"You really love to hear yourself talk, huh..." The endless stream of words was like a flickering flame searing Obito's chest. Finally, at a certain moment, the anger ignited.
The lone Sharingan eye visible through Obito's mask now held no emotion. If earlier he had stopped Logan just because of Itachi, he genuinely wanted to kill him now.
"Oh, someone's mad~" Logan dragged out his tone, his face deliberately twisting into an exaggerated expression of fear.
With all the experience of a keyboard warrior honed with the other trolls, his mockery couldn't have been more blatant.
Obito was naturally no match for Logan's seasoned trolling. With just a little provocation, his eye widened, as if he wanted to reach through the screen and slaughter the internet troll.
Whoosh…
Obito suddenly lunged forward, leaping down from the trees and charging straight at Logan like a sharpened blade.
Clang, clang, clang…
Shuriken collided midair before being deflected away. More black shadows shot through the air as Logan, taking advantage of his stationary position and the terrain, rained down a crushing number of projectiles from above.
Obito simply focused on his movement, letting the occasional kunai pass harmlessly through his body as if he were made of air.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
Logan calculated the timing, took a deep breath, and spewed a torrent of flames downward. The blazing fire dragon, enhanced by the Divine Bird's Mark, shone brilliantly, its majestic form engulfing a radius of several dozen meters in an instant.
However, amid the billowing black smoke, Obito emerged unscathed.
"Useless!" He sneered, his clothes trailing wisps of smoke as he closed the distance.
With a powerful leap, several silver threads connected to the shuriken embedded in the tree trunk beneath Logan, which is the leftovers from their earlier clash, and with a fierce tug, he accelerated like lightning.
A fine blue rain fell from the sky. Countless Chidori Senbon descended in a relentless, indiscriminate barrage, piercing through their target… only to pass through harmlessly.
Obito was certain that Logan had no idea about his ocular abilities, so he believed Logan must be panicking and terrified.
Right after the storm of blue needles, a figure leaped into the air, the sun flashing behind him.
'Going head-to-head with me? Fine, I'll crush your hopes...'
A momentary glare of reflected light flickered. Obito squinted, and when his vision refocused, he saw the calm expression on Logan's face.
This was not in line with his expectations. His opponent's composure gave Obito a faint sense of unease, but with the clash imminent, there was no turning back now.
"Die!"
His momentum unbroken, Obito pushed his Sharingan to its limits, his Pupil Power brimming and ready to unleash. His right hand shot forward like a claw…
In the linear frame of the moment, Logan was descending, Obito ascending. Their speeds ensured their shadows would intersect in the blink of an eye. And that swirling mask, this scene carried a strange sense of déjà vu, as if echoing a moment from many years ago.
A single kunai flashed between them as they closed in. Obito reacted instantly, maintaining his intangible state to let the pitifully weak kunai pass through him.
'Trying to hit me during the clash? How pathetic. I'm not that careless… I've been through this scenario before...'
The confident thought crossed his mind, but at the same time, Obito's brain stalled for the briefest moment.
'Wait... I have seen this before?'
The wind howled in his ears from the speed.
His opponent, having wasted time throwing that kunai, was now a fraction slower than him…
'Yes, absolutely slower. My hand would land first.' Obito's gaze sharpened, and he had already grasped the fabric, his palm pressing against Logan's chest...
'Goodbye.'
A blur flashed across his vision as Logan vanished.
Obito's eye widened in shock as the sound of a thousand birds chirping erupted behind him.
Chirp, chirp, chirp…
The crackling electricity dyed his forward vision a pale blue. He understood now, 'This is... the Flying Thunder God Technique!'
"Sorry, but the one saying goodbye should be you."
Logan's hand gripped the raging sphere of lightning. Without a shred of hesitation, he drove it straight toward Obito's back… right where his heart would be.
In close combat, Ninja tread the thin line between life and death.
You want to stab my heart? Then I'll stab yours.
All external differences fade away, leaving only the most primal fairness of life.
'No, I can't die yet.'
Feeling the scorching numbness on his back, the destructive energy just a hair's breadth away from his vulnerable heart, Obito was overwhelmed by immense unwillingness.
He couldn't die yet. His grand plan wasn't complete. Everything had just started to take shape. He hadn't yet created a world where that girl existed...
His Sharingan instinctively turned into the Mangekyo. Time seemed to slow. Gritting his teeth, Obito fought desperately, his surroundings and fleeting memories overlapping as he forcibly twisted his body a few inches to the side.
Boom!
The Chidori grazed past his heart, leaving a deep, bleeding gash before slamming into his right shoulder.
Watching the figure being sent flying diagonally from the impact, Logan felt a flicker of surprise.
Obito crashed into the dense foliage like a broken kite, making no effort to protect himself. The sickening sound of impact, a pained groan, and the splatter of blood painted a gruesome picture.
Even if he had avoided a fatal blow, it was unclear whether he could survive.
"..."
After landing and catching his breath, Logan steadied his chakra, which had been thrown into disarray from the seamless chain of Ninjutsu. He picked up the three-pronged kunai embedded in the ground, as he didn't want to waste it.
The thicket where Obito had fallen was eerily silent.
'I have to check.' Logan thought, adopting the meticulous attitude of no body, no death. He leaped across a few branches and peered down.
Whoosh, whoosh…
A few weakly thrown shuriken flew up at him. Logan didn't even bother moving, simply flicking them aside with a swipe of his kunai.
"Still alive, huh? Tough bastard."
'If he could still throw shuriken, he wasn't dead yet.' Logan sighed to himself, acknowledging that one Chidori wasn't enough to wrap things up so quickly.
Cough, cough.
In the middle of the bushes, Obito lay in a wretched state, spitting up mouthfuls of blood. Though he had narrowly avoided a direct hit at the last second, the Chidori had torn through muscle and ruptured blood vessels connected to his organs.
The wound on his back was so deep that only a thin layer of flesh remained between the attack and his heart. Without the regenerative power of Hashirama's cells, an ordinary person would have died on the spot.
"You… you actually know that technique?!" Every movement sent searing pain through Obito's body, but staying still meant certain death.
Drenched in sweat, he forced himself onto his knees, glaring at the special kunai in Logan's hand.
This injury was eerily similar to the one he'd suffered during his encounter with his teacher, Minato. Except this time, his opponent was even more ruthless.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was Konoha's closely guarded secret, and it is nearly impossible to master. Obito had been caught completely off guard… had he known, he wouldn't have been taken down so easily.
Logan observed him for a moment, 'Even after a fall like that, his mask hasn't come off…'
His gaze lingered on the horrific wound on Obito's back, 'Most of the damage was absorbed by the right side of his body, which is reinforced by Hashirama's cells. That's why his endurance and recovery are so insane...'
'Still, the graze near his heart should be enough to cripple him for a while.'
"Yeah, sorry about that. Told you it'd be a surprise." Logan twirled the three-pronged kunai and said with victorious tone.
Obito had no retort. He remembered that Logan had joined the Akatsuki specifically to study Space-Time Ninjutsu, and he'd even consulted Obito about it. Over the years, Logan had deepened his understanding of the field, to the point of mastering that technique.
Obito had been too focused on the conditions for the Eye of the Moon Plan, overlooking the progress of certain individuals. Regret was pointless now. He could only focus on recovering as much as possible.
A black shadow, carrying the wind of death, shot toward him. Obito rolled aside with all his strength.
Thunk.
The three-pronged kunai embedded itself into the ground.
"Die here." Logan said coldly.
Obito's pupil contracted. But battles don't pause just because one side is at a disadvantage.