Chapter 114: The Secret Vault

Chapter 114: Chapter 114: The Secret Vault

The two figures crossed paths in an instant.

Hyuga Kagami’s body passed straight through Obito’s.

But Kagami had already anticipated this. He ducked low, smoothly avoiding the chain hanging between Obito’s wrists.

After passing each other, the two landed where the other had previously stood and once again turned to face one another.

For a moment, neither moved.

A scene from long ago suddenly flashed through Kagami’s mind.

"Hey, white-eyes! My name’s Uchiha Obito. What’s yours?"

"Hyuga Kagami."

"Just so you know, one day I’m gonna become Hokage!"

"Oh. Speaking of which, I really have to thank you."

"Huh? Thank me for what?"

"Thanks to you coming in dead last this time, I didn’t finish at the bottom of the class."

"Y-You...! You bastard! Just you wait! Once I awaken my eyes someday, I’ll show you just how powerful the Uchiha Clan really is!"

In that instant, memories of Kagami’s interactions with Obito during their days at the Ninja Academy flashed through his mind.

Back then, the two of them had been fellow sufferers, constantly hovering around the very bottom of the class rankings.

And now...

They had both become powerful shinobi capable of influencing the fate of the entire village.

The twists and turns of life truly were extraordinary.

Clatter, clatter...

His first attack having failed, Obito was somewhat surprised.

He rattled the chain between his wrists, probing Kagami’s movements as he prepared to launch a second attack.

Kagami, however, tossed aside the kunai in his hand and slipped both hands into the ninja-tool pouches at his waist.

The silence continued.

Neither of them had any intention of speaking.

Nor was there any need to.

Whoosh!

With a flick of his right hand, Obito whipped the chain toward Kagami before lunging forward immediately afterward.

With both hands still buried inside his tool pouches, Kagami rapidly leapt backward, seemingly trying to evade Obito’s attack.

But the moment he dodged the sweeping chain—

Obito’s hand seized his shoulder!

In an instant, a distorted vortex appeared over Kagami’s shoulder.

At the same time, Kagami’s hands emerged from his tool pouches and pressed directly against Obito’s chest.

Glancing down at the explosive tags Kagami had stuck onto him, Obito’s expression beneath the mask was filled with disdain.

"Got you!"

As far as he was concerned, the moment he managed to touch Kagami, Kagami was already dead.

As for the explosive tags stuck to his chest?

He had countless ways of dealing with something like that. There was no need to pay them any attention.

The twisting vortex grew larger and larger.

Soon, even Kagami’s figure began to distort as he was dragged into it.

"Other than the Fourth Hokage...

"No one can escape my Kamui!"

The corners of Obito’s mouth curled upward, a grin spreading across his face.

Suddenly—

Obito, chain and all, was violently repelled backward!

It happened so abruptly that he didn’t even have time to turn intangible and retreat into his Kamui dimension.

And as he was sent flying, every explosive tag Kagami had planted on his chest detonated at once!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A chain of explosions thundered through the underground chamber, the deafening blasts echoing endlessly through the darkness.

"Tch!"

Kagami clicked his tongue as he stared intently ahead.

Although the smoke from the explosions had yet to completely disperse, he already knew the result.

At the very last moment before the explosive tags detonated, Obito had managed to slip into the Kamui dimension.

When the smoke finally cleared, a distorted vortex once again appeared out of thin air.

Obito stepped out from within it.

But this time—

The casual composure he had displayed earlier was completely gone.

Staring at Kagami, Obito finally spoke.

"Who the hell are you? Why are you here?"

Having personally witnessed the power of the Rinnegan, Obito could naturally tell that the technique Kagami had just used was extremely similar to the Deva Path Pain’s Shinra Tensei.

And in the current shinobi world, as far as Obito knew, there was only one person capable of using such a technique—

Pain.

Because of that, Obito suddenly became extremely interested in the identity of this mysterious man who, just like himself, wore a mask and a black cloak.

Because he was absolutely certain of one thing.

The man standing before him—

was definitely not the Deva Path Pain.

Listening to Obito deliberately putting on that deep, affected voice, Kagami likewise adopted a hoarse tone.

"And who are you? Why are you here?"

Obito’s Kamui was indeed extremely difficult to guard against.

But that was only true for ordinary shinobi.

For Kagami, who possessed the Wheel of Will, it wasn’t much of a threat.

After all, whenever Obito wanted to attack, he had to become tangible.

And the moment he became tangible—

He could be controlled by the Wheel of Will.

So even if Obito had already twisted half of Kagami’s body into the Kamui dimension, as long as Kagami remained conscious, he could still instantly break free from Kamui’s pull!

After a brief silence, Obito pointed toward the Root secret vault nearby.

"If this place is your target too, then there’s no need for us to fight."

Kagami glanced toward the Root secret vault as well before giving a slight nod.

He had already noticed that Obito’s left eye socket now contained a replacement Sharingan.

That meant that even if Kagami entered Tenseigan Chakra Mode, launched a surprise attack with Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion, and somehow managed to kill Obito in a single strike—

Obito could simply sacrifice that Sharingan to activate Izanagi, overturn his own death, and then immediately escape into the Kamui dimension.

In other words—

Without Kakashi’s assistance, this battle would never produce a decisive result.

And since Kagami already knew that there would be no conclusion, he naturally had no intention of revealing too much information about his own abilities.

Otherwise, Obito could easily devise countermeasures against him.

After all, the Akatsuki had no shortage of powerful shinobi, not to mention Black Zetsu, a ghost that had wandered the shinobi world for a thousand years.

If those people secretly plotted against him, even Kagami at his current level would have a difficult time dealing with it.

The two stared at each other for a moment.

And just like that—

They reached an agreement.

Both understood that instead of wasting time fighting an inconclusive battle, they might as well take advantage of the opportunity before them.

Root’s base had just suffered a surprise attack from Uchiha Shinichi.

This was the perfect chance to—

loot Root’s secret vault.

Walking up to the entrance of the secret vault, Obito carefully examined the sealing formulas covering the door.

After confirming something, he glanced sideways at Kagami and gave a faint chuckle.

Then—

He simply passed straight through the wall and entered the vault.

Obviously, the reason Obito hadn’t simply warped directly into the secret vault from the beginning was because he had been wary that there might be something unusual about the sealing formulas protecting it.

Now that he had confirmed those seals posed no threat to him, he didn’t even bother saying anything to Kagami.

He just went ahead and slipped inside first.

"What the hell are you showing off for?"

Kagami grumbled inwardly.

He then leisurely walked up to the vault door, placed one hand against it, and shouted softly,

"Release!"

Thump...

With a soft sound, the doors to the secret vault opened.

As luck would have it, the seal protecting Root’s secret vault was none other than the sealing technique Kagami was most proficient in—

The Four Symbols Seal.

Obito, who had only just entered the vault, turned around and saw Kagami dispel the seal almost instantly before casually following him inside.

The wariness in Obito’s eyes grew even stronger.

At this point, this mysterious masked man had already demonstrated far too many strange abilities.

Meanwhile, Kagami began surveying the interior of the vault.

Inside rows upon rows of refrigerated glass cabinets were all kinds of materials.

There were countless reagents that Kagami couldn’t even identify, as well as numerous petri dishes containing various cellular tissues.

And then—

Kagami spotted something else.

Inside several containers were Sharingan preserved in fluid.

He gave them a rough count.

There were nine Sharingan in total!

Kagami thought to himself,

"Danzo actually collected this many Sharingan...

"Looks like during the Third Shinobi World War, he secretly collected the corpses of those Uchiha shinobi who died in battle!"