Chapter 293: Obito: You're Dead. Not Even the Sage of Six Paths Can Save You, I Said It!
"You mean Amamiya Kenichi attacked you just now?" Black Zetsu frowned as he looked at Obito.
Obito being alive was within his expectations. After all, Black Zetsu knew very well what kind of power rested in Obito's eyes.
Still, Black Zetsu had been watching the battle the entire time. Although Amamiya Kenichi possessed the three tomoe Sharingan, he did not have the Mangekyo. That meant he should not have been able to use Kamui against Obito.
But if he had not used Kamui, then how had he dealt such devastating damage to Obito?
Black Zetsu understood Kamui well. It was an extremely troublesome space time ninjutsu that allowed Obito's body to slip instantly into another world. In that state, almost every ninjutsu in this world would fail to affect him.
Obito had used that ability to evade countless attacks and defeat many powerful enemies. He had never suffered such a loss before.
For him to be struck down today, inside the Kamui dimension of all places, was something Black Zetsu had never imagined.
At that moment, the overwhelming shockwave and flames immediately reminded Obito of the strange weapon Amamiya Kenichi had thrown earlier.
"I think so," Obito said, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to calm down. He pressed a hand to his head, his expression dark as he fell into thought.
At the time, in order to evade Amamiya Kenichi's attack, he had only transferred most of his body into the Kamui dimension, deliberately leaving his head and feet outside. That way, he could both dodge the attack and mislead his opponent.
What he had not expected was that the moment his body entered the Kamui dimension, it was immediately hit by something.
Although he had not seen what attacked him, because he had not fully entered the dimension yet, the familiar attack pattern still made him think at once of the strange weapon Amamiya Kenichi had developed.
And since that thing was not a ninjutsu, it might well be something that could be stored in advance. If it had been placed inside the Kamui dimension beforehand, then the moment he entered, it would naturally be able to attack him.
The only thing Obito could not understand was how it had been triggered. How had it known he was entering?
He had not felt any tripwire or thread inside. He had not touched anything. Yet he was still attacked.
So, the first person he suspected was Amamiya Kenichi. After all, he had been injured while fighting Amamiya Kenichi.
Even so, he still could not be completely certain.
"That makes no sense," Black Zetsu said, still unable to figure it out. "Why would he be targeting you so specifically? Unless he knows who you are. And even if Amamiya Kenichi somehow got the other Kamui eye, why would he throw that thing in there?"
Black Zetsu leaned against a tree trunk, thinking hard.
He truly could not understand it.
No one should know Obito's identity.
Even Minato Namikaze, Obito's former teacher, had failed to see through him at the time. Kakashi believed Obito had long since died.
And before his supposed death, Obito had not had many close relationships in Konoha. Of the people he truly cared about, only Kakashi was still alive. Rin had died long ago, and Minato and Kushina had also died indirectly because of him.
Given Amamiya Kenichi's life story, it should have been impossible for him to know that Obito was still alive, let alone know his true identity.
So that led back to the same question.
Why was Amamiya Kenichi so focused on him?
"…I don't know. I don't think he should know who I really am either," Obito said at last.
But the more he thought about it, the more he felt that Amamiya Kenichi had been targeting him on purpose.
It was instinct, the sixth sense of a ninja, and Obito trusted that instinct.
"Still, he's already fighting Konoha now," Black Zetsu said with a pout. "The explosions and vibrations haven't stopped, and even the nearby water was pushed this way."
"I'm going to take a look," Obito said with a gloomy expression and stepped forward.
He no longer dared to enter the Kamui dimension. He was afraid that if he went in again, he would just be attacked once more.
Unless he replaced that eye, he would not step into that space again.
Without Izanagi this time, a second hit would almost certainly kill him.
The moment he recalled the pain from before, Obito's face darkened even further.
At this point, he no longer cared whether he had proof or not. Even if there was no evidence, if he believed it was Amamiya Kenichi, then for him, that was enough.
"Hiruzen Sarutobi, do you really have to be this persistent?" Kenichi said, exasperated.
At that moment, the person standing in front of him was none other than Hiruzen himself, the Third Hokage.
And beside him stood an old acquaintance.
Tsunade.
Tsunade was still in Konoha. That was something Kenichi had not expected. He had originally assumed she would eventually leave, because she understood better than most what Konoha had become.
Yet she had stayed.
The plot had changed again.
"Heavenly Demon, it is time for you to pay for Konoha's dead," Hiruzen said darkly as he stared at Kenichi.
"Old man, why are you still wasting breath on him?" Tsunade snapped.
Then she kicked forward.
The immense force behind it distorted the air for an instant.
Kenichi could only dodge hastily, but Tsunade's next attack was already upon him. Judging by the force in her movements, she was clearly aiming to kill.
"How troublesome…" Kenichi muttered in annoyance.
But after a quick glance around, a plan immediately formed in his mind.
Obito was obviously still alive. Otherwise, there was no reason for there to be no body.
Since Obito had not appeared yet, that meant he was either still hiding nearby, or had already slipped away.
Either way, a quick test would tell him.
So, while dodging Tsunade's assault, Kenichi slapped both hands together and once again activated Sage Art: Reanimation.
"What did you do?" Tsunade suddenly stopped, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Kenichi with suspicion.
He had just slapped his hands against the ground.
In a ninja battle, the most dangerous thing was always an unfamiliar technique. Strange ninjutsu often led to the most troublesome outcomes.
"Nothing much," Kenichi said casually. "Just calling out a few old friends to help."
Hiruzen's pupils shrank.
Old friends?
Did this man have accomplices hiding nearby?
But Hiruzen had already checked the surroundings, and the Hyuga clan had used Byakugan to sweep the area. No other living presence had been found.
A moment later, however, he understood what Kenichi meant by "old friends."
Right under their feet, countless white bones clawed their way out of the graves. Some corpses had only been buried recently and still retained rotting flesh, their faces frozen in lifeless expressions.
Now, all of them began to move.
"…You dare to desecrate the dead?!" Tsunade stared at Kenichi in fury and disbelief.
She had truly not expected him to commit such a thing.
Only then did she fully register where they were.
This was Konoha's public cemetery, the resting place of the village's ninja.
Civilian graves were buried elsewhere.
This place was reserved for Konoha's fallen shinobi.
"Lady Tsunade," Kenichi said with a sneer, "your beloved has come out too. Aren't you going to say hello?"
He clapped his hands.
The next moment, a man covered in dirt and rubble staggered to his side.
Tsunade's pupils shrank violently.
She recognized him at once.
It was Kato Dan.
In order to preserve her lover's dignity after death, Tsunade had once stubbornly insisted on special embalming treatment, so that his body could remain in relatively good condition.
She had never imagined that decision would become the blade used to stab straight through her heart.
Looking at that familiar face, and those lifeless eyes, Tsunade felt as if a giant hand had seized her chest and squeezed.
Meanwhile, in a quieter corner that no one had been watching, another reanimated corpse slowly clawed its way out of the soil.
One arm reached up first, grasping uselessly at the air.
Then, with that single arm, the body pulled itself out and stood blankly in place.
In an instant, a single use of Sage Art: Reanimation had already shattered more than one person's spirit.
The question was: besides Tsunade, whose heart had just been crushed?
A faint smile appeared on Kenichi's lips.
In Sage Mode, his senses were far sharper than usual. He could hear a harsh, suppressed breathing sound from behind him, not far away.
And that breathing had only started after he cast this jutsu.
Now it was growing heavier and heavier, proof that the person's emotions were spiraling completely out of control.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kenichi caught sight of Rin.
Rin Nohara.
She was missing one arm, but even so, under the command of Kenichi's ninjutsu, she had still clawed her way back out of the Pure Land.
"I'll kill you!"
A furious roar exploded through the air.
The next instant, the ground trembled violently.
Kenichi's heart tightened. He leaped away at once.
Several enormous trees covered in thorns erupted from the ground where he had just been standing.
"Wood Release?!" Hiruzen nearly dropped his pipe in shock.
What was this?
What was he looking at?
Wood Release?
A ninja using Wood Release of that scale and power?
Who was it?
Who exactly was using Wood Release?
Tsunade, too, stared in shock, but then her expression twisted.
"Kato!"
Her eyes widened as she watched Kato Dan's body be impaled and dragged away by the rising forest of thorns.
A scream of grief tore from her throat.
This scene was exactly the same as before.
Back then, she had watched him die right in front of her.
And now, even after death, he could not rest in peace. He was dragged back out and humiliated once more.
At the same time, Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence finally showed its true power.
Its enormous range swept up many of the Konoha ninja who had just arrived as reinforcements. In an instant, several Genin were torn apart by the surging forest of thorns.
Even Chunin and Jonin were forced into desperate retreats under the relentless pursuit of the spikes.
What shook them was not only the overwhelming power of the technique, but the fact that it was Wood Release itself.
As everyone knew, the foundation of Konoha had once been built on Senju Hashirama's Wood Release and Uchiha Madara's unrivaled might.
But Hashirama, the God of Shinobi, was revered by far more people than Madara.
Countless Konoha ninja had grown up idolizing the First Hokage.
And now, the power of that same god had appeared on the enemy's side.
"Ahhhhh!"
From the center of Deep Forest Emergence, a beast like howl exploded outward.
Kenichi frowned as he continued leaping from branch to branch, narrowly avoiding the thorned trees that tracked him automatically.
He had known Obito was obsessed with Rin, so much so that he had gone insane because of her.
But he had truly not expected that simply dragging Rin back out of the ground and making her appear before him would provoke such an enormous reaction.
This was practically the rage of a blood feud.
"This guy is really…" Kenichi muttered, scratching his head.
Fine.
He admitted it.
He had misjudged just how extreme Obito's reaction would be.
Glancing toward the heart of the forest of thorns, he could still hear the lingering echo of that howl.
That was probably Obito.
But what exactly was he doing now?
Rin's body should be safe. Even if Hiruzen dropped dead on the spot, nobody here would let anything happen to Rin Nohara's remains.
"Sigh. My mistake. I should've stuffed plague, poison, or white phosphorus bombs into Rin's corpse…" Kenichi scratched his head, then quickly shook the thought away.
No.
That really was going too far.
And once he actually did something like that, he would have to do the same thing to every corpse in the cemetery. Otherwise, Obito would immediately suspect something, and Kenichi would be openly revealing that he had specifically targeted Rin.
And once Obito's feelings for Rin were touched to that extent...
Kenichi stopped moving.
He looked up.
There, standing directly in front of him with his head lowered, was a man wearing a white spiral mask.
Kenichi fell silent.
Had he...
gone a little too far?
.....
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