By the time the Konoha shinobi gathered around, Kakashi was slumped against a chunk of rubble.
His left eye was tightly shut.
Blood seeped from the corner, running down his cheek and dripping onto his flak jacket, which had been creased and crushed by the vines.
His face was deathly pale, and his lips were dry and cracked.
He looked like a corpse that had just been dragged off the battlefield.
Guy was the first to rush over. He crouched beside Kakashi and supported him by the shoulders.
His thick eyebrows were tightly furrowed as he asked anxiously, "Kakashi... Where's the enemy? Did he escape?"
Kakashi did not answer. He merely shook his head.
His remaining right eye was only half-open, its pupil unfocused.
Clearly, he still had not recovered from the attack.
Kurenai followed close behind Guy.
Her expression changed the moment she saw Kakashi.
She had never seen him like this. Not once.
This was a man who was always lazy, always composed, and forever hiding every emotion behind his dead-fish eye.
Now he looked like a puppet whose insides had been completely hollowed out.
He had collapsed in every sense of the word.
"Kakashi-sensei!"
Lee's voice rang out from behind them.
He pushed through the crowd, and the moment he saw the blood covering Kakashi's face, his eyes turned red.
Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Tenten...
They gathered around one after another, fear and unease written across every face.
Kakashi's appearance was horrifying.
His face was covered in blood.
The eye he had always concealed beneath his forehead protector was tightly shut. The eyelid had swollen to the size of a walnut, and blood continued to seep from it.
They had never seen Kakashi suffer such a severe injury before...
No, this was more than an injury.
That eye had been ripped out.
"Kakashi..." Guy's voice trembled. "Your eye..."
"Obito," Kakashi murmured, his voice barely louder than a man talking in his sleep.
His empty right eye stared up at the sky.
At the gloomy gray clouds that hid even the sun from view.
"I'm sorry... I lost your eye..."
He closed his remaining eye, and a bitter smile appeared on his lips.
That smile held guilt and regret.
It also carried an exhaustion that had sunk deep into his bones.
That eye had been Obito's final gift to him before his death.
It was the last connection between Kakashi and that boy.
And now...
He had lost it.
Someone had torn it from his socket, and there was no telling where it would end up.
The young genin did not know who Obito was.
But no one dared to ask.
...
On a barren stretch of land elsewhere, the black-robed man landed on the branch of a dead tree and lowered his hood.
He looked down at the specimen container in his hand.
Inside floated the eye he had just removed, threads of blood still clinging to it.
A scarlet iris with three tomoe.
It looked perfectly ordinary, but he knew the truth.
This was a Mangekyo Sharingan that possessed Kamui.
"With this eye..."
The black-robed man murmured, a smile appearing on his lips.
"The next time I run into Obito, I'll have an eighty-percent chance of killing him with a sneak attack."
"Kamui against Kamui. Space against space. Let's see how you escape then."
He casually tossed the specimen container up and caught it again, his young face brimming with satisfaction.
Then he removed the spiral mask and hung it from a nearby branch, revealing a face identical to Teizawa's.
He rolled his stiff neck and ran his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair.
"The original spends all day flirting with women."
Teizawa, or rather Teizawa's clone, spoke with open disdain.
"Qinglin, Hinata, Amaru, Temari, Chiyo, Yukata, Matsuri... and now Mei too. Soon he won't even be able to count them on ten fingers."
"He handles official business during the day and works overtime at night. He never spends any time improving his strength."
He shook his head and sighed.
"Pathetic."
He lifted his head and looked toward the rising sun in the distance.
In the direction of Sunagakure, the morning sun was slowly climbing into the sky.
A new day had begun.
He was about to leave.
As a sand clone, his current mission was to follow the original's orders and safely return the eye to Sunagakure.
But just then, a ghostly figure suddenly flashed out from behind the trees and nearly collided with him.
The clone's pupils contracted sharply.
Yugito stood before him, no more than ten paces away.
Her arms were crossed, and her golden eyes were filled with cold vigilance.
She wore a dark combat outfit, and her pale golden hair had been tied into a high ponytail.
Several loose strands clung to her sweat-covered forehead.
Her clothes were stained with blood, and one of her sleeves had been slashed open.
Even so, she stood perfectly straight, her entire body radiating wariness.
Her gaze swept across his face.
Across the face that was identical to Teizawa's.
Then her eyes settled on the black cloak patterned with red clouds.
"Kazekage-sama..."
Yugito's voice was as cold as ice, every word forced through clenched teeth.
"Don't you think you owe me an explanation?"
Her eyes narrowed.
"Why are you wearing the Akatsuki's uniform?"
"And why are you here?"
The corner of the clone's mouth twitched.
"I thought the cloak looked nice, so I borrowed it."
He forced out a smile, trying to keep his tone casual.
"Would you believe that?"
Yugito stared at him for a moment before a cold sneer appeared on her lips.
"What do you think? Do I look like an idiot?"
The clone sighed.
His smile gradually disappeared.
"Could you pretend you never saw me?"
Yugito said nothing.
She merely clenched her fists.
The chakra of Matatabi, the Two-Tails, churned inside her, ready to erupt at any moment.
She stared at Teizawa as an indescribably complicated feeling welled up inside her.
She was Kumogakure's Two-Tails jinchuriki.
She was also one of the Raikage's most trusted subordinates.
A question like this should not have left her at a loss.
Yet at that moment, she truly had no idea what to do.
If this was the real Kazekage, then confronting him would mean opposing Sunagakure and potentially provoking a war.
But if this was not the real Kazekage, then who was the man standing before her?
A clone?
A Transformation Jutsu?
Or some even stranger ability?
The clone watched the changes in her expression.
He knew she was hesitating, struggling with the decision, and weighing the possible consequences.
The corners of his lips curved upward.
"Since you discovered me, I suppose I have no choice but to silence you."
The moment he finished speaking, he vanished.
Yugito's pupils contracted violently as she twisted aside.
A pitch-black Iron Sand needle grazed her cheek, leaving behind a shallow, bloody cut.
It was too fast.
Worse still, there had been no chakra fluctuation.
She had not been able to react in time.
Even her evasive movement had been driven entirely by instinct.
The Two-Tails' chakra instantly surged across her body, forming a thin blue cloak around her.
Two tails swayed gently behind her.
Her eyes became vertical slits, and her presence turned savage and violent.
Teizawa reappeared a short distance away and muttered, "I wonder if the original would be interested in keeping a cat."
The moment those words left his mouth, he lunged at Yugito...
...
(End of Chapter)
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