You Can't Just Chase Obito
Morning. Battlefield in the Northern Wasteland.
A towering crimson beam of light tore through the thick, dark clouds. The earth trembled violently with a mournful cry, and thick, brown roots, as thick as water vats, gushed forth from the depths of the ground, like a group of ancient pythons that had smelled blood.
Not all of these roots attacked Naruto. The thickest main vein suddenly made an incredible turn in mid-air, accompanied by a piercing whistling sound, and crashed straight into the Allied Shinobi Forces' rear positions more than ten kilometers away.
Above the deep pit, Obito hovered at the edge of the distorted spatial rift. On his right arm, which had just been regenerated using the Ten-Tails 'Chakra, the wood grain writhed as if alive.
"Naruto, you are indeed fast." Obito looked down at the bottom of the pit, his remaining Sharingan gleaming with condescending mockery. "But can you be in two places at the same time? Catch up and kill me, or go back to save those trash who aren't even cannon fodder. Choose one."
Nausea.
Only those two words flashed through Naruto's mind. This so-called "either/or" choice, which he thought he had seen through human nature, was utterly rotten.
He didn't even look up at Obito's pretentious face.
"Boom!"
Pure Yang Chakra exploded on Naruto, and the materialized golden flames instantly crushed the surrounding rubble into powder. His back muscles tightened suddenly, and nine thick golden chains burst out of his body.
Without pausing for a moment, Naruto exerted force with his legs, advancing instead of retreating, charging towards the thick root that was crashing towards the Allied Shinobi Forces' position.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains - Town!"
Nine golden rays intertwined in mid-air to form a massive net, plunging deep into the hard rock of the wasteland. Accompanied by a sickening metallic scraping sound, the golem's Golem root, carrying destructive energy, was forcefully pinned to the ground, unable to advance any further. The scorching Yang Release aura spread along the chains, carbonizing the surface of the root and emitting plumes of white smoke.
"See? You'll always be held back by the weak." Obito's mocking smile widened. "That's the Achilles' heel of you self-proclaimed righteous people."
Naruto gripped the chains tightly with both hands, turned his head, and spat out a mouthful of saliva without any politeness.
"Are you out of your mind?" Naruto's voice was loud enough to echo throughout the entire rift valley. "Anyone who can be held back by their comrades wouldn't fall into a stinking ditch like you and rot away!"
Obito's cold smile froze abruptly.
Just as Obito was momentarily stunned by those words, an extremely ear-piercing roar of Chakra erupted from the other side of the pit.
Kakashi made his move.
He no longer questioned the past like a resentful woman. The nightmares that tormented him in the dead of night were forcibly sealed away in his heart the moment he saw Obito using living people as bargaining chips.
His left Mangekyō Sharingan spun wildly, blood trickling down the corner of his eye and dripping onto his silver armor. His gaze was fixed on a thorny root that was attempting to sneak up on Naruto from the side.
"Kamui!"
The space in front of them instantly twisted into a miniature Uzumaki. The root, as hard as iron, was directly severed in half by the power of space.
But at the very moment the Ninjutsu was activated, Kakashi's brain went blank with a loud buzzing sound.
It feels so clear.
When his gaze passed over the severed roots and landed on the void cracks around Obito in mid-air, his left eye uncontrollably produced an extremely strong resonance.
The frequency, fluctuations, and flow of Chakra are exactly the same.
This isn't some similar Ninjutsu. It's the same pair of eyes. Obito's right eye and Kakashi's left eye have always shared the same spatial dimension!
This means that Obito's so-called invincible Hollowfication has a backdoor in front of Kakashi.
"Kakashi-sensei, what are you daydreaming about!" Naruto's shout pulled him back to reality.
The battle allows no room for distraction.
Suddenly, a very clear electrical microphone sound came from Naruto's right tactical earpiece. It was Hinata was far away in the command center, fully activating her Byakugan to monitor the entire scene.
"Naruto-kun! The Ten-Tails 'Chakra within Obito is backfiring on his meridians; he can't maintain his intangible state for long." Hinata's voice was clear, decisive, and without a trace of fear. "At ten o'clock, twenty meters underground, the spatial distortion rate is rapidly decreasing. He must materialize to breathe in three seconds; the time window is only 0.5 seconds!"
"Roger that!" Naruto grinned wildly. This was the comrade he would protect even at the cost of his life, a million times more effective than Obito's damned talk.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs.
Before he could finish speaking, a blinding burst of azure lightning suddenly exploded on the cliff face less than fifty meters to Obito's left.
Sasuke, using the Flying Thunder God Coordinates left behind at the front lines, had somehow managed to get close by with his ultimate Lightning Release: Body Flicker Technique Movement. His Six-Pointed Star Mangekyo Sharingan, which had just undergone its transformation in Lightning Cloud Gorge, emitted a chilling crimson light in the dark ravine.
"Chidori Sharp Spear!"
The moment the Kusanagi Sword was drawn, violent Lightning Release Chakra clung to the blade, instantly swelling into a dazzling lightning blade forty meters long. Sasuke didn't even aim at Obito's current afterimage; instead, based on Hinata's callout, he swept the lightning blade across all of Obito's escape routes in the ten o'clock direction.
Obito's eyelids twitched wildly.
There's no escaping it.
This kid's Lightning Release has sealed off the blind spot of Kamui's teleportation. If he tries to teleport by force, his body will be cut in two.
Without any hesitation, Obito was forced to prematurely deactivate his Hollowfication state. His solidified body twisted violently in mid-air, narrowly avoiding the lightning that grazed his scalp.
"Got you!"
Just half a second after Obito materialized, a thunderous roar exploded in his ears.
The rock beneath Naruto's feet shattered with a deafening roar, and he transformed into a blinding bolt of golden lightning. Flying Thunder God Technique activated!
Instead of using the conventional Kunai positioning, he directly used the remaining Flying Thunder God Mark on the severed arm that Obito had just absorbed to cross space and appear right in front of Obito face to face!
In his hand was a Sage Art: Rasengan, compressed to its limit and gleaming with a bluish-green light.
"Bang!"
Obito reacted extremely quickly, forcefully turning his head to the side. However, his newly grown right arm, along with the remaining fragment of half a mask on his face, was violently grazed by the spinning force of the Rasengan.
Blood, flesh, and sawdust flew everywhere!
Obito was like a kite with a broken string, slammed into the rock wall behind him by the enormous impact, creating a huge crater more than ten meters deep.
Amidst the rising dust, Obito slowly stood up.
The face, covered in terrifying wrinkles, was completely exposed to the air. Most of its right shoulder had been cut off, and dark red blood dripped down the grayish-white wood grain.
His usual air of composure vanished. For the first time, the mocking condescension he once held in that solitary Sharingan was replaced by undisguised gloom and fury.
How many years has it been? Since he put on the mask, he has never been forced into such a wretched state.
"Naruto Uzumaki..." Obito's voice sounded like it was being squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying a chilling undertone.
Naruto flicked the wood chips off his hands, landing steadily on the ground. He stared directly into Obito's murderous eyes. "What, finally can't keep up the act anymore? Or is this face too shameful to bear, and you're getting angry?"
Obito didn't reply. He stared intently at Naruto for a moment, then his body began to contort again.
The Ten-Tails 'Chakra was surging wildly within him, and his current physical condition was simply insufficient to deal with Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi, who had completely mastered the secrets of Kamui, all at the same time.
"Consider yourselves lucky." Obito's figure rapidly faded within the Uzumaki. "But the course of this war is no longer something you reptiles can decide."
The spatial rift closed completely. The traces of Obito disappeared without a trace.
The bottom of the pit fell silent once more. Only the Golem of the golem, nailed Adamantine Sealing Chains, twitched helplessly.
"He got away." Sasuke sheathed his Kusanagi Sword, his brow furrowed.
"It's not that simple." Naruto stared intently at the spot where Obito had disappeared.
Just now, he keenly sensed that as Obito used Earth Release to escape, the violent Chakra belonging to the Ten-Tails underground did not weaken. On the contrary, the Chakra seemed to have received some kind of command, and was converging in another direction at an extremely terrifying speed along the Leyline.
Suddenly, Karin's distorted scream came through the earphones, filled with barely concealed terror.
"Naruto! Something's wrong! The Ten-Tails 'Chakra flow has changed! It hasn't returned to the underground!"
"Where did they go?" Naruto's heart sank.
"East... the edge of the Fourth Defense Zone!" Karin's voice trembled. "That Chakra... straight into that Edo Impure World Body with the 'Madara' suffix! That corpse... is alive!"
The wind stopped flowing at that moment.
Naruto abruptly raised his head, looking towards the eastern horizon. The once clear sky was being visibly dyed a deathly leaden gray. An extremely ancient and pure aura of destruction, belonging to the Warring States period, was resurfacing unbridled at the edge of the horizon.