Thunk.
Hanabi landed in her room—
still in the posture she'd held inside the Water Prison—half-stumbling, half-falling.
"Huh…?"
"Where is this…?"
She stared at the familiar surroundings, slapped her cheeks to make sure she wasn't hallucinating from near-suffocation, then let out a long breath.
Her clothes were shredded.
A few small wounds on her body still hadn't fully closed.
She shook her head helplessly.
"I got thrown into the past for no reason… and then got tossed back without explanation…"
"If I told anyone about this, they'd just think I had a weird dream… one that felt too real."
But dream or not—
her actions had been reckless.
She'd thought knowing the history meant she could change the future.
She'd thought becoming a jōnin—and the heir of the main family—meant she had the power to rewrite tragedies.
Only when she faced an enemy who had lived inside that era—
did she finally understand just how vast the wall was between her…
and true monsters.
"I'm twenty-seven…"
"And I still got suppressed so hard by a guy who looked fifteen or sixteen that I couldn't even breathe properly. I couldn't see a single path to victory…"
With that kind of monster in the way…
no wonder even the Sixth couldn't save Nohara Rin back then.
Hanabi opened her wardrobe, selecting fresh clothes, her thoughts spiraling.
"But that Kaguya Ren… he doesn't feel like the other Kaguya."
Strong, yes—but also calm, restrained.
He didn't carry the typical blood-mad frenzy of Kaguya descendants.
If he didn't die to Obito…
Could he avoid the future where the Kaguya were exterminated by Kirigakure?
If he survived, could he even free the Mist earlier—before Obito's Blood Mist era fully descended?
"…Did he take my advice seriously?"
"Could he live through that night soaked in blood?"
Then her eyes widened.
"No—wait, wait wait wait!"
"Before I worry about him, shouldn't I confirm whether anything changed because of me?!"
"Uwaaah—at the time I thought I'd be stuck in the past forever, I didn't even consider the ripple effects!!!"
Realizing she might have caused a catastrophic deviation, Hanabi dressed at triple speed—
then exploded out of the Hyūga compound with absolutely zero dignity.
Hyūga Hiashi stared after her in shock.
Hanabi sprinted straight for Konoha's library—
where the historical archives were kept.
…
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
"Cutting Sprigs Jutsu!"
A massive fireball and a crashing wall of water neutralized each other, blasting out scalding steam.
Using that steam as cover, Obito—driven by Uchiha shurikenjutsu—threw wooden spikes in relentless volleys, ricocheting them midair to strike from impossible angles.
It didn't matter.
"Dance of the Larch!"
Denser bone spines erupted. Ren's body rotated with eerie smoothness, like a dancer turning through blades.
Most spikes were deflected outright.
Any that slipped through were redirected by his rotation, their force blunted, and then stopped by the hard bone membrane under his skin.
The Cutting Sprigs Jutsu that had instantly slaughtered more than ten Mist ANBU…
was nothing more than a light drizzle before a Shikotsumyaku master.
Through the thinning steam, Obito's Mangekyō took in everything.
Cutting Sprigs doesn't work?
Then what about this?!
Ren heard the sudden explosion of footsteps and tensed instantly, every nerve sharpening.
He knew the truth.
If Ren didn't take the initiative, Obito—still fundamentally a "genin drop-out" in knowledge and arsenal—had no ninjutsu that could truly threaten him.
Cutting Sprigs worked on fragile shinobi.
Against Ren's physical defense?
It wasn't even "ineffective."
It was basically a massage.
Which meant Obito had only one real kill condition:
Close contact.
Drag Ren into Kamui's dimension—
then slowly grind him down alone.
And ironically—
that was also Ren's only opening to truly hurt Obito.
Because only when Obito attacked or absorbed a target…
did his intangibility drop for a split instant.
Here it comes.
Ren's eyes widened.
He whipped around, bone blade slashing at the air behind him—
"Slash!"
The blade split a massive wooden spike in half, sending both halves flying past him.
But Obito wasn't there.
"I'm right here—!"
A voice seeped up from below, bitter and furious.
Obito burst from underground, having used Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique, both hands reaching for Ren's ankles.
In Obito's blood-red eye was more than rage—
there was satisfaction.
As if he were mocking Ren's arrogance for thinking he only had Fire Release.
Obito's hands clamped onto Ren's ankles.
The Mangekyō began to spin violently.
Kamui activated—
trying to drag Ren into that space fully controlled by Obito.
But the instant the spatial distortion began—
Ren forced bone to erupt from his ankles.
Pffft—
sharp bone spikes impaled straight through Obito's hands.
Then exploded outward inside his palms.
Countless fine spines shredded tendons, nerves, vessels—filling every corner of his hands in an instant.
Obito's hands were nearly ruined in one move.
"AAAAAAAH—!!!"
Obito screamed like something no longer human.
Wood growths on his body surged wildly, thick branches sprouting without control, almost swelling into towering trees, whipping toward Ren.
Ren flipped backward in midair, forced to abandon pursuit and create distance.
"Don't… run!"
Obito snapped his head up.
Blood began to seep from the Mangekyō.
In an instant, thorn-covered trees erupted from the earth beneath Ren, and under Kamui's warped spatial force, they formed a living cage—
sealing every path of escape.
The Wood Release trees coiled like giant serpents, compressing Ren's movement space, trying to force him into a corner—
then crush him with trunks and spikes.
"Wood Release: Hell's Rampage…"
Obito's face—behind the Zetsu—twisted into a sick, ecstatic grin.
He lifted his ruined left hand, trembling, ignoring the pain, and clenched—
as if he could crush Ren in his palm.
Rip.
The sound of flesh tearing reached Obito's ears.
Even without hearing Ren scream, Obito's face stiffened into a smile that looked almost like relief.
Rin…
I… avenged you…
I'm coming—
"Sigh…"
A disgustingly calm sigh drifted through the air.
Obito froze.
"What…?"
"That was too optimistic," the voice said, flat and annoyed.
"I shouldn't have expected to keep hiding it at this point."
It was Ren.
Obito whipped his head up, Mangekyō spinning, staring at the wooden cage—
and through a gap barely wide enough for hair to fall through…
he saw it.
Ren.
Mask shattered, face calm.
Unafraid.
"You're still—"
"Dance of the Seedling Fern."
Crack—crack—CRACKCRACKCRACK—
Bone erupted.
Not simply spikes—
A white-bone forest exploded outward from Ren as the core, expanding in every direction with brutal, endless growth.
The wooden prison of Hell's Rampage was forced apart, shattered by the rising bone grove. Splinters and debris rained down across a battlefield already ruined—
and those expanding bone lances punched through Obito's position—
turning the entire area into Ren's domain.
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