{Sorry about yesterday, had a really bad wrist pain and I didn't want to take any risks regarding that as you'd understand.}
~~~
The distance between them collapsed to nothing.
Obito moved first, as he always did, there was no flourish, no wasted motion. A shoulder dipped, weight shifted, and his fist snapped forward in a compact arc aimed straight at Ren's throat. It wasn't a probing strike. It was meant to kill.
Ren met it head-on.
He twisted just enough for the punch to graze past his jaw and answered with an elbow driven into Obito's ribs. The impact landed solidly, chakra reinforcing bone and muscle alike, but Obito barely flinched. His body absorbed it unnaturally well, the force dispersing through a frame that was far denser than it had any right to be.
They stayed close, too close.
Ren followed immediately, stepping inside Obito's guard, fingers clawing toward his wrist while his knee rose toward Obito's midsection. Obito phased through the grab, forearm slipping through Ren's fingers like mist, but the knee still connected, grazing Obito's side hard enough to send both of them sliding apart half a step.
Half a step was still close enough to kill.
Obito used it to throw a kunai from nowhere, the blade appearing mid-motion as if reality itself had coughed it up. Ren's head snapped aside, the kunai skimming past his cheek, close enough that he felt the pressure of its passage. He pivoted on the ball of his foot and answered with a palm strike layered with compressed chakra.
[Wind Style: Cutting Palm]
The invisible edge ripped forward.
Obito vanished into a swirl, the attack passing harmlessly through where he had been, and reappeared at Ren's flank, leg sweeping low. Ren hopped just enough to avoid being taken off his feet, but Obito's follow-up punch slammed into his ribs, driving the air from his lungs.
Ren slid back across the ground, boots carving thin arcs into the dirt.
He didn't stop moving.
[Earth Style: Rising Spur]
A narrow spike of earth erupted beneath Obito's foot, forcing him to abort his next step. Obito phased instantly, the spike passing through his ankle as if it wasn't there, and surged forward again, refusing to give Ren space.
They crashed together again, forearms colliding, knuckles snapping against bone, each impact echoing like a drumbeat. Obito pressed in, trying to force Ren into a clinch where Kamui would give him the decisive edge.
Ren refused.
He ducked under a hook, slid inside Obito's guard, and drove a short punch into Obito's solar plexus. The hit landed, but instead of folding, Obito's body barely gave, dense muscle and unnatural vitality absorbing the blow.
Ren felt it immediately.
'Damn,' he thought, even as he twisted away from a counterpunch. 'An Uchiha with Hashirama cells is a complete physical monster. Add the Mangekyō on top and you get… this endurance monster.'
He slipped past another swipe, heel skidding over the slickened ground, momentum carrying him into a spinning kick aimed at Obito's head. Obito ducked under it and answered with a brutal elbow that clipped Ren's shoulder, sending a sharp jolt down his arm.
Neither of them slowed.
Obito retreated, just a step, just enough to bait and Ren followed instantly, refusing to let the gap widen. Obito flicked his wrist and a cluster of senbon burst outward, thrown not from his sleeve but from the warped space behind him.
Ren's body reacted before thought.
He slid sideways, feet carving long arcs through the ground, torso bending at an impossible angle as the senbon screamed past. One grazed his arm; another tore across his thigh. He didn't break stride.
[Water Style: Flowing Bind]
A thin ribbon of water lashed out, snapping toward Obito's legs. Obito phased through it, reappearing behind Ren with his blade already drawn.
Steel flashed.
Ren twisted, and bit the blade with his teeth, not letting it go any deeper, then slammed his forearm into Obito's wrist snatching the sword. He followed with a headbutt that caught Obito square in the mask, the impact echoing.
Obito staggered back a step.
Not far enough.
Ren was already there, shoulder-checking Obito hard enough to drive him into a half-collapsed wall. Stone cracked under the impact, dust erupting around them. Obito phased through the debris, emerging above Ren and driving both heels downward.
Ren rolled at the last second, the strike pulverizing the ground where he had been. He came up low, sweeping Obito's legs while simultaneously driving chakra into the earth.
[Earth Style: Grasping Floor]
The ground surged, trying to lock Obito in place.
Obito phased again, but Ren was counting on that. The moment Obito solidified, Ren's fist was already there, smashing into Obito's jaw and snapping his head to the side.
They separated again, both breathing harder now.
Obito wiped at his mouth as his mask had cracked from below with the back of his hand, gaze unreadable behind the mask. His movements were still smooth, but there was a fraction more tension now, a fraction more caution.
'He's twelve,' Obito thought grimly as he lunged again. 'Just twelve… and his physical strength is already on par with mine.'
If he hadn't merged with Hashirama's cells, if his body hadn't been reforged into something more than human, he knew the truth.
'I wouldn't be able to keep up with him at all.'
He attacked harder, faster, trying to overwhelm Ren with sheer volume. Blades, fists, elbows, every strike calculated to force Ren into a mistake. Each time Ren answered, slipping just enough, countering with compact strikes, layering in small, irritating ninjutsu that Obito had to phase through again and again.
[Lightning Style: Nerve Spark]
A crackle of energy snapped toward Obito's arm. He phased through it, but the timing forced him to delay his next strike by a heartbeat and Ren took that heartbeat and turned it into a knee to the ribs.
Obito retaliated with a brutal backhand that caught Ren across the face, sending him skidding sideways. Ren caught himself with one hand, slid through the darkened streaks underfoot, and sprang back in before Obito could widen the distance.
They were both marked now.
Small cuts. Bruises blooming beneath skin. The subtle stiffness of joints pushed past their limits again and again. Neither was untouched, and neither cared.
Obito tried again to disengage, phasing backward, angling for an opening to slip away.
Ren didn't allow it.
He stayed glued to Obito's space, matching every retreat with a step forward, every feint with a counter-feint. When Obito threw more weapons, Ren slipped between them, letting momentum carry him through shallow arcs that widened and smeared the ground beneath them.
The fight became a blur of motion.
Taijutsu dominating, ninjutsu snapping in like thorns, Kamui phasing just barely in time, Flying Thunder God flashes keeping Ren exactly where Obito didn't want him.
Obito struck, Ren countered.
Ren struck, Obito phased.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Obito's plan was clear now, to keep Ren engaged, to make every exchange cost time, chakra, focus. To make it look like escape was always one move away, while never truly committing.
Ren saw through it but he didn't care.
He drove forward regardless, intent sharp, pressure unrelenting, waiting for the moment, just one, where Kamui would be late by a fraction of a second.
Because in a fight like this, that fraction was all it took.
Their fists collided once more, shockwaves rippling outward, debris lifting into the air around them as the night itself seemed to hold its breath.
Neither man was winning.
Neither was losing.
But both were bleeding for every second they stayed locked together.
The fight didn't slow for a single second.
Every exchange left something behind now, small tears in fabric, shallow cuts along arms and shoulders, bruises blooming dark beneath skin. Neither Ren nor Obito acknowledged them. Pain had become background noise, folded into breath and motion, absorbed into rhythm.
Obito came in low this time, shoulder dipping, blade flashing up from his blind side. Ren twisted, steel scraping along his forearm instead of biting deep, and answered with a short-range kick to Obito's thigh. The impact echoed, dull and heavy. Obito phased a fraction too late, enough that the force still traveled through him and he stumbled half a step.
Ren was on him instantly.
A fist to the ribs, an elbow to the collarbone followed by a knee aimed high.
Obito blocked, redirected, phased, countered, his movements precise, economical, lethal. A kunai appeared in his left hand mid-motion, driven toward Ren's kidney. Ren spun, the blade carving a line across his side instead, and responded by ramming his shoulder into Obito's chest, driving him backward through a crumbling wall.
Stone exploded outward.
They crashed through it together, landing in a mess of shattered masonry. Ren slid through the debris on one knee, momentum carrying him low and fast, while Obito flipped backward, feet barely touching the ground before he surged forward again.
They collided in the open space beyond.
Fists cracked against bone. Blades flashed and withdrew. Chakra surged and recoiled.
Ren wove small ninjutsu into the flow, not to kill, not even to wound, but to force decisions.
[Earth Style: Fracture Pulse]
The ground buckled beneath Obito's heel. He phased through it, but the timing forced him to materialize half a step off-balance. Ren took that half-step and turned it into a sweeping strike that caught Obito across the ribs.
Obito hissed softly and retaliated with a vicious backhand that snapped Ren's head to the side. Ren rolled with it, blood flicking from his lip, boots skidding across the blood on the ground in a wide arc.
Neither paused.
They were both deep into the fight now now, streaked and spattered, the ground beneath them darkened with in irregular patterns where the fight had passed. Ren slid through it again then pivoting sharply, letting momentum carry him into another exchange.
Obito tried to disengage, phasing backward, angling for space but Ren stayed glued to him, footwork relentless, pressure constant. Every retreat was matched. Every feint answered.
A flurry of senbon burst from Obito's Kamui space, thrown mid-spin. Ren bent impossibly low, needles slicing past his back and arms, one grazing his shoulder. He didn't stop moving. His heel dragged as he turned, smearing a thin arc of blood across the ground before launching himself forward again.
Obito noticed.
Not consciously at first. Just a tug at the edge of awareness. Patterns where there shouldn't be patterns. Arcs of blood too smooth, lines too deliberate.
They clashed again, forearms locked, both straining for leverage. Obito shoved Ren back and followed with a brutal overhead strike. Ren raised both arms to block, the impact driving him to one knee.
Obito pressed, blade flashing toward Ren's throat.
Ren twisted, letting the blade scrape across his collarbone instead, and shoved off the ground, using the force to slide backward, his boots carving another wide curve through the darkened surface.
Obito's Mangekyo tracked everything.
The arcs, the spacing, the way Ren's movement guided where the impacts landed.
Obito's eye narrowed.
He threw an Inferno blade point-blank.
[Fire Style: Inferno Slash]
Ren ducked under it, the pressure tearing through the space above his head, and answered with a compact burst of flame that Obito phased through without breaking stride. They separated by a few meters for the first time in minutes, both breathing hard, shoulders rising and falling.
Obito straightened slightly, gaze fixed on the ground between them.
Then he sneered and said coldly, "You're too naive, if you think I couldn't see through what you're doing."
Ren stilled.
Not in surprise, in amusement.
He wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand, smearing red across his knuckles, and looked up with a grin that was far too bright for a battlefield.
"Really?" Ren replied lightly. "I thought you'd still be blinded by love."
He tilted his head, mock-thoughtful.
"What was her name again… Vim? Din?"
Obito moved.
Too fast and too sharp.
His killing intent spiked violently, blade flashing toward Ren's throat with no restraint this time. Ren didn't dodge.
He slammed both hands into the ground.
A complex Fuinjutsu array flared to life beneath them, lines igniting all at once in a wide, intricate pattern that snapped into place like a trap finally closing. Symbols burned faintly along the ground, connecting arcs, fractures, and impact points that suddenly made terrible sense.
Ren looked up, eyes bright, grin widening.
"Ah," he said cheerfully. "I remember now. Rin."
Obito froze.
Not because he wanted to.
Because his body told him to.
His chakra stuttered just for a heartbeat and he felt it, the sudden resistance, the way his flow tugged outward instead of inward. His eyes snapped down, Mangekyo spinning as he took in the full array.
"When?" Obito muttered, voice low, sharp with alarm.
Ren straightened slowly, hands still pressed to the seal, blood dripping from his fingers into glowing lines that eagerly absorbed it.
Ren asked, "You don't think, that I was blasting you through those boulders at random, did you?"
Understanding hit Obito like a punch to the gut.
He stared at the array, at the way the symbols fed into the fractures, the debris, the ground itself.
"A chakra siphoner…" he breathed.
Ren finally lifted his hands, the seal stabilizing under its own power. The pressure in the air shifted, subtle but unmistakable, as the formation began to drink in Obito's ambient chakra and his own too.
He looked back at Obito, smile sharp and unapologetic.
"Welcome to the game," Ren said, "where we both will only live if you break this array in time."
~~~~~
{If anyone is wondering why Obito is letting hits land on him, first it's because Ren is able to hit him before he phases and second because it's the only way to not let Ren do something drastic, which he still did, but oh well.}