couldn't become intangible, his opponent shouldn't be able to use Kamui to escape either.

Obito sneered, convinced he had finally gained an absolute advantage.

But Uchiha Rei's gaze remained calm and unwavering. He didn't rush to attack, simply letting Obito come closer.

In truth, Uchiha Rei didn't really possess Kamui. The "intangibility" he displayed was nothing more than an illusion created with Genjutsu and the Mangekyō Sharingan.

That was precisely why he wasn't bound by the rules of Kamui Space.

Uchiha Rei could still become intangible, but he chose not to. He wanted to see how Uchiha Obito would bring this battle to its end.

"Let's see you escape now." Obito let out a sinister laugh and lunged forward before the words had even left his mouth.

As he attacked, he unleashed Wood Style. Several roots sprouted from thin air, turned into sharp spikes, and swept toward Uchiha Rei. Their angles were tricky, driving Rei back step by step.

"This time, you won't get away." Obito sneered, the killing intent in his eyes growing stronger.

Uchiha Rei seemed flustered, but he had already been preparing in secret. He deliberately pretended to be trying to leave Kamui Space, as if attempting to use Kamui to escape.

Sure enough, Obito's gaze sharpened. He knew that teleporting oneself with Kamui took far longer than teleporting other things, and left the user briefly immobilized. If his opponent really possessed Kamui, this was the perfect chance to kill him!

"Dream on!" Obito roared.

Wood Style: Impaling Technique activated instantly.

Countless sharp wooden spikes shot through the air, aimed straight at Uchiha Rei.

The spikes came fast and in a dense barrage, but Uchiha Rei moved like lightning, his steps light and nimble. In an instant, he dodged every attack, as if he had already predicted their paths.

He landed lightly on a floating rock, the faintest hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

"Stopping you from escaping was only the first step." Obito gritted his teeth. He planted his foot and lunged forward again.

He was seeing red, impatient to tear off the other man's mask and confirm for himself whether that Mangekyō really existed.

He closed in suddenly, staring fixedly at Uchiha Rei's left eye.

There, a three-bladed shuriken spun counterclockwise, clear as day!

Obito's expression changed abruptly, and shock surged through him. The pattern of this Mangekyō was exactly the same as the one in his right eye.

The only difference was that it spun in the opposite direction. For an instant, it was as if he had seen another version of himself in a mirror.

"How is this possible... Those eyes..." Obito's pupils contracted sharply.

His thoughts raced. Was the other man his clone? Had he gotten that Sharingan from Kakashi? No, impossible! He had never believed the other man was him, because he was Uchiha Obito, and there couldn't be a second one in the world.

Yet this man before him had laid claim to nearly everything that belonged to him.

Kamui Space was his.

Nohara Rin was his.

Even the eye's power and pattern looked as if the other man had stolen half of them.

Obito's chest heaved, fury churning inside him.

This wasn't ordinary enmity. It was a feeling of being usurped to the depths of his soul, driving him almost to the brink of madness!

"Who... are you?!" Obito roared, his voice rumbling like a beast's growl through the lifeless space.

Uchiha Rei stood opposite him, his gaze still cool and composed.

His anger erupted like a volcano. Obito turned all his pain and resentment into strength. Without another moment's hesitation, he shot forward, surging at the "masked man" before him with overwhelming fury.

There was no intangibility in Kamui Space, no way out. Obito knew that perfectly well.

Since his opponent couldn't use intangibility in this space, this was his chance to defeat him once and for all. He unleashed Wood Style while pressing forward, his attacks surging like a tide and wooden spikes raining down like a storm. Though his opponent was incredibly fast, he was still driven back step by step.

"This time, I won't let you run." Seeing his opponent retreat in disarray, Obito thought coldly, the killing intent in his eyes growing stronger.

The masked man seemed to realize he was losing and began trying to teleport himself with Kamui, as though he meant to escape the space. But Obito would never let him do as he pleased. He sneered and stepped forward, predicting and interrupting the other man's movements. A burst of Wood Style: Impaling Technique shot out, sending a mass of wooden spikes through the space to block every route of escape.

But to his surprise, his opponent once again dodged every attack with ease.

Obito fixed his cold gaze on him, then suddenly charged forward and brought his blade down!

The blade cut through the air like a bolt of lightning.

"Crack!"

The sound of a mask shattering rang out clearly. Obito had successfully smashed his opponent's mask.

But before he could make out the man's face, the man quickly pulled away, took another mask from behind him, and put it on.

"You're not getting away." Obito's voice was cold as he advanced step by step, Katana in hand. "Without intangibility, you're nothing in here."

Just then, the other man's voice suddenly changed. It was low and cold, with an indescribable eeriness. "It seems... my plan is complete."

"What?" Obito's heart jumped. Before he could react, Kamui Space around them began to collapse!

The once dim, silent space, filled with giant rocks, began to dissolve like a painting. The enormous boulders vanished one by one, replaced by a sea of blood-red flames. Roiling fire churned beneath their feet, as if the flames of hell had torn through the dimensions.

"You! What have you done?!" Obito finally realized something was wrong, but it was already too late.

At first, when Obito had grabbed Uchiha Rei, he had thought that he was the one who brought them into Kamui Space. In fact, Uchiha Rei had quietly changed everything and brought them both into Yellow Springs Space, woven from Genjutsu!

The first time he entered Kamui Space, Uchiha Rei had already learned two important things.

First, he could enter Yellow Springs Space through the Kamui Space passage, and it didn't consume much chakra.

Second, he had learned the details of Kamui Space, laying a solid foundation for weaving the Genjutsu that came later.

At this very moment, the space Obito occupied was no longer the familiar Kamui Space, but a trap Rei had carefully prepared for him.

Inside Yellow Springs Space, Obito could still have used intangibility, but the inertia of his thinking made him overlook this. He was too focused on watching Uchiha Rei, and ended up falling into his opponent's rhythm instead.

And this had all been done for one purpose.

For this very moment!

Outside Yellow Springs Space, Uchiha Rei slowly took a stone from his breast pocket. It was a forbidden object he had obtained in a secret chamber of the Uchiha Clan.

Daofanshi.

Izanami died and descended to Yellow Springs after giving birth to Kagutsuchi, the fire god. Her husband, Izanagi, grieved inconsolably and insisted on entering the underworld to bring his dead wife back to the world of the living. But when he saw Izanami's already-rotting body, he was horrified and fled. Enraged and humiliated, Izanami sent the Yellow Springs Ugly Woman after him. At the last moment, Izanagi used the [Daofanshi] to seal off Higan, severing the passage between the realms of the living and the dead and bringing the calamity of Yellow Springs to an end.

Now, Uchiha Rei intended to use this sealing stone from an ancient myth to seal Uchiha Obito away, cutting him off from the outside world in Yellow Springs Space forever.

According to legend, Daofanshi was a sacred object Izanagi used to seal the passage to the underworld when he returned from Yellow Springs. It could completely separate life from death, and shinobi from their techniques. Now, this ancient divine object was finally being put to use once more.

As Daofanshi was activated, all of Yellow Springs Space shuddered violently. An irresistible force spread outward, forcibly cutting off the flow of all Ninjutsu and Genjutsu.

Kamui failed, and the Sharingan fell silent.

When Obito realized he could no longer use Kamui, he immediately tried to activate the Uchiha Clan's forbidden technique.

Izanagi. But he was shocked to find that altering the cycle of reality and recreating the world had no effect here.

The truth was that, from the very beginning, Uchiha Rei's battle with him had served only to buy time for the sealing. Izanagi was powerful, but it had a time limit: at most, it could sustain a false reality for ten minutes. And they had been fighting in Yellow Springs Space for a long time already, far beyond what the forbidden technique could sustain.

What horrified Obito even more was that his Mangekyō Sharingan no longer responded. Not only had his Genjutsu vanished, but he couldn't even use basic Ninjutsu. It was as if every power formed from chakra had been erased from this place, leaving no trace.

At last, he realized that this battle had never been a fair contest.

Uchiha Rei had laid out a long game of Genjutsu, leading him to the final place of judgment.

In this space, the only way left to fight was Taijutsu.

"At least..." Obito murmured, watching the masked man before him, his whole body on guard. "At least I have to knock you down!"

But just as he prepared to charge forward with his blade, the other man's expression turned utterly different from his own. Calm, composed, even a little... relaxed.

"Power Prelude."

Standing atop a tree in the real world, Uchiha Rei slowly raised his head.

"The world is finally quiet."