The agony from his severed arm was not the bloody, tearing pain of an open wound. It was a burning sensation that seemed to boil his very marrow. The utterly overbearing heat of Ryūjin Jakka had completely carbonized the wound the instant it severed his arm.
There was no blood.
Only a nauseating smell of charred flesh-the stench of scorched white Zetsu cells.
"Aaaaaaah!!!"
Clutching his empty right shoulder, Obito staggered backward and slammed his back into a broken stone pillar.
It hurt!
It hurt so much!
But that physical pain was not even a ten-thousandth of the anguish of his inner collapse.
A hairline crack had split his mask during the impact, exposing half a face covered in wrinkles and scars. The calculating depth of a mastermind had vanished from his lone eye, replaced by the shame, fury, and madness of someone stripped of every disguise.
The identity he took such pride in-Madara Uchiha-had been exposed as a lie. The justification he used to hypnotize himself-for peace-had been rejected. Even the name he held most sacred-Rin-had been trampled by this brat's cruelest words!
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!!"
Obito roared hysterically, his voice as shrill as a ghost's. "What do you know?! A brat who knows nothing but slaughter could never understand true despair!!"
"Despair?"
Chiya stood where he was, lightly flicking nonexistent dust from his sword tip. His gaze remained as indifferent as if he were watching a rabid stray dog.
"I really don't understand it."
"Because in this world, anyone who could make me despair..."
Chiya slowly raised his head, his reiatsu sweeping across the battlefield like a storm.
"Hasn't been born yet."
"Arrogant bastard!! I'll tear you to pieces! I'll send you to hell to repent!!"
Obito completely lost control.
No longer caring about his chakra consumption, he snapped through hand seals with his remaining left hand. His crimson Mangekyō Sharingan spun wildly, and ripples in space churned like boiling water.
"Kamui!!"
Vmmm!
Obito's figure warped and vanished in an instant.
The next second.
Without warning, a massive vortex opened in the space behind Chiya.
Like a demon crawling out of hell, Obito emerged halfway from the vortex. His remaining left hand gripped a black rod formed from intensely compressed Wood Release chakra, thrusting it straight at the back of Chiya's neck!
Fast!
With the instantaneous movement of Space-Time Ninjutsu, there was almost no delay to the attack!
"Die!!"
And yet.
Just as the black rod was about to touch Chiya's skin.
"Too slow."
An icy voice burst beside Obito's ear.
Whoosh!
Chiya's figure moved like a gust of wind-no, faster than the wind. It was Flash Step, a speed beyond what the naked eye could follow!
His afterimage remained in place, but his real body had already vanished.
Obito's black rod viciously pierced the afterimage Chiya had left behind, striking nothing.
"What?!"
Obito's pupil contracted sharply.
This was space-time movement! Although he had to materialize to attack, that process was extremely brief. Even Minato Namikaze back then had only managed to react thanks to a Flying Thunder God Mark.
Chiya Uchiha clearly had no Flying Thunder God Formula on him. How could he possibly dodge?!
"Who are you looking for?"
The voice came from overhead.
Obito jerked his head up. Chiya was hanging upside down in midair, bringing Ryūjin Jakka down toward his head with crushing force!
"Nadegiri!"
Golden sword light cascaded down like a waterfall.
With nowhere to dodge, Obito could only grit his teeth and activate that unfair ability again.
"Hollowfication!"
Whoosh!
Carrying heat of several thousand degrees, the blade passed through Obito's body without resistance. It was like cutting through a hologram, without so much as a ripple.
The blade struck the ground, instantly splitting the earth with a bottomless fissure as magma erupted.
Obito stood unharmed at the edge of the fissure.
"Nullification of physical attacks..."
Chiya landed, frowning slightly.
Although he had long known Kamui's properties, experiencing that sensation of having strength but nowhere to apply it was genuinely irritating.
"Hmph... hahahaha!"
Seeing that he had escaped disaster, Obito broke into manic laughter. "Did you see that, Chiya?! This is Kamui! This is the despair you'll have to face!"
"As long as I wish it, no attack in this world can touch me!"
"Is that so?"
Chiya sneered, his figure flashing into motion again.
If one slash could not hit him, then he would strike ten times, a hundred times!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
At that moment, Chiya pushed Flash Step to its limit.
Dozens of Chiyas seemed to appear simultaneously above the ruins. Every figure swung a sword, and every flash of blade light sealed off all of Obito's escape routes.
Yet Obito was like a ghost walking in another dimension.
No matter how dense or ferocious Chiya's sword strikes became, he merely stood still or moved as casually as if taking a leisurely stroll.
Sword light passed through his head, chest, and limbs... yet inflicted no actual damage.
"Useless! It's useless!"
Maintaining his hollowfication, Obito searched for an opportunity to counterattack.
He was waiting.
Waiting for the instant Chiya exhausted himself, or the instant he exposed an opening.
As long as he seized that moment, he could launch a physical attack or suck Chiya in with Kamui!
"Wood Release: Hellish Rampage!"
Taking advantage of the gap at the end of Chiya's latest assault, Obito stamped his foot.
Rumble!
Countless twisted, thorny trees erupted beneath his feet, surrounding Chiya from every direction like an enormous predatory net.
"Who are you trying to insult with Wood Release this weak?"
Chiya did not even bother swinging his sword. He raised his left hand.
"Hadō #31: Shakkahō!"
Boom!
A red fireball exploded in an instant, burning the incoming Wood Release to ash.
But the instant the flames obscured his vision.
Vmmm!
Spatial distortions appeared behind Chiya to one side again.
This time, Obito did not use a black rod. He reached out directly with his left hand.
"Got you!"
The moment his palm made contact, Kamui's suction would activate, forcibly dragging Chiya into another dimension!
That pale hand was less than ten centimeters from Chiya's shoulder!
At this distance, Obito had to materialize to touch him.
In other words, the moment he attacked was also the moment his defenses were weakest!
This was an all-or-nothing gamble!
Would his hand touch Chiya first, or would Chiya's blade strike him first?!
"You want to compete with my speed?"
A mocking smile curled Chiya's lips.
Enhanced by his Super Kage Level reiatsu, his perception had already locked onto every fluctuation in the surrounding space.
A millisecond before Obito appeared, he had already reacted.
But he did not swing his sword.
Because swinging a sword took time, while Flash Step... required only a thought!
"Flash Step: Utsusemi!"
Chiya's figure flickered slightly where he stood.
Obito's fingers had clearly touched the hem of Chiya's clothes. He could even feel the fabric against his fingertips.
I've won! Wild elation flooded Obito's heart as he unleashed Kamui's suction at full power.
But the next second, the fabric in his hand suddenly felt weightless.
It was nothing more than an outer garment left behind by high-speed movement as a decoy!
"What?!"
Obito grabbed empty air, stumbling forward from the force of his own movement.
Meanwhile, Chiya's real body had already appeared directly above Obito's head.
"You're too slow, Obito."
"As slow as a turtle."
Chiya stomped down, driving his foot viciously toward Obito's back.
Of course, that kick still passed through Obito's body. Obito had reacted swiftly enough to maintain his hollowfication.
The two passed through each other just like that.
It seemed neither could do anything to the other.
For a time, the battle sank into a strange stalemate.
With his blindingly fast Flash Step and reiatsu perception, Chiya made it impossible for Obito to so much as touch his clothes.
With Kamui's hollowfication, Obito made every one of Chiya's slashes strike empty air.
"Hah... hah..."
Obito retreated into the distance, panting heavily.
Maintaining such intensive Kamui hollowfication while constantly guarding against Chiya's ghostlike speed consumed enormous amounts of chakra and mental energy. Especially now that he had lost an arm, severely disrupting both his balance and his chakra flow.
Chiya, on the other hand.
That monster!
After using Flash Step so many times, swinging his sword so often, and even unleashing Kidō, he was still neither flushed nor out of breath. Instead, the chakra within him grew more terrifying by the moment, like a boiling volcano!
Does this guy... have infinite chakra?! Obito was utterly horrified.
He had originally intended to fight a battle of attrition and wear Chiya down.
But now, it seemed he would definitely be the first to fall!
"What's wrong? Out of breath already?"
Standing atop a towering rock, Chiya looked down at Obito with amusement in his eyes.
"Your 'invincibility' doesn't seem all that useful."
"All you can do is scurry around like a rat. Is this what you call 'despair'?"
"Don't get too full of yourself!"
Obito gritted his teeth. "You can't hurt me either! As long as I have Kamui, I can't lose!"
"Can't lose?"
Chiya laughed, and there was something chilling about it.
He slowly raised Ryūjin Jakka, pointing its tip at the sky.
"Obito, have you forgotten?"
"Kamui's hollowfication doesn't actually make you disappear from this world."
"You merely transfer your body into another dimension, leaving a 'projection' in the real world."
"When you want to attack me, you have to materialize."
"And even if you hide in that other dimension... that space isn't absolutely safe either."
Obito's heart tightened. "What do you mean?"
Chiya did not answer. Instead, he began pouring even more violent, densely concentrated reiatsu into Ryūjin Jakka.
The golden flames gradually drew inward, their color growing deeper and deeper until they turned an unsettling dark red.
The surrounding temperature began rising sharply.
It was no longer merely heat that scorched the skin, but a terrifying pressure that warped the air, the light, and even space itself!
"The reason I can't hit you is that my blade isn't fast enough, or rather... its reach isn't broad enough."
"If you can dodge precision strikes..."
"Then what if..."
Chiya abruptly plunged Ryūjin Jakka into the rock beneath his feet.
"I turn every inch of space, every speck of dust within a kilometer of here, into hell?"
"What if I kept this entire world at a devastating temperature, every second of every day?"
"Your Hollowfication can let you hide, sure, but can you hide for the rest of your life? If you've got the guts... never come out for air!"
BOOM!!!
As Chiya's words fell, the earth began to tremble violently.
An unprecedented sense of danger engulfed Obito.
He could feel it.
The ground beneath his feet was melting, and the air around him was burning.
Even... the Kamui Alternate Dimension where he was hiding seemed to feel a searing heat penetrating its spatial barriers!
"You lunatic... what are you going to do?!"
Obito roared in terror.
Chiya grinned, baring a mouthful of stark white teeth.
"What am I going to do?"
"Treat you to a sauna, of course."
"All things in the universe, turn to ashes!"
"Ryūjin Jakka: Flame Hell: Full-Coverage Mode!!"
RUMBLE--!!!!
The next second, the world before Obito's eyes transformed completely into a Crimson Lotus Purgatory.
Before you continue