Encirclement and Suppression
Upon seeing Obito Uchiha again, Kakashi Hatake remained cold and distant, showing no interest in conversation.
Obito reached out, gripping Kakashi's arm tightly. His voice was low and tense.
"Kakashi… I heard about what happened with your father."
Kakashi's gaze was blank, his tone indifferent.
"So? What's your point?"
Obito stared at him, trying to meet his eyes.
"I just… I know this must be hard for you. I can understand—"
Kakashi abruptly cut him off.
"Stop right there, Obito. You don't understand anything. If you're here to offer pity, don't bother. We're not close. I don't owe you anything."
He shook Obito's hand off and walked past him without hesitation.
Rin Nohara looked on, visibly distressed. She couldn't understand why Kakashi had become so distant, so cold.
Obito called out after him.
"Kakashi! Aren't we friends?"
Kakashi paused but didn't turn around. His voice was like ice.
"Friends? Don't flatter yourself. I don't have any friends."
Just as he resumed walking, Minato Namikaze, their sensei, stepped into his path.
"Kakashi," Minato said gently, "Sakumo-sama did what he believed was right. Choosing to save his comrades… that's not something to be ashamed of. But the war has changed people—everyone is tense, judgmental. That's what led to this tragedy."
Kakashi looked up at him sharply.
"You say he did the right thing, but then call it a tragedy caused by the village. So who's responsible? The people who judged him? Or the war?"
Minato's expression tightened. He answered quietly,
"It's the war. Without it, this never would've happened."
Kakashi scoffed.
"That's the same meaningless excuse that Teacher Chi Yu used. Blaming something vague like 'the war' just avoids accountability. If no one's responsible, then nothing changes."
He looked away.
"The truth is, my father broke the shinobi code. In everyone's eyes, that's all that matters. 'Comrades before the mission'—that kind of thinking only gets people killed. Shinobi don't need comrades. They're just... dead weight."
Without waiting for a reply, Kakashi walked away again.
Minato's heart sank at the boy's words.
"Do you believe that, Kakashi? That Sakumo-sama was wrong?" he asked.
Kakashi didn't hesitate.
"Yes. He was wrong."
Then, almost inaudibly:
"Because Konoha wasn't worth it."
Minato stood still, watching his student's retreating back, which in that moment reminded him of another—Chi Yu's. The resemblance was haunting.
Obito and Rin both looked down, deeply disappointed. Despite seeing Kakashi as a comrade, he had drawn a clear line between them.
Minato placed a hand on Obito's shoulder.
"He's still grieving. As his teammates, your support might be the only thing that can pull him back."
Obito straightened, eyes filled with determination.
"I'll help him recover! I swear I will!"
Minato smiled faintly.
"Good. Now let's move. We have a mission to carry out."
---
After Chi Yu left the base, he immediately put his personal plan into motion—earning a reputation in the shinobi world.
Every day, he activated his Observation Haki, scanning the region for Cloud-nin. Whenever he found them, he struck. Ruthlessly.
In two short months, Chi Yu's name began to spread in hushed whispers across the battlefield. His ambushes were precise, his kills clean. While his daily haul wasn't large, the cumulative losses were bleeding the Cloud forces dry.
Alarmed, the Cloud's high command assembled a task force to hunt him down—an elite group of twenty shinobi: eight Jonin and twelve Chunin.
That day, Chi Yu had just eliminated a minor Cloud squad—one Chunin and three Genin. He barely exerted himself.
As he sheathed his ninja blade, his Observation Haki flared—twenty chakra signatures rapidly closing in.
"Eight Jonin," he muttered, lips curling into a grin. "Finally... proper prey. Killing fodder doesn't earn fame. But you lot—yeah, this should be enough to make waves."
His eyes gleamed with killing intent.
The Cloud squad soon found the corpses of their comrades. Rage swept through them.
"They're fresh. He's close!" barked the unit leader. "Move! We can catch him!"
A voice rang out above them:
"No need to chase. I've been waiting. Took you long enough."
Chi Yu dropped from a tree branch, facing the full squad.
The Cloud-nin's eyes burned with hate.
"It's him… the Blood-Eyed Shura—Chi Yu!"
Chi Yu smirked.
"You think yelling my name will make me surrender? Let's skip the pleasantries."
He drew his blade, pointing it straight at them.
The squad leader gave a sharp order.
"Initiate formation! Use the sealing technique—don't give him a chance!"
Five Chunin moved in unison, forming hand seals.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Entrapment!"
Five pillars erupted from the ground, lightning crackling between them. A massive electric field enclosed the area—Chi Yu and the entire squad trapped within.
Chi Yu's first instinct was to activate Thunderclap and Flash—but the moment he gathered chakra, lightning from the prison surged toward him.
He stopped short.
"So you've studied me. Any Lightning Release technique I use will trigger attraction from the cage. Clever."
Inside the lightning field, his Thunder Breathing was drastically weakened.
But the Cloud-nin didn't stop there.
Four Jonin blurred forward using the Lightning Body Flicker, surrounding Chi Yu. Their hands blurred with seals.
"Lightning Release: Hell Blast!"
Streams of lightning shot into the sky, converging overhead into a massive orb. The orb exploded outward, forming a blinding wall of lightning that descended toward Chi Yu.
Chi Yu's instincts screamed—his right eyelid twitched violently, every nerve warning him: if you get hit, you die.
But instead of fear, he laughed—loud and unhinged.
"You've done your homework. I'll give you that. But do you really think this is enough to kill me?"
His expression darkened.
"Then bring it on."
Chi Yu lowered his hand, revealing his eyes—twisting, glowing red.
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
Visit patreon.com/Akeyno to get 30+ chapters