As spiraling ripples appeared in the air, Obito Uchiha emerged beside Nagato.
"Not going in?" he asked casually. "There should be something inside that you can use."
Nagato did not answer. He only looked at the giant gate.
Just as the last few Bounty Ninja tried to enter, they froze in shock. A black figure walked out from the darkness beyond the door.
This person walked out of the darkness inside the gate.
Splat!
The leading Bounty Ninja member had no time to react. His head exploded, reflected in the shrinking pupils of the others.
Red and white sprayed out with shattered bone and splattered across the ground. The headless body swayed for a moment before collapsing.
Bang.
The remaining Bounty Ninja stood stunned. Warm blood spattered their faces, and fear stopped their charge.
At this moment, Yunchuan Hyuga, acting as "Shadow," raised his foot. The tip of his shoe, soaked in blood, drew a line on the ground.
"Anyone who crosses the line," he said with a light smile.
"Dies."
In front of several Bounty Ninja, there was only one person from start to finish.
The fight ended quickly. There was almost no flash of Ninjutsu, only naked and bloody killing. Or rather, Root did not even have time to form hand seals.
Puchi. Puchi.
Countless black shadow spikes flew and lashed around Yunchuan Hyuga, chaotic air currents surging up around him. The Bounty Ninja who rushed forward were like people throwing themselves into a grinder.
Each black shadow drew a crimson arc of blood, one arc not yet faded before the next one splashed out. When the blood fell to the ground, it looked bright and eerie, like lotus flowers made of blood.
Severed limbs rose and fell like clouds and rain, while the black shadows were soaked through in sheets of red rain. The sound of slashes cutting air, skulls cracking, bones breaking, skin tearing, flesh being pierced, and bodies bursting apart all mixed together.
They wove into a cradle song from hell, and even the screams became warped harmony within it.
In the distance, watching this scene that could only be called a massacre, even Nagato could not keep his eyes completely calm. His gaze shifted as the killing continued without pause.
Bang.
A figure flew past him and Obito, like a mosquito slapped against a wall, blood blooming briefly across the rock face. In front of the gate, the black shadow behind Yunchuan Hyuga clamped onto the last person's neck and lifted him up.
Before the line at his feet, severed limbs had piled into a mountain of corpses and blood. Red droplets fell from above and below, streams of blood washing down and dyeing his entire body a glaring red.
"Hh, hh. Mo, monster."
The last Bounty Ninja was held in midair by a black shadow, struggling weakly. His eyes held nothing but fear, with tears and saliva smeared across his twisted face.
"Thank you for the compliment," Yunchuan Hyuga said with the same gentle smile in his voice. "Only those prepared to be killed have the right to swing a blade, isn't that so?"
kacha! Bang.
The corpse dropped into the pool of blood at Yunchuan Hyuga's feet, its frozen face stained with red mud. Everything returned to silence.
In less than two minutes, aside from Yunchuan Hyuga, there were no living people left before the gate. It looked like a hell on earth.
No, there were still living people. They were Nagato and Obito Uchiha, who had remained standing silently in the distance.
"And you?" Yunchuan Hyuga asked with a polite, inviting smile, as if meeting them for the first time. "Are you coming in?"
Was he mad, or something else? Obito Uchiha narrowed his eyes, feeling that something was not quite right.
He turned to look at Nagato, who raised his arm at the same time. "Shinra Tensei."
A low and steady voice echoed as overwhelming repulsive force erupted. The air compressed and twisted in an instant, screaming under the pressure.
The black shadow slammed into something invisible and was blasted backward into the darkness again. Seeing this, Obito Uchiha finally let out a breath, some of his doubt easing.
"Let's go."
Nagato stepped forward, but Obito hesitated. "Nagato," he said in a deep voice, "why not wait here for them to come out? If there really is something important, we can take it from them later."
Nagato stopped as well and fell silent for a moment, then let out a faint sigh. "So that's how it is," he murmured.
"What?" Obito froze, confused.
Buzz.
A sharp scream tore through the air, and Obito felt the hair on his body stand on end. His crimson Sharingan followed the sound, and with its powerful dynamic vision, he saw the figure at the gate.
That person had not entered the Underground Palace, or rather, he had come back out again.
Several shadow spikes shot out from behind Yunchuan Hyuga. A ring of water exploded in front of him, turning into mist and leaving a pierced channel through the air, aimed straight at Obito Uchiha.
Obito Uchiha had not expected himself to become the target. The speed of the attack was beyond his expectations.
Still, "Meaningless."
The three tomoe of Obito Uchiha's Sharingan spun and transformed into the Mangekyo Sharingan, activating Kamui's intangibility. The spikes struck like a storm, but only managed to tear his clothing as he vanished.
He reappeared elsewhere, but in the next instant another piercing sonic boom rang out. A gale from the shadow blade tore up the ground where he stood, dust rising several meters high as it cut across his neck.
There was no wound on Obito Uchiha's neck. He only stared coldly at the distant black shadow.
This was not unexpected for Yunchuan Hyuga. The earlier slash had felt like passing through an illusion, cutting only layers of air.
"So this is the right eye Kamui's intangibility," he thought.
At that moment, Obito vanished again and appeared beside Yunchuan Hyuga, trying to pull him into the Kamui space. A shadow-covered arm of Yunchuan Hyuga turned into a blade, and he turned, the clean edge slashing toward Obito's head.
This time, Yunchuan Hyuga saw it clearly. At the instant of contact, the blade sank in again without drawing even a drop of blood and passed straight through.
Obito also grabbed nothing. His hand passed through Yunchuan Hyuga's body.
"Only when attacking do you remove intangibility and become solid," Yunchuan Hyuga thought. "And you can also use intangibility for short-range instant movement."
Without wide area or sustained attacks, Kamui was indeed hard to deal with. As long as he wanted to run, he could always escape.
As the blade passed through Obito's neck and Obito's grasp passed through Yunchuan Hyuga, Yunchuan Hyuga's eyes sharpened. "Got you."
A chain slid from his sleeve, ready to bind the man behind him when he became solid again. In the next instant, however, the shadow blade slashed toward Obito's neck once more.
Obito's expression darkened as he was forced to enter intangibility again. The blade passed through him, and the chain passed through Yunchuan Hyuga's body as well.
Like a ghost, Obito kept searching for an opening, trying to pull him into the Kamui space. Every time he became solid, an attack met him and forced him back.
"What kind of Kekkei Genkai is this?" Obito's face under the mask grew darker.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
The shadow blades slashed with terrifying speed. Yet the speed of Yunchuan Hyuga's control was just within Obito's ability to react.