Chapter 251: Swift Release, Steel Release, Storm Release
"Obito. What exactly do you think you're doing?"
High above, the great bird streaked toward the Land of Grass, a fierce wind whipping their cloaks into a violent snap.
And then, without warning, an uninvited presence appeared before Deidara.
Shion, staring at the man like something out of a nightmare, couldn't help but shrink back.
"And here I thought — who could it be..."
"So it's you, huh..."
A bead of cold sweat rolled down Deidara's temple.
Back at Amegakure, the moment Pain formally set the tailed-beast capture plan in motion, Deidara had already sensed something was off about him.
That invisible, crushing pressure radiating off him — it bore no resemblance whatsoever to how the man had been three years ago.
If I fight him, I die.
The thought surfaced in Deidara's mind, unbidden.
"For old times' sake, as a former teammate — hand over the Shrine Maiden."
"I won't lay a hand on you."
Obito Uchiha stepped forward, expressionless.
"Hey, hold on, hold on, you're really not taking me seriously at all here, are you?"
Deidara instinctively shielded Shion behind him, his eyes narrowing slightly.
Joining Akatsuki in the first place had only ever happened because he couldn't beat Itachi Uchiha.
If he was being honest with himself, that crusty old man Ōnoki had treated him decently enough — and even after he'd run off for four or five years, the old man had never once put out a bounty on him. Instead, the moment Konoha captured him, Ōnoki had traded away a secret technique without a second thought just to get him back.
This was his first assignment since returning to Iwagakure.
There was no way he'd let this man snatch the Shrine Maiden right out from under him.
With that thought, Deidara struck first.
Forming a single-handed seal in front of his chest, he shouted:
"Art is an explosion!"
CRACK!
At that instant, Deidara detonated the very clay bird both of them were standing on!
The moment he triggered it, he'd already scooped up Shion and leapt clear off the bird!
An endless wall of flame instantly consumed the sky, and a massive cloud of dust and debris erupted outward alongside it!
Deidara wasn't a taijutsu specialist — he was a purebred ninjutsu type through and through. Even having jumped clear first, there was no way to fully escape the blast radius.
Amid that violent explosion, he had his Iwagakure gear's solid craftsmanship to thank for shielding him from the worst of the flames — but even so, he couldn't hold back a mouthful of blood.
"This guy..."
Obito plummeted from the sky at speed, but unlike Deidara, he'd triggered Kamui the instant the explosion went off, avoiding the clay bird's blast entirely.
By now, Deidara, Shion, and Obito were all falling.
Obito's eyes narrowed — a fourth figure had suddenly appeared in the mix!
It was Tarusuke, who'd been gripped in the clay bird's claw the whole time — but caught in the blast, she'd been knocked unconscious.
If no one intervened, she'd hit the ground and die.
Two Shrine Maidens?
Obito's gaze sharpened, but he immediately redirected his palm toward Deidara instead, calling out:
"Storm Release — Storm Dragon Rampage!"
Crimson lightning surged around Obito, accompanied by a soul-shaking black cloud, and in the next instant, that red lightning shot toward Deidara with a roar like a dragon's cry.
The Shrine Maiden Deidara had been protecting was undoubtedly the real one.
Obito chose Shion — the one Deidara had picked to shield — without hesitation.
"Storm Release?!"
Deidara's chest tightened at that.
Storm Release was a kekkei genkai born from the fusion of Lightning and Water Release.
It also happened to counter his signature explosive clay perfectly!
In this critical instant, Deidara kicked Shion clear away from himself, then flung both hands out, sending two hastily-molded clay birds hurtling forward.
Each clay bird instantly transformed into a life-size white hawk, streaking toward Shion and Tarusuke!
Meanwhile, Deidara found himself with no choice but to take the incoming crimson lightning head-on!
With an agonized scream, he crashed straight down into the dense forest below.
At the same time, the two white hawks each snatched up Shion and Tarusuke, flying off into the distance.
Obito had no interest in dragging out the fight with Deidara any further, landing lightly on the ground and immediately taking off after the hawk carrying Shion.
But at that moment, several clay spiders leapt toward him!
Hm. This one.
Recognizing Deidara's signature technique, Obito's expression darkened, and he simply ignored the clay spiders entirely.
Steel Release.
A metallic sheen instantly spread across Obito's body, and the clay spiders detonated around him — reducing his black cloak with its red-cloud pattern to tatters, but leaving him without so much as a scratch.
He glanced back once at Deidara, still struggling to rise from where he'd crashed, then lost no more time — his body blurring like a gust of wind, closing dozens of meters in a single step.
Swift Release!
In just a few strides, Obito had vanished entirely from Deidara's sight.
"Damn it..."
"How the hell did this guy get this monstrous..."
First blown up by his own explosive clay bird, then taking a direct hit from Storm Release with nothing but his own body, then plummeting from high altitude straight to the ground.
If not for the trees breaking his fall, he'd probably be off keeping Kakuzu company by now.
Even so, Deidara had taken serious damage.
Extensive burns across most of his body. Three broken ribs.
Gritting through the pain, Deidara glanced down at his own leg, twisted into a horrifyingly unnatural angle.
Worse still — the leg was broken.
He drew a deep, ragged breath, choked down a soldier pill, molded another clay bird despite his ruined state, and hauled his battered body onto it, flying off after Obito.
He caught sight of them—
Obito, tracking Shion, spotted the two life-size white hawks in the sky and was just about to bring them down, when he suddenly registered movement behind him.
"Obito Uchiha, you murderer of your own teacher!"
"How dare you still show your face in this world!"
Deidara, dragging his ruined body along, shouted from behind at the top of his lungs.
Konoha had already put out a bounty on Obito Uchiha's head three years ago.
And the notice had spelled out the reason plainly.
Murdered his own teacher. The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.
Single-handedly orchestrated the Nine-Tails' rampage.
Unable to catch up to Obito physically, Deidara resorted to shouting insults instead, trying to draw his attention.
Killing one's own teacher was an offense of the gravest possible severity in the shinobi world.
The bond between master and student was held above even that between parent and child.
After all, you had no say in what kind of child you were born — but choosing a student was a deliberate, careful decision.
A student mattered more than one's own flesh and blood.
And by the same token, a teacher deserved more reverence than even one's own father.
Obito glanced back at Deidara once and said nothing.
He and Minato had only ever been teacher and student in name.
He'd killed his own teacher. So what?
If Minato had truly been his teacher, why had he always been one step too slow, every single time it mattered most?
If he'd truly been his teacher, why hadn't he recognized him, that night of all nights?
All of it was Minato's fault. All of it was this world's fault.
He'd simply punished Minato for always being a step too slow. For failing to recognize him.
Murdered his own teacher?
Laughable.
There.
Watching the two hawks come within striking range, Obito didn't hesitate for a moment.
Wood Release — Cutting Technique!
Two wooden spikes instantly materialized in the air, aimed at the two hawks above.
To avoid accidentally killing the Shrine Maiden, Obito had only fired two thin spikes rather than anything more lethal.
"Damn it..."
Deidara scowled at the sight.
This man wasn't even bothering to acknowledge his taunts.
Even Kurotsuchi couldn't stand up to his insults without reacting.
But just as those two wooden spikes were about to strike the hawks — a stray fireball came flying in from nowhere, intercepting them entirely!
Who?
Obito's expression turned grave, and he came to a halt.
At that moment, a cool, composed figure stood perched atop a treetop, staring coldly down at the man who'd just stopped in his tracks.
The hawks flew past overhead, the wind from their passing ruffling the figure's dark hair slightly.
The newcomer reached up, smoothing his disheveled hair back into place, his black eyes utterly devoid of emotion as he regarded the man before him.
"Sasuke... Uchiha."
Obito's expression turned grave as he studied the newcomer.
"Huh. I thought Sakura sent me to back up the squad. Didn't expect to run into you instead."
Sasuke's tone was cold, carrying an undercurrent of bone-deep killing intent.
"Then again — this works out fine. Old grudges, new debts..."
The black-haired boy drew the long blade at his waist, slowly.
A long, deliberate ring of steel echoed as the blade left its sheath.
It's him. It's really him!
The man responsible, alongside Itachi Uchiha, for slaughtering the Uchiha clan.
Beneath Sasuke's cold, composed expression burned a volcano at full boil.
"Time to settle this..."
With the final word, Sasuke's figure vanished from the spot in an instant!
Fast!
Obito's eyes narrowed slightly.
Still, that's about all he's—
Ting!
A sharp, clear sound rang out through the forest.
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at that.
A single finger.
A single finger had stopped his blade cold.
"Had a good look, kid?"
Obito's voice was flat, indifferent — and along with it came a whipping kick, arriving in an instant.
The scenery spun.
Pain flared through Sasuke's body.
Caught completely off guard, Obito's kick sent Sasuke flying with force too fast to even register.
Several trees snapped clean in half as Sasuke crashed through them, leaving Deidara, still limping desperately toward the fight, gawking in disbelief.
Wait — this guy talks a huge game against Obito Uchiha, and gets kicked away in two moves?
But before Deidara could finish his internal mockery, a low shout rang out from the wreckage Sasuke had just plowed through:
"Fire Release — Great Dragon Fire Technique!"
Instantly, a roaring, serpentine river of flame surged toward Obito!
"Hmph."
"Showing off Fire Release in front of me?"
Obito gave a cold snort, forming hand seals as one of his Sharingan bloomed into its Mangekyō form.
"Fire Release — Blasting Chaos Dance!"
Kamui activated in that instant, space warping around him.
The flame Obito breathed out underwent a fundamental transformation, and reinforced by that same space-warping power, it collided head-on with Sasuke's Great Dragon Fire!
The dragon of flame let out a mournful cry and collapsed instantly.
But at that very moment, a bolt of lightning erupted from the wreckage of broken trees, streaking toward Obito at a speed nearly impossible for the naked eye to track!
Wreathed in furious lightning, Sasuke's blade transformed into the sharpest lightning imaginable, and in the blink of an eye, it shattered the incoming flame to pieces!
But this was far from over.
"Thunder Tiger Annihilation!"
A roar tore from Sasuke's throat as a violent surge of deep blue lightning closed in on Obito!
Amid that flash of lightning stood Obito's eyes — cold, and crimson.
Then, thunder crashed, and a streak of crimson bled into that deep blue storm.
A blinding, unmistakable crimson.
Crimson lightning erupted across Obito's body, and Sasuke's blue lightning began steadily losing ground against it.
Lightning Release...
No. Not Lightning Release.
Though the crimson lightning before him closely resembled Lightning Release, it lacked the sheer savage violence of the real thing.
Not only did it perfectly shield Obito, it was rapidly consuming Sasuke's own Lightning Release technique at an alarming rate.
Watching this Lightning-Release-esque technique, Sasuke's mind flashed to Darui.
The color was different, but—
"Storm Release — Storm Dragon Rampage."
At that, the previously docile crimson lightning suddenly revealed the true savagery of Lightning Release, and Sasuke's own lightning shattered instantly against it, flimsy as paper.
Taijutsu. Fire Release. Lightning Release.
In that moment, Obito demonstrated near-total dominance over Sasuke across every category.
And notably — he'd done all of it without even using Kamui once.
Watching that crimson lightning about to engulf him entirely, Sasuke's expression shifted sharply.
If taijutsu, Fire Release, and Lightning Release are all useless against him—
The strange, seven-petaled pattern bloomed in Sasuke's eyes, and a terrifying surge of visual power erupted forth.
Then—
Susano'o!
As Kakashi's own student, Sasuke understood full well that this man's single Sharingan eye was the same Mangekyō carrying Kamui that Kakashi possessed.
Which meant the man had only one Mangekyō Sharingan.
While Susano'o could theoretically be unlocked the instant the Mangekyō itself was achieved, actually using it required having practiced it before, understanding its inner mechanics.
Sasuke was gambling right now.
Gambling that this man had never used Susano'o before.
And even if he had, gambling that he lacked the ability to forcibly manifest it purely through raw chakra.
Not only that — Amatsukami and Kotoamatsukami both activated in that same instant.
Invisible forces settled over both Sasuke and Obito, weighting fate itself, unseen and unheard.
The scales of destiny had shifted, silently.
The visual power in Sasuke's eyes stacked, one weight after another, onto his own side of the balance.
Bone-white skeletal structure materialized around Sasuke, chakra flame quietly rising off its surface — and for the first time, Obito's expression genuinely shifted.
Susano'o...
Sasuke's gamble had paid off.
This particular ability, Obito genuinely didn't have.
But whether he had it or not —
Did that even matter anymore?
(End of chapter)
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