Eye Power

A figure walked slowly into the Cave.

Asami Ri looked at the two defenseless backs, then at Kakkō, who was about to make one final, desperate struggle. His gaze was indifferent.

"On the battlefield, never turn your back on an enemy who's still breathing."

His voice was quiet, yet it sounded like an incantation from the abyss. Kakkō looked up in terror, only to see Asami Ri casually flick his wrist.

Whoosh!

A kunai tore through the air and pierced Kakkō's throat.

The madness in Kakkō's eyes scattered in an instant. Two broken, blood-choked gurgles escaped his throat before his body went completely limp, all life extinguished.

Obito and Kakashi whipped around, only then realizing how close death had come.

"Ri..." Kakashi looked at the teammate who had arrived just in time, then at Kakkō, killed in a single strike. Relief welled up from the depths of his heart.

Asami Ri ignored the corpse on the ground and calmly lowered his hand, his gaze settling on Obito's blood-red eyes.

"Mission accomplished, Obito, Kakashi," he said softly. "Bring Rin. It's time to leave."

Asami Ri retrieved his kunai without letting his gaze linger on Kakkō's corpse.

He knew Kakkō's death was not the end, but the signal for this play to reach its climax and draw out the "supporting character" who could truly change fate.

Just as the four of them rescued Rin Nohara and prepared to leave the Cave, something unexpected happened.

A pallid, slippery figure silently emerged from underground like a ghost seeping out of a swamp, then plunged through Kakkō's wound into his still-warm remains.

"Crack... pop..."

Kakkō, who had been thoroughly dead, rose again with extreme stiffness, his body producing sharp cracks of dislocating bones.

An inhuman pallor faintly surfaced beneath his skin.

Rather than attacking at close range, he pressed his palms together, his voice rasping like sandpaper.

"Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction!"

The entire Cave let out an earth-shaking groan in an instant.

The stone pillars supporting the ceiling shattered with a crash, and countless tons of boulders rained down on their heads like meteors.

"Run!" Kakashi shouted, but his blind left eye severely impaired his spatial awareness.

Just as a massive boulder came roaring down toward Kakashi's head, a figure swept past faster than lightning.

"Kakashi!"

Obito let out a heart-rending roar. Without a second thought, he unleashed unprecedented strength in his legs and, at the last possible instant, shoved Kakashi away with everything he had.

Boom!!!

The heavy thud of the falling rock echoed through the dust-filled cave, slamming into everyone's hearts.

As the dust settled slightly, Kakashi raised his head, trembling. Obito's entire right side had vanished beneath the massive boulder. Blood silently seeped through the cracks, staining the dry ground red.

Fate froze in that moment.

Asami Ri stood a short distance away, his expression hidden in shadow.

"Cough... ngh..." Obito vomited mouthfuls of blood. Amid the gore, his two-tomoe Sharingan looked heartbreakingly beautiful and resolute.

He looked at Kakashi kneeling before him and managed a relieved smile on his pale face.

"Kakashi... don't cry... I haven't given you... a gift for becoming a Jonin yet, have I...?"

Obito struggled for breath as he looked at Kakashi's ruined left eye, the red glow of his Sharingan flickering in the darkness.

"Take my eye... as your gift. I'll become your eye... and help you see the road ahead..."

That iconic declaration echoed through the collapsing Cave.

Asami Ri lowered his eyes, concealing the desire burning deep within them.

Rin Nohara fought back grief that threatened to break her. With trembling fingers, she pulled out her medical kit and quickly laid out the surgical instruments amid the rubble and blood.

Asami Ri stepped forward and crouched in the pool of blood, his voice low and steady. "Rin, let me help. I've studied some medical Ninjutsu too. I can help you perform the surgery."

He acted like a comrade struggling to stay calm in a hopeless situation, deftly taking the disinfectant and sterilizing his hands amid its pungent fumes.

Asami Ri watched Rin Nohara's work up close.

With a precise incision of the scalpel, the Sharingan that symbolized the Uchiha's honor was carefully removed.

When Rin Nohara passed him the bloodied eyeball, Asami Ri reached out with both hands to receive it.

Two tomoe rested quietly in its blood-red iris. Even separated from its owner, the reluctance to part held within it remained unmistakable.

The pupil seemed to stare through Asami Ri's palm and straight into his soul.

[Special Chakra detected. Based on the host's memories, the target has been designated "Sharingan Eye Power." Absorb?]

Asami Ri's breathing quickened in an instant.

Just as I thought... my theory was right! His heart surged with ecstasy.

Once an eye is separated from its host, Celestial Pivot considers it an "Ownerless Object."

And if it's an Ownerless Object, I can absorb its Chakra!

He forcibly suppressed his elation and carefully cleaned away the remaining blood. To Rin and Kakashi, he was merely pressing his lips tightly together in overwhelming grief, his body trembling slightly with the effort to contain it.

Absorb one quarter of the Eye Power, he instructed Celestial Pivot in his mind.

He could not drain the eye dry. Otherwise, Kakashi would be unable to defeat the enemy before them, and the rest of the script would fall apart completely.

In an instant, a cold, frenzied surge of Chakra rushed through the pathways in his palm and into his brain.

[Absorption successful. Eye Power is being analyzed...]

"Ri, is it ready? Please pass me Obito's eye." Rin Nohara's tearful voice interrupted Ri's "revelation." She had already finished treating Kakashi's damaged eye socket.

"Here."

With a solemn expression, Asami Ri handed the eye over, his movements as gentle as though he were holding a priceless treasure.

The instant Rin Nohara took the eyeball and focused all her attention on the transplant, Asami Ri used the motion of withdrawing his hands to silently slip the blood between his fingers into a sterile test tube he had hidden in his sleeve.

Obito's Eye Power, and a Uchiha Gene sample...

Kakashi slowly opened his left eye.

Against the scarlet background, two black tomoe made one sluggish rotation within the iris before his gaze settled firmly into focus.

An unprecedented clarity that captured every movement in the world nearly gave him the illusion that time and space had stopped.

"Thank goodness... there's no rejection." Rin clutched Obito's hand tightly. Amid a flood of grief deep enough to drown her, she tried to cling to this one scrap of comfort that could be called "good news."

But the world outside had no intention of giving them time to mourn.

Boom!

Kakashi snapped his head up and used his newly acquired Sharingan to see through the gaps in the rubble overhead.

He drew the White Fang short blade and burst through the rubble like a thunderbolt, charging toward the surface.

Above the collapsed ruins, the man called "Kakkō" stood rigidly upright.

His skin had turned a sickly, deathly white, as though some parasitic plant had forcibly stretched out his skin. His movements were twisted and bizarre.

He was a puppet under White Zetsu Possession, his strength and Chakra instantly elevated to an entirely different level.

The two clashed.

Even with the Sharingan, Kakashi found himself locked in a bitter fight.

The White Zetsu-controlled "Kakkō" made no attempt to defend himself, fighting with complete disregard for his life. Even when Kakashi's White Fang short blade sliced open his shoulder, he did not retreat. Instead, he used the opening to strike, cleaving the White Fang short blade in two.

"What kind of monster... is this guy?!" Kakashi panted, the Sharingan draining his Chakra at a frantic pace.

"Kakashi, duck!"

Asami Ri's furious shout came from the flank.

Ri's hands rapidly formed hand seals, and four solidly formed Water Clones shot forth.

Ignoring Kakkō's counterattacks entirely, the clones launched a suicidal encirclement from four blind spots, locking his limbs firmly in place.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Ball!"

The Water Clones burst, revealing the flickering Lightning Balls hidden within them. Electricity climbed along his limbs and into his torso.

Although lightning release of this level could not kill White Zetsu, the intense electromagnetic paralysis froze the body for a fraction of a second.

Through the Sharingan, that fleeting opening was practically an eternity.

"Now, Kakashi!" Asami Ri shouted.

Understanding flashed through Kakashi. A shriek like a thousand birds crying at once erupted from his right palm.

"Chidori!"

Blue-white lightning pierced the dim Dense Forest.

Kakashi became a sharp bolt of lightning. Guided precisely by the Sharingan, his hand pierced Kakkō's pallid chest like the keenest blade, meeting no resistance as it shredded the heart that had already stopped beating.

Kakkō's body convulsed violently once. The white substance beneath his skin recoiled as though frightened, rapidly retreating underground.

Kakashi did not even check whether the enemy was dead. The instant Chidori faded, he spun around and swept back into the depths of the Cave, trailing a fierce gust.

"Obito... Obito!"

Asami Ri stood atop the ruins, watching Kakashi's desperate retreat, then lowered his gaze to the utterly lifeless corpse.

He walked slowly over to Kakkō's mangled remains and crouched.

Kakashi's Chidori had not only shattered the enemy's heart, but also torn apart the foreign organism parasitizing it.

Asami Ri keenly spotted a small mass of pallid substance still wriggling faintly.

With the tip of his kunai, he carefully lifted the little gelatinous clump of residual White Zetsu tissue.

"It seems the mastermind behind this play left a generous tip."

Unhurriedly, he took out another sterile test tube and carefully sealed the White Zetsu Tissue inside.

Asami Ri stood quietly in the wind, feeling the two test tubes against his chest and listening to the faint sobbing from deep within the cave.

Cold wind poured through the canyon and into the shattered Cave, producing mournful howls.

He took one last look at the collapsed ruins, concealed every ripple of emotion beneath his calm gaze, and murmured softly.

"The Battle of Kannabi Bridge... is over."