"Foolish little brother."
Chiya's cold voice echoed through the deathly silent ruins, every word striking Sasuke Uchiha's paper-white face like icy raindrops.
Sasuke sat sprawled on the ground, trembling uncontrollably. His gaze passed over Chiya's not particularly tall figure and fixed on the severed arm lying nearby, still trailing black smoke.
The cut on that arm was smooth as a mirror, without a single drop of blood, as though some law had erased it directly from the world.
Unbidden, the soul-freezing scene from a minute earlier surfaced in Sasuke's mind.
That mysterious masked man...
That mastermind with his bizarre Space-Time Ninjutsu, who had toyed with all of Konoha...
How had he suffered such a crushing defeat?
Time rewound to three minutes earlier.
[Three minutes earlier · Center of Flame Hell]
Rumble-!
A sea of golden fire sealed off heaven and earth.
Within a thousand-meter radius, nothing remained but churning lava and rampaging pillars of fire.
Obito floated in midair, maintaining his intangible state like a ghost abandoned by the world. His expression was utterly grim. He had discovered that even while hiding in the Kamui Alternate Dimension, the terrifying heat conducted through the spatial barrier was slowly scorching his nerves.
"I can't drag this out any longer!"
Obito glanced at his right hand. The skin formed from white Zetsu cells had begun to redden and blister.
"This lunatic's chakra is practically endless! If this keeps up, my body will give out first!"
A vicious gleam flashed in Obito's lone eye.
Run?
With this sea of fire covering a thousand meters, escaping required him to remain tangible while activating Kamui. That would give Chiya enough time to burn him to ash ten times over!
His only chance of survival was-to attack!
I have to get close! The instant I touch him, I can suck him into the Kamui Dimension and end this fight!
Obito frantically calculated his options.
Kamui's intangibility had a five-minute limit.
Less than two minutes had passed. He still had plenty of time!
"I'll take the gamble!"
"Chiya Uchiha, your Fire Release is strong, but I refuse to believe your body is as invincible as your flames!"
Whoosh!
Obito moved.
This time, he held nothing back. His entire body became a streak of black lightning as he charged madly toward Chiya at the center of the inferno, braving the towering pillars of fire.
Countless streams of golden flame passed through his intangible body.
Heat! Pain!
His soul felt as though it were burning!
But Obito gritted his teeth, his gaze locked on the figure standing atop the lava.
A hundred meters... fifty meters... ten meters!
Almost there!
Chiya showed no intention of dodging. He stood where he was, Ryūjin Jakka planted in the ground, sustaining Flame Hell.
"Now!!"
Obito's eye blazed.
He rushed within a meter of Chiya.
At this distance, Ryūjin Jakka's reach was useless, while his Kamui absorption would be a guaranteed kill!
"Die!!"
Obito thrust his right hand toward Chiya's neck. At the same time, he had to cancel his intangibility for an instant and become solid.
That instant was a gamble between life and death!
Yet.
Just as Obito's fingers were about to touch Chiya's skin, he saw Chiya smile.
It was the smile of a hunter watching his prey leap willingly into a trap.
"Obito, did you think I kept this entire sea of fire burning just for show?"
Chiya's voice was frighteningly calm.
The next second, something happened that Obito would never understand as long as he lived.
Hum-!
Without warning.
The golden inferno raging across a thousand meters, blotting out the sky, suddenly...
Vanished.
Vanished completely!
It was as though some indescribable monster had swallowed it whole, leaving not even a spark behind.
The world seemed to have been muted.
But Obito's sense of danger did not fade. Instead, it exploded to its peak in an instant!
Because he saw the blade in Chiya's hands.
The Zanpakuto that had been blazing with golden flames was now utterly unremarkable. Its blade was charred black, like a ruined piece of iron burned beyond use. It had no luster, no heat, not even a trace of chakra fluctuation.
Every flame, every ounce of reiatsu, every shred of destructive power.
All of it... had been compressed into that inconspicuous edge!
[System warning! Kill points burning!] [Ryūjin Jakka · Prototype Bankai · Forced unlock!]
Chiya gripped the sword with both hands, moving as slowly as a scene in a slow-motion film.
But in Obito's eyes, that slash filled his entire world.
"You think intangibility can save you?"
"Naive."
Chiya whispered softly and swung the charred black blade gently at Obito's outstretched right hand.
"Zanka no Tachi, East: Kyokujitsujin!"
There was no sound.
The slash produced no cutting wave, no wind pressure. It did not even stir the air.
A flicker of bewilderment crossed Obito's eye.
No attack registered?
"Hmph! An empty bluff!"
Obito sneered inwardly. With no tangible attack, victory was assured! He maintained his intangible state, preparing to pass straight through the blade and seize Chiya.
Yet.
The instant his wrist touched the tip of that charred blade.
It did not "pass through."
Instead-
Ssssss!!!
A sound rang out like a drop of water landing on red-hot iron.
Obito's eye widened in horror.
What was he seeing?
He saw his right hand, which was clearly "intangible" and hidden in another dimension, touch the blade's tip and instantly...
Cease to exist.
It had not been cut off or blasted away.
It had simply vanished!
That tiny section of space, along with the air, light, and Obito's arm within it, had been directly-vaporized by the blade's extreme heat, hot enough to erase existence itself!
"Wh-what is this?!"
An indescribable agony shot from his severed arm and pierced straight through Obito's soul.
It was not physical pain. It was the pain of space burning through and his soul being scorched!
"Aaaaaaah!!!!"
Obito let out an agonized scream.
The absolute defense he took such pride in-Kamui's intangibility-was like paper before this blade!
This heat defied all reason!
It did not need to touch a physical body!
Because what it burned was not matter, but "existence" itself!
"I'm not finished."
Chiya's gaze remained cold as his blade continued forward without slowing.
If Obito failed to dodge, the next thing to disappear would be his head!
"No!!!"
On the brink of death, Obito unleashed an unprecedented will to survive.
He frantically drove his Mangekyō Sharingan, forcing a spatial jump despite the risk of blinding his right eye.
Rrrip!
The blade's tip swept across his face.
Under that invisible heat, a corner of his hard orange Spiral Mask instantly crumbled.
Then came the sound of skin carbonizing.
A charred scar instantly appeared across the disfigured half of Obito's face, left by a brush with the Rising Sun Blade's residual heat.
Boom!
Space warped.
Obito's figure finally vanished into the vortex as he fled back into the Kamui Dimension in disgrace.
Only his severed arm remained, turning into a wisp of smoke in the air before dissipating completely.
[Present · Amid the ruins]
Chiya slowly drew himself out of his recollections and let out a long breath.
That Rising Sun Blade strike had only been a prototype, a counterfeit forcibly simulated by the system. Yet its tremendous power and terrifying consumption had still placed a strain on his current body.
Ryūjin Jakka had already reverted to its Shikai state. The charred black coating faded from the blade, restoring its keen luster.
"What a shame."
Chiya glanced at the trace left by the severed arm and shook his head slightly. "If that slash had been just a little faster, he'd have left his head behind instead."
Still, the gains from this battle were already enormous.
Not only had he driven Obito back and obtained a Kamui Fragment, but he had also planted an indelible fear deep in Sasuke's heart.
"Well? Have you come back to your senses?"
Chiya turned to look at Sasuke, who was still sitting on the ground.
Sasuke's eyes were vacant. Clearly, he had yet to recover from that earth-shattering slash.
His entire understanding of the world had collapsed.
He had always believed his older brother Itachi was the strongest.
Later, he had believed that masked man, an accomplice in the clan massacre, was invincible.
But now...
Of those two men, one had lost his head to Chiya, and the other had lost his hand.
Before this cousin who was only a few years older than him, those so-called powerhouses were so fragile they were a joke!
"Chiya... you... what exactly are you...?"
Sasuke swallowed, his voice hoarse.
"Who I am doesn't matter."
Chiya walked up to Sasuke. Rather than offer a hand to help him up, he lifted Sasuke's chin with his sheath, forcing him to look directly into his scarlet Mangekyō eyes.
"What matters is that you're too weak right now."
"So weak I don't even have any interest in killing you."
Chiya withdrew his sword and turned toward Kakashi, who was approaching in the distance.
"Kakashi's here."
"Perfect. I'll leave this mess for him to clean up."
With his back to Sasuke, Chiya waved a hand. His figure flickered, and he vanished with Flash Step.
Only a few softly spoken words lingered in Sasuke's ears:
"Remember this fear, Sasuke."
"This is what will drive you to keep living."
A short while later.
A silver-haired figure appeared amid the ruins with the Body Flicker Technique.
Kakashi Hatake, Konoha's foremost technician, stared at the scene before him, panting heavily.
The Sharingan in his left eye spun frantically as he tried to analyze the lingering traces of chakra.
"What... what level of battle was this?"
Kakashi stared at the ground that had been turned to glass, feeling the staggering heat still lingering in the air. Beneath his mask, his face went deathly pale.
"This much destruction... did the Nine-Tails go berserk again?"
Then he spotted Sasuke sitting on the ground, his face blank, and Uchiha Itachi's headless corpse not far away.
"Sasuke!"
Alarm shot through Kakashi. He hurried over to check on Sasuke. "Are you all right? What happened here?"
Sasuke slowly turned his head. The light had vanished from eyes that had once been full of childlike innocence.
In its place was a deep shadow, seared into him forever.
His lips parted, and his voice trembled as he pointed at the spot on the ground where space had been utterly erased.
"That Masked Man... came..."
"The Masked Man?!" Kakashi's pupils constricted. Could it have been Obito?
"But he... lost..."
Sasuke lowered his head and stared at his own palm, as though he could see the shadow of Chiya swinging his blade there.
"His hand... Chiya cut it off..."
"That man... that man named Chiya..."
"He's a devil!"
Kakashi was shaken to his core.
He knew just how difficult the Masked Man's Space-Time Ninjutsu was to deal with. Yet that Uchiha boy named Chiya had actually defeated an enemy of that caliber?
And even... severed his arm?
Kakashi raised his head and looked in the direction Chiya had disappeared.
There stood the highest point in Konoha-Hokage Rock.
"It seems the balance of power in Konoha really has changed."
Kakashi sighed and hoisted the utterly drained Sasuke onto his back. He glanced once more at Itachi's corpse, his gaze conflicted.
"Whether he's a devil or a god..."
"No one in Konoha can stop him now."
Before you continue