Judging by the scene alone, Obito Uchiha and his Nine-Tails had already fallen into a state where Rei Kaguya was suppressing them one-sidedly.
However, because of the special nature of Kamui as a Mangekyo Sharingan ability, although Obito Uchiha found it extremely difficult to seize a chance to reverse the situation and win, he would absolutely not be defeated so easily.
Even while being suppressed by endless mountain-splitting blade-light, he could still occasionally seize an opportunity to release his intangibility and use the Nine-Tails' long-charged Tailed Beast Ball to launch an earth-shattering counterattack.
This battle, which could barely be considered an exchange of blows, continued from when the moon hung high overhead until the rising sun began to appear.
And the battlefield between Rei Kaguya and Obito Uchiha moved from the ruins of Konoha Village all the way to more than a hundred kilometers away, rolling and shaking the earth as it went.
Terrain changes that should have required hundreds of thousands of years of geological transformation were compressed into a single night.
The final result of the battle ended with Obito Uchiha's defeat and the death of the Nine-Tails.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Covering his left eye, whose vision had already begun to blur, Obito Uchiha maintained the most basic level of intangibility while staring with intense unwillingness at the Six Heavens Vajra.
Its entire body had almost turned into a lifeless gray, and it was beginning to crumble inch by inch from the six arms that had suffered the most damage.
Rei Kaguya was likewise covering his eyes and panting heavily.
In the end, Kamui was only a pair of Mangekyo Sharingan.
Even with Hashirama's cells providing compensation, it could not obtain eternally undiminishing, surging ocular power like a true Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
When his ocular power suddenly dried up, it declared the end of the battle between the two of them.
The strike of Deny Heaven that he had failed to fully transfer away easily pierced through the remains of the Susanoo armor covering the Nine-Tails, boring through its enormous body from head to tail on the spot.
Such exaggerated damage directly sent the Nine-Tails into a long resurrection period.
And without the Nine-Tails, Obito Uchiha no longer possessed the massive threat level necessary to destroy a shinobi village by himself.
"Damn it… If… if I had a younger brother who awakened the Mangekyo like Madara did…"
Obito Uchiha clenched his fist and smashed it hard into a towering ancient tree whose entire crown had been vaporized, leaving a deep dent in the trunk.
"I told you. A mere pair of Mangekyo Sharingan is still… far, far away from being flawless."
Not caring at all that his bloodied eyes were exposed to Obito Uchiha's view, Rei Kaguya, who had already made preparations to have Orochimaru replace his eyes again once he returned, stepped forward and walked toward Obito Uchiha.
"Don't think… you've won just because of this."
Leaving only an illusory projection of himself in the real world, Obito Uchiha was not afraid of Rei Kaguya, who had to rely on a purely senjutsu-chakra-driven violent technique like Deny Heaven to shake space.
"Our real contest has only just begun…"
"Keep acting tough, terrorist. Cough… cough, cough…"
A mouthful of backlash blood surged up, and Rei Kaguya coughed several times, spitting blood with a severe grayish pallor onto the ground.
"You want to split the world in two? With only you, you're still far from qualified."
"Whether I'm qualified or not, we'll see, Rei Kaguya…"
Obito Uchiha stared at the gray blood Rei Kaguya had coughed out and gritted his teeth, leaving one final harsh threat before departing.
"You won't always be able to arrive in time."
"And you won't always be able to escape from my hands by hiding in another dimension, Obito Uchiha."
Watching Obito Uchiha vanish, Rei Kaguya took a deep breath.
He took out the black blindfold he had prepared in advance from inside his clothes, used it to cover his still-bleeding Byakugan, then began moving unhurriedly toward Konoha Village.
The intelligence he wanted to convey to Obito Uchiha had already been thrown out.
Now it depended on how much that deranged bastard could understand.
Considering that he had been able to see through Rei's true intentions from Nagato and Akatsuki's movements, and had dragged both Iwagakure and Kumogakure onto his war chariot in one breath, Rei's "performance" probably had not been completely wasted on a blind man… right?
But that was a matter for later.
For now, the more important matter was to extort Konoha ruthlessly and, along the way, obtain the passage to the moon and the secret techniques from the Hyuga clan.
…
Konoha.
After Rei Kaguya and Obito Uchiha escalated their battle into the stage of giant constructs brawling, the fighting inside and outside Konoha Village naturally came to a stop.
Whether they were shinobi standing on Konoha's side, intending to protect their homeland, or those who had come under Root's deception to invade another country, all of them fell silent before that power that could only be called a natural disaster.
It was a battle that had stepped into the age of myths.
Before the incarnations of calamity and gods, the victory or defeat of mortals seemed so insignificant.
When they realized that only the battle between those two could truly decide Konoha's survival tonight, all of their fighting spirit was extinguished as if a basin of icy water had been poured directly over their hearts.
However, although the invaders used this chance to preserve their strength and withdraw from the battlefield, Kirigakure's forces, who had entered the battlefield last, still carved out rather good results from them.
Kisame Hoshigaki, who had gone to support Jiraiya, relied on the eruption of the Heaven Curse Mark and Samehada's special traits to forcibly keep the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi, behind.
Mangetsu Hozuki also relied on his powerful Hydrification healing technique and swordsmanship to cooperate with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, eliminating all of Kakuzu's masked monsters and capturing this hundred-year-old man who claimed to have once fought the First Hokage alive.
They secured the only two Kage-level achievements in Konoha's defensive battle.
As for Shisui Uchiha, although he did not achieve any major kills, by cooperating with Fugaku Uchiha, he successfully weakened most of the destructive power of the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball.
Although the explosion still caused more than a thousand casualties, at least more than half of the Uchiha, Hyuga, and Sarutobi clansmen survived intact.
That could be considered an enormous favor sold to Konoha's side.
As for Konoha's own battle losses, they looked extremely… ugly.
Two Hokage advisors had been assassinated and had their hearts ripped out.
The wounded packed into Konoha Hospital had been wiped out in large numbers by Obito Uchiha's Fire Release: Blast Wave Wild Dance.
The poison mist released by the summoning beast Black Salamander and Hanzo when retreating safely had directly killed thousands of Konoha civilians with deadly poison.
Adding in the many chunin and higher-ranked shinobi who died fighting the enemy Jinchuriki, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, whose life was already nearing its end after having the Tailed Beast forcibly extracted, and half the village that had been blown away in the final fierce battle between Obito Uchiha and Rei Kaguya…
No one dared calculate just how great Konoha's losses were today.
Perhaps only by adding together everything Konoha had lost in the past three Shinobi World Wars could one arrive at a number greater than today's losses.
Standing on the Hokage Rock, where only the left half of the First Hokage's face and the right half of the Fourth Hokage's face remained after the explosions, Shisui Uchiha looked at the devastated ruins of Konoha, the wails filling the air, and the many lakes, basins, and half-mountains that had been forcibly created during Obito Uchiha and Rei Kaguya's battle.
He let out a long sigh and shook his head.
"At this rate, it will probably take Konoha more than ten years, maybe even decades, to recover its strength…"
"Look on the bright side. At least Konoha still exists."
Kisame Hoshigaki, who was sitting on top of his trophy, Roshi, shrugged and said with a strange laugh,
"If the Fourth had not come over and intervened, Konoha's people would not have been able to stop five Tailed Beasts. Especially that last guy from the same clan as you. With him alone plus the Nine-Tails, he should have been enough to wipe out all of Konoha, right?"
"…That is true."
Shisui Uchiha helplessly nodded in agreement with Kisame's judgment.
Then he asked with some curiosity,
"Where is Mangetsu? Is he trapped near Konoha's temporary hospital and unable to get away?"
"Who told him to boast while fighting alongside the Ino-Shika-Cho clans that as long as there was water, he could keep providing treatment to nearby allies?"
Kisame Hoshigaki spread his hands and mercilessly mocked him.
"But even if he is bound by his own bragging and has no choice but to work for Konoha, that brat Mangetsu can still be considered to be winning more bargaining chips for the Fourth… The most miserable one is Zabuza, who did not come with us. Spies sent by Kumogakure into the Land of Water to gather intelligence can be caught any time, but chances to come out with the Fourth and make a name for yourself before the entire shinobi world do not come often…"
"Enough, Kisame. Don't mock Zabuza here. He missed this mission for the village's safety. There's no need to speak about him like that."
Hearing a somewhat familiar voice appear behind them, Shisui Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki both brightened.
They immediately turned around, knelt on one knee, and lowered their heads toward Rei Kaguya, who had changed back into his Mizukage ceremonial robe.
"Fourth!"
"How is Konoha's situation? Between their old and young Hokage, at least one of them should be able to make decisions, right?"
Rei waved his hand, indicating that the two did not need to be so respectful in front of him, and asked casually.
"Well, if you intend to go discuss our appearance fee with Konoha's Hokage right now, Fourth, the timing may not be very suitable."
Kisame Hoshigaki stood up and shook his head.
"When the Third Hokage was driving away the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, he was ambushed by a group of missing-nin dressed in Root uniforms. Although he did not die on the spot, he was reportedly wounded by a special poisonous insect from the Aburame clan and is still receiving emergency treatment at the temporary hospital.
"As for the Fourth Hokage… cough. He should currently be saying his final farewell to his wife. It is probably not very appropriate for him to come out and discuss proper business right now."
"Oh? Kushina Uzumaki is still alive?"
Rei Kaguya raised his brows. First, a somewhat surprised expression appeared on his face. Then he spoke thoughtfully.
"Hm. If she is still alive right now… there might be another transaction here that could interest Orochimaru."
"You mean… those cells?"
Having once spent some time with Orochimaru, Shisui Uchiha immediately understood what Rei Kaguya was referring to.
"Bingo."
Rei Kaguya snapped his fingers.
"The main reason a Jinchuriki dies after having a Tailed Beast extracted is because too much vitality is consumed, while they themselves have no way to make up for that loss. But if it is that thing that can survive on its own even after its owner dies, perhaps there really is a possibility of saving her."
"Besides, I'm also rather interested in the Uzumaki clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains, the ability capable of suppressing Tailed Beasts. Although Nagato is also from the Uzumaki clan, he seems completely unable to use this move…"
"Let's go. We'll find the Fourth Hokage and have a good talk about this."
After saying that, Rei Kaguya lightly flicked the hem of his Mizukage robe, put on the hat symbolizing his identity as Mizukage, and led Kisame Hoshigaki and Shisui Uchiha toward Konoha's temporary hospital.
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