Obito locked his arms around the girl in his embrace, his fingers digging so hard into her back that they nearly sank into it, as though she would vanish completely if he loosened his grip even an inch.
His chin rested on her shoulder. Beneath his mask, his face twisted, his lips moving incessantly without forming a single complete syllable.
Then the person in his arms began to shatter.
Rin's body began breaking apart at the edges, like a sheet of paper licked by flames. A pale blue glow shimmered along her outline as pieces peeled away and dissolved.
The tips of her hair, her shoulders, her arms, her gently smiling face-every fragment drifted into the night breeze like scattered dandelion seeds, silently fading into nothingness.
"Rin..."
For the first time, Obito's voice choked with tears. He desperately tightened his arms, trying to hold on to the fragments slipping away.
But the person in his embrace grew lighter and thinner, until the final fragment slipped through his fingertips.
Nothing remained between his arms but the empty night breeze.
"Rin... Rin!!"
As though he had lost his mind, Obito clawed wildly ahead of him, grasping and snatching, his fingers flailing through the air in an attempt to catch the fragments that had already vanished.
He staggered two steps forward, grabbing to his left, then his right, finding only emptiness.
A thin blue line carrying the breath of death came straight at him.
It moved blindingly fast, slicing directly toward Obito's neck.
"Sage Art: Water Release: Waterline Slash."
Tianyi kept two fingers of his right hand extended like a sword. The waterline at his fingertips still quivered slightly, like a venomous snake waiting to strike.
"Obito!"
Black Zetsu's sharp, frantic voice rang out from some unknown corner, trying to rouse Obito from