Chapter 326: The Importance of Intelligence
Just as Ishiro and Obito were in their first exchange, in another part of the Tsuchikage Tower, Ikura gave an order to Uzumaki Yumi, Yuran Kawazoe, and Akino Atsumi of the Barrier Team, "Begin!"
"Yes." After the three complied, they immediately began to act.
The village's outer barrier had runes for detecting space-time ninjutsu added to it. The Tsuchikage Tower, as the most important building in Iwagakure, naturally had them as well.
And unlike the external barrier where only some detection runes were drawn, in the Tsuchikage Tower's barrier, Ishiro had Akino connect all the known rune structures related to space-time ninjutsu to the barrier.
Although both Ishiro and Akino, who had set up the barrier, did not know if these runes would be effective, having more arrangements was a good thing.
At this moment, Obito suddenly turned his head, looked at a corner of the office, and said, "Tsuchikage, a ninjutsu of the level of Camouflage Jutsu, don't show it off in front of the Sharingan."
Ishiro revealed his form. He had no intention of wasting words with Obito. He slightly lowered his head, not looking at Obito's eyes, but at his body, and then directly made a move. After all, for this kind of BOSS, without the protagonist's eloquence, it was impossible to change his mind.
"Porcelain Release: Kunai Rain! Shinra Tensei!" Ishiro led with the kunai rain, using Shinra Tensei to accelerate it.
Obito subconsciously used Kamui's phasing ability to dodge. However, Kamui, which was usually invincible, actually had a microscopic, imperceptible stutter. But this stutter was very brief and had no negative impact on Obito. He thought it was an illusion and paid it no mind.
After dodging the kunai rain with Kamui, Obito approached Ishiro, revealed his form, and prepared to use Kamui on him.
But Ishiro's Mind's Eye could sense whether Obito's body was tangible or not, so he was not flustered. The longsword in his hand was aimed at Obito's head, held ready but not released. Only at the moment Obito became tangible did he launch his attack.
Obito phased again to dodge, at the same time frowning.
Obito, refusing to believe it, launched several more attacks, but all were forced back by Ishiro, who accurately seized the opportunity.
After he and Ishiro passed each other, he asked, "You can judge my state?"
Ishiro smiled faintly and did not answer, but this time he did not rush to make a move. He was analyzing the timing of Obito's use of Kamui just now.
With his Mind's Eye's perception, Ishiro's grasp of the timing of Obito's phasing and solidification was very timely.
Obito hadn't noticed that his Kamui had been slightly restricted, but Ishiro had. At the instant Obito saw Ishiro's attack approaching, Ishiro had judged from Obito's physical reaction that Obito should have chosen to phase at the first moment, but his successful phasing was a little bit late.
Because Ishiro knew the reason and had been deliberately paying attention, he had discovered this slight change.
The two faced off. Because Obito was in a phased state, Ishiro, after maintaining a distance between them, did not make a move.
Furthermore, Ishiro also needed to buy time for Akino and the others. Whether it was analyzing the fluctuations of space-time ninjutsu, analyzing the use of the rune structures, or arranging targeted countermeasures, all required time.
Obito was possibly thinking of a counter-strategy and also did not launch an attack at the first moment.
At this time, at Ikura's location, the few people controlling the Tsuchikage Tower's seal had sensed Obito's space-time ninjutsu. Although none of them understood the principle, from the perception of the sealing runes in the barrier, they could judge that the runes had more or less taken effect.
The only one who could understand a little, Akino, began to think rapidly about how to maximize the effect of restricting space-time ninjutsu.
However, there was not much time left for her to think now. She immediately told Yumi and Yuran many plans, asking them to temporarily change the structure of the barrier.
To buy time for the barrier team, Ishiro did not disturb Obito's thoughts.
After a while, Obito finished his thinking and launched an attack again. Facing Ishiro's special perception ability, Obito had no good solution.
Since wits wouldn't work, then he would just use a direct assault. Anyway, his Kamui was unbeatable! Even if Ishiro could discover it in advance, he was not afraid. Whether to phase, when to phase—the initiative was in his hands.
Thus, Ishiro and Obito began a back-and-forth of probing attacks. Obito's attacks were very sudden. Although in most cases, Ishiro could grasp the opportunity to dodge Kamui or force Obito to phase and cancel the Kamui he had launched on him, there were also several times when Ishiro misjudged, or rather, was successfully deceived by Obito's tactics and was almost sucked away by Kamui. But Ishiro also had a trump card.
The S-rank ninjutsu that could be cast without hand seals, Bansho Ten'in and Shinra Tensei, had saved Ishiro from Kamui several times.
However, after several times, Obito also gradually figured out the weaknesses of Ishiro's Shinra Tensei and Bansho Ten'in.
"Tsuchikage, of your two gravity ninjutsu, one attracts, the other repels. The one that attracts needs to be cast on an external object, and it takes a certain amount of time for the jutsu to take effect; it's not the best counter. As for the repulsion, there is a time limit between every two casts, right?" Obito mockingly exposed the flaws in Ishiro's ninjutsu.
"Fifteen seconds. Between your two repulsions, there needs to be an interval of fifteen seconds, right?" Obito's tone was certain. This was something he had slowly figured out after hundreds of attacks!
In other words, Ishiro had already experienced hundreds of life-and-death crises at Obito's hands.
Ishiro kept his head slightly lowered and did not speak. He was analyzing the situation of Akino and the others. After such a long period of probing, Akino and the others should have a good understanding of Kamui by now.
Ishiro could feel that at the beginning, the speed of Obito casting Kamui had been continuously slowing down, but this slowing process had stopped for a long time. Ishiro guessed that Akino's side must have made a discovery and was charging up a big move.
It was just that Ishiro was temporarily unable to determine when they would launch it.
Suddenly, a huge chakra fluctuation in his perception caught his attention. "Hmm? Is this Ikura?" Ishiro was very familiar with Ikura's chakra fluctuation.
"What's wrong with Ikura? No, he's reminding me!" Ishiro immediately understood Ikura's meaning.
Obito also sensed Ikura's chakra. The slow-witted him only now remembered that this was the Tsuchikage Tower. Why had he and Ishiro been fighting for so long without attracting any other Iwa ninjas? But now was not the time for him to overthink. Ikura's sudden chakra outburst very likely meant he was coming to support Ishiro. He had to speed up.
Obito rushed forward. In his tangible state, he stared intently at Ishiro, ready to deal with his various reactions at any time.
Seeing this, a thought stirred in Ishiro's heart, "Porcelain Release: Rock Fist Jutsu!"
At the same time, Ishiro shouted loudly, "Third time!"
Then, Ishiro condensed a long and large fist through Porcelain Release and smashed it directly towards Obito. The corner of Obito's mouth twitched. His Kamui had to be used at close range. It was best to approach Ishiro in a tangible state and then activate Kamui.
If he approached Ishiro in a phased state, he would still have to solidify his body to cast Kamui, which would create a time lag. So Obito very much did not want to phase his body during an attack.
But now there was no other way. Obito directly phased, dodged the attack of the giant fist, and after getting close to Ishiro, he solidified again.
"Shinra Tensei!" Ishiro used his life-saving ultimate move on the solidified Obito.
Obito was instantly sent flying, but only for a very short moment. He immediately phased again to dodge the follow-up attack of Shinra Tensei, and the phased Obito immediately rushed forward.
After the effect of Shinra Tensei ended, Obito directly became tangible and reached out a hand towards the nearby Ishiro.
Obito was already prepared for a follow-up attack. It was now impossible for Ishiro to dodge his Kamui with Bansho Ten'in as he had before.
Sure enough, Ishiro did not choose to use Bansho Ten'in but instead swung his sword horizontally again. Unfortunately, all of this was within Obito's expectations; Ishiro was too late.
But just as a smile appeared at the corner of Obito's mouth, something that horrified him happened.
His Kamui seemed to have been interfered with by something and was actually a beat slower.
"How is that possible?" Obito was horrified. This was the most terrifying thing he had encountered since awakening his Mangekyō Sharingan.
With this delay, Ishiro's late-starting sword finally approached Obito's side. And Ishiro's other hand, hidden in his sleeve, had also formed a hand seal. The rocks left on the ground from the Porcelain Release Rock Fist Jutsu, under Ishiro's control again, all flew towards Obito.
Obito quickly chose to phase, but something even more terrifying happened. His phasing was actually hindered. Not only was he delayed and hit by Ishiro's sword, but after entering the phased state, he actually couldn't maintain it.
It was unknown if it was a spatial tremor, but Obito's figure became tangible again for a moment, and only then did he phase again.
This was no small matter. When Obito was phasing, a large number of porcelain rocks had covered the position he had just been standing. When he became tangible again, these rocks directly entered his body.
This time, even the perpetrator, Ishiro, felt it was too cruel. In that instant, who knows how many porcelain rocks, due to Kamui's spatial replacement, had appeared out of thin air inside Obito, destroying his body.
No longer lingering in the Tsuchikage's office, Obito used all his strength to pounce to one side. In his phased state, he continuously bled while rushing out of the Tsuchikage Tower.
After rushing out of the Tsuchikage Tower, Obito, with the help of White Zetsu, quickly escaped from Iwagakure using the Mayfly Technique.
Ishiro sighed. "Still a bit short of keeping Obito here." Ishiro hadn't dared to arrange too many ninjas outside the Tsuchikage Tower beforehand, as it would have alerted Obito.
And to keep White Zetsu, one would need a large number of Earth Release ninjas to interfere underground or to isolate the soil layer in advance.
But neither of these was easy to accomplish. What's more, Obito still had Kamui.
"Forget it. This one blow is enough to keep Obito quiet for a good while."
Because Obito hadn't expected his Kamui to be restricted, he hadn't prepared Izanagi and could only take this incredible wave of attacks head-on.
Even if Obito had Wood Release, Ishiro felt he couldn't recover too quickly. Just taking out all those Iwa rocks from his body would be enough to keep him busy.
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