After the kaleidoscopic black engulfed the entire Kamui dimension, only one thing within that space could still move.
Uchiha Rokuro's right eye.
That's right—even Uchiha Rokuro's body itself was completely immobilized.
Fear surged through Obito's heart. This total loss of bodily control filled him with extreme unease. If his body weren't bound, cold sweat would already be pouring down his back as he instinctively tried to flee.
In the absolute stillness of the Kamui space—where even breathing seemed to have ceased—the Dimensional Blade in Uchiha Rokuro's hand slowly began to float upward.
A harsh sound, like steel plates being torn apart, rang out from the blade's edge.
The Dimensional Blade drifted forward, completely leaving Uchiha Rokuro's grasp. As it advanced, that grating, tearing sound continued uninterrupted, as if it were slicing through something unseen.
"Space…? I get it now! Uchiha Rokuro's right-eye dōjutsu is spatial solidification?!"
Obito screamed internally.
At last, he understood why he couldn't move—and why even Uchiha Rokuro himself had been frozen.
This was an indiscriminate, area-wide dōjutsu.
The entire space had been solidified. Everything within it—matter, chakra, even time-like flow—was locked in place.
Everything except one thing.
The Dimensional Blade, which possessed the ability to cut space itself.
"That piercing sound… it's space being severed! So that's it—these two abilities are meant to work together. Terrifying… but I also control spatial power. You can't trap me!"
Obito activated Kamui, attempting to tear through space and counterattack.
But no matter how hard he tried
Not even a grain-sized spatial vortex appeared.
"What?! Why isn't it working?!"
Obito's pupils shrank in shock.
And at that moment, the Dimensional Blade was already less than one meter away from his chest.
In one more second, his heart would be pierced clean through.
"Break—NOW!"
By this point, Obito had abandoned all thoughts of killing Uchiha Rokuro.
He only wanted to escape.
Blood streamed from both of his eyes, but still—nothing happened.
Only then did Obito finally understand the truth.
It wasn't that his dōjutsu was weaker.
It was that his ocular power was weaker.
"Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan! Damn it! Why does his eye have to be Eternal?!"
Obito howled in despair at the cruelty of fate.
Both wielded the Mangekyō. He even had Hashirama Cells augmenting his body—
Yet he still lost.
"The gap between a normal Mangekyō and an Eternal Mangekyō is just too vast!"
Pain exploded through his chest.
The Dimensional Blade had already pierced his heart. Flesh and muscle offered no resistance whatsoever.
In less than half a second, he would be dead.
At the very brink of life and death, Obito forced a breakthrough.
A spatial vortex engulfed his body—and in the next instant, he vanished from the Kamui dimension.
Uchiha Rokuro's right eye stopped spinning.
He snorted disdainfully.
"I deliberately slowed the blade down, and it still took you this long to break free. Obito, you're really trash. Honestly, getting talked into betrayal by Naruto later on makes perfect sense—no wonder you fell for Madara so easily. At your core, you're just an empty-headed idiot."
The kaleidoscopic black dissipated.
Spatial solidification was released.
Uchiha Rokuro recalled the Dimensional Blade and glanced at its tip.
"I removed the curse seal for you. Try not to disappoint me, Obito. I've done all I can—if you still lose to Black Zetsu after this, then you deserve to die."
Obito reappeared at the border of the Land of Fire, blood pouring from his chest.
By sheer luck, his heart hadn't been pierced completely.
"Damn you, Uchiha Rokuro… I'll repay today's humiliation someday!"
As he used medical ninjutsu to stop the bleeding, Obito suddenly froze.
The curse seal Madara had implanted in his heart
It was gone.
"This… hahaha! Fate really is on my side!"
His laughter echoed wildly.
"Perfect. Now I have an even better chance of completing the Eye of the Moon Plan!"
Obito had no idea that after serving as Madara's pawn, he had now seamlessly become Uchiha Rokuro's pawn as well.
Laughing to himself, he fled back to his base.
Because Uchiha Rokuro was still inside the Kamui dimension, Obito couldn't use Kamui for long-distance travel just yet.
Meanwhile, inside the Kamui space, Uchiha Rokuro carefully examined the dimension itself.
"This is a space created through ocular power, branded with Obito's chakra signature. Even someone capable of spatial travel would need an absurd amount of chakra to force entry. Meanwhile, Obito can enter freely—that's why he can phase his body."
"From the fight, I also confirmed that Kamui space can store chakra, and even use spatial distortion to fuel techniques. Double Kamui really is powerful… but it's still just a normal Mangekyō ability. Against an Eternal Mangekyō, it's nothing but a kid brother."
Uchiha Rokuro thought of Kotoamatsukami, hailed as the strongest genjutsu.
Whether in databooks or narrative portrayal, it was hyped far above Tsukuyomi.
Yet even it fell short against Uchiha Izumi's Dual Tsukuyomi.
In the end, Mangekyō abilities might dominate ordinary opponents through special effects
But against another Mangekyō wielder, victory came down to raw ocular power.
Without sufficient ocular strength, even the strongest dōjutsu was meaningless.
After finishing his analysis, Uchiha Rokuro sliced open space with the Dimensional Blade and stepped out.
The moment he emerged
He nearly stepped into empty air.
"…Did history just repeat itself?"
Konoha was now a massive crater.
All buildings—except a few on the outskirts—had been reduced to rubble.
Debris piled up near the village walls, especially around the base of the Hokage Rock.
Uchiha Rokuro activated sensory ninjutsu.
Pain had already withdrawn.
Weak chakra signatures filled the ruins—but less than one-tenth of the original population remained.
"Massive casualties… Thankfully Tsunade evacuated the children ahead of time. Otherwise, Naruto and the others probably wouldn't have survived."
Using sensory tools, Uchiha Rokuro detected numerous chakra signatures hidden underground—mostly genin, lower-level ninja, and academy students.
Naruto and Sasuke were among them.
As for whether the future Konoha Twelve all survived—that remained unclear.
Uchiha Rokuro approached a familiar chakra signature and used Earth Release to lift the rubble away.
"Well, you look terrible, Kakashi. And now your only remaining eye is gone too. Looks like you don't have a choice about replacing it anymore."
Kakashi's body was covered in over thirty wounds, though none were fatal.
The worst injury was his right eye.
A black chakra rod had pierced straight into his eye socket, shattering the eyeball.
Fortunately, it hadn't gone deeper into his brain—otherwise, the only way to see the "Copy Ninja" again would be through Edo Tensei.
"…Uchiha Rokuro? Was Pain defeated?"
Kakashi asked weakly.
"No. Judging from the situation, Pain already withdrew. I just came out of another dimension."
"The owner of that dimension… was your good friend—Uchiha Obito."
"What?! Obito's alive?!"
Kakashi's agitation reopened his wounds.
"Calm down. He wore a mask during our fight, but I shattered it. Half his face was ruined, and his right side was infused with Wood Release. He revived himself using First Hokage cells."
"…Right side… then it's really him."
Kakashi sighed deeply and lay back.
"You're relieved your friend is alive?"
Uchiha Rokuro's voice turned cold.
"Thousands died today. Pain pulled the trigger—but Obito was an accomplice. The hatred between him and Konoha only grows deeper."
Kakashi fell silent.
Uchiha Rokuro didn't press further.
He activated a wide-range sensory barrier and began pulling survivors from the rubble, coordinating with arriving medical ninja.
Along the way, he found many familiar faces:
Hyūga Hiashi, Hyūga Taiki, Nara Shikaku, Akimichi Chōza…
Even Jiraiya, critically injured and unconscious, was recovered from beneath a collapsed building.
With one arm gone, Jiraiya's combat strength had plummeted—no longer even Kage-level, at best an elite jōnin.
Meanwhile, the Six Paths of Pain were far stronger than in canon.
In the original timeline, their goal was capturing the Nine-Tails, so they avoided indiscriminate slaughter at first.
Now?
Nagato came solely to destroy.
To kill.
To make Konoha feel pain.
To carry the rice.
Multiple factors compounded the disaster. If Nagato hadn't feared Uchiha Rokuro's strength and withdrawn immediately, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and countless others would have died.
Uchiha Rokuro searched—but couldn't find Might Guy.
Once again, he wasn't in the village.
"…Not here again? Same as the original."
"If Guy had been here and opened the Eight Gates, he could've wiped out the Six Paths. Whether he could've found Nagato afterward—that's another story."
"Still… Nagato's luck is ridiculous."
One day later, Konoha officially began reconstruction.
Uchiha Rokuro immediately brought out a sealing technique specifically designed for building construction. With it, anyone proficient in Earth Release could erect houses using ninjutsu—just like Yamato—greatly accelerating the village's recovery.
Meanwhile, Konoha's upper echelon convened an emergency meeting regarding the recent attack.
This time, Pain had come with killing intent from the very start. He struck swiftly and withdrew just as decisively—especially with that final overpowered Shinra Tensei, which left Tsunade with no time to save the wounded.
Although the casualties were enormous, Tsunade herself had not expended much chakra. As a result, unlike in the original timeline, she did not revert to her elderly form and fall into a coma.
Uchiha Rokuro recounted his encounter with Uchiha Obito in full. Upon hearing this, Tsunade and the other lightly injured high-ranking officials grew even more grim.
"So, Rokuro," Tsunade said heavily,
"you're saying that Uchiha Obito is not only still alive—but his strength rivals your own?"
"He's still a bit weaker than me," Rokuro replied calmly.
"But not by much. I'd say it's about a six-to-four split."
"The real problem," he continued, "is his space–time ninjutsu. By using that other dimension, he can freely traverse to any location—ignoring distance, barriers, and all forms of seals."
"In other words, if he wants to, he can infiltrate Konoha from anywhere in the ninja world at any time."
"I suspect that on the night of the Nine-Tails incident, he used this exact ability to slip into the Fourth Hokage's wife's delivery site, launch his attack, and release the Nine-Tails."
Many present had later investigated the events of that night. They knew Kushina's delivery location had been extremely secretive and protected by layers of barriers—something even Kage-level shinobi would struggle to breach in a short time.
But no matter how strong a barrier was, it meant nothing to a space–time ninja.
Everything suddenly made sense.
"If that's the case," Tsunade said gravely,
"then Konoha's sensory barrier network is effectively useless against Uchiha Obito."
"Rokuro," Nara Shikaku asked suddenly,
"do you think that other dimension of his could be used to transport troops?"
It was a question no one else had even considered.
"That shouldn't be a problem," Rokuro answered.
"When he attacked me, he was worried I'd escape using Body Flicker, so he transferred my entire house—yard and all—into that dimension in one go."
"If he can do that, opening a portal and sending large numbers of shinobi through would be even easier."
"That space isn't infinite," he added,
"but it could easily hold several thousand people."
The room fell deathly silent.
Shikaku frowned deeply, thought for a moment, then turned to Tsunade.
"Lady Tsunade, given Uchiha Obito's capabilities, I strongly recommend recalling as many border troops as possible back to the village."
"We must drastically strengthen Konoha's defenses. That way, if they invade again, we'll have sufficient force to counterattack."
"As for launching an offensive against the Land of Rain
I suggest postponing it for now."
"What?!"
Inuzuka Tsume slammed her fist onto the table.
"We've suffered losses this severe, and you're saying we shouldn't retaliate immediately?!"
Though female, her temper was fiercer than most men's.
Shikaku shook his head slightly.
"Striking back could indeed devastate the Land of Rain," he said evenly.
"But have you considered what happens if they realize they can't hold it?"
"What if they simply abandon it—and use Uchiha Obito's abilities to launch surprise attacks on major cities throughout the Land of Fire?"
"Remember—those with nothing left fear nothing. Once Pain loses his attachment to the Land of Rain, he'll become a pure killing machine."
"Combine that with Uchiha Obito's space–time ninjutsu, and no defensive line would matter."
"Are we really willing to risk the annihilation of the entire Land of Fire just to poke a hornet's nest?"
No one spoke.
The horrifying consequences weighed heavily on everyone present.
At last, Tsunade broke the silence.
"Rokuro," she asked,
"if you were to team up with Uchiha Izumi, could you eliminate Uchiha Obito and the Six Paths of Pain?"
Uchiha Rokuro pretended to think for a moment—then shook his head slowly.
"…Doubtful~~"
END OF CHAPTER
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