Naruto: Promotion is my Ninja Way

"Ahhhh!"

A painful wail of agony tore through the air!

Uchiha Obito retreated quickly, desperately dodging Shihouin Naraku's increasingly fierce and relentless attacks. His severed hands had already begun their disturbing process of regeneration.

The flesh expanded beneath his pale skin as granulation tissue grew at an unnaturally rapid pace. At a speed clearly visible to the naked eye, Obito's hands returned to their original appearance, as if they had never been cut off at all.

"What the hell?" Naraku muttered with growing confusion.

Obito had been wearing gloves throughout their previous encounters, so Naraku had never actually seen what his hands looked like beneath the fabric. Now, witnessing this bizarre regeneration, something seemed deeply wrong.

The sight was genuinely disturbing and unnatural.

Naraku knew that Obito had once been half-crushed by a massive boulder during the Third Shinobi World War. In order to survive those catastrophic injuries, he had been injected with Hashirama cells and covered with White Zetsu material to preserve his life and restore his body.

So Naraku understood that something was fundamentally wrong with Obito's physical form, but the fact that his hands were in such a grotesque state—appearing almost tree-like in their composition—was deeply unsettling and abnormal.

Was there something seriously wrong with the Hashirama cells that had been implanted in Obito's body? Or was it because of some other factor that Obito had become this horrifying creature that stood before him now?

Naraku felt genuinely confused by these disturbing revelations, but that confusion didn't stop him from gripping Kurikara firmly and preparing to strike again with deadly intent.

Obito didn't dare deactivate the Kamui intangibility protecting his entire body. He endured the severe pain that emanated from the very depths of his soul, staring at the black blade in Naraku's hand with pure, undisguised fear.

Every single time he had been struck by that cursed black knife, the physical damage had been secondary—it was the terrible feeling of his soul being torn apart that proved truly unbearable.

Of course, Obito remained completely unaware that Black Zetsu was secretly helping him bear a significant portion of the spiritual and mental trauma inflicted by Kurikara. Without that hidden assistance, he would have collapsed and surrendered long ago.

"I absolutely must not be hit by that knife again!" Obito thought desperately.

A flash of intense vigilance crossed Obito's visible eye. Although his Sharingan could clearly see through an enemy's physical movements and predict their attacks, that ability would prove completely useless if he couldn't keep up with his opponent's overwhelming speed.

How could he possibly dare to compete with Naraku in physical combat skills and swordsmanship when the gap between their abilities was so vast!

"ROAAAAR!"

At that crucial moment, the Three-Tails Isobu, who had been brutally beaten and humiliated by Obito's earlier assault, released a furious roar that shook the very foundations of the island. Like a creature driven completely mad by pain and rage, the massive beast raised its three enormous tails high into the air and brought them crashing down toward both Naraku and Obito with devastating force.

Obito managed to dodge the attack by relying on his Kamui's intangibility, while Naraku simply raised his long sword and slashed upward above his head. With a sharp, metallic clang, one of the Three-Tails' massive tails was cleanly severed by the impossibly sharp blade.

"ROAAAAR!"

The injured Three-Tails Isobu completely lost what remained of its sanity and began attacking Shihouin Naraku with desperate, mindless fury. This provided Obito with a precious opportunity to catch his breath and reassess the situation.

"Amenotejikara!"

Swish!

The very fabric of space itself seemed to shift and warp around them. Suddenly, Naraku and Obito's positions were completely swapped in an instant!

Naraku now stood exactly where Obito had been positioned moments before, while Obito found himself transported to Naraku's previous location. A massive ball of chakra-infused water came crashing down toward his new position with tremendous force.

"This is..." Obito began, his eyes widening in shock and disbelief.

Fortunately, Obito had maintained his Kamui's intangibility and avoided the devastating ninjutsu released by the Three-Tails Isobu without suffering any damage. However, he frowned deeply as he stared at Naraku with growing concern and confusion.

"This is space-time ninjutsu!" he realized with mounting dread.

"But it's definitely not the Flying Thunder God Technique!"

"Where did Shihouin Naraku master such advanced space-time ninjutsu?!"

Shihouin Naraku wasn't from the Uchiha clan, so he definitely didn't possess the Sharingan, and he couldn't possibly awaken the Mangekyou Sharingan. So where and how had he learned to manipulate space-time ninjutsu?

Konohagakure did possess space-time ninjutsu techniques, but that particular jutsu was called the Flying Thunder God Technique!

Obito had witnessed his beloved teacher, Namikaze Minato, perform the Flying Thunder God countless times during the war. He had even faced it directly in combat, taking a devastating hit from the Rasengan that had nearly crippled him permanently.

Therefore, he was absolutely certain that what Naraku had just performed was not the Flying Thunder God. At the very least, Obito had not detected the most crucial element required to perform the Flying Thunder God Technique—the chakra marks that needed to be placed beforehand!

And when Shihouin Naraku had switched places with him just moments ago, the sensation had been completely different from the feeling of the Flying Thunder God that he had experienced before during his encounters with Minato.

So this meant that Shihouin Naraku had actually developed an entirely new form of space-time ninjutsu!

Thinking about these implications, Uchiha Obito became even more flustered and desperate.

Kamui was his primary source of confidence when fighting against Naraku. It was his ace in the hole, his ultimate trump card. But if his opponent also possessed mastery over space-time ninjutsu, then he would essentially have no significant advantage left in this battle.

"What's wrong? I can sense that your fighting spirit has suddenly become much weaker," Naraku observed with casual interest.

Naraku stood suspended in mid-air with his blade held ready, staring down at Uchiha Obito with an almost leisurely demeanor. Even though he hadn't launched another attack yet, Naraku felt confident that Obito definitely hadn't deactivated his Kamui's intangibility.

"Space-time ninjutsu?" Obito asked tentatively, not really expecting Naraku to provide him with a direct answer.

But if he could somehow learn the specific conditions required for activating Naraku's space-time ninjutsu and discover its inherent limitations or weaknesses, then perhaps he wouldn't need to worry quite so much about this new threat.

"Hehehe..." Naraku chuckled with dark amusement.

"Why don't you take a guess!"

The casual conversation between the two combatants seemed to greatly annoy the Three-Tails Isobu, who released another earth-shaking roar and fired yet another massive Tailed Beast Bomb at both fighters with renewed fury.

The catastrophic explosion struck again with tremendous force, causing various sections of the already devastated island to collapse further. Large amounts of seawater began seeping through the newly created cracks and fissures.

If this intense fighting continued much longer, the entire island would likely sink beneath the waves and disappear forever into the depths of the ocean.

"Let's speed this up and end this battle once and for all," Naraku declared with finality.

Naraku raised his blade and struck with lightning speed, forcing Obito to dodge hastily and desperately.

The two figures moved like blurs, shuttling back and forth through the flames and smoke of the ongoing explosions, completely ignoring the Three-Tails' continued rampage and destruction.

As precious time continued to pass, Obito's Kamui hollow state approached its critical ten-minute limit, and his situation became increasingly precarious and desperate.

Naraku wasn't entirely certain about the exact duration of Obito's continuous intangibility, but he had estimated that it probably couldn't exceed the original five-minute limitation from the canon timeline.

Doubling or even tripling that duration would already represent an extreme enhancement beyond normal expectations.

"Your movements are becoming a little sloppy and uncoordinated. Are you having trouble maintaining this state?" Naraku voiced his educated guess with growing confidence.

When Obito heard those words, his body tensed and froze momentarily in shock. Taking advantage of that brief hesitation, the black blade suddenly stabbed forward and pierced directly through his heart.

"Did I guess correctly?" Naraku asked with satisfaction.

"Based on your previous battles and behavior patterns, this intangible state must have some kind of time limit, so let me think..."

"Ten minutes?"

"Fifteen minutes?"

"Twenty minutes?"

That's right—ten minutes!

No matter how skillfully Obito tried to hide his reactions, Naraku still caught sight of the panic that flashed through the other's exposed Sharingan.

When he mentioned the specific number of ten minutes, the change in Obito's eyes became most obvious and telling.

So the limit was definitely ten minutes!

At this critical moment, it had already been nine minutes and forty-seven seconds since the battle began!

Naraku had been counting silently in his mind throughout the entire fight, and as the time limit approached, his attacks became increasingly fierce and relentless.

What should I do?

What can I do?!

Obito felt overwhelming anxiety and desperation as he tried every possible strategy he could think of, but he simply didn't know how to escape from Naraku's overwhelming presence. As the duration of his Kamui hollow state approached its absolute limit, Obito became completely panicked.

At that terrifying moment, Obito seemed to see a vivid hallucination of the black knife in Naraku's hand cleanly severing his head from his shoulders.

The supreme sword skills were like a brilliant fire blazing in the darkness of night—dazzling and mesmerizing to behold, captivating attention while simultaneously containing infinite danger and the promise of death.

Kamui's time limit has been reached!

Whoosh!

Like a flash of brilliant lightning cutting through the air, Naraku gripped Kurikara firmly in his hands. The pitch-black tip of the deadly blade pierced completely through Uchiha Obito's heart!

Dark flames spreading outward from the cursed blade instantly filled Obito's body and began burning his internal organs with supernatural fire.

"AHHHHH—"

Obito's shrill, agonized howl echoed across the devastated landscape. Naraku smoothly withdrew his sword and slashed backward, cutting through his opponent's black robe and leaving a deep scar on Obito's body that was visible all the way to the bone.

Obito trembled violently as unbearable pain penetrated his bones and etched itself permanently into his very soul. Streaks of blood covered his Mangekyou Sharingan, which appeared ready to burst from the overwhelming agony.

With a sharp crack, the orange mask covering Obito's face finally shattered completely and fell away in pieces.

"Whoosh—"

The supreme swordsmanship techniques shone with brilliant, deadly light. The impossibly sharp blade slashed across Obito's neck with perfect precision, and this time it actually succeeded in severing his head from his body.

"This is—"

"..."

"Obito!!!"

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