Counterattack, Fated Reunion

Obito raised his hand again, discarding the massive Fuma Shuriken. In the blink of an eye, he condensed a Black Receiver and hurled it at the already wounded Kakashi.

The instant the Black Receiver shot forth, it tore through the air with a shrill wail.

Kakashi's left eye caught its trajectory. His body had already reacted to evade, but his depleted Chakra made him half a beat too slow. The tip of the Black Receiver swelled in his vision, fast as a bolt of black lightning.

He could not dodge it.

Just then, golden light burst from the center of the battlefield, moving so fast that even Obito's Sharingan caught only a blurred afterimage. A golden fist slammed into the Black Receiver from the side, knocking Obito's arm and the weapon off course. The Black Receiver grazed Kakashi's cheek and flew past, leaving a shallow bloody streak across his skin.

Naruto stood before Kakashi, golden Chakra vapor billowing endlessly around him. He was breathing as hard as a bellows, and a large section of the Kurama Mode cloak over his right shoulder had shattered, exposing the shoulder wounded by the Wood Dragon's bite. Yet his eyes—those golden eyes with vertical pupils—were fixed firmly on Obito, an unquenchable fire burning within them.

"I said—" Naruto's voice was hoarse but resolute, every word trembling with the Nine-Tails' Chakra, "I won't let any of you die in front of me. Kakashi-sensei, not even you."

Obito took half a step back. The three scars on his face twisted slightly with the subtle change in his expression. He looked at Naruto, and a complicated glint flashed through his Mangekyō Sharingan—not anger, not killing intent, but an almost jealous appraisal.

"You brat of the Nine-Tails." Obito's voice was low. "You can't even protect yourself, yet you