"Mm..."
There was no spray of blood or splintering bone.
The body did not even struggle.
Instead, it burst apart like a punctured sandbag, scattering in every direction.
Grains of sand drifted through the rain, landing on the rubble, in the puddles, and atop Obito's mud-covered boots...
A sand clone?
Obito's pupil abruptly contracted.
His hand remained outstretched, while the chain was still wrapped around the crumbling mass of sand.
He stood frozen like a machine whose power had suddenly been cut.
His smug satisfaction had turned to shock in a single instant.
Yet that instant seemed to stretch on for an eternity, suffocatingly long.
"You..."
His voice sounded as though his throat were filled with sand.
Countless curses should have followed that single word, yet he could not force out another syllable.
"What about me?"
Teizawa's voice came from behind him, casual enough that he might have been commenting on the pleasant weather.
Obito spun around.
Teizawa stood more than thirty feet away.
His dark golden robe was completely intact, and there was not even a single bead of sweat on his face.
His hands were tucked into his sleeves, his gaze slightly lowered as cold light reflected off his glasses.
He looked as though he were watching a ridiculous clown perform.
Mei stopped in her tracks and stared at Teizawa in stunned disbelief.
When had he created the sand clone?
She had been beside him the entire time, yet she had not noticed anything unusual.
Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but no words came out.
Deep down, however, she breathed a long sigh of relief.
Her heart was still pounding, and her legs remained weak.
Nagato struggled to prop himself up.
A complicated gleam flashed through his Rinnegan.
Konan supported him as sheets of paper fluttered around them.
Her deep orange eyes were filled with shock.
"When...?"
Obito's voice dropped to a low growl, forced through his mask like a snarl dragged from the depths of his throat.
"When did you switch places with a clone?"
Teizawa tilted his head and thought about it.
"From the very beginning."
Obito's pupil contracted violently.
"That's impossible... You've been using a clone since you entered Amegakure? Then who was fighting Nagato?"
His voice trembled as his thoughts descended into chaos.
Had they been dealing with Teizawa's clone from the moment his group entered Amegakure?
His sensory abilities had never detected anything unusual.
Even White Zetsu had failed to notice the deception.
Just how many more hidden cards did this man possess?
"I wasn't fighting you," Teizawa said, shaking his head. "I was only buying time."
"Buying time?"
Obito froze.
Teizawa raised a hand and pointed at the enormous statue slowly collapsing at the bottom of the crater.
"I was waiting for Deidara to get into position. His C3 No. 18 needed time to prepare. If you had retreated too early, he might not have completed the bomb before you escaped."
Obito followed the direction of his finger.
Smoke continued to rise from the wreckage of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
Its severed tentacles still writhed in the mud.
Its entire body had fallen apart.
It could be repaired, but that would take time.
Deidara stood atop his clay bird with his hands planted proudly on his hips.
Obito suddenly understood.
From the beginning, Teizawa had never intended to defeat Nagato with his own hands.
Nor had he intended to personally destroy the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
He had used a clone to hold everyone in place, making Nagato believe he was fighting the real Teizawa and convincing everyone that the situation remained under control.
Only after Nagato had been driven into a corner and summoned the Demonic Statue did Teizawa's true killing move descend from the sky...
Deidara's ultimate art.
It had killed two birds with one stone. The explosion destroyed the Demonic Statue while robbing Nagato of his final trump card.
No wonder Teizawa had summoned elites from all the major villages.
They had witnessed his strength, yet none of his true hidden cards had been exposed.
"You..." Obito's voice was rough as sandpaper. "You were plotting against us from the very beginning?"
Teizawa smiled.
His smile contained pride and mockery, along with a chilling sense of composure.
"Plotting is putting it too strongly," he said after a brief pause. "I simply thought a few steps further ahead than you did."
Obito's expression darkened.
His arm was still throbbing faintly.
White Zetsu's cells might have grown him a new one, but the agony of having the original severed had been carved into his soul.
His new hand clenched, then loosened.
He stared at Teizawa, itching to attack.
Yet he dared not make a reckless move.
The Demonic Statue had been destroyed. Nagato was temporarily incapacitated, and Konan was badly wounded.
As reluctant as he was to admit it...
He could never defeat Teizawa alone.
Worse still, the elites from the other villages were closing in from every direction.
It would not be long before they surrounded him completely.
Seeing Obito poised to make a move, Teizawa smiled.
"What's this? Does the loser want another round?"
Before he had even finished speaking, Obito vanished.
He was not retreating.
He was charging.
The black figure left a trail of afterimages through the rain, moving so quickly that no one had time to react.
He rushed straight at Teizawa.
The exposed Sharingan burned with murderous intent.
His newly grown hand gripped a kunai, its tip gleaming coldly in the gloom.
"This time..." Obito's voice came from behind the mask, deep and hoarse. "I'll kill you with my own hands!"
Teizawa's pupils narrowed slightly.
He closed his hand, and black Iron Sand surged from his sleeve, forming an impregnable shield before him.
He was ready for battle.
His mind was already calculating Obito's trajectory, the timing of his intangibility, and the interval between Kamui's uses.
This time, Teizawa would do more than block Obito's attack.
He would counterattack, force out every hidden card Obito possessed, and leave him with no path of escape.
But Obito never struck the shield.
His body abruptly changed direction in midair like a startled bat.
He swept past Teizawa's side.
The kunai scraped along the shield's edge with a piercing screech, scattering sparks in every direction.
Teizawa had never been his target.
A vortex opened ahead of Obito.
It was not meant for an attack.
It was an escape route.
Nagato lay on the ground with Konan kneeling beside him.
Neither had the strength to resist.
They could not even flee.
Konan raised her head, her light purple eyes filled with despair and fear.
She saw Obito charging toward her and tried to lift a hand in defense.
But her fingers would not move.
Her chakra had been completely depleted in the previous battle.
She could not summon even a single sheet of paper.
Nagato's Rinnegan remained half-open, reflecting the black figure rapidly closing in on him.
His lips moved as though he wanted to speak, but only bloody foam spilled from the corner of his mouth.
"Nagato..."
Konan's voice was sharp with despair.
Obito grabbed Nagato by the collar.
A chain shot from his sleeve and wrapped around Konan's waist.
A vortex opened beneath all three of them like an enormous mouth, swallowing their bodies.
Black Zetsu emerged halfway from the ground and followed them inside.
No emotion could be seen on his black-and-white face, but a trace of satisfaction flashed through his yellow eyes.
The vortex closed and vanished.
The entire sequence had taken less than three seconds.
Teizawa's Iron Sand shield still hung in the air, while Iron Sand needles continued to circle overhead.
His fist clenched, but he did not throw a punch.
He stood motionless, staring at the empty ground where Nagato and Konan had disappeared.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Obito had escaped.
And he had taken Nagato and Konan with him.
He had slipped right out from under Teizawa's nose like an oily eel.
"Sneaky bastard."
Teizawa cursed under his breath.
He truly had no way to pursue them.
Obito's Kamui dimension was an independent space.
In the entire shinobi world, only Obito and Kakashi could enter it.
Although Kakashi's eye also possessed Kamui, he had no idea how to actively enter that dimension.
There was certainly no chance of him taking anyone else inside with him.
All Teizawa could do was curse inwardly and accept reality.
His prey had escaped just as he was about to claim it.
At that moment, his desire to obtain Kakashi's other eye grew even stronger.
Mei walked over and stopped beside him.
She stared at the empty ground with a complicated expression.
"He got away?"
"He got away."
Teizawa withdrew his Iron Sand and dusted off his hands, despite there being no dirt on them.
"You're not going after him?"
"I can't catch him." Teizawa shook his head. "His intangibility and Kamui dimension are disgusting."
"If he can't win, he runs. Then he comes back later, like a cockroach that refuses to die."
"Unless I find a way to counter his space-time ninjutsu, I'll never be able to kill him for good."
Mei fell silent for a moment, hesitating before she finally spoke.
"What do we do next?"
Teizawa turned around and looked toward the rising sun in the distance.
"We return to our villages. Everything that needed doing is done, and everyone who needed beating has been beaten. What comes next is up to the others."
He paused.
"Everyone goes home to their own mother."
(End of Chapter)
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