Chapter 200: Yuto Hyuga, Arrives!

The hurricane roared as the sailors scrambled in a frenzy, steering the large ship desperately away from the oceanic whirlpool. The passenger cabin rocked violently with the crashing waves.

Inside, the young shinobi and kunoichi gathered chakra to their feet, maintaining their balance steadily.

"The wind is too strong. Our return to the village will surely be delayed by several days..." Shisui sighed. Just as he was about to continue speaking, his peripheral vision caught a flash of silver.

An intense sense of danger surged within him, and he instinctively retreated, barely avoiding a fatal slash to the neck. However, his shoulder was still cut, causing blood to splatter across the cabin ceiling.

"Damn it!" Ruri yelled furiously, her bone spikes protruding menacingly as she delivered a vicious elbow strike toward the intruder's waist.

The fierce blow, capable of piercing through buildings, passed straight through the man's body without resistance.

"One down," the masked man with a single eye scoffed, extending his hand towards the girl's forehead.

But at that moment, several shuriken and kunai flew at him from tricky angles, aiming for his arm and body.

The man activated his phasing technique, allowing the weapons to pass harmlessly through him, his hand also phasing through the girl's head.

Taking advantage of the situation, Ruri leaped to Shisui's side, both of them facing their formidable enemy together.

The scarlet tomoe in Shisui's eyes rotated slowly as he spoke in a grave tone, "He seems to be able to hide his body… A terrifying space-time ninjutsu. It looks like our only chance is to counterattack at the exact moment he attacks!"

'You're scary, Shisui… You've already analyzed Obito's ability this quickly?' Ruri muttered internally, keeping her eyes locked on Obito.

"Two troublesome brats," Obito remarked, wiping the blood off his blade.

Shisui and Ruri exchanged glances, wordlessly agreeing as they smashed through the cabin wall, rushing outside to stand on the turbulent sea.

Against an opponent with space-time ninjutsu, a more open area would provide a better advantage.

Before they could steady themselves, the air in front of them twisted into a spiral, and Obito appeared once again, holding his long blade.

"Are you the one who controlled the Nine-Tails four years ago?" Shisui asked coldly, staring at Obito's exposed Sharingan. "If you still consider yourself an Uchiha, then give us your name."

"Me?" Obito's voice was carried by the storm, "Madara… Uchiha."

"What…" Shisui's pupils widened in shock, his wariness deepening. Could it be that the founder of the village, who established it with the First Hokage, was still alive? With the powerful eyes that controlled the Nine-Tails and this mysterious space-time ninjutsu, if he really is Madara Uchiha...

"Focus, Shisui," Ruri, the white-haired kunoichi, patted her companion on the shoulder. "No matter who he is, he's certainly a threat to the village."

Shisui nodded, "Let's proceed as we've trained… You've got this, Ruri."

Ruri grinned, stomping on the water with force as she charged at the enemy. Simultaneously, her skin sprouted bones, protecting her entire body.

With the kekkei genkai of the Shikotsumyaku, she had the strength and durability suited for close combat and she could act as a tank.

Obito swung his blade in a horizontal slash, his wrist trembling from the impact. Knowing he couldn't match the Shikotsumyaku in raw strength, he let Ruri's body phase through his own.

'One is trying to force me to use Kamui, and the other plans to attack the moment I do. At this range, if it's Shisui, he could definitely make it. A tough shell and a speedster Uchiha—a solid strategy, but… they're lacking in power.' Obito glanced at the ready-to-strike Shisui and ended his intangibility.

He flipped mid-air like a bird, stomping down on Ruri's bone armor.

"Ugh!" The white-haired girl cried out, sinking into the sea.

The water surged into the sky.

But before the wave could fully rise, Shisui had already moved. As soon as Obito's foot made contact with the bone armor, Shisui had disappeared from his spot, covering a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

The moment Obito's foot touched the sea, he and the approaching Uchiha boy were face-to-face, less than half a meter apart.

In that brief instant, they saw the same thing—the cold, murderous red tomoe in each other's eyes!

Thud!

Several massive spikes pierced through Obito's body and limbs, sealing his chakra and paralyzing every nerve and muscle. Obito felt his entire body being restrained, unable to move. Even though he knew he was caught in a powerful genjutsu, he couldn't move his body.

—Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique!

'His genjutsu seems to be even stronger than his Body Flicker...' The thought flashed through Obito's mind as he saw the unremarkable flash of a blade.

Shisui reversed his grip on his short sword, stabbing it viciously into Obito's chest. With a twist of his fingers, the blade shattered his heart.

At that moment, the force from Obito's stomp fully unleashed, sending the giant wave crashing down like rain.

Along with the seawater, Obito's blood fell as well.

Ruri popped up from beneath the water, witnessing the scene.

"Ruri," Shisui turned around, exhaling deeply. "This guy's internal organs are completely destroyed. Try using medical ninjutsu to keep him alive and bring him back to Konoha..."

Before he could finish, he sensed something was wrong.

The white-haired girl didn't have a look of relief or joy. Instead, she flared her chakra and charged toward him.

"A splendid attack… So, this is the Ninth Squad under Yuto Hyuga?" The masked man's voice sounded next to Shisui.

Even Shisui using Shunshin couldn't dodge at such close range.

*Thud!*

Obito stabbed forward with his blade, directly piercing Shisui's body.

Blood splattered as Ruri grabbed the blade, disregarding the deep cuts to her hand. She used her bones to jam the blade in place.

Shisui, enduring the pain, took a step back, allowing the blade tip to withdraw from his body. Then, he began forming hand seals, refusing to give up.

However, in the next moment, Obito flicked his wrist, throwing a kunai towards Ruri's neck.

The kunai was tied with an explosive tag.

Instinctively, Shisui halted his seals, grabbed the white-haired girl by the shoulders, and pulled her into his arms.

Boom!

The explosive tag detonated, sending the boy and girl flying, crashing onto the water's surface. They barely managed to use chakra to keep themselves from sinking.

Obito's left eye, hidden behind the mask, slowly closed.

His heart and body returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

—Izanagi!

Uchiha Madara had collected a few Sharingan, which naturally became Obito's after his death.

Obito lightly flicked his blade, slowly walking towards the bloodied boy and girl. "Where's your sensei?"

"I don't know," Shisui replied, panting heavily, with no hint of surrender in his eyes. "You're not Madara Uchiha… If he were truly still alive, he wouldn't need to sacrifice his eyes to defeat us."

"You even know about this technique," Obito's tone was indifferent. "One last question, where is your sensei? You don't need to give me the exact location. Any information will do. Speak, and I'll let you live."

Neither the boy nor the girl spoke, instead supporting each other as they stood.

'They want to die as a shinobi…' Obito thought, feeling a sudden disinterest as he raised his blade.

However, he didn't bring the sword down.

Because in the distance, on the sea's surface, a young man was slowly approaching.

He appeared to be around twenty years old, with long hair cascading to his waist, and his hands in his pockets. His face was strikingly handsome, even though he looked like he had just woken up. He resembled a god walking through a storm.

"Shisui, Ruri," the young man reached the boy and girl, placing a hand on their heads, his voice gentle. "You've both grown."

"S-Sensei..."

"Yuto Hyuga!" Obito's voice interrupted the long-awaited reunion of teacher and students. "I have something to discuss with you—"

Boom!

A beam of golden light descended from the sky, passing through Obito's phased body, tearing through the storm, and raising waves higher than mountains.

"Four years ago, I told you…" the long-haired man chuckled softly, "When you speak to me, use honorifics."

(End of Chapter)