The Byakugan user's pale eyes remained fixed on Ryu, veins bulging along his face. His expression was neutral, unreadable, but his gaze pierced through Ryu—reading every micro-movement, every shift in chakra flow.
Ryu stared back as the silence stretched between them in the white expanse.
Neither moved.
Then the Byakugan user said, "Test him."
The blind fighters moved forward in perfect coordination. The Byakugan user and another figure—taller, standing at his right—remained where they were, observing.
The first blind fighter reached Ryu in an instant, palm striking toward his chest. Ryu twisted aside, the strike missing by inches.
Two more came from his flanks. Ryu ducked under a high strike, pivoted, and drove his elbow into the midsection of the second. The fighter staggered but didn't fall—immediately resetting his stance as if the hit hadn't landed.
Another fighter lunged. Ryu blocked with his forearm, redirected the momentum, and swept the man's legs. The fighter fell but rolled smoothly back to his feet.
Four more closed in simultaneously. Ryu activated [ReflexGuard]—golden hexagons shimmered into existence. Blades struck the barrier in rapid succession. Crack. Crack. Crack. The shields shattered after three hits.
Ryu moved fluidly between the attacks, deflecting, dodging, and countering. A palm strike to a throat. A knee to ribs. A spinning backfist that connected cleanly.
But they kept coming. Coordinated. Relentless.
On the edge of the battlefield, the tall figure beside the Byakugan user spoke.
"He is good for his age," the man said, "Too good."
He paused and then added, "But not enough."
The Byakugan user said nothing. His gaze remained fixed on Ryu, unblinking.
Ryu noticed something forming in the blind fighters' hands. Spheres of chakra gathered in their open palms. Not spinning. No rotation. Just compressed chakra slowly being crammed into a dense, stable shape.
'The[Rasengan]uses rotation to maintain structural integrity… This doesn't,' Ryu thought. 'The compression is held by something else—maybe a containment principle?'
'His mind raced through the mechanics. If I could replicate this technique... the applications would be significant. if i can stabilise the chakra constructs like them, then i can form chakra chains i want.'
The spheres launched toward him.
Ryu ran. The orbs curved mid-flight, tracking his movement with accuracy.
Ryu thought, 'Guided by the wielder? Or locked onto my chakra signature?'
Ryu cut sideways—one orb streaked past his shoulder.
Another orb chased him. Ryu pivoted sharply, letting it sail past—but a third came from his blind spot.
[ReflexGuard]—the golden hexagons flashed into existence. The orb tore through it like paper, shattering the barrier instantly, and it struck Ryu's shoulder.
Pain exploded through him—sharp, searing, immediate. Not physical pain from a wound, but something deeper. Something that bypassed flesh entirely and struck directly at his consciousness.
Ryu stumbled, clutching his shoulder instinctively. He looked down. No wound. No blood. His body was unmarked, perfectly intact—but the agony remained, vivid and overwhelming.
Ryu's breath came slightly faster. 'No physical damage... but the pain is real.'
One of the blind fighters stepped closer, tilting toward Ryu.
"You understand now," the man said, his head tilting slightly. "Your body is safe. Your soul is not. Every strike tears at your consciousness. Take enough damage, and your mind shatters. Memories scatter like broken glass. Your sense of self... gone."
He took another step forward and said, "Surrender. We'll erase the pain and your memories. You won't even remember this moment."
Ryu smirked and replied, "Hard pass."
He straightened, ignoring the pain in his shoulder. His gaze swept across the blind fighters, studying their movements again.
'They move too well with their eyes closed and with perfect coordination,' Ryu observed.
He shifted position deliberately—the nearest blind fighter adjusted instantly, tracking his movement without sight.
'They must have a method of chakra sensing so advanced that it is an alternative to eyesight.' Ryu analysed. 'Whatever the method, Akihiro could benefit from learning it.'
He didn't have time to pursue the thought further. The frozen puppets from earlier jerked violently. The paralysis seals flared bright purple, then crumbled. The puppets rose and joined the blind fighters.
Now Ryu faced both groups at once. Puppets advanced from one side, blind fighters from another. The circle tightened.
A puppet lunged. Ryu sidestepped, but a blind fighter was already there, striking from the gap. Ryu blocked, barely—then had to pivot again as another puppet swung a blade toward his back.
The coordination was flawless. No openings. No mistakes.
Ropes of chakra materialised from the puppets' hands—thin, nearly invisible threads that lashed out like whips. One wrapped around Ryu's wrist. Another coiled around his ankle.
More followed.
In moments, chakra strings bound his arms, his legs, and his torso. They pulled taut, dragging him down toward the white surface. Ryu struggled, muscles straining against the bonds, but they only tightened in response.
On the edge of the battlefield, the tall man—the right-hand man—glanced at the enemy leader.
"Master," the man said. "What is bothering you?"
The enemy leader's Byakugan remained fixed on Ryu. His expression didn't change. He said nothing. The right-hand man frowned but didn't press further.
The pressure on Ryu's binding increased. The strings dug into his skin—pain rising where they touched. In an instinctive attempt to burn through the ropes, his chakra flared, but they remained firm.
Three more chakra orbs materialised in the hands of the blind fighters. They launched simultaneously.
Ryu couldn't dodge. The strings held him in place.
The first orb slammed into his chest. Pain tore through him. Ryu's jaw clenched, teeth grinding together as he let out a raw, guttural sound. The second orb struck his side, and the third hit his leg. Each impact felt like being branded with molten iron, like his nerves were being stripped and set ablaze.
'It's not real. The wounds aren't real. But God, it feels real,' Ryu thought through the haze of agony.
No marks appeared on his body. No blood. No visible damage. But the pain didn't care about visibility. It stacked, layer upon layer, phantom agony carving itself into his awareness. His vision blurred at the edges. His breath came in short, ragged gasps.
The man beside the man with Byakugan said, "He's done. Finish it."
The enemy leader said nothing, eyes still fixed on Ryu.
More orbs began forming in the fighters' hands. Another volley preparing to launch.
One of the blind fighters stepped closer, reaching toward his head. raising his head by the hair.
Anger sparked in Ryu's chest. Don't panic. Not fear. Anger.
Ryu thought, "They think they've won. They think I'll just let them erase me."
"Enough of this." Ryu shouted and his chakra surged—but this time, it wasn't just chakra.
A wave of pure killing intent exploded outward from Ryu's body. Not a jutsu. Not a technique. Raw, unfiltered hostility given form—absolute and suffocating.
It wasn't Conqueror's Haki, but the crushing pressure it produced was the same due to the intense killing intent.
The incoming chakra orbs collided with the chakra aura of Ryu mid-flight, unable to move further under the oppressive force. The blind fighters froze and the puppets dropped to the ground after losing connection to their puppeteers.
"What—" the right-hand man's eyes widened in shock.
The enemy leader's Byakugan narrowed slightly, but he and the man next to him remained standing, unaffected by Ryu's intent.
As the ropes that had been shackling Ryu suddenly came loose, he rose to his feet and looked over the stunned enemies.
"The space listens to me too," Ryu reminded himself. "They have some control but this is still my mind."
Ryu smiled and clapped his hands together. The world stilled for a moment, as if waiting. Black dust began to appear around him.
At first just specks, then a steady stream, drawn from nowhere and everywhere at once. The particles swirled, gathering in front of him, compressing under his focused will.
A black and metallic spine formed segment by segment, followed by ribs, and finally a non-human skull. Limbs extruded from shoulder and hip sockets, joints snapping into alignment. The skeletal frame stood upright.
Artificial muscle strands wrapped around the skeleton next, layering over each other. Synthetic tendons tightened like drawn bowstrings. Finally, dark scaly and reptilian skin formed across this new entry created by Ryu.
Panic spread across the faces of the enemies.
"Impossible..." one of them whispered. "No one shapes the deep dream like that... Without years of training, it's impossible… Especially when we are here."
Ryu placed his hand on the android's back.
Fuinjutsu seals lit up across the construct's black skin. They appeared in layers—a lattice of overlapping scripts and geometric patterns—each glowing golden like living tattoos before sinking beneath the surface. The seals didn't fade. They moved, flowing across the skin like liquid light, pulsing in waves that travelled from the body towards the shoulder, in rhythmic patterns like LED strips cascading across its frame. All the seals converged towards the shoulders and solar plexus.
The android's skin rippled.
For this Android, Ryu incorporated all of his previous work on [BodyGPT] and [InstinctGPT], including all of his datasets, movement patterns, and corrections that he had fine-tuned through trial and error.
"You want to play with puppets?" Ryu said. "Let's play."
The android's eyes opened.
Like Ryu, it had two asymmetrical eyes that blazed steadily and menacingly against its black face. The eye was golden on the right and emerald green on the left, just like Ryu.
"Please don't go full Ultron on me," Ryu joked, then paused, looking at the android.
A small smile crossed his face. "I'm going to call it [BattleBot Mark-I]."
##PoWeR StOnEs PLeaSE##
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