Chapter 252: Being a "Good Guy" Is Hard

Obito felt a wave of boredom and emptiness wash over him.

"This is it? I barely even tried, and you're already down…?"

He had been looking forward to unleashing a flashy combo—Susanoo wrapped around the Great Buddha, raining down an unstoppable barrage.

Just the thought of it was exhilarating!

But before he could even get started, the enemy had already crumbled in mere seconds.

What a letdown.

Just then—

A furious roar, like a wounded beast, shattered the battlefield's silence.

"Ughhhhhh! Dieeeeeee!"

Obito turned to look.

There, Onoki was soaring toward him, his expression twisted in rage, a Dust Release technique compressed between his hands.

"Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique!"

Obito didn't move.

Instead, he met Onoki's furious gaze and said calmly:

"It's useless. Your darkness cannot consume mine."

As if to prove his words—

The Dust Release, a technique capable of disintegrating everything to the atomic level, passed straight through Obito's body without harming him in the slightest.

It continued on, striking the land behind him, reducing an entire section of the forest to nothingness.

"I don't believe it!"

Onoki's eyes were bloodshot as he clawed wildly at the air, as if trying to grab hold of something that wasn't there.

"I refuse to believe I can't kill you today!"

He wouldn't accept it—he couldn't.

But his efforts were futile.

Obito stood before him like an illusion, a mirage—right in front of him, yet forever out of reach.

"I don't believe it… I don't believe it…"

Watching Onoki, jumping up and down in a futile attempt to strike him, Obito could only shake his head in exasperation.

"If you hadn't gotten in my way, you wouldn't have ended up like this."

An overwhelming sense of helplessness, something he had never felt before, crushed Onoki.

His strength drained from his body as he slumped onto the Great Buddha's head, eyes empty, his mind lost in despair.

"Gone… It's all gone… Hahahaha… Hehehe…"

Seeing Onoki crumble into broken laughter, utterly defeated, Obito felt not a shred of sympathy.

His voice remained indifferent as he spoke:

"If you choose war… if you choose to take lives… then you must be prepared to lose your own."

"If you had been the one to win today, then the ones lying dead on the ground right now would be my friends and loved ones."

"If you can't handle losing, then why did you bet everything on this war in the first place?"

Ignoring Onoki, who was lost in his shattered world, Obito leapt down from the Great Buddha's head and landed in the middle of the battlefield.

The once-flat land was now completely unrecognizable.

Craters of all sizes marred the ground, a testament to the destruction that had taken place.

Blood and corpses littered the battlefield, severed limbs and broken bodies scattered as far as the eye could see.

Faces twisted in agony.

Screams of despair and sorrow echoed in his ears.

The thick, suffocating stench of blood filled the air.

"This place… is hell."

Obito murmured, his voice laced with complicated emotions.

The scene before him brought back memories—the pain of losing Rin.

For a moment, he found himself lost in thought.

"...That's enough. This ends here."

Floating back into the air, he spread his arms wide, his expression solemn.

"That last attack should have made it clear. The difference in our strength is beyond measure."

"I do not wish to continue this slaughter. Leave now—I will spare your lives."

His voice, amplified by chakra, spread across the battlefield.

The surviving shinobi gripped their weapons tightly, their bloodshot eyes burning with rage as they glared at him.

"Spare us? Quit acting like some benevolent savior! We don't need your mercy!"

"Yeah! Take your fake kindness and shove it! Get down here and fight us to the death!"

"You think using Wood Release makes you some kind of god? Try fighting us with your bare hands if you dare!"

One particularly "insightful" shinobi sneered and said:

"Listen up, everyone! That last attack was massive—he must've used up all his chakra. That's why he's pretending to be merciful!"

"He's bluffing! He's got nothing left! If we all rush him now, we can avenge our fallen comrades!"

"...Huh."

Obito blinked, feeling the completely replenished chakra within him.

For a second, even he almost believed the guy's logic.

"Charge!"

At the sharp command, waves of shinobi surged toward him like a relentless tide, ready to drown him in sheer numbers.

Amidst them stood two particularly eye-catching figures—

The hulking, shirtless Raikage, his muscles bulging as he charged forward like a force of nature.

And the elegant, yet imposing Kazekage, striding over the sands with effortless grace.

"...I try to be sentimental for once, and this is the thanks I get?"

Scratching the back of his head, Obito sighed from the depths of his heart.

"Man… being a 'good guy' is hard."

"But hey, at least I went through the motions. Now I can go all out with no regrets."

A childlike grin spread across his face as he clapped his hands together.

"Wood Release: Unlock the Pants—I mean, Deep Forest Emergence!"

The ground trembled violently as chakra surged forth.

"Ku-cha! Ku-cha! Ku-cha!"

Massive trees, their gnarled roots twisting and thick trunks towering skyward, erupted from the battlefield.

Within moments, an endless forest spread across the land.

The "insightful" shinobi who had been so confident just seconds ago paled in horror.

"No way…! His chakra should've been depleted…!"

"There's no way he could still unleash a jutsu of this scale…!"

Thousands of enormous branches shot out, twisting toward the shinobi like a monstrous, living net.

"Shhhkkk! Shhhkkk! Shhhkkk!"

The strongest among the three great villages immediately turned grim.

"Damn it!"

They poured all their strength into their techniques, desperately cutting down the incoming branches.

Some managed to destroy dozens, even hundreds—

But for every branch they severed, more would emerge, even stronger than before.

Somewhere, a certain Earth-style shinobi with a twisted sense of humor smirked to himself.

Break one branch? I'll grow two more.

Break ten? I'll give you a hundred.

Endless branches wove together, forming an inescapable cage of despair.

Many shinobi began to regret their earlier bravado.

Should've listened… Should've run when we had the chance…

He was letting us go, and we just had to open our big mouths…

And that loudmouth who said he was out of chakra? Yeah, he's dead now. And so are we.

"Aaaaargh!"

One by one, shinobi were impaled by the unrelenting branches—

Or crushed beneath massive roots, their bones snapping like dry twigs.

As their screams faded, their consciousness slipped away…

...

Meanwhile—

A towering, two-hundred-meter-tall Susanoo moved through the endless forest, as if searching for something.

Eventually, it stopped.

A trembling figure stood before it, shaking like a leaf.

Susanoo grinned—a smile that was meant to be kind, but on its monstrous face, it was nothing short of terrifying.

Its voice rumbled with mock benevolence.

"Now then… shall we continue?"

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Pls Drop some Power Stones

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