Chapter 135: A Familiar Feeling
"The lighting is fine. The air circulation is fine too. This is so strange..."
"What is it, Kakashi?"
"This does not feel like a sealed underground warehouse at all."
As they walked through the supposedly closed underground space, Kakashi's frown only deepened.
The air moved freely. There was none of the heavy, damp staleness that always lingered in old cellars, even right after you opened them up and let the air circulate.
What was worse, once they descended past the steel framed entrance structure, they did not find a small storage room. Instead, an open chamber stretched out in front of them, with what looked like a constructed doorway leading deeper inside.
The most reasonable guess was that this was some old Konoha research site connected to Aizen's facilities. But the rust marks outside, the erosion on the metal, the layering of dust, all dating back over twenty years, did not look artificial at all.
Kakashi had done more than enough material testing while tinkering with ninjutsu and Kido theory. He had learned how to distinguish between natural erosion, brief forged wear, and damage created by ninjutsu.
What they had seen above was definitely the work of time.
But if that was true, why did everything inside feel so new?
Kakashi's confusion thickened into a cold sense of wrongness.
"Hey, Kakashi, looks like we can go down further from here," Obito called from ahead.
"Right. I see it," Kakashi replied.
He cast one more look around the upper chamber. All he saw were ranks of pure black structural supports and metal, no markings, no signs, no labels at all.
Then the three of them pushed open the massive interior gate and stepped forward.
Beyond it lay a long, straight corridor.
Even at a glance, Kakashi could tell this had once been an important facility. The ceiling brackets still bore the remains of lighting fixtures, tracks still lined the upper edges, and the walls were polished smooth and reflective. Under the steady glow of the three youngsters' illumination jutsu, the corridor shone with a cold, clean brightness, like a place that had only recently been abandoned.
Just from its scale, Kakashi knew this was definitely not some normal household cellar.
"Obito, you should go back and report this," he said at last.
After making a quick mental calculation of the tunnel's probable length and volume, and counting the door like openings spaced along the walls, Kakashi let out a quiet sigh and turned to his two companions.
"This is not a small family underground storehouse. The main corridor is at least a hundred meters long, and there are multiple side chambers. There is no need for us to take any more risks. Go back and report to Minato and let him decide how to handle it."
"But it feels like such a waste not to explore a place this big..." Obito muttered.
"Safety first."
Kakashi shook his head at Obito's disappointed expression and turned to lead them out.
He did not even make it a step.
A heavy, muffled thud echoed behind them.
The three turned at the same time and saw that the great steel gate they had come through had silently sealed shut.
Their faces changed instantly. They formed hand seals without a word and tried everything at once, layering reverse summoning techniques keyed to Konoha's coordinates and to Las Noches.
Nothing went through.
Chakra, spiritual power shaped for Kido, even the special flows that drew on natural energy, all of it was cut off the instant it touched the surrounding space. It was as if they were trying to push water through a solid wall.
The spacetime barrier that met them was so strong that Kakashi's expression grew darker with every failed attempt.
A sealing barrier of this level could not be maintained for long. The chakra consumption was astronomical every moment, and the smoother spacetime was within the field, the more power it would take to hold it.
Which meant someone had waited, then closed the outer gate and locked down the space only after confirming the three of them had entered.
"A spacetime barrier," Kakashi said quietly, "and a very strong one. We walked right into a trap."
After exhausting every reverse summoning option he had, Kakashi closed his eyes and tried to sense the structure of the barrier. The answer he found was one of the worst possible.
This was a sensory interference seal built specifically to counter spacetime techniques. The moment any such jutsu began to activate, the barrier triggered and disrupted it.
In theory, such a mechanism was possible. In practice, it required endless trial runs and a mountain of chakra to even keep it stable.
Either the user had a tailed beast level supply backing them, something like the Nine Tails, or they were drawing from a chakra aggregate on the level of a dragon vein.
From a rational standpoint, either explanation was ridiculous.
"Is this a summoning system from the ninja world, one that is completely different from Hueco Mundo's spacetime techniques?" Kakashi murmured. "I do not sense any disturbance in natural energy. It is pure chakra.
"Who in the ninja world has this kind of ability, and would deliberately target the three of us? This setup feels like overkill, the kind of thing you would use to trap Aizen."
He weaved a small sequence of hand seals and released a basic ninjutsu, just to test. As he had expected, the chakra was immediately absorbed into the walls.
Up close, the black walls no longer looked like steel. They were more like thick, darkened tree trunks fused together.
He could not identify the wood, but he could feel how greedily it drank chakra without changing the surface at all.
Kakashi turned his head toward Rin. She understood at once, lifted her hand toward the gate they had entered through, and called out in a clear voice,
"Hado 63, Thunder Roar Cannon!"
The blast shook the corridor.
A roaring surge of lightning slammed into the main door, bright enough to make the air hum and leave their hair standing on end.
The metal did not move an inch.
The spreading current raced further down the corridor, its light briefly revealing the space beyond. At the far end, past the final frame, Obito could just make out a wide, empty hall.
Staring at that vague, hollow interior, Obito's heart clenched. The scene was horribly familiar.
"Then our only option is Obito's Resonance," Kakashi concluded. "Resonance can slip through the essence of space itself."
He forced himself to stay calm as he studied the sealed tunnel. The situation was bad, but not hopeless.
Summoning had been locked. Anti membrane techniques were Aizen's specialty, and Kakashi knew none of them.
But there was still one path left.
As long as Obito's Resonance Technique could pierce the wall and jump to the other side, they could send him out. From there, Obito could use reverse summoning to return to Konoha, go straight to Sakumo, and get help.
At this point, their best hope of escape lay with Obito.
"Obito," Kakashi said, turning to him, "use Resonance to jump behind the door. Then use reverse summoning and return to Konoha. Go to my house and talk to my father. He will get us out of here."
"..."
"Obito?"
"Yeah. I heard you." Obito swallowed, his throat dry. "It is just... I have a really bad feeling."
"...?"
Kakashi's frown deepened as he took in Obito's expression.
The sensation of being watched pressed down harder.
And this time, it was so close that Kakashi could almost trace its origin. It was as if the gaze he had been feeling all this time had followed them down here and now sat right beside him.
No.
Not beside him.
On him.
Coming from Obito's direction, from those crimson eyes that were staring straight at him and refusing to look away.
"Obito," Kakashi said slowly, "are you hiding something from us?"
"...Yeah."
Obito forced a crooked smile under Kakashi's wary gaze.
"I have seen this place in my dreams. Again and again, in nightmares. I always thought it was just my imagination. I never thought..."
"A dream, huh? You could have just said so."
Seeing how pale Obito's face had gone, everything clicked into place for Kakashi.
People with strong spacetime aptitude often had a sharper, stranger perception of time and space than ordinary shinobi. That perception sometimes surfaced as fragments that looked like prophecy.
None of it was absolute.
In theory, with enough will and preparation, you could resist the current of time and divert it elsewhere. Aizen had mentioned that in passing before.
Judging from Obito's expression, whatever he had seen had not been good. But as long as they moved before it took shape, they still had room to fight back.
If you prepared well, misfortune would not find you so easily.
"Obito, do not be afraid," Kakashi said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You are the only one who can save us right now. Fate, prophecy, whatever you want to call it, can be seen and then overturned.
"If you can use Resonance to break through this seal and escape, you will be our last hope. So stop worrying about anything else and use your abilities to change that future. People who are capable do not bow their heads to fate."
"I know," Obito whispered. His hands were shaking, but he clenched them until his knuckles turned white. "I know. I will save everyone."
With a soft thud, he vanished from the spot.
"Kakashi, do you think Obito will be all right?" Rin asked quietly.
"I do not think there will be a problem," Kakashi said.
He and Rin stood back to back, each watching one side of the corridor, alert for any attack or movement.
In truth, Kakashi knew that Obito would almost certainly fail to bring reinforcements back in time.
Anyone who could build a trap like this under Obito's own house would already understand his abilities. It would be strange if they had not prepared a countermeasure.
Even so, Kakashi refused to sink into despair.
No matter how bad the situation looked, he had always forced himself to stare straight at it and move forward.
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