Natsuro stared at the smoke and dust below but didn't immediately follow up. Instead, the nine golden tails behind him turned into nine sharp blades and shot downward like swords.
Just then, Natsuro's expression suddenly shifted, and he vanished on the spot.
At the exact moment he disappeared, a terrifying explosion erupted from the top of the smoke cloud.
It was a Truth-Seeking Orb explosion, and because Six Paths Obito was worried that Natsuroi might try to teleport the orbs away again, this time the orb exploded before it could even get close to Natsuro.
The explosion's range even enveloped Obito himself!
When the explosion ended, there was no lingering smoke, because the blast had completely erased everything in its radius, including the dust.
Now, Natsuro could see Obito clearly. He was in a pitiful state, his Six Paths staff hadn't fully blocked the power of the Blaze Rasengan, and the residual Sage fire had scorched his body.
However, it was clear that most of his injuries were actually caused by his own Truth-Seeking Orb's explosion.
Obito was panting heavily as he looked at Natsuro. In that earlier clash, two of his orbs had been destroyed, he now had only six left.
Those six were now pressed against his wounds, emitting white smoke as Obito used them to heal himself.
The reason Obito had chosen to injure himself just to drive Natsuro back was simple, if he let Natsuro continue attacking like that, he might actually succeed in marking him with a Flying Thunder God seal, and that was absolutely unacceptable.
Natsuro now stood in front of one of his Flying Thunder God kunai. Looking at Obito, he could guess why Obito had done what he did.
At this stage of the fight, throwing Flying Thunder God kunai wasn't very effective anymore. No matter how durable the kunai was, it couldn't withstand a collision with a Truth-Seeking Orb. And with Obito's Rinnegan and Sharingan, it was almost impossible to sneak a mark onto him.
So, the best option was to directly place a mark on Obito's body. Despite Obito's physical transformation as the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki, he wasn't like a reanimated corpse and couldn't just erase the seal like Edo Tensei Madara had.
Moreover, Obito didn't have another opportunity for transformation. The previous time he absorbed the Ten-Tails, he had undergone a metamorphosis that allowed him to erase the mark left by the Fourth Hokage.
But Natsuro remembered clearly, Obito didn't have the power to manually remove Flying Thunder God seals, just as he couldn't create Truth-Seeking Orbs himself.
In fact, in the original story, the seal placed on him by Tobirama Senju couldn't be erased.
At that moment, Natsuro and Obito locked eyes, each seeing the wariness in the other's gaze.
But no matter how difficult the opponent, in a situation like this, neither of them had the option to retreat.
Natsuro then summoned his sword, Ink Blade, and gripped it in his hand.
In the next instant, both he and Obito charged at one another. At their level, they knew that ordinary ninjutsu had no effect on the other anymore. Real combat with real weapons was now the only way forward.
Soon, Natsuro's blade, infused with Sage Fox Mode chakra, clashed with Obito's Six Paths staff.
At the same time, the nine tails of golden light behind Natsuro clashed with Obito's six remaining Truth-Seeking Orbs, each glowing as they battled midair.
Earlier, two orbs had shattered only because all nine tails had simultaneously struck the same point. Now that the attacks were spread out, the Truth-Seeking Orbs held the advantage in power.
Unfortunately for Obito, he no longer had as many orbs as Natsuro had tails. So the battle between tails and orbs reached a strange equilibrium.
It looked as though their fight had reverted to the most primitive kind of combat, pure weapon duels.
But even the most elite samurai of the Land of Iron would be horrified watching this.
This was primitive battle?
Who had ever seen primitive combat involving simultaneous multi-vector assault control?
And at speeds beyond visual perception?
Even if someone could keep up with their speed, the sheer power on display was beyond comprehension.
Every time Natsuro's tails missed, the slicing Wind Style chakra they emitted left deep gorges on the battlefield, like miniature canyons. Despite that, in terms of raw power, a single tail strike was still weaker than a Truth-Seeking Orb.
Could such a clash be considered primitive?
It was clear, if one of Natsuro's tails connected with Obito, even with his Ten-Tails-enhanced body, he would be ripped open.
The same applied to Natsuro, if he were struck by a Truth-Seeking Orb, his body would be obliterated instantly.
"Boom! Boom!"
Their fierce collisions continued.
Suddenly, Natsuro held back two of his tails from attacking. Obito, confused, saw those tails transform into two hands and begin forming hand signs.
Though Natsuro didn't have the time to form signs himself, the tails could do it for him. For speed, they only made a single seal.
"Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu!"
"What the…?" Obito finally saw the hand-like tails, but it was too late. From Natsuro's mouth and the nine tails, a massive torrent of water gushed forth, forming a large sphere that trapped Obito and his Truth-Seeking Orbs inside.
"It's useless!" Obito growled. This jutsu could be broken with a simple jolt of chakra.
But Natsuro had never intended to trap Obito for long. He had a different plan...
He pressed his hand onto the Water Prison. Instantly, his massive chakra surged into it, reinforcing the water sphere to extreme density, so even Obito couldn't break out easily.
Obito was puzzled. He was trapped, yes, but how would Natsuro attack him now? Piercing the prison from the outside would break the jutsu. So the only option was an attack from inside.
He was well-acquainted with this jutsu, Kisame Hoshigaki had used it effectively by summoning sharks inside the prison.
But Natsurodidn't seem to have a summoning technique suited for underwater combat, especially not one strong enough to injure a Ten-Tails jinchūriki.
Was Natsuro really wasting effort for nothing?
Of course not.
As Natsuro injected a vast amount of chakra, he immediately launched his next move.
"Water Release: Rasengan!"
Suddenly, the water inside the prison began to swirl unpredictably. Under the force of the accelerating chakra, every strand of water turned into a high-pressure blade, slicing at Obito's body from all directions. At the same time, the multidirectional spinning force of the Rasengan tore at him.
This, this was Natsuro's true Water Release: Rasengan. A killing technique that fused with Water Prison to become a grinding vortex of death.
On its own, Water Release Rasengan was no match for the Blaze Rasengan. But combined with Water Prison, the victim trapped inside would learn just how terrifying it was.
Because their entire body would be shredded to pulp from within.
Even Six Paths Obito couldn't suppress a scream. Very quickly, the once-clear water sphere turned into a sphere of blood.
"Is it over?" Natsuro wondered.
But in the next instant, his expression changed drastically, and he vanished on the spot.
An instant later, a devastating explosion once again occurred where he had just stood, one that erased all traces of its surroundings.
Another Truth-Seeking Orb explosion?
At that range, does Obito have a death wish? Natsuro was stunned.
Soon, he saw Obito's figure encased in a black sphere. The blood had dyed the water sphere red, and then Obito had used a Truth-Seeking Orb to wrap himself inside and trigger an explosion from within.
However, Natsuro's danger sense was incredibly sharp, and once again, Obito's plan failed.
As the black sphere partially dispersed, Obito's current state was revealed, there was no unharmed spot left on his body. He was a mass of bloodied flesh. The fact that he could still move in such a state spoke volumes about the incredible vitality of a Ten-Tails jinchūriki.
At that moment, Obito was using his Truth-Seeking Orbs to heal his wounds, but the process was slow. The fusion of the Water Prison and Rasengan had shredded nearly every part of his body. Recovering in a short time was impossible.
In fact, if he hadn't needed to heal himself, Obito wouldn't have deactivated the black sphere at all. He would have stayed hidden inside until fully recovered. But he knew...
If he really did that, Natsuro would simply treat him like a sitting target. He might even find a way to break through, and even if he couldn't, he could certainly seal Obito on the spot.
Seeing this, Natsuro finally let out a breath of relief. That technique hadn't let him down after all. If he hadn't first teleported one of Obito's Truth-Seeking Orbs out of his control, then later destroyed two more, creating a difference in numbers.
He wouldn't have had the chance to perform hand seals. Even though his tails could transform into hands to form seals, each one of them was closely watched.
Now, at last, it was time for the finale.
A glow suddenly appeared in Natsuro's palm, and the surrounding space began to distort around it.
This was his space-time ninjutsu, his most powerful single-target move. It was so advanced that even Sage Chakra couldn't be infused into it.
"Space-Time Ninjutsu: Dimensional Blade!"
In the next moment, the distorted space in his palm transformed into a blade and sliced toward Obito. Its speed seemed slow, yet in the blink of an eye, it was already in front of him before he could react.
Obito's pupils contracted sharply. As someone who had used space-time abilities for years, he immediately recognized this as a space slash, a spatial cutting technique. Even if he activated his intangibility, it likely wouldn't help. Let alone his current body, which was immune to normal ninjutsu...
And as for the intangibility granted by his Mangekyō Sharingan, it had been downgraded to a standard ninjutsu, thanks to his Ten-Tails jinchūriki state. Unlike Kakashi's eye, which affected space itself, Obito's intangibility worked directly on his body, making it subject to his body's immunity rules.
Which meant: the body's immunity to ninjutsu also disabled his own intangibility.
Right now, Obito couldn't help but curse inwardly. Immunity to ninjutsu sounded great, but his enemies all used Sage Jutsu, what good was that immunity?
In the end, it hadn't protected him from others, it had only restricted himself.
"What's the damn point of this immunity?!"
While fuming, Obito could only bring his remaining Truth-Seeking Orbs in front of him again to block the Dimensional Blade. At the same time, he raised his Six Paths staff in front of him, hoping to stop the spatial slash.
Seeing this, Natsuro gave a faint smile and said calmly,
"Before the Dimensional Blade, all physical defenses... are meaningless."
As his words fell, the Dimensional Blade passed through the Truth-Seeking Orbs as if they didn't exist, striking the Six Paths staff next.
In the blink of an eye, Obito stared in disbelief as the staff was cleaved clean in two. He could only watch helplessly as the blade sliced through his body—and beyond that, the entire landscape behind him seemed to split apart as well.
"Why... are you this strong?" Obito finally voiced his confusion. He had come so far, how could he still lose?
"Because everything about you, even your strength, is within my grasp," Natsuro replied with a smile, no longer hiding anything. How could he ever allow a truly uncontrollable enemy to rise? The reason Obito had progressed this far so smoothly was simply because Natsuro had always believed more in his own strength.
Obito's eyes widened as he recalled the bead he'd seen during Natsuro's battle with Nagato, the one filled with Nine-Tails chakra. He had questioned it then. Now he understood...
That man had done it on purpose.
"You... what are you really after?" In the final moments of his life, Obito was seized by a deep, primal fear. For so long, he had believed he was the mastermind behind everything.
But now... it looked like he was just a pawn.
And the real mastermind had always stood openly in the light, trusted by all...
The Sixth Hokage, Natsuro Shindōkawa.
But Obito would never get his answer. The Truth-Seeking Orbs around him disintegrated into nothingness. His body was sliced cleanly from his right shoulder, and he was split into two halves. One still had the head; the other did not.
With a heavy thud, Obito's broken body crashed to the ground....
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Currently on Chapter 422 - Third Form: Rain of Severance