Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 228 Black Zetsu Painfully Cuts Off His Own Flesh

The battle between Obito Uchiha and Shisui Uchiha was fought silently.

Obito's Kamui Hollowfication is practically invincible; when he doesn't want to fight, no one can touch him.

Uchiha Shisui was the third ninja, after Uchiha Izumi, to successfully fuse with [Swift Release].

His speed was already incredibly fast, earning him the nickname "Shisui of the Body Flicker" during the later stages of the Third Shinobi World War. Now, his speed surpasses that of the Fourth Raikage, making him the second fastest shinobi in the world, second only to Natsume.

The biggest advantage of the speed ninja is that he can take the initiative in the battle. No matter what Obito Uchiha does, he will be interrupted by Shisui Uchiha.

After Obito Uchiha intangibly evaded Shisui's attack, Shisui's kunai struck back and pierced Obito's neck the instant he deactivated his intangibility to counterattack.

Five years ago, Xia Zuo had only fused with Swift Release for a few days and had virtually no experience in high-speed combat, yet he still managed to trap Obito in the Kamui dimension, preventing him from escaping.

How could Xia Zuo, five years ago, compare to "Instant Stillness" in terms of experience in high-speed combat?

Shisui's control of the rhythm today was absolutely perfect. Despite Obito Uchiha's constant intangibility, he was still beaten with nowhere to hide, and he couldn't even return to the Kamui dimension.

Obito Uchiha's intangibility was a special application of the Kamui dimension, using the conflict between the ninja world and the Kamui dimension to put himself in a special state where he was both here and not here.

However, to return to the Divine Might Space, he must go through the Vortex Space Gate.

To pass through the Kamui portal, he must ensure that he is in the ninja world.

In other words, one must first dispel the etherealization before being able to return to the Kamui space through the vortex.

Five years ago, Obito Uchiha was able to do this in front of Shaka, but today he couldn't do it at all in front of Shisui Uchiha.

Every time a whirlpool appeared, Shisui would instantly appear in front of Obito and send him flying.

Sometimes Shisui would find that the angle was not right when he was exerting force, so he would use a kunai to stab Obito in his vital points. Other times, he would stick explosive tags on Obito's neck and chest to force him to become intangible again to avoid fatal attacks.

At this moment, Obito Uchiha finally understood that Shisui Uchiha's ability to fight so smoothly was clearly due to his complete mastery of his intelligence and his long-term targeted training.

Moreover, as time went on, the battle remained confined to the arena, showing no signs of spreading, and the order of Konoha Village remained intact.

Even if Obito Uchiha was slow to react, he now realized that the entire Konoha rebellion was a trap from beginning to end.

He felt incredibly frustrated. He had waited a full five years to seize the opportunity to assassinate the Fifth Hokage, only to find out it was a trap set by the Fifth Hokage.

Five years! Do you know how he spent those five years?

Over the past five years, news of failures has come one after another. In particular, after Xia Zuo became the Fifth Hokage, he kept causing trouble, and in the process, he always managed to injure Obito Uchiha!

The Fifth Hokage first went to Amegakure and fought a battle against most of the Akatsuki organization.

Neither side died, but Nagato and Konan became ten times more wary of Obito Uchiha. Even though Obito used White Zetsu cells to help Nagato recover his health, it did not change the dire situation.

It took Obito Uchiha a long time to realize what had happened.

The properties of leukocytes are so unique that just one glance reveals their connection to extinction.

Obito Uchiha and Zetsu have been members of the Akatsuki for more than a year or two, so why didn't they use their talents to help Nagato recover his health before?

Only when the Fifth Hokage appeared and the crippled Nagato was no match for him did you eagerly bring it out—

What are your intentions?

Before Obito Uchiha could figure out how to ease tensions, the Fifth Hokage, Sasuke Natsumi, convened the Ninja World Peace Conference and attacked Kirigakure, razing the entire village to the ground.

In order to protect his most important puppet, Obito controlled the Fourth Mizukage to hide.

Who could have imagined that this incident would cause the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, to completely lose the support of the people, ultimately becoming the fuse for the Kirigakure rebellion.

When the Fourth Mizukage was forced to go to Konoha for a meeting, Genji integrated all the ninjas of Kirigakure and also found several rogue ninjas who had tried to assassinate the Fourth Mizukage.

What followed was an upheaval where the Fourth Mizukage was defeated and killed. Before his death, he dispelled the genjutsu of the Mangekyou Sharingan, completely exposing Obito Uchiha to the Hidden Mist ninja.

The Wuyin Village base, which had been operating for many years, was completely destroyed.

Because of the death of the Fourth Mizukage, Obito Uchiha discovered traces of Madara Uchiha and realized that he was also one of the controlled puppets. He began to plan to replace Madara Uchiha and carry out the Infinite Tsukuyomi plan himself.

However, as everyone knows, Obito Uchiha was the worst student in Konoha.

But as it turns out, his talent is exceptional.

The Sharingan awakens with two tomoe, and after a few months, it is stimulated again to skip the three tomoe and awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan. Its exclusive eye technique is the overpowered skill [Kamui].

Despite possessing such talent, Obito Uchiha still firmly held onto his bottom-ranked position, proving that the key to his decline was his lack of intelligence.

He wanted to kick Madara Uchiha away, but he didn't know how to avoid Black Zetsu, nor did he know how to start.

He wanted to break the control seal on his heart, but didn't know who to ask for help.

He wanted to repair his relationship with Nagato, but the more he tried, the more estranged they became.

Therefore, Obito Uchiha's life was particularly difficult, it was simply torture.

They waited and endured, finally getting the chance when Konoha was about to fall into internal strife, only to find it was a trap!

Was the Fifth Hokage sick?

Why are they targeting him so relentlessly?

Obito Uchiha was beaten repeatedly by Shisui Uchiha, and all his struggles were broken, but he only felt annoyed and not afraid at all.

Because he knew that his disadvantage was only temporary.

Obito Uchiha's upper body was made up of White Zetsu, which not only avoided the danger of vision loss caused by using the Mangekyou Sharingan, but also increased his chakra reserves.

His body also gained superhuman self-healing abilities, making him more resistant to damage and far more forgiving than Uchiha Shisui.

Compared to Obito Uchiha's stats, Shisui Uchiha's data was much worse; at least his chakra wouldn't last long.

When Obito Uchiha was nearly stabbed in the kidney by Shisui with a kunai once again, he finally sensed that Shisui's power was weakening.

He burst into laughter: "I can feel it, Uchiha Shisui! Shisui of the Body Flicker Technique! Your condition has clearly deteriorated. Let's see how long you can hold out!"

"Wait until you're exhausted, then see how I kill you!"

Just then, Itachi Uchiha, who was not far away, suddenly activated Susanoo and suppressed Izumi Uchiha and Jiraiya for a while before running away.

Jiraiya and Izumi Uchiha couldn't catch up and could only return in a rage. Then the two of them set their sights on Obito Uchiha.

Obito Uchiha: "————"

But just then, something else happened inside the bombed-out private room.

Enveloped in golden sand, the Fifth Hokage finally ceased his struggles under the combined attack of Orochimaru and the Fourth Kazekage, and was then sealed into a small pyramid by the Fourth Kazekage.

But to the Fourth Kazekage's despair, just as the sealed pyramid was taking shape, Orochimaru suddenly pulled out a metal card and threw it to the top of the pyramid.

The chakra fluctuations on the metal card flashed by, and after exploding into a cloud of white smoke, the Fifth Kazekage, Natsu, appeared on the pyramid.

The Fifth Hokage smiled and even nodded slightly when he saw the Fourth Kazekage, saying, "Fourth Kazekage, you did a good job. You actually sealed my clone."

The Fourth Kazekage's mouth was wide open, but his breathing had completely stopped.

Xia Zuo turned his head and said, "Orochimaru-senpai, you did a good job too. I remember the 79 times the Kusanagi sword pierced my clone."

Orochimaru's eyes darted around: "Fifth Hokage, these were all your orders. I'm just following your orders—"

"Haha, I know, of course I know, so I just remembered it."

Xia Zuo was laughing happily, but Orochimaru's heart was ice-cold.

Then Xia Zuo looked towards the battlefield in the stands and asked loudly, "Do you need me to take action?"

Jiraiya, Izumi Uchiha, and Shisui Uchiha all shook their heads. It was three against one, and two of the Uchiha had mastered Swift Release. If they couldn't defeat this masked one-eyed Mangekyou Sharingan ninja, it would be too embarrassing.

Xia Zuo shook his head and said, "This guy is no simpleton. If we make even the slightest mistake, he'll slip away. You guys—"

Before Xia Zuo could finish speaking, Uchiha Obito suddenly opened the vortex and rushed into it without regard for anything else.

He wasn't acting rashly out of his mind; upon seeing the Fifth Hokage, Natsume, he decided to trade his own serious injuries for a chance to escape.

What finally made him decide was Black Zetsu's words: "Obito, run! The Fifth Hokage is too strong. His strength is completely comparable to Madara-sama before us, even after he awakened the Rinnegan!"

"Run! I can only hold off the Fifth Hokage for a split second!"

Obito Uchiha was only afraid of the Fifth Hokage. Since Black Zetsu could hold him off for a while, he naturally made up his mind to run away immediately.

As Obito drilled into the vortex space gate, Izumi Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, and Xia Zuo simultaneously disappeared from their original positions.

And Black Absolute Obito's promise was indeed true; he really did intercept the fastest speed, Xia Zuo.

Black Zetsu separated a part of his body and infused it with the essence of his mother's chakra, causing it to decompose into a cloud of black smoke.

If you look closely, you can see specks of gray dust mixed in with the black smoke, exuding an eerie aura that has never changed since ancient times.

Black Zetsu glanced at the cloud of smoke with a pained expression, then gritted his teeth and threw it at the Fifth Hokage, Natsume.

This black mist was tangible yet intangible, its flight path unpredictable, but it locked onto Xia Zuo, who was rushing toward Uchiha Obito at top speed.

Even more bizarrely, the black smoke, though seemingly moving slowly, actually took no time during its flight. It collided with Xia Zuo's body immediately after leaving Black Zetsu's body.

The tangible yet intangible black smoke shattered and dispersed the moment it came into contact with Xia Zuo.

After the black smoke dissipated, the gray dust mixed in with the smoke clung to Xia Zuo's body, causing his speed to drop sharply.

No, it's not that Xia Zuo's speed has slowed down, but rather that time around him has become distorted, causing him to become disconnected from the entire ninja world.

Xia Zuo felt very bad. He felt that his connection with the ninja world had been severed, and he even felt like he had been exiled.

Black Zetsu! The son of Kaguya Otsutsuki!

The name instantly came to Xia Zuo's mind, along with the Six Paths Obito who had his heart pierced and the Six Paths Madara who had also had his heart pierced.

The gray dust clinging to his body sent chills down his spine; its eerie, ancient aura reminded him of one of the most terrifying techniques: [Shared Killing of Ash Bones].

Xia Zuo's mind tensed instantly. He instinctively mustered all his strength, mixing his chakra with the spiritual power of a half-dead god to form an unprecedented new power, recklessly attacking the dust clinging to his body.

The next moment, Xia Zuo's mind relaxed. The gray dust particles were swept up by the power and rose up. Then, like horseflies encountering flames, they emitted a momentary flash of light and then disappeared without a trace.

As the gray dust disappeared, the eerie sense of disorientation in time and space also vanished, and Xia Zuo regained his sense of the world, re-establishing his connection with the ninja world.

But his speed instantly dropped to zero, leaving him no time to attack Obito.

At the very least, there wasn't enough time to attack his vital organs.

Fortunately, the two Uchiha ninjas were not stopped. They appeared next to Obito Uchiha almost simultaneously and attacked his vital points, forcing Obito to become intangible again and interrupting his escape attempt.

No one could have imagined that Obito would not use Kamui: Hollowfication this time, but instead gritted his teeth and endured the attacks of two Kage-level ninjas.

Uchiha Shisui's kunai pierced Obito's heart. Surprise did not diminish Shisui's reaction. He immediately stirred the kunai in his hand, crushing Obito's heart.

Uchiha Izumi's ninja sword plunged into Obito's neck. She reacted just as quickly, changing her thrust into a horizontal slash, severing half of Obito's neck. A large gushing of blood spurted from the severed artery.

Although the spurting of blood lasted for less than a second before ending due to the loss of blood pressure from a ruptured heart, the blood continued to gush out, quickly turning Obito's face deathly pale.

But Obito Uchiha did not die. He struggled to stuff his mangled body into the vortex and successfully escaped into the Kamui dimension.

The moment he passed through the vortex portal, Obito turned around, his single eye fixed on the Konoha ninja, and let out a painful, twisted howl: "I won't die! I'll be back!"

Then, Obito Uchiha plunged into the vortex without looking back.

Just as Obito Uchiha had only his legs outside, Xia Zuo finally broke free from the abnormal state of deceleration and appeared in front of the shrinking vortex.

He raised his left fist and slammed it hard into Obito's left foot, transforming the surging power he had previously fused into countless cutting blades, all of which he poured into that foot.

The cutting blades converged into a stream, like chakra, flowing upwards along Obito's leg meridians, causing intense pain.

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