Splash.
The rain that had been pounding down finally seemed to ease a little.
Obito tilted his head back, his face slick and greasy.
Drip.
Drip.
A few drops of that thick yellow-brown liquid even slid through the cracks of his mask… and into his mouth.
A little fishy.
Silence.
Dead silence.
Only cold rain slapping his face—
hammering his stiff shoulders—
and splattering across Kisame's split-open shark skull.
Itachi lowered his head quietly, moving fast, pretending he hadn't seen anything.
Zetsu, freshly "recovered," had its pitcher plant shaking like it was possessed, laughing like a lunatic.
"Ha! Bonus meal! Bonus meal!"
"Second tasting! Endless aftertaste!"
Its little mouth ran nonstop.
Then it suddenly shivered.
Because ahead, Obito wiped the toad oil off his face and snapped his head around, glaring murderously at White Zetsu.
"Shut your mouth."
He was furious.
So furious he had the urge to rip off his mask and slaughter everyone in sight.
But after thinking it through…
Obito decided he didn't want to slaughter everyone right now.
On the broken wall above, Jiraiya finally snapped out of his contemplation over that Tailed Beast Bomb.
Watching this scene, his expression turned… complicated.
"So… toad oil can be used like that?"
It was like he'd discovered a whole new continent.
The light in his eyes grew increasingly strange.
At the same time, his pen flew—scribbling rapidly into his intel notebook.
Below—
Kai drifted down and touched the ground as if he didn't.
Every step landed on a condensed cushion of air beneath his feet.
Mud and water didn't cling.
Not a speck of grime touched him.
With that "three feet ahead" domain active, he looked like a three-dimensional creature pried out of a two-dimensional timeline—
unnaturally crisp and solid.
"Aww, our beloved ancestor… why are you so angry?"
Kai tilted his head at Obito in the mud, smiling faintly.
"Or should I call you…"
"…Senior Obito?"
He really knows.
Obito's eyes narrowed.
If Kai already knew his identity—
then he couldn't be allowed to leave alive.
In the next instant, Obito's Mangekyō spun violently.
"Kamui—transfer!!"
If the Kamui space was that dangerous…
Then he'd send this brat inside.
Let him taste it too.
Obito had wanted this from the beginning.
From the first wave of rage and humiliation…
to the blank confusion afterward…
all of it had been building toward this sudden strike.
Last time had left trauma in his bones.
Obito understood: if he wanted to kill Kai, he had to win on timing.
"This time… I've got you."
He stuck out his tongue and licked the oily residue at the corner of his mouth.
In his single eye, twisted excitement flared.
Woom—woom—woom.
A spatial vortex formed—
right at Kai's head.
This time, he would definitely send the hateful brat away.
However…
even as the vortex appeared again, the result looked eerily similar to last time.
The vortex—compressed several times over—spun over Kai's head.
The spatial pressure was so heavy it even pressed the rain downward.
But—
Kai's head was fine.
There was no "watermelon burst" scene like Obito imagined.
Kai wasn't dragged into Kamui.
No Tailed Beast Bomb, no toad oil, no disgusting surprises.
Nothing.
What the hell?
Obito's pupils shrank again and again.
No exaggeration—these past few days, nothing about his life had felt normal.
His Kamui…
was failing in front of Kai.
But this time was Obito's home field, not the Uchiha district.
"So what's wrong? Where is the problem?!"
"Don't tell me Kakashi went and remodeled Kamui space?!"
Obito was genuinely on the verge of snapping.
His greatest trump card—
had stopped working.
Across from him, Kai watched the swirl of expressions on Obito's face and couldn't help sighing.
"Obito-bro is still kind of pure, huh."
Even now, after all this—
he was still blaming Kakashi.
He still hadn't realized the real issue:
Kai had a key to Kamui too.
See? This kind of thing really needs a password lock.
At that moment, the system—slow as ever—finally chimed.
[Talked with Uchiha Obito for ten minutes. Attempting to copy traits…]
[Currently copyable traits: Creator of the Ideal World (Black), First Hokage Cells—Undying Body (Gold), Kamui—Right Eye (Gold), Sealing Art: Phantom Dragon Nine Seals (Purple), Mangekyō Sharingan (Purple), Wood Release: Old Tree Binding Roots (Blue)…]
[Copy successful. Congratulations, Host has obtained Epic Trait: Kamui—Fragment (Purple).]
[Right-eye Kamui: can maintain intangibility, and can also absorb enemies into Kamui space.]
"Huh?!"
Kai froze in surprise.
He honestly hadn't expected it.
Even though the system only showed part of the list, Kai knew Obito had a lot of traits.
In a "trait system," ninjutsu counted too—so Obito's pool had to be huge.
And yet—
on the second try, he'd copied Obito's most precious ability?
A ten-percent success rate—
and still hit the jackpot out of dozens of traits?
"…Did my luck just explode?"
For a moment, Kai felt unreal.
Like he was the kind of protagonist whose fate always tilted in his favor.
Another prompt appeared immediately.
[Ding. Fusion detected: Kamui—Left / Right. Fuse?]
"Fuse."
[Fusing… Congratulations, Host has obtained Legendary Trait: Kamui (Gold).]
[Effect 1: Consume chakra to rapidly open spatial transfer for self and others. Can maintain intangibility for 10 minutes.]
[Effect 2: Transfer/twist distance +100%, range +100%.]
Drip.
Drip.
The instant the fusion completed, warmth spilled inside Kai's eye sockets.
Wet and smooth… pleasantly warm.
He could feel it clearly—
once activated, both eyes were different now.
Stronger.
Sharper.
More complete.
Crack—
But just as the joy rose—
a stabbing pain suddenly pierced the center of his brain, near the back of his skull.
The kind of pain like needles being driven in—rapid, relentless.
Dense waves of it, stabbing through his nerves like someone had just raked a pin-cushion through his head.
The headaches that had almost vanished after he gained Wood Release…
came rushing back.
"Hah…"
"Hah…"
After three breaths, the pain finally receded.
But his forehead was covered in a fine sheen of sweat.
He muttered quietly.
"Mental pressure…"
"This body… is starting to struggle."
Once double Kamui activated, the boost to spiritual force was too much.
So much that even with Wood Release cells—
even with forty percent high-grade Wood Release cells—
he was still… barely holding it.
Drip.
A thick drop slid down from the corner of Kai's eye.
And within those crimson irises…
it spread, staining everything.
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