Chapter 55: Your Hatred Isn't Strong Enough
"Rin... don't you dare... touch her!!!"
From behind, a young man's furious roar echoed across the training ground.
Uchiha Kazuki raised an eyebrow, seemingly somewhat surprised. He glanced back at the boy struggling to stand. "You can still get up? It seems I underestimated you, Obito."
Even though he'd been beaten so badly he could barely move, seeing the girl he loved getting hurt seemed to inject him with a surge of new strength.
"AAAHHH—!"
Uchiha Obito wiped the blood from his mouth, using one hand to brace himself against the ground. His legs trembled violently as he struggled to rise, his eyes blazing with fury. "I don't care who you are—I won't allow you to hurt Rin!"
Tch. His true nature is showing.
Uchiha Kazuki's brow furrowed slightly, though he showed no emotion on his face. His tone remained cold and detached. "But with your current strength, what gives you the right to say such things to me?"
Clearly, he hadn't hit hard enough. He needed to be more ruthless!
Understanding this, Uchiha Kazuki didn't give Obito a chance to speak. He closed the distance instantly.
"Damn it! So fast!"
Obito tried to form hand seals, but was struck squarely in the face with a devastating punch.
WHAM!
"Too slow!"
Uchiha Kazuki interrupted the hand seals with his fist, then grabbed Obito by the hair and slammed him into the ground.
BOOM!
Once again, his cheek made intimate contact with the earth.
The violent impact made his head buzz, and Obito briefly wondered if he'd suffer permanent brain damage.
And then... the real beating began!
Taking a deep breath, Uchiha Kazuki's fists rained down on Obito in a merciless barrage, with special focus on his face.
"Ahh!"
"I was wrong!"
"Stop... please stop hitting me!"
"I'm sorry, Kazuki-nii... ahhh, I was wrong!"
Obito lost count of how many punches he took.
By the end, he didn't even have the strength to scream anymore. Blood bubbled from his mouth as he muttered Rin's name deliriously.
"Incredibly tenacious."
Uchiha Kazuki slowly exhaled a breath of stale air. "After taking so many hits, he still has the energy to worry about someone else?"
"Now's my chance!"
Kakashi, who had been perfectly concealing his presence this entire time, finally saw his opportunity.
He knew Uchiha Kazuki's methods all too well. If he didn't seize the perfect moment, rushing out would be completely pointless.
So even while watching Rin and Obito get brutally beaten, he'd persisted in hiding, waiting patiently for his opening.
And now, that opening had appeared.
Fwip fwip fwip!
Three kunai shot out from the dense forest in a triangular formation.
Uchiha Kazuki seemed to react just a beat too slow, barely ducking as the kunai closed in on him.
In that instant, Kakashi burst out from a completely different direction, closing in at lightning speed. He drew the tanto from his back, recalling his father's White Fang sword technique. Synchronizing his breathing with his chakra flow, he unleashed a blinding flash of steel at an extremely tricky angle.
"Finally coming out!"
To everyone's shock, Uchiha Kazuki smiled slightly and chuckled. "I've been waiting for you for quite some time, Kakashi."
Damn it, it's a trap!
Realizing he'd been baited, Kakashi tried to abort his strike, but it was already too late.
Since retreat was impossible—he'd commit fully!
With unwavering resolve, Kakashi threw caution to the wind. His breathing synchronized perfectly with his chakra, his spirit intensely focused on this single moment.
At this instant, he seemed to truly grasp the essence of his father's White Fang sword style.
The blade gleamed like a dragon, bright as the full moon.
Wrapped in sharp killing intent, it descended with ferocious power—a torrent of cold steel.
CLANG!
The next moment, two slender fingers caught the blade between them.
"This..."
Kakashi's eye widened in disbelief. No matter how hard he gripped his tanto, he couldn't move the blade even an inch, as if it were clamped in an iron vice.
"Three, two, one."
Uchiha Kazuki smiled as he counted down, then clenched his other fist. "Grit your teeth, Kakashi."
CRACK!
Kakashi took a devastating punch to the face, spinning through the air as he flew backward.
He bounced twice off the ground, rolled a dozen times, and finally came to a stop. He couldn't feel anything on the left side of his face, and even his front teeth felt loose.
"By the way, let me give you one more piece of advice."
Uchiha Kazuki raised his foot high and brought it down heavily.
SLAM!
Uchiha Obito's head was crushed into the ground, spiderweb cracks spreading out from the impact point.
Kazuki slowly raised his right hand, terrifying chakra gathering within his palm. His gaze swept coldly over the three severely injured genin. "In shinobi combat, medical ninja must never stand on the front lines. Otherwise..."
The highly condensed chakra's internal nature suddenly underwent a drastic transformation!
BZZZZZZT!
The surrounding air suddenly howled with ear-piercing buzzing sounds.
As the air currents gathered violently, fierce winds scattered fallen leaves and dust in all directions.
Finally, massive amounts of wind chakra converged in Uchiha Kazuki's palm, forming a semi-transparent, rapidly spinning ring that vibrated at frequencies almost invisible to the naked eye.
"Such powerful Wind Release chakra!"
Kakashi's pupil contracted to a pinpoint. "And it's a no-hand-seal technique, just like Minato-sensei's Rasengan!"
Though the forms differed, the principle was essentially identical.
Any ninjutsu that could be quickly released without hand seals fell into the category of 'no-hand-seal techniques'!
"Wind Release chakra nature transformation combined with shape transformation..."
Kakashi stared intently at Uchiha Kazuki as a flash of inspiration crossed his mind, as if he'd received sudden enlightenment. "Perhaps... I could try condensing Lightning Release chakra in my hand and performing both shape and nature transformation!"
"It becomes like this!"
With those words, Uchiha Kazuki hurled the rapidly spinning ring directly at the immobilized Nohara Rin.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!"
SHRIIIIIEK—!
The chakra ring, spinning at breakneck speed like a saw blade, possessed terrifying cutting power, seemingly carving a 'tunnel' through the air itself.
Compressed to its absolute limit with high-density Wind Release chakra and spinning at supersonic speeds, its serrated edges were devastatingly sharp. The moment it left his hand, it carved a deep trench into the hard ground, accompanied by a piercing roar.
"He actually threw it?!"
Kakashi had thought Uchiha Kazuki was just demonstrating and wouldn't actually use such a technique against them.
But... the truth was undeniable. He'd really thrown it—and the target was the severely injured Nohara Rin.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
In an instant, Kakashi felt ice water flood through his veins, his pupil dilating in absolute horror.
Unfortunately, what unfolded before his eye plunged him into a living nightmare. The bloody reality materialized right in front of him.
SCHLIIICK!
Nohara Rin was cleaved cleanly in two!
Blood erupted like a fountain, splitting her face down the middle. A lingering attachment to life and incredulous terror remained frozen on her features.
Her two severed halves collapsed to the ground. The once-familiar face now showed only one side, facing toward Obito with lifeless, ashen eyes staring directly at him.
It was as if she were silently asking why he hadn't saved her.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Upon witnessing this scene, Obito first froze completely.
Then, indescribable hatred mixed with overwhelming emotional anguish flooded through him. His eyes became filled with bloodshot veins as the entire world seemed to slow down before his vision.
"NO—!!!"
Obito went completely berserk, like a wounded animal. His eyes blazing crimson, he roared and howled at Kazuki with inhuman fury. "UCHIHA KAZUKI! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU!!!"
"Don't look at me like that, Obito."
Uchiha Kazuki adjusted his glasses, his gaze utterly frigid, his voice like a devil's whisper. "Do you understand? Nohara Rin died because of you. You're too weak, Obito. You don't even give me the slightest interest in killing you. Your hatred... isn't strong enough."
"UCHIHA KAZUKI!!!"
Obito, his head still crushed against the ground, glared at him with a blood-filled eye overflowing with absolute hatred. "I swear! I will definitely kill you!"
[End of Chapter 55]
Author's Note:
Well... that escalated quickly. 😨
For those wondering—this is genjutsu, right? ...Right?! Kazuki wouldn't actually murder Rin during a training session... would he? Or is this the "special training" he warned them about—using illusions to trigger Obito's Sharingan awakening?
The answer comes next chapter! Will Obito awaken his Sharingan from this trauma? And what will Kakashi do now that he's witnessed this horror?
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