Can't hit you? Then I'll burn your space too!

The next second, the world before Obito's eyes became an inferno of crimson lotus flames.

RUMBLE-!!!

If the earlier Flame Barrier had created a cage, then this [Flame Hell] had turned the inside of that cage into a pressurized furnace!

With the spot where Chiya had planted his sword as its center, the ground within a thousand-meter radius instantly crumbled.

Countless golden pillars of fire, each more than ten meters across, roared through the earth like furious flame dragons and pierced the heavens. These were no momentary eruptions, but continuous torrents!

In a single breath, the forests, rocks, and ruins surrounding the Uchiha Clan Compound-even the flowing air itself-were forcibly ignited by the absurd heat.

"Sssss..."

Space itself groaned.

The heat warped the light, turning everything in sight into a bizarre, distorted spectacle.

Obito floated in midair, maintaining his intangible state like a ghost isolated from the world.

He watched helplessly as the rock he had stood on moments ago became a pool of crimson lava in the blink of an eye, then vaporized into scalding red mist.

"Madman... this madman!!"

Cold sweat beaded on Obito's forehead, but he immediately realized it had evaporated before it could run down his face, scorched away by the heat seeping through the spatial barrier.

It was too hot!

Even while hiding inside Kamui's separate dimension, the connection through his eyes let him feel the terrifying temperature outside, as though it could roast his very soul dry.

"Is this your strategy, Chiya Uchiha?"

Obito roared into the void, trying to drown out his panic with his own voice. "So what if you burn this place to ashes? As long as I don't materialize, you'll never hurt me!"

"Is that so?"

Chiya's figure flickered in and out of view at the center of the sea of flames.

He had not been consumed by his own fire as Obito had imagined. Instead, the savage golden flames danced merrily around him, as though paying homage to their king.

Chiya rested one hand on his sword's hilt, his tattered robes snapping in the scorching wind. He raised his head and pinpointed Obito through the fire filling the sky.

"Obito, you're far too confident in Kamui."

"Intangibility can indeed let you evade slashes and ninjutsu."

"But haven't you forgotten a basic fact of physiology?"

The smile on Chiya's lips grew crueler. He raised a finger and pointed at the omnipresent sea of flames around them.

"You need to breathe. You need somewhere to stand. You need to... exist."

"In this Flame Hell, there's not an inch of ground to stand on, not a single breath of cool air."

"How long can you stay intangible? Five minutes? Ten?"

"During that time, if you dare materialize for even a microsecond, if your foot dares touch the ground, if your lungs dare draw a single breath..."

Chiya abruptly clenched his fist, and the pillars of fire around him instantly grew even more violent.

"This all-pervading hellfire will burn you to ashes in an instant!"

"That's called-full-map coverage, with no blind spots!"

Obito's expression instantly turned utterly grim.

Chiya was right.

This was Kamui's greatest weakness!

Although Kamui could make him invincible, he could not remain in the Alternate Dimension forever. He needed an "anchor" in the real world. And to attack or move, he had to materialize!

But now...

He glanced down.

A churning sea of lava lay beneath him! Forget standing on it-even a chunk of steel would melt instantly!

He glanced around.

An impenetrable forest of fire pillars surrounded him! Every pillar held enough reiatsu to kill a Kage-level fighter instantly!

"Damn it!!"

A profound sense of helplessness welled up inside Obito.

This was not a contest of combat skills at all. It was sheer, overwhelming power!

It was like an assassin skilled at dodging facing a mage who simply blew up the entire map. What good was evasion then? Where could you dodge?

"I don't believe your chakra can sustain Fire Release on this scale forever!"

Obito gritted his teeth.

Maintaining an S-rank forbidden technique that transformed the terrain and covered a thousand meters consumed an astronomical amount of chakra every second! Even a tailed beast could not keep burning forever!

"As long as I hold out until your chakra runs dry..."

"Hold out?"

Chiya reacted as though he had heard a joke.

He had perfect Wood Release cells, vast reserves of chakra plundered by the system, and the unique reiatsu recovery mechanism of the Death God system.

He was now a walking perpetual-motion machine!

"Then you'd better hold out for a good long while, Obito."

"Because my flames are only just warming up!"

"Flame Barrier: Explosive Flame Formation!"

At Chiya's thought, the pillars that had only been surging upward suddenly began expanding sideways and exploding!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Countless golden fireballs hurtled indiscriminately through the air like a dense meteor shower of flames, completely sealing off the airspace around Obito.

"Damn it!"

Obito had still been hoping to find a blind spot in the air. Now he was completely out of options.

A massive fireball flew straight at his face.

He instinctively tried to dodge, but fire surrounded him!

Left with no choice, he could only remain intangible and let the fireball pass through his body.

But the instant it passed through him-

"Urgh!"

Obito suddenly let out a muffled groan.

Pain!

A searing pain deep within his soul!

"What's going on?! I'm still intangible!"

To his horror, Obito discovered that although the physical flames had not burned his flesh, the blue reiatsu clinging to them had seeped into the Alternate Dimension through Kamui's spatial passage!

"Do you feel it?"

Chiya's devilish voice rang out at just the right moment.

"Ryūjin Jakka cuts flesh, but my reiatsu... cuts the soul."

"You thought hiding in the Alternate Dimension would keep you safe?"

"As long as this space remains within the reach of my reiatsu, even if you hide at the ends of the earth or in another dimension..."

Chiya abruptly pulled Ryūjin Jakka from the ground and swung it toward Obito from afar.

"I can burn your space along with you!!"

BOOM!!!

As the blade swept out, Obito saw something that filled him with absolute terror: visible "scorch marks" actually appeared in the surrounding space!

Under the extreme heat and reiatsu, the once-transparent air curled and blackened like a scorched photograph.

Even Kamui's spatial barrier began to tremble and crumble under that power!

"No... that's impossible! What kind of power is this?!"

Obito finally panicked.

For the first time since obtaining Kamui, he felt utterly helpless.

Even against Minato Namikaze all those years ago, he had only lost because his reaction had been a beat too slow. Now, he was being crushed from every direction, without a single opening!

Run!

I have to run!

If I don't leave now, this monster won't just burn my body to death-he'll refine my soul away too!

"Kamui! Transfer!"

Obito stopped hesitating and immediately activated his ocular power, trying to draw his entire body into the Alternate Dimension and escape this battlefield completely.

Doing so meant failing his mission and fleeing from Chiya in disgrace.

But as long as he survived, he could fight another day!

"Trying to run?"

Chiya watched the vortex beginning to twist around Obito, the red light in his eyes flaring.

"Weren't you just saying you'd make me despair?"

"What's wrong? Running away with your tail between your legs already?"

"Too late!"

Chiya did not use Flash Step to pursue him, because he knew how fast Kamui's transfer was.

He merely brought Ryūjin Jakka slowly across his body.

"Since you're leaving, why don't you leave me a souvenir?"

"System, activate full-power mode!"

[Ding! Host's intent detected! Burning kill points!]

[Ryūjin Jakka's unlock level temporarily exceeded!]

[Technique prototype unlocked: Zanka no Tachi!]

HUM-!

In an instant.

Ryūjin Jakka underwent a staggering transformation in Chiya's hand.

The savage golden sea of flames that had ravaged a thousand meters seemed to receive some supreme summons, and every last flame vanished in an instant!

Yes, vanished!

One moment, it had been a crimson lotus inferno. The next, everything was clear.

But the air did not grow cooler.

Instead, it became even more suffocating, even drier.

All the flames, all the heat, all the reiatsu were forcibly compressed in that instant, collapsing inward until they gathered at the very tip of the sword in Chiya's hand!

The tip turned blood-red. It did not even glow. It was simply... red.

A dark red that could destroy all things.

"Watch closely, Obito."

"This is Ryūjin Jakka's true face."

From hundreds of meters away, Chiya gently swung his sword at Obito, who was about to draw himself into the vortex.

There was no sword energy in that slash.

No blaze.

Not even the sound of wind.

Only one simple motion-a slash.

"Zanka no Tachi Prototype: Pseudo Rising Sun Blade!"

SZZ-!

Obito had been rejoicing that he was about to enter the Alternate Dimension.

But in the final instant before his body disappeared completely-

An indescribably terrifying sense of danger made his scalp prickle and every hair on his body stand on end.

He instinctively glanced back.

That single glance nearly frightened his soul out of his body.

He saw no attack flying toward him.

But he saw... "disappearance."

Yes.

Everything along the path of Chiya's swing-air, dust, even the view itself-had "disappeared."

It was a straight line that had been completely erased!

And at the end of that line was his-right arm!

"NO!!!"

Obito desperately tried to accelerate Kamui.

But he could not outpace light, much less a slash that could erase space.

Pfft!

There was no resistance.

He did not even feel pain.

Obito's mangled right arm, which had still been attached to his shoulder, vanished into thin air along with that small patch of space.

It had not been severed or blasted away.

It had been utterly, completely-erased!

Not even ashes remained!

"AAAAAH!!"

Only as he entered the Alternate Dimension did the belated agony tear through Obito's nerves.

He stared at the severed surface of his right shoulder, smooth as a mirror. There was no blood, only a patch of scorched nothingness.

One last glance.

Through the gradually closing spatial vortex, he saw the boy standing on the scorched earth, a dark red blade in his hand.

The boy stared coldly at him, his lips moving as he spoke the words that would haunt him for the rest of his life:

"Next time we meet, it'll be your head I cut off."

Hum!

The space closed.

Obito vanished completely.

Only Chiya remained, standing amid ruins that had cooled but still radiated terrifying residual heat.

"You certainly ran fast."

The dark red sheen slowly faded from Ryūjin Jakka in Chiya's hand, and the blade returned to its original appearance.

He let out a long, stale breath, a fine layer of sweat beading on his forehead.

That Zanka no Tachi Prototype had only been an imitation forcibly simulated through the system, but even so, it had taken a considerable toll on him.

It was an ultimate technique that compressed all the flames into a single point. The slightest mistake could burn the blade itself to nothing first.

"But..."

Chiya glanced at the slash carved into the ground-a trench a thousand meters long, its depth unfathomable and its surface as smooth as a mirror.

"That power really packs a punch."

"It even burned through space."

Chiya sheathed his blade.

The thousand-meter area previously engulfed by Flame Hell had become a flat expanse of vitrified ground. Every building, tree, and even rock had been reduced to nothing by the extreme heat.

This place had become a massive "scar" on Konoha.

But Chiya did not care.

That scar would serve as the finest monument to his might.

System, tally the rewards.

Chiya gave the command silently.

[Ding! Congratulations, host! You drove back Obito Uchiha in a direct confrontation!]

[Although you did not kill him, you inflicted irreversible, devastating injuries on him (right arm completely erased, soul damaged)!]

[Kill points +50,000!]

[Plunder successful (extracted from the severed arm and spatial fragments)!]

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained: space-time ninjutsu talent (beginner)!] (Note: Your perception of space has become sharper. Flash Step now has the potential to traverse space!)

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained a special item: Kamui Fragment ×1!] (Note: Collect three fragments to synthesize the complete Kamui ocular technique, or use them to enhance Kotoamatsukami!)

"Space-time talent, huh?"

Feeling the strange new insight into space within his mind, Chiya's lips curved slightly.

"Not bad. Just what I needed to make up for my weakness when it comes to running away."

"Next..."

Chiya turned toward the distant Uchiha survivors, who had long since collapsed in terror at the commotion, and the boy staring blankly in his direction-Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke had only recently awakened from Itachi's torment in Tsukuyomi when the commotion outside drew him over.

He had witnessed Chiya beat the mysterious masked man into a panicked retreat, and he had seen this expanse of scorched earth that looked like the work of a god.

That power...

That world-destroying power...

Sasuke's eyes were filled with fear, but in the deepest reaches of that fear, a flame called desire began to burn.

Chiya walked toward Sasuke, step by step.

Each step seemed to land on a beat of Sasuke's heart.

By the time he reached Sasuke, the boy was too frightened even to muster the strength to back away. He could only sit trembling on the ground, looking up at the man who had killed his brother, slaughtered his entire clan, and now descended upon him like a demon god.

"U... Uchiha... Chiya..."

Sasuke's voice trembled.

Chiya looked down at him, his eyes cold, without the slightest pity for this orphan of his own clan.

"Did you see that, Sasuke?"

Chiya pointed at the surrounding ruins, then at the blade in his hand.

"This is power."

"That foolish brother of yours protected you like a flower in a greenhouse, all for his so-called capacity, all for his precious village."

"And what came of it?"

"He died. Died like a dog."

Chiya bent down, bringing his handsome face close to Sasuke's, his voice falling to a devilish whisper:

"Do you want to kill me?"

"Do you want to avenge your brother? Your parents?"

Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply. Instinctive hatred made him clench his fists, but he did not dare move. He did not dare move at all.

"If you do, then hate me."

"Cling to your hatred and keep scraping by like a rat in Konoha's gutters."

"When you finally have the courage to look this blade in the face..."

Chiya straightened and turned away, leaving Sasuke with only the sight of his supremely arrogant back.

"Come before me and meet your death."

"Foolish little brother."