Standing before the bounty hunters.
It was just one person, from beginning to end.
The battle ended quickly. There were almost no flashes of ninjutsu, only naked, bloody slaughter. Or rather, there was no time for hand signs.
Pfft! Pfft!
Countless sharp shadow spikes swirled and lashed around Hyuga Kawa, stirring up chaotic currents. The bounty hunters who charged forward seemed to leap into a blender. Each black shadow carved out a scarlet arc of blood, and before one dissipated, another was sprayed forth. The blood that landed on the ground was crimson and alluring, looking like blood-colored lotuses.
Dismembered limbs rose and fell like clouds and rain, and the black shadows were drenched in blood amidst the red shower. The whoosh of slashes, the crunch of skulls, the snap of bones, the tearing of skin, the piercing of flesh, the dull thud of bodies exploding... all intertwined into a lullaby from hell, with screams becoming twisted harmonies within the melody.
"..."
From a distance, watching this brutal scene of carnage, even Nagato's eyes couldn't help but ripple.
Bang!
A figure streaked past him and Obito, like a mosquito slapped dead against a wall, blood blooming on the rock face like an ephemeral flower.
Before that gate, the black shadow behind Hyuga Kawa gripped the last person's neck, holding him aloft. At his feet, before the line he stood on, severed limbs piled up into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. A crimson drizzle fell from above and below, and blood flowed freely, staining him a dazzling red.
"Hmph! Hmph! Mon... monster!"
The last bounty hunter was held suspended in mid-air by a black shadow, struggling weakly, but his eyes were filled only with fear and despair, his twisted face smeared with tears, snot, and drool.
"Thank you for the compliment." Hyuga Kawa's tone remained gently smiling. "One must have the resolve to be killed to be worthy of wielding a blade, no?"
Crunch! Thud!
The corpse fell into the puddle of blood before Hyuga Kawa, its frozen face stained with crimson grime. Everything fell silent.
In less than two minutes, apart from Hyuga Kawa, there were no longer any living beings before the gate; it had become a living hell.
No, there were still living beings. Those were Nagato and Uchiha Obito, who had remained silently standing in the distance.
"And you two?" Hyuga Kawa asked with a polite, inviting smile, as if it were their first meeting. "Care to come in?"
Is he a lunatic? Or something else?
Uchiha Obito narrowed his eyes, feeling that something was amiss. He turned to look at Nagato beside him, and Nagato, at that moment, also raised his arm.
"Almighty Push." A calm, deep voice resonated.
Bang!!
A colossal repellent force erupted fiercely. The surrounding air was instantly compressed and distorted, letting out an unbearable shriek. That black shadow seemed to hit an invisible wall, the entire figure flying backward into the darkness once more.
Seeing this, Uchiha Obito breathed a sigh of relief, his lingering suspicion dissipating.
"Go."
Nagato started walking, but Obito hesitated.
"Nagato." He spoke in a low voice. "Why don't we wait for them to come out here? If there's truly something important, it's not too late to snatch it from them."
Hearing this, Nagato also stopped, remaining silent for a moment, then let out an almost inaudible sigh.
"Indeed, is that so..." he murmured softly.
"What?" Obito was puzzled and froze.
Buzz!!
A piercing, whistling sound filled his ears. Obito felt the hairs on his body stand on end. His scarlet Sharingan followed the sound, and with his powerful dynamic vision, he saw the figure before the gate.
That guy hadn't entered the underground palace, or rather, he had come out again. Several shadows, transformed into sharp spikes, emerged from behind Hyuga Kawa. A ring of water instantly exploded in front of him, forming a misty white vapor and leaving a penetrating pathway in the air, pointing directly at Uchiha Obito in the distance.
Uchiha Obito hadn't expected to become that guy's target. And the attack was so swift, beyond his expectations.
However...
"Meaningless."
Uchiha Obito's Three-Tomoe Sharingan spun, instantly transforming into a Mangekyō Sharingan as he used Kamui's intangibility. The sharp spikes rained down like a furious storm, but they only managed to graze Obito's clothes, and Obito had already vanished.
Obito suddenly reappeared in another spot, but in the next moment, a harsh, piercing sonic boom rang out again.
Buzz!!
A fierce wind, generated by the shadow spikes, ripped up the ground where he stood, raising a several-meter-high dust cloud that sliced across Obito's neck. Uchiha Obito's neck showed no signs of injury, but his gaze was utterly chilling as he looked at the black shadow in the distance.
This did not surprise Hyuga Kawa. The previous swing hadn't produced the feedback of hitting a solid object; it felt like passing through a phantom and cutting through layers of air.
"Is this the intangibility of the right eye's Kamui?" he thought to himself.
Just then, Obito's figure vanished again, reappearing beside Hyuga Kawa in an instant, attempting to draw him into the Kamui dimension...
Splat!
Hyuga Kawa's arm, covered by shadow, transformed into a blade. He turned, and the cold, clear blade, like flowing water, slashed towards Obito's head. This time, Hyuga Kawa saw it: the moment it touched Obito, the blade immersed itself again, failing to draw a single speck of blood, passing directly through.
But Obito also missed. His palm passed through Hyuga Kawa's body.
"Does he only materialize when attacking, by dispelling intangibility?"
"And he can use intangibility for short-distance instantaneous movement?"
Hyuga Kawa pondered the effects of intangibility, thinking: Without a wide-range, long-duration attack, this Kamui ability is indeed hard to counter. He can escape anytime he wants...
As he pondered, the blade had already passed through Obito's neck, and Obito's forward-reaching body also passed through Hyuga Kawa's, his pupils narrowing slightly behind him.
"Got you."
A chain slid from his sleeve, and he was about to materialize again, intending to bind the guy behind him with the chain.
However, in a flash, the blade formed from shadow once again slashed towards Obito's neck. Obito's expression darkened, and he could only be forced into an intangible state once more. He allowed the blade to pass through his body, and the chain also passed through Hyuga Kawa's body.
Obito, like a ghost, constantly searched for opportunities, attempting to pull him into the Kamui dimension. But each time he materialized, he was met with an attack, and each time he was forcibly interrupted by Hyuga Kawa.
"What in the world is this bloodline limit?!" Obito's face beneath his mask grew increasingly grim.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
The black shadow swung like a blade, erupting with terrifying speed. But the speed at which Hyuga Kawa controlled the shadow's attack was just enough for Obito to react. It still couldn't match the speed of Minato Namikaze's Space–Time Ninjutsu, unable to seize the instant Obito's body materialized.
Finally, knowing that a stalemate was useless, Obito drew himself into the Kamui dimension, his figure vanishing from his spot and reappearing beside Nagato.
"..."
Looking at the black shadow in the distance, Uchiha Obito frowned tightly. What is with that guy? The last time he felt such suffocating helplessness was when facing Minato Namikaze; it only took a few exchanges for the intangibility's effect to be seen through. Now, although that guy couldn't hurt him like Minato, he clearly understood the logic of his real-to-intangible transitions.
In this situation, while the other party couldn't touch him, he also couldn't touch the other party. If this continued...
"Are you going to run?" Nagato's tone was as calm as water. "Madara."
Hearing this, Uchiha Obito's face beneath his mask darkened, especially the final address of "Madara," which made his eyes grow even more gloomy. Nagato's sudden recovery from his injuries had already irritated him greatly.
If he couldn't even deal with some nameless nobody who jumped out of nowhere, he would truly lose all say in front of Nagato and within Akatsuki.
With this thought, Uchiha Obito's expression grew grim. As a vortex appeared in space, his figure was also drawn in, vanishing from his spot. This time, he didn't rush to reappear.
Hyuga Kawa merely stood there quietly, his face obscured by shadow, his expression unreadable.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!!
Hundreds, even thousands, of blade glints instantly flashed around Hyuga Kawa! The entire ground was carved with countless grotesque gouges by the endless black shadows, and even falling drops of blood shattered into a mist of blood amidst the overwhelming blade light.
These were the blades formed from black shadows, and they showed no sign of stopping, continuously slashing around Hyuga Kawa, as if they intended to keep going indefinitely!
However—in the midst of this suffocating storm of blades, within the shadow beneath his wide robe, a figure appeared silently.
Buzz!
Obito actually appeared in front of him from beneath him, as if he had drilled out of his body, rapidly detaching himself from the Kamui dimension. His Mangekyō Sharingan flickered with cold light, and space wrinkled like twisted silk, as an invisible, powerful gravitational pull emerged.
Obito had already calculated. With this guy's reaction speed, plus the speed of controlling shadows, he had one second. Obito didn't even dare to appear behind him, nor did he try to touch the other party's shadow. He was gambling on this one-second window of opportunity.
One second was enough; no one could withstand that twisting sensation of dizziness.
"It's over!"
Watching the figure distorted by space, Obito declared with a chilling tone.
But just as Obito was about to pull him into the Kamui dimension...
Uchiha Obito did not see a black shadow eerily rise from the shadow beneath his own feet.
Meanwhile, the people who had earlier surged into the underground palace were unaware of everything happening outside.
Drip... Drip...
The air was filled with a heavy scent of dust and a chill that seemed to come from deep within the rocks. Occasionally, water droplets could be heard falling from the impossibly high dome, echoing hollowly and distantly in the dimness, adding to the eeriness.
The underground palace was not pitch black like the outside; glowing, moss-like plants grew on the walls, allowing ninjas to barely make out objects with their vision. But precisely because of this, when they looked up and saw what was before them, they felt a soul-deep shock and tremor.
The first thing that caught their eyes were ten irregular columns, arching upwards like mountains...
No, those weren't columns.
Those were ten giant tails!
The enormous domed space was higher than anyone could have imagined, yet the light barely outlined the silhouette of a giant creature. Rock-like, rough, stony skin covered twisted muscle lines. Its massive torso, like an inverted mountain, lay prostrate, beneath which were gnarled, mountain-like limbs and sharp claws. That single crimson eye seemed to project a gaze capable of freezing souls, piercing through countless ages, looking down upon the minuscule intruders.
Even as a mere stone statue, it exuded an absolute pressure that made one suffocate and tremble, a pressure from the very pinnacle of the life hierarchy! Vast! Ancient! Grotesque! Deathly silent!
However, what shocked everyone even more than the giant statue itself were the ten tails raised high behind it, like divine pillars supporting the heavens! The end of each tail held a "sphere," a "sphere" radiating different strange glows. Like the most magnificent offerings and spoils of war, they were confined and held aloft at the tips of the tails in a coiling manner!
But soon, everyone noticed that the third highest tail, within its black light sphere, was already empty.
"Ghost Shadow Mask?"
Kakuzu actually read the characters engraved at the base of that tail. Don't let his usual demeanor fool you; besides money, reading ancient texts was his only other hobby. Because of this, he knew that the item inside that light sphere should be called the Ghost Shadow Mask.
However, it seemed someone had gotten there before them and taken what was inside.
Thus, after a brief, deathly silence, the figures of everyone present instantly vanished, rushing towards the other nine light spheres.
Pfft!!
Outside the gate, at this moment, there was a tearing sound, like tough leather being instantly pierced by a sharp blade.
"Blech!"
Obito violently coughed up a mouthful of blood, slowly lowering his head stiffly to look at his abdomen. He saw a ninja-like black shadow standing behind him, its arm piercing through his chest, blood gushing from the wounded flesh. Most importantly, that black shadow was actually squirming like a living thing, like a bloodsucking parasite embedded in his body, consciously drawing blood from him.
Shadow Army: Ghost Shadow Ninja.
"You..."
The process of pulling the person in front of him into the Kamui dimension had been interrupted. Uchiha Obito instinctively wanted to enter an intangible state again.
But in the next moment.
Pfft! Pfft pfft pfft!
His body sprayed out crimson flowers of blood, completely enveloped in a bloody mist. The black shadow that had invaded his body had actually grown sharp spikes, further piercing his kidneys on both sides and leaving several transparent holes in his lungs. Each spike was greedily drawing sweet blood, growing from the inside out, and in the blink of an eye, like countless sinister vipers, it coiled and bound Obito's body.
It was like a tree, watered by flesh and blood, had rooted and sprouted within a person.
Divine Art: 'Growth'
Unlike Wood Style, which only works on plants, Divine Arts can affect all things, naturally including the shadows of Ghost Shadow Ninjas.
"Cough! Cough!"
Interrupted again, a suppressed groan and shock escaped his throat. Uchiha Obito's hoarse voice was full of astonishment: "Wh-why..."
"Now, I've caught you."
Hyuga Kawa's tone remained calm. "You can only use your Space–Time Ninjutsu to move yourself, or choose to phase your body to pass through attacks, right?"
"With the former, you'll take everything on and inside your body with you. With the latter, no matter where you are, you have a shadow that you can't completely get rid of."
Ultimately, it was a matter of information asymmetry. If Uchiha Obito had known his specific abilities, he wouldn't have been overturned so easily with Kamui's intangibility.
As he spoke, Hyuga Kawa's hand, not covered by shadow, extended towards the orange mask with its spiral pattern on Obito's face, carrying an oppressive sense of control over life and death.
"You... what do you want to do?"
Reflecting the hand so close to his eyes, Uchiha Obito's expression changed again.
Hyuga Kawa didn't answer. The hand reaching for the mask was steady, without a tremor. His fingertips grazed the air, touching the cold spiral pattern on the mask.
"Nagato!" Obito growled. "What are you still waiting for?!"
Nagato also didn't answer, only watching him in silence.
Damn it! Damn it!
Fear, fury, and a hint of madness from a completely derailed plan, swirled and converged like a storm in Uchiha Obito's scarlet Sharingan!
The mask absolutely could not be removed; exposure of his identity meant the complete collapse of all his schemes! This face... absolutely could not be exposed to anyone's gaze! Uchiha Obito at this moment could no longer distinguish whether it was for the plan or the shame of his face being publicly revealed.
"I will kill you! No matter who you are!!"
Uchiha Obito's left eye beneath the mask, his other hidden Three-Tomoe Sharingan, spun madly, intensely glowing like shattered glass!
The moment Hyuga Kawa's fingers were about to exert force and truly lift the mask. That Three-Tomoe eye was covered with dense, spiderweb-like blood vessels, and a viscous, crimson tear dripped down from beneath the mask.
Izanagi!
Under Nagato's gaze, something bizarre happened. Obito's body, already severely damaged by being pierced and entangled, dissolved like a phantom at a speed visible to the naked eye. It wasn't a physical dissolution, but a stranger phenomenon. It was as if an invisible eraser was wiping away all traces of his existence.
Once Uchiha Obito's figure completely vanished and the Ghost Shadow Ninja retreated back into its shadow, Hyuga Kawa looked up at Nagato in the distance.
"..."
Nagato watched this bizarre scene before him, his Rinnegan seemingly calm. Only his slightly clenched fists betrayed that his heart was not entirely undisturbed. Even without removing that guy's mask, from his performance, the answer was already very, very obvious.
The so-called Uchiha Madara was nothing but an impostor. And the Rinnegan he possessed was also the product of someone else's conspiracy.