Naruto's final technique was the pinnacle of offense and defense combined. Anyone who tried to approach him would have disintegrated long before they could lay a hand on his body.
Its devastating range made it even more lethal: life span meant nothing when the jutsu stripped every last sliver of vitality from a person's cells and reduced them to dust.
With Sage Mode driven into a berserk overdrive, Naruto ignored the agony of his overloaded body and continued to pour chakra into the attack. The torrent was so relentless that even Tobi's ability to shrink objects became useless—the assault simply kept coming.
But...
World-Cutting Slash was unfair.
A technique that does not cleave the target.
It cleaves the very world in which the target exists.
Obito Uchiha's perfected version had long since surpassed the prototype, carving through space, time, souls, and existence itself. Tobi had received only a fragment of that power.
Yet sometimes
A fragment is all that's required.
No matter how absolute Naruto's defense, in the end it did not matter.
He never even had the chance to say goodbye to his partner Kurama. He died trying—pouring out everything he had—in the hope of taking at least one of the enemies who had taken everything from him.
Tobi stood over Naruto's bisected corpse, eyes calm and solemn. It was one of the rare moments in which he showed genuine respect for an opponent.
"That final strike was magnificent… Well fought, Naruto. I will remember you for as long as I live."
Clap. Clap. Clap.
"Someone tried his hardest to beat the fraud allegations and still lost," came the lazy, mocking voice of White Zetsu as he strolled up, hands stuffed in his hoodie's pockets.
"You're just jealous," Tobi replied.
"You're delusional, Gay-kun!" White Zetsu shot back.
Obito watched the two idiots bicker and let his thoughts drift. He found himself marveling at how much he had changed.
If this had been the Obito from before, he would never have let Naruto go so easily.
Yes, in his own eyes, he was still being merciful. But if it had been the old him… Naruto's fate would have been far worse.
By now, he would have been holding the married Hinata and her daughter in his arms while Naruto drew his dying breath.
But he hadn't done that.
It wasn't because his heart had become any less cruel.
It was more that there was no longer any empty place inside him that needed to be filled by someone else.
He already felt complete.
At least, he couldn't imagine a future where anyone else entered his heart again. Of course, the future was never certain.
Perhaps there would come a time when his heart beat for another.
But at least in this world…
That felt impossible.
Pushing away these uninvited musings, Obito steeled himself. The decision he was about to make would be one of the harshest of his life.
From an ordinary man in a peaceful world to a being ready to devour an entire planet of billions... a monster, perhaps.
"Your job here is done," Obito said, landing amidst the ruined village. "Proceed with the rest of the plan and eliminate the remaining nuisances. Keep the important ones alive—I still have use for them."
Tobi and White Zetsu, finally finished with their banter, nodded in unison. With a casual wave, they tore open a swirling space-time portal.
"Leave it to us and good luck, Captain!"
Swoosh.
Once silence settled, Obito closed his eyes.
Black roots... dark, tentacle-like tendrils burst from his body, forming an ominous tangle that writhed freely behind him.
Anyone still alive to witness the spectacle would have been frozen in horror, those versed in forbidden lore might have mistaken him for an eldritch deity from Cthulhu myth.
This was the fusion of his Divine Tree and Black Coffin made manifest.
"From this point onward… all roads lead to the same ending."
At his words, the roots surged outward.
Countless strands burrowed straight toward the planet's core, while others shot across the land.
Before the great shinobi villages could even respond, their streets and towers were penetrated or swallowed whole.
The entire ninja world descended into a living nightmare.
Every major leader of the Five Great Villages was struck first, silenced before a single warning could be sent. The assault came so swiftly that even the sharpest sensor‐ninja failed to shout a single alarm.
In Kumogakure, an elderly woman slid open the window of her modest home after hearing screams in the streets below.
She expected an enemy raid—perhaps another war.
Instead, she saw the horizon drowned in writhing black roots, stretching across the land like veins crawling beneath the skin of the world.
This was no battle.
It was the end.
Her hands trembled.
A little boy clutched her sleeve.
"Grandma… what's happening?"
The old woman parted her lips, but no sound escaped.
A moment later, both child and grandmother were swallowed by the dark roots—gone before they could utter a single prayer.
In the Land of Fire, a weary father carried his sleeping daughter in his arms.
He had promised to take her to the village festival the following week, and she had spent the entire day chattering about fireworks and sweets—so eagerly that his head still throbbed from her excitement.
Just as they reached their doorstep, the earth shuddered. A heartbeat later, the ground split apart with a deafening roar.
All color drained from the man's face.
The little girl stirred, rubbing her eyes.
"Dad…?"
Her father gently pressed a hand over her gaze, his breath coming slow and shaky.
"I'm here. Don't worry—"
...
In Sunagakure, a young shinobi tugged desperately at his mother's arm.
"Run, Mom—please, run!"
But she had already fallen... a coil of black roots had snared her leg. Sweat beaded on her pallid face, yet she managed to give him the same gentle smile she'd shown him since he was a child.
"Don't look back," she whispered.
Before he could reach her, the roots swallowed her whole.
The young shinobi had no time to grieve.
Moments later, the darkness claimed him as well.
Across the world, people prayed, ran, and wept, yet none of it could silence the despair settling into their hearts—the crushing realization that, for the first time, tomorrow no longer felt like a promise, but something that had already been taken away.
Slowly—inevitably—the chorus of cries began to fade into a hollow, trembling silence.
Obito knew he couldn't consume the entire planet in a single breath, so he first carved out a throne amid the devastation and sat, black markings pulsing across his skin like lava-filled fissures.
His determination to devour this world came from its singular worth.
Through Isshiki's memories, he had discovered something. Before Shibai Ōtsutsuki transcended to a higher dimension, remnants of Shibai's body had been left on this very planet. If true, those remains still held the "data" of Shibai's god-like abilities.
That possibility had driven Isshiki's obsession.
He had even vowed to Amado that, after harvesting this planet's Chakra Fruit, he would be able to grant any wish imaginable.
Isshiki believed the fruit alone could turn him into a wish-granting machine.
Obito was different—he needed no fruit at all. By devouring the world itself, he intended to seize a power that surpassed even Isshiki's wildest ambitions.
After what felt like an eternity, Obito realized the devouring process would take far longer than he'd calculated, and boredom began to gnaw at him.
Just then, another request pulsed along his link to Tobi. He was in no mood for distractions, yet he granted it anyway... torrents of data already thundered through his mind—enough to make an ordinary human's head burst.
Then his calm expression hardened.
That link also told him whether Tobi was in danger, and the feedback he felt now was unmistakable...
Tobi had been killed.
Swoosh.
A spatial portal split the air before him.
Thud.
Two mutilated bodies hit the floor—arms and legs severed, eyes destroyed, every sense brutally sealed. They couldn't even speak.
They were none other than
Isshiki Ōtsutsuki and the scientist Amado.
White Zetsu—the one who had captured and mutilated the pair—stepped forward.
"Captain, just as you ordered, I brought these two… but the rest didn't unfold as expected."
Obito's crescent-shaped eyes slid toward him.
The air thickened with pressure, even White Zetsu felt the chill of his bad mood.
"You're not the type to waste words," Obito said quietly. "Explain. What went wrong?"
Obito did not bother asking about Tobi's death, the loss was already meaningless.
White Zetsu nudged Isshiki's broken body with a foot, dark smoke hissing from wounds that struggled to knit shut. Then, in his usual unhurried tone, he recounted everything that had happened after he and Tobi left.
"Your orders were simple—take a few key targets alive," he began. "But it seems our arrival was anticipated."
Tobi's clash with Naruto had clearly telegraphed their presence... the enemy had time to prepare.
Waiting for them was a full Kara vanguard: Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, Delta, Code, and several other inner members.
Even so, superior power carried the day.
Delta fell, and Code—without his limiters, fighting at a level rivaling Jigen's second Kāma stage—was slain soon after. Isshiki was left maimed.
"But that," White Zetsu added, "is when things truly turned sour."
Three more arrived: Daemon, Kashin Koji and Eida. Their sudden appearance reversed the momentum, and in the chaos that followed, Tobi was killed.
After the skirmish, White Zetsu couldn't say exactly what Eida had done with her half-formed Omnipotence, but the outcome was unmistakable:
Daemon had overpowered Tobi, and every strike hurled at the boy came bounced straight back.
Irritated that some brat had shown him up, Tobi retaliated with World-Cutting Slash—only for Daemon's Absolute Attack Reflection to turn the blade's power on its wielder.
Obito understood that cursed ability all too well: any malicious intent—ninjutsu, taijutsu, even shinjutsu—was instantly returned to the attacker.
Yet something bothered him. Even the reduced World-Cutting Slash he'd granted Tobi should have been far beyond Daemon's ability to reflect unaided.
So that flighty woman, Eida, was the real key…
Obito sighed, rubbing his temples. The black lines etched across his skin glowed like molten cracks, and the root-like tendrils coiling behind him lent him a truly demonic air.
"So," he growled, crescent eyes narrowing, "Tobi managed to get himself killed… indirectly."
"Pretty much," White Zetsu admitted. "After getting jumped, I managed to slaughter that mysterious guy, Kashin Koji. He was pretty strong, honestly. But who would've thought that idiot would start getting bodied like that? So I jumped in too and helped him out."
"Daemon can't use space–time techniques, so we could've escaped at any time. But Tobi couldn't swallow his pride."
"What really bothered me," he went on, "was that brat's ability. It worked even better than you'd warned. He didn't need to touch anyone—whatever we did, intentional or not, bounced right back. It felt… autonomous, triggering on whatever he perceived as danger."
Obito showed no surprise. That was entirely plausible. In the Boruto era, Daemon had likely concealed the full extent of his power or perhaps Eida had tweaked it with her half-formed Omnipotence.
"Don't worry—I understand," Obito said, voice calm. "First, we'll bring that fool back. But this time he'll reflect on his mistakes. From now on, none of us can afford such slips."
White Zetsu nodded, unsurprised by Obito's composure. Tobi's soul and body data were in Obito's control, as long as he lived, both Zetsu and Tobi could be restored.
Even so, Obito wasn't naïve enough to think no one in the cosmos could bypass that safeguard.
Tobi materialized out of thin air, landed lightly, and began hopping in place as if nothing had happened.
"Captain, I'm back!" he declared, grinning from ear to ear.
The first thing he did was point angrily into the distance.
"That little gremlin cheated!"
White Zetsu immediately covered his face.
"You are done for."
Tobi waved his hands furiously.
"Run it back! Run it back right now! I wasn't ready, Datebayo!"
Obito regarded him with lifeless, half-lidded eyes and waved a hand dismissively.
"You're not running from this. Reflect."
Tobi froze. Something was definitely wrong.
"...Captain?"
"No."
Certain now, he glanced at White Zetsu—only to receive a smug grin that all but shouted, Have fun, bozo. Tobi flailed for an excuse.
"Captain, wait—I've already learned my lesson!"
"No, you haven't."
A swirling darkness opened beneath his feet.
"CAPTAIN!"
"Think about what you've done."
Tobi plummeted into the void with a yelp, the portal snapping shut behind him.
His desperate screams echoed for several seconds.
"I DON'T WANNA GO BACK THERE—!"
Swoosh.
White Zetsu shuddered slightly.
Even he felt a little bad for him.
The place Obito had sent Tobi was, without question, the worst punishment imaginable for someone like him who always wanted to have fun.
Obito didn't spare it another thought.
For now, he had weightier matters to address than babysitting a fool who'd managed to get himself killed.
Without a moment's hesitation, obsidian tentacles speared through both Amado Sanzu and Isshiki Ōtsutsuki, absorbing them so swiftly they offered no resistance.
Ssshk
"So that was your plan all along…" Obito murmured, a trace of admiration threading his voice. "I must commend you, Amado—your brain really was exquisite."
For a fleeting instant he almost regretted giving the schemer such a quick death, a mind that devious deserved a slower, more instructive punishment.
White Zetsu had no idea what Obito had just discovered, but the promise of someone else's misfortune made his grin widen.
Obito raised his head, voice calm yet cutting. "And you… Did you enjoy spying on me? If so, will you crawl here on your own, or shall I drag you out myself?"
He stared toward no particular point, knowing full well that she could hear every word.
...
Far away.
Inside a hidden Kara facility.
The room was completely silent.
Eida sat cross-legged on a couch, her blue eyes staring through worlds as she watched everything unfold through Senrigan.
The death of Naruto Uzumaki.
The black roots devouring the planet.
The resurrection of Tobi.
The casual absorption of Isshiki and Amado.
She had seen all of it.
Then Obito suddenly lifted his head.
"And you..."
"Did you have fun spying on me?"
"If so, would you crawl here yourselves or should I make you?"
The moment those words reached her ears, Eida froze.
"…Eh?"
She blinked—those eyes so uncannily like Obito's fluttering in a way that was downright adorable.
For an instant she even pointed to herself, as if to confirm he truly meant her.
"Me…?"
A faint blush dusted her cheeks.
'He actually noticed?'
Daemon, who was stuffing his face with snacks nearby, looked up.
"So what happened, Nee-chan? Did he really notice you? What now?"
"Be quiet, Daemon."
Eida lifted her sleeve to shield half her face, cheeks flushing an even deeper pink.
"He'll think I'm weird for spying on him…"
For the first time in a very long while, the all-seeing girl looked unexpectedly nervous.
A tiny part of her was curious about what would happen if she actually went.
Yet her girlish fantasies evaporated in an instant as a ripple of space coiled around her and Daemon, whisking them effortlessly into Obito's presence before either could put up the slightest resistance.
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