"Boom!!!"
A dull crack split the air.
Obito felt like he'd run headlong into a raging bull. The world reeled—stars burst behind his eyes—as he was sent hurtling backward.
Even mid-flight, his face froze in utter disbelief.
"How… how is that possible…?"
He distinctly remembered dragging Naruto into the Kamui (Divine Authority) space. So how had Naruto suddenly appeared behind him?
The Kamui dimension was a sealed, independent space. No one had ever escaped it. In the past, Obito had faced many powerful foes, but once he pulled them into Kamui, they were either slain by his hand… or left to starve to death.
"The Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique)…?" A thought sparked—then Obito frowned again. "No, that shouldn't work across an independent dimension. Then how did he do it?"
While Obito grasped for answers, a creak sounded at his side.
He glanced over—and there the blond youth stepped out from a half-transparent door, raising his right leg and scything it down:
"Rankyaku: Shūdan (Tempest Kick: Perimeter Sever)!"
A cerulean blade of air surged forth as if it could cleave the world.
Obito reacted on pure instinct, triggering Kamui's phasing so his true body slipped into the Kamui space.
"—Gh!"
The blue slash passed harmlessly through his blurred form and bisected a distant building in Amegakure.
But before relief could land, Obito's face twisted. His body hunched, and he hacked up a mouthful of blood.
"Impossible…"
He stared at the blond youth—feeling fear for the first time.
"You can enter my Kamui space…?"
He'd just been hit—and not in the outside world. Inside the Kamui dimension, his chest had been smashed by a fist.
He was in Kamui's intangibility. His body was hidden within the Kamui space.
If he'd been struck there, only one answer existed: the blond youth before him could move between both spaces at will.
"Slip between spaces… is that supposed to be hard?" Naruto tilted his head—and, right in front of Obito, opened a door of space.
The instant the doorway yawned open, Obito's pupils blew wide. Inside, he saw the Kamui dimension: not only those familiar, endless rows of rectangular pillars… but on one of them, himself—and a blond youth brutally pummeling his body.
Every punch drove fresh cracks through his form.
Fortunately, he had Senju cells and White Zetsu grafts in his body. Even battered to that point, he was visibly regenerating.
But this couldn't go on. Overusing First Hokage cells would lead to a catastrophic cellular collapse.
Case in point: branches were literally sprouting from his flesh now, green and burgeoning, perilously close to becoming a towering tree.
"Monster…" Obito spat, and without hesitation dove back into the Kamui space.
If he didn't, his true body would either be beaten to death—or become fertilizer for a tree.
"Think you can run?" Naruto chuckled, stepping into the spatial door with a single stride.
Obito stared like he'd seen a ghost as the blond stepped out of the portal into his sanctum. His stomach churned.
"This monster… my Kamui doesn't work on him at all anymore…"
His phasing—his trump card—had always let his body slip safely into Kamui, leaving every attack to pass through. But now, an intruder had seized his sanctuary.
"Shakuton: Ōdama Rasengan (Scorch Release: Big Ball Rasengan)!"
Naruto lifted his right hand. Flame and chakra fused—no weaker than the Flame Emperor itself—coalescing into a superheated sphere whirling at insane speed.
In this realm without sun or moon, it looked like a newborn star.
Obito, however, went paper-white. He instantly phased again with Kamui.
"Ran again, huh? That Kamui phasing really is kind of a bug. No wonder you could keep pace with Minato even as a teen…" Naruto muttered, then casually threw the Rasengan aside.
A thunderous detonation rolled out. Pillars shattered by the hundreds.
It was as if the entire space had caught fire. Raging flames licked through the ruins, torching the intact columns until they flared like giant braziers—like a mountain of living flame.
"Told you—leaving only ten of me here was too few," one of Naruto's shadowy doubles groused.
"That guy's got at least five or six White Zetsu inside. I've smashed his heart six times and he still keeps regenerating…"
"Expected. He's Madara's contingency, after all." Naruto didn't bother to fret. He flashed through seals and called out:
"Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique)!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Hundreds of Narutos burst into being, rolling their shoulders and cracking their knuckles, eyes glittering as they hunted for fun.
One clone whooped, "Don't worry, boss. If he dares come back into Kamui, I'll beat the—uh—ever-loving stuffing out of him."
"Too crude," Naruto deadpanned, pinching the bridge of his nose as he shot the clone a look—then stepped back out of the Kamui space.
Outside—
Obito, branches snaking over half his torso, bolted toward Pain and Konan, face chalk-white.
The scene from moments ago replayed again and again in his mind.
"No… I can't use Kamui phasing again. If I do, I'll be killed…"
Panic frayed his thoughts. Stripped of the Kamui space's protection, all he felt was weakness.
Forget that blond monster—at this rate even the Akatsuki's weakest, Hidan, could probably take his head with that triple-bladed scythe.
"Obito—think you can get away?"
Behind him, Naruto's voice fell like a nightmare.
"Katon: Hōjūdan (Fire Gun Volley)!"
The crackle—sizzle—snap of ignition filled the air. Obito couldn't help himself; he glanced back.
His face drained to primer-white.
Countless points of fire—like swarming fireflies, like ghostlights heralding doom—fanned out, too many to count.
If that hit, he was sure his whole body would be pulped. At that point, forget Senju cells or White Zetsu— even if Hashirama himself possessed him, he'd probably die all over again.
Cornered, Obito gritted his teeth and prepared to phase with Kamui one more time.
But this time, wary, he looked into the Kamui space with his Sharingan first—
—and froze.
MD—there were hundreds of Narutos in there, rolling their shoulders and cracking knuckles, all staring him down like wolves waiting for their prey to step into the pen…
(End of Chapter)
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