A violent red glow erupted from Shigure's eyes.
Fiery Red Eyes — Activate.
The sudden blaze of chakra stunned Obito. His genjutsu shattered instantly, the backlash leaving his mind blank for a heartbeat.
In that same instant—Shigure's fist was already flying toward his face.
Obito barely regained clarity before instinct triggered his phasing technique. The punch tore through empty air with an explosive sonic boom.
Shigure smirked.
"That trick again, huh?"
Obito leapt back, creating distance while glaring at Shigure's eyes.
"…What kind of dōjutsu is that?"
Shigure let out a soft laugh.
"What? Never seen a dōjutsu kekkei genkai before?"
Of course Obito had — he was an Uchiha.
But these eyes were something else. They exerted pressure… a force even his Sharingan found unsettling.
"A mutation…?" Obito muttered. "No such dōjutsu exists in the world."
Shigure's gaze sharpened.
The ground beneath Obito's feet froze solid in an instant.
"You talk too much."
Crack! Ice crawled up Obito's legs — impossibly fast. Even he hadn't sensed the chakra molding.
Shigure's blade came down in a lethal arc toward Obito's skull.
Obito phased again, but in the same motion he flicked a kunai toward Shigure's forehead.
Clang.
The kunai sparked and bounced off as though hitting steel.
Obito's eyes widened.
Shigure brushed his glabella lightly.
"You'll need much more than that."
Earth Release enhancing Shikotsumyaku — his reinforced bone structure turned even Obito's attacks into jokes.
Obito shattered the ice with a twist of his chakra and circled around Shigure cautiously.
Shigure flicked his wrist — chakra threads pulled his blade back into his hand as if alive.
"Aren't you going to take this fight seriously?" Shigure taunted.
Obito's Sharingan narrowed.
He dashed forward.
Shigure was mildly surprised — so Obito still had some pride.
His sword slashed horizontally—and once again passed uselessly through Obito's intangible form.
Obito's hand reached for Shigure—
and Shigure smiled.
He exploded into motion.
His arm blurred into dozens of overlapping afterimages — relentless slashes that denied Obito even a moment to materialize.
Swordsmanship?
He was far beyond simple technique now.
This was speed and violence in pure form.
Forced entirely on the defensive, Obito phased through Shigure and fell backward—
Straight into a forest of ice.
Spikes erupted from the earth, leaving no safe place to land.
Obito was forced to continue phasing as he vaulted upward, aiming to materialize on a treetop—
But Shigure exhaled coldly.
A massive surge of chakra burst outward.
Ground, trees, plants — everything froze into glittering crystal.
In a breath, the dense woodland transformed into a deadly ice forest.
Obito was stunned midair.
There was nowhere he could safely materialize.
Snow whirled wildly, each flake sharpened into a blade of death. To become solid even for a split second meant death.
Shigure stared up at him.
"What's wrong? Can't turn that phasing off anymore?"
Obito was falling out of the air—
and right before he would be skewered, the assault abruptly ceased.
The ice halted. The snow stilled.
Obito dropped to solid ground in shock, releasing his phasing with a gasp.
"Why… why stop?" he demanded.
Shigure shrugged lightly.
"If you slip into the earth, it'll just be troublesome to drag you back out."
Obito's expression twitched beneath the mask.
"…Are you mocking me?"
Of course he was.
Shigure's eyes glowed brighter, and mentally he spoke:
'Great Sage — how is the analysis?'
[Great Sage: Current progress — 53%]
'Any way to counter his jutsu?' Shigure asked within his mind.
[Great Sage: By channeling Fiery Red Eye power into the opponent's dōjutsu, we can disrupt its chakra flow. This may force partial materialization of the body—though the exact location cannot be precisely controlled.]
Partial materialization…
A slow smile formed on Shigure's face.
Even that much was more than enough to turn the tide.
"Well, well…" he mused, eyes narrowing with interest.
"This could be fun."
Obito exhaled deeply, eyeing the battlefield that had turned into a frozen nightmare.
"To reshape the terrain in an instant… A genius personally recognized by the Mizukage indeed." His voice was calm, but tension leaked through. "Will you become the next Mizukage of Kirigakure?"
Shigure planted his blade into the ground—
chakra flowing through it, sustaining the frost that bound the entire landscape.
Mist-like chakra rolled behind him as Light Release gathered at his fingertips.
"Of course." He met Obito's gaze directly.
"I will become Mizukage. Do you have a problem with that?"
A very big problem.
For Akatsuki, allowing a monster like Shigure to take the seat of Mizukage was unacceptable.
He was already beyond Obito's easy control—and far too dangerous to let grow unchecked.
If Obito was forced to go all-out here, he would reveal far more than he wanted to.
He just needed to stall. Delay. Survive.
But Shigure suddenly smiled—
and Obito's instincts screamed danger.
The red glow in Shigure's eyes intensified—
Pew—!
A razor-thin beam of light shot from Shigure's fingertip.
A laser of pure Light Release chakra cut through the air—heading straight for Obito's face.
...
TN:
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