Uchiha Shigure's mind raced as the battle narrowed to a razor's edge. We have to finish this now… If we drag this out, Hongdie and the others will be in danger. No holding back—whatever chakra I have left, I'll use it all!
Seventeen enemy shinobi surged after Hyūga Akane and the rest of the squad, their weapons flashing in the dim light. At the forefront stood their leader, a man snarling with feral pride, his pale face stretched into a savage grin.
"Boy!" he bellowed, his voice booming across the clearing. "Today, you'll witness the true terror of the Kaguya clan—the Corpse Bone Vein itself!"
Kaguya Kanbei. His name alone carried a reputation of cruelty and madness.
Shigure drew a kunai in one swift motion and sent it flying straight at him. Predictably, Kanbei didn't even flinch. The weapon clattered uselessly against the man's bony frame.
And that was exactly what Shigure wanted.
"Flying Thunder God—Second Stage!"
With a flash of yellow light, Shigure vanished from sight and reappeared directly above Kanbei, a spiraling Rasengan howling in his palm. He drove it down, intent on crushing through before Kanbei had a chance to react.
But the Kaguya warrior had already shifted, his body erupting with jagged ivory spikes.
"Karamatsu no Mai… the Dance of the Larch!"
Shigure's Sharingan caught the explosion of bone spurs just in time. They jutted from Kanbei's shoulders, arms, and ribs with lethal precision. A fortress of bone and blade in a single instant. If Shigure had pressed his Rasengan forward, the counterstrike would have skewered him through. He abandoned the attack, twisting midair before vanishing with a burst of the Body Flicker.
Kanbei smirked, his body gleaming with the deadly architecture of his kekkei genkai. Like all members of the feared Kaguya clan, he wielded absolute mastery over osteoblast and osteoclast, shaping his own skeleton as both spear and shield.
But he wasn't finished. His fingers flew through seals. "Dance of the Early Fern!"
The earth split open as jagged bones thrust upward from the ground in a forest of pale lances. Shigure somersaulted clear. He planted a hand against the dirt, pivoted midroll, and thrust forward with sudden force.
"Eight Trigrams: Empty Palm!"
A burst of soft chakra shot forward, striking Kanbei across the chest. Though he deflected most of it with bone-plated arms, the ripple of force made him stagger a step, his smile faltering.
Kanbei stared, eyes narrowing. "That strike bypassed my bones… attacking my body from within? Boy, that's no Uchiha trick. That's Hyūga Gentle Fist!"
The soldiers around him murmured in disbelief. An Uchiha wielding Hyūga techniques?
Shigure wiped sweat from his brow, his Mangekyō tomoe spinning dangerously fast. "It doesn't matter what you think I am," he said coldly.
He lunged forward, forming the seals of Jiraiya's treasured jutsu, hair bursting outward like a violent mane.
"Lion's Mane Jutsu!"
His shaggy black locks stretched and hardened into snarling tendrils, rushing Kanbei like fanged serpents.
Kanbei gritted his teeth. "Cheap trick!" His forearms flared with layered bone plating, lashing outward to smash the hair aside. But human hair, infused with chakra, was far more resilient than mere cloth. The strands coiled tighter and tighter, ensnaring his torso, wrapping him like prey caught in a predator's jaws.
"Tch—damn it!" Kanbei strained, but the bonds held. His soldiers shouted anxiously as their commander struggled.
"Now!" Shigure's hands blurred again. "Compound Ninjutsu: Fire, Earth, Wind, and Lightning—Four Dragon Bullets!"
He exhaled raw elements in a storm of fury: a dragon of flame, a serpent of stone, a writhing gale, and a streaking bolt of lightning. The four forces twisted together midair, spiraling into an unholy fusion. They crashed down on Kanbei in a thunderous explosion.
The battlefield trembled. Smoke and dust rolled outward in waves.
When the haze lifted, Shigure's eyes narrowed. Kanbei still stood, his body scorched black, charred bone armor cracked and flaking, but alive.
He pushed all his chakra outward—reshaping his skeleton, forging a barrier at the last instant.
Shigure clenched his jaw. So that's the power of a Kaguya bloodline. Impossible to kill with one blow.
Kanbei's face twisted with fury. "Boy… now you've made me truly angry!"
He surged forward, erupting in another savage dance.
"Tsubaki no Mai!"
Bone swords slashed at him from every angle, a whirlwind of ivory blades. But Shigure, eyes glowing with the crimson of the Sharingan, slipped through each strike like water around stones. No matter how Kanbei pressed, he never touched him.
Kanbei's frustration mounted. His fingers stiffened, each tip sharpening into bullets. "Finger Bullets!"
A barrage erupted, each shot a shard of death.
Shigure stomped hard, chakra blasting from his tenketsu points.
"Eight Trigrams: Kaiten!"
His body spun into a perfect sphere of chakra, deflecting every bone bullet into the air. The battlefield rang with clattering fragments as he slowed, his cloak rustling around him.
Kanbei froze, stunned. "That was… Kaiten?! That's the Hyūga clan's secret. Boy, you are Uchiha—how in the hell do you know their techniques!?"
Shigure cocked his head. "Funny. And how do you know I'm Uchiha at all?"
Kanbei squinted, confused for just a moment before barking a laugh. "Who cares! Tricks like that won't save you from me!"
His chakra flared violently. His arm twisted, bones spiraling outward like a drill.
"This is the deadliest of my clan's dances—Dance of the Clematis Flower!" His left arm crackled with lethal energy, transforming into a massive spiral spear of bone. "My ultimate spear will obliterate you!"
Shigure's eyes hardened. He drew in his breath, chakra pouring into a single point in his palm. His hand trembled as the sphere began to form.
"I won't run. Not from this. Because my conviction is stronger than yours." Chakra blazed from his arm as the Rasengan expanded wider, grinding air into a vortex of screaming power.
It swelled and swelled, a sphere too massive to control for long. His ankles buckled under its weight of power.
"Ōdama Rasengan!"
Both shinobi roared as they charged, their ultimate techniques primed to clash.
The collision shattered the earth. A cyclone of wind ripped through the battlefield, trees bending, rocks shattering.
Kanbei bared his teeth, screaming. "The strongest spear of the Kaguya clan! No one has ever withstood it! Die!"
Shigure's voice bellowed back, shaking with raw determination. "I cannot lose! I must become stronger—strong enough to change the world itself!"
The Rasengan pressed harder. The spiral spear cracked, splintered, and then shattered, fragments scattering like glass in a storm.
"No! Impossible!" Kanbei's eyes stretched wide in horror as the Rasengan swallowed him whole, tearing through his bones, his flesh, his final resistance. His body was flung back, crushed beneath the merciless storm of chakra.
With one final scream, his frame twisted and collapsed, the light in his eyes burning out completely.
When the winds settled, silence fell across the battlefield. Kaguya Kanbei, terror of the Corpse Bone Vein, lay broken in the dirt.
Shigure staggered forward, the last of his chakra flickering beneath his skin. His chest heaved, but his eyes still glowed with a fire unbroken.
He stood tall, victory his—but the battle was far from over. Dozens of enemy shinobi still spread out across the field, staring in shock at the fall of their leader.
Shigure wiped the sweat and blood from his lips and raised his kunai once more.
"Your commander's gone," he said hoarsely. "Now, who's next?"
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