Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

Several kilometers away from the battlefield, a figure stood in the shadows of the forest. It was Uchiha Obito.

He slowly lowered his hands, having just finished weaving hand signs.

His gaze shifted toward the battlefield, the Sharingan behind his mask spinning slightly as he tried to get a clear look at the situation. However, his vision was obscured by darkness and dust. He could only see the occasional flashes of light on the horizon and hear the lingering echoes of distant explosions.

At the same time, a dark silhouette rose from the dirt on the ground beside him.

With a black-and-white body and pitcher plant-like leaves wrapping around its torso, it was Zetsu.

The White Zetsu half of its face wore its usual playful expression, but there was no amusement in its voice. Instead, it sounded rather urgent.

"This is bad. That guy is heading this way."

Obito's expression changed beneath his mask. His body stiffened slightly, and his fingers curled inward, but he quickly regained his composure and let out a cold snort.

"Uchiha Madara is truly arrogant. I thought he could handle that guy, but now I still have to clean up his mess."

No expression could be seen on Black Zetsu's dark half, but his voice was blunt. "Stop talking nonsense, you fool. That guy is almost here. We need to leave, now."

Having watched the entire battle from the edge of the battlefield, he was still reeling from the apocalyptic scenes of destruction—assuming he even had a heart to feel fear.

He knew very well that he and Obito stood absolutely no chance against Uchiha Taiga. Even Madara had been defeated. He couldn't even fathom a way to restrain that monster.

Hearing this, the urge to retreat sprouted in Obito's mind.

Having put up a tough front, he naturally had no desire to stick around, much less face Uchiha Taiga.

With that, his right eye began to spin. The pattern of the Mangekyo Sharingan appeared through the eyehole of his mask. Space began to distort, and a vortex started to swallow his body.

Kamui!

He was leaving.

But at that exact moment, a streak of golden light appeared in the distance.

The light did not just shine from a specific direction; it materialized abruptly in the night sky, tearing through the darkness like a golden arrow.

The golden light moved at an astonishing speed. One second it was at the edge of the horizon, and the next, it was right in front of them, leaving a long golden trail across the night sky that lingered in the air for a moment before slowly fading away.

The golden light came to a halt, coalescing into the figure of a young man.

Uchiha Taiga.

He stood on a branch opposite Obito. Despite his feet resting on the wood, the branch did not even sway.

His eyes were already in the state of the Mangekyo Sharingan. Against a crimson backdrop, six curved tomoe extended outward from his pupils, gleaming with an eerie light under the moon.

Upon seeing Obito, the corners of Taiga's mouth curled into a wide grin.

"Oi! Long time no see, you Uchiha loser."

Obito's face drastically changed beneath his mask.

At that moment, he noticed the shift in the space around him. The spatial vortex generated by Kamui had completely stopped the instant Taiga appeared.

The vortex remained frozen around his body, having swallowed half of him while leaving the other half exposed. However, his body was neither pulled in further nor spat back out. He was simply stuck in midair, suspended in limbo.

The White Zetsu half of the pitcher plant-like being spoke up, a hint of schadenfreude in his voice.

"Oh my, looks like we can't get away now, Obito. What should we do?"

The atmosphere grew rather awkward.

Standing on the branch, Taiga looked down at the suspended Obito, his smile growing wider.

Obito's Sharingan spun rapidly behind his mask as he tried to reactivate Kamui, but the spatial distortion remained completely motionless, as if it had been frozen solid by something.

Black Zetsu finally couldn't hold back anymore, his voice laced with long-suppressed anger.

"You idiot! I told you he was coming, yet you still wasted time. No wonder you can never get anything right!"

That insult cut incredibly deep.

His tone was full of disgust and fury. It was obvious that Black Zetsu had been tolerating Obito for a long time and had finally reached his breaking point.

Otherwise, given his sinister and calculating nature, he never would have said such things in front of Taiga. Exposing internal conflict before an enemy was a massive taboo.

Obito's face turned livid beneath his mask.

He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, gritting his teeth as he roared in anger.

"Shut up!"

Shifting his gaze away from Zetsu, he locked eyes with Taiga. His voice echoed from behind the mask, carrying a forced sense of calm.

"Do you really think you have me cornered?"

Hearing this, Taiga gave him a strange look.

He looked at the pitcher plant-like Zetsu, then back at Obito, before letting out a light cough.

"To be honest, I really do have you cornered."

One could only imagine how awful Obito's expression was at that moment, though it was unfortunately hidden behind his mask, unseen by anyone else.

However, his trembling hands and the way his nails dug into his palms made it clear just how violently his emotions were churning.

Obito let out a cold snort. He suddenly raised his hand, pulling a kunai from his ninja pouch and hurling it at Taiga.

The kunai flew at high speed, drawing a straight line through the air as it shot directly toward Taiga's face.

Taiga simply tilted his head. The kunai brushed past his hair, slicing off a few strands before disappearing into the darkness behind him, landing who knew where.

When Taiga looked back at Obito, his expression turned odd again—because the guy had actually turned around and made a run for it.

Half of his body was still stuck in Kamui's vortex, but as he ran, he forcibly pulled himself out of the spatial distortion, causing the vortex to dissipate on its own.

"Eh? Why are you running?" Taiga asked.

As soon as the words left his mouth, the Mangekyo pattern in his eyes spun.

Tokoyokuni activated, though he shrank the area of frozen space to only encompass the space immediately surrounding Obito.

The next moment, Obito suddenly felt the space around him turn into solid iron, completely freezing his movements.

His arms were still locked in a forward swing, and his legs were still caught mid-stride, but his body was entirely immobilized, as if he had been cast in concrete.

Taiga leaped down from the branch and slowly walked toward Obito. His pace was neither fast nor slow, his footsteps rustling softly against the grass.

He held his ninja blade in his hand, the same sword he had kept a firm grip on ever since his battle with Uchiha Madara began.

"I told you, didn't I?"

Taiga's voice was perfectly calm.

"What would happen to you the next time you appeared before me?"

He stopped as he reached Obito's side.

Raising his ninja blade, the edge flashed with a cold glint under the moonlight before he swung it down lightly.

Slash!

A soft sound echoed.

One of Obito's arms was cleanly severed at the shoulder. The limb detached from his body but did not fall to the ground; instead, it remained suspended in midair.

No blood spurted from the stump. Tokoyokuni's spatial freeze was still active, keeping the blood locked inside his veins, unable to flow out.

The fingers of the severed arm remained in a clawing posture, spread wide as if grasping at something invisible.

Obito's body remained stiffly in place. His expression was hidden beneath his mask, but his breathing grew ragged, his chest heaving violently.

His eye, visible through the mask's hole, glared fixedly at Taiga. The crimson Sharingan swirled with intense fury and unwillingness to accept defeat.

Yet, no sound escaped his lips.

Black Zetsu watched the scene in silence for a moment before finally speaking up.

"Brat, what exactly do you want?"

Taiga turned his head, glancing at Black Zetsu as the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

"There are many things I want. But first..."

His gaze shifted back to Obito.

"I want to know where he is right now. Was he sent back to Yomotsukuni by you? But I feel like that isn't the case. You must have left some other method behind, right?"