This sudden turn of events completely stunned the Mist ninja trailing behind.
We didn't mean to kill the Jinchuriki! Why did they take action themselves?
Shock gave way to frustration and rage.
"If the Jinchuriki dies, the Three-Tails will die too, right?"
"Dammit! It'll take many years for a Bijuu to revive once it's dead!"
"Crap! Not only did we fail our mission, but we've lost the Three-Tails as well!"
"Akah, what should we do now?"
Akah didn't respond. His eyes remained locked on Obito, who had suddenly appeared at the edge of the woods.
Staring into Obito's eyes, swirling with patterns, Akah felt his heart churn violently, nearly crying out in terror. "In just two months, he's evolved from no Sharingan to double tomoe, then from double tomoe to fully awakened Mangekyou? What kind of monster is this kid?"
If he hadn't known Madara was still alive, he would have believed that Indra's reincarnated chakra had taken residence in Obito.
Seeing Akah remain silent, the other Mist ninja followed his gaze and spotted the strange figure wearing a single-eyed 'mask' and wrapped entirely in black.
"Who's there?"
"Whoever it is, if they saw this, they must die!"
With all their frustration, they decided to vent it on Obito.
Several Mist shinobi drew shuriken and hurled them at Obito from sharp angles.
Obito, however, stood motionless as if unaware, muttering under his breath, "It's fake... It must be fake!"
Whoosh!
The shuriken passed straight through his body, as if striking air itself.
Witnessing this, the group of Mist ninjas were deeply shaken.
"Could it be an afterimage?"
"No, he clearly didn't move at all!"
"Cursed brat, who exactly are you?"
As they stood confused and uncertain, the seemingly dazed Obito standing foolishly in place suddenly raised his head.
"I refuse to accept it! I absolutely refuse to acknowledge a world without Rin!"
The moment those words left his mouth, he seemed to awaken, instantly evolving from a clumsy Chunin to someone capable of easily slaughtering Jonin-level ninja.
The corrupted Obito charged into the crowd as if walking into unoccupied territory, where none could resist him even for a single exchange.
As they watched Obito massacre mercilessly through the group, the Mist ninja grew frantic.
They'd simply wanted to lash out in anger — so how did their target turn out to be such a monster?
They couldn't land any hits on him, yet he could freely attack them. This fighting style made no sense, leaving them unsure how to fight back.
"Perfect! Exactly like this!" Black Zetsu, who had faked his own death by letting Akah be "accidentally" killed by Obito, watched eagerly from underground. "Sever your bonds completely, and become Madara's will incarnate!"
Just as he secretly fanned the flames, sensing an approaching chakra signature made him panic inwardly. "Why has this bastard come? Did Kakashi secretly inform him? But I definitely didn't detect anyone..." He stopped thinking. "No time to figure this out — Obito needs to leave now!"
Although Obito had grown immensely stronger after his corruption, even awakening the space-manipulation ability of the Mangekyou, facing off against that true monster named Seiki Shimaseki, Obito's chance of victory wouldn't even reach one percent.
After all, this was someone he himself deeply feared!
Realizing this, he quickly controlled the White Zetsu attached to Obito's body to warn him, "Obito, an extremely powerful chakra is approaching! We must leave here immediately!"
However, the fully corrupted Obito completely ignored him, continuing his wanton slaughter of the Mist shinobi.
Underground, Black Zetsu felt speechless—corruption indeed caused problems. The previous Obito who could listen to reason had suddenly become stubborn.
Still, he wasn't without solutions.
As the dark mentor who had led Madara down the path to ruin, he understood these Uchiha personalities all too well.
It was pointless to try threatening or convincing them.
You had to see into their hearts and guide them accordingly.
"The one approaching seems to be Seiki Shimaseki from Konoha. If he discovers you, you probably won't get away. Isn't everything around you just illusion anyway? By inheriting Lord Madara's will, you can build a new world of your own—one that feels truly real."
Upon hearing Seiki Shimaseki's name, Obito's cold gaze momentarily regained a flicker of clarity and hope. "If it's my senior, could he possibly save Rin?"
Seeing signs of wavering in Obito's mind, Black Zetsu hurriedly replied, "Do you really think that possible? He's only human—not some kind of god!"
Obito hesitated for a moment before finally casting a lingering glance at the seemingly "dead" Rin, then disappeared amidst spatial distortion.
"H-he's gone?"
"A-ah! What the hell did this demon want anyway?"
The few surviving Mist shinobi felt as though they'd experienced a nightmare—mission failed, bijuu lost, and now nearly wiped out for no clear reason.
Their noses tingled, and they almost burst into tears.
After calming themselves slightly, they glared hatefully at Kakashi and Rin lying on the ground.
"Cursed bastard, it's all your fault!"
"Don't think passing out gets you off the hook!"
"We'll make you suffer like we did!"
They smirked cruelly and stepped toward Kakashi, but hadn't taken more than a few steps before noticing a figure suddenly appear beside him.
Looking at the newcomer's back, the shinobi tensed and drew their kunai.
"That outfit… he's a Konoha ninja!"
"Hmph! Just the guy to let off some steam..." Then suddenly, one of them gasped, "Wait a minute… why does this guy look so familiar?"
One particularly keen-eyed Mist shinobi screamed in terror, his body shaking uncontrollably. "H-he's Seiki Shimaseki!"
"You're kidding, right?! We barely survived that monster!"
"Split up and flee—save whoever we can!"
Calmly, Seiki performed a hand seal and dispatched several Shadow Clone Techniques to eliminate witnesses before turning his attention elsewhere.
"They're gone already?" Seiki casually surveyed the surroundings. Not detecting Obito's chakra, he gave a slight nod. "Seems my effort to deliberately leak my presence hasn't been in vain."
"Good, she's still alive!" Shiki muttered to himself as he carefully checked Rin's vital signs.
Though his ice technique couldn't reverse death itself, it could temporarily halt Rin's demise and buy her time until help arrived.
Maintaining his composure, Shiki pressed his hand against Rin's chest to stop the bleeding. He contemplated in silence, "This research I obtained from a manifestation of the Eight-Tails will be tested for the first time on you."
A Jinchuriki and their Bijuu were essentially two halves of a whole. If the Bijuu was extracted, the Jinchuriki would die, and vice versa—if the Jinchuriki perished, the Bijuu would also meet its end.
The difference lay in the fact that a deceased Bijuu could randomly "respawn" in the wild.
So here was the key question.
What if a part of the Bijuu was forcefully left inside the Jinchuriki's body? Was there a possibility that the Jinchuriki could sustain life through the Bijuu's regeneration ability?
According to Shiki's analysis, this indeed could be achieved, though two conditions had to be met first.
Firstly, the physical body of the deceased Jinchuriki had to remain uncorrupted and immortal;
Secondly, the residual chakra within the Jinchuriki's body needed to maintain its vitality.
Preserving the corpse wasn't an issue; his ice technique sufficed.
The real challenge was keeping the Bijuu's chakra active even after the Bijuu itself had been extracted or killed.
That was when he thought about the Eight-Tails.
In the original story, the Eight-Tails was extracted by Madara, yet leaving a tentacle fragment inside B's body kept him alive.
Remember, once absorbed into the Ten-Tails, the Eight-Tails might as well have died. And yet, that single remaining tentacle successfully preserved B's life, proving his theory correct.
After further research, Shiki eventually mastered this ability himself.
With his formidable intervention, he intercepted some of Three-Tails' dispersing chakra before it vanished completely, leaving it inside Rin's body.
"Phew, barely stabilized," Shiki exhaled after finishing everything, then casually pulled out a scroll. "In exchange for saving your life, I'll take possession of the Three-Tails' chakra!"
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