Obito, Kakashi, Rin

"Brat, you think you can just—ah..."

Thinking he could dodge Obito's attack, a sudden, searing pain erupted in his chest.

Taiseki looked down to see that his heart had been pierced by the kunai in Obito's hand.

"Ho, how is this possible..."

Even in death, Taiseki could not fathom how he had fallen to a Chunin, even if that opponent was an Uchiha.

"Die."

Obito pulled the kunai free, letting the enemy's blood splatter across his own body, before kicking Taiseki's corpse aside.

As Obito looked up again, a pair of black tomoe were spinning rapidly within his scarlet eyes.

"Taiseki is dead? A Two-Tomoe Sharingan?"

"His Sharingan actually evolved just now? How is this possible?"

Though Mahiru and Sumashi, who had been watching from the sidelines, had yet to recover from the shock of Taiseki's death, Obito Uchiha—now wielding the Two-Tomoe Sharingan—and Kakashi, who had regained some of his combat strength, had already surrounded them.

"What do we do now? An Uchiha with a Two-Tomoe Sharingan already possesses the strength of a Jonin, and the other white-haired brat is no weaker than a Jonin either. We don't have a guaranteed victory."

Sumashi spoke first; he was a Special Jonin of Iwagakure and did not possess the full strength of a standard Jonin. Seeing Taiseki killed in an instant by Obito Uchiha, Sumashi feared he would die here as well.

Direct combat was not Mahiru's specialty either.

"You have a point... Once Kakkō extracts the intelligence and we report to Lord Higashishinin, we can return to avenge Taiseki."

If these two escaped, Obito and Kakashi would completely lose Rin's trail.

In his desperation, Obito ignored his own unstable state and charged at the nearest enemy, Sumashi, with his blood-stained kunai.

"Don't you dare leave! Give Rin back to us!"

"Earth Style: Earth-Shattering Palm!"

Sumashi gathered a massive amount of chakra into his palms and slammed them into the ground. Driven by earth-natured chakra, the ground split open and surged toward Obito.

"Earth Style: Earth Style Wall!"

Having regained his ability to fight, Kakashi hurriedly used an earth-style defensive jutsu of his own, isolating the effects of the Earth-Shattering Palm to protect the reckless Obito.

Mahiru and Sumashi prepared to take the opportunity to flee.

"Whoosh, whoosh."

Suddenly, two kunai flew from the nearby woods, precisely intercepting the path the two were taking to escape.

"Who's there?!"

Mahiru and Sumashi were shocked; anyone capable of gauging the speed and precision of a kunai so perfectly must be formidable.

Furthermore, judging by the intent behind the move, they were enemies, not friends.

"Since you dare to invade our Land of Fire, why the rush to leave?"

A figure appeared before them, wearing a Konoha forehead protector and a dark green tactical vest. Embroidered on the sleeve of his garment was the Uchiha clan's red-and-white fan crest. The newcomer was none other than Shisui Uchiha.

"Shisui?"

Obito Uchiha, six years older than Shisui, was the first to recognize his clansman.

"Shisui Uchiha, the genius of the Uchiha clan's new generation?"

Kakashi, five years older than Shisui, had also heard of his reputation. This boy, who had awakened his eyes at age five, had long since become the representative genius of the new generation under the Uchiha clan's promotion.

"Senior Obito, Senior Kakashi, I am late."

Shisui expressed his apologies to the two, then turned his gaze toward the two Iwa-nin and said, "Don't worry, Seniors. They aren't getting away."

"Another damn brat."

Seeing that Shisui was younger than both Obito and Kakashi, Mahiru and Sumashi assumed his strength was at most that of a Chunin and posed no threat to their lives.

"Shisui, both of them are Jonin from Iwagakure. Even after awakening my Two-Tomoe Sharingan, I'm not confident I can take them down. Let's launch a coordinated attack."

Obito Uchiha, having regained his composure, worried that Shisui might be too careless and suffer for it, hoping to use a three-man assault to counter the two Iwa Jonin.

"Very well. I will take the lead. If they try to split up and flee, I'll leave it to you two to intercept one of them."

"What?"

Before Obito could recover from his surprise, Shisui had already begun weaving hand seals.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

As the signature jutsu of the Uchiha clan, Obito naturally knew it, and his teammate Kakashi had seen him perform it many times.

But the Great Fireball Technique Obito used and the one Shisui was currently unleashing did not seem to be the same thing at all.

"Obito, is the Great Fireball Technique of your Uchiha clan always this powerful?"

Facing the Great Fireball, which was nearly two people tall, Kakashi looked at his companion with his only remaining eye.

Obito was no better off; even with his Two-Tomoe Sharingan active, he couldn't fully track the speed of Shisui's hand seals.

"Y-yes, I suppose... our Uchiha Great Fireball Technique has always been this strong..."

At this moment, it felt as if Obito Uchiha was truly meeting this clansman of his for the first time.

"Tch, as if I'd believe that. If you actually had this level of strength, we wouldn't have been pushed into such a pathetic state."

The remark pulled Obito back to reality, leaving him feeling both shocked and filled with self-reproach.

If I had strength like Shisui's, Kakashi's left eye wouldn't be blind, and Rin wouldn't have been abducted by them...

Facing Shisui's assault, Mahiru and Sumashi both felt the pressure; since they couldn't escape, the two prepared to face Shisui Uchiha head-on.

"Earth Style: Earth Style Wall."

As the two poured their chakra into the ground as if it were worthless, an earthen wall rose before them, blocking the flight path of the Great Fireball.

Although they felt Shisui's Great Fireball was excessively large, they didn't expect any mishaps when using a B-rank Earth Style jutsu to defend against a C-rank ninjutsu.

"Rumble..."

The moment the two techniques collided, the violent fire-attribute chakra erupted, the resulting powerful energy wave shattering the earthen wall into pieces as gravel and dust scattered in every direction.

"Nice one, Shisui! Let's take them down and go rescue Rin."

With Kakashi's life out of danger and the prospect of defeating the Stone ninjas to interrogate them for Rin Nohara's location, Obito Uchiha regained his usual enthusiasm.

"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique."

No sooner had one wave subsided than another rose; going all out, Shisui Uchiha gave the two Stone ninjas no room to breathe as a new round of attacks followed in quick succession.

As the thick fire dragon exhaled by Shisui Uchiha flew toward the two Stone ninjas, Kakashi and Obito were still marveling at how different the power of the ninjutsu cast by Shisui was.

But when Shisui spat out three more fire dragons in succession, the brains of Kakashi and Obito crashed on the spot. Obito Uchiha, in particular, felt the black tomoe in his eyes begin to spin frantically, his face turning completely flushed with heat.