Obito suddenly coughed violently.
Moreover, an overwhelming sense of kidney deficiency surged through his body, causing him to stagger and nearly deactivate his intangibility.
'What's going on? Why do I suddenly feel so weak?'
'The last time I felt this weak was the last time. It shouldn't be !'
'It's only been a few minutes since the battle started? Have I become so weak? Not even as strong as Kakashi?'
'Impossible, absolutely impossible!'
Obito slowly realized the truth. It turned out there was something wrong with the air he was breathing! It seemed to contain an unknown poison that was eroding his flesh.
This made him feel weaker and weaker over time.
But where did the poison in the air come from?
Obito looked around and spotted the culprit—Orochimaru in the distance!
At this moment, Orochimaru and his four snake clones had been quietly moving around the battlefield while Minato and Obito were fighting.
Colorless, odorless poisonous gas had begun to spread everywhere.
This was also part of the backup plan he and Minato had discussed earlier.
It was known that Obito's intangibility couldn't be maintained forever, but even Minato couldn't continuously attack Obito for five minutes.
Unless Obito was willing to stand still, which was clearly impossible.
Moreover, Obito now seemed to have the ability to absorb all ninjutsu.
Therefore, the best way was to create an area-of-effect attack with a large enough range and lasting long enough, but not a ninjutsu.
Unfortunately, neither of them could produce 700 billion explosive tags.
After much thought, only poisonous gas could meet these requirements.
It had a wide coverage and long-lasting effects. It wasn't a ninjutsu and wouldn't be absorbed.
So, from the very beginning, Orochimaru had been wildly releasing poisonous gas around the battlefield.
This was a specially refined version of poison mist.
It was colorless and odorless, and its effects were excellent in terms of range and duration.
It had already covered an area of thousands of meters around them.
Of course, the larger the range of the poison mist, the weaker the poison. It was impossible to kill someone instantly with just one breath.
But it was definitely enough to act as a continuous debuff.
Perfect for countering Obito's Kamui.
Moreover, Minato was protected by Kyuubi Mode and was essentially immune to the poison mist. Even if he inhaled a little, it wouldn't have much effect.
Seeing Obito's weakness, Minato was also surprised:
'Orochimaru's poison mist actually worked!'
The nearly invincible power of Kamui, which could withstand any ninjutsu, was actually countered by a small, dense cloud of poison mist.
Is science and technology the real future?
'They've been secretly poisoning the area!'
'That bastard! I should have killed this troublesome guy long ago!'
Obito's face turned pale, and he was filled with hatred.
Honestly, after defeating the Sannin of Konoha single-handedly, he had become a bit arrogant.
He had even ignored Orochimaru, who had fled in panic.
However, the double curse seal trap earlier and the poison mist eroding the area now had given him another heavy lesson!
This was the consequence of blind arrogance and ignoring the malicious traits Orochimaru brought.
It was too late to regret now.
The poison mist covered too large an area. If Obito continued to fight Minato here, he would definitely be poisoned and defeated first.
Unless he remained in his intangible state and breathed clean air in the Kamui dimension, he wouldn't be able to avoid the massive poisonous gas around him.
However, intangibility could only last for five minutes, after which it would enter a cooldown period of several minutes.
Once he lost the ability to save himself, he could no longer use intangibility.
How could he possibly stop Minato-sensei at this point?
"Orochimaru, you bastard!"
"HAHAHA! Thank you for the compliment, Obito. Do you like my gift? If so, I can give you an even bigger dose!"
Orochimaru's lewd laughter echoed from the distance.
Whether they wanted it or not, Orochimaru's subordinates were relentless and continued to release poison mist to increase the concentration and range of the poison.
"Orochimaru, I'll kill you! I'll tear your tendons and skin you alive!"
"Alright, alright, then come quickly!"
"Minato, your student wants to kill me. I'm so scared!"
Orochimaru's taunts were only meant to raise Obito's anger and provoke him into continuing the fight.
As long as it took enough time.
Whether Obito collapsed from poisoning or his intangibility entered cooldown, Minato would win!
Orochimaru would be able to obtain the extremely rare research material he had always dreamed of—Obito himself.
Obito was furious, but he also knew the situation wasn't in his favor.
Although he had been poisoned, the amount of poison accumulated in his body wasn't enough to be fatal.
After all, he had Hashirama's cells in his body, and his vitality was several times stronger than that of an ordinary ninja.
How could someone die from poisoning just by inhaling some poison mist?
But if it continued to accumulate, he would definitely be at a disadvantage!
At that point, he wouldn't even be able to activate intangibility, and he wouldn't be able to escape.
But even without the poison mist's effects, Obito didn't have a better way to defeat Minato.
Now, there was only one path left for him.
That was to retreat as quickly as possible!
As long as he retreated and left the area covered by the poison mist, he could free himself from the disadvantage!
After all, the initiative was in his hands. He could find another time to attack Konoha.
This poison formation was useful, but it couldn't be deployed on a large scale in Konoha Village, right?
"Minato-sensei, you won this round! But you can't win all the time! Next time, I'll definitely win, and I'll make you feel the pain of losing everything!"
While uttering these harsh words, Obito used his intangibility to slowly sink into the ground.
Although the poison gas had a wide coverage, it couldn't reach underground.
Even Minato wouldn't be able to stop him from escaping underground.
As soon as Obito submerged into the ground, Minato arrived at the same spot.
An extra-large Rasengan struck the spot where Obito had dived.
The rocky ground within a radius of dozens of meters exploded instantly, forming a huge crater!
But there was still no sign of Obito.
Orochimaru also came to Minato's side.
"Did that guy really escape?"
"He must have escaped. The Kyuubi can no longer sense his malicious intent."
Minato shook his head regretfully.
Just like his Flying Thunder God.
With two Kamui, if Obito wanted to escape, almost no one could stop him!
Moreover, intangibility could drill through the ground, but Flying Thunder God couldn't.
"So, do you think he'll take the bait?"
Minato wasn't entirely sure. Now that they had reached this point.
If Obito didn't take the bait and truly chose to escape, there was nothing they could do.
He could only wait for another opportunity to defeat him later.
Just as the two were discussing, Obito, unwilling to give up, appeared again.
He suddenly emerged from the ground hundreds of meters away, with a fierce expression on his face and eagerly captured the Gobi Jinchuriki.
Obito's earlier escape was just a feint. His real goal was to deceive the enemy and attack the Jinchuriki!