"Damn it! How did he know? And why the hell did that bastard Jiraiya have to show up right then? If I'd just had a little more time, I would've figured out a way to kill Uchiha Keizumi once and for all!"
Far away, Obito was breaking down. His face was dark as a storm cloud, twisted with humiliation. This was the second time he had been forced to flee miserably before Uchiha Keizumi.
Not once had he gained the slightest advantage!
Back then, even when facing his sensei Minato, at the very beginning he had still held the upper hand.
It was only later that Minato suddenly discovered that Kamui seemed to have a flaw.
"Ah! You ran away." A strange, mocking voice rang beside him.
Then came the whirlpool-faced White Zetsu's playful complaint: "Why didn't either of you give me a heads-up? I only realized I should run after I saw you bolt. If you'd left me behind all alone, I'd have been so scared I'd piss and shit myself!"
"Ah, right… I forgot I don't have that function…" It squatted down, dejected, as if being unable to relieve itself was some deeply frustrating misfortune.
Obito's mouth twitched.
Before his death, Uchiha Madara had left him with three very peculiar Zetsu. One claimed to be Madara's separated will; the other two were unusual White Zetsu.
One of them was this whirlpool-faced White Zetsu—eccentric, with a loud personality. The other resembled an aloe plant, quieter but equally distinctive.
When Obito had been gravely injured years ago, it was these two peculiar White Zetsu who had cared for him.
But that aloe-like White Zetsu had since fused with Black Zetsu.
Obito had no patience for trading words with the whirlpool-faced fool on such crude topics.
He frowned and suddenly asked, "Where's the other one?"
Whirlpool-faced White Zetsu froze, glancing around. "It should've run too, right? After all, it was the one that told you to get out of there!"
Just as the two exchanged bewildered looks, a black-and-white figure abruptly surfaced from the ground.
Seeing it, Obito's frown eased slightly—yet before he could say a word, a sudden, piercing scream left him stunned.
"Aaahhhh!!!" Black Zetsu, clutching its head, writhed and rolled on the ground in agony. Its fingers tore mercilessly at its skull, mangling its own head to pieces.
"I—I've been hit by the Mangekyō…" Black Zetsu managed to force out the words amid its shrill screams.
Obito was utterly shaken.
So this was Uchiha Keizumi's Mangekyō ability?
This was the dōjutsu he had nearly fallen victim to earlier?
Watching Black Zetsu writhing in unbearable agony, nearly stripped of all ability to move, beads of cold sweat rolled down Obito's forehead.
"No… your body isn't supposed to feel pain. Could this be… pain striking directly at the soul?!"
A chill crept up Obito's spine.
He himself carried transplanted White Zetsu cells—pain and damage to the flesh hardly mattered. Even if he were cut by blades or burned by fire, it was little more than discomfort, nothing worth fearing.
But this bizarre Mangekyō, one that assaulted the soul itself…
It restrained his peculiar body far too well.
Beside him, the whirlpool-faced White Zetsu tried to help Black Zetsu up. But just as it was about to touch the white half of Black Zetsu's body, a sudden sense of dread made it jerk its hand back by instinct.
And at that instant—
Black Zetsu's left arm suddenly erupted into terrifying flames. Fire burst into existence from nowhere, raging across its arm. Already shrieking on the ground, Black Zetsu's eyes bulged wide, its round yellow pupils nearly bursting from their sockets.
"It's burning my soul!!!" The agonized, despairing scream warped Black Zetsu's voice beyond recognition. Obito's blood ran cold.
"This cursed dōjutsu will kill me! Hurry! Hurry and save me!!!"
Save it? How? Would dragging half of its body into Kamui space work?
But what if those strange flames came with it—would his own soul be burned as well?
Obito hesitated.
In that brief moment of hesitation, the fire of Heaven's Punishment had already spread across Black Zetsu's entire arm and shoulder. Its horrifying suffering even made the whirlpool-faced White Zetsu stumble back in fear.
"If you have the ability to split your soul, then separate the left half from the right, immediately. That was how Shimura Danzō once avoided this ability. At the very least, it will stop the flames from consuming the entire body."
The voice was young, cold, and sudden. Obito and the whirlpool-faced White Zetsu instantly shifted their gazes.
There, crouched on a tree not far away, was a short-statured shinobi wearing an ANBU mask.
The figure spoke again. "You can choose not to trust me. But this is the only way to save him."
Obito gave the masked ninja a long look, then barked at Black Zetsu: "Hurry—detach from that body!"
The moment the words fell—
The black-and-white body split apart. The pitch-black half receded like a tide. Black Zetsu tore itself free from the White Zetsu vessel, collapsing into a strange, viscous black mass, its eyes and mouth still intact.
And once Black Zetsu separated, the aloe-like special White Zetsu rolled wildly on the ground. Its left arm, engulfed in Heaven's Punishment, was already burning across most of its body.
"Huff… huff…"
Black Zetsu's round yellow eyes bulged as it panted heavily, staring in shock at the aloe-shaped White Zetsu writhing in the flames.
The next second—
The endless despair and agony flooding Black Zetsu's mind once again swallowed most of its awareness, sending it rolling frantically across the ground, screaming in agony no different from the aloe-like White Zetsu.
"Why is it still like this?!" Obito snapped, whipping his gaze toward the masked ANBU crouched on the tree and demanding an answer.
The ANBU with the youthful voice replied, "At the very least, those flames capable of reducing its soul to ashes haven't burned it, have they?"
"Uchiha Keizumi's left eye ability should be one that forces the victim to endure unbearable pain. That much was clear from what happened to Danzō."
"His right eye ability, however, releases a strange flame. Once it touches you, it can never be removed—unless you split your soul apart."
At that, the ANBU turned his gaze on the viscous mass that was Black Zetsu.
He paused, then continued, "It seems this body carries two souls. Keizumi's flames branded the white soul. After the separation, the fire did not spread to the black soul. So, at the very least, my advice kept it alive, didn't it?"
"As for why the left eye's ability hasn't dissipated, I don't know. All I have are deductions based on Uchiha Keizumi's Mangekyō against Danzō."
"Still, you people… you're anything but normal. Strange enough that you hardly seem human at all." The ANBU's gaze locked on Black Zetsu. "It looks more like a kind of special summoning beast."
Beneath the mask, Obito's brows furrowed. That youthful ANBU brat carried himself with a lofty, superior air.
It grated on him.
But… he could be fairly sure now that Black Zetsu would not be burned to death. The one consumed was the aloe-like White Zetsu. Its screams had already fallen silent. The eerie flames had incinerated its entire body until not even ashes remained, erasing its existence completely.
A shadow of malice flickered in Obito's eyes.
That bizarre aloe-like White Zetsu had once tended to him. Watching it burn alive in such agony—there was no way he could feel nothing.
Exhaling heavily, Obito smoothed his expression back into one of cold indifference. He lifted his gaze to the ANBU on the tree.
His rasping voice carried a trace of weariness. "What is your purpose, boy of the Uchiha clan?"
This time, it was Uchiha Itachi standing on the branch who froze.
He leapt down from the tree, stepping toward Obito as he asked, "How did you know I'm from the Uchiha clan?"
"Heh!" With Black Zetsu still shrieking in pain, Obito crossed his arms and sneered. "I know Konoha inside and out. Among the ANBU, only one is the youngest—that's the sole Uchiha among them, Uchiha Itachi."
"I know your type well, brat. You wouldn't help for no reason. State your purpose. Best do it before I feel like killing you—otherwise, you won't be going home tonight."
Uchiha Itachi was silent for half a second. Then he reached up, removed his ANBU mask, and revealed a face still faintly youthful.
But that youthful face, forcing an air of adult maturity, looked all the more jarring.
Uchiha Itachi spoke coldly: "I can see it clearly—you want to go against Uchiha Keizumi. Or rather… you want to kill him. Perhaps you do understand Konoha well enough, but your understanding of Uchiha Keizumi cannot compare to mine. In some respects, perhaps we can cooperate."
"Oh?"
Obito's interest was piqued. "Let's hear it."
Itachi's tone remained indifferent. "For example—cooperating to eliminate Uchiha Keizumi. Or—cooperating to eliminate the entire Uchiha clan."
Obito: "???"
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