Obito, Kakashi, and Rin

"Kid, you think you can... Ah..."

He had thought he could dodge Obito's attack, but a sudden, searing pain shot through his chest.

Taiseki looked down and saw that the kunai in Obito's hand had pierced straight through his heart.

"H-How is this possible..."

Even as he died, Taiseki couldn't understand how he had ended up killed by a Chunin, even if his opponent was an Uchiha.

"Die!"

Obito pulled out the kunai, letting the blood from his enemy's heart spatter all over him, then kicked Taiseki's corpse aside.

When Obito raised his head again, a pair of black, two-tomoe Sharingan were spinning rapidly in his blood-red eyes.

"Taiseki's dead? A Two-Tomoe Sharingan?"

"His Sharingan actually evolved all of a sudden? How is that possible?"

Though Mahiru and Sumashi, who had been watching from the sidelines, still hadn't recovered from Taiseki's death, Obito Uchiha had already joined up with Kakashi, who had regained some of his fighting strength, and they were closing in.

"What do we do now? With a Two-Tomoe Sharingan, the Uchiha has the strength of a Jonin. The other white-haired kid isn't much weaker than one, either. We can't be sure of winning."

Sumashi spoke first. He was a Special Jonin from Iwagakure and wasn't at full Jonin strength to begin with. After seeing Obito Uchiha kill Taiseki in an instant, Sumashi worried that he might die here, too.

Besides, direct combat wasn't Mahiru's strong suit.

"You're right... Once Kakkō has gotten the information out of them, we'll report to Lord Higashishinin, then come back and avenge Taiseki."

If the two men escaped, Obito and Kakashi would lose any trace of Rin.

In his desperation, Obito didn't care that his condition was still unstable. He charged at Sumashi, the nearest of the two, with his bloodstained kunai in hand.

"You're not getting away! Give Rin back!"

"Earth Release: Earth-Shattering Palm!"

Sumashi gathered a large amount of chakra in his palm, then slammed it against the ground. Driven by earth-style chakra, the earth split apart and the cracks spread toward Obito.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

Kakashi, who had regained his ability to fight, hurriedly used a defensive Earth Release jutsu to block the effects of the Earth-Shattering Palm and protect Obito, who had lost his head.

Mahiru and Sumashi also prepared to use the opportunity to escape.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Suddenly, two kunai flew out of the woods nearby, landing precisely in the path the two men would take to flee.

"Who's there?!"

Mahiru and Sumashi were shocked. Anyone who could control a kunai's speed and accuracy so well had to be strong.

And judging by the purpose behind the move, this person was an enemy, not an ally.

"Since you dared to invade the Land of Fire, why are you in such a hurry to leave?"

A figure appeared before them. He wore a Konoha Forehead Protector and a dark green flak jacket, and the Uchiha clan's Gunbai crest was embroidered on his sleeve. It was Shisui Uchiha.

"Shisui?"

Obito Uchiha, who was six years older than Shisui, was the first to recognize his fellow clan member.

"Shisui Uchiha, the Uchiha Clan's new-generation genius?"

Kakashi was five years older than Shisui and had heard of his reputation, too. The boy who had awakened his Sharingan at the age of five had already become the Uchiha Clan's poster child for its next generation of geniuses.

"Obito, Kakashi, sorry I'm late."

Shisui apologized to the two of them, then turned his gaze to the two Iwagakure Ninja. "Don't worry, you two. They won't get away."

"Another damn brat."

Seeing that Shisui was even younger than Obito and Kakashi, Mahiru and Sumashi assumed he was at most a Chunin and didn't pose a threat to their lives.

"Shisui, they're both Jonin from Iwagakure. Even after awakening my Two-Tomoe Sharingan, I'm not sure I can take them down. We should attack together."

Now that Obito had regained his composure, he worried Shisui would be too careless and get hurt. He wanted the three of them to work together against the two Iwagakure Jonin.

"All right. I'll take the lead. If they split up and run, I'll need one of you to stop one of them."

"What?"

Before Obito could recover from his surprise, Shisui had already begun forming Hand Seals.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

As the Uchiha Clan's signature jutsu, the Great Fireball Technique was one Obito knew, too. Kakashi, his teammate, had seen him use it many times.

But the Great Fireball Technique Obito used didn't seem to be the same jutsu as the one Shisui had just performed.

"Obito, can the Uchiha Clan's Great Fireball Technique really be this powerful?"

Faced with Shisui's Great Fireball, which was nearly twice their height, Kakashi looked at his companion with his only remaining right eye.

Obito was just as stunned. Even with his Two-Tomoe Sharingan, he couldn't fully make out Shisui's Hand Seals.

"Y-Yeah, I guess. The Uchiha Clan's Great Fireball Technique has always been this powerful..."

At that moment, Obito Uchiha felt as if he were seeing this fellow clan member for the first time.

"Yeah, right. If you were that strong, we wouldn't be in such a sorry state."

That one sentence brought Obito back to reality. He was both shocked and filled with self-reproach.

If I were as strong as Shisui, Kakashi wouldn't have lost his left eye, and Rin wouldn't have been kidnapped...

Facing Shisui's attack, Mahiru and Sumashi felt the pressure. Since they couldn't escape, they prepared to face Shisui Uchiha head-on.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

The two poured chakra into the ground as if it cost them nothing, raising an earthen wall in front of them to block the Great Fireball's path.

Though they also thought Shisui's Great Fireball was ridiculously large, they didn't expect any surprises when using a B-rank Earth Release jutsu to defend against a C-rank jutsu.

"Rumble..."

The moment the two jutsu collided, the violent fire-style chakra exploded. The resulting shock wave blasted the earthen wall to pieces, sending fragments and dust flying in every direction.

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

With Kakashi out of danger, and a chance to defeat the Iwagakure Ninja and interrogate them about Rin Nohara's whereabouts, Obito Uchiha was back to his usual enthusiasm.

"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"

Before the dust had settled, another attack followed. Shisui Uchiha gave the two Iwagakure Ninja no chance to catch their breath, launching a new assault one after another.

When the thick fire dragon Shisui breathed out flew toward the two Iwagakure Ninja, Kakashi and Obito were still marveling at the power of his jutsu.

But when Shisui breathed out three more fire dragons in succession, Kakashi and Obito's minds went blank. Obito Uchiha in particular was boiling over, the black tomoe in his eyes spinning wildly as they turned a vivid red.