Crack!
The ink-black sky showed faint glimmers of light as the clouds' reserves of rainwater neared depletion.
Storm clouds churned and swirled, hovering above the peak of Thunder Drum Mountain.
Torrential rain poured down.
Whoosh!
A fierce wind enveloped Hikari, forming a strange, circular domain.
Within this domain, everything except the figure in the orange mask seemed to pass through an ultra-fine sieve. The rain was shredded into an even finer mist, spreading outward in an eerie, ring-like pattern.
Two bloodied finger stubs fell into the water, pink blood tendrils spreading across the surface.
"Your space-time ninjutsu? Mediocre," Hikari said, hefting Samehada onto her shoulder and tilting her head to size up the still-phased Uchiha Obito.
Her right hand, which had grazed his owl-like mask, dripped with blood.
If not for the Mangekyo Sharingan's dynamic vision and ability to see chakra's glow, her wind release—capable of slicing through waterfalls—would've already shredded him into mincemeat.
Obito's eyes burned with killing intent. The sharp pain from his severed fingers jabbed at his nerves. Since attacking Konoha six years ago and killing Minato and Kushina, he hadn't been this humiliated in ages.
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
Wind blades, sharp as kamaitachi, swirled through the air.
Layers of air rippled, creating strange waves.
Obito let the wind release pass through his intangible body, stepping closer to Hikari, his crimson Sharingan locking onto her form.
Hikari kept the wind release slicing around her without pause, her hand on Samehada's hilt steadily drawing chakra that once belonged to Kisame Hoshigaki.
Her illusory chakra core pulsed wildly, transforming high-quality purple chakra into wind release that erupted from every pore.
She knew exactly what Obito was waiting for.
He was biding his time, waiting for her technique's duration to end so he could use Kamui to absorb her directly.
It was a clever tactic. Against an average ninja, it might've worked.
Most ninjas in the shinobi world relied on rigid, formulaic hand signs to perform jutsu, like solving a math problem step-by-step. Deviating from the sequence often led to failure, and mid-technique adjustments could cause all sorts of issues, resulting in collapse.
A jutsu's power and duration were fixed, like casting a game skill with a set cooldown. Once it ended, the ninja was left vulnerable.
Predictable. Rigid.
But Hikari had no such limitations.
She was the creator of all her techniques, unlike so-called "strong" shinobi who merely mastered a few powerful jutsu without understanding their mechanics.
Every technique she used, she knew inside and out—its principles, costs, why each step was necessary, and what issues might arise. This let her dynamically adjust a jutsu's power, size, range, duration, even its arc, form, and nature transformation in real-time.
As long as she had chakra, her techniques had no limits!
Like this—
Her chakra core flared, and Hikari's gray pupils contracted, tracking every wisp of chakra within her, clear as the lines on her palm.
She dialed back her chakra output, slowing her attack frequency and adjusting intervals. Her Byakugan's 360-degree vision locked onto Obito's vulnerabilities, compensating with attacks from countless angles.
His defenses were weak, so her wind release didn't need to be maxed out—just strong enough to slice through flesh and bone.
The range didn't need to be vast either.
Based on Obito's attack distance, Kamui's absorption range was about one meter. To avoid being baited, she kept her wind slashes at a two-meter radius, constantly tweaking their form.
To the outside world—
Buzz!
The wind release around her weakened, its range shrinking rapidly, its frequency dropping. Some raindrops slipped through her slashes, landing intact on the water's surface.
Obito's eyes lit up.
This was a clear sign her technique was about to end.
He maintained Kamui's intangibility, inching closer to Hikari, ready to touch her the moment her jutsu faltered.
Time ticked by.
The seemingly frail wind release held firm, relentlessly targeting Obito's heart, throat, and brain without stopping.
Hikari gripped Samehada, occasionally siphoning more chakra.
Her reserves stayed brimming, thanks to Kisame's massive contribution. His chakra, stored in Samehada, was an ocean—enough to sustain this level of wind release for two hours without issue.
True to his "Tailed Beast Without a Tail" moniker, Kisame's chakra was a godsend.
But Obito was the one cracking first.
Kamui's intangibility lasted five minutes at most. He'd been in her wind domain for four minutes, and Hikari's chakra showed no signs of running dry. Her technique wasn't stopping.
If this kept up, he'd be the one to die!
Whoosh!
Obito suddenly pulled back, trying to escape the wind release's range in an instant.
Knowing his weakness, Hikari wasn't about to let him slip away.
She'd been counting the seconds!
From the moment his fingers were severed and he phased, it had been four minutes and three seconds. Only fifty-seven seconds until he had to materialize.
Chirp, chirp, chirp!
A Lightning Release armor cloaked her, boosting her dynamic vision and reflexes beyond even Obito's Mangekyo Sharingan.
Boom!
The water's surface caved under her step.
A thunder-clad figure smashed through the waves, chasing Obito's retreating form.
Her two-meter wind domain extended, slashing at every vital point without pause, giving him no room to breathe.
Buzz, buzz!
Sizzle!
Invisible wind blades sliced relentlessly as lightning electrolyzed the rain.
The two figures moved in tandem—one ahead, one behind.
The former was ethereal, weightless as a feather, almost an unreal phantom. The latter was forceful, each step cratering the water's surface, with lightning arcing outward.
Itachi, carrying Kisame, retreated alongside the Root members, dodging stray blue electric arcs.
Ryoma Aburame watched the chase, a realization dawning. He signaled to Arashi and Cho, who nodded in unison.
Noticing their unusual movements, Itachi stayed silent. One hand supported Kisame to maintain appearances, while the other, hidden in his sleeve, formed seals for a simple genjutsu, lulling Kisame to sleep to prevent him from speaking out.
The commotion didn't distract Hikari or Obito.
They stayed locked in sync, Hikari's Lightning Release mode granting her speed that kept Obito from pulling away.
Whoosh!
Wind release sliced through Obito's intangible body, shredding the rain passing through him.
"Four minutes, seventeen seconds!" Hikari called out Kamui's duration, watching Obito's frantic Mangekyo spin. She kept up her physical assault while launching a psychological one.
Kamui, seemingly invincible, was clunky in practice.
While intangible, he couldn't use any jutsu. It lasted only five minutes, and its attack range was pitifully short.
Absorbing from a distance was limited to about one meter, with mediocre results, easily dodged by high-speed ninjas. To ensure absorption, he had to physically grab his target.
That was the cost.
Using the Mangekyo Sharingan's cheat-like power to step into a realm beyond his own came with trade-offs.
A potent dojutsu, wielded without understanding its mechanics, was a black box—riddled with inexplicable limits.
It came down to one truth:
True strength came from freely wielding one's own power. Ninjas who relied on a single powerful technique were never truly strong. Strip away Kamui, and Obito's base abilities were only on par with Kakashi's!
Boom!
The rain grew fiercer.
In a blink, they'd circled the mountaintop. Obito, hounded by the relentless Hikari, was out of options. With Kamui's limit approaching, he needed a way to break free!
His body suddenly halted, as if losing inertia, letting Hikari pass through him as he sank into the water.
Kamui's intangibility couldn't deactivate in high-density environments like water, earth, or flesh, but diving underwater could obscure him from his enemy's sight, letting him emerge unseen.
Two seconds of breathing room, and he could reset Kamui's duration.
A fine plan, but reality wasn't so kind.
Watching Obito dive underwater like a fleeing fish, Hikari's lips curled slightly. Her Byakugan glowed gray, locking onto his form.
Dojutsu weren't the Uchiha's exclusive domain.
Her 360-degree x-ray vision unfolded. No matter where Obito hid, he was as clear as day under her Byakugan.
She moved across the water's surface, staying perfectly synced with him.
Even if he burrowed into the mountain's rock, he couldn't escape her all-seeing gray gaze.
Compared to the flashy Mangekyo Sharingan, the Byakugan fell short in many ways, but its unparalleled long-range insight was something the Sharingan could never match.
Obito fled far but didn't dare surface.
The blurry blue figure on the water stood above him, a terrifying shadow he couldn't shake no matter where he went.
Her sensory abilities were that strong?
Twenty-three seconds left in Kamui's duration. He was out of time.
Glancing around, his eyes lit up upon seeing four figures on the water.
His intangible body shot out, facing Hikari's blue form andimulator
System: and the merciless wind release. But he ignored her attacks, passing through her body and charging straight at the four stunned Root members—Ryoma, Arashi, Cho, and Iwakuma.
He planned to use their bodies as a shield, forcing Hikari's wind release to hesitate, giving him a moment to breathe.
Whoosh!
The wind blades sliced harmlessly through his intangible form, and the Root members' attacks missed as well.
Five seconds left!
Obito's eyes flashed with urgency. He phased through the four, positioning himself behind them.
Zzt!
Hikari's lightning-clad pursuit was blocked by her teammates, and even her relentless wind release faltered.
He'd stopped her attack!
Obito relaxed slightly, finally gaining space to deactivate Kamui.
In that instant—
Buzz!
A ferocious wind cut through the four Root members, slicing Obito's head in half.
Her teammates didn't resist?
No one answered his unspoken question. Blood spilled from the gash in his head, and Obito's vision went dark as he sank into the water with a splash.
The water turned pink.
Buzz!
The four "slashed" Root members dissolved into a swarm of parasitic insects, flying toward distant rocks.
Bang, bang, bang!
The real Ryoma, Arashi, Cho, and Iwakuma, disguised as rocks, dispelled their transformation and regrouped with Hikari.
"How'd it go?" Arashi asked urgently.
Cho closed her eyes, sensing the body sinking below. "He's dead."
Ryoma exhaled in relief.
Obito's desperate dodging suggested his invincibility had a time limit, likely nearing its end. Thinking from his perspective, Ryoma had anticipated the tactic of using them as a human wall. He'd signaled the team to disguise themselves as rocks, with parasitic insects mimicking their forms to lure Obito.
When Obito took the bait, Ryoma gave Hikari the signal to strike, killing the elusive ninja.
Ryoma stared at Hikari, calm and unscathed with Samehada on her shoulder. Even Orochimaru couldn't handle that space-time ninja, yet she'd taken him down with ease. Cho's claim that Hikari defeated the blue-skinned shark man hadn't hit home until now, when he saw the gap in their strength firsthand.
No grand spectacle, no mysterious techniques.
Just despair.
Her fundamentals were rock-solid, her skills comprehensive. No matter how bizarre an enemy's abilities, she found the simplest, most effective counter.
Bad news.
Ryoma's heart stirred with unease.
As Danzo's disciple, Hikari's growing strength meant a higher chance of failure if they ever moved against him.
The tense atmosphere eased as they began to think of what came next.
---
On the other side, Itachi, carrying Kisame, clenched his fists.
Don't let your guard down—he has Izanagi!
Madara would surely know the Uchiha's forbidden technique. Itachi knew this, but as a spy, he couldn't warn Ryoma. The anxiety gnawed at him, leaving him restless.
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