The Masked Man Appears, a Fated Gaze

Rolling smoke and ash were swept out through the shattered wall by the strong wind, dispersing in an instant.

Ye stepped over the wreckage strewn across the floor, his black leather boots crushing the charred wooden flooring with crisp cracking sounds.

Purple lightning had destroyed an entire wall, and the luxurious furnishings in the Mizukage's office had also been caught in the blast, leaving nothing but devastation.

Unextinguished arcs of electricity leaped back and forth in the corners, their flickering light sweeping across the spacious room.

Deep within the ruins, the broad mahogany desk remained completely intact.

Ye stopped, his gaze passing through the lingering smoke and dust to settle on the figure behind the desk.

The supreme ruler of the Hidden Mist Village, the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, sat quietly in a large leather chair.

The perfect jinchuriki, who retained the build of a child, wore the ceremonial robe that symbolized his status as Mizukage. In his hand, he tightly gripped a strange iron staff with a flower-shaped ornament at its tip.

The entire wall before him had collapsed, and Lightning Release powerful enough to destroy the whole building had struck right in front of him, yet Yagura had made no defensive move.

He sat there with his limbs held in the stiff posture of a puppet. There was not the slightest trace of life about him, and even the rise and fall of his chest was too faint to make out.

Ao, following behind Ye, hurried forward. Veins bulged around his eyes as the Byakugan's insight pierced through the remaining smoke and swept over Yagura's entire body.

After one glance, the battle-hardened Hidden Mist sensory ninja caught his breath, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

"The Mizukage's chakra flow... has completely stopped."

Upon hearing that, Terumi Mei immediately crossed the pile of rubble, her gaze locking firmly onto the man she had once looked up to.

Sunlight slanted in through the broken window, falling across Yagura's hollow face.

Those eyes that should have been filled with authority now held nothing but murkiness.

And deep within those clouded pupils was the eerie pattern of a Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

"So he really was being controlled."

Terumi Mei clenched her teeth.

The Mizukage of one of the Five Great Nations had been manipulated from the shadows for years, reduced to a puppet at another's disposal. That humiliation was enough to scar the entire history of the Hidden Mist Village.

Chojuro tightened his grip on the twin blades Hiramekarei. Cold sweat seeped from his palms and dampened the hilts as his eyes constantly scanned every dark corner of the room.

The next moment, the air behind Yagura suddenly twisted, rippling outward in rings of water-like spirals.

The pattern was initially only the size of a fist, but in the blink of an eye, it expanded into a dark purple spatial vortex that spun without end.

As the vortex turned, the air pressure in the office rapidly dropped. Even the wind blowing in through the shattered window fell silent, leaving only a suffocating stillness.

A chilling chakra far beyond that of ordinary shinobi surged from the spatial rift, filling the entire office in just a few breaths.

That chakra was so condensed that it contained not a trace of impurity, and the destructive aura within it was utterly undisguised.

Kabuto Yakushi's hand froze halfway to his glasses. The Chakra Scalpel blade pinched between his fingers trembled softly, letting out an uneasy hum.

With a medical ninja's keen sensitivity to chakra, he had already determined that the newcomer was far more dangerous than the Anbu death squads from before.

The center of the vortex then split open.

A man in a voluminous black robe emerged halfway from the distorted space.

He wore an orange one-eyed mask etched with dark patterns. Within the only exposed hole over his right eye, a crimson Three-Tomoe spun rapidly before transforming into the intricate pattern of a Mangekyo Sharingan.

That right eye locked onto Ye in the center of the room. Icy killing intent shot across the ruins with its gaze, bearing down directly on Ye's brow.

The masked man had intended to seize control of the situation with that imposing presence, but when his eyes collided with Ye's, his emerging body froze on the spot.

Ye raised his chin slightly, his own crimson Mangekyo Sharingan staring back at him.

Two immense forces of ocular power clashed across the air, twisting the light at their point of contact. Even the lingering arcs of lightning around them began to flicker erratically.

The instant Obito extended half his body from the Kamui Dimension, his chest suddenly tightened and his heart lost its rhythm.

That pressure surged from the depths of his Uchiha bloodline, entirely beyond the control of his will.

Within Ye's body lay the law radiation of the Sword of Takemikazuchi. That destructive law, far above ordinary ninjutsu, was invisibly disrupting the spatial fluctuations around them.

Obito quickly sensed that his Kamui Intangibility, which had allowed him to dominate the Shinobi World, had become sluggish in a way it rarely ever had before.

The spatial power that had once moved at his will now seemed trapped in an invisible swamp, its activation speed forcibly slowed by half a beat.

The brief loss of control made his scalp tingle. The Mangekyo pattern in his right eye spun rapidly as he tried to dispel the pressure surrounding him.

No one else in the room spoke, yet the killing intent amid the ruins tightened further and further.

Kimimaro stepped forward without hesitation. Half-meter-long jade-like bone blades shot from both arms, the pale bones reflecting the dying lightning with a cold, sinister gleam.

Zabuza held the Executioner's Blade horizontally before him as dense Water Release chakra rapidly covered the entire blade.

Haku formed hand seals with both hands. The temperature around them plummeted as a thin layer of frost spread outward across the damaged floor.

Every subordinate entered the highest state of combat readiness. At a single word from Ye, they would join forces and tear the masked man to pieces.

Ye did not turn around. He merely withdrew his right hand from his trench coat pocket and made a simple downward gesture to the others.

Kimimaro immediately stopped, though the bone blades on his arms did not retract.

Zabuza snorted and planted the Executioner's Blade on the floor, his eyes never leaving that orange mask.

Terumi Mei and the others also slowed their breathing, each tightening their grip on their weapons without daring to reveal the slightest opening.

Silence blanketed the entire office. The two men's ocular powers battled across the air, while the remaining electrical arcs darted wildly where their gazes crossed.

Ye stood at the edge of the charred ruins, an undisguised sneer lingering at the corner of his lips.

He released no pressure at all, yet merely standing there made Obito's back tense as a long-forgotten sense of danger continually invaded his nerves.

After only one exchange, Obito's earlier certainty had completely vanished.

A potentially fatal variable had appeared in the entire plan.

This unfamiliar Uchiha, who had never appeared in any intelligence reports, was definitely not one of the pawns he could manipulate at will.

The power capable of interfering even with Kamui made Obito completely abandon the idea of attacking immediately.

The spatial vortex gradually slowed, eventually settling into a stable rhythm.

Obito did not attack.

He studied Ye's unique Mangekyo Sharingan once more. His deep, rough voice passed through the mask and slowly echoed through the ruined office.

"Uchiha Ye... what exactly do you know?"