Hyūga Asahi stared intently at Uchiha Shisui. After a brief silence, he spoke slowly, each word heavy with conviction.
"Your swordsmanship has reached the pinnacle of the shinobi world."
Shisui shook his head.
"I'm still far from it. At the very least… I'm not as good as that man."
A faint smile touched Shisui's lips. His eyes gleamed, and an overwhelming fighting spirit surged forth.
The man he referred to was, of course, Uzumaki Naruto.
Very few truly understood Naruto's strength. His power and versatility were shrouded like a hazy veil—just when you thought you had seen through him, you would realize you had only glimpsed a drop in an endless ocean.
"…There is still someone like that in today's shinobi world?"
Hyūga Asahi spoke again, his expression no longer calm.
"Empty praise means nothing," he said coldly. "In the end, only real strength matters."
Naturally, he knew that in the current era, the only person who could warrant such praise was the almost mythic Uzumaki Naruto.
Besides Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama, only two individuals had truly captured his attention:
Uzumaki Naruto—and Uchiha Shisui, who stood before him now.
The atmosphere between them shifted abruptly.
A terrifying killing intent erupted, sweeping across the battlefield like a storm.
Not far away, Lady Tsunade and Mei Terumī couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Once, they had stood at the peak of the shinobi world. Now, they could only watch from the sidelines, a quiet frustration rising in their hearts.
The two retreated without hesitation. Their injuries were severe and required immediate treatment. Fortunately, Tsunade was a medical-nin, and while the damage looked frightening, it had not harmed their foundations.
The next instant—
Both fighters moved at the same time.
A violent surge of chakra exploded outward, kicking up a massive ring of dust.
In a blink, dozens of Shisui's shadow clones appeared across the battlefield. Sword light flashed in all directions as they charged forward, sharp and overwhelming.
At that moment, Hyūga Asahi finally grew serious. Gone was the relaxed composure he had displayed when fighting Tsunade and the others.
A blade struck straight toward his face.
Yet in Shisui's calm gaze, Hyūga Asahi's figure dispersed into smoke.
At the same time, a palm imbued with lethal chakra struck from Shisui's flank.
Bang! Bang!
"Your Body Flicker Technique is astonishing," Hyūga Asahi said arrogantly, "but under the Byakugan, nothing can hide."
"Is that so?"
The Shisui he struck vanished instantly.
A voice sounded from behind him.
Hyūga Asahi was sent flying.
Boom!
His body slammed into the ground, carving out a massive crater. He rose slowly, stabilizing his stance.
"…Genjutsu?" His eyes widened slightly. "Impossible!"
"There is nothing impossible," Shisui replied calmly. "I have long since fused genjutsu into my swordsmanship."
"I see," Hyūga Asahi said, lips curling upward. "But that alone won't be enough to defeat me."
For the first time, excitement flickered across his face.
"Eight Trigrams: Empty Palm!"
Highly compressed chakra burst forth from his palms like invisible cannons, detonating around Shisui in rapid succession.
The earth shattered.
The terrain was completely reshaped in an instant.
"Eight Trigrams: Twin Dragon Dance!"
Two enormous chakra dragons surged from Hyūga Asahi's hands, roaring as they coiled through the air, lifelike and ferocious—intent on tearing everything apart.
Shisui's expression grew solemn.
The Empty Palm posed little threat to him—but from this technique, he sensed unmistakable death.
Chakra surged wildly.
Shisui's aura continued to rise.
Spirit.
Will.
Momentum.
It was as though something invisible had ignited.
From afar, Tsunade and the others stared at Shisui, their eyes stinging painfully.
Sword intent flooded the battlefield, ancient and vast—like a primeval beast awakening. To them, it felt as if they were fragile boats adrift in a raging sea.
"…Has Shisui already reached this level?"
Tsunade could only sigh.
Mei Terumī, however, gazed at Shisui with a strange brilliance in her eyes.
Tsunade understood clearly: Shisui's swordsmanship had already touched upon spirit, essence, and mind.
The pain in their eyes wasn't physical—it was mental.
This was combat on a spiritual plane.
When the mind believes it has been wounded, the body follows.
That was the terrifying nature of spiritual power.
To ordinary shinobi, Shisui appeared calm and unremarkable.
But to true powerhouses—
It felt as if the entire space had been claimed by him.
Endless sword light rolled through the air, filling heaven and earth.
"Matsuyasuna!!"
Shisui's aura surged to its absolute peak. At the same moment, Hyūga Asahi's technique finished charging. What felt like a long buildup was, in truth, no more than a single breath of time.
A flash of sword light swept across the battlefield.
For an instant, Tsunade felt as though the world had lost all color—only that single, blinding white arc remained between heaven and earth.
The ground split apart.
A deep, bottomless gully was carved straight through the earth.
And then—
Hyūga Asahi's attack arrived.
This was not an attack that could be evaded. It could only be met head-on—a pure clash of power and will.
Two colossal chakra dragons, each stretching hundreds of meters, surged forward in the blink of an eye. They were formed entirely from ultra-condensed chakra, and the destructive force of both techniques had already surpassed standard S-rank ninjutsu.
Whoooosh—!!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
Sand and dust exploded outward as the earth itself seemed to shatter. The violent shockwaves tore through the battlefield, shaking heaven and ground alike.
The massive dust cloud instantly engulfed Tsunade and Mei Terumī, who were observing from afar.
"Not good!" Tsunade exclaimed, suddenly realizing something and hurriedly scanning the surroundings.
Several figures emerged from the dust, coughing as they spoke.
"We're fine, Lady Tsunade!"
Their voices were filled with relief.
When the two combatants had begun their clash, these shinobi had retreated immediately. A few particularly quick-thinking ones had even hastily gathered chakra to cast defensive ninjutsu around themselves.
As a result, aside from being coated in dust, most were unharmed.
That said, some had still been brushed by the residual shockwaves and suffered minor superficial injuries.
Their current position was several kilometers away from the battlefield—yet even so, the scale of the destruction had exceeded all expectations.
This was completely different from Deidara's self-detonations.
Deidara's explosions dispersed outward, but this clash was the opposite: the closer one was to the center, the more terrifying the destructive force became.
The land was left scarred and uneven, riddled with craters and shattered earth.
Hyūga Asahi had once used this very technique to directly crush Uchiha Madara's Perfect Susanoo. Its terrifying power was undeniable.
The battlefield fell deathly silent.
Tsunade's heart tightened. Residual chakra flooded the area, making it impossible for her to sense either combatant clearly.
"Shisui!" she shouted.
The dust slowly settled.
A massive crater came into view.
Both figures were nowhere to be seen.
For a moment, Tsunade's mind went blank.
Had they both been completely erased by that clash?
How was she supposed to explain this to Naruto?
"Cough—cough!"
"I'm fine, Lady Tsunade!"
A hand suddenly burst out from the softened earth.
Shisui pulled himself free and collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily. His body was covered in bloodstains, and a circular metal device around his wrist had shattered completely, falling apart into fragments.
"That was close," Shisui muttered weakly. "I nearly died together with him."
He turned his head toward Tsunade.
Only then did she notice the broken object on his arm—it was the newly developed Umbrella defensive device. When activated, it could greatly reduce incoming damage, comparable to a top-tier A-rank defensive ninjutsu.
Even if it didn't negate much damage outright, in a battle of this level, even the smallest margin could decide life and death.
"Lady Tsunade… I'll leave him to you."
With that, Shisui slowly closed his eyes.
The greatest toll from that exchange wasn't chakra—it was mental exhaustion. He had forcibly drawn out an enormous amount of spiritual energy, unleashing an attack far beyond his current limits. After all, he had only just stepped into this realm.
Not far away—
The Edo Tensei body of Hyūga Asahi was slowly regenerating.
Very slowly.
(End of Chapter)
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