"Ah!"
"Ah!"
Under everyone's watchPful eyes, Yagura finally stopped struggling on the ground. The Tailed Beast Chakra cloak covering his body had been completely burned away, revealing him in a pitiable state. His skin was badly scorched and blistered, and he was completely unconscious.
Obito's expression was ugly beyond words. He had assumed that since he controlled both Minato Namikaze and Yagura Karatachi, capturing Ryūjin would be a simple task. But he hadn't counted on Ryūjin being so much stronger than expected.
Minato had at least grappled with him for a time, but Yagura had been overpowered instantly.
Thinking about Ryūjin's abilities — Flying Thunder God, Kamui, and those terrifying black flames whose origin was still unknown — made Obito's scalp go painfully numb. If those flames were from a dōjutsu, then there was no known ocular technique capable of simultaneously manifesting Kamui in one eye and jet-black flames in the other. If it wasn't a dōjutsu, he had never seen Ryūjin form seals before producing them.
It was bizarre beyond comprehension.
Obito knew ordinary tactics would be useless. He stopped wasting breath and pressed his palms together.
Crackle, crackle.
Wooden branches erupted from the earth in a wild frenzy, snaking out to strike at Ryūjin like vicious serpents.
Ryūjin easily avoided them using the Flying Thunder God Technique, appearing instantly in another spot as the branches fell far behind.
"Hmph. Flying Thunder God, how irritating," Obito murmured coldly. Although he lacked long‑range Kamui, his Wood Release could function just as well.
He split the surrounding branches apart, gathered all of the Flying Thunder God kunai scattered across the battlefield, and drew them into the Kamui Dimension. With that, Ryūjin's teleport markers were neutralized.
He didn't believe even the Flying Thunder God could travel into another dimension.
Crackle, crackle!
Under Obito's command, massive numbers of branches burst from the ground in every direction, launching a relentless onslaught that quickly surrounded Ryūjin.
Ryūjin could not throw kunai, as every angle was choked with wood. And he could not use Kamui to escape, because transferring himself into the Kamui Dimension while tangible would mean being struck mid‑transition.
Obito judged that Ryūjin's only options were intangibility or the mysterious black flames. But Obito had no concerns.
For every branch Ryūjin burned with those black flames, ten more sprouted. And if Ryūjin phased through, the woods would still assault him as they grew outward.
Obito was confident this barrage would eventually trap him.
Now he just needed to wait.
But Ryūjin already foresaw this strategy. Flying Thunder God was ineffective here, and Kamui or Amaterasu wouldn't be decisive. But that did not matter. He had other measures.
Not even considering Susanoo yet, Ryūjin stood calmly in the center of the wooden siege, his breathing steady.
"Eight Gates, First Gate, Gate of Opening... Open."
Then, one by one, he unleashed the Gates up to the Fifth Gate.
Boom!
A tremendous pulse of chakra exploded from the wood prison, tearing a hole through the entanglement. Ryūjin burst from that opening, his presence erupting with crushing force, so intimidating that even Obito felt suffocated watching him.
"What terrifying power!" Obito gasped, shocked once more by Ryūjin's unexpected method.
"Tsukuyomi," Ryūjin declared as he barreled straight toward Obito, eyes locked on his own.
Obito's vision blurred, and the world shifted into stark shades of black and white.
"Is this… a genjutsu?" Obito's heart thundered in surprise.
He possessed the Mangekyo Sharingan — how could he be ensnared?
Just what kind of genjutsu was this?
The Sharingan in Obito's eyes spun fiercely as the strange world dissolved.
But in that moment, he discovered the black flames had already begun to burn across his body.
Ryūjin's true intent behind Tsukuyomi had simply been to create a window for Amaterasu.
Obito's Sharingan made defeating Tsukuyomi realistic, but even briefly being pulled into a genjutsu left a moment of critical vulnerability.
And under the blistering assault of Amaterasu, even that split second was enough.
"Ah! It burns! It hurts!" White Zetsu Tobi screamed in agony as the flames spread, and the outer layer wrapping Obito writhed in distress.
Everyone watched Obito's form twist at the knees in a way that looked almost unnatural.
Crackle, crackle!
At the last second, the sections of Zetsu consumed by flame split off branches that drove the fire outward. Tobi severed the afflicted limbs to save the rest. That desperate action relieved the crisis just in time.
"That was close, so close — I almost died!" Tobi cried, shaking with residual fear.
Obito's face was dark with anger and an unfamiliar fear. If he hadn't been shielded by the White Zetsu exterior, he would already be ash.
"Obito, this person is far too strong. We need to retreat. I do not want to die!" Tobi wailed in his ear.
____
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