Obito didn't move the moment he saw Senju Haruto unleash his Susanoo.
Instead, he stayed hidden, biding his time.
Haruto's display had caught everyone completely off guard, yet his injuries were only growing worse by the second.
And with the massive chakra drain from sustaining Susanoo, he wouldn't last much longer.
"I don't even need to step in…"
Obito murmured under his breath, eyes narrowing as he studied Haruto's every movement.
"Konoha…!"
Haruto clutched his chest, trying to slow the flow of blood as much as possible.
He knew full well that with wounds like these, he could hold out for only a short while longer.
But before he died, he would kill Hamada Fumio no matter what — to avenge the Uchiha clansmen whose eyes had been stolen.
"Fumio!"
With a roar, Haruto bellowed his enemy's name again and again.
Clinging to the resolve to take his foe with him in death, he poured every last shred of chakra into Susanoo, pushing its power as far as it would go.
"What… is this…?"
Yagura's eyes went wide as he stared at Haruto's Susanoo in shock.
He had never seen a technique like this in his life.
Beside him, Ao swiftly gave hand signals, ordering the Kirigakure shinobi to form a protective circle around Yagura to ensure the Mizukage's safety.
Haruto, however, made no move to attack the Mizukage.
He understood his condition perfectly — if he tried to take on both Fumio and Yagura at the same time, he'd likely fail to kill either of them.
But if he focused solely on Fumio, Yagura would likely stand aside, watching the tigers fight from the mountain.
Still, the Sharingan was the pride of the Uchiha.
Haruto would never allow the shinobi of Kirigakure to get their hands on them.
He would destroy them — and the scroll — together.
Even with all his remaining chakra flooding into Susanoo without reserve, Haruto could not transform it into its complete form.
Fumio watched coldly as the massive skeletal frame wrapped around Haruto's body.
Blood vessels, nerves, and muscle fibers began to grow from the bones at a visible speed.
"So… he can't reach the complete form after all."
Fumio had thought Haruto might explode with power and manifest the fully realized Susanoo.
Instead, Haruto's limit was no more than the form Itachi had during the time he sealed away Orochimaru — still far from the complete version.
Yagura kept his focus on both Haruto and Fumio.
"What's going on…?"
His gaze soon shifted fully to Fumio.
He had expected Fumio to retreat in fear or at least brace himself for a deadly clash after witnessing such a strange jutsu.
But Fumio stood there as calm as ever, not a flicker of worry in his expression.
Could it be… this isn't the first time he's seen such a technique?
Yagura's brow furrowed. The more he looked, the less he understood Fumio.
"His eyes…"
Ao suddenly froze in shock.
As soon as Haruto closed within a certain range, Fumio's Byakugan vanished — replaced by the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan.
And not just any Sharingan… a full three-tomoe pattern!
"How… how is that even possible?"
Ao's jaw fell open.
As Kirigakure's only shinobi to have transplanted a Byakugan, he knew more about its secrets than anyone.
The Byakugan and the Sharingan were both dōjutsu — but from entirely different clans.
The Hyūga and the Uchiha.
And yet here was Fumio… possessing both!
Even Obito, still hidden, was taken aback when he saw this.
"The Byakugan… turning into a Sharingan?!"
He couldn't help blurting it out.
He had never seen or even heard of such a thing.
"I know the ultimate evolution of the Sharingan is the Rinnegan… but could the Byakugan… evolve into the Sharingan?"
Then—
Obito's eyes suddenly went wide.
At last, he understood the strange sense of wrongness he'd felt before.
That was it.
The source of that dissonance had been Fumio's entire attitude.
Even knowing Yagura was the Fourth Mizukage, Fumio had been utterly at ease — not even remotely concerned about his secrets being discovered — and casually collecting Sharingan.
Without overwhelming confidence, no shinobi could remain so calm.
And in the shinobi world, confidence usually came from strength.
In other words, in Fumio's own mind… his power surpassed Yagura's.
"Just… who the hell is this guy…?"
Obito sucked in a sharp breath.
Nothing in his intel mentioned a man like this.
"Die, Fumio!"
While Obito was still reeling, Haruto closed the gap between himself and Fumio.
Controlling his half-complete Susanoo, he swung its weapon in a horizontal slash aimed straight at Fumio's throat.
At that instant, Obito, Yagura, Ao, and every shinobi present held their breath, terrified they might miss the decisive moment.
Fumio glanced at the incoming weapon, then slowly raised his hands and pressed them together.
"What a pity. If you were at your full strength, you might have forced me to use my Wooden Humanoid Technique."
Against a half-dead Haruto, Fumio didn't even feel the urge to use the Wooden Humanoid or Wood Dragon techniques.
From the ground at his feet, an ordinary Wood Release: Violent Sprouting Tree shot upward.
Boom!
The weapon in Susanoo's hand smashed into the giant tree with a deafening crash.
Yagura and Obito were left staring in shock once more.
"That's… Wood Release?"
Obito instinctively gripped his right arm.
He had never imagined he would see the long-lost Wood Release here of all places.
And in that instant, he understood completely — why Fumio dared to collect Sharingan in front of Haruto and Yagura… why he didn't care if they knew his true purpose.
His strength was so overwhelming that even if he told them outright, they could do nothing to stop him.
"Could it be… the one who stopped the Nine-Tails rampage last time… was him?"
Obito frowned.
At the time, he'd been too busy keeping Uchiha Itachi occupied to make it over to where the Nine-Tails had gone wild.
Wait—
Obito's nerves tensed again as he suddenly remembered.
This man… wasn't he the one who had been traveling alongside Itachi?
Even Yagura, the Mizukage, couldn't hide his astonishment at Fumio's power.
The legendary Senju Hashirama, hailed as the God of Shinobi and said by all who met him to be the closest man to the Sage of Six Paths, had been a master of exactly this art—
Wood Release.
"Damn you!"
Only Haruto had lost all reason.
When his first attack failed, he yanked the blade free and swung it down in a brutal overhead strike, aiming for the crown of Fumio's head.
"The power's there, but the speed just isn't."
This time, Fumio didn't even bother with Wood Release.
A simple sidestep carried him clear of Haruto's killing blow.
Rumble!
The massive blade slammed into the earth, making the ground quake violently.
It missed Fumio's position by no more than a single fist's breadth.