Chapter 039: Fiercely Beating Obito

In the streets and alleys of the Uchiha district, two small black figures flickered rapidly through the shadows.

“Hahahahahahaha—! Come on! Harder! Hit me harder!” Obito’s twisted face was covered in gashes and blood; his eyes bulged like copper bells as he howled with mad laughter. “Come on! Aim for my face! Let me see it! After all these years, what new tricks have you mastered?”

“Where’s your Flying Thunder God, second stage?! Where’s your Rasengan?!”

Boom—

A fist encased in a steam-powered gauntlet, crackling with ferocious lightning and brimming with overwhelming force, answered Obito’s taunts. That fist, charged to the brim with kinetic energy, crashed into Obito’s face, distorting what was already a warped countenance until it was barely recognizable.

The sheer force blasted through Obito’s flesh and radiated outward, tearing a fan-shaped swath more than ten meters wide into the ground behind him. Obito’s body was sent flying, shattered teeth and bloody spittle spraying through the air.

But Naruto was far from satisfied with such a trivial wound. He dashed forward, feet pounding, and slammed another fist down with punishing force. This blow smashed Obito’s cheek, driving him into the earth and leaving a spherical crater five meters across.

“Orra orra orra orra orra orra orra orra!” Naruto roared, his attacks relentless. Four mechanical arms and two flesh-and-blood hands, six in all, pummeled Obito in a whirlwind of blows.

This enemy was the most troublesome adversary Naruto had ever faced in both his lifetimes. He had met countless foes stronger than himself, but none so vexing, so repulsive as this one.

Obito’s phase-shifting jutsu was too fast, with no warning at all. Naruto had to focus every ounce of his attention, using spirit-forged energy to lock onto Obito and the space around him, just to catch him the instant he appeared. Miss a single attack, and Obito would slip away, forcing Naruto to spend tremendous effort to corner him again.

The most frustrating part was that most of Naruto’s support tools and ranged weapons were useless. Only spirit-forged energy and close combat could pin this foe down. Without an industrial base to assist him, Naruto couldn’t craft more intricate or sophisticated weapons. Ranged attacks simply couldn’t pierce the barrier of time and space to catch this man.

Obito, struggling, pulled his face from the dirt, trembling as he twisted around to look behind. By now, Naruto had strode up, ready to haul him up.

“Hey, you braggart,” Naruto sneered, “You may have my teacher’s face, but you don’t have his skill—I can see right through you. Whoever you are, did you really think you could outwit me?”

Obito’s trembling hand emerged from beneath his stomach; he had already finished weaving signs.

“Do you really think all this wreckage around us was made for nothing?” he spat.

In an instant, thick smoke billowed and flames shot skyward. Countless kunai, each tied with explosive tags, came hurtling toward Naruto—Obito had hidden an arsenal in the ruins. Naruto couldn’t guess where he had gotten so many, but it was clear Obito had used his space-time jutsu to do it.

A violent explosion swallowed Naruto.

“Hahahaha—learned this from a woman I once knew! Never tried it on anyone else before! Enjoy it!” Obito exclaimed with wild delight.

When the smoke cleared, nothing remained on the ground. Obito wiped the blood from his twisted face.

“Hmph, flashy tricks—yet in the end, you’ve been blown away.”

He looked up at the moon and murmured, “It’s late… perhaps it’s time for a silent departure…”

Activating Kamui, Obito prepared to vanish.

But just then, a fist burst from the earth and shot upward. It was Naruto—he’d slipped underground at the instant of the blast, evading the hail of shrapnel. He even had the presence of mind to reinforce his hiding place with shock-absorbing enhancements!

“What?! He actually—!” Obito was stunned.

That fist clamped firmly onto the vortex of Kamui Obito had summoned, and four mechanical arms, swirling with spirit-forged energy, tore open a breach, halting the jutsu’s activation. The gap slowly widened.

“Don’t even think about escaping! I promised to make up for the Fourth Hokage’s failure, and I will!” Naruto declared, “Not for anything else, but for all the people you’ve killed!”

Obito knew that once the breach grew wide enough, Naruto would reach in, drag him out, and beat him to death.

At this moment, Obito dared not move or slacken the flow of chakra. Even as his eyes filled with blood and tears of crimson streamed down his face, he desperately maintained Kamui’s expansion.

He knew that if he stopped, it would be his end.

“Why are you fighting so hard?!” Obito shouted. “You wear my teacher’s face—you must admire him! You know how many sacrifices he made for the Leaf, right? Do you know how his own child was treated after his death?”

“This ugly world is doomed to repeat itself, spawning new hatred again and again!”

“Do you know my plan? I want everyone to live in a peaceful, happy dream! I want to create a world without sorrow!”

“Why won’t you let me go? Why can’t we all live in a dream where wishes come true, and quietly welcome death? What’s so wrong with that?!”

Obito was afraid—he knew this enemy was not one he could defeat. He was flailing, desperately trying to convince Naruto to accept his ideals.

Naruto forced more spirit-forged energy into his mechanical arms, increasing their power. Hearing Obito’s words, he let out a cold laugh.

He had seen too many self-righteous fools who mistook their ideals for justice! The most insidious part of their sophistry was always the same—they set their own premise, assuming everyone should submit to a supreme will, to a destiny chosen for others by force.

Usually, Naruto could silence such people with a single retort:

Who do you think you are? What right do you have to choose my fate?

He never bothered to debate whether their chosen destiny was good or bad, or whether anyone else should decide it. There were no gods, no saviors—everyone must take responsibility for their own destiny!

All he could do for these self-important clowns was send them to meet the gods they worshipped, and let those gods judge the fate of war criminals.

Soon, Naruto sensed that Obito was reaching his limit; his chakra output was already beginning to fall.

Just as Naruto readied himself to give one last pull and drag Obito out of the other dimension, a scream split the air.

It was Sasuke’s voice!