"I will sever the causality of this world!"
A massive Susanoo raised the greatsword in its hand and swung it in all directions.
Night descended.
Moonlight blanketed the earth, making everything appear especially dark. The moon itself had turned crimson, radiating a cold aura as it hid mysteriously among the dark clouds.
White mist billowed through the air, ethereal and merciless.
Obito’s throat moved slightly.
A choked sob rose from his throat.
The tightly stretched string inside him had finally snapped.
"Kakashi, once I finish this battle, I’ll return to Konoha and find you and Rin!"
At this moment, friendship and love were the last things supporting Obito.
Suddenly, Obito flipped one hand.
The blue-green giant raised its right hand as well. The greatsword in its grasp transformed into four enormous shuriken.
Obito raised his head and gazed at the blood-red full moon in the sky.
"This world that can no longer distinguish right from wrong has no reason to exist. All that remains is suffering!"
"Be destroyed!"
The entire body of the Susanoo instantly erupted with intense blue radiance.
The shuriken in its hand began spinning strangely without even being thrown, dazzling blue light swirling around them.
Then the Susanoo swung its arm.
The four shuriken shot toward four different directions.
"Buzz!"
The shuriken tore across the earth, leaving four enormous trenches in their wake before exploding.
"BOOOOM!"
The tremendous explosions spread across heaven and earth.
The thunderous roar traveled for hundreds of kilometers, while the echoes continued for thousands of kilometers.
When the explosions finally subsided, the gloomy, oppressive world suddenly became warm and bright.
The clamor of battle abruptly ceased.
The crimson moon was now completely unobstructed by the clouds, and moonlight poured down upon the earth.
Everything between heaven and earth became clear and peaceful.
"Is this the power of a god? The Uchiha really are too troublesome. They’re always creating unexpected incidents!"
The Zetsu had already sensed that something was wrong and had burrowed underground, hiding in the distance.
They all looked up at the darkened sky in the same posture.
At the forefront, Black Zetsu muttered to himself.
His black-and-white face actually showed an expression of dejection.
"How could this happen? Why did Obito awaken his eyes at this moment?"
No matter how Black Zetsu thought about it, he couldn’t understand.
How had this dead-last managed to awaken his eyes simply by fighting a battle?
It made no sense!
Had someone else been here, they would undoubtedly have maliciously concluded:
As expected, idiots are even harder to bully. Every time this world gains another idiot, it loses one more source of trouble.
Unfortunately, Black Zetsu didn’t understand that.
All he knew was that the Susanoo before him was extremely irritating.
"The Uchiha are such a headache! Nothing about them makes any sense!"
No matter how much Black Zetsu complained, the Uchiha had never been a clan that operated according to reason.
An Uchiha who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan wasn’t a problem that a support-type entity like Zetsu could simply deal with.
"It’s time to release the blockade and let Konoha collapse!"
Now that Obito possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, there was no longer any chance that the Grass shinobi disguised as Stone shinobi could win.
Therefore, Black Zetsu’s only option was to let Obito slaughter all the Grass shinobi, allow the Konoha shinobi to be overwhelmed, and then create a devastating explosion large enough to erase every trace of what had happened.
The failure of the mission wasn’t important.
If the people of the sacred lands discovered that remnants capable of threatening the world still existed, however, that would be troublesome.
Having figured this out, the light returned to Black Zetsu’s eyes.
"Plant a large number of Explosive Spores around the perimeter. Destroy the entire Kannabi region!"
Upon hearing the order, all the White Zetsu stomped hard against the ground.
Their bodies shot away like white arrows, scattering in every direction.
Black Zetsu remained behind, continuing to worry about how he would clean up the aftermath.
Sigh.
"Looks like Madara was right. If you’re going to choose an Uchiha as a companion, you have to choose an idiot. You never know when you might suddenly find yourself unable to beat him."
"And even when a foolish Uchiha can’t beat you, you can at least deceive him!"
Black Zetsu had already decided how he would deceive Obito after this battle.
He quietly watched the blue Susanoo rampage.
West of Kannabi Bridge, Obito’s Susanoo was wreaking havoc.
Every swing of its arm sent several Grass shinobi flying while simultaneously tearing apart the earth.
"So this is all the shinobi outside Konoha can do? They can’t even defeat Kakashi with one hand!"
The sudden acquisition of power gave Obito an enormous boost of confidence.
In an instant, blue shuriken condensed into razor-sharp blades and flew through the crowd.
The razor-sharp energy shuriken forced Menma Yulin, the jōnin, into an extremely awkward position.
First, he leaned backward to evade it.
Then he exerted force through his waist and abdomen, snapping his head forward at the last moment and narrowly dodging the sphere of tremendous energy.
This Grass shinobi, famed for his intelligence, really did have a few tricks up his sleeve.
At the very least, he had several tricks for keeping himself alive!
"Sir, it seems the situation before us isn’t going according to your expectations. Your plan of using the Grass shinobi to fight Konoha may have failed."
Faced with the threat brought by Obito, Menma didn’t immediately try to find a way to resolve it.
Instead, he turned to the Grass shinobi beside him and discussed the situation.
When three forces were fighting, there was rarely anything wrong with dragging the weaker side into fighting the stronger side.
The few White Zetsu mixed among the Grass and Konoha shinobi apparently hadn’t managed to escape.
Obito obviously couldn’t distinguish one side from another.
He hated the Grass shinobi for launching a surprise attack, but he also despised Konoha for what it had become.
As a result, his attacks were completely indiscriminate.
The agile Susanoo shuriken moved at terrifying speed.
Dodging one didn’t mean safety.
There was always another.
In the blink of an eye, one of them was about to collide with Menma and the Grass shinobi beside him.
The explosion was imminent.
There was no longer time for conversation.
"Grass Shadow Style: Explosive Palm!"
"Venus Flytrap Ephemeral!"
The two men, each harboring their own ulterior motives, acted simultaneously.
One summoned a tremendous amount of explosive flames with both palms.
The other summoned vast quantities of vegetation to contain explosive material.
Their coordination was surprisingly seamless.
The shuriken collided with the explosive flames, producing an intense vibration.
"Buzz..."
Under their combined resistance, the enormous Susanoo shuriken shrank at a speed invisible to the naked eye.
A few seconds later, Menma Yulin withdrew his arms.
The ferocious Susanoo shuriken had shrunk to the size of a fingertip.
It bounced twice in midair before disappearing.
Menma shook his hands, which had been roasted until they were red and hot.
He lifted his eyelids and looked toward the more-than-ten-meter-tall azure Susanoo before him.
Annoyance flashed across his face.
"Just to withstand one casual attack from him, we had to put in this much effort."
He turned toward the Grass shinobi beside him.
"If you have no countermeasure, sir, don’t blame me for what I do next!"
Menma had already seen through the true nature of the Grass shinobi who was actually White Zetsu.
Now it was time for this White Zetsu to make his decision.
"Lord Menma, there’s no point saying more. Right now, staying alive is what matters most."
The Grass shinobi’s narrow eyes narrowed further.
He took the opportunity to glance at Obito, who stood arrogantly in midair.
Then he stared intently at Menma, his sharp chin making his expression appear particularly cold.
"Staying alive?"
Menma let out a long sigh.
He also looked sorrowfully toward Obito.
Behind him was the Grass Shinobi Village, where smoke and flames still filled the air.
"For shinobi from a small nation, even being allowed to live is already a luxury."
Uchiha Obito before them was like a child throwing a tantrum while holding a deadly weapon.
He was simply venting his inexplicable emotions to his heart’s content.
The Grass shinobi who resisted him, as well as the Konoha shinobi, had all become targets for his emotional outburst.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Kei, who was on his way to the Land of Grass, had never expected to encounter something like this halfway there.
The sudden appearance of the Mangekyō Sharingan had delayed Kei’s journey once again.
Looking at the gigantic figure that stretched across heaven and earth, Kei became interested.
"Cha, did you see that?"
Cha, who had been bonding with the giant salamander, had naturally witnessed the scene that looked like a divine being descending upon the world.
Unfortunately, this was a privilege exclusive to orthodox Uchiha.
A Red-Eyed Uchiha like Cha didn’t have such an opportunity.
The only hope for increasing the strength of the Red Eyes was to place their faith in the yokai.
At present, the Red Eyes could use the Kido granted by the yokai through their devout faith, but not a single one of them had yet earned the yokai’s favor.
Still, Cha believed that one day, once they achieved yokai transformation, the Red Eyes would also be capable of unleashing such world-shattering power.
For now, however, the Red-Eyed Uchiha could only answer Kei with a sour tone.
"I saw it, my lord. The Uchiha’s reputation really is formidable. I just wonder which lord of the Main Family has broken through the boundary between man and god."
Kei shook his head.
"That should be the Kannabi region. If nothing unexpected happened, it was probably Obito."
"But this is only a small spectacle. It’s not worth making such a fuss over, and it certainly doesn’t qualify as breaking through any boundary between gods and humans."
"Little Cha, you’re being sarcastic again! You know that’s not what I meant."
"I was just trying to tell you that while your own failure may be frightening, a friend’s success can be even more painful."
As he spoke, Kei looked toward Obito’s direction and continued:
"I wonder how Kakashi is doing."
It was only one Uchiha awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan.
Kei had seen too much of it to make a big deal out of it.
After all, he still had another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan that he hadn’t given away.
"I wonder whether Kakashi, who has been studying the Hatake Sword Technique, would be willing to accept a Mangekyō Sharingan."
At this moment, although the western side of the Land of Fire was engulfed in fierce warfare, it didn’t interfere with Konoha’s Joint Chūnin Exams, which were proceeding in full swing.
The famous shinobi Kakashi still couldn’t escape the fate of participating in a Chūnin Exam despite already being a jōnin.
For Might Guy’s sake, he had formed a remedial team with Uchiha Kabuto.
Their purpose was to help the team’s only genin advance to Chūnin and avoid having the team disband.
Kakashi was already a veteran jōnin despite being only around ten years old.
Uchiha Kabuto, meanwhile, had graduated from the Iga Academy after only a few months under the title of prodigy, becoming a Chūnin at the age of six before advancing to the rank of Tokubetsu Jōnin.
His speed was second only to Uchiha Itachi.
Kabuto and Itachi were now jointly known as the Twin Stars of the Uchiha Main and Branch Families.
Today, the two prodigies were bringing along one dead-last to take the Chūnin Exams.
Kakashi simply didn’t believe they couldn’t carry him through.
Konoha’s Chūnin Exams still followed the same old three-part formula.
Different packaging, same contents.
The written examination of the first stage had already ended.
The proctor was a Konoha Uchiha.
Might Guy had practically been copying answers openly, yet no one bothered to stop him.
The other cheating candidates weren’t nearly as fortunate.
How could a genin’s cheating escape the eyes of an Uchiha?
The first examination, originally intended to test a shinobi’s ability to gather intelligence, had finally become a straightforward written test of theoretical knowledge.
All the genin taking the examination put away their little schemes.
All except Might Guy.
With nothing but muscles in his head, Guy was utterly helpless when faced with the examination paper.
He could only rely on Kakashi to help him cheat.
However, the Uchiha Chūnin proctor simply ignored Guy’s cheating and allowed it to continue.
After all, despite his young age, the watermelon-headed boy possessed enough strength to stand on his own and had already reached the level of a Tokubetsu Jōnin.
But such blatant favoritism was bound to attract someone who didn’t know better.
A hotheaded Sand shinobi had finished his examination.
Seeing Guy openly cheating without anyone doing anything about it, he immediately voiced his dissatisfaction.
"Chūnin, that watermelon-head’s cheating is completely outrageous! Are you really going to let him get away with it?"
Yes.
The Sand shinobi were taking the examination too.
They were working hard to join Naka’s alliance system.
Not because the alliance itself was particularly wonderful, but because the mission volume coming from the Land of Rivers was simply too lucrative.
It was enough to help the Sand shinobi escape their current impoverished circumstances.
By now, the Sand shinobi were flooded with Naka currency, and Naka’s financial system had already overwhelmed Sunagakure’s finances.
Faced with the Sand shinobi’s "slander," Might Guy felt extremely aggrieved.
He hadn’t actually copied anything!
It was just that Kakashi had practically shoved the examination paper into his face.
What else could he do?
Just as Guy was preparing to defend himself, the Uchiha proctor pushed up his glasses and said:
"Very well. The Sand team has earned merit by reporting cheating. They are disqualified from the examination!"
With a single sentence, the Sand shinobi, whose smile had still been hanging on his face a moment earlier, was left completely dumbfounded.
He stared around in disbelief.
The Wave shinobi, Sound shinobi, Whirlpool shinobi, and Konoha shinobi all wore mocking smiles.
Only the River shinobi showed him sympathy.
"Why?!"
The Sand shinobi couldn’t understand.
He had clearly done something worthy of recognition.
Why had he instead been disqualified?
"This isn’t fair!"
The Sand shinobi became agitated.
The River shinobi sitting beside him tugged on his sleeve, signaling him not to argue.
There was no point.
Demanding fairness from an Uchiha?
What a joke.
After the Battle of Konoha, the Uchiha had practically demonstrated enough "fairness" to last a lifetime.
At this point, no one in Konoha had the standing to demand to be treated fairly before the Uchiha.
The Uchiha had become synonymous with privilege in Konoha.
As for that watermelon-head team—
One member was the disciple of Tenzen, the strongest Uchiha.
One was the son of a powerful individual who had been among the earliest to pledge allegiance to the Uchiha.
And one was a prodigious young member of the Uchiha Branch Family.
Demanding fairness from them would itself be the greatest injustice imaginable.
A whirlwind swept through the examination hall.
The Uchiha Chūnin proctor attacked the Sand shinobi.
The force and speed of the attack were simply beyond what a Sand genin could react to.
Just as the Sand shinobi was about to be sent flying, a green figure appeared between the two in the blink of an eye.
With his own strength, he not only stopped the Uchiha Chūnin’s attack but also protected the Sand shinobi.
The Sand shinobi’s cold sweat hadn’t even formed before the watermelon-head had already reacted.
And the Uchiha’s strike had shown absolutely no mercy.
Being able to stop that attack was proof enough of Guy’s strength.
Might Guy had prevented a potentially bloody incident caused by the abuse of authority.
Yet he was still grateful to the Uchiha who had stood up for him.
His teacher Tenzen had once told him:
"Uchiha have never been good rulers.
Favoritism is carved into their blood. Once they regard you as one of their own, they will favor you without the slightest principle.
Becoming friends with an Uchiha will make you very happy.
But having an Uchiha as your leader?
Then you’re in trouble."
And now they were indeed in trouble.
Guy, who had been favored, naturally felt quite comfortable.
But he couldn’t stand by and watch an Uchiha break the rules on his behalf.
"Lord Uchiha, cheating was indeed my mistake. Please forgive this rude Sand shinobi. I voluntarily withdraw from the examination!"
Guy apologized as he withdrew from the examination hall.
He hoped that by sacrificing himself, he could improve the allies’ prejudice against the Uchiha.
Unfortunately, Guy’s actions only made the atmosphere in the examination hall even more awkward.
The young Uchiha Kabuto poked Hatake Kakashi and asked:
"How did you ever become friends with someone this naive?"
Kakashi ignored the brat and turned around, following Guy out of the examination hall.
There was nothing Kabuto could do except leave as well.
Perhaps this was what friendship was.
Poor Kakashi.
Despite already being a jōnin, he ultimately still failed the Chūnin Exams!
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