Fourth Raikage A raced through the valley with his guards, arriving to find Obito sitting leisurely atop the mountain steps.
Corpses of Cloud shinobi lay scattered beneath his feet.
"Akatsuki scum!" Raikage roared. Lightning chakra erupted around him, body crackling as he launched forward. His fist struck with thunderous force.
But his arm passed straight through Obito's body, hitting the mountain behind with earth-shattering power.
The stone stairs exploded into rubble.
A clicked his tongue, glaring as Obito stood untouched, Sharingan watching him like a calm storm eye.
"Raikage!" Darui and C clashed into position beside him, tense and focused.
Obito remained unfazed.
"Turn back. This road ends here."
"Your Jinchuriki will soon be captured by my partner." His gaze drifted toward the distant water battlefield. The muffled roars of Gyūki echoed from afar.
"You bastard!" Raikage's fury spiked.
Bee was still fighting for his life while this masked specter blocked the only path.
"Darui, C!"
"Yes!"
"Darui with me. C, analyze his ability. There must be a limit."
A surged forward again, speed breaking air for the second strike. Darui unleashed black lightning lasers from multiple angles.
"C, what do you sense?"
"I cannot lock onto any physical presence!"
Every attack slipped through Obito effortlessly as though he wasn't there at all.
Obito's voice was calm, almost bored.
"Your efforts wasted. Eight-Tails belongs to Akatsuki today."
He stood in the path alone, yet he halted the entire Cloud rescue force like a wall of shadow.
A gritted his teeth. Bee's chakra was fading. Time was bleeding away.
But this man's space-time ninjutsu denied progress, a prison of intangibility no blade could break.
C suddenly spoke.
"Raikage, he cannot attack while intangible. If someone continuously pressures him, you can pass him and save Bee!"
Obito's gaze sharpened. He hated perceptive shinobi.
Darui stepped forward.
"Raikage-sama, go. I will hold him here."
"Be careful." A launched toward Bee immediately.
Obito stepped to intercept, but Darui's black lightning struck relentlessly, forcing him to maintain intangibility.
"You are going to get yourselves killed." Obito whispered coldly.
Then he sank into the ground and vanished.
Darui blasted the earth where he disappeared, but Obito was gone.
"C! Track him!"
"I cannot sense anything!"
Of course he couldn't. Obito was not in this dimension when intangible.
A ripple opened behind C.
Obito's hand seized his shoulder. Space twisted with a spiraling pull.
C tried to cast a genjutsu, but Obito's Mangekyou overpowered him instantly. His body locked up.
"Laser Circus!"
Darui fired in panic, but Obito swung C into the path, using him as a human shield.
The black beam pierced C's body.
Blood sprayed.
"C!"
"You killed your own comrade," Obito murmured. His voice almost gentle but filled with poison.
He absorbed C into Kamui. Gone.
Darui trembled. Sweat ran cold down his cheek.
He now knew why this man was feared.
How do you fight someone untouchable, untraceable, and merciless?
And Bee… was still alone.