A swirling black vortex twisted open in the void.
Uchiha Obito emerged from the vortex and landed atop a perfectly square stone platform.
He exhaled slowly, closing his eyes briefly to steady his breath.
"That guy's power has grown even stronger..."
When Obito reopened his eyes, a trace of dread flickered within them.
Kaede's steadily rising strength was becoming an overwhelming threat. Although Kaede still couldn't endanger him directly due to the power of Kamui, if things continued like this, it was only a matter of time before even Kamui could be overcome.
No ability is truly absolute.
Not even space-time techniques.
The most critical concern, however, was that even if Kaede couldn't harm him directly, with Kaede's current strength, if he ever found Nagato, it might only take one encounter for Nagato to be instantly killed.
If the Rinnegan fell into Kaede's hands, everything would collapse. Not only would the Infinite Tsukuyomi and the dream world become impossible to achieve, even reviving Uchiha Madara would no longer be an option.
"…Is it time to revive Uchiha Madara after all?"
Obito's expression darkened.
Nagato still couldn't use the Gedo Art of Rinne Rebirth yet, but judging by how quickly he was mastering his ocular powers, it wouldn't take long before he could.
Obito had always wanted to complete the plan on his own without resurrecting Madara. But now it seemed clear, he couldn't do it alone.
As he pondered this,
Roughly thirty meters away.
Ripples suddenly spread through the dark void, as if something was invading from outside space itself. Strange patterns appeared, crisscrossing unnaturally in the air, like something foreign was piercing through into this dimension.
Obito's face changed dramatically.
As the controller of the Kamui dimension, he could immediately sense that a foreign force was trying to break into it, forcefully connecting to this realm.
Through his Mangekyo Sharingan, he could faintly glimpse a figure behind the shimmering ripples in space.
Though blurry, it was unmistakably Kaede!
"Impossible!!"
Obito's pupils shrank sharply, shock flashing across his face.
Without Kamui's power, Kaede had still managed to create a spatial passage connecting the ninja world to the Kamui dimension!
"Kamui!"
Startled and alarmed, Obito wasted no time. He immediately activated Kamui on the end of the space tunnel, trying to distort and collapse the passage that was unfolding like an inflated balloon.
Kaede was currently inside the space tunnel.
He gazed calmly ahead at the distorted endpoint leading into Kamui's dimension. His eyes flickered faintly with pale blue light.
Buzz!
The Tenseigan's power activated.
The collapsing tunnel endpoint began to slowly open again, bit by bit.
"Damn it!"
Obito's face contorted. He knew he could not let Kaede enter. If Kaede broke in, the Mangekyo Sharingan ability he relied on would be completely unraveled and rendered useless!
Gritting his teeth, Obito locked eyes on the tunnel entrance. His Mangekyo Sharingan flared at full power, as his chakra surged uncontrollably.
Crack! Crack!!
Golden ripples and black vortexes clashed violently in mid-space.
Kamui's swirling darkness twisted inward like grinding gears trying to crush the golden wave, attempting to seal the passage. But the golden ripple pressed outward with equal force, refusing to be closed off.
"Struggling is pointless."
Kaede extended his right hand forward.
The Tenseigan's power surged freely from him, forcibly pushing back the crushing force of Kamui. Bit by bit, he widened the passage, peeling open the darkness.
It was a clash of spatial abilities, a direct battle of ocular powers.
The Mangekyo Sharingan's Kamui was already an advanced technique, and Obito's ocular power had become nearly eternal due to his pseudo-Sage body, nearly equivalent to an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
But…
The Tenseigan was a level above even that.
It stood on par with the Rinnegan, which surpassed even the Eternal Mangekyo.
And Kaede himself had already attained Six Paths Sage Mode, he was a being fully at the Six Paths level. In every way imaginable, he far surpassed the current Obito.
Even if the Kamui dimension was Obito's sanctuary,
It could not stop Kaede's advance!
He continued walking toward the end of the passage, blue light gleaming in his eyes. His hands reached out through the head-sized opening, fingers gripping both sides of the spatial gate like a pair of doors.
From Obito's perspective, Kaede's hands emerged from the shimmering rift, seizing both "sides" of the entrance like they were handles, and began prying them open.
The image was horrifying, like something straight out of a nightmare. It reminded Obito of a horror movie, as if Kaede were crawling out of a cursed television screen inch by inch.
"No…"
"No, Don't come any closer!!"
Blood began to trickle from Obito's eyes, and cracks formed on the vortex-shaped mask across his face. His eyes strained beyond their limits, Kamui raging at full force.
But it was useless.
At most, he managed to slow Kaede's progress for a brief moment.
The next instant, the spatial gate continued widening, unstoppable.
Kaede's face was now fully visible.
His expression remained utterly calm from beginning to end.
As the space around him stretched open, his light-blue Tenseigan stared straight into Obito's eyes, sending a chilling sensation down Obito's spine. His heart felt like it had been frozen solid.
Even the air inside the Kamui dimension seemed to drop sharply in temperature, as if the entire realm had been turned into a freezing ice cellar by Kaede's gradual invasion.
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Kirigakure.
Back in the village, after Kaede and Obito vanished,
The frozen Mist ninja finally began to stir. They looked at one another in disbelief, each seeing the cold sweat on the other's brow and the lingering fear in their eyes.
Just then,
Beneath the ruined Mizukage building, a surge of water burst forth, sweeping away broken stone and rubble.
From within the flowing water, the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, emerged.
He leapt onto solid ground nearby, his eyes gleaming faintly with a strange glint, as he silently stared in the direction where Obito and Kaede had disappeared.
"Mizukage-sama!"
Mei Terumi rushed over at once.
Yagura glanced at her and said in a low voice, "Assess the damage. Tend to the wounded."
"Yes…"
Mei responded, but she didn't move right away. Instead, she stared intently at Yagura, a flicker of doubt glinting in her eyes.
Kaede had previously warned her, there was a high chance that the Fourth Mizukage was under someone's control. She had initially dismissed the idea, but now she wasn't so sure.
Especially after witnessing Kaede drag Uchiha Obito out from within Kirigakure and then pursue him through space, her suspicion deepened.
"What are you doing?"
Yagura's voice turned cold as he noticed her lack of action and unwavering stare.
Mei held his gaze for a moment, then leapt backward to put some distance between them. She shouted:
"Ao! Check the Mizukage-sama's condition! That man just now was from the Uchiha clan, Mizukage-sama might be under a genjutsu!"
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Completed version available on Patreon Patreon.com/Veltoria