[Note: A few chapters were mixed up, but the sequence is now correct.]
Chapter 272 – Clash of the Mangekyō (Part 3)
The moment Uchiha Kei's blade came slicing toward him, Uchiha Obito remained unnervingly calm.
He had prepared for this.
The blade tore straight through his body — phasing cleanly without drawing blood.
An instant later, he counterattacked, chains hissing through the air.
Kei met him head-on, their clash exploding into a blur of speed and precision.
Close-quarters combat was Kei's home ground.
He welcomed it.
And soon, Obito realized — to his growing frustration — that he had made a grave tactical error.
Without his Kamui ability, his taijutsu felt sluggish and rigid, almost amateurish beside Kei's sharp, efficient movements.
After only a few minutes of exchange, Obito was forced to disengage, leaping back and brushing ash from his cloak.
He glared across the clearing at Kei, who stood effortlessly poised — unscathed, steady.
Obito could feel his own irritation bubbling beneath the surface.
His body healed quickly, yes, but even he knew: Kei hadn't gone all out yet.
Neither of them had.
Still, the difference in fundamentals was humiliating.
Without Kamui, he couldn't even keep up with Kei's base speed.
The boy's reaction time, his insight — terrifying.
Even after studying Sharingan techniques and combat forms, Obito found himself being read like an open book.
Taijutsu — the bedrock of all shinobi skill — was where Kei outclassed him completely.
And even in genjutsu and chakra reading, Kei's precision was staggering.
"So what if he's stronger?" Obito thought, clenching his fists.
"His eyes will burn out long before mine ever do."
His lips twisted into a smirk.
"If you won't use your Mangekyō, Kei… then allow me to show you something of mine!"
In a flicker of motion, Obito dodged Kei's next strike, his hands forming seals in a blur.
"Fire Style — Explosive Flame Cyclone!"
A vortex of spiraling heat and twisting space erupted around him, the air itself bending under the pressure.
Flames converged into a storm of burning wind —
a jutsu of his own design, blending Fire Release with spatial distortion.
Kei's eyes narrowed.
He flickered backward in an instant, body vanishing into motion blur, landing atop a tree branch just as the firestorm devoured the forest below.
His own hands blurred through seals.
"Fire Style — Dragon Flame Bullet!"
A roaring dragon of fire surged from his lips, colliding head-on with Obito's whirlwind.
The two infernos fused, detonating in a blazing dome that turned night into day.
The entire forest burned.
Flames towered skyward, heat waves distorting the horizon.
This was no mere skirmish — this was an elemental war.
---
Obito grinned through the flickering firelight.
This chaos suited him perfectly.
Unlike his fight with Minato, there was no surgical precision here — only raw destruction.
But that wasn't necessarily in his favor.
Minato had exploited the gaps in his timing and nearly ended him.
He wouldn't allow that again.
This time, he'd be the one exploiting the gaps.
The flames cut their visibility. Perfect.
Kei couldn't see through the smoke — not as clearly as his Kamui could.
Obito phased through the inferno effortlessly, emerging behind Kei with a predator's smile.
Chains lashed out — silent, sudden, deadly.
The moment seemed perfect.
Kei turned just a fraction too late — or so Obito thought.
That fraction of delay was enough.
His chain coiled midair—
until Kei's chakra flared black.
---
A violent, dark energy exploded from Kei's body — thick, suffocating, and cold.
Obito's instincts screamed.
"What… what is this?"
Black chakra condensed around Kei like smoke,
hardening in an instant into the form of jagged ribs —
the skeletal armor of Susanoo.
A massive, spectral hand emerged from behind him,
and before Obito could blink, it slammed down with the force of a mountain.
The ground shattered. Trees exploded into dust.
If not for Kamui, he'd have been obliterated.
Obito phased just in time, reappearing meters away —
but the sheer power left him rattled.
---
Kei's Susanoo flexed, its ribcage glowing with molten-black chakra.
His blade met Obito's chain midair, deflecting it with a metallic crack.
Lightning burst to life in Kei's left hand —
a screeching, birdlike cry of a thousand volts.
Chidori.
The attack would have landed —
if Obito hadn't phased again at the last instant, vanishing into his warped dimension.
Kei exhaled softly.
"Predictable."
He flicked his wrist, Susanoo's arm swinging wide —
obliterating the treetop where Obito had been seconds ago.
Both combatants crashed through the blazing forest,
their duel turning the night into a battlefield of red and black light.
---
Obito landed and slid back, his cloak singed, his chest heaving.
He glared at Kei through his mask.
"What a vile serpent you are…"
But beneath the bitterness was a flicker of admiration.
He understood now.
That black chakra — that terrifying manifestation —
could only be Susanoo.
"So that's your ability…" he muttered.
"Enhancement of Susanoo. I see now, boy."
---
Kei smirked, his tone cold and mocking.
"Oh? You think you understand?"
"You, of all people — the rat who hides in the dark?"
He tilted his head slightly, voice growing quieter, sharper.
"Tell me, Obito — what are you without Kamui?"
"Your insight? Mediocre.
Your taijutsu? Laughable.
Analysis? Try harder."
Obito's jaw tightened.
"Watch your tongue, boy. I haven't even started fighting seriously."
Kei chuckled.
"What a coincidence. Neither have I."
He lifted his blade.
"But I have to say… for a so-called senior, you're an embarrassment to the Uchiha name."
That last jab hit home.
"Uchiha Kei!" Obito's voice cracked with fury.
"You think hiding behind that face makes you better than me?!
You're nothing but a shadow!"
"A shadow calling another a rat," Kei said coolly. "How poetic."
Their eyes locked.
The air shimmered with power.
Three tomoe spun — once, twice —
and then both pairs of eyes bloomed scarlet into Mangekyō.
For a heartbeat, the world held its breath.
Then both men vanished,
colliding midair with a shockwave that split the burning forest in two.
---
From nearly a kilometer away, Hyūga Ayaka watched through her Byakugan,
her pale eyes wide with disbelief.
"Those two…" she whispered.
The ground quaked beneath their battle.
The scale was beyond anything she had imagined.
Even standing this far, she could feel their chakra like crashing waves.
The masked man was like a phantom —
untouchable, intangible, unkillable.
Yet Kei faced him without fear,
flowing through every exchange as if he'd already predicted it.
Ayaka remembered his words before the mission.
"Leave the masked man to me."
At the time, she had doubted it.
Now, she understood.
---
"What's going on?" Kenta Imai asked beside her,
eyes darting toward the inferno.
"The blast radius keeps expanding. Are they even human anymore?"
Ayaka shook her head slowly.
"No ordinary shinobi could face them.
Even a Kage… would fall if they made a single mistake."
Her gaze flicked back to Kei.
She had seen him fight before —
but never like this.
He didn't just wield his eyes.
He commanded them.
His taijutsu, his timing, his intelligence — they all harmonized perfectly with his Sharingan.
It wasn't power controlling him.
It was him controlling power.
That realization left her awestruck.
---
Far ahead, the battle raged past human limits.
Kei stood wreathed in black flame and chakra,
his Susanoo having grown into a third-stage titan —
a black-armored colossus with burning red eyes.
Each swing of its blade shattered the ground;
each strike carved fiery scars through the night.
Obito, however, was unnervingly calm.
With his Mangekyō eye now active, his control over Kamui was now absolute.
Kei's attacks couldn't touch him —
but his own couldn't land either.
The two were locked in a deadlock of speed and space.
Obito's frustration grew.
He couldn't understand — how Kei could read his movements so perfectly,
how even his Wood Release couldn't catch him.
And worse, he knew —
if he tried to warp inside Kei's Susanoo,
the counterattack would be instantaneous.
The duel of two Mangekyō —
one cloaked in shadow, the other burning with light —
had become a war of gods.
Fighting like a turtle hiding in its shell —
it was infuriating.
That was how Uchiha Obito felt facing Uchiha Kei's relentless assault.
"It seems," Kei's voice rang cold and sharp,
"your tricks only go this far, don't they?"
His Susanoo swung its blade again —
a slash that split the air like thunder.
The blade cleaved through Obito's intangible body,
carving a deep, burning scar into the earth behind him.
Obito exhaled, voice steady though his tone was bitter.
"And yet… you can't touch me either, can you?"
Even now, cornered and irritated, he didn't lose his composure.
His calmness wasn't confidence — it was pride.
"I admit," Obito continued,
"I underestimated you. Your power's impressive, Kei.
But there's one thing I find… amusing."
Kei tilted his head slightly, his tone quiet.
"Oh? Let's hear it."
"How much longer," Obito said with a smirk,
"can your eyes hold out?"
His voice carried that smug, knowing cadence —
as though he had already seen Kei's limit.
"Susanoo isn't just any jutsu. It's the Uchiha's forbidden art.
Keep it up much longer… and your eyes will bleed dry."
He was right about one thing.
From Madara's records and the old clan scrolls, Obito had learned well —
Susanoo's power came at a monstrous cost.
And while he suspected Kei's Mangekyō was tied to it,
he simply didn't believe anyone could sustain that form for long.
He lacked offensive prowess, yes,
but his chakra and ocular stamina far outmatched most.
If it came down to endurance — he would win.
---
Kei just smiled beneath his mask.
A small, quiet, dangerous smile.
Then, before Obito's eyes, his Susanoo began to dissolve.
The towering armor crumbled, collapsing back into the skeletal frame,
and then further — until only faint wisps of dark chakra remained.
It looked like Obito had been right.
But… the air around Kei shifted.
The pressure grew sharper, heavier.
Predatory.
Obito frowned. Something was off.
"You're right," Kei said softly.
"My eyes can't handle that level of output for long."
He raised his head, Sharingan gleaming faintly red.
"That's why," he continued,
"my strongest form… doesn't rely on Susanoo."
---
"Oh?" Obito's tone darkened with suspicion.
"You really think dropping your defense will help?
Or are you just desperate enough to gamble?"
Kei's hand reached for the blade on his back.
Blue chakra rippled along its edge like liquid lightning.
"You know," Kei said with quiet amusement,
"I've always liked the ability of your eye.
So why don't you leave it here for me?"
He didn't wait for a response.
Kei's figure vanished.
A flash —
a whisper of wind —
and suddenly he was right in front of Obito.
The blade sang through the air —
a blur aimed straight at Obito's chest.
---
Obito snorted and began to phase—
but then froze, eyes widening.
The speed—
If Kei had been a galloping horse before,
now he was a cheetah,
blurring beyond comprehension.
Obito's single eye twitched as he tried to adjust,
but the missing eye's blind spot betrayed him.
That fraction of a second delay —
less than a heartbeat —
became a lethal opening.
"When—? How did he—!?"
Obito barely had time to think.
His mind raced, his instincts screaming as Kei's blade accelerated again.
Even Black Zetsu, buried deep beneath the earth,
was frozen in disbelief.
"That speed… what is he?!"
Zetsu's thoughts hissed through the dirt like a whisper.
"His Mangekyō… it doesn't just enhance Susanoo?
No — it's augmenting his body!
A physical enhancement technique!"
Above, Kei's blade struck.
Obito threw himself backward, his body flickering into Kamui-space at the last instant.
A crimson line split across his chest before the wound sealed over —
but the pain was real.
Inside the void, Obito hissed,
his hand pressed against the fading blood.
"That bastard…"
"When did he learn to read me like that?"
He'd fought the Fourth Hokage and survived.
He had mastered space itself.
And yet this boy — this smug, silver-eyed viper —
had just forced him into retreat.
Grinding his teeth, Obito steadied his breath.
He refused to lose twice in one night.
"That speed… he can't maintain it. He's bluffing."
He nodded to himself, regaining focus.
All he needed to do was stall.
Let the boy burn himself out.
Then, when Kei's strength faltered—
he'd strike.
He'd end it.
"Go on then," he murmured,
fading back into the world of flame and shadow.
"Keep attacking, Kei.
Burn yourself out for me."