Natsuhi focused her chakra.
"Mysterious Peacock Method: Wings!"
The glowing wings of chakra flared from her back, splitting into two pairs as she rose swiftly into the air, wind rippling around her.
Her eyes locked onto Akahoshi below. From this height, she could strike clean.
But Akahoshi knew Natsuhi too well.
He wasn't worried.
Forming hand seals with eerie calm, Akahoshi summoned his own chakra wings.
Larger, denser, and pulsating with dark energy, they unfurled behind him like a twisted peacock's tail.
Natsuhi launched her first attack.
"Mysterious Peacock Method: Kunai Burst!"
Her star chakra morphed into glowing kunai, which rained down from above. The air shimmered with power.
Akahoshi scoffed.
"This again?"
He didn't counter with another technique.
Instead, he waved his massive chakra tail. The fan-like formation simply absorbed the kunai midair like they were nothing.
Natsuhi's eyes widened.
He smirked.
"Mysterious Peacock Method: Chakra Predation."
His tail didn't just block—it consumed the chakra of Natsuhi's attacks, growing stronger with every strike.
Sumaru and Hokuto stood frozen.
Akahoshi was too powerful.
Just as he formed a new hand seal to finish it, a calm but commanding voice cut through the tension.
"Hold it."
Everyone turned.
Mufasa stepped forward, silver hair glinting in the light, sunglasses pushed up on his nose, arms crossed.
Akahoshi squinted. "Who the hell are you?"
"Scar. Leader of Tekkadan."
Akahoshi blinked, unimpressed.
"Tekkadan? Never heard of it. Must be some back-alley squad of nobodies."
Mufasa shrugged.
"Doesn't matter. You'll remember the name after today."
He stepped forward.
"Look, just let my team go. Kill me if you want. A hundred times, a thousand. Leave their names out of it. Give me that much."
Akahoshi laughed, loud and cruel.
"You're surrendering already? That's adorable."
Natsuhi flew down in a panic.
"Scar, what are you doing?! I thought you said he was nothing!"
Mufasa turned to her with that same relaxed grin.
"Don't worry. I just didn't want Sumaru and Hokuto to get caught up in this. You wouldn't want anything to happen to them, right?"
She hesitated, then nodded reluctantly.
"Then just sit back."
She blinked, confused.
"Then what was all that talk about him killing you a hundred times?!"
Mufasa adjusted his shades.
"I'm a leader. Sometimes, you gotta show love to your squad. Like a dad to his kids. I got a reputation to uphold."
Sumaru snorted. Hokuto tried and failed to hide her smile.
Even Natsuhi cracked a confused grin.
Akahoshi, on the other hand, looked like his blood pressure spiked.
"You... you bastard! You dare mock me?!"
His purple chakra surged.
"You want to die so bad? Then I'll oblige!"
His wings mutated into a grotesque dragon-shaped monster, claws stretching, eyes glowing.
"Mysterious Peacock Method: Dragon!"
The dragon charged at Mufasa, maw wide.
"Scar! Watch out!" Natsuhi shouted.
But Mufasa didn't flinch.
He calmly extended a finger.
Snap.
A flick of lightning crackled through the air.
"Electromagnetic Style: Magnetic Repulsion."
BOOM.
The chakra dragon slammed into an invisible force field midair.
It ricocheted backward like a ragdoll, dragging Akahoshi with it.
They smashed into the shrine behind them with a thunderous crash.
The whole mountain shook.
Sumaru, Hokuto, and Natsuhi just stood there, stunned.
Mufasa turned around casually.
"It's normal for the team leader to be a bit stronger, right?"
Yotaka and Shiso, Akahoshi's two flunkies, were frozen stiff.
Inside the shrine, Akahoshi groaned.
His purple chakra wings reformed.
He rose again, now clutching a glowing meteorite in both hands.
The star.
The source of the village's corrupted power.
Akahoshi's energy spiked. His wings twisted and stretched.
"Now you'll see what real power looks like! With this star, no one can beat me!"
Mufasa tilted his head.
"Hey. Isn't that my rock?"
Everyone paused.
Mufasa frowned.
"Why are you holding my rock like it belongs to you?"
Akahoshi, who was about to strike midair, suddenly froze.
Mufasa's voice had sounded so serious that it made him hesitate for a second.
"Did I really take someone else's stuff?" he muttered, glancing down at the meteorite clutched in his arms.
No way. It fell from the sky two hundred years ago. What did it have to do with this guy?
Akahoshi gritted his teeth and shouted back, "Quit talking nonsense! Get ready to die!"
Mufasa just smiled lazily. "You don't believe me, huh?"
Akahoshi scoffed in his heart.
"You're full of it. What, you gonna say it's your family's heirloom next?"
Mufasa chuckled. "I said it's mine. I called it, and it agreed."
Akahoshi sneered. "Yeah right. Like a rock can answer you. Go ahead then. Call it."
Mufasa lifted his hand and casually waved his fingers. "Star."
In an instant, the meteorite in Akahoshi's arms jerked violently, yanked away by an invisible force. It rocketed through the air, whistling like a startled animal, and landed gently above Mufasa's outstretched palm, hovering.
Akahoshi's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"W-what the hell?!"
Mufasa smiled faintly as the meteorite floated above his hand, rotating slowly.
The moment he touched it, Mufasa could feel it—this stone wasn't ordinary. Its radiation was different. It resonated with chakra itself, making it surge and spark more actively inside his body.
He could feel the dormant chakra in him becoming sharper, faster.
In the world of shinobi, chakra has seven basic properties: Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Lightning, Yin, and Yang. Manipulating these properties is how most jutsu are created. Mastering both nature and form changes is the mark of an elite ninja.
Normally, changing chakra's shape is hard.
Making a Rasengan, for example, requires controlling swirling, non-elemental chakra into a compact sphere.
But now...
A gentle ripple traveled from Mufasa's palm.
Swish.. Swish...
A Rasengan formed instantly, whirring at frightening speed.
With a mere thought, he flattened the ball into a spinning disk. Another thought, and the disk morphed into a tiny, chakra-formed puppy, yipping silently.
Mufasa chuckled, eyes gleaming behind his sunglasses.
"Good stuff."
The star's radiation made chakra manipulation child's play.
With this, he could push ninjutsu beyond its current limits. Fusion techniques, bloodline limits like Ice Release or Lava Release—they would pale compared to what he could create.
Form-based chakra manipulation had always been a little behind nature changes. Sure, the Rasengan was incredible, but there wasn't much else pushing boundaries.
But now...
Could he make constructs like the Green Lantern from DC? Summon weapons, shields, creatures, even dimensions using nothing but chakra and willpower?
The possibilities were endless.
However, Mufasa noticed a dangerous side effect too.
The chakra stirred wildly within, restless and unstable under the star's influence.
If a normal ninja tried to wield it without preparation, it would tear them apart from the inside out.
To most, this blessing would be a curse.
But to him?
It was pure power.
Mufasa grinned widely, his sunglasses flashing in the light.
"My precious..." he whispered, cradling the meteorite like a treasure.
He let out a hearty laugh that echoed across the battlefield.
"Hahaha!"