The So-Called Legendary Ninja

Uchiha Obito instantly appeared behind Mercenary Tao. His right hand stabbed forward, and the Wood Release: Cutting Technique erupted from his palm.

Uchiha Madara possessed immense combat experience. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan flickered, and he stepped to the left while swinging his left hand backward toward Obito’s neck.

His movement did not pursue ultimate speed. Instead, it was almost perfectly synchronized with the speed of the wooden spike stabbing toward his body.

Madara knew Obito’s abilities completely. Likewise, he understood the weakness of Obito’s Kamui intangibility.

Uchiha Obito seemed to have been blinded by rage. Ignoring everything else, he fiercely thrust the wooden spike in his hand forward.

Uchiha Madara’s expression remained unchanged. The speed of his sweeping left hand was even undergoing constant subtle adjustments.

As the wooden spike passed through Mercenary Tao’s body, it silently vanished. At the same time, the opponent’s hand blade passed through Obito’s neck. The anger on his face faded somewhat—Obito had not completely lost his reason.

As Uchiha Madara’s Sharingan slowly turned, Obito’s movements were laid bare before him. So long as Obito made any move to attack, Madara would counterattack at the same time.

This body was stronger than nearly every body in the shinobi world he knew. Even Hashirama’s physique could never have been this tough.

With a body like this, all he needed was one exchange of injuries to instantly kill Obito.

"Is that all the hatred you have?"

Uchiha Madara’s movements froze instantly. He turned his head, his Sharingan still continuously assailing Obito with Genjutsu. But with the powerful ocular strength of the Rinnegan, Obito would not be easily affected. The Wood Release in Obito’s palm vanished, and he suddenly pulled back with his right hand.

A powerful gravitational force appeared.

Uchiha Madara’s center of gravity shifted, and he tipped backward. Without saying a word, Uchiha Obito attacked again from behind, pressing his right hand toward Mercenary Tao’s back.

Uchiha Madara flexed his waist while Chakra gathered beneath his feet. Even as his body tilted backward more than forty-five degrees, he came to a halt, his left hand reaching for Obito’s eyes.

His right arm, destroyed by a single strike from a Truth-Seeking Orb, had still been unable to regenerate. Truth-Seeking Orbs were extremely effective at suppressing regenerative abilities.

Obito’s expression was cold as he watched that hand approach his eyes at exactly the same speed as his own hand approached the other man’s back.

Buzz!

At the instant they were about to touch, the space before Obito’s right hand suddenly twisted.

Kamui!

Even with the Rinnegan’s suppression over the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Obito still could not gain an advantage in close combat. He had never intended to use the Wood Release: Cutting Technique to kill his opponent. He still intended to draw this strange Mercenary Tao into the Kamui Dimension.

As his figure twisted, Obito’s Rinnegan indeed discovered that Mercenary Tao was no longer using that ability to clasp his hands together and teleport instantly.

That meant his guess was correct. There were multiple souls within Mercenary Tao, including Uchiha Madara, and when different souls took control, their combat abilities and habits were entirely different.

The Mercenary Tao who had appeared first favored taijutsu. His movements were broad, wild, and exceptionally violent. When facing Obito’s attacks, he usually did not dodge at all, relying on that invincible defense to take the attacks head-on.

The flippant consciousness that appeared afterward possessed some strange spacetime ability. Clasping both hands allowed him to teleport, and his attacks were also tied to spatial abilities. When facing attacks other than Kamui, he likewise did not dodge, instead directly blocking them with that nearly invincible defense.

The Mercenary Tao controlled by Uchiha Madara now fought with greater precision. He made excellent use of the Sharingan’s traits, and every movement was baiting Obito into attacking.

Madara knew his weakness well. He was waiting for him to reveal an opening…

"Unfortunately, without those eyes, you’re truly the weakest Mercenary Tao!"

Uchiha Obito suddenly pulled his right hand backward as Banshō Ten’in activated once more. The powerful attraction instantly disrupted the distance Uchiha Madara had deliberately maintained.

Bai Cangshu’s body fell toward Uchiha Obito’s right hand, where space had already completely twisted. Kamui seemed to have been activated in advance.

In an instant, Bai Cangshu’s body began to distort. Obito was delighted at the sight, but the next moment—

Bang!

Smoke exploded, and the Mercenary Tao being twisted by space turned into a chunk of broken stone.

Uchiha Madara appeared behind Obito. It was as if he had never moved at all, merely watching indifferently as Obito, having gained the Eye of God, completely lost all reverence for him.

His left hand grabbed his right shoulder and tore hard. The incomplete severed arm was ripped off entirely.

But in the next moment, blood stopped flowing from the broken shoulder. Then countless flesh buds wriggled, and a new arm began to grow.

"I’m the weakest Mercenary Tao?"

Uchiha Madara felt that he had never suffered such an insult. It was so absurd that he could not even feel anger at that moment.

When he had first taken over this body, it had possessed no Chakra whatsoever. At the same time, he had lost his Sharingan, leaving him with little more than pure taijutsu.

Then, while he was gathering Chakra, that flippant fellow had tried to instantly kill Obito, only to have an arm shattered by a Truth-Seeking Orb from a Six Paths-level existence hiding in the shadows. That being had saved Uchiha Obito and even forcibly made Obito awaken the Rinnegan.

He had already guessed that the Six Paths-level figure was likely the legendary Sage of Six Paths.

By the time he took control of this body again, it was already missing an arm. He could not even form hand seals to cast more complicated techniques.

It could be said that Uchiha Madara had never had a chance to display his strength until now. Yet even so, this Uchiha junior whom he had personally raised had concluded that he was the weakest Mercenary Tao.

"Ha~"

There was no escaping that flippant laughter. The other man’s soul was currently squeezed into the same shell as his, and Satoru Gojo and Uchiha Madara seemed to maintain the barest degree of tacit understanding.

When Gojo had acted recklessly earlier, Uchiha Madara had not interfered. Now, Gojo had completely handed control of the body over to Uchiha Madara.

Still, hearing the other man being mocked so thoroughly made Satoru Gojo laugh aloud.

He was not the only one. Bai Cangshu himself, with one hand pressed against the Throne of the Heart and casually swatting away the wraiths flying toward him with the other, also wore a smile.

Nothing was more amusing than seeing someone as proud as Madara evaluated in such an almost humiliating manner.

As his right arm finally regrew, powerful Nine-Tails Chakra spread over his body.

Uchiha Madara pressed his hands together before his chest and looked at Obito indifferently.

"I’m the weakest Mercenary Tao?"

"I don’t recall… when did you ever see my true strength?"

Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!

A terrifying torrent of flames erupted on a scale that did not seem possible for a single ninja to unleash.

But Uchiha Obito merely stood where he was, allowing the flames to pass through his body.

"What effect could a technique like this possibly have?"

Amid the flames, a powerful torrent of water suddenly erupted again. Fire and water collided, and enormous amounts of vapor billowed up, completely flooding the surrounding area.

Obito frowned slightly. At that moment, he realized one shortcoming of the Rinnegan. Like the Sharingan, it did not possess X-Ray Vision or an unobstructed field of view. Its vision could still be blocked by smoke like this.

Countless figures raced through the vapor.

Puff, puff, puff~

From time to time, rocks and attacks passed through his body. Obito sensed the huge number of Shadow Clones around him, each of them seemingly highly proficient in taijutsu.

He frowned, realizing that Madara was deliberately using these attacks to exhaust the duration of his Kamui intangibility.

He could not remain intangible forever. Even with his current Chakra combined with the evolved Rinnegan, he could not sustain it for more than ten minutes.

Obito sensed the difference between Uchiha Madara and the previous two Mercenary Taos. Uchiha Madara was a true ninja, a legendary ninja who had fought his way out of the most dangerous and brutal era of the Warring States Period.

His fighting style was exceptionally cold and efficient, with every decision centered around intelligence.

Because he knew the weakness of Kamui and knew that the Rinnegan lacked X-Ray Vision, he had devised this tactic…

Suddenly, hundreds of Uchiha Madaras rushed out of the vapor and surrounded him. With that many Shadow Clones, Uchiha Madara’s current Chakra reserves must have been equally astonishing.

As Obito’s pupils turned, the Three-Tomoe Sharingan in every Shadow Clone’s eyes seemed to be turning as well.

Obito suddenly felt a trace of irritation.

"Before the Power of God, what can these Shadow Clones do, no matter how many there are?!"

A powerful repulsive force erupted before him.

Shinra Tensei!

Boom!

A terrifying shockwave swept through the area, and the Shadow Clones burst apart one after another. Yet amidst that powerful impact, the ground beneath Uchiha Obito suddenly exploded. A Fire Dragon swallowed Uchiha Obito’s figure almost at the very instant Shinra Tensei erupted.

Even Otsutsuki Hagoromo, watching from the distant void, looked somewhat stunned. He had not expected that, despite possessing abilities with an absolute advantage, the person he had chosen would be countered by Uchiha Madara, who controlled Mercenary Tao’s body, using such an ordinary technique?!