Obito Changes the Plan

The White Flame swept forward without restraint, burning away every cloud in its path. From where everyone stood, it looked as if the Fire Release had burned a giant hole right through the sky.

Then the surrounding air rushed in to fill the path left by the Fire Release, forming a spectacular miniature tornado.

The sheer spectacle was downright terrifying...

This Gunbai, drawn from the same Mangekyo technique, God-Meeting Machine, could indeed be controlled by his left eye and unleash its original power.

Just like the Teleportation Banner he had drawn the first time, anyone else would only think it was a little flag made from unusual materials.

Seeing that the enemy had been wiped out, Qiuyang slowly stopped channeling his left-eye Mangekyo through the Gunbai.

Phew...

One strike had killed more than fifty Iwa shinobi.

What a waste this Gunbai had been before. Obito and Madara had it, but without God-Meeting Machine, could they even use it properly?

Qiuyang mused. Unlike Naruto, he didn't like playing the nice guy, trying to change every enemy's heart with a lecture—even if they were the ones who'd killed his parents...

All he had to do was think of the people he'd killed as invaders, as scum, without wondering what they'd been through or what burdens they carried.

Then he could tell himself this was just an anime world, and feel no guilt. Besides...

Ah, the taste of invincibility is so sweet!

Qiuyang gazed up at a forty-five-degree angle at the terrifying Scar of the Sky his technique had created, quietly enjoying the stares from the remaining enemies, his teacher and fellow disciple, and the toad—all of them gaping in shock.

If only someone had taken a picture of this masterpiece!

He wondered if Nadeshiko, that pretty girl, had seen his invincible figure as he avenged her.

So why hadn't he swung the fanful of Fire Release at Obito?

Well... Qiuyang's goal from the start hadn't been to take revenge on Obito. His priorities were getting the Gunbai and wiping out the Iwa shinobi.

After all, Obito was a key figure in the later story, responsible for reviving the Ten-Tails and helping Uchiha Madara return to life through Rinne Rebirth.

And if his Tailed Beast-part plan failed, he could still take half the Ten-Tails from Madara when Black Zetsu attacked, become an Otsutsuki, and that wouldn't be unreasonable, right?

So for now, a brief exchange of blows would do.

Qiuyang was incredibly pleased as he swung his beloved Uchiha Gunbai a few more times. He felt that just knowing the White Flame technique was enough to put him at Super Kage Level.

It might have looked as if he'd swung it effortlessly, but after using the White Flame, he'd lost at least half his ocular power.

In other words, with his current reserves, he could only use the technique two or three times at most.

"Damn, the Uchiha Gunbai Madara left in my care is this powerful?"

Obito was utterly aghast. The World-Ending White Flame produced by the Gunbai's swing had to be a whole level above the never-extinguishing flames of Amaterasu.

A Super-S-rank technique, one rank above S-rank.

Damn Madara. He'd only told him how to use Uchiha Reflection, and even on his deathbed, he hadn't taught him the fan's most powerful technique. Clearly, he'd been keeping it from him.

But now that Obito had seen it... he was sure he could learn to use it too. With that thought, he suddenly formed the hand sign for a Summoning Technique.

The Gunbai in Qiuyang's hand responded to the summons. With a poof, it vanished in a cloud of smoke and returned to Obito.

Qiuyang: "????"

What the heck just happened? Seriously?!

Qiuyang looked as if he'd swallowed a fly. He smacked his forehead in frustration—

Damn it, he'd been careless! He should've realized the fan had a Summoning Contract. He ought to have used the Contract Seal to block it first.

"Uchiha Qiu Yang, was it? I'm Uchiha Madara. I'll remember you."

After saying this, Obito slowly traced a circle around himself with his right hand. His body vanished amid a swirl of space, as if an eraser were rubbing it away.

Until the very last moment, his eyes remained fixed on Qiuyang—

He had to adjust his plans from here on. He'd put joining the Akatsuki as an intern on hold. Even though he'd made an agreement with Ichi, he couldn't ignore the unpredictable factor that was Qiuyang...

"Damn, he just ran off?"

Qiuyang had already suffered from Obito forcibly activating Kamui once, so this time he didn't try to stop him. Instead, he turned to the only enemy left on the field:

Kitsuchi of Iwagakure.

Now that he'd lost the Uchiha Gunbai, Qiuyang was in an absolutely foul mood. His eyes returned to the three-tomoe state. He leaped onto the top of his Wood Release forest, clapped his hands together, and cried:

"Wood Release: Wood Dragon Technique!"

A huge, wooden dragon's head emerged from the branches beneath his feet. Its body, covered in hard wooden scales, grew out after it, then broke free of the branches and charged toward Kitsuchi at incredible speed.

"Earth Release: Earth Mountain..."

Kitsuchi had meant to use the Earth Release technique that would one day pin down the Ten-Tails to trap the incoming Wood Dragon.

But after fighting Yamato and Jiraiya, he no longer had enough chakra to perform the technique.

In the urgency of the moment, all he could do was turn the parts of his body about to be struck into stone and shut his eyes, bracing for the Wood Dragon's impact.

He had a feeling he was going to die at the hands of this Wood Release shinobi today.

Jiraiya had recovered from his shock and hurried to stop his bloodthirsty student:

"Qiuyang, stop! We can't kill this man."

Kitsuchi was the son of the Third Tsuchikage. If the Konoha shinobi killed him here, it would surely enrage the powerful user of Kekkei Tōta.

In the end, ordinary villagers would be the ones to suffer.

At his teacher's words, the enormous Wood Dragon's head stopped in front of Kitsuchi. Qiuyang really did bring its attack to a halt.

He pursed his lips, making it clear he knew nothing about diplomatic politics.

Still, this Kitsuchi seemed to become a commander in the Allied Shinobi Forces during the Fourth Shinobi World War. And if Qiuyang let him live... wouldn't it be better to send him back to spread the word?

He'd already flown into a rage for the sake of a beautiful woman. Letting one man live wouldn't hurt.

Qiuyang leaped onto the raised head of the Wood Dragon and looked down at Kitsuchi, whose face had gone pale.

"Go back and tell your father, Ōnoki, to pick on the weak when he wants an easy target. Don't go picking a fight with Konoha when you're in over your head. Now get lost!"

Kitsuchi knew that his side had been in the wrong to invade. He sent Jiraiya a grateful look from a distance, then limped away from the village that had become the grave of a hundred or so elite Iwagakure shinobi.

Now that Konoha had someone who could match—or even surpass—the Fourth Hokage, the "Yellow Flash," he was already thinking about how to persuade the Third Tsuchikage to abandon his expansionist plans.

Knowing the old man Ōnoki, Kitsuchi figured the news would enrage him—and that he'd make Qiuyang a prime target, or even hunt him down.

Alas, the Ninja World was bound to be in turmoil from now on!