The mist spread across the forest clearing almost instantly.
It was so dense that even the torrential rain seemed unable to pierce through it for a time.
In the blink of an eye, everything turned white. Relying on sight alone, Hagoromo could no longer determine the enemy's position.
However, thanks to his mid- to close-range sensory ability, he could still clearly perceive where the enemy was.
So without the slightest hesitation—
He charged straight into the mist!
This sudden visual obstruction hadn't been intentional, but it worked to Hagoromo's advantage. With visibility cut off for both sides, his assault became even more aggressive.
Hagoromo's figure vanished into the fog.
From outside—or from above—the only things visible were scattered flashes of lightning, intermittent collisions between Water Release and Fire Release, and the occasional shuriken or other projectile ricocheting out of the mist in random directions.
Only the sounds remained—
The crackle of Lightning Release, the roar of Fire Release, the surge of Water Release, and the sharp clang of weapons colliding.
After several minutes of intense combat, Hagoromo withdrew from the mist.
Without continuous Fire Release sustaining it, the fog quickly dissipated.
During that exchange, thanks to his sensory advantage, Hagoromo had held a slight edge and avoided injury. However, he had failed to inflict the kind of decisive damage he'd hoped for.
"Your Lightning Release is indeed powerful," the masked ninja said calmly. "But its weaknesses are just as obvious. Maintaining Lightning Release at that level consumes an enormous amount of chakra."
"To put it simply," he continued in his hoarse, unhurried voice, "your ninjutsu is not suited for prolonged combat."
His gaze swept across the battlefield. Residual Lightning Release still crackled faintly in places, sparks flashing now and then.
Hagoromo had only managed to cause superficial injuries—barely even drawing blood.
And the enemy wasn't wrong.
The Chidori Nagashi surrounding Hagoromo had visibly dimmed, and his speed near the end of the exchange was clearly slower than at the start.
"I never intended to fight you in a drawn-out battle," Hagoromo replied. "I only need to finish you before my chakra runs out."
Unfortunately, his words sounded more like bravado than confidence. His heavy breathing made it easy to mistake for chakra exhaustion.
"And how long do you think you can last?" the enemy asked coldly.
"Two minutes? One minute? Thirty seconds?"
He no longer seemed interested in talking.
The moment he finished speaking, he attacked.
The masked ninja surged forward. As he closed in, he planted his left foot as a pivot, drove power through his right leg, and twisted his upper body in the same direction.
A kick wrapped in cutting wind lashed toward Hagoromo's neck!
Hagoromo instantly crossed his arms in front of his chest as Lightning Release surged toward them.
This wasn't meant to paralyze the enemy—only to defend.
From the very beginning of the fight, Hagoromo had noticed that this man possessed some resistance to Lightning Release. Otherwise, even weakened by rain, Chidori Nagashi wouldn't have been so ineffective.
The impact felt lighter than Hagoromo had expected.
And that was when alarm bells rang.
The kick's original trajectory had been right-to-left—
Yet the force Hagoromo felt was front-to-back.
At the instant of impact, the enemy had forcibly altered the direction of the attack, sacrificing power to reposition Hagoromo.
It was already too late.
Hagoromo was sent flying into the air.
Twisting his head mid-flight, he saw it—
Another enemy at his landing point.
More precisely—
A Water Clone.
The clone's hand seals were already complete.
Water Release: Water Whip!
Hagoromo was bound tightly in midair, though he barely managed to maintain proper posture as he landed.
"A Water Clone…" Hagoromo said calmly. "So you set this up the moment you arrived here. At first glance, it looked like you were discarding the shuriken on your back—but in reality, you used a clone combined with the Transformation jutsu, didn't you?"
Despite being caught, Hagoromo showed no sign of panic.
He had immediately deduced where the clone had come from.
And he was correct.
Earlier, Hagoromo hadn't noticed the jutsu—not due to carelessness, but because his sensory ability didn't detect chakra. He sensed living beings. A clone composed purely of chakra naturally slipped past his perception.
The masked ninja neither confirmed nor denied it, though he looked mildly surprised.
"You don't seem afraid of death," he remarked.
"I'm not unafraid of death," Hagoromo replied evenly. "I simply don't need to die. What's there to fear? You don't honestly believe something like this can hold me, do you?"
"Oh?" The masked ninja's tone sharpened.
"Because from where I'm standing—this is as far as you go."
The first half of the sentence sounded ordinary.
The last half dripped with killing intent.
Maintaining the Water Whip through his clone, the masked ninja chose to personally finish Hagoromo.
A white mask stained with red blood—
That would be a sight worth seeing.
He flicked his right foot upward, kicking a massive Fūma shuriken into the air. His right hand shot out, gripping the central ring.
With a simple twist of the wrist—
The enormous shuriken began spinning violently, tearing through the air with a shrill howl.
At that moment, Hagoromo was still speaking calmly.
"Let me tell you something," he said. "As long as a ninja's hands can still form seals—he's not caught."
The moment Hagoromo realized he would be bound, the only thing he did midair—
Was bring his hands together.
By the time he spoke the final word, the masked ninja was already upon him. The massive shuriken was moments from piercing straight through his body.
With its size, being hit meant being skewered clean through.
But—
Hagoromo's hand seals were already complete.
"Boar. Dog. Rooster. Monkey. Ram."
A simple sequence.
The universal hand seals of summoning.
What was he summoning?
A Yatagarasu?
A three-headed hound?
A slug?
None of them.
It was a jutsu he had once secretly learned from the Scroll of Seals, recently mastered—
A legendary summoning jutsu associated with the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.
Ninja Art: Summoning jutsu — Rashōmon!
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