Obito's Sharingan burned with a crimson radiance of malevolent hatred, and his patterned pupil rattled menacingly, within his crimson eye.
Then suddenly, as though spawning an attack straight from hell. A mix of purple and black aura formed in his vision, before transforming into a full fledged calamity.
Like a tempest of encircling wind, the shadowy aura twisted eerily, rushing forward towards a startled Kagero.
The ground within the attack's path was wiped clean, swallowed if one might add.
And it was quick, both in its activation, and its movement.
Meaning right now, Kagero had no time to think up a way to evade the starving wormhole.
'What the hell?' Kagero released his pre-charged fire ball, blasting him off the ground to just slightly evade Obito's attack.
But the same couldn't be said of his clones.
Dematerializing himself for a fragment of a second, Obito slipped behind Kagero's clones.
Driven by melovalence, he activated the storm of purple and black, and reduced them into severed bits of flesh right before they dispersed.
Kagero watched in absolute horror, the carnage that played below him.
The attack was fast, and extremely deadly, leaving no room for excessive thinking.
So he had to act instinctively, or end up like both his clones.
Obito switched his gaze towards the air born Child, his eyes dripping with blood and killer intent before he unleashed his Kamui storm once more.
But Kagero had anticipated his attack, spawning a clone that forcefully shoved him out of the way, to take the full brunt of the attack.
"Aveng me!"
His clone yelled into Kagero's hearing, but his voice cracked at the very sight of his summoner running away in cowardice.
"You bastard!—" His clone managed to cry out teary eyed, before being ripped to shreds.
Kagero held onto his chest in sadness, his eyes tightly shut with sorrow. But he had no other choice.
'Sorry, I'm really sorry.' He wiped his tears, fixing his gaze to a nearby building. 'But all I can do is run.
'[Wow… You really are a heartless man.]' The System added, rubbing salt on his wounds.
Kagero's face twisted into a hateful scowl. "Can you just shut the hell up! I've got my hands full here already—"
But before he could even properly clap back at his nagging System, he felt a cold shrill run down his spine.
Taking a peek behind him, Kagero found his blue eyes reflecting a mix of purple and black.
The anomaly stood just a few seconds away from consuming him whole.
Feeling the shirt on his back already being shredded from seam to seam, Kagero knew in his gut.
There was no way to evade it this time.
'I'm… dead.'
"…"
[System notification: New Skill Unlocked.]
[Aura Burst: You can move at magnified speeds at the cost of burning through your chakra.]
[Description: Having increasingly spun chakra through one's body and objects in hand. You have unlocked this skill.]
'[Hey, I'm not such a pesky system right now— am I?]'
As though being temporarily tossed into a timeless void, Kagero watched the miraculous screen in shock, grasping every word in a fragment of a second.
'Honestly.' Kagero's body swirled with visibly blue aura, causing streams of chakra to race through his body like a tempest.
'You really are one petty System!'
BOOM!
With a wide smile stretched through his face, Kagero launched himself into the air, landing on a nearby building with a roll.
"Futile!" Obito whispered, carving off Kagero's former position, to completely obliterate the edge of the building.
He then leaped in the air, shooting his Kamui storm like a missile towards Kagero.
Pressing his legs into a forceful stomp, the wooden slates cracked beneath Kagero's feet.
Kagero then burst forward into a blur of blue aura.
The structure tore open, crashing down into rubble as Obito's attack ate through it.
But Kagero had already leaped onto another building, speeding forward into a line of blue.
This exchange continued for another couple of seconds, building after building, evasion after evasion, until Obito appeared right in front of the speed-star, cutting his retreat short.
Obito seemed as though he was about to release another one of his Kamui storms. However, he was interrupted by a stream of blood which ran down his right eye.
He was over exerting himself, and he knew it, even his chakra was already running thin all to the insignificant runt that stood before him.
It was almost like… 'He planned it all along didn't he?'
Stall and weaken Obito as much as he could.
That would buy Minato enough time to drive the Ninetails out of the village, and finish up with the masked Uchiha.
He had little to no interest in winning, because he knew it was nigh impossible. That was Kagero's plan, and it was currently playing out accordingly.
Letting out a mirthful chuckle, Obito's mask vibrated from his bizarre laughs. Snickers that told Kagero two simple statements.
That he had discovered his ploy, and—
He would kill him right here and now.
Placing his hands together, a wave of Kamui slowly emanated into reality.
It surged towards Kagero, before engulfing with a swirl of fire.
"Fire Style: Flame dance bomb!" The ethereal flames clasped itself onto the Kamui, revolving like a calamitous ring towards Kagero.
Channeling his aura towards his legs, Kagero leaped backwards, crossing his fingers to spawn three clones side by side.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" The four red haired musketeers weaved hasty handsigns, swelling up to release a burst of dragonic flames.
The four outpours of wrath crashed into Obito's infernal dance, stopping its momentum momentarily, and erupting into a violent explosion.
The collision expelled gusts of wind and smoke.
Wasting no time, Kagero and his entourage raced into the smoke clouds to engage an exerted Obito.
Evading a flying kick, Obito clenched his fist, ramming it into the clone's gut. But right as his attack was landing on one of the clones, two more came from either of his sides.
Their fists coursed through the air, descending like a shooting star at the head of Obito.
But he easily evaded this attack, lowering himself with a split to cause both clones to hammer each other with a diabolical punch.
'I just realized something.' Kagero's eyes stared in bewilderment as his three clones burst into clouds of smoke. 'I suck at taijutsu!'
Bam!
Obito spun in the air, wrapping his body with momentum, before transferring it to Kagero with a vengeful kick across his face.
He was sent flying into the air, but he parried the force of his motion, just barely enough to lock his eyes back onto Obito.
'Fire Style!' He mused inwardly, his belly swelling with each thought. 'Hiding in the ash Jutsu!'
Suddenly, a loud boom filled the air as large gusts of smoke and ash seeped through Kagero's lips, obscuring the battlefield in its darkness.
"Catch me..." A wide grin stretched through the red haired boy's lips. "If you can." Before he surreptitiously moved into the darkness, hiding himself from Obito's prying gaze.
"Do not underestimate my visual prowess." Obito's Sharingan bathed itself in a crimson glow, his eye searching desperately for Kagero.
Even though he could barely see anything within the smoke screen, his Sharingan could still make out chakra signatures, and that was all he would need to win this battle.
Or so he thought.
"Hmm?" Obito couldn't help but twist his head in mirth, watching the amateurish trick Kagero currently played.
As hiding within separate areas of the ashes stood five separate Kageros, teasing the question of who the real one was.
But that wasn't all.
Because each individual who wore his appearance shared more than just his countenance.
They all had an equal quantity of Chakra. A handy little trick Kagero had learned from watching the Chunin exams back in the day.
"Utterly futile." Obito declared, slipping a bloodied Kunai into his grasp before racing towards Kagero.
As he sped past layers upon layers of smoke, a single hypothesis rang in his mind, one which exposed the real Kagero before his scarlet peer.
Humans always had chakra coursing through their bodies, as chakra was their basis of life.
Obito could peer at the motion of his chakra, he could see its quantity, he could observe its strength.
And he could decipher his plans with just one glance.
Kagero had underestimated the Sharingan, and Obito would make him pay with his life.
Kagwro's heart sank with despair.
His formerly radiant blue eyes faded away into a dull look of gloom, as they met a vengeful gleam of red emerging from behind.
"Damn it!" Kagero cursed, his hands already flailing for his Kunai. But he was a second too late.
"Caught you, didn't I?"
Slash!
Volumes of red fluid followed Obito's strike, leaving a fatal cut across Kagero's neck. One that would guarantee no chance of survival.
He was dying, his pupils fading, his hearing failing, and his blood leaking uncontrollably.
Obito was sure of this, he was certain of the agonizing pain that currently tortured the boy's body.
Yet, there was one thing that made even the Masked Uchiha stagger back in fear.
'Why— Is he smiling?'
Obito stared in confusion at a dying Kagero, who wore a grin so devious, that he almost mistook him for a demon wrapped up in human flesh.