"Itachi, to show you respect, let's use my current strongest Susanoo."
Seeing Itachi cornered, Obito became more cautious as the vines and branches nearby started to enter his Susanoo while more chakra started to materialize around it, forming a pair of legs for the sixty-meter-tall giant.
Lightning Style: Divine Tempest Yggdrasil
While Obito was happily growing his Susanoo, at some point the clouds in the sky, which had become darker and darker, started to rotate.
"It was nice fighting you."
Obito ignored the strange phenomenon in the sky as he took a step and slashed towards Itachi with his single hundred-meter-long blade made of Wood Release and Susanoo Chakra.
Rasengan Series: Big Ball Rasengan
Itachi, seeing the huge sword coming towards him, raised his right hand as a small Rasengan formed. Within seconds, the Rasengan grew more and more until it finally reached the size of a three-story building and collided with the Susanoo blade.
BOOOMMMMMMM
---
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this fight has reached its climax, with Obito-sama using the divine power of the Uchiha, SUSANOO, as well as the infamous Wood Style of Hashirama Senju, while Itachi-sama is using a variant of the Rasengan, the Giant Rasengan, to block it. There is another unknown celestial phenomenon occurring in the sky.... let's see how our first fight ends."
The anchor excitedly commented while watching the battle with eagerness.
---
A few seconds later
" Yggdrasil: Ragnarök Bloom "
Itachi, who was now three meters below the normal ground level, finally spoke for the first time as, at the same time, a white ball of light fell from the sky.
The moment it touched the ground, it started expanding drastically as it formed a thousand-meter-tall lightning tree within seconds. Then, without waiting for Itachi's command, it expanded fivefold the next second and then exploded into pure lightning, covering the entire arena within its range.
RUMBLLEEEEEEEE
One Minute Later
Three Minutes Later
Five Minutes Later
Eight Minutes Later
Twelve Minutes Later
Finally, after twelve minutes of complete brightness, the arena returned to its normal state.... By now, the entire arena was scorched, as all the wood, concrete, and even the mud were gone, leaving only a layer of magma on the ground.... Itachi stood on a piece of earth, panting heavily with a pale face, though there was a slight smile on it.
PIERCEEEE
Just then, a wooden branch pierced through Itachi and then continued to grow within him as, within seconds, multiple wooden branches rushed out of his body.
"Itachi, the current you mustn't have the present one's memories, and you still were able to almost end me..... Though you miscalculated one thing. My Kamui, under the enhancement of more advanced Hashirama Chakra and Magical Energy, doesn't have a time limit now unlike the five minutes of before...."
Hearing this, Itachi's pupils shrank as he stretched his bloody hand towards Obito. Obito, seeing this, summoned a sword to destroy the clone, but Itachi suddenly exploded into black ink.
'Kamu— I can't use i—"
PIERCEEEEEEEE
The next second, a Chidori pierced through Obito's back as it reached his heart, which was also punched through. At the same time, the black ink also sprayed onto the motionless Obito as it started expanding and covering his body. Wherever it passed, all the chakra seized to exist as it they were sealed in another dimension.
Fūinjutsu: Seal Null
Obito, who was suddenly bombarded with so many surprises, concentrated on a seal in his heart as he supplied chakra with difficulty. The next moment, he was freed from the Kamui restriction as well as the black ink, which had almost completed sealing him, as he disappeared and reappeared a kilometre away.
"Haaah... haah..."
Wood Style: Thousand Pierce Jutsu
The next moment, the wooden pieces and splinters still left on the ground around Itachi grew at a rapid speed, and soon they pierced through the other Itachi, who was already completely drained.
A few seconds later, the clone finally lay on the ground, defeated.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner of the first match is Obito-sama. The last few moments were full of surprises. First, it appeared that Obito-sama wasn't affected by the Yggdrasil attack at all and ambushed Itachi-sama from behind, but it turned out that wasn't the real Itachi-sama. Another surprise was that he had already placed a spatial sealing jutsu nearby.
When Obito-sama stepped into it, he lost control of his Space-Time Jutsu and was finally ambushed by Itachi-sama. That black ink is also a sealing jutsu that would have completely sealed Obito-sama if he hadn't counterattacked at the last moment. Finally, with the last Wood Style Jutsu, this wonderful match came to an end.
Thus, I announce Obito-sama the winner of the first match with 169 points. Please give him a round of applause."
Obito, on the other hand, hearing the result, finally relaxed. After joining Mizumori, he had become much stronger, with his unlimited Kamui time, enhanced Hashirama Cells, and finally many jutsu of Wood Release. But even then, he had almost collapsed if not for the Null Seal (which prevented any other Fūinjutsu from acting on him), which he had requested Itachi place on him a few years ago.
Hearing the cheers, Obito waved his hands to Rin with a smile, though it was a bit creepy as his heart was still bleeding heavily.
One Minute Later
"Rin, how was this? I was acting cautiously, so I chose the thirteen-year-old one, or I would have defeated the fourteen-year-old one. Hahaha"
Seeing Rin's concerned and loving (Obito's delusion) eyes, Obito smiled with happiness.
"Obito, let's go. Itachi-sama is on the top floor. We should heal you quickly lest it affects you."
Rin ignored Obito's question as she held his hand and rushed towards the staircase.
Obito, on the other hand, was in his own heaven, feeling the gentle care of his future wife. He had also thought of the name of his chil— no, he already knew about it.
"Itachi-sama, heal Obit..."
---
Author's Note
Hello, everyone!
Writing this fight was both nostalgic and surprisingly challenging for me.
The biggest challenge was that I wanted Obito to win because, well... I like him. At the same time, I absolutely didn't want to nerf Itachi just to make that happen.
Initially, I thought about making Obito fight a younger Itachi, but I couldn't really imagine the overconfident Obito choosing to fight a 10- or 11-year-old. That just didn't feel like him. So I finally settled on 13-year-old Itachi. The problem, however, is that by that age, in this story, Itachi was already around High Kage level with Ex-level Fūinjutsu. Balancing a believable Obito victory without making Itachi look weak was honestly one of the hardest parts of writing this battle.
Another reason this chapter felt nostalgic is that I was finally writing a proper ninja battle again after around 40–50 chapters of Six Paths-level fights. It was refreshing to return to strategy, timing, and normal shinobi combat.
Personally, I'm happy with how it turned out. I don't think I nerfed Itachi. If anything, if Itachi had known all of Obito's abilities and secrets beforehand, the outcome could have been very different.
As for Obito, yes—I did buff him. Some of you might think I made him a little overpowered, especially by giving him unlimited Kamui. To be fair, I've always considered Kamui one of the most broken jutsu in the series, so removing its stamina limitation is obviously a huge buff.
But yesterday I was reading the Boruto manga and looking at the ridiculous hax many characters have there. After that, unlimited Kamui honestly didn't seem nearly as overpowered as it once did, so I decided to keep it.
Some readers may also wonder why Itachi became exhausted after only 20–30 minutes of fighting. The main reason is that he had already maintained a Super S-rank technique—Yggdrasil—for nearly 12 continuous minutes inside the arena in an attempt to defeat Obito ( Consume his Kamui time limit and Izanagi, two extra minutes to force Obito to use another iazanagi with his Mangekyo Sharingan). That alone would consume an enormous amount of chakra, so by the time the last fight occurred, he was already mostly drained.
Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
Who do you think should be Itachi's next opponent?
My current plan is to give Itachi two or three more fights before ending this round and moving on to the next stage of the story. Right now, I'm considering introducing Tobirama, Hashirama, and one more important character—but I still haven't decided who that third character should be.
So let me know your suggestions!
See you in the next chapter!