Footsteps of an Old Teammate

The Uzumaki on the Iron Anchor's surface spun at an extreme speed, completely distorting the surrounding air.

With a crisp "crack," a black crack was forcibly torn open in the thick spatial barrier.

A foot wearing black ninja boots stepped on the rubble at the bottom of the pit.

Obito came out.

The black robe embroidered with red clouds had been torn in half during the previous fierce battle, leaving the right arm bare. Grayish-white, tree-like fleshy buds curled up at the cut, slowly wriggling with his breathing.

The most lethal thing was his face.

The face that had been hidden behind the orange mask was now exposed to the cold wind of the underground rift. The right half of the face was covered with terrifying, crisscrossing wrinkles, as if it had been crushed by a boulder and then roughly pieced back together. The only intact left eye was covered by stray hairs, while in the right eye socket, the scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan was staring intently upwards.

The wind has stopped.

At the edge of the deep pit, Kakashi's breathing suddenly stopped.

He thought he was fully prepared, but the moment he actually saw that face, his mind went blank. The nightmares that tormented him in the dead of night were now vividly present in reality.

"That's so slow, Kakashi."

Obito's voice was hoarse and dry, like rough sandpaper being rubbed. He looked up at the silver-haired ninja dozens of meters away, a mocking smile curving his lips.

"I thought that with your so-called genius brain, you should have guessed it was me long ago. Or are you just deceiving yourself and afraid to face the mess you've made?"

"It really is you..."

Kakashi's voice trembled. He abruptly pulled down his mask, and the Mangekyō Sharingan wildly due to the intense emotional turmoil. The Chidori gathered in his palm crackled and popped, but the azure lightning was extremely unstable at the moment, causing his arm to tremble violently.

Obito casually pulled out the Uchiha Gunbai from his back and slammed it heavily onto the ground.

With a muffled "boom," a visible wave of dust rose from the ground.

"What? Seeing your former dead teammate, you can't even hold your Ninjutsu steady anymore?" Obito sneered, his empty eyes filled with a chilling coldness. "Back then, when you used this hand to pierce Rin's chest, the movement was swift and clean. Did your hand tremble at that time?"

"Shut up!"

Kakashi roared suddenly. This was almost the most out-of-control moment of his life.

Chidori's lightning surged three feet in an instant, and the sound of Chidori chirping echoed back and forth in the deep pit. His legs were bent, his muscles taut to the extreme, ready to charge down and fight to the death.

Obito's mocking smile deepened as he watched Kakashi lose control.

He knew Kakashi too well. This seemingly cold genius was actually more vulnerable than anyone else. If you just ripped open that bloody scar and rubbed salt into it, Kakashi's proud composure would crumble instantly.

If Kakashi loses his composure, Kamui can instantly twist off his head.

Damn it, how old are you to still be writing angst-filled youth literature?

Naruto cursed inwardly and attacked immediately.

Just as Kakashi was about to launch himself, a large, hand-like hand with distinct knuckles, as if cast in iron, firmly landed on Kakashi's left shoulder.

"Laugh--"

A powerful yet boundless, warm Pure Yang Chakra forcefully flowed into Kakashi's meridians through that hand. The frenzied Chidori flickered twice as if it had encountered its natural enemy, then immediately extinguished.

Kakashi was jolted, and in a daze, he came to his senses and turned to look at his side.

Naruto had somehow appeared in front of him, his hand on his shoulder showing no sign of moving away.

"If you can't beat them, you resort to psychological warfare, reopening old wounds and using PUA tactics. Besides using the dead to disgust the living, what else can you do?"

Naruto looked down at Obito at the bottom of the pit, rolling his eyes mercilessly. "Kakashi-sensei, step back. He deliberately mentioned that name to make you lose control of your Chidori so he could use Space-Time Ninjutsu to ambush you. If you can't even see that, all your years in the Anbu have been for nothing."

Kakashi took a deep breath, clenched his left hand tightly, and the confusion and pain in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by his tactical coldness.

"I'm sorry, I lost my composure."

"Good to know. You'll be punished by having to write an extra three thousand words of post-battle summary later." Naruto flicked his right hand, and nine golden Chakra Chains slowly rose from his back, like nine golden dragons dancing wildly in the air.

He stared at Obito, a wildly arrogant smile playing on his lips, "Come on, let me see if your skills under that mask are worthy of your lousy face, you cowardly coward!"

Obito's cold smile froze completely.

He hadn't expected that his carefully crafted scheme to destroy someone's spirit would be so brutally interrupted in such a lowly, street-smart manner. The frustration of punching cotton made his Sharingan overflow with intense killing intent.

"Naruto Uzumaki." He pronounced the name slowly and deliberately, "You always put on that shrewd, all-powerful face. Since you love protecting your comrades so much, let's see just how many you can actually protect today!"

The words had barely left his mouth when Naruto's right earpiece was suddenly filled with Shikamaru Nara's urgent roar:

"Naruto! Enemy attack! A massive spatial fluctuation has appeared directly above the Allied Shinobi Forces command post! It's the Roots of the Golem!"

Naruto's pupils suddenly contracted.

The Obito at the bottom of the pit had already slapped his remaining left hand onto the black Iron Anchor beside him.

This is not a defensive position at all; it's a long-range artillery platform that transcends space! Obito's appearance here is to draw Naruto's strongest forces away. His real killing move is to use the Iron Anchor's Coordinates system to strike directly at the Allied Shinobi Forces' most vulnerable medical base!

"Boom!"

The Iron Anchor trembled violently, and thousands of brown Golem roots burrowed into the void at bizarre angles along the spatial rift below.

"Trying to use a feint? That's a terrible tactic!"

Naruto's roar was like a muffled thunderclap from the heavens, causing pebbles to tumble down.

He didn't even look back at the dire situation at the rear; he knew all too well how to break the deadlock. Putting out a fire is never as effective as extinguishing it at its source!

"Cut it off right now!"

Naruto stomped his feet on the ground, and like a heavy cannonball made of pure gold, he instantly rushed to the front of the huge black Iron Anchor.

The raging Yang Release Chakra poured out without reservation, flowing along the nine Adamantine Sealing Chains and converging in mid-air into a giant golden blade tens of meters long. The Yang Release, enhanced by Sage Art, had absolute suppressive power over these dark and evil creatures.

"Cut!"

The golden giant blade, carrying terrifying kinetic energy, slammed into the core runes on the surface of the Iron Anchor.

"Click--"

The indestructible, specially made Iron Anchor let out a heart-wrenching groan, splitting open in the middle with a bottomless rift. The spatial rift, which had been frantically drawing upon the Golem's roots, instantly twisted and collapsed.

A muffled explosion came from the depths of the void. The roots that had crossed space and were about to pierce the Medical Camp were severed at their source and immediately lost their life supply, turning into countless pieces of rotten wood.

The crisis was averted, but Obito remained completely calm.

The instant Naruto drew his sword, he used the recoil to leap backward, half his body retreating into Kamui's spatial Uzumaki.

Looking at the Iron Anchor that had been split in two, a hint of surprise flashed in Obito's eyes, but he quickly regained his cold, mocking expression.

"Impressive decision-making, Naruto Uzumaki. But did you think my goal was merely to kill a few insignificant fodder?"

Obito reached into his black robe with his left hand and yanked out a mangled arm covered in mud and slime.

That was his right arm, which Naruto had severed in the previous battle and which bore the Flying Thunder God Mark!

Naruto's expression suddenly darkened; he immediately sensed something was wrong.

Obito slammed the severed arm against the edge of the collapsing spatial rift, Sharingan terrifying burst of bloody light.

"Reverse Summoning Technique!"

The next second, the Flying Thunder God Mark on the severed arm didn't activate a spatial jump; instead, it erupted with a blinding black Chakra. This light was like a giant water pump, forcibly drawing out an extremely large mass of dark red Leyline, radiating an ancient and violent aura, from the deepest part of the earth along the cracks in the Iron Anchor's ley lines!

"He's using your Flying Thunder God Mark as a Coordinates for reverse positioning!" Kakashi warned sharply. "That Chakra is strange!"

Obito grabbed the ball of dark red Chakra and roughly pressed it into his broken right shoulder.

The grayish-white fleshy buds proliferated wildly as if injected with chicken blood, and a brand new arm covered with dark wood grain instantly took shape. Not only that, Obito's aura more than doubled at that moment, and the suffocating sense of oppression made him seem like a completely different person.

Obito's figure blurred completely in the Kamui Uzumaki, leaving only his last, chilling declaration echoing through the rift valley.

"You saved the base, but you helped me retrieve the strongest nourishment nurtured within the Leyline. Naruto, enjoy the hell that's about to begin."

"The Ten-Tails' eyes... have opened."

"Boom--!!!"

The instant Obito disappeared, deep in the Northern Wasteland, dozens of kilometers away, the earth cracked open without warning.

An extremely thick, blood-red beam of light, carrying an aura of destruction, shot straight into the sky, shattering the dark clouds that filled the heavens.

The entire Shinobi World groaned in agony at that moment, overwhelmed by the unbearable pressure. The battle had spiraled completely out of control.