Chapter 273 – Clash of the Mangekyō Sharingan (Final)
"Thank goodness for the Akimichi clan's medicine… without it, I'd already be on the floor."
Through a network of kunai imbued with seals,
Minato Namikaze had erected a defensive barrier around the area.
He knew full well it wouldn't keep the masked man out —
but it would stop ordinary Konoha shinobi from stumbling into danger.
The real threat had already been intercepted by Uchiha Kei.
Now, facing the restrained Nine-Tails, Minato couldn't help but feel a rush of grim gratitude.
If not for Kei's calm intervention,
this night would have ended in unimaginable tragedy.
If Kei hadn't been here,
his only choice would've been the Dead Demon Consuming Seal —
a suicidal jutsu that summoned the Shinigami to devour both user and target souls.
He could already imagine it —
Kushina and himself dying together,
and his son, Naruto, entering a world without parents on the day of his birth.
After all the political tension between him and the Third Hokage,
he doubted Hiruzen would ever treat the boy kindly.
And entrusting Naruto to the Uchiha…
would only make the child's life more dangerous.
---
"I'm truly fortunate," Minato thought, glancing at Kei's shadow clone.
"To have someone so calm and clear-minded in the midst of chaos."
He now understood why Fugaku valued Kei so deeply.
Cold-headed, brilliant, and powerful beyond his years —
Kei was the kind of shinobi every generation only saw once.
And the power of the Mangekyō Sharingan…
Minato had experienced it firsthand.
He knew each Mangekyō possessed a unique and terrifying ability.
Whatever Kei's was, it was more than enough to trust.
But what impressed him most wasn't Kei's strength.
It was his restraint.
Even with that kind of power, Kei remained steady — calm.
It was something even seasoned veterans struggled to maintain.
In Minato's heart, Uchiha Kei had joined the ranks of truly great shinobi —
a name he would speak in the same breath as Jiraiya or Fugaku.
"I won't waste their efforts," Minato said quietly, his gaze firm.
He lifted Kushina with one arm, Naruto in the other,
and stepped toward the towering Nine-Tails.
"Kei said the chakra should be split three ways.
One portion — the balanced yin and yang — stays sealed within Kushina.
The yin half goes to me…
and the yang half into Naruto."
It made perfect sense.
Kushina's body had long held the full Nine-Tails — removing it completely might kill her.
Keeping a fused fragment inside her would stabilize her life force.
By dividing the remaining halves between himself and Naruto,
they could share the burden.
Minato wasn't sure he was suited to be a jinchūriki…
but Naruto, with his Uzumaki lineage, would endure.
Kei's method wasn't just tactical brilliance —
it was compassion disguised as logic.
He was protecting all three of them.
"He really is a genius," Minato murmured.
"To think of this in mere minutes…
The same boy who brought Kakashi back from despair."
His admiration burned quietly as he set Kushina down beside the restrained beast.
Then his hands began to weave seals in a blur of motion.
Powerful chakra surged around him, shimmering in the air.
"Ready, Kushina?" he whispered.
"I'm starting the seal."
"Go ahead," she managed, voice weak but resolute.
---
Minato pulled a kunai from his pouch —
its blade glinting under the firelit sky.
"Fugaku, Kei — I'll be relying on you both.
Once I begin the split, the Nine-Tails will thrash harder."
"Don't worry, I can hold it," Fugaku replied, his Mangekyō spinning into focus.
"I'll reinforce from here," Kei's clone added.
"But hurry — I won't last long."
No sooner had he spoken than the ground trembled violently.
In the distance, flames erupted through the forest —
a roaring blaze cutting through the night.
Minato's eyes flickered toward it, his chest tightening.
That could only mean one thing:
Kei's true body was already locked in battle.
He forced himself to focus.
"Hold on, Kei… I'll finish here, and then I'll come!"
The kunai in his hand whistled through the air —
and the scene shifted.
---
Far away, amid the burning forest—
"Damn it!"
Obito Uchiha twisted aside, narrowly dodging a blade that moved faster than sound.
Even so, a crimson slash tore through his side, blood scattering into the air.
He gritted his teeth, glaring at his opponent.
Uchiha Kei moved like a ghost — too fast, too fluid.
Every time Obito thought he had adjusted, Kei vanished again,
reappearing where no Sharingan prediction could follow.
His rhythm was shattered.
Every step, every attack — countered.
"What the hell is this speed?!" Obito spat.
"You're not supposed to move like that!"
He lunged again —
but Kei was already behind him.
Steel sliced across his back, leaving a fresh wound.
Obito's Kamui flared —
he slipped into his pocket dimension, clutching his side.
Still alive. Barely.
His anger flared hotter than the flames around them.
How many times has he hit me?
Even Black Zetsu, watching unseen from the earth below,
was starting to feel uneasy.
"What is this kid?" Zetsu hissed.
"His Susanoo manifested in a three-tomoe state —
so his Mangekyō should enhance Susanoo, not speed!"
But Kei's movements defied all logic —
a blend of grace and savagery that shouldn't be humanly possible.
"And his stamina…" Zetsu's tone darkened.
"He's maintained that power far too long.
Even Madara's vessels couldn't last like this."
A thought struck him, cold and sharp.
"Could he have… Hashirama's cells?"
It wasn't impossible.
Kei had raided Orochimaru's old research site, after all.
If he had grafted Senju cells into his body…
then even time itself might bend to him.
---
Kei, unaware of the whispers beneath the earth,
was fighting at his limit — but exhilarated.
The forest blazed around them,
their chakra clashing like twin storms.
This was the freest battle he had ever fought —
no restraints, no masks, no hesitation.
He could feel his Mangekyō growing sharper,
his bond with it deepening.
But his eyes burned.
Blood trickled from the corners as his chakra drained fast.
He knew this couldn't go on.
"That's enough," he muttered.
"This fight's taught me plenty."
He took one last step forward —
and vanished.
Obito barely saw the motion.
Steel flashed twice.
He used Kamui to phase through the first strike —
but the second came the instant he reappeared.
Got you.
Kei's eyes spun like whirlpools.
The world froze.
---
-[Chrono Freeze]-
A forbidden power —
his ultimate Mangekyō technique.
Everything stopped.
Sound. Motion. Breath.
Even Obito — frozen in mid-step, expression twisted in fury.
But Kei felt the crushing cost immediately.
Pain seared through his eyes; blood spilled freely down his cheeks.
His chakra was burning away faster than ever before.
He didn't care.
He raised his blade.
First — the arm.
A clean cut through Obito's right side, slicing the limb away.
Then — the heart.
The blade drove straight through his chest.
Time resumed.
Obito blinked — once —
then looked down in disbelief.
His arm was gone.
A blade jutted from his chest.
"Wh—"
Blood filled his mouth before he could speak.
Kei stepped back, breathing heavily.
"Looks like… this is your limit."
Obito sneered through the pain.
"You think… you've won?"
His remaining eye blazed —
chakra flaring violently.
Kei's expression tightened.
So that's it. Izanagi.
A technique that rewrote death itself.
He couldn't let him use it.
---
The Mangekyō in Kei's eyes pulsed one final time.
A spiral of illusion wrapped around Obito's consciousness—
And then, everything changed.
---
Obito opened his eyes to find himself standing in a field of soft green grass.
Sunlight filtered gently through the clouds.
He froze.
"A genjutsu?"
He tried to dispel it —
but then, a voice.
"Come on, Obito! Hurry up!"
That voice.
Soft. Kind. Familiar.
It hit him like a hammer to the chest.
He turned stiffly —
and there she was.
Rin Nohara.
Her short brown hair framed a face that smiled just like it used to.
Purple markings on her cheeks.
Eyes full of warmth.
Obito reached out instinctively,
his hand trembling —
But she passed right through him.
And beside her walked Kakashi —
younger, smiling faintly,
his headband tilted to the side.
The boy he used to be trailed behind them —
small, shy, full of hope.
Obito watched, frozen,
as the scene burned itself into his soul.
He realized, with dawning horror,
that the man standing here now
was not the same boy from that memory.
He wasn't Obito anymore.
He was Madara's ghost.
A man who had forgotten why he ever fought.
Sweat beaded down his brow.
"No… this isn't right."
He remembered his dream —
a world with Rin, with Kakashi,
a world without pain or war.
But standing here,
looking at the peace he once sought,
he finally understood—
This world didn't need him to destroy it.
It needed him to remember who he was.
That unreal sensation lingered —
a gnawing feeling that the world itself was being manipulated.
"Am I… still myself?"
Obito murmured, staring at his trembling hands.
The question hung heavy in the air.
---
"Do you really think,"
a calm voice answered from behind him,
"that you're still the person you once were?"
Obito's eyes snapped wide.
That voice — cold, sharp, familiar.
"Uchiha Kei…"
He turned, defensive instinct flaring, Sharingan spinning to life.
Kei stood a short distance away, mask removed,
his expression composed — almost pitying.
"Relax," Kei said quietly. "If I wanted to kill you,
you'd have died when my blade pierced your heart."
He took a step closer, eyes unblinking.
"So, it really is you, Obito.
I suspected as much.
But tell me—why did you become this?"
---
The question struck a nerve.
Obito's body stiffened; his hands clenched into fists.
Images flashed behind his eyes—
Kakashi's blade impaling Rin's chest.
Her blood blossoming like a crimson flower.
Her peaceful face as she fell lifeless in the rain.
The sound of his own scream echoing through the rubble.
That night.
That endless, merciless night.
---
Kei could see the tremor in Obito's hands,
the grief twisting beneath the anger.
He sighed softly.
"I might have hit a nerve. But maybe that's a good thing."
He continued evenly.
"I can guess what happened.
You survived that rockslide — somehow.
And now, you've become this… creature,
this shell of the boy who once wanted to be Hokage."
Kei's eyes narrowed.
"You loved Rin, didn't you?
Then tell me, Obito —
why are you destroying the village she died to protect?
Why are you shattering everything she believed in?"
---
Obito's breath grew ragged.
Then, with a snarl, he tore off his cracked mask, revealing the twisted half of his face.
"You don't understand anything!" he roared.
"This world is hell!
And I'm going to destroy it — all of it!
Konoha is only the beginning!"
His voice broke into a scream of fury, grief, and madness.
---
Kei only stared — expressionless, voice low but cutting.
"And then what?"
"Do you think death won't find you?
Do you think you can outrun it forever?"
He took a step forward, eyes glinting red in the firelight.
"When you die, Obito —
and you will die —
you'll stand in the Pure Land, face to face with the girl you worship.
And she'll look at you… with hatred.
With disgust."
His voice hardened, like cold steel.
"She'll turn away from you.
She'll hide her eyes every time you appear.
For eternity.
Forever, in a world where time never ends.
Tell me, Obito—"
"Will you still believe you were right?"
---
Silence.
Obito's breathing faltered.
His shoulders began to shake — not from rage, but from something deeper.
A tremor of doubt.
A flicker of pain.
For a long time, he said nothing.
Kei simply watched,
a faint, cold smile tugging at his lips.
He's cracking, Kei thought.
Good. The frost in his heart is beginning to thaw.
---
"There's something you should know," Kei said quietly.
His tone softened — though his eyes stayed sharp.
"I realized who you were after our last battle.
The way you clung to Rin's body, crying…
and the Sharingan in your eyes."
He stepped closer, his voice calm, methodical — almost surgical.
"I thought you might've been one of the old Uchiha relics,
or maybe an outsider who survived.
But when I looked into Rin's death…"
Obito's gaze twitched.
"I brought her body back," Kei continued.
"And what I found… was interesting."
He crouched slightly, his tone darkening.
"Her chakra network was chaotic —
evidence she'd been under a genjutsu at the moment of death.
And inside her body, traces of Three-Tails chakra.
Someone had made her a jinchūriki."
Obito's eyes widened — faintly, almost imperceptibly.
"She chose to die," Kei said. "But she shouldn't have had to.
Minato could've sealed the beast safely.
Kushina's sealing jutsu could've contained it.
There were options."
He paused, his voice lowering to a razor's edge.
"And yet… there was something else.
Something carved into her heart."
He straightened, staring directly into Obito's eye.
"A curse seal.
Designed to control her chakra,
to trigger the genjutsu and force her to die before reaching the village."
---
The air went still.
Kei's next words fell like a hammer.
"In other words—
Rin's death wasn't fate.
It was murder.
Planned. Executed.
Arranged by human hands."
---
Obito's world collapsed in that instant.
The fury, the hatred, the despair —
all turned inward, twisting and fracturing into something raw and wordless.
He trembled violently,
as if the weight of his existence had just been torn open.
And Kei simply stood there,
watching the once-idealistic boy
drown in the truth he had been running from all along.