Wild distortions tore at the papers on the corner of the desk. Half a dossier lifted under the suction before Sasuke pinned it down with his foot.
Obito's hand stopped three inches short of Sasuke's shoulder.
"What did you just call me?"
Sasuke raised his sword, lightning release crawling along its spine.
"Did the rocks crush your ears too?"
Obito's fingers curled tight.
The spatial vortex contracted again, but he did not immediately attack.
No one in Konoha should have spoken that name.
Obito Uchiha had died at Kannabi Bridge.
He had died in Kakashi's and Rin's memories.
He had died beside the Fourth Hokage's gravestone.
Yet Sasuke had dug up his grave right in front of him.
"Who told you?"
"Take a guess."
Sasuke turned his wrist, thrusting the Kusanagi Sword toward the hole in the mask with a flash of lightning.
Obito did not dodge.
The sword tip passed through his head, striking nothing.
In the outer courtyard, sweat broke out across Yamada Naoto's back at the sight. "It went through him?"
Kakashi stood atop a veranda pillar, his Sharingan tracking the changes in chakra inside the study. "Don't go in. The clan leader is forcing him to materialize."
Veins bulged on the back of Fugaku's sword hand, but he forced himself to remain outside the door.
Inside the study, Obito's body turned intangible, his voice emerging from behind his mask. "You think knowing my name means you can hurt me?"
Sasuke withdrew his sword and stepped back half a pace. Rather than pursue, he pointed the tip toward the floor.
"Did you ask Minato the same thing the night of the Nine-Tails' attack?"
Obito went still.
Sasuke continued, "You wore a mask, controlled the Nine-Tails, and attacked Kushina. The Fourth Hokage used Flying Thunder God to teleport the Tailed Beast Bomb away, then planted a Rasengan in your back when you materialized to absorb him."
The spatial distortions around Obito grew erratic.
He wanted to maintain his Madara Uchiha persona, but every word Sasuke spoke pierced the disguise and stabbed straight into old wounds.
"Shut up."
"One more thing." Sasuke kicked the Recording scroll beside a desk leg. "Before you escaped, the Fourth marked you with a Flying Thunder God Mark. You must have removed that piece of flesh afterward, right? You worked fast. At least you weren't stupid enough to leave it for Konoha to investigate."
Obito raised his right hand, a chain sliding out of his sleeve.
"Shut up!"
Outside the door, Fugaku moved to charge in, but Kakashi reached out to stop him.
Fugaku glanced sideways. "Let go."
Kakashi stared at Obito. "He mentioned my teacher."
"Then you have even more reason to hear this through."
Sasuke's voice carried through the broken doorway to Kakashi.
"Kakashi, don't rush. He has the answers you want, too."
Kakashi's shoulders tensed.
Hearing Kakashi's name, Obito turned the hole in his mask toward the door.
For that instant, his breathing faltered.
Sasuke seized on the change and sneered. "What's wrong? Afraid to look at him?"
Killing intent surged in Obito's right eye.
"You know too much."
"I also know you can't afford to have your identity exposed." Sasuke raised his hand and took a black-sealed scroll from his sleeve. "This scroll contains your name, a map of your movements during the Nine-Tails' attack, and evidence that you survived Kannabi Bridge. If you kill me today, tomorrow it will be on the desks at the Daimyo's Residence, Kumogakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure."
Obito's chain stopped.
"You're bluffing."
"Then take the gamble."
Sasuke tossed the scroll into the air and caught it again.
"Bet on whether an eight-year-old brat like me prepared ahead of time. Win, and you kill me. Lose, and starting tomorrow, your Madara Uchiha disguise gets torn to shreds on public notices across the shinobi world."
Obito stared at the scroll.
He was not afraid of being hunted.
But the name Madara Uchiha was the threat behind the Akatsuki, the shadow through which he controlled the board.
Once that shadow was torn apart, Pain would ask questions, Zetsu would watch from the sidelines, Itachi would spiral out of control, and every plan would have to be rearranged.
"What do you want?"
Sasuke slipped the scroll back into his sleeve.
"You're not qualified to negotiate with me yet."
Obito forced his anger down into his throat, and the space around his right eye began twisting again.
"Then I'll take you first and find the scroll afterward."
His arm passed intangibly through the desk, then materialized as it neared Sasuke, all five fingers reaching for his throat.
Sasuke pushed off with his toes, sliding along the back of the chair as the Kusanagi Sword slashed across Obito's wrist.
The blade passed through his intangible form.
Sasuke did not pursue. Instead, he slapped an Explosive Tag onto the corner of the desk with his free hand.
The instant Obito materialized, lightning release surged along the sealing lines in the floor, forcing him to turn intangible again.
"You're timing me?"
"Every time you attacked just now, you had to materialize for the moment of contact."
Sasuke raised his sword, his three tomoe fixed on Obito's right eye. "Kamui is useful. But you're no god."
Obito laughed, anger lacing the sound.
"You think watching twice is enough to figure it out?"
"Twice was enough." Sasuke stepped half a pace left, avoiding the chain's landing point. "You used it once to test the barrier after coming in. Once to grab my shoulder. Once to let the sword pass through you. This is the fourth time."
Obito finally realized something was truly wrong.
Sasuke not only knew his name, but had also tracked Kamui's rhythm over just a few exchanges.
This child had just undergone a physical transformation, yet showed no impulse to rush into displaying his strength.
He was waiting.
Waiting for Obito to lay his own trump cards bare.
"You're different from Itachi."
"Don't lump me in with him."
The lightning at Sasuke's sword tip brightened. Green markings surfaced on his left palm, and the grain in the wood along the edge of the desk began to twist.
Obito's gaze fell on those green markings.
"Wood Release?"
"A defective version."
Sasuke spoke casually, but the chakra in his palm had already coaxed fine roots from the floorboards beneath the desk, tangling around Obito's feet for an instant.
That slight entanglement could not hold Kamui.
But it was enough to force him to make a choice.
Obito turned intangible, his body passing through the roots.
Sasuke closed in a step ahead of him, bringing the Kusanagi Sword down at the very edge of his intangibility's end.
A strip of his black sleeve was sliced away.
The fabric fell to the floor.
Outside the study, Yamada Naoto stared blankly. "The clan leader hit him?"
Fugaku did not answer. He only stared at the piece of cloth.
Obito glanced down at his severed sleeve, his expression behind the mask darkening completely.
An eight-year-old child had forced him to give ground.
This was not a contest of strength.
It was the humiliation of having his trump card seen through.
Sasuke gave him no chance to catch his breath. His sword tip pointed at the floor, his tone dripping with mockery.
"Nice dodge. Obito, your greatest talent all these years has been hiding your head inside a mask."
Obito whipped the chain in his right hand, sweeping through the study's bookcase and snapping it in half.
Scrolls scattered across the floor, and several Sealing Tags flared from the impact.
Fugaku finally burst through the door, taking half a step inside.
"Sasuke!"
Sasuke raised a hand, signaling him to stop.
At the sight of Fugaku, Obito suddenly chuckled.
"Uchiha Fugaku is still alive. Seeing this will probably make Itachi suffer even more."
Killing intent swirled through the three tomoe in Fugaku's eyes. "You've seen Itachi?"
"He's sitting in the Akatsuki now, protecting Konoha with those pathetic convictions of his."
Sasuke held his sword across Fugaku's path.
"Father, he's buying time."
Fugaku stopped.
The spatial vortex in Obito's right eye was already halfway open, but his target was not an escape route. It was the sealed cabinet in the corner of the study.
There were scrolls inside.
He intended to gamble that the evidence of his identity Sasuke had mentioned was in there.
Sasuke sneered and flung three kunai from his left hand at the cabinet door.
Obito phased through the kunai and reached toward the sealed cabinet with his right hand.
The next instant, red symbols lit up inside the cabinet door, and Kakashi's Lightning Blade thrust through the window, striking at precisely the moment Obito materialized to take its contents.
Obito was forced to pull back, lightning scorching the black robe at his shoulder.
Kakashi landed inside the study, his forehead protector pushed up, his Sharingan facing the hole in the mask.
"Who are you?"
Obito did not answer.
Sasuke answered for him.
"He's the one you should be asking. The Nine-Tails' attack, your teacher's death, Rin's death-he's connected to all of them."
The lightning in Kakashi's hand flickered.
At that moment, Obito's killing intent overwhelmed his desire to probe.
He did not want to hear Sasuke say another word.
The Mangekyo in his right eye spun, sending a surge of mental chakra straight into Sasuke's eyes.
"Then I'll shut your mouth forever."
Sasuke did not avert his gaze. Instead, he stepped half a pace forward.
The three tomoe in his eyes spun to their limit, and the vitality within his body drove the mental assault back by force.
Every candle in the study went out at once.
In the darkness, Sasuke's voice rang out.
"Genjutsu? You've made even less progress than Itachi."
Before you continue