Obito truly had grown.
This was no longer the mild approval Shimizu once felt when Obito had first become a chūnin, nor the satisfaction of seeing him awaken the Sharingan.
No—
this was genuine recognition from the bottom of his heart.
Because this time, Shimizu had actually sensed a trace of danger from that overwhelming ocular power.
At this very moment, the boy before him was catching up at a speed so unbelievable it almost felt unreal.
Shimizu let out a slow breath.
He could no longer treat Obito with the mindset of looking down at a junior.
Not anymore.
"The other reason I survived my injuries," Shimizu said quietly, "is because they never intended to kill me in the first place."
"Senpai, you mean…"
"At the beginning, their goal was only to restrain me. That's why I'm still standing here now."
As one of Konoha's recognized heroes, Shimizu's words naturally carried tremendous weight.
The moment he finished speaking, shock spread through the entire Anbu squad.
The infiltrators possessed the power to instantly kill the famed "Shunshin no Shimizu."
Shimizu had no choice but to phrase it this way. Only by exaggerating Madara and Tobi's threat level in the eyes of these uninformed Anbu could he force them to remain cautious.
They had to understand the danger.
Obito especially needed the warning.
Under no circumstances could they lower their guard, and absolutely no one could recklessly engage those two directly.
Especially not Madara… and Obito.
Of course, only Shimizu himself knew the full truth.
In reality, his exchange with Tobi earlier had not been nearly as clever or calculated as Madara and Tobi believed.
While they had been deceived into making the wrong judgment, Shimizu himself had also made a critical mistake.
Back at the Hokage Rock, the sudden silence of the summer insects had indeed warned him that something was wrong.
But he had completely misjudged the strength of the attacker.
Even knowing danger was present, he had arrogantly chosen to use his real body as bait, mainly because his sensory abilities had failed to detect any enemy nearby. That led him to assume the opponent merely possessed some exceptionally advanced reconnaissance technique.
And precisely because he feared that level of detection might see through a clone decoy, he had taken the risk of exposing his true body.
What he never expected was that the attack would come from underground through Wood Release.
If he had known from the start that the attacker was Tobi…
If he had chosen a safer strategy from the beginning—using a clone as bait while his real body remained hidden in the shadows waiting for an opportunity—
Then the entire situation would have unfolded completely differently.
But that single moment of misjudgment had thrown him into an extremely passive position right from the start.
If Tobi had truly intended to kill him, then even if Shimizu had managed to avoid a fatal blow from the first strike, his combat effectiveness would still have been severely crippled.
And after losing the initiative, if the enemy had relied on experience and fought steadily without mistakes…
Then Shimizu Uzuki would likely have become a corpse before long.
The more he thought about it now, the colder the sweat running down his back became.
So his warning to the others wasn't an exaggeration meant to scare them.
It was the truth.
At last, the heat in Obito's blood cooled.
He stopped mentioning the idea of taking the initiative to attack.
Because the stronger he became, the more clearly he understood just how terrifying Shimizu truly was.
And if someone could instantly kill Shimizu…
Then what kind of monster would that person be?
Still, Obito had one lingering question.
"Then, senpai… if they're really that powerful, why are they retreating?"
Why retreat?
Because this was Konoha.
Of course they had to retreat.
What else were they supposed to do—stay here for the New Year?
"So powerful, yet they came all the way into Konoha, accomplished nothing, and just left?"
Their objective had obviously been to take Shimizu away from Konoha.
But earlier, Shimizu had denied them that opportunity, leaving them no choice but to withdraw.
Wait…
If Tobi had already circled back to scout them again, then the two of them undoubtedly knew Shimizu was currently inside this Anbu squad.
And now that their target had appeared again, while Konoha's current force was insufficient to stop them—
"Retreat! NOW!" Shimizu suddenly shouted.
"What?" The Anbu captain looked stunned, almost thinking he had misheard. "But the targets are still four hundred meters away—"
No.
Madara had changed direction.
He was charging straight toward them at high speed.
"I said—"
Before Shimizu could finish speaking, dozens of wooden branches suddenly erupted from the ground beneath them, violently attacking the entire squad.
Tobi had chosen to strike first.
The advancing Anbu immediately scattered to evade.
Shimizu moved rapidly through a series of agile leaps, escaping the attack range of the Wood Release in an instant.
Looking back, he noticed that compared to the earlier ambush, this attack covered a much wider area—but in terms of speed, power, and precision, it was nowhere near the same level.
As expected…
Tobi's injuries were probably even worse than his own.
"Stay alert!" the Anbu captain shouted. "All squads, do not land on the ground!"
Not only that, but because everyone had already been wary of Tobi's ambush tactics, the Konoha shinobi had remained moving through the trees from the very beginning of the pursuit, never touching the ground at all.
That was precisely why this Wood Release ambush had achieved so little.
"Hmph…"
A cold snort echoed through the dark forest.
Then, in the very next moment—
the entire forest seemed to ignite instantly, as endless flames surged into the night sky.
"This guy… has he gone insane?!" the Anbu captain exclaimed in disbelief.
Yet despite expending such an enormous amount of chakra to unleash a sea of flames with overwhelming destructive force, the attack was effortlessly avoided by the thirty-plus Anbu present.
"He's trying to force us out of this area."
Shimizu immediately realized the enemy's true objective.
Not far away was a barren stretch of terrain made entirely of rock and gravel.
And according to his sensory perception, Madara was already heading there.
Like hell I'll let you succeed.
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Shimizu formed hand seals at once.
Water Release: Water Colliding Wave!
A massive whirlpool suddenly erupted from the previously dry earth. Water surged upward endlessly, rapidly gathering into a flood of terrifying scale. A tidal wave roared forward, crashing into the towering inferno and swallowing every trace of flame and heat in an instant.
The battlefield was immediately engulfed in thick steam, filled with endless hissing sounds.
The sheer scale of that Water Release left the Konoha Anbu visibly stunned.
"As expected of Uzuki-senpai's Water Release…"
However, not only was visibility temporarily blocked, but their sensory abilities were now being interfered with by the chakra saturating the air.
Blood loss and the heavy drain on his chakra hit Shimizu all at once. He felt a wave of dizziness and instinctively furrowed his brow.
"Senpai, watch out!"
At a moment like this, only Obito—whose three-tomoe Sharingan was active—could detect the faint traces of danger hidden within the steam.
Water Release: Water Wall!
Without even knowing where the attack was coming from, Shimizu instinctively chose the most chakra-intensive defensive option possible. A rapidly rotating wall of water immediately enveloped him completely.
"BOOM—!!"
Countless wooden branches slammed violently against the Water Wall.
"So you're the one who ambushed senpai earlier!" Obito's furious voice rang out from nearby.
Then another brilliant blaze lit up the night sky.
A gigantic fireball several meters wide came roaring through the forest like a falling meteor.
"BOOM—!!"
Another thunderous explosion echoed through the summer night.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!
How monstrous did someone's chakra have to be to turn a mere C-rank ninjutsu into something like this?
But Obito's opponent was Tobi.
Shimizu immediately dispelled the Water Wall and shouted:
"Obito, be careful of his Wood Release!"
"And he doesn't have any fatal weak points!"
"Senpai—" Obito's three-tomoe Sharingan spun wildly. "I'm not the same person I used to be!"
"Leave him to me!"
Shimizu's forward momentum halted briefly.
Then he answered decisively.
"…Alright."
Because on the other side of the battlefield, Madara was still lurking there like a deadly predator.
If Shimizu failed to reinforce the others immediately, then his comrades would likely—
Without another word, he departed.
And just like that, only Obito and Tobi remained on this section of the battlefield.
"Heh. An arrogant little brat who doesn't know his place." Tobi lightly rubbed the left side of his face, which had been scorched by flames.
Clearly, Obito's fire had found its mark.
Combined with the Lightning Release and Storm Release attacks Shimizu had landed earlier, nearly half of Tobi's body had already been burned pitch black. His left arm now hung completely useless.
"You look pretty miserable yourself," Obito said coldly as he slowly drew a kunai, its tip aimed directly at Tobi. "How much longer can you keep fighting with injuries like that?"
Tobi suddenly raised his hand.
Dozens of wooden branches burst forth instantly, weaving together into a cage-like formation as they rushed toward Obito.
"The same trick again—"
Obito rapidly retreated while forming hand seals at high speed.
Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!
A roaring dragon of fire surged into the air, devouring every incoming branch in the blink of an eye.
"—is meaningless before these eyes!"
Although the previous Wood Release attack hadn't struck Obito's face directly, it had smashed into his Anbu mask.
Now, at last, the damaged mask could no longer hold together.
Cracks spread across its surface before it slowly split apart, revealing a pair of blood-red eyes glowing within the darkness.
"So you're an Uchiha brat…" Tobi muttered in surprise.
Then, after thinking for a moment, he quickly made a decision.
"I'd say this kid's pretty decent…" he mumbled quietly to himself. "How about I just kill Shimizu Uzuki instead, then bring this one back to Madara?"
"That way I can fulfill Black Zetsu's wish and give Madara an explanation."
"Yeah… that's perfect!"
"The old switcheroo. One stone, two birds!"
The more Tobi thought about it, the more excited he became.
By the end, he was practically shouting to himself:
"I'm a damn genius!"
But the moment he snapped back to reality—
What greeted him was a pair of deep crimson three-tomoe Sharingan staring directly into his eyes.
...
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