Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

Uchiha Obito remained silent, not uttering a single word. The expression beneath his mask was unreadable, but his exposed Sharingan glared fixedly at Uchiha Taiga. Anger and unwillingness burned within his pupil, yet he refused to speak.

Surprised by this, Uchiha Taiga tilted his head and stared at Obito for a few seconds. Then, he stepped forward, reached out, and removed the mask from his face.

Moonlight fell upon Uchiha Obito's face, exposing the heavily scarred half of his visage to the night air.

His face was contorted, his mouth twitching, and the veins on his forehead bulged. The agony of his severed arm remained unbearable; even with space frozen, the excruciating pain radiating from his nerve endings could not be entirely erased.

Uchiha Taiga shook his head. The tomoe in his Mangekyo Sharingan spun slightly, and the spatial lockdown of Tokoyokuni was partially lifted.

Uchiha Obito let out a muffled groan and instantly leaped backward, retreating several meters in a flash.

He desperately wanted to put distance between himself and Uchiha Taiga, trying to buy even the slightest chance of escape.

But the moment his body moved, the spatial lock on his severed stump was released. Blood sprayed from the wound, forming a dark red line under the moonlight that splattered across the grassy ground.

His face instantly turned deathly pale, and his lips went purple. The blood loss and intense pain caused him to sway, nearly collapsing.

But in the next second, his figure was frozen once more.

Uchiha Taiga's Mangekyo Sharingan spun again, expanding the range of Tokoyokuni and firmly locking Uchiha Obito's body in place.

Uchiha Obito's feet were nailed to the ground. His body leaned forward, his remaining arm outstretched, completely immobilized in his retreating posture.

Uchiha Taiga looked at him with a half-smile.

"Are you in that much of a hurry to leave?"

Without turning his head, he glanced behind him.

Zetsu's pitcher plant-like body had already sunk halfway into the ground. Its black-and-white form was half-buried in the dirt, looking like a bizarre plant sprouting from the earth.

It had tried to slip away while Uchiha Taiga wasn't paying attention. Unfortunately for it, the moment Uchiha Taiga glanced back, its body was also frozen, immobilized like a statue buried in the soil.

Uchiha Taiga withdrew his gaze and looked back at Uchiha Obito.

He sighed and shook his head. "Forget it. It seems I won't be able to get anything out of you anyway."

His voice was calm, as if discussing a trivial matter.

"Then, it is time I fulfill my promise."

He stepped forward, stood in front of Uchiha Obito, and raised his ninja blade.

The blade still bore the marks of battle, with a few shallow scratches gleaming dully in the moonlight. His movements were slow and unhurried. He aimed the tip of the blade at Uchiha Obito's throat and slowly thrust it forward.

The tip pierced the skin.

A small red dot appeared on the side of Uchiha Obito's neck. Blood seeped from the wound, trailing down the blade.

It went deeper, piercing through the muscle and fat beneath the skin, pushing further into the trachea and blood vessels.

Uchiha Obito's eyes widened to their absolute limits, his pupil shrinking to a pinprick as he stared at the ninja blade piercing his throat.

He wanted to struggle, to dodge, to use Kamui to escape, but his body was frozen by Tokoyokuni. He couldn't move an inch, not even to blink.

He could only watch helplessly as the ninja blade sank into his throat bit by bit, feeling the cold steel slice through his skin, muscles, and veins.

Uchiha Taiga let go. The ninja blade remained lodged in Obito's neck, the blade piercing straight through his throat with the hilt exposed.

Obito's body remained in a standing posture. Tokoyokuni had frozen him in place, so even with his throat pierced, he did not fall.

His eyes were still open, though the light within them was fading. His lips were slightly parted as if trying to say something, but no sound came out.

Uchiha Taiga turned around, no longer looking at Uchiha Obito.

He walked over to the pitcher plant Zetsu, crouched down, and examined it closely.

The black-and-white face looked exceptionally eerie in the moonlight. The White Zetsu half wore its usual playful grin, while the Black Zetsu half was the exact opposite—brows furrowed, mouth turned down, and eye half-closed, like someone enduring immense pain.

Half-smiling, half-crying. Two contrasting expressions on the same face, bizarre and comical.

Uchiha Taiga tilted his head, looking at it with great interest.

"What a peculiar little thing. So, what exactly are you?"

Right at that moment, hurried footsteps echoed from afar.

Yugito Nii rushed out of the woods. She was panting heavily, her forehead covered in sweat, and her clothes stained with dust and grass.

Seeing the scene before her, she paused her steps and slowed down, not rushing recklessly into the battlefield.

Her gaze lingered on Uchiha Obito for a moment. Seeing the ninja blade piercing his throat, she breathed a slight sigh of relief. She didn't say anything, merely standing silently to the side, her hand resting on the hilt of her ninja blade as she stared warily at Zetsu.

Just then, Uchiha Taiga felt a sudden ripple in the space behind him.

He turned his head and looked toward Uchiha Obito.

Uchiha Obito, who had just been standing there with a ninja blade through his throat, had vanished into thin air.

Only the ninja blade remained suspended in midair, stained with blood, drops of crimson still dripping from its tip.

Uchiha Taiga raised an eyebrow.

"Izanagi, huh..."

The situation was obvious. Uchiha Obito had used that jutsu to turn his fatal injury into an illusion, transferring his physical body elsewhere.

His gaze shifted in another direction.

Behind a large tree dozens of meters away, a figure was moving rapidly.

The man was covered in blood. His left arm was severed at the shoulder, the stump still oozing blood. His right arm remained, but his movements were stiff.

The figure flashed under the moonlight as a spatial vortex appeared around him, swallowing his body.

Kamui!

This time, without Uchiha Taiga's spatial lockdown, Kamui activated smoothly. His body was sucked into the vortex, disappearing into thin air in the blink of an eye, leaving behind only a few drops of blood and a patch of flattened grass.

Uchiha Taiga watched that direction but didn't give chase.

The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, revealing a half-smile.

Then, his gaze fell upon the severed arm.

The arm was still suspended in midair, its fingers maintaining their original posture. Tokoyokuni had frozen everything at the exact moment it was severed. Uchiha Obito had used Izanagi to resurrect himself from death, but he couldn't resurrect the severed arm.

He had escaped, but just like last time, he left an arm behind.

"Smart enough, I suppose. Trading an arm to swap positions."

Uchiha Taiga shook his head and withdrew his gaze.

He looked up at the night sky. The moon was already setting in the west, and the sky was beginning to brighten. A faint hint of dawn appeared on the eastern horizon.

Tears of blood flowed from his eye sockets once more, trailing down his cheeks. His eyes ached terribly, feeling as though something was burning inside them.

The continuous battles and the consecutive use of the Mangekyo and Tenseigan had taken a massive toll on his visual prowess.

His vision hadn't blurred, nor had his eyesight deteriorated, but his eyes seemed to be protesting. If he continued to push them like this, it would cause lasting damage.

Because of this, he didn't pursue Uchiha Obito.

Overexerting his visual prowess just to deal with Uchiha Obito wasn't worth the cost.

That guy was already missing an arm. In front of him, Obito was nothing more than a stray dog, destined to be nothing but a source of amusement in the future.

He could run today, but he wouldn't escape the next time.

Uchiha Taiga withdrew his gaze and looked back at the frozen Zetsu in front of him.

"Still, you were left behind. I suppose that's good news."

Black Zetsu watched this unfold. Frozen in space, unable to move or speak, he was already cursing up a storm in his mind.

'Uchiha Obito, you fucking animal!'

'You actually just ran away?!'

'You left me here?!'

'Have you forgotten who has been helping you all these years?!'

'Have you forgotten who gave you advice, provided intel, and cleaned up your messes?!'

'Have you forgotten me...'

Black Zetsu's thoughts became chaotic and furious, but it couldn't express them.

Its body remained frozen in the dirt. The White Zetsu half still wore that half-smile, while the Black Zetsu half maintained its miserable, half-crying expression, looking both comical and helpless.

Yugito Nii stepped forward, standing beside Uchiha Taiga as she looked down at the Zetsu on the ground.

"What is this thing?"

Uchiha Taiga smiled. "A good thing. A very interesting thing, well worth my time to study."