“BOOM——!!!”
“RUMBLE——!!!”
Heavy impacts echoed wildly inside the crimson barrier.
The gigantic wooden construct, over ten meters tall, swung its massive millstone-like fists again and again against the inner walls of the Four Red Yang Formation.
Every strike caused the enormous red cube to tremble violently.
Blinding flashes erupted where the fists landed, while rippling shockwaves spread across the barrier walls layer after layer.
And yet—
No matter how violently the wooden giant attacked, the seemingly thin crimson barrier remained completely unmoved.
Inside the barrier, Obito Uchiha’s expression beneath the mask had become so dark it looked ready to drip water.
It wasn’t just that he couldn’t break through the Four Red Yang Formation.
The real problem was—
Just like Fugaku’s earlier technique, this barrier interfered with spatial coordinates.
Of course, the methods were completely different.
Fugaku’s ability distorted space like a collapsing slope, making it impossible for Obito to gain footing.
But this barrier?
It was simply absolute.
Pure brute-force lockdown.
The barrier completely isolated the inside from the outside, turning the space into a sealed independent domain.
There was only one way through it—
Overpower it with even greater force.
And obviously—
The current Obito didn’t possess that kind of strength.
In the unknown “future” beyond his awareness, only his former teacher, Minato Namikaze, would ever achieve such a feat by borrowing the full power of the Nine-Tails.
“DAMN IT!!!”
Outside the barrier, a Konoha sealing specialist shouted loudly:
“Lord Homura!
The barrier is stable!
Violent chakra reactions detected inside, but no leakage!”
“Good.”
Homura Mitokado adjusted his glasses calmly.
“Activate the chakra-draining runes.”
“Begin extracting the chakra inside.”
“And shrink the barrier.”
“Compress it gradually.”
“Yes, sir!”
As the order was issued, the flowing runes on the barrier walls suddenly changed.
Part of the formation darkened ominously, almost as if it had come alive.
Then it began greedily absorbing all chakra within the barrier.
At the same time—
The enormous crimson cube started visibly shrinking inward.
“Creak… creak…”
The sound of crushing pressure echoed from inside the barrier.
The wooden giant suffered first.
Its massive arms slammed against the narrowing walls, but instead of producing ripples now, they emitted heavy crashes and the horrifying sounds of wood being forcibly crushed and twisted apart.
The giant’s body began deforming.
Its once-clear shape blurred.
The enormous wooden structure groaned under the irresistible compression of space itself.
It struggled desperately—
Punching.
Kicking.
Even smashing its head against the barrier.
But every act of resistance only accelerated both its collapse and the barrier’s contraction.
Outside the formation, Homura watched the shrinking red cube with growing satisfaction.
Inside, the giant wooden figure was becoming more and more twisted and indistinct.
The mastermind behind the Nine-Tails disaster.
The blade that had hung over Konoha’s head for years.
Today—
He, Homura Mitokado, would personally remove it.
This achievement alone would stabilize Hiruzen Sarutobi’s position even further.
And it would strengthen Homura’s own influence within Konoha’s leadership.
Maybe Hiruzen wouldn’t even need to resign anymore.
Surely…
He’d appreciate this “gift.”
Far from the battlefield, hidden within deep shadows, a cold female voice suddenly spoke.
“So… Uchiha Madara really was a fake.”
The speaker was Konan—
The Angel of Amegakure.
She wore the black cloak embroidered with red clouds.
Beneath her purple eye shadow, her gaze remained calm and emotionless.
Beside her sat a withered figure barely resembling a human being.
His body was embedded within a grotesque mechanical apparatus resembling a multi-legged metallic crab.
Only his pale face and those terrifying eyes remained visible.
The Rinnegan.
“So…”
Konan turned slightly toward him.
“Do we save him?”
No matter how many times she looked at him, seeing his shriveled body always made her sigh quietly.
“We do.”
Nagato spoke calmly.
His voice was powerful and steady, completely mismatched with his frail appearance.
“I don’t know his true identity.”
“And I know he isn’t truly loyal to me.”
“But that doesn’t matter.”
“I only need his abilities to help collect the tailed beasts.”
“In the face of absolute power…”
“I’m not worried about him trying anything.”
He paused.
The Rinnegan rotated slowly, as if piercing through space itself to observe the struggling Obito and collapsing wooden giant inside the barrier.
“And besides…”
“This battle allowed me to see his limits.”
Then Nagato slowly closed his terrifying eyes.
The next instant—
Pain opened his eyes.
Expressionless, the Deva Path looked toward the shadowy figure slowly emerging from the ground nearby.
It was Black Zetsu.
“Go inform the impostor.”
“He should hide inside his dimensional space for now.”
“Otherwise…”
“The upcoming cleanup may affect him as well.”
Pain’s voice was utterly cold.
Black Zetsu’s yellow eyes flickered slightly.
He nodded silently.
Then his body melted into the ground and disappeared.
As a manifestation of Kaguya’s will, Black Zetsu possessed countless strange abilities.
Ignoring most sealing techniques was merely one of them.
Without making a sound, he slipped through the foundation of the Four Red Yang Formation and entered the barrier.
Inside, the space had already shrunk to less than half its original size.
The wooden giant had nearly been compressed into a grotesque cube of shattered wood, still producing faint cracking sounds.
Obito stood in the remaining open space, his Sharingan fixed on the approaching crimson walls.
“Pain is here.”
Black Zetsu’s voice echoed from within the wooden construct.
“He told you to hide in your dimensional space for now.”
“And from now on…”
“You’ll use the name ‘Tobi.'”
“To the outside world, you’re merely someone who inherited Uchiha Madara’s will.”
“You can’t use the name ‘Madara Uchiha’ anymore.”
“Pain?”
Obito suddenly turned toward Black Zetsu.
“This is your backup plan?”
“Why did you bring him here?!”
“Don’t look at me.”
Even Black Zetsu sounded helpless.
“A Mangekyō ability on the level of ‘Kotoamatsukami’…”
“There’s no way I would voluntarily summon him here.”
“He came on his own.”
“After his parents died, he secretly moved their remains back to the Land of Whirlpools.”
“He comes here every year to pay respects.”
“He just happened to encounter this situation.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“It’s not like I could lie to him.”
Black Zetsu paused before continuing:
“Earlier, when you asked what would happen if you failed…”
“I didn’t dare answer.”
“Because he wouldn’t allow me to.”
“The meaning was obvious.”
“He wanted to see your true capabilities.”
“Hmph…”
Obito snorted coldly but said nothing else.
Inferiority was inferiority.
Any excuses now would only sound pathetic.
“Still…”
“This worked out in a strange way.”
“If he hadn’t arrived today, you really would’ve been in danger.”
“Even I couldn’t have taken you out of this barrier.”
“…I understand.”
Obito took a deep breath.
For the sake of his ultimate goal, he could endure anything.
Then he grabbed Black Zetsu.
The pattern in his Sharingan spun rapidly.
Space distorted violently around them.
And the two vanished instantly into Kamui’s dimension.
Outside the barrier, the Four Red Yang Formation had already shrunk to barely one-quarter of its original size.
The gigantic wooden giant inside had disappeared entirely.
All that remained was a dense floating mass of compressed wooden debris suspended at the center of the barrier.
Even the sounds of struggle had nearly vanished.
Victory seemed close at hand.
And just as Homura prepared to order the final sealing phase—
A calm voice suddenly descended.
It wasn’t loud.
Yet every single person heard it as clearly as if it had spoken directly inside their minds.
Detached.
Indifferent.
Like a god looking down upon mortals.
“Shinra Tensei…”
Everyone looked up at the sound.
Above the barrier, suspended silently in midair at some unknown moment, floated a lone figure.
He wore a black cloak embroidered with red clouds.
The raised collar concealed the lower half of his face, revealing only a pair of utterly cold purple eyes.
His short orange hair drifted slightly within an invisible force field.
“BUZZZZ——!!!”
An indescribable repulsive force erupted outward from Pain.
It wasn’t wind.
Nor was it a shockwave.
It was space itself being violently forced apart.
The surrounding air compressed instantly into visible white pressure waves that expanded outward in a massive sphere.
The first thing struck—
Was the Four Red Yang Formation.
“CRACK!!!”
A sharp, terrifying sound echoed across the battlefield.
Under countless disbelieving gazes, the crimson barrier—which had withstood the wooden giant’s relentless assault without budging even once—suddenly filled with countless spiderweb-like fractures.
It looked like tempered glass struck by a colossal hammer.
Then—
One second later—
The entire barrier shattered completely.
Crimson fragments mixed with violent torrents of chakra exploded outward in every direction.
The dense mass of compressed wood trapped within was instantly pulverized into dust beneath the overwhelming repulsive force.
But the devastation didn’t stop there.
The invisible tidal wave of force crashed directly into the Konoha shinobi maintaining the formation.
“PUAH!”
“UGH!”
Screams erupted everywhere.
Hundreds of highly trained sealing specialists were blown away like leaves caught in a hurricane.
Bodies flew helplessly through the air before crashing into ruined structures and mud pits in the distance.
Many coughed blood and lost consciousness on the spot.
The formation collapsed instantly.
Where the barrier once stood—
Only an enormous circular crater remained.
At the edge of the crater, space suddenly distorted.
Obito Uchiha and Black Zetsu reappeared.
Obito glanced at the floating Deva Path, his gaze beneath the mask complicated and unreadable.
Then he took a deep breath and spoke in a completely different tone from before.
“Tobi thanks the Leader for saving my life.”
“Earlier… I only spoke that way because I didn’t want others looking down on me.”
Faced with this clear display of submission, Pain merely gave a slight nod.
This unexpected trip to the Land of Whirlpools to visit his parents’ graves had turned out surprisingly worthwhile.
Not only had he completely uncovered the true nature of this fake “Uchiha Madara”—
He had also successfully subdued him.
A “Madara” with clear limitations…
A “Madara” who required rescue…
Was far easier to trust and control.
“Leave first.”
“You’re not leaving?”
Pain ignored the question entirely.
Instead, he slowly turned his head.
His gaze passed over the fallen Konoha shinobi.
Passed over the tense and uncertain Hidden Mist forces.
And finally—
Locked firmly onto the black-haired man calmly watching the battle from afar while flanked by two beautiful women.
Fugaku.
Pain slowly raised his hand and pointed directly toward him.
“He…”
“…is dangerous.”
Pain’s voice remained calm.
Yet every word carried the weight of a divine judgment.
“So…”
“I have decided to grant him death.”
In the distant shadows, Konan frowned slightly as she watched the projection formed from her paper techniques.
“You’re going to kill him?”
She turned toward the frail figure embedded within the strange mechanical device.
“Isn’t it too early for you to reveal yourself personally?”
“The Akatsuki organization hasn’t even been fully established yet.”
Inside the machine, Nagato slowly shook his head.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“As long as nobody has concrete evidence that we’re collecting tailed beasts…”
“Even if we reveal ourselves, the Five Great Nations won’t truly move against us.”
“As long as the tailed beasts remain untouched, they’ll never unite.”
“Instead, they’ll continue suspecting and restricting one another.”
“In fact… many of them even prefer that people like us exist.”
“These past few years, the organization’s largest source of funding has actually been Iwagakure.”
“That old man Onoki probably understands Akatsuki better than anyone among the Five Kage.”
“But do you see him trying to eliminate us?”
He paused briefly.
“And besides…”
“Master Jiraiya taught us many things.”
“Even if I ultimately rejected his vision of peace…”
“I cannot deny that his teachings taught us how to think.”
Nagato’s expression darkened slightly.
“That man is dangerous.”
“Not because of the power he currently displays…”
“But because of his ideas.”
Konan fell silent.
Through special means, they too had watched the “film” played earlier within the Hidden Mist camp.
They had heard Fugaku’s words about unity, systems, and human nature.
Even as enemies—
She had to admit it.
There was nothing wrong with what he said.
As for the so-called Kotoamatsukami eye—
Neither of them actually cared much about it.
Changing the world might require extraordinary individuals.
But controlling people?
That held no real meaning.
And after watching that strange free “movie,” Konan found herself wondering—
If someone like Fugaku had existed years ago in the Land of Rain…
Would its people still have suffered such misery?
“First of all…”
Nagato continued calmly,
“He could create a truly powerful Hidden Mist.”
“That alone conflicts with our future plans.”
“Of course, that isn’t the main reason.”
“After all, that’s only a possibility, not a predetermined future.”
“The real issue…”
“…is his Mangekyō Sharingan.”
Konan narrowed her eyes slightly.
“It’s that special?”
“It is.”
Nagato nodded slowly.
“The Rinnegan exists on a higher level than the Sharingan.”
“So there are things I can perceive.”
“The simplest example—”
“Every time he uses his ocular abilities, the power within his eyes rapidly recovers.”
“Not only the dōjutsu power itself…”
“But even the damaged optic nerves regenerate.”
“In other words…”
“He truly is what Black Zetsu described.”
“A natural Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.”
Konan looked visibly surprised.
After all, throughout recorded history—
Only Madara Uchiha had ever truly possessed the Eternal Mangekyō.
“And that…”
Nagato said quietly,
“…is why I consider him dangerous.”
“If he successfully unifies Hidden Mist…”
“And possesses eyes like those…”
“Then stealing the two tailed beasts under Hidden Mist’s control…”
“…will no longer be as easy as we originally planned.”
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