"What's going on? Someone's calling for help!"
"Yosh! Kakashi, let's have a match! Let's see who reaches the rescue site first!" Guy, clad in his green jumpsuit, immediately challenged Kakashi upon seeing the signal.
Kakashi ignored Guy, his characteristic "dead fish eyes" fixed on the location of the distress signal. "That place... it's the Uchiha compound. What could be happening there?"
Just then, a figure wearing a beast-style Anbu mask appeared before them. "By order of the Hokage-sama, all shinobi are to remain in the village and await further instructions."
With a Body Flicker, the figure vanished.
"Clan Head-sama, that signal..." In the Hyuga clan compound, a clansman hurried towards Hyuga Hiashi.
"Mm, I am aware. The Hokage has issued an order: all Hyuga clan members are forbidden from leaving Konoha..."
"But..."
At this time, it wasn't just the Hyuga; other smaller clans like the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi—the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance—had also received similar orders. Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office, the Third Hokage was furiously railing at Danzo.
"That Danzo, what the hell is he doing?! How could he let them send out distress signals? Now I have to clean up his mess!!"
BOOM!
Another distress signal flared up from the Uchiha compound. Uchiha Nagi smirked. He had prepared plenty of these "fireworks" in advance. He knew no one would actually come to rescue the Uchiha clan, but irritating the Third Hokage like this was rather satisfying.
The Will of Fire? Let everyone see your hypocritical face, Sandaime.
And by muddying the waters, he'd have a better chance to escape.
"What's going on?! Didn't you say the barrier was already in place? Why are there so many distress signals?!" Danzo roared, furious.
"Lord Danzo, those signals... they're being launched from outside the barrier..." a subordinate reported.
Danzo: "......."
He nearly coughed up blood from sheer anger.
One after another, the loud booms of the distress signal flares echoed. Basically, anyone in Konoha who wasn't blind or deaf had seen them by now.
Looking at the barrier before him, Uchiha Nagi smiled faintly. This was Root's handiwork. Back when he was still a medical-nin, he had often secretly used genjutsu to hypnotize injured shinobi and extract information about sealing jutsu and barriers from their minds.
Just knowing a portion of the details was enough. The larger a barrier, the easier it was to find a loophole – for instance, Itachi and Kisame had strolled into Konoha as easily as if it were their own home.
"Boar – Ram – Monkey – Boar – Horse – Ox – Hare – Tiger – Release!" Nagi performed the hand seals. Watching a gap appear in the barrier, the corners of his mouth lifted in a slight smile. Once outside this barrier, no one would be able to find him; he had prepared his escape route long ago.
He had prepared for this day for a very long time, even going to great lengths and considerable cost to obtain the [Face-Erasing Appearance Technique] – an exceedingly cruel ninjutsu that Orochimaru would use in the future.
Furthermore, he possessed another trump card: the kind of rigged exploding tags that could destroy half of Konoha, planted by a certain carpenter...
"Hm?" Suddenly, Nagi's heart lurched violently. Sensing something was wrong, he executed several quick tumbles, moving away from his original spot.
Uchiha Obito...
"My, my, you actually dodged that. Such sharp intuition," Obito said with an odd, almost playful smile, a long chain-sickle in his hand. "To think the records still list you as a mere Chunin."
Uchiha Nagi calmly observed his opponent. Obito didn't know Nagi's true capabilities, while Nagi knew Obito's inside and out. But he would likely only get one chance...
Nagi drew a kunai and dashed towards Obito. Beneath his mask, Obito gave a disdainful smirk and activated his phasing ability.
Swish—
Nagi threw two kunai, one after the other, then drew his short sword and charged in, keeping his gaze fixed below Obito's neck the entire time.
Even if Obito wasn't a genjutsu specialist, Nagi knew his own three-tomoe Sharingan might not be enough to resist Obito's Mangekyo eye power. So, he adopted Guy's method: don't look at the opponent's eyes.
Watching the kunai fly towards him, the first one passed right through his mask. For some reason, Obito was reminded of his battle with the Fourth Hokage. He then gave a self-mocking smile; how could there possibly be a second person in this world who understood the Flying Thunder God Technique?
Quickly, the first kunai passed through Obito's head. As the second kunai was still phasing through Obito's body, Nagi's attack arrived.
Foolish. I can solidify and grab you the instant your kunai leaves my body, Obito thought with a sneer. With the heightened dynamic vision of his Mangekyo Sharingan, Nagi's every move was crystal clear to him.
Wait—
What is that?
Obito saw it clearly now: a thin, black wire, long and connected to the kunai.
Clink!
With a crisp clang of metal on metal, the two kunai collided in mid-air. One of them sharply changed direction, now flying towards Obito from behind.
So that's it. Exploiting my single eye's blind spot, using the first kunai as a feint, and then employing Itachi's specialty, the Shuriken Manipulation Technique.
Indeed, the human eye has a natural blind spot. When looking forward with a single eye, if you move a finger from side to side, you'll find a point where you can no longer see it.
And Obito, aside from the time he transplanted a spare three-tomoe Sharingan to use Izanagi, had effectively been relying on only one eye for all these years.
"However, my reactions are faster than you imagine," Obito thought, unfazed.
The kunai that had looped back phased harmlessly through Obito's body once more, dealing no damage.
Nagi's attack naturally missed as well, passing straight through Obito.
But the next second—
After passing through Obito's intangible form, Nagi suddenly found he couldn't move. Because he had been in a forward lunging leap, Obito had solidified just as Nagi was about to clear him, turned, and grabbed his leg.
Whoosh~
Ripples began to spread through the air as a mysterious vortex swirled to life in Obito's eye. Nagi had no way to resist; he didn't know any space-time ninjutsu and couldn't break free from the powerful suction.
Just as Nagi's body was halfway sucked into the vortex, a strange, almost cunning smile flickered across his lips. He raised his hand towards his temple.
Something's wrong—
Obito's sixth sense screamed a warning. It's a trap! His Mangekyo vision caught something unusual: tiny sparks.
Under Nagi's clothes, there were sparks – it was an exploding tag!
Obito was forced to immediately abort the Kamui suction. If it was just an exploding tag, he could still deal with it if he reacted quickly...
"Solar Flare!"
An intense white light erupted from Uchiha Nagi's body. This was a jutsu he had invented himself – nothing more than a pure, blinding flashbang effect.
Nagi knew better than anyone: the Uchiha clan's strength lay in their eyes, but their eyes were also their greatest vulnerability. That was why he had developed this jutsu targeting vision. He recalled that, in the future, Yakushi Kabuto would develop something similar.
He called it "Solar Flare" in homage to a favorite anime from his previous life...
"Argh!" Obito had never encountered such a tactic before. His vision was momentarily, painfully, blinded. And just at that instant—
Thwack! A kunai fell from above. With a puff of smoke, it transformed directly into Uchiha Nagi, who swung his short sword in a deadly arc at Obito's head.
This was his real body.
It turned out that while planning his escape, Nagi had recalled a tactic Naruto would use in the future: using the Transformation Jutsu to turn himself into a weapon. One of the kunai he'd thrown at Obito had been himself in disguise.
Then, after the two (apparent) kunai passed through Obito's body and collided, one was pulled back with chakra threads to strike at Obito's head from behind, while the other (the transformed Nagi) had been launched upwards, waiting for this very moment.
"Aargh...!" A white, severed hand flew into the sky.