Words that cut to the heart! Where were you when Rin died?

"Leave it behind, and I'll be merciful enough to let you join your Rin in the Pure Land. How about it?"

Those words were like a rusty saw, viciously cutting into the softest, most bloodied piece of rotting flesh in Obito's heart.

Above the ruins of the Morgue, the air seemed to freeze in an instant.

Even the flames filling the sky seemed to dim, leaving only the almost tangible, chilling killing intent that suddenly erupted from Obito.

"How dare you..."

Obito's voice trembled.

Even with his mask on, even as he struggled to maintain the cold image of a mastermind pulling strings from the shadows, his body's instinctive reaction could not lie.

"How dare you say that name!!"

Boom!

The top of the tower beneath Obito's feet shattered instantly.

He did not attack immediately. Instead, he stared fixedly at Chiya. The shock and wariness in his one exposed eye had vanished completely, replaced by the madness of someone whose deepest taboo had been violated.

"Looks like I hit a sore spot."

Standing opposite him, Chiya did not retreat in the slightest before Obito's overwhelming killing intent. Instead, he casually thrust Ryūjin Jakka into a rock beside him and folded his arms, looking ready to enjoy the show.

"But don't get angry just yet."

"Let me guess. Right now, you must be thinking: how does this brat know Rin's name? How does he know my past? Did Zetsu betray me? Or did Madara leave some contingency behind?"

With every question Chiya asked, Obito's heart sank further.

Because every single one was right!

Those were precisely the questions terrifying him at that moment.

"Stop guessing." Chiya shrugged. "I know far more than that walnut-sized brain of yours could ever hold."

"Hmph... nothing but smoke and mirrors."

Obito took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his heart. He straightened his back again, trying to armor himself with the lie he had long since learned by heart.

"I am Madara Uchiha!"

"The Asura of the Shinobi World! The specter of the Uchiha Clan!"

"No matter how you learned those old stories, information means nothing before absolute power!"

Obito's voice became low and hoarse again, adopting the imposing tone of Madara that he had imitated countless times. He tried to use that name to overwhelm the arrogant youngster before him, and to hypnotize his own cowardly self.

"A name?"

"To me now, a name is merely a designation. I am nothingness. I am the void. I am the one who will cleanse this world of despair..."

"Pfft."

Chiya could not help laughing again.

This time, his laughter was louder and more grating.

"Oh, I can't take it. My stomach hurts from laughing."

Chiya rubbed his stomach and looked at Obito with pity. "Tell me, Obito, have you gotten addicted to acting? Are you even fooling yourself now?"

"Madara Uchiha? The Asura?"

"Drop the act, Obito Uchiha!"

Chiya abruptly stopped smiling and took a step forward. His presence turned as sharp as a blade, tearing straight through the "Madara" disguise Obito had just rebuilt.

"The real Madara Uchiha was the domineering king of the Shinobi World's dance floor, the man who dared to raise his blade against Hashirama Senju and take on the Five Great Nations alone!"

"And you?"

Chiya raised a finger and pointed mercilessly at Obito's orange Spiral Mask:

"You're just a pathetic wretch who doesn't even dare show his real face, who hides behind a mask and uses someone else's name to cover up his own incompetence!"

"You're not 'nothingness,' and you're not 'the void.'"

"You're the same dead last who had half his body crushed by a rock during the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, who cried and begged to give his Sharingan to Kakashi, only to end up watching helplessly as the girl he loved died!"

Boom!!!

Those words struck the crown of Obito's head with the precision of a thunderbolt out of a clear sky.

Kannabi Bridge...

The rock...

The eye he had given Kakashi...

Those buried memories, that past he had desperately tried to forget and bury, were now dug out by Chiya, bloody and raw, and exposed to the sun.

Obito's body shook violently, and his face beneath the mask twisted beyond recognition.

"You... shut up!!!"

Obito roared, his voice as shrill as a beast's howl. He could no longer maintain "Madara's" tone. This was Obito's own voice, filled with pain and despair.

"Can't take it already?"

Chiya sneered, his Mangekyō Sharingan gleaming with a cold light that seemed to see straight into the heart.

"The best part is still to come."

Chiya slowly drew Ryūjin Jakka from the rock beside him, idly toying with its hilt as he spoke:

"You keep saying you want to create 'a world with her in it.'"

"You keep saying this world is hell, that it's false."

"But Obito, there's something I want to ask you."

Chiya stopped moving his hands. His gaze flashed like lightning, locking onto Obito's trembling exposed eye.

"When Rin Nohara, the girl you couldn't stop thinking about, was captured by Kirigakure and made into the Three-Tails' Jinchūriki..."

"Where were you?"

Obito's breath abruptly caught.

"When she chose to throw herself onto Kakashi's Lightning Blade to protect Konoha, staining the hand that pierced her heart with blood..."

"Where were you?!"

Chiya's voice suddenly rose, like the thunder of judgment:

"Were you watching from that dark, damp underground hole?"

"Or were you busy being Madara Uchiha's dog, busy listening to that old bastard brainwash you, busy accepting your so-called 'destiny'?"

"No... no..." Obito clutched his head and stumbled back two steps in agony.

That scene had haunted him all his life.

The blood-red moon, the splattering blood, Kakashi's hand piercing Rin's chest, and the tragically beautiful look in her eyes as she finally fell.

That had been the beginning of hell.

"You were right there watching, weren't you?"

Chiya gave him no chance to breathe, pressing forward relentlessly, every word cutting into his heart:

"You had the Mangekyō. You had an ability as absurdly powerful as Kamui."

"But did you save her?"

"No!"

"You did nothing! You just watched like a coward as she died at your best friend's hands, then blamed everything on this world, on Kakashi, on Konoha!"

"You unleashed the Nine-Tails' Rampage and killed your teacher, Minato Namikaze, and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, who loved you like her own son!"

Chiya pointed at the shattered likeness of the Fourth Hokage on the distant Hokage Rock and shouted harshly:

"Is that your love for Rin?"

"Is that what you call salvation?"

"If you really loved her, why didn't you go to Orochimaru and learn Impure World Reincarnation? Why didn't you beg Nagato to revive her with Rinne Rebirth?"

"You didn't! Because you never dared face reality! All you dare do is hide inside that illusory Eye of the Moon Plan, using the lives of all humanity to fill the emptiness in your heart!"

"Enough... stop... please, stop..."

Obito's mental defenses had collapsed completely. He gripped his hair with both hands, his face beneath the mask already drenched in tears.

Those tears mingled remorse, pain, and utter madness.

But Chiya had no intention of letting him off.

To kill a man, first destroy his heart.

Only by completely shattering Obito's convictions could he force this troublesome enemy to reveal his greatest opening.

Chiya stopped just ten meters from Obito and regarded him with utter contempt and disgust.

"Obito Uchiha."

"If I were Rin, and I saw you like this from the Pure Land..."

"If I saw your hands stained with your teacher's and his wife's blood, saw you become a monster, neither human nor ghost, who does nothing but scheme..."

Chiya paused, then delivered the final, fatal blow:

"She would feel nothing but disgust!"

Bzzzt-!

That final word was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

The thread called reason in Obito's mind snapped completely.

Disgust...

Rin would be disgusted by me...

Everything I've done was for her... but she would be disgusted by me...

"Aaaaaaah!!!!!"

A heart-rending wail echoed through the night sky.

Obito jerked his head up. Not a trace of reason remained in his exposed eye, only endless madness and brutality. Blood vessels webbed his eyeball, as though it would burst out of its socket.

"What do you know?!"

"You brat! You don't understand anything!!"

"This world is hell! As long as Rin is in this world, her fate will always be tragic! Only Infinite Tsukuyomi! Only in that dream world can Rin truly live!!"

Obito seemed to have gone insane, his chakra rampaging wildly.

Countless sharp wooden spikes sprouted from every part of his body as the out-of-control Hashirama cells responded to the distortion in his heart.

"I'll kill you!!"

"I'll kill you, you bastard who denies my dream!!"

"Wood Release: Hellish Rampage!!"

Rumble!

Obito slammed both hands into the ground.

This time, it was no mere cutting technique.

Hundreds, thousands of twisted trees, carrying a dark-red aura of blood, grew wildly from the ground, the walls, even the air itself. Like thorny tentacles crawling out of hell, they swept toward Chiya from every direction.

This was Wood Release running berserk!

The physical manifestation of Obito's despair and hatred!

"Finally lost it?"

Watching the scene before him, like a horde of demons dancing wildly, Chiya showed no fear. Instead, a satisfied sneer spread across his face.

A rational Obito was difficult to handle because he could flee at any time or use Kamui to evade attacks.

But an Obito who had gone mad...

Would think only of attacking, only of killing.

And to attack, he had to become tangible!

"Come on, then!"

"Since you think reality is hell, I'll show you what a true inferno looks like!"

Ryūjin Jakka rang clearly in Chiya's hand.

He used no flashy moves.

He simply gripped the sword with both hands and slashed viciously at the Wood Release thorns sweeping toward him from across the sky!

"Shiranui Style!"

Boom!

Two enormous whirlwinds of flame burst forth in a crossing pattern, like two golden fire dragons, and plunged straight into the twisted forest.

Wood Release was powerful, but before Ryūjin Jakka's explosive flames, it was still nothing more than the finest fuel.

Crackle!

The flames instantly ignited the thorns, racing wildly along the branches toward Obito behind them.

"Die! Die! Die!!"

Obito had abandoned all restraint. He charged into the flames, using Kamui's Hollowfication to force his way through the sea of fire, a massive wooden spike in his hand aimed straight at Chiya's heart.

"I'll tear your mouth apart!!"

The distance between them closed in an instant.

Five meters... three meters... one meter!

Chiya could clearly see the Mangekyō spinning wildly in Obito's exposed eye, along with the killing intent that almost seemed to spill out of it.

"Now!"

A sharp glint flashed in Chiya's eyes.

The instant the wooden spike in Obito's hand was about to touch his chest was also the instant Obito had to release Hollowfication and become tangible to attack.

Chiya moved.

Flash Step!

His body left an afterimage where he had stood, while his true body had already appeared at Obito's side.

Ryūjin Jakka swept out with the resolve to sever everything!

"This slash is for your teacher, Minato Namikaze!"

Shhk!

A golden blade flashed past.

Although Obito had instinctively sensed the danger at the last moment and desperately tried to activate Hollowfication again...

Chiya's blade was too fast!

And with his mind in turmoil, his reactions had slowed.

The blade sliced through Obito's right shoulder without resistance.

A pale arm (made of white Zetsu cells), along with most of his shoulder, flew straight into the air!

"Aaaah!!!"

Obito let out an agonized scream as the impact sent him flying backward, slamming hard into the distant rubble.

"Looks like even your Kamui can't spare you all the pain."

Chiya flicked the blood off his blade and walked toward Obito, who lay on the ground, one step at a time.

"Well? This pain of reality..."

"Does it feel real enough?"