The fog surrounding the Land of Whirlpools was not natural. It was a thick, chakra-saturated blanket designed to jam sensory equipment and misdirect navigation. Under the surface, the "Dead Water" zone utilized gravitational pillars to crush any hull that didn't emit the specific frequency of the Sovereign Estate.
However, Danzo Shimura had spent the year studying the data from the failed audit. He knew that the Hatake's strength lay in their control over the atmosphere and the sea. To bypass it, he didn't send a ship. He sent a biological construct.
Three miles off the Eastern Reef, a craft made of reinforced, pressurized wood drifted silently through the deep trenches. It was a ROOT-designed vessel, propelled not by engines, but by the wood-release chakra of the six operatives inside. At the center sat Obito.
The Hashirama cells in his right side pulsed in rhythm with the vessel. He was using his wood-release to "sense" the organic matter in the water, avoiding the metallic pillars of the gravitational reef.
"Pressure is increasing," one of the ROOT masks whispered. "The gravitational floor is active."
"Keep descending," Obito commanded. His voice was flat. "We aren't going through their wall. We're going under the foundation."
Inside the Kage Building in the ruins of Uzugakure, Renju sat in a meditative state, his hands pressed against a sensing stone. The stone was linked to the fog and the tidal pillars.
He felt a ripple. It wasn't a ship displacing water; it was a foreign chakra signature moving through the earth-crust of the seabed.
"Renza," Renju said, his eyes remaining closed. "A breach at the Eastern Reef. It's not the Cloud or the Mist. The signature is familiar, but distorted."
Renza looked up from a map of the new village barracks. "The Leaf?"
"Only one way to find out. Kakashi, Shisui—deploy to the reef. Engage and identify. If they are hostile, do not let them reach the inner docks."
The two disciples moved instantly. Kakashi (9) didn't run; he flickered, his body leaving a trail of white static. Shisui (6) followed, his body blurring into three distinct mirages that moved in perfect synchronization across the jagged red-brick ruins.
The ROOT vessel erupted from the seabed, shattering the coral of the Eastern Reef. Obito stepped out onto the wet stone, his white cloak stained with salt. The six ROOT ANBU spread out, their blades drawn.
Kakashi and Shisui landed on the opposite side of the reef.
"Identification," Kakashi barked, his hand already crackling with a low-level electrical hum.
Obito pulled back his hood. The sight made Shisui's eyes narrow. The right side of Obito's face was a mess of white, vine-like scarring. His Sharingan was active, spinning with a three-tomoe pattern that seemed to pull the surrounding light into a void.
"You look different, Kakashi," Obito said. "The ruins seem to suit you. It's easier to hide when you're already surrounded by trash."
"Obito?" Kakashi's hand tightened. "You're working for Danzo."
"I'm working for the village you tried to rob," Obito replied. He raised his right hand. The wood-flesh shifted, sprouting into a cluster of jagged, needle-like branches. "Wood Style: Cutting Technique."
Obito lunged. He didn't move with the grace of a ninja; he moved with the explosive force of a pressurized spring. He fired the wood-needles at Shisui.
Shisui didn't dodge. He used the Body Flicker, appearing behind Obito in a fraction of a second, his short-sword aimed at the base of Obito's neck.
But Obito didn't turn. A wooden branch sprouted from his shoulder, parrying the blade with a sound like iron hitting iron.
"Too slow, little bird," Obito rasped.
Kakashi intervened, his hand erupting into the full-throttle Chidori. The sound was a deafening scream of a thousand birds. He drove the lightning strike directly into Obito's chest.
"Chidori!"
The lightning pierced the white cloak, but instead of blood, a thick, milky sap leaked out. Obito's chest had transformed into a dense shield of Hashirama-wood. The electricity was being "grounded" into the reef, the wood absorbing the high-voltage output.
"My turn," Obito said.
He grabbed Kakashi's wrist with his wood-hand. The Hashirama cells began to drain Kakashi's chakra instantly. At the same time, Obito's Sharingan locked onto Kakashi's eyes.
"Genjutsu: Void Pillar."
Kakashi's world turned black, but his year of training under Renju had prepared him for mental interference. He flared his Voltage Gate, sending a massive internal shock through his own nervous system to break the illusion.
He kicked off Obito's chest, creating distance.
"Shisui! Form B!" Kakashi shouted.
Shisui nodded. He began a high-speed circle around the ROOT team. Because of his training in Atmospheric Displacement, the air inside the circle began to thin rapidly. The ROOT ANBU began to gasp for air as the oxygen was sucked out of the immediate area.
Obito felt the pressure drop. He slammed his hand into the ground. "Wood Style: Underground Roots."
Massive timber beams erupted from the reef, attempting to impale Shisui and break the vacuum circle.
The fight was a stalemate until a new sound echoed across the reef—a wild, animalistic roar.
Inosuke (10) plummeted from the cliffs above, wearing his boar-head mask. He held two jagged swords that he had modified with Renza's wind-techniques.
"Intruders! My territory!" Inosuke screamed.
He didn't use ninjutsu. He used Beast Breathing: Pierce, lunging at the ROOT ANBU with a speed that defied logic. His swords were vibrating at a high frequency, allowing him to saw through the ROOT blades and the wooden defenses Obito had raised.
The ROOT squad was forced to break their formation to deal with the feral child. This gave Kakashi the opening he needed.
"Shisui, now!"
Shisui flickered to the center of the chaos, his blade glowing with a faint blue light. He struck three times in one second, severing the chakra-flow points in the ROOT ANBU's legs, effectively paralyzing half the team.
Obito stood alone in the center of the reef, his wooden arm smoking from the electrical burns. He looked at Kakashi, Shisui, and the new boy, Inosuke. He realized that the Sovereign Estate was no longer a group of children. They were a cohesive military unit.
A massive shadow fell over the reef. Renju and Renza had arrived, standing on the cliffside above.
"Obito," Renju's voice boomed. "Tell Danzo his submarine is a failure. If you stay on this reef for another sixty seconds, I will activate the primary gravitational floor and crush this entire reef into the seabed."
Obito looked up at the Sages. He saw the power they held—the passive, crushing weight that made the ocean itself recoil. He looked at Kakashi, who was standing ready with a second Chidori.
"This isn't over, Kakashi," Obito said, his Sharingan glowing with a final, hateful light. "The Leaf doesn't forget. And I don't stop."
Obito slammed a smoke bomb into the ground. When the mist cleared, the ROOT vessel had slipped back into the trenches, vanishing into the deep water.
Back at the Kage building, the team gathered.
"He's faster than before," Kakashi reported, his hand still trembling slightly from the chakra-drain. "The wood-style... it absorbs lightning."
"He's been enhanced," Renju said, looking at the data Shisui had gathered during the fight. "Danzo has used the First Hokage's cells. This means the Leaf is willing to risk biological catastrophe to kill us."
Renza turned to Inosuke, who was busy sharpening his jagged blades on a piece of coral. "Good work, Inosuke. But next time, wait for the signal. You almost ran into Shisui's vacuum."
"Signalllll?! I am the signal!" Inosuke yelled, headbutting a stone pillar.
Renju looked out at the Whirlpool Sea. "The first wave is over. But Obito was just the scout. Now that they know our location, we need to finalize the Grand Barrier. We are no longer just a village. We are a target."