They ran. They kept running.
Kakashi had never felt time stretch so long or the road feel so endless.
Returning to the rendezvous point was no longer possible. He could only hope that Minato-sensei would finish his mission soon, notice their absence, and come looking for them.
There was still one of Minato-sensei's Flying Thunder God kunai in his tool pouch, but unfortunately this one lacked the summoning function.
All they could do now was buy time and hold on until Minato-sensei arrived.
Kakashi pulled out two of Taiichi's specially made soldier pills from his pouch. He swallowed one and tossed the other to Obito.
The bitter taste spread rapidly in his mouth. A wave of warmth began to flow through his stomach and into his entire body.
He could feel his chakra recovering quickly, but it still wasn't enough.
Right now, Kakashi wished the bitterness would hit even harder—if only it could bring faster recovery.
Obito's mood was even harder to describe. His crimson two-tomoe Sharingan were locked onto Rin's deathly pale profile. Bloodshot veins covered the whites of his eyes, looking as though they might bleed at any moment.
Fear, regret, and helpless rage burned and churned inside his chest, threatening to devour his sanity.
Everything that had happened was because of his own ignorant arrogance and carelessness.
If he hadn't tried to act tough, Taiichi would have already been called over to help.
If he hadn't lost the kunai, Rin wouldn't have been tortured like this.
"Kakashi, let me carry her!"
Obito's voice was hoarse and broken, carrying a near-mad stubbornness.
He couldn't stand being useless and just following behind. Every bit of Rin's pain was an accusation of his own incompetence.
"Shut up. Save your chakra and stamina. You'll need them later."
Kakashi snapped at him while gasping for breath. He didn't even have the energy to turn his head, only staring straight ahead at the path in front of them.
Behind them, two cold and powerful chakra signatures were getting closer and closer, like maggots clinging to bone.
Hikaru and Daishi's figures flickered between the trees like wolves closing in on their prey.
They weren't sprinting at full speed. It felt more like they were savoring the final struggles of their prey, slowly squeezing out the last of Kakashi and Obito's strength.
This cat-and-mouse torment silently increased the pressure weighing on their hearts.
"Kakashi… Obito…"
Rin's weak voice sounded beside Kakashi's ear, faint as a thread of silk, yet unusually clear.
"Rin! You're awake?" Obito cried out in surprise and immediately moved closer.
"Don't… don't worry about me anymore." Rin's voice was filled with immense pain and a kind of desperate resolve. "Put me down… You two run."
"Impossible!" Obito refused without hesitation. Tears poured uncontrollably from his eyes. "I'm the one who got you into this! If we die, we die together! I'm not leaving you behind!"
Kakashi's footsteps never slowed. The arm carrying Rin only tightened further. His tone was firm and decisive.
"Rin, stop talking nonsense. We're leaving together."
"No… You don't understand…"
Rin's voice trembled, filled with despair.
She could clearly feel the thing inside her heart—like a ticking time bomb whose target was the teacher she respected most: Minato.
Hikaru and Daishi's words echoed in her mind. She could not become a bomb. She could not become a weapon controlled by the enemy to kill her own teacher and destroy Konoha's hope.
That would be a desecration worse than death itself.
If Kakashi and Obito refused to put her down, then the only solution—the only solution—was to end it before the seal could be triggered.
"Please… put me down. I'm begging you."
Tears silently slid from the corners of Rin's eyes and soaked into Kakashi's shoulder. This was her final plea.
"I… I'll end up killing everyone… especially…"
She couldn't say that name. The violent emotional fluctuation caused the cold sensation of the seal in her chest to suddenly intensify. A strange chakra lingered in her mind.
Kakashi keenly sensed the abnormal chakra fluctuation. Alarm bells rang loudly in his head.
He suddenly stopped and carefully leaned Rin against a thick tree trunk. Obito immediately rushed to her side and tightly gripped her cold hand.
"Rin! What's wrong with you?! What did they do to you?!"
Obito's voice was filled with terror.
Rin's gaze painfully shifted between Kakashi and Obito's anxious faces. Her clear eyes were filled with unspeakable despair and pleading.
She opened her mouth, trying to convey the terrifying truth through lip movements.
"Seal." "Bomb." "Minato-sensei."
But the restriction in her throat acted like an unbreakable shackle. She could only produce meaningless "hngh" sounds.
The violent struggle made her face turn deathly pale in an instant. Large beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead.
"They caught up."
Hikaru's cold voice slithered toward them from behind like a venomous snake. He and Daishi appeared on a tree trunk more than ten meters away, looking down at them with cold, mocking eyes.
"Oh? Looks like the little girl couldn't hold on after all?"
He deliberately raised his voice. Every word stabbed into the three of them like steel needles.
Obito suddenly turned his head. His eyes were blood-red. The two tomoe in his Sharingan spun wildly, almost merging into one line.
"You bastards!"
A violent surge of chakra mixed with towering hatred erupted from his body. The surrounding air seemed to stagnate for a moment.
He was about to charge forward recklessly.
"Obito! Calm down!"
Kakashi shouted sharply, forcing down the metallic taste rising in his throat as he flashed in front of Obito.
He had already realized it. The enemy was deliberately provoking them. There was definitely a trap set on Rin.
With just a moment of thought, a terrifying possibility—one that made his soul tremble—surfaced in his mind.
Rin had been turned into a weapon to be used against Minato-sensei.
At that moment, more figures flickered into view. In the direction Kakashi's group had been heading, Mogera and another chunin squad had also arrived.
The shadow of death completely enveloped the three of them.
Hikaru looked down at the desperate struggles of the Konoha brats below and curved his lips into a cruel smile.
The timing was about right. He exchanged a glance with Daishi. Their figures suddenly blurred as they dove downward like two arrows loosed from a bow, carrying sharp killing intent.
Kakashi charged forward to meet them. Lightning flashed along the short blade in his right hand. The chirping of a thousand birds echoed through the forest.
The lightning extended from his hand onto the blade. In that moment, it carried a hint of the future Chidori Stream.
When Daishi and the nearby Mogera saw this technique, their scalps went numb. Especially the ear-piercing chirping—it made the wounds on both of them throb even more painfully.
Kakashi didn't care. His extreme burst allowed him to momentarily suppress both Hikaru and Daishi at the same time.
Mogera frowned when he saw this. He said to the chunin squad leader, "You guys deal with the Uchiha brat. I'll go help over here."
They were truly giving Kakashi face—three jonin fighting one. Even though Kakashi was strong, more and more wounds appeared on his body.
If the three of them hadn't been wary of the lightning-wreathed blade in Kakashi's hand, he would have died countless times already.
Obito had it somewhat easier. With his two-tomoe Sharingan, he could still handle the four chunin with some room to spare, though he was being tied down and couldn't break free.
Daishi, seeing that victory was assured, felt the pain in his left arm double his desire for revenge.
He took the opportunity to disengage from the fight and forced his hands into seals despite the injury.
Earth Release: Split Earth Turn Palm.
His target wasn't Kakashi or Obito. It was the ground at the roots of the large tree Rin was leaning against. He wanted to bury her alive and cause even more suffering.
Kakashi's pupils shrank violently. Rin was right under that tree.
He instinctively used Body Flicker and rushed toward Rin while rapidly forming hand seals.
Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall.
A solid earthen wall instantly rose from the ground in front of Rin.
Boom!
Daishi's Split Earth Turn Palm slammed heavily into the Earth Flow Wall. The ground trembled. Dirt flew everywhere. The wall shook violently and several cracks appeared.
Hikaru's figure, however, slipped around the wall like a ghost. The sharp kunai in his hand thrust straight toward Kakashi's back—toward his heart—while Kakashi was still slowed by performing the jutsu.
The angle was vicious and precise. The timing was perfect.
"Kakashi, watch out!"
Obito's eyes nearly burst from their sockets. His Sharingan locked onto Hikaru's movement trajectory. Ignoring the kunai stabbing toward him from the side, he exploded forward at unprecedented speed and slammed into Kakashi with all his strength.
He was going to use his own body to take the fatal blow for Kakashi.
Puchi!
The air seemed to freeze.
Time stretched infinitely in that moment.
Kakashi was knocked off balance by Obito and barely avoided the vital point on his back.
Obito himself was now completely exposed to Hikaru's kunai. The blade was about to pierce straight into his chest.
At that critical instant—
A figure used every last ounce of her will to lunge out from behind Kakashi.
It was Rin.
Like a falling leaf, she precisely threw herself into the narrow gap between Obito and Hikaru.
The cold kunai met no resistance as it pierced straight through Rin's chest.
Kakashi snapped back to awareness. Without time to grieve, he forced Hikaru back with a slash and charged toward Daishi and Mogera with blood-red eyes.
"Ugh—!"
Blood—hot, glaring blood—gushed out like a fountain from the massive wound in Rin's chest, instantly staining Obito's face in despair.
All expression on Obito's face completely froze.
He stared with wide eyes. His crimson two-tomoe Sharingan reflected Rin's pale and calm face.
The corner of her mouth twitched upward with difficulty, as if she was trying her best to give him one final smile. There was no resentment in her eyes—only endless attachment, relief, and a trace of apology.
With the last of her strength, her throat moved as she forced out a few faint, almost inaudible syllables:
"Thank… thank… you… I'm… sorry…"
"Rin!!!"
Obito's mind went completely blank. All sound and images disappeared. The only things left were the blood gushing from Rin's chest and the complicated smile in her eyes.
He had lost the kunai. He had lost hope. But Rin had died to save him. What cruel, ultimate irony.
An indescribable, unbearable flood of emotion mixed with extreme grief, despair, and the deepest curse toward his own powerlessness erupted from the deepest part of his soul like the Big Bang.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
A hysterical, heart-wrenching roar shook the battlefield.
It was no longer a human voice. It sounded more like the dying wail of a beast, filled with madness that could destroy everything.
Obito's entire body convulsed violently. A terrifying chakra that seemed to come from the deepest abyss of hell suddenly generated inside him and surged madly toward his eyes.
His eyes—those crimson two-tomoe Sharingan—were undergoing a heaven-shaking transformation.
The tomoe spun, twisted, and merged wildly.
Two thick streams of black blood tears rolled down his distorted cheeks.
The physical pain made him whimper like a beast, but the deeper pain came from the enormous void in his soul—as if a part of him had been forcibly dug out.
That was where Rin had been. His light. His entire world.
The sound suddenly stopped. The chaotic vortex in Obito's eyes abruptly stabilized and took shape.
No longer tomoe. No longer a simple pattern.
They were a pair of eyes filled with extreme resentment, grief, and the desire for destruction—a brand new pair of Mangekyō Sharingan.
Mysterious and complex black patterns interwove and spiraled within his crimson pupils, forming a distorted three-leaf clover pattern.
The ocular power surged like a tangible flood. Just the act of staring caused the space in front of him to show faint, ripple-like distortions.
"Rin—" Obito's voice was low and hoarse, like sandpaper grinding together. It had completely lost all human warmth, leaving only bone-chilling cold and endless emptiness. "Is dead—"
Although he said a lot, the entire process had only taken the short time of their exchange.
At that moment, the squad of Iwa-nin who had been fighting Obito earlier also arrived. They didn't care whether he was grieving or in despair. Their blades and kunai mercilessly targeted his vital points.
However, all of these attacks strangely passed straight through Obito's body without causing him any harm.
This bizarre scene scared the four of them into quickly retreating and keeping a safe distance from Obito.
"All of you… deserve to die."
Every word came out of Obito's throat like a judgment from hell.
He gently laid Rin down and carefully smoothed her messy hair. Then he stood up and looked toward the Iwagakure shinobi.
Without a single wasted word, he used Body Flicker and charged forward. He didn't dodge or block the enemy's attacks.
Their kunai passed harmlessly through his body, while his own kunai accurately pierced into their hearts.
This unfair situation immediately threw the Iwa-nin into panic. They made mistake after mistake.
An entire squad of shinobi was wiped out by Obito in less than a minute.
When Obito raised his head again, he saw Kakashi being sent flying and the shocked expressions on the three Iwagakure jonin's faces.
"What the hell? How did this brat suddenly become so strong?"
"What's going on with those eyes?"
"Genjutsu? Some secret technique?" Hikaru suppressed his confusion and formed seals to counterattack. "Don't let him bluff you! Attack together!"
However, the corner of Obito's mouth curved into an even crueler and more insane arc than before.
"Kamui."
As he coldly spat out the two words, his newly awakened Mangekyō erupted with astonishing ocular power.
Pu-chi! Pu-chi!
Two soft sounds, like cloth being torn.
Hikaru and Daishi stared in horror as two massive, spinning, distorted holes suddenly appeared in their chests out of nowhere.
It was as if the space there had been forcibly dug out by some invisible, tyrannical force.
No bleeding. No warning of pain. Only the cold sensation of life being instantly drained away.
"Ugh—" Hikaru's eyes widened as he looked down at the empty hole in his chest. The twisted expression on his face froze in disbelief and terror. Daishi was the same.
The next second, both of their bodies collapsed softly to the ground like punctured balloons, completely losing all signs of life.
Instant kill.
Two experienced Iwagakure jonin had been completely erased in front of the newly awakened Mangekyō technique "Kamui"—without even having the chance to form a thought of resistance.