[Kirigakure]
The massive body of the Three-Tails was split from the middle like matcha pudding.
The Kirigakure ninjas and spies from other villages hiding nearby all quickly moved to dodge, their eyes already filled with shock and terror.
Dead.
Land of Water, Fourth Mizukage, Perfect Jinchūriki, Creator of the Bloody Mist Era…
Yagura Karatachi, is dead.
It wasn't a sneak attack, nor a sudden ambush. As for a siege... it was Yagura, Pain, and the Masked Man, three people besieging Ryosuke alone.
And not only did they fail, they were the ones who were cut in two by a single slash, killed outright. Isn't this really… really just… no different from a soft-shelled turtle chopped dead in the kitchen with a single stroke?!
And thinking again of that Tailed Beast Ball, Fire Style, and ninjutsu missiles that vanished into thin air just before...
All the spectators quietly swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Even though the mist of Kirigakure had been blown away by Ryosuke's single slash, why did they feel like... they could see less clearly? And understand even less?
BOOM!
The chakra forming Isobu's body gradually dispersed. Dust still filled the air, but not a single wisp drifted near Ryosuke. The "energy," formed by the fusion of natural energy and Ripple, connected Ryosuke with the world.
In this moment, Ryosuke could sense the breathing of the world.
Energy, like a phonograph that records all things, Ryosuke listened to its tone, and heard deep in the land an endless stream of blood and wails seeping out.
They were souls who had died unjustly.
The souls were not in hell.
They were attached to banknotes, lying on tatami mats, slumped over desks in ninja schools, and in the moment Ryosuke sensed them, one by one, the souls turned their gazes toward him.
Then, they bowed down.
They begged Ryosuke to end all of this.
Ryosuke slowly opened his eyes.
He didn't know whether what he had just sensed was an illusion, but he understood why these souls hadn't gone to hell.
'Because this place, is hell.'
Ryosuke let go of the overloaded Ruin Greatsword in his hand, raised his hand to point at Pain and Obito, his eyes filled with blazing determination,
"Next, it's your turn."
Obito looked at the anger in Ryosuke's eyes.
This was one human showing soul-deep contempt for another.
In Ryosuke's eyes, Obito was no longer worthy of being called human.
Perhaps this gaze was too scorching, Obito's cold heart rarely showed a hint of rage. He usually didn't like to exchange words with his opponent during battle, but today, he couldn't help speaking,
"You think, you're a righteous hero?"
"You have no idea what kind of evil Kirigakure has done."
"What they suffered was nothing but what they brought upon themselves."
"Rin... died because of Kirigakure!"
After Obito finished speaking, he thought Ryosuke would argue with him. But he noticed, in Ryosuke's fury, there was now a trace of...
Contempt.
Ryosuke had always had a lingering doubt in his heart, that some policies of the Bloody Mist Era contradicted the goal of collecting wealth and controlling Kirigakure.
He once thought that behind it all was a deeper intention he hadn't figured out, some hidden agenda.
But now, it seemed...
"If it was a pure schemer who created all this tragedy for some ideal, I would be angry, but such pure, pitch-black will, I could at least understand. But you, "
Ryosuke stared coldly at Obito.
"You are nothing more than a vulgar villain."
Under Ryosuke's gaze, Obito felt as though someone had split open his chest, taken out his heart, and let the cold wind blow over it, his heart ached and trembled from the chill. And following that came a surge of anger.
If Obito were to describe that feeling, Ryosuke would tell him, it was called, humiliation turning into rage.
"What do you understand..."
Before Obito could finish, a streak of golden lightning flashed.
"As an adult, don't say childish things like asking others to understand you. I won't understand you."
Ryosuke appeared beside Obito and softly said, "I'll only kill you."
Ryosuke kicked at him, and unsurprisingly passed right through Obito's body.
"Star Platinum!"
Under extreme mental focus, the world froze for an instant. Star Platinum threw a punch at Pain.
This punch, was truly too fast.
Perhaps due to Ryosuke's extreme anger, this punch was several times faster than before.
The fist struck Pain's cheek. Anyone else, with a jaw twisted and sunken, stimulated by the vagus and trigeminal nerves, would be unable to react.
But Pain was a puppet controlled remotely.
In the final instant before his head was smashed in, he activated Shinra Tensei.
Ryosuke and Star Platinum were blasted away again.
However, those who gather intel on the battlefield weren't just Obito and Pain, Ryosuke was also adapting to the rhythm of battle in his own way.
He had already predicted Pain's move and immediately summoned Aerosmith, firing at Pain, whose ability had entered a five-second cooldown, forcing him to retreat repeatedly.
"Careful!"
Obito shouted loudly and quickly formed hand seals.
"Fire Style, Explosive Flame Dance!"
Circles of flames surrounded and wrapped around Ryosuke, who had been blasted into midair.
Pain felt a chill behind him. Through shared vision from Asura Path, he saw White Snake silently appear behind him. Only then did he realize, at some unknown point, Ryosuke had canceled his summoning of Star Platinum.
"Hehe."
White Snake let out a sinister laugh and raised its hand to touch Pain's forehead.
Click!
Two gray-white, fragile discs popped out.
White Snake was just about to reach for them when a rocket roared, Asura Path's back blasted flames and dove in like a missile, hugging Tendo Pain.
White Snake was forced back by the flames on Asura Path's body and failed to snatch the discs. Raising its chin slightly, it sneered and said, "Showing off, huh? Who doesn't have a brother who goes ratatatatata?"
Snap!
White Snake snapped its fingers.
"Waste him!"
Aerosmith locked onto Asura Path's flight path. Missiles hanging below launched and boomed, blasting the escaping Asura Path and Tendo Pain.
Flames soared, mushroom cloud slowly rising.
The shockwave mixed with gravel clattered against Obito's mask.
His eyelid twitched, he didn't have the energy to worry about Pain's situation.
Because Ryosuke, like a monster, had torn through the Explosive Flame Dance's fire, fists clenched, and was charging at him.
BOOM!
Ryosuke punched through Obito and struck the ground.
The next second, Star Platinum appeared and launched thousands of punches.
No matter how Obito dodged, Star Platinum, like a true evil spirit, kept him locked in its attack range.
With absolute, crushing speed, strength, precision, and reflexes, Obito's only option was to maintain his intangible state.
But intangibility had a time limit.
If Obito hid in the ground, Star Platinum would punch the earth open.
If he hid in a tree, Star Platinum would chop the tree in half with a palm.
The Kamui that Obito possessed had two forms.
The first, partial intangibility. The enemy could see him but couldn't touch or attack him, good for combat.
The second, entering Kamui's dimension, enabling effects similar to teleportation, good for escape and travel.
But both forms had limitations.
Partial intangibility had a time limit of five minutes.
Entering Kamui space required first becoming tangible, then, after briefly warping space, he could enter.
That time was very short, only tenths of a second, but...
Obito watched Star Platinum's fist up close.
Even a fraction of a second wasn't needed.
The moment he re-materialized, was the moment he'd become a corpse.
As time passed, sweat covered Obito's forehead beneath the mask. He shouted, "How much longer do you need?!"
Pain's cold voice rang out from below.
"Now."
Two hands reached out from underground, tossing toward Ryosuke a small sphere, black at the core, with a ring of white light around it.
The sphere moved extremely fast and had no physical form, it passed through Star Platinum's fist and attached to Ryosuke's chest.
Pain leapt out of the ground, hands joined together.
"Chibaku Tensei (Planetary Devastation)."
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