The wind howled through the Eighth Gorge, carrying a heavy stench of blood and scorched earth.
The sunset on the horizon was so darkly red that it looked as if someone had splashed a basin of thick blood across the sky.
Madara Uchiha stood atop a hundred-meter-high cliff, rotating his freshly reconstructed neck as his joints crackled like popping beans. The cracked Impure World Reincarnation skin covering his body was rapidly regaining its color and vitality. He looked down at Sasuke, who was approaching at a leisurely pace, and curled his lips into an utterly arrogant smile.
"Brat, your eyes are indeed impressive, but if you think you can challenge me with that little bit of ocular power, you're still far too weak." Madara's voice was not loud, yet it exploded against everyone's eardrums as though he were speaking right beside them.
Sasuke stopped walking, the bizarre six-pointed star in his left eye spinning madly. A purple-black Susanoo cloak wrapped around him like blazing flames. He slowly raised the Kusanagi Sword, pointing its tip straight at Madara's nose.
"Cut the crap, old man." Sasuke's voice was cold enough to freeze over. "Your era ends in this pit today."
At the instant the two stood on the verge of clashing, Obito Uchiha's expression darkened completely for the first time.
Obito floated dozens of meters above the ground, his pure-white Six Paths cloak snapping in the wind. Several black Truth-Seeking Orbs hung behind him, originally rotating steadily. But now, his gaze was fixed on Madara atop the cliff. His eyelids twitched violently, and the muscles in his cheeks spasmed several times against his will.
"He actually broke the Impure World Reincarnation contract himself..." Obito gritted his back teeth, a low curse rumbling in his throat.
All this time, Obito had believed that