Chapter 77: 100% Mastery of Intangibility!
The first thing Makoto remembered was what happened in the Jujutsu Kaisen world when he'd tried to take one of Ryomen Sukuna's fingers.
That action had triggered a World-class Mission, which eventually forced Makoto to face Ryomen Sukuna himself.
At first, Makoto had thought he'd been pushed into a hopeless situation.
But through his own efforts, along with a little help from his cheat, he'd successfully driven Sukuna back and established the foundation of his current strength.
In a sense, that World-class Mission was precisely what had given Makoto the qualifications to stand on today's battlefield.
With that thought, Makoto immediately made his decision.
For the sake of keeping the world's development intact, he couldn't casually kill an absolute protagonist like Uzumaki Naruto.
But Uchiha Obito was ultimately a supporting character.
'The world can probably survive if someone replaces him.'
Makoto stopped hesitating.
At point-blank range, five Spatial Slashes erupted from his fingertips and carved directly toward Uchiha Obito's head.
Thanks to the Hashirama Cells transplanted into his body, Obito possessed enormous chakra reserves and exceptional regenerative ability.
In terms of how difficult he was to kill, he was far more troublesome than the black-robed Player from before.
That was why Makoto used one of his strongest killing moves immediately.
Obito sensed the danger and activated intangibility, trying to shift himself back into the real world.
Now it became a contest of activation speed.
Obito's intangibility required almost no preparation.
But with Makoto already gripping his face, his Spatial Slashes likewise needed practically no travel time to damage him.
Five slashes erupted from Makoto's fingertips and instantly cut through Obito's mask, skin, flesh, and bone.
They continued toward his brain at nearly immeasurable speed.
If Makoto destroyed Obito's brain, even his monstrous regenerative ability wouldn't save him.
But Obito's intangibility had already begun taking effect.
His head turned hazy, and Makoto could no longer feel the solid face beneath his fingers.
Even the five Spatial Slashes stalled as the two spatial abilities interfered with each other.
They wavered like paper planes caught in violent turbulence, unable to advance and seemingly ready to collapse at any moment.
At this rate, Makoto would probably only leave Obito badly wounded before he escaped.
With Obito's regenerative ability, injuries like that could be repaired simply by finding a White Zetsu afterward.
'That's not the ending I want.'
'If I've already decided to kill him, then I'm seeing it through.'
Makoto repeated his earlier tactic.
"Cursed Technique Reversal: Wedge!"
The technique erupted directly from his fingertips.
At the same time, Makoto focused everything he had and flooded Obito's face with Spatial Gates, spatial barriers, Sky Manipulation, and every other ability he possessed that could interfere with spatial lines.
He wasn't trying to kill Obito with those techniques.
He only wanted to disrupt the surrounding space enough to slow down Obito's intangibility.
The tactic worked again.
When Makoto had used the same trick earlier, he'd nearly killed the black-robed Player.
Obito possessed a Mangekyo Sharingan and far more chakra, so theoretically the disruption should affect him less.
But Makoto only needed an advantage of one-hundredth of a second.
It was like the battle between Ryomen Sukuna and Gojo Satoru, where a Binding had allowed Sukuna to fire a Spatial Slash without any activation delay.
The improvement itself might have been tiny.
The difference in outcome was absolute.
Under Makoto's full assault, the five Spatial Slashes finally crossed over Obito's face.
They divided his head into ten triangular sections.
Feeling pieces of flesh tumble past his fingertips, Makoto withdrew his hand and let out a long breath.
The portion of Obito's corpse still remaining in the real world collapsed to the ground after losing consciousness.
Only the lower half of his body remained there, somewhat similar to "2.5 Gojo."
That meant Obito had already shifted roughly half his body away before Makoto forcibly killed him inside the Kamui Dimension.
Even the corpse was incomplete.
Finally relaxing, Makoto turned toward the other battlefield.
Yukinoshita was still trying to kill their remaining enemy.
Unfortunately, even her Bankai had no particularly effective answer to spatial abilities. She could only keep cutting away at the enemy's remaining vitality.
Makoto immediately opened a Spatial Gate to join her.
Then he realized something was wrong.
'It's too quiet.'
There was no system notification confirming the kill.
There was no announcement that he'd triggered another World-class Mission either.
'Would Uchiha Obito really die this quietly?'
Makoto immediately turned around.
The lower half of Obito's corpse vanished as though an illusion had been dispelled.
His upper body and true self were already nowhere to be found.
...
Inside the Kamui Dimension, Uchiha Obito's shattered body began reversing itself.
His destroyed head reformed.
His torso regenerated.
Within moments, his entire body had returned to normal.
Only his broken mask remained damaged.
Two Three-Tomoe Sharingan could now be seen within the dark gray sockets beneath it.
The spare left Sharingan he'd transplanted from another Uchiha was slowly losing its light.
Obito had used one of the Uchiha Clan's ultimate survival techniques.
Izanagi.
A Sharingan wielder could activate Izanagi by forming the Hare, Boar, and Ram hand seals.
For a limited period, the technique could turn unfavorable events affecting its user into things that had never happened, while allowing favorable outcomes to become reality.
Its duration varied depending on the user.
The price was permanent blindness in the Sharingan used to activate it.
Obito's first use of Izanagi should originally have occurred against Konan and her six hundred billion Explosive Tags.
Instead, a mysterious shinobi had forced him to reveal this trump card years ahead of schedule.
After pretending to be Uchiha Madara for so long, Obito's confidence had gradually swollen.
This near-death experience finally cooled his head completely.
He needed to disappear for a while and quietly accumulate more power.
More importantly, it was time to retrieve his other Sharingan.
Only after obtaining both eyes could he gain access to another of the Uchiha Clan's ultimate techniques, Susanoo.
'But how do I take that Sharingan back from Konoha...?'
Obito suddenly paused.
'Wait.'
'Didn't someone throw that green-clad beast into my Kamui Dimension?'
...
Back in the real world, Makoto had also figured it out.
'Uchiha Obito used Izanagi.'
The technique produced no obvious light, visual effect, or chakra fluctuation.
Its only strict requirement was the hand seals.
'When did he form them? During our spatial clash?'
Makoto hadn't been able to see Obito's hands at the time.
Obito had probably shifted them into the Kamui Dimension beforehand.
'As expected. Killing Uchiha Obito isn't that easy.'
Makoto wasn't discouraged.
At least he'd forced one of Obito's hidden trump cards into the open.
Once Makoto's own Kamui-derived ability became strong enough for him to enter the Kamui Dimension freely, Obito would have nowhere left to escape.
Makoto stepped through a Spatial Gate and appeared beside Yukinoshita.
He immediately used his own spatial abilities to prevent the black-robed Player from completing his intangibility.
With the two of them working together, every remaining trump card the enemy possessed became useless.
The black-robed man, still fused into the malformed giant's head, screamed at Makoto through his grotesque exposed flesh.
"Why do you have to kill us?! We can sign a surrender! Name whatever conditions you want!"
Makoto froze briefly and looked toward Yukinoshita.
"We can do that?"
Yukinoshita smiled brightly.
"We can. But a Surrender Letter has to be prepared beforehand. I didn't buy one."
"I... definitely didn't either."
For a moment, Makoto considered using Making Fake Become Real to manifest a Surrender Letter.
Then he remembered it was an item belonging to the Main God Space and immediately abandoned the idea.
Besides, the fewer Players possessing Kamui-like spatial abilities, the better.
Makoto had no desire to play another endless game of cat and mouse against a spatial ability user.
"Do it."
At Makoto's command, Yukinoshita gave a sharp cry and swung her blade.
A long, narrow blade shadow flashed outward.
The malformed giant was split cleanly in half.
Its remaining vitality finally hit zero.
A familiar notification sounded in both their ears.
[Ding! You and your teammate have killed five Veterans during an opposing mission.]
[Standard Loot Obtained: Fate Value +20, Kaito Kid's Disguise Cloak, Surrender Letter x5, Temporary Team Agreement x1, C-rank Emergency Escape Card x5, Six Powers Training Manual, One Piece World Designation Card x1, Garb-Garb Fruit x1, Mission Points +36,550, and assorted non-supernatural items.]
Makoto and Yukinoshita looked at each other and smiled.
This mission had been one battle after another from the moment it began.
At last, they could finally relax.
Then another system notification sounded.
[You have completed this world's objective and the triggered Main Mission.]
[You have ten minutes of free activity time. During this period, you may voluntarily return at any moment.]
[Countdown started.]
Looking at the countdown, Makoto glanced around at the Konoha shinobi who still regarded them as though facing dangerous enemies.
"Let's go, Yukinoshita. We'll find somewhere to rest."
For now, Makoto had no intention of using Making Fake Become Real on these people again.
Given what they understood, there probably wasn't much valuable information left for him to extract.
Before they could leave, Akimichi Torifu, the most senior shinobi currently present, stepped forward.
"Please leave us your names. Konoha would like the opportunity to repay both of you someday."
Makoto gave him an amused look.
"Repay us? Or take revenge?"
Akimichi Torifu answered solemnly.
"Once a new Hokage takes office, Shimura Danzo's actions will be thoroughly investigated."
"If he truly was responsible for many of Konoha's darkest affairs, then you and your companion have done the village an even greater service."
Makoto nodded.
Akimichi Torifu had a trustworthy enough reputation.
"Call me Kitano. She's my partner, Snow."
"As for repayment, don't bother. If we ever need something from Konoha, we'll come to you ourselves."
Makoto was just about to leave when a sudden thought struck him.
"Right. You all saw the man who attacked me earlier, didn't you?"
Akimichi Torifu and the others nodded.
Makoto continued.
"That man was responsible for the Nine-Tails Attack years ago. The Fourth Hokage and his wife died because of him."
"Even the massacre of the Uchiha Clan was something he manipulated from behind the scenes."
The entire battlefield went silent.
Every shinobi who could still move seemed to freeze in place.
Today's attack on Konoha had already been shocking enough.
Then Danzo died.
Now Makoto had casually dropped another revelation large enough to throw the already chaotic village into complete disorder.
Akimichi Torifu's mouth twitched.
He was grateful for the information.
But revealing something like that here, at this exact moment, was practically designed to crush everyone's morale.
Before Torifu could smooth things over, Makoto smiled.
"Still, you don't need to worry."
"I'll keep hunting him."
"The ability that man possesses is called intangibility."
"And I possess the same power."
[Ding! Making Fake Become Real has activated successfully...]
[Manifestation Points have reached 100.]
[You have fully mastered Uchiha Obito's intangibility.]
[You can remain intangible continuously for up to five minutes.]
[Afterward, the ability enters a five-minute cooldown.]
'It worked!'
Previously, Makoto's attempt at Making Fake Become Real before a large crowd had failed because everyone's understanding differed too much.
But after personally witnessing both Uchiha Obito and the black-robed Player use intangibility, everyone here now shared a clear understanding of the ability.
That gave Makoto an even clearer picture of the upper limits of Making Fake Become Real.
'As long as I first make everyone understand something clearly and consistently, I can complete Making Fake Become Real in a single instant.'
He had also learned the secret of Fate Burn.
'Maybe after returning to Academy City, I should try something similar there.'
Before doing that, however, Makoto needed Yukinoshita to explain exactly what kind of punishment Fate Burn carried.
Makoto gave the gathered shinobi another look, wondering whether there was anything else worth manifesting through them.
At that moment, Jiraiya appeared carrying Naruto on his back.
He had already released Sage Mode.
After surveying the battlefield, he immediately gave orders.
"Everyone, return to wartime operations. Restore order throughout Konoha first."
Then he looked toward Makoto and Yukinoshita.
"Why don't you two rest in the Hokage's office? It should still be mostly intact."
Makoto looked at Jiraiya's filthy clothes and the blood covering his body.
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Handling the Nine-Tails wasn't easy, was it? Even the Toad Sage ended up injured."
Jiraiya gave a bitter smile.
"Naruto has already suffered enough. I didn't want to hurt him any further, so it took longer."
Makoto nodded and spoke as casually as possible.
"If he loses control again, you can ask me for help."
"After all, I can use Sage Mode too, and there's a chakra lifeform inside me comparable to the Nine-Tails. I have plenty of experience with this sort of thing."
Makoto didn't raise his voice.
Most of the younger shinobi wouldn't understand Sage Mode or how terrifying the Nine-Tails truly was anyway.
But Jiraiya was standing beside him.
Orochimaru and Hatake Kakashi had also approached after realizing Makoto was about to leave.
All three heard him clearly.
[Ding! Making Fake Become Real has activated successfully!]
…