Obito knew his limits.
This situation... was far from ideal.
In less than five minutes, he would be forced to materialize—and when that happened, those blades wouldn't just hover harmlessly inside him. They would tear him apart.
Without a second thought, he shifted tactics.
With a flicker of space-warping distortion, Obito phased into the ground, vanishing from sight like a ghost swallowed by the earth.
Inoiki's eyes narrowed.
He didn't relax—far from it. He immediately raised his hand, and the hundreds of blades suspended in the air responded to his will. They shifted and spun, forming a tight, defensive ring around him, orbiting in every direction like a barrier of living steel.
He wasn't about to underestimate Obito.
A sudden pulse of chakra flared beneath him.
Obito reappeared, phasing up from the ground just behind Inoiki—his arm lunging forward, aiming to grab hold of Inoiki's leg. For a split second, Obito was solid, vulnerable.
But that moment was all Inoiki needed.
One of the hovering blades reacted instantly, slashing down at Obito's wrist with surgical precision.
Obito's eye widened behind the mask. If he hadn't phased again that very instant, the blade would've severed his hand.
But Inoiki wasn't finished.
The very next moment, a swarm of blades descended—targeting the upper half of Obito's body, which was still emerging from the ground. Like a deadly cage snapping shut, they came from all sides.
Remain intangible... or be carved apart.
Trapped between his cooldown window and the storm of steel above, he was forced to stay phased, unable to attack.
Inoiki didn't speak. He simply watched, silent and unreadable, his blades poised in lethal formation.
Obito's lone eye narrowed beneath the mask as he phased through the ground, his thoughts focused and sharp.
"He's a sensory-type... and a damn good one. Sneaking up on him isn't just difficult—it's nearly impossible. Especially with that storm of blades orbiting him like a living shield."
With a swirl of distortion, Obito emerged once again—this time fifty meters ahead, materializing silently from the earth like a phantom.
Inoiki's reaction was instant.
Without a flicker of hesitation, the majority of the blades in his swarm launched forward, screaming through the air toward Obito in a deadly wave.
But Obito was already moving.
In a blur of speed, he darted backward, narrowly dodging the storm of blades as they sliced into the earth where he'd just stood. Dust exploded behind him.
Obito's body distorted into a vortex of spiraling space, and in a heartbeat, he vanished.
Only to reappear directly in front of Inoiki, his hands flashing through hand signs mid-air.
"Fire Release: Blast Wave Wild Dance!"
A swirling, howling inferno burst from his mouth—a spiraling torrent of flame, wide and fast, tearing through the air like a flaming tornado aimed straight at Inoiki.
Inoiki's eyes locked onto it.
"A fire spiral?" he muttered, calm even as the blaze closed in. "Then let me answer with a spiral of my own."
The remaining blades circling around him snapped into formation, spinning rapidly into a tight conical spiral, the narrow end pointed toward Inoiki, the wide end facing the incoming flames.
Inoiki raised his hand—and water gathered.
A high-pressure torrent swirled around the spinning blades, forming a hydrodynamic vortex, as if nature itself was sculpting a weapon from steel and storm.
The two spirals—fire and water—collided mid-air.
The impact sent shockwaves in all directions. Steam burst outward in a blinding explosion as the two elemental forces struggled for dominance, roaring and screeching like clashing dragons.
And at the centre of the storm, Inoiki stood unmoved, his eyes locked on the masked shinobi beyond the mist.
The spirals collided—but it didn't take long for one to dominate.
The water spiral, reinforced by a core of spinning blades and guided with psychokinetic precision, began to overpower the flames. It churned through the inferno, extinguishing fire as it surged forward. Steam burst outward in a violent hiss as the elements clashed, but the outcome was inevitable.
And this water wasn't just chakra—it was wrapped around a storm of steel.
Obito narrowed his eye behind the mask.
He didn't need to see the conclusion. He already knew—his jutsu had lost. And worse, he could sense the danger creeping closer. The swarm of blades Inoiki had launched earlier had returned, now converging rapidly on his position through the mist.
Without hesitation, Obito activated Kamui again.
His body began to spiral away in a distortion of space, vanishing from sight just as the mist thickened from the steam, shrouding the battlefield in a ghostly veil.
Using Observation Haki, he extended his awareness through the clouded terrain. Even blinded, he could feel the shift—the chakra signature vanishing like a breath of wind.
"He used Kamui again," Inoiki thought calmly, eyes scanning the fog. "He's fast. Too fast for these blades to catch on their own."
"If I want to tag him next time... I'll need to lace them with Lightning Element."
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