chapter 133

"You are the most annoying little shit I've had to deal with, and that's saying something."

"Funny that, I was thinking much the same thing about you," Eiji replied, Flickering to dodge a fire technique that came his way. Obito had grown tired of just using weapons, it seemed, and had started flinging Jutsu at him after a while. Not that it changed the weird stalemate they were in.

'He's not that strong,' Eiji thought to himself, finding that fact strange. He'd prepared and trained thinking that nothing would ever be enough. That'd he'd ultimately find himself outclassed no matter what he did or what he learned. And yet, there he was, keeping up with Obito, of all people, like he was just any of the other ninja he'd ever had to deal with.

He was fairly sure that Madara and Kaguya were still out of his league, but still…

'I can win this,' he thought, grinning from ear to ear. This seemed to annoy Obito, but he could care less about that. He was winning and he was going to win, Eiji knew that now. And then, as he jumped and twisted his body around a chain that his opponent sent his way, he laughed.

"What are you laughing at?!" Obito shouted, clearly growing frustrated, which worked just fine for Eiji. "You are on your backfoot, idiot!"

"That's what you think, isn't it?" Eiji asked back, still chuckling, while moving himself mid air with ninja wire. "That's what you would like, isn't it?"

"You haven't landed a single attack!" Obito said, a hint of triumph behind his manic voice. Poor fucker actually thought that.

"I only need the one attack, and it's not time for it yet," Eiji replied, idly, almost leisurely twirling Nuibari in his hand. He wasn't even lying, really. He'd prepared a single technique to deal with Obito and he was sure it'd be enough. He had vague memories, back when he'd arrived, of how to deal with him and he'd turned those into a project once he was able to.

He'd tinkered with that idea for long before it even saw a semblance of success. And once it did, Eiji had worked tirelessly whenever he could to bring it to the level he'd need it to be. Finally, he'd done so some time before. It had been such a relief when it happened. Despite the fact that the world was still going to shit and there were great dangers out there, the sole fact of having this one technique ready for its eventual use had helped him a great deal.

He was pretty sure that much of his recent calm had come from it, even if what happened with Naruto had thrown everything overboard in a single day. Now, there was no danger to his brother and the man that was hopefully the final boss for him was right there. Even better, Obito couldn't beat him.

Eiji was deliriously happy, really, to the point he wondered if he wasn't dreaming. Quite the contrast from the increasingly more mad Obito across from him. He could feel the man growing more and more rabid by the second as Eiji and him continued their fighting dance where neither could hit the other. Which made sense, really, since a random boy had one day popped up and started screwing up his plans, destroying all that he'd worked towards.

Akatsuki was done, basically, maybe not that very day, but they would be soon enough. The Squad had hopefully taken care of Zetsu already, which would keep the plant man sealed forever, if Eiji had any say in the matter. The remaining Jinchuriki were basically safe and Nagato's eyes were out of his reach now because of his interference.

Everything had failed for him.

And it was all because of Eiji.

"How does it feel to fail?" the boy asked the man, grinning widely. "A familiar feeling for you, right?" he added, not really because of all that he'd done, but more of a dig to the old Obito. "You were never meant to win. Never meant to get anywhere. At most, you'd have been a bad guy for some hero to beat."

"And that's supposed to be you? You are delusional," the masked man replied with, which made Eiji laugh once more.

"Not me, no," he agreed with a chuckle. "I just beat them to the punch, really. You were getting a little too dangerous, after all. So, sorry, I had to stop your plans… Obito."

That made his opponent freeze and Eiji could sense the face he made, which almost sent him into laughter once more. Oh, it was so nice to finally be there. To finally stand there, at the end of the line, and know everything was fine. If Obito had any ace up his sleeve, he'd have used it already, but there was nothing. They'd been at a stalemate for too long for that to be the case.

That meant one thing and one thing only. He couldn't beat Eiji. The only silver lining for Obito was that he thought the boy couldn't defeat him either due to his Kamui. They were at an infinite draw, as far as the Uchiha was aware.

He was wrong though.

"How do you know that?"

"You'd be surprised of the things I know," Eiji answered, his grin turning from amused to something much meaner. "I know lots of things, but above all, I know you can't beat me."

"And neither can you beat me," Obito shot back.

"That's what you think," Eiji replied, lightning cackling around his body. "But I know I can."

A second later and before the Uchiha could really decide what to do with what Eiji was saying and doing, the boy dashed towards him. Nuibari pierced right through Obito's chest. Harmlessly, of course, but that wasn't the point of the attack. 'Got you,' Eiji thought to himself, grinning even wider than before.

'Let's go, Tsuchigumo,' he called in his mind, receiving a bark in response from the Chakra Beast within him. 'Relentless Storm,' he added then, finally fully activating his technique. Instantly several very significant things happened. Lightning flashed, blinding the world with its light. Thunder boomed, deafening the world with its sound. The only other thing left to feel was the ozone in the air.

To Eiji, it was the smell of victory.

[}-o-{]

[Onoki]

Everyone was in position and the Tsuchikage found himself frustrated and, yes, a little in awe of what the Weaver had accomplished. That one boy had done something that was – even though Onoki would never admit it to anyone – quite impressive. Hell, that might be one of the worst understatements out there.

After all, Eiji Satou had, by himself, mobilized the might of the five biggest Nations to do what he wanted. Now, the Land of Rain was surrounded by them on all sides. There was no border that someone could come out of that wouldn't be seen by someone. They'd all gone a step further and covered behind the main line of defense, just in case.

The promise they were given was that this should be the last step to taking out Akatsuki once and for all. That was something that everyone wanted, which was probably the reason why they'd listened so well. Onoki could have been convinced to do this if it really came down to it, he supposed. However, he didn't think A's spirit was broken enough to be ordered around by a brat otherwise, even if he'd look terrible in the eyes of the world.

And yet, every single Kage had done as the Weaver asked. Granted, he didn't have enough influence to pull stunts like this one consistently or anything. It was mostly a one time thing in all regards, but it was still impressive that it had happened at all.

Onoki really wanted – and at the same time didn't – to see what Satou would do if he survived a few more years. If he was this much of a nightmare as young as he was, what would he do with a few years to get even stronger and overall better? What heights would his team reach, if they'd gotten so far up as they did now?

'What's going on, brat? What mess are you causing in there?' Onoki wondered, gazing into the Land of Rain both curiously and apprehensively. If this movement failed, then things would be very complicated, he could bet.

"Red Nose, my man," a voice said as someone Flickered right in front of his forces. Onoki felt his eye twitch as his people stood straight, ready for battle. "Could you tell this bunch of dumbasses to relax?" the obnoxious redhead told him to which he took a deep breath in.

"Check for henges, disguises and genjutsu," Onoki ordered as the rest of the so called Suicide Squad appeared behind the woman. He didn't know what was up with the cauldron-like object that the biggest of them carried, but he knew a heavily sealed object when he saw one. Immediately, he knew that thing wasn't supposed to be handled carelessly. Especially with the way all of the team was positioned around the thing. "Nobody touches that container."

"Yes, sir," a few of his ninjas replied out loud as a group of them started working on his orders. Many more stood ready for battle and the rest kept to their positions at the border.

"Tell me that things went well and this is all," Onoki all but ordered the team as he stood in front of them while his people worked. His eyes mostly locked on who he knew were the ones in command when Satou wasn't around. "Where is your leader?"

"Dealing with the important part of this mess," Yakushi answered with a grim expression. "He didn't quite call it that, but I'm sure he went after the harder part and I'd be very surprised if he didn't end up in a state that will have me having to take care of the aftereffects of his battle."

That sounded like… something irritatingly possible to Onoki, from what he knew about the Weaver. Sure enough, he always came out on top of whatever fight he went after, but he always suffered to do so. Even he knew that the boy's fights were getting harder and harder as time went by, which begged the question.

Would the fights eventually grow too strong for him?

"Fearless Leader will be fine," the aggravating redhead told them all, team included. She stood off to the side, with her eyes fixed towards Amegakure. "He had something prepared precisely for this, he told me as much."

Onoki frowned as a picture of something he'd witnessed some time ago appeared in his mind. Was that it? Was that the ace up the Weaver's sleeve? It would make sense. It had been quite the technique, for sure, but would it be enough? Especially to cause such confidence?

"So, he told you that was for this moment?" the current Kazekage's sister asked, raising an eyebrow as she followed the redhead's gaze. "Well, this should be interesting, if nothing else."

"Eyes wide and alert, people!" the Seven Tails Jinchuriki called animatedly, like she was a child calling for her parent's attention. "Look towards Amegakure, because you ain't gonna want to miss this show."

Now, wasn't that an ominous thing to say? Especially since the entirety of the Suicide Squad seemed to take that seriously, splitting their attention between the container they'd brought with them and looking in the ninja village's direction. Soon, Onoki and his own people followed their example.

And then, there it was, off into the distance, a single dot of light that shouldn't be there. It took less than a second for it to be bigger, covering more and more of the horizon. Soon, there was a chunk of space, far, far away from them, filled with dancing lights.

A moment later, the sound of thunder reached them.

"Fucking hell," Onoki heard someone mumble somewhere to his side.

He could only silently agree with whoever that was.

[}-o-{]

[Obito Uchiha]

How had it all gone so wrong?

It had all started with his plans for the Mist falling apart. That hadn't been too surprising. It hadn't really been that elaborate a plan, after all. He'd driven their Mizukage into madness mostly to weaken their village, which had worked pretty well. The part where the Mizukage died in battle had been optional but everything had pointed towards that working out.

The other side of that civil war had been desperately holding on for a long time, after all. There was no way they would win a battle with enough power left over to try and capture a jinchuriki, after all. However, that had all changed when the Leaf got involved, much to his annoyance.

That complicated matters, sadly, since he was now being under some pretty heavy security in the middle of the Mist. Not a whole lot of trouble for Obito, really, but it was an annoyance he'd rather not have to deal with. That was still fine though, since it allowed for another path for him.

He'd taken the Cloud's leader and it had been laughably easy to push him to consider how everyone was part of the last stage in the Chunin Exams and not his village as a threat. From there, it had been also easy to make his jinchuriki brother follow his lead, even if it was trickier due to the bijuu he housed and how close they were. Still, it had worked.

Except… it'd ultimately fallen apart.

And then, the culprit for all of it made himself known. Eiji Satou made his first appearance in the Stone, taking out two Akatsuki members. And then those were followed by another two, and the spiral went from there. Obito's plans started falling apart once more.

That's when he approached Nagato once more, as he'd done before. The Rinnegan user had always been wary of him though, even if he'd started listening to him before. And now, with him doubting things due to the fucking Satou, Obito couldn't risk approaching as he had before.

So, he became a new recruit to try and get closer. Things had gotten complicated, but if he could get Nagato's eyes, everything would be much easier. It wasn't useful anymore to have him go around with them. He needed some drastic changes to happen, so he decided on drastic measures. He needed to reset the board, after all, shuffle things along so that he could start all over.

Except, that didn't work out too well either. Nagato and his bitch of a friend had gotten away. The pair then proceeded to stall him to no end, which had started becoming a problem. Especially since it meant more and more time for his enemies to prepare and get better. If Obito had learned one thing it was that giving Eiji Satou any amount of time was a bad idea.

He'd been desperate enough that he'd called for Zetsu's help so that he could divide the two and put things back in his favor. Zetsu could take care of Konan no problem, and that meant that Nagato would be in their pocket, even if Obito didn't manage to get him. The woman was the only weak spot the Rinnegan user had, after all.

That had failed too.

'Why the fuck did you come here?!' Obito cursed in his mind as he hid inside his Kamui. There was no escape now, with the world bathed in lightning. He could have used the teleportation aspect of his Sharingan, but that would have required him to not have used the intangibility aspect. So…

He was trapped.

A boy half his age had trapped him. There was no escape, moving didn't get him anywhere close to safety. There was no place where Satou's attack wasn't touching. Nowhere to appear back out in the world and get the fuck away.

The worst part was that Obito couldn't understand why Satou was even in the Land of Rain at all. He was supposed to be recovering from the mess that had been the Nine Tails' capture mission. He'd lost an arm. Who fucking shrugged off something like that and just kept on going?

And that wasn't even getting into the fact that Satou was saving Nagato. Why was he doing that? Pain had basically been the bane of the Weaver's existence for a while and yet, the boy had come to help him? That made no sense whatsoever.

"You'd be surprised of the things I know."

He knew something. Satou knew several things, that much was evident. Things that he had no business knowing, but that was still a fact. He knew something that made him be willing to help Nagato against Obito. Something like the fact that Obito had been manipulating Nagato for a while. Or maybe that Nagato was going to go against Obito's plan. Or maybe something else.

The point was that Satou knew something, and that had made him go against any kind of expectation that Obito might have had. He'd literally thrown the Sharigan user's plans into the fire and laughed all the while. Now, Obito had no way out and there was only lightning around.

Time was running out too. Kamui had a limit, after all, and Obito would need to come out of it eventually. 'And of course he fucking knows that too,' he cursed to himself, snarling in his alternate dimension as he waited for a miracle that he knew wouldn't come. No, he knew that Satou wouldn't let up. There was only lightning in Obito's future.

Lightning and death.

'That won't be the end,' Obito thought to himself, determination building in him. 'A new world will come and it'll be me that brings it. This isn't the end, Satou.'

And then, his time ran out and he had to appear in the normal world.

Immediately, the lightning struck and Obito didn't even get a single second to live past that.

[}-o-{]

[Eiji Satou]

He didn't stop when he felt Obito coming out and dying. He kept going, mostly for his own peace of mind. Senjutsu had already confirmed the kill, but after years of waiting for that very moment, Eiji couldn't help it. 'It's… it's over,' he thought to himself, deflating where he stood as Relentless Storm ended.

His chakra pathways burned from the overuse of chakra, and he could feel Tsuchigumo slump down. The technique had drained her quite a bit since she'd added her own touch to make it that much more deadly. And that wasn't even taking into account that she was still recovering from his Iwa-Suna trip. 'It's fine, girl, go rest,' Eiji thought to her, sighing as the Chakra Beast did just that, taking the added strength she gave with her.

It was really fine though. The fight was over and Eiji had his own chakra reserves full, after all. That was more than enough to get to the border on his own. The Land of Earth border, which was the closest one. Not as good as the Land of Fire would have been, but certainly better than the border Kumo was likely guarding if they'd answered his call.

He didn't move just yet though, instead turning his head up and letting the rain fall on him. The soothing waters were very welcome at that moment and he guessed he became a bit more of a fan of it that day. After all, the rain had been there the day he finally got the end of it all. 'Rain, best weather confirmed,' he thought with a weary chuckle before taking a deep breath in slowly and then letting it out just the same.

In that moment, he thought about his future. What he'd do and what he wanted to do. He definitely was going to go through the plans he'd made with Tayuya. Traveling around, drawing sights, training because he wanted to instead of because the world depended on it, playing music and actually getting good enough to make a duo with his girlfriend. He had other plans too, plans for the Suicide Squad's future. He had plans for Nagato and Konan, if they were open to them. He had plans for the villages, if they allowed him a semblance of a chance.

There was peace between the five biggest villages. Now, Eiji just needed to worry about getting that to remain around and, if anything, get stronger. His show of strength with Relentless Storm was probably seen by people and the Kages of all five powers. If people were already considering what he wanted to make decisions before, they definitely would be now.

With that in mind, he had the rest of his life, however long he managed to last, to make sure there was peace after he died. To make sure there would be peace for the next generation, be it with or without little ones in his own future. War had a way of coming back to humanity, that much he knew, but he could damn well try to make it last as long as possible and nobody would stop him from doing that.

'There's projects shorter term than that though, aren't there?' Eiji thought to himself, with a slight smile on his face.

"And don't you forget it," Hachi replied, sounding amused herself. "The two of us, Tsuchigumo and so on, am I right?"

'Yeah, guess those plans are moving up in the list,' he mused, bringing his remaining arm up to run his fingers through his hair. His gaze, for its part, moved down and to the side, to look at his puppet arm. 'It wasn't for free,' he added, feeling the phantom sensation of the scars in his body and his missing arm as he focused on them. 'But it's finally here, the end.'

'But first…' he continued, his eyes narrowing somewhat. Mentally, he called for all his active skills. Every single one of them went on to boost him as he moved Nuibari in his puppet arm. The sword, now covered entirely by Chakra Flow of both lightning and fire nature, went straight through its target without any trouble.

"Hey there, Obito," he said, looking into the man's wide eye. "Didn't see that coming, did you?"

Eiji grinned from ear to ear, because there wasn't that weightless feeling of his previous strikes. Nuibari had hit flesh and bones as it skewered the Uchiha and a deathly blow. There was no empty feeling as his chakra burned and electrocuted the man.

"I saw you coming though," Eiji continued, twisting the legendary sword inside Obito. "Bastards like you always have a last resort, don't you?" he asked, sighing to himself. "Just die already," he said, feeling relief flood him as he looked into the white eye visible from outside the mask, right next to where he'd stabbed Nuibari through. 'Fucking Izanagi.'

Pulling out Nuibari, he let Obito fall to the ground and stared. Eiji really was done with it all already. There was nothing left now thought. Senjutsu was telling him that there were no eyes remaining. One was used to save the man and the other was pierced by his sword. There was no coming back from that. Obito was done.

Eiji stared at the man's body for a long time.

The seconds become minutes.

Senjutsu didn't pick up on anything and nothing happened.

He still waited, because surely something would happen. Obito would pop up again. someone else would come at him. There had to be more, right? Maybe Obito had some other way to come back besides the eyes. Zetsu would have escaped the team and come to the Uchiha's aid with a miracle solution. Someone else he'd forgotten from canon would decide to appear.

Something had to happen, right?

But nothing did.

'I won?' Eiji asked himself, feeling relief coming back to him, this time for real. 'There's really nothing else left to do? No other shoe to drop? No trap or twist or anything?'

[Quest Completed: Defeat Obito Uchiha and Zetsu]

He didn't need to read more than that.

"I won," Eiji said, smiling widely. "It's over."