leonardwarren Chapter 191 191
Chapter 191 191
The Three-Tails was still a Tailed Beast, after all.
Before the Fourth Mizukage took office, he had displayed overwhelming strength. That strength was one of the reasons people supported his rise, hoping he could bring an end to the chaotic political landscape of the Land of Water.
Once transformed into the Three-Tails, he was supposed to be the strongest fighting force in the Land of Water.
But now...
The mighty Three-Tails was being beaten down like a misbehaving child.
How could ordinary stones—not even as thick as one of the Three-Tails' teeth—produce such terrifying force?
"Hahaha!"
Shiki laughed loudly.
He made a grabbing motion with one hand, and with the awakened power of the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, one of the Three-Tails' tails was caught in midair as if seized by an invisible hand.
Then he slammed it violently into the ground.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Again and again, the Three-Tails' massive body was smashed into the earth, carving crater after crater across the battlefield.
The surrounding shinobi could barely keep their footing. The entire area shook as if an earthquake had struck.
"That man… he's even more like a monster than the Three-Tails itself," Mei Terumī muttered, her expression grave.
Was this the strength of the world-renowned Golden Lion Shiki?
Normally, rumors about powerful figures always became exaggerated as they spread.
People liked to embellish the exploits of heroes and monsters alike.
For example, the Third Raikage's battle with the Eight-Tails should have ended with both sides collapsing from exhaustion. Yet as the story spread, it gradually became a legend of the Third Raikage overpowering the Eight-Tails and beating it into submission.
The same should have been true for Shiki.
His reputation was terrifying, and there were countless rumors about him. Because of that, Mei and the others had naturally cut those stories in half in their minds.
But now...
After watching Shiki fight the Three-Tails with their own eyes, Mei Terumī had only one thought.
"The Shiki from the rumors… was the weakened version, wasn't he?"
For the first time in the shinobi world, exaggeration had lost to reality.
Bang!
After playing around for a while, Shiki gave a hearty smile.
Then he drew the Three-Tails toward him with a powerful pulling force. In the same instant, his sword swept out in a swift arc, wrapped in Armament Haki and coated with Conqueror's Haki.
"Divine Departure!"
Bzzzt!
A massive black slash, streaked with crimson lightning, tore straight toward the Three-Tails as it was dragged helplessly forward.
The next moment...
The Three-Tails' colossal body was blown upward by the sheer force.
It released a pained roar, mournful and helpless, as one side of its body was severed open. Blood gushed out like a waterfall, raining down across the ruined earth.
"Hm… still a little short."
Shiki stroked his chin, muttering to himself with a faint frown.
"Even after trying to replicate it, there's still a difference."
After fusing with the Golden Lion, he had wanted to recreate the powerful one-shot technique once used by his rival, Gol D. Roger.
But since this was his first attempt, it still fell short.
"Is that really the Three-Tails… the beast everyone feared?"
Mei Terumī and the others stared wide-eyed, completely stunned.
"Shiki-sama is simply that strong."
Rin Nohara smiled gently, subconsciously puffing out her chest with pride.
Although the volume itself was modest—barely an A-cup—her confidence at that moment carried the presence of at least a D-cup.
Bang!
The falling Three-Tails crashed heavily onto the ground.
Then...
The earth suddenly split open.
A massive cavern yawned beneath them.
Shiki and the Three-Tails dropped downward at the same time.
"A trap?!" Mei Terumī's eyes widened.
Had the enemy prepared this cavern ahead of time?
Pitfall traps were common among shinobi. Although this one was absurdly large—large enough to swallow the entire Three-Tails—it was not impossible if a powerful Earth Release user had helped prepare it.
So this was the hidden mastermind's move?
"You finally couldn't hold yourself back, huh, you sneaky rat?"
Even as he fell, Shiki looked amused rather than anxious.
He and the Three-Tails continued dropping into the darkness, not yet reaching the bottom.
And then
The space around Rin Nohara suddenly warped.
A figure appeared beside her in an instant.
Obito.
He had finally made his move.
Taking advantage of the moment Shiki and the Three-Tails fell, Obito reached out toward Rin.
"Who?!"
Rin sensed the presence behind her and tried to turn, but it was already too late.
Her body froze.
A hand stretched toward her shoulder.
"It's the one controlling Lord Mizukage!"
Mei Terumī and the others' expressions changed at once.
They had seen Obito appear beside Rin Nohara and make his move. Among everyone present, aside from the Fourth Mizukage himself, the rest either stood with them or had no reason to interfere.
And when they connected it to the sudden cavern from earlier...
There was no doubt.
It was the enemy.
"Lava Release: Scorching Stream Rock Technique!"
Mei did not hesitate. She opened her mouth and released a stream of molten lava.
Among the wounded experts present, including the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, she was still in the best condition. After all, aside from Shiki catching her Lava Release with his mouth and enduring several of her Ninjutsu, he had only slapped her butt a few times.
Because of that, her reaction was still extremely sharp, and her attack came with terrifying force.
However...
Swish!
The molten lava passed straight through Obito's body as if he were nothing more than a phantom. It struck the ground behind him instead, burning the grass to ash in an instant.
"It didn't work?!" Mei's eyes widened.
Lava Release had always possessed overwhelming destructive power, yet today she had encountered two enemies in a row who could ignore it.
One was Shiki.
She still could not believe he had caught lava with his mouth.
And this one...
"Genjutsu?" Mei immediately reached the most believable conclusion she could think of.
She was wrong, of course.
She simply did not understand Space–Time Ninjutsu well enough to recognize what had just happened.
Bang!
Obito's hand reached toward Rin's shoulder.
For a brief instant, a trace of desperate hope flickered in his eye.
He knew he probably could not take the Three-Tails or the Fourth Mizukage with him anymore.
But if he could take Rin
Swish!
A sword light suddenly came tearing through the air, carrying a deadly sense of doom.
It was a pitch-black slash, as if even light itself had been cut apart.
Even under the bright sun, that sword light made the world seem dim.
And what truly shocked everyone was its speed.
It was far beyond what ordinary eyes could follow.
Like a black bolt of lightning, it crossed the distance in an instant.
"Damn it!"
Obito cried out in pain and clutched his shoulder.
Without the slightest hesitation, the space around him warped.
In the next second, he vanished from everyone's sight.
Only one severed arm remained on the ground.
Then even that arm began breaking apart, turning into pale ash-like particles before disappearing completely.
"Tch. Coward."
Shiki slowly walked out from the underground cavern, his expression clearly dissatisfied.
Space–Time Ninjutsu was troublesome indeed.
He had been watching with Future Sight the entire time, and to his speechless annoyance, Obito refused to appear unless Shiki deliberately left him an opening.
So Shiki had opened one on purpose.
The moment Obito appeared, he immediately used Kamui to avoid a direct hit. Even when Shiki saw a future where he kept slashing until Kamui's time limit was about to run out, Obito simply slipped underground while intangible and escaped.
That coward did not even use Kamui's warp to flee in some futures, because he knew he would have to materialize the moment he did.
And now that Obito possessed both Kamui, the amount of time he could remain intangible had increased, and his flexibility was far beyond what it should have been.
Still...
That arm was gone for good.
A faint smile appeared on Shiki's face.
In that slash, he had used the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. The arm had been cut from the very root of its existence. Obito could forget about restoring it in this lifetime.
From this encounter, Shiki also realized something.
Although his attack power had already reached the Six Paths level, his speed had not caught up. It had not even reached light-speed territory.
In the anime, even Six Paths Madara had been unable to properly react to Obito's Space–Time Ninjutsu. At that level, with the Rinnegan and Six Paths Sage Mode, Madara should have possessed reaction speed close to seeing slightly into the future.
So unless Shiki reached faster-than-light speed, blitzing someone like Obito—who constantly hid inside intangibility—would remain troublesome.
Of course, the real problem was
"This ridiculous cavern got in my way."
Shiki glanced at the Three-Tails, which was lying on its back with all four legs flailing in the air. The right side of its body was still missing from Shiki's earlier slash.
If the sudden collapse had not disrupted Shiki's movement, he could have cut Obito down the moment he showed himself.
Of course, if Shiki had not been placed in that situation, Obito probably would not have shown himself at all.
"As expected, playing whack-a-mole is annoying."
Shiki clicked his tongue.
Still, compared to everything else, Shiki had only been inconvenienced. Rin Nohara had been protected, and Obito had failed to take her away.
No matter how many times Obito tried, Shiki had that much confidence.
Every attempt would be a gamble with Obito's life.
If he won, fine.
If he lost, there would be no next time.
"Fine, then. Looks like I won't be catching Obito's tail today."
Shiki shrugged.
"We've got plenty of time."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"And if all else fails..."
"I'll just wait until I get a space-related template. Then I'll personally teach you the result of playing cat and mouse with me."
Shiki had never been the type to honestly gamble on probabilities or rely on complicated schemes to trap an enemy.
Back at the Ninja Academy, when the teacher asked how he would respond if an enemy used a hostage as a threat, Shiki had answered without hesitation.
Kill the enemy before they could make the threat.
The teacher had angrily asked, "What if the enemy has already taken the hostage, and you can't stop them from harming the hostage before killing them?"
At that time, Shiki had calmly replied,
"Then it means my strength was insufficient and the mission failed. I'll go back, train for a few days, and come back to kill them afterward."
By the same logic...
The moment Shiki determined that he could not catch Obito with one hundred percent certainty, he had already found his answer.
"So… as long as one of my slashes can tear through space itself, catching Obito will be simple."
Shiki nodded to himself, his tone calm and certain.
To him, this wasn't something worth worrying about.
"Shiki… was that person the one controlling the Mizukage?"
Mei Terumī walked over, her expression tense, with a hint of anger still lingering.
Although the exchange had been brief, she had already realized just how troublesome that enemy was.
Her attack hadn't even touched him.
A technique that could ignore physical attacks entirely…
Space–Time Ninjutsu was practically impossible to deal with under normal circumstances.
"Yeah, that's him." Shiki nodded. "But relax. He's the cautious type. After this, he won't dare target Kirigakure so easily."
Mei's eyebrow twitched.
"You call that cautious?"
Someone who dared to act against a Mizukage—the leader of one of the Five Great Nations—hardly sounded cautious.
Shiki glanced at her, speaking as if it were obvious.
"Of course he is."
"He didn't even dare fight me head-on. Instead, he's hiding behind tricks and forcing me to think of a way to cut through space."
Mei Terumī: "…"
For a moment, she didn't know how to respond.
From Shiki's perspective, the enemy retreating the moment he appeared really did look like a lack of courage.
But…
Mei pressed her lips together.
There were plenty of things she wanted to say, but in the end, she held them back.
Still, Shiki didn't believe Obito would continue targeting the Land of Water.
Obito was not Madara Uchiha.
Madara Uchiha had both the confidence and the ability to dominate Tailed Beasts directly.
Obito, on the other hand, fell short—whether in strength or in boldness.
On the other side—within the Kamui dimension…
"Arghh!"
"Damn it…! Damn you, Shiki!!"
Obito Uchiha roared like a madman, his face completely twisted as he clutched his shoulder.
This was a kind of pain he had never experienced before, not even when his dick was crushed during that incident.
"Zetsu… get over here…"
Obito bit down on a strip of cloth, his voice muffled as he forced the words out.
A white figure emerged from the ground beside him.
"Wow… he really did a number on you this time, Obito," White Zetsu said, tilting his head as he looked at the wound. "I told you not to underestimate him."
"And now look what happened."
Obito's eyes darkened.
"Zetsu… if you keep talking…"
"I swear I'll make sure you never speak again."
His voice was low, squeezed through clenched teeth as he bit harder into the cloth.
At this point, he wasn't the cold, cunning man he would become in the future.
Right now, he was still that same unstable kid pretending to be Madara—easily pissed off the moment someone looked down on him.
"Heh… alright, alright. Don't get so worked up."
White Zetsu raised his hands lazily, then stepped closer and said something that could be easily misunderstood.
"Your clothes are in the way... let's fix this first."
"Here I come, Obito. Open wide."
Obito's eyes flashed cold for a second.
At that moment, he made a silent decision.
The second this pain was gone… the second his arm recovered…
He was going to kill this annoying bastard.
White Zetsu, completely unaware, simply pressed his hand against Obito's severed shoulder, trying to reconnect it using his cells.
But
Nothing happened.
White Zetsu frowned slightly and tried again.
Still nothing.
No matter how he adjusted the connection, the cells refused to merge. The wound remained as it was—absolute… unrepairable.
"…Uh… Obito," White Zetsu said slowly, his tone turning a bit awkward.
"I think I've got some bad news."
Obito didn't respond.
"…Your arm isn't recovering."
White Zetsu stopped talking, then chose his words more carefully this time, trying to make it easier for Obito to accept without making him hurt more.
"Your… arm might stay like this."
"No… more like…"
"It might not recover, just like your dick."
"…"
--------------------------------------
Support me at patreon.com/Arthorain and read upto 50 Advanced Chapters and R-18 Content!
--------------------------------------
Update schedule: 7 chapters/week
Every 300 power stones = 1 Extra Chapter
By voting with [power stones], you can easily get double the number of chapters.