A searing fireball completely incinerated Hika, leaving behind only some debris that was difficult to burn away, such as a few shattered bones, as well as melted and deformed iron weapons like blades and kunai. All of this debris piled up in the scorched, blackened pit on the ground.
"Well done!"
Gyokuzou, who was holding Nohara Rin hostage, walked over, looked at the ashes and remains left in the pit, and offered his praise to Kakashi and Uchiha Obito with a smile!
At this point,
the three members of the original doomed squad heading toward Kannabi Bridge had all perished completely, leaving behind only Gyokuzou, a temporary fourth participant who had joined along the way. In contrast, Uchiha Obito, who should have "fallen" during this operation, was still alive and kicking, glaring at Gyokuzou with a pair of double-tomoe Sharingan filled with murderous intent.
"I've already killed that afro guy. Now... let Rin go immediately."
Obito stared fixedly at Gyokuzou.
Had Rin not still been held hostage by Gyokuzou, he probably would have charged straight at him to fight to the death.
"Let Rin go? What kind of nonsense are you dreaming about?"
Gyokuzou looked at Obito with a puzzled gaze, completely unfazed by the double-tomoe Sharingan. Had it been a three-tomoe Sharingan, he probably wouldn't have dared to make direct eye contact so carelessly, but a mere double-tomoe... he simply wasn't afraid of the genjutsu of a double-tomoe Sharingan!
In fact,
Obito had indeed unleashed a genjutsu at this very moment.
As a true-born Uchiha, even though his parents had died when he was young, he had still received the training that every Uchiha was supposed to undergo within the clan. He had learned Fire Release, genjutsu, and the Uchiha style shurikenjutsu, though many abilities required awakening his eyes to truly master or unleash their proper power.
Among them,
genjutsu was the most typical example.
Even though he had long received a complete genjutsu education from his family, he had never used genjutsu in battle before. This wasn't because he lacked talent in the way of illusions, but rather because Uchiha genjutsu was fundamentally built upon mastering the Sharingan after awakening it!
Nine-tenths of Uchiha genjutsu
consisted of ocular genjutsu.
This meant that no matter how hard an unawakened Uchiha ninja studied the family's secret genjutsu, as long as their eyes remained unawakened, they were basically stuck at the theoretical stage and unable to put what they had learned into practice. However, once the eyes were awakened... all those problems would be solved instantly.
Obito was in exactly this situation.
After awakening his eyes,
not only did the quality and quantity of his chakra undergo a leap forward, but his physical fitness was also massively enhanced. At the same time, he mastered many techniques he had previously studied but failed to grasp due to not having his eyes awakened.
Genjutsu was one of them.
When dealing with Hika earlier, Hika had been extremely cautious and avoided making eye contact with him, leaving him no opportunity to use genjutsu to control Hika. But now... Gyokuzou had looked over completely off guard, so Obito used the Binding Stake Technique without the slightest hesitation.
This was a type of binding jutsu.
It could drag the enemy into a genjutsu space and drive massive iron spikes into their body to immobilize them, trapping their consciousness within the genjutsu space so they could not easily break free, while their physical body in the real world would consequently fall into a state where it could not move of its own accord.
At this moment,
in this boundless genjutsu space stretching as far as the eye could see with only an endless dark red hue, Obito and Gyokuzou stood facing each other.
Furthermore,
two massive iron spikes were impaled in Gyokuzou's body, piercing through his left chest and right ribs respectively.
"An Uchiha's genjutsu? No hand signs needed, and you fall into the trap just by looking—truly... terrifying!"
Gyokuzou lowered his head to examine the two iron spikes impaled in his conscious body. These iron spikes brought him genuine pain, but fortunately, a conscious body was called a conscious body precisely because its essence was merely a mass of consciousness. This human-like form was nothing more than the natural projection of his mental consciousness onto the shape of a physical body.
There were no such things as vital points in a physical body.
What mattered was not where the iron spikes were driven, but the number of spikes, because the quantity represented the strength of the Binding Stake Technique.
Two iron spikes
were already a respectable standard within the Uchiha clan. Even among Uchiha who had awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan, quite a few could only cast the Binding Stake Technique at the strength of two iron spikes. The strength of three iron spikes was undeniably the level of a top-tier expert within the Uchiha clan!
As for four iron spikes... those who could achieve this level within the Uchiha clan were few and far between.
Therefore,
Obito was a genius!
If nothing else,
at the very least, his talent in the field of genjutsu was clearly very high.
"This is the bitter fruit of your underestimating the Uchiha—eh?"
Obito stared in astonishment at the pitch-black hand that had suddenly grabbed his kunai. He looked in disbelief at the man who should have had his mobility completely restricted by his Binding Stake Technique, but who instead acted as if he were completely unaffected by it, using his bare hand to block his surprise attack!
"Underestimating the Uchiha? How could I ever dare to underestimate the Uchiha! In this world where bloodline is supreme, who would dare to underestimate you Uchiha? It's just that... a double-tomoe Sharingan cannot represent the Uchiha. If you want to represent the Uchiha and teach someone a lesson... wait until you've awakened the Mangekyo!"
Gyokuzou's right hand suddenly exerted force, and his palm—as hard as diamond—easily crushed the kunai forged from top-grade steel, sweeping Obito away like garbage and sending him tumbling through the patch of fallen bamboo leaves.
At the same time,
he raised his left foot and kicked out fiercely toward his rear-left, meeting the flashing blade of pure white light!
The short sword shining with a white glow sliced through the sole of Gyokuzou's shoe, yet failed to cut through his pitch-black sole. Instead, Kakashi, who had launched the surprise attack, was sent flying by the tremendous force transmitted from the White Fang short sword, crashing heavily into a giant bamboo stalk behind him.
"Cough, cough!"
Obito flipped and landed steadily on his feet, coughing twice to adjust his turbulent breathing.
He raised his head,
staring at Gyokuzou with an extremely solemn gaze.
This time,
he did not use genjutsu again.
Since the Binding Stake Technique had failed to restrain Gyokuzou just now, then... nine times out of ten, the other genjutsu he mastered would also be ineffective, because none of the illusions he had studied were fundamentally superior to the Binding Stake Technique; they only differed in the effects they produced.
Until his ocular power achieved a breakthrough improvement, and before he learned higher-level ocular genjutsu,
it was impossible to rely on genjutsu to cause any trouble for this detestable enemy, Gyokuzou.
"You... how did you break my Binding Stake Technique?"
Even though he knew the probability of getting an answer was vanishingly small, Obito still couldn't help asking the question.