The whole reason he had chosen to defect from the Hidden Leaf was to make his name known across the entire ninja world, wasn't it?!
Just like Jiraiya and the other two.
No, he wanted a reputation that eclipsed even the Sannin!
A reputation that would make anyone who heard it tremble in absolute terror!
"!"
While still deep in thought about how he would proceed once his experiments were complete, Hiruko suddenly felt a shift in the air. His footsteps halted, and a deep frown creased his forehead.
His hands blurred through hand seals.
Hum!
A specialized, glowing aura of chakra rippled out from him.
"Who's there?! Show yourself!"
The next second.
Hiruko's gaze locked onto a specific location.
His face twisting into a savage scowl, he shouted the demand.
"Heh, well this is a bit unexpected. I didn't think your sensory abilities were this sharp, Hiruko-san. You actually caught me when I barely closed the distance."
A soft chuckle broke the tense silence.
Swish!
Following a flash of crimson light...
Menma's tall, straight figure materialized exactly where Hiruko had been glaring.
He looked at Hiruko with a hint of genuine surprise.
To save time and hopefully end the fight in a single strike, Menma had expanded his sensory net, locked onto Hiruko's position, and left Kabuto behind specifically to avoid detection.
As long as he could close the gap to a certain threshold...
Menma was completely confident he could launch a successful ambush.
Even if it wasn't a lethal blow, heavily wounding Hiruko right off the bat would make the ensuing battle trivial.
But he hadn't expected this.
He had barely entered that subtle strike range before Hiruko sniffed him out.
Menma realized he had underestimated the man.
"Menma Uzumaki?!"
While Menma was mildly surprised, Hiruko was deeply shaken.
As a fellow rogue ninja from the Hidden Leaf, Hiruko had been keeping a very close eye on Menma. Menma possessed the Uzumaki bloodline and was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki; Hiruko's master plan had actually included targeting him at some point.
But reality had outpaced his plans.
In barely over a year...
Menma had displayed overwhelming, terrifying combat power in battle after battle. Recently, he had single-handedly repelled a coordinated assault from four major villages, crushed the Fourth Raikage in direct combat, captured the Two-Tails Jinchuriki, and fought the legendary Jiraiya to a standstill. Those monstrous achievements naturally forced Hiruko to shelve his ambitions regarding the boy. Even if he was going to make a move...
It would have to wait until his own evolution was complete.
Yet here he was. Hiruko hadn't gone looking for Menma, but Menma had come knocking on his door. Hiruko wasn't naive enough to think Menma was here to make friends. He could feel the chilling, murderous intent radiating off the teenager from miles away.
Hiruko was suddenly incredibly grateful he had forcibly absorbed that sensory-type Stone ninja years ago, and had spent extensive time refining his sensory jutsu specifically to avoid ambushes.
Hiruko's eyes narrowed into slits as he stared at Menma. A terrifying surge of chakra exploded from his body.
It was pure, naked hostility.
"Heh!" Menma scoffed.
Boom!
A violently powerful surge of chakra erupted from Menma.
Bang!
With an explosive kick off the ground...
Menma rocketed toward Hiruko, instantly launching his attack.
He had absolutely zero intention of wasting time on an opening monologue.
Hiruko blinked in surprise, but his eyes quickly flashed with savage fury.
Boom!
A massive wave of power blasted from Hiruko's body.
"Storm Release: Thunder Cloud Inner Wave!"
He slammed his hands together.
Without needing a single hand seal, thunder cracked violently across the sky. Pitch-black storm clouds instantly materialized, completely surrounding Hiruko.
Rumble!
The next second.
Blinding light flashed.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
Howling bolts of lightning instantly struck outward, tearing straight toward Menma.
It was a massive, effortless discharge of electricity.
A single strike showcasing the terrifying power of Storm Release.
"!"
Seeing the incoming attack...
Menma's eyes sharpened.
Bang!
Twisting mid-air, Menma seamlessly dodged bolt after bolt of lightning, his hands rapidly forming seals at the exact same time.
"Ninja Art: Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
He hurled a single, specialized kunai.
The moment the jutsu activated...
The single kunai multiplied mid-air in a rapid series of flashes, instantly generating hundreds, then thousands of deadly blades, all accelerating to maximum speed.
In the blink of an eye...
The swarm of kunai descended on Hiruko's position.
But Hiruko didn't panic. As the Storm Release continuously generated more brutal lightning to suppress Menma's movements, the kunai finally reached his face.
Swish!
A hyper-fast blur.
Hiruko completely vanished from where he stood. And less than a tenth of a second later...
He reappeared safely on the opposite side of the battlefield.
Swift Release?! That really is fast!
A speed the naked eye could barely track.
It was a Kekkei Genkai that pushed the physical speed of the human body to its absolute conceptual limit. Menma had no idea how strong the original owner of that bloodline had been.
But the Swift Release Hiruko had just displayed was already approaching the speed of the Fourth Raikage.
Even though he had violently stolen it...
Hiruko could undeniably draw out the absolute maximum potential of these Kekkei Genkai.
He actually has some real skill.
Menma dodged again, sidestepping another incoming blast of Storm Release lightning. His gaze hardened.
He formed a one-handed seal.
Swish!
Following a flash of crimson light, Menma vanished.
"Flying Thunder God Jutsu!"
Witnessing that impossible, ghostly movement...
Hiruko's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
The moment the name of the jutsu surfaced in his mind...
Every muscle in Hiruko's body instinctively coiled tight. His peripheral vision frantically scanned the area, tracking the trajectory of the kunai he had just dodged.
He was on maximum alert.
Less than a tenth of a second later.
From his left flank.
Swish!
Menma materialized.
Point-blank range.
"Spiraling Ring Jutsu!"
In his single palm...
A thread of Nine-Tails chakra instantly injected into the jutsu.
A darkly colored sphere of condensed, violently spinning chakra formed.
Aiming for a lethal strike...
Menma slammed it forward.
"Dark Release: Inhaling Maw!"
Hiruko's pupils contracted violently, a flash of blood-red bleeding into his eyes. He rapidly raised his right hand.
Hum!
A strange, seal-like aura instantly bloomed from his palm.
Whoosh!!
In that split second...
It felt as if the space between them had been frozen.
Menma watched clearly as his Spiraling Ring was sucked straight into the bizarre, glowing mark on Hiruko's hand.
The massive chakra sphere rapidly shrank.
And within less than a second, it completely vanished.
It can absorb that too?!
This unexpected development caused Menma's expression to slightly shift.
"Heh heh!"
Hiruko let out a savage laugh.
"Steel Release!"
A metallic sheen flashed across Hiruko's skin, followed immediately by an explosion of brutal, physical power.
Swoosh!
Hiruko lunged forward, throwing a devastating, full-body tackle straight at Menma.
"!"
Facing that unstoppable momentum...
Menma's eyes instantly sharpened.
Swish!
With a rapid one-handed seal...
He narrowly dodged the brutal charge.
Bang!
The moment Menma warped to the other side of the battlefield...
Hiruko slammed heavily into the ground where Menma had just been standing. The impact cratered the earth, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
Watching the sheer destructive force of that strike...
A sharp, dangerous light flashed in Menma's eyes.
Four different Kekkei Genkai.
Dark Release could absorb ninjutsu; Swift Release pushed human speed to its extreme limits; Storm Release was a hyper-lethal evolution of Lightning Release; and Steel Release drastically amplified his physical durability and striking power. Being able to seamlessly and perfectly utilize all four, combined with sensory abilities that rivaled the best in the world... Hiruko was genuinely, terrifyingly strong.
It was no exaggeration to say that if you ranked the current Hiruko among the historical Five Kage, he would sit comfortably in the upper-middle tier.
He was actually a fraction stronger than Mei Terumi, whom Menma had just killed.
Because from a purely tactical standpoint, the current Hiruko literally had no weaknesses. It was no wonder his ego was boundless.
Whether you considered him human or a monster was a matter of definition, but his raw power was an undeniable fact.
I thought I could wrap this up quickly, but it looks like this is going to be annoying after all.
Watching Hiruko casually leap out of the crater, exuding that bone-chilling aura...
Menma sighed inwardly.
Clap!
He slammed his hands together.
Whoosh!
A violently massive wave of chakra erupted.
Down below.
Hiruko, who had expanded his sensory net to its maximum range to guard against another Flying Thunder God ambush, felt his face pale the moment that chakra hit him. Within his line of sight...
A terrifying tide of crimson chakra violently erupted from Menma's body.
"Nine-Tails chakra!"
It was unmistakable!
The oppressive, suffocating threat radiating from it was absolute.
Swish!
The very instant the warning bells rang in Hiruko's head...
In the distance.
Following a burst of brilliant light...
Menma exploded off the ground, charging toward Hiruko with hyper-lethal momentum.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
As he closed the distance...
Four golden chains shot violently from his back, lashing forward to strike head-on.
"!"
Terrifying speed.
Unmatched power.
Clap!
Hiruko's eyes narrowed.
He violently clapped his hands together.
"Storm Release: Demon Dragon Storm!"
A massive surge of chakra roared out, instantly congregating into storm clouds. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed, and a colossal dragon made entirely of lightning erupted from the void, covered in thick, almost physical armor made of dark clouds.
In a flash.
Rumble!!
The roaring lightning dragon...
Charged directly at the incoming Menma.
Facing the lethal threat...
The corners of Menma's mouth curled up in a faint smirk of absolute disdain.
Smack!
The golden chains whipping through the air...
Empowered by an even greater surge of chakra, they instantly snapped into a multi-directional formation. Their speed completely eclipsed the lightning dragon's.
Smack!
Bang!
They wrapped around it tightly.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
The lightning shrieked.
The golden chains clamped down.
A brilliant golden light flared.
Bang!
Rumble!!
With a vicious downward thrust of Menma's hand...
Whoosh!!
The massive lightning dragon was forcibly violently suppressed and bound by Menma's Adamantine Sealing Chains. It was an outcome that defied all logic.
"What?!"
As Hiruko stared in absolute shock...
Menma clenched his right fist.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
The lightning dragon shuddered violently before completely shattering into pieces, letting out one final, dying crackle of electricity.
Whoosh!
The four golden chains instantly reoriented, shooting toward Hiruko from four different directions: up, down, left, and right, forming a perfect, inescapable cage.
"Steel Release!"
Hiruko's face turned ice-cold. He rapidly churned his chakra, pushing his physical durability to its absolute maximum.
"Swift Release!"
He instantly layered the second Kekkei Genkai on top.
Swish!
In a fraction of a millisecond.
Bang!
Twisting his body violently, Hiruko narrowly dodged the first golden chain. It grazed past him by less than an inch.
He could clearly see the golden glow.
He could intensely feel the chilling, suppressive power radiating from it.
"!"
Hiruko's nerves were pulled taut to the absolute breaking point.
He could not let those chains touch him!
That was the only thought running through his mind.
The Uzumaki clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains.
Hiruko had been a jonin of the Hidden Leaf during the same era as Jiraiya and the others. How could he not recognize the Uzumaki clan's most infamous sealing jutsu? That technique was capable of forcibly binding the Nine-Tails—the strongest of the Tailed Beasts.
With his current level of power?
Hiruko wasn't going to gamble on taking a hit from that.
If it touched him...
He was almost certainly dead!
Furthermore, the sheer power Menma was displaying right now completely surpassed Hiruko's own limits. In just this brief exchange...
Hiruko clearly realized he was absolutely no match for Menma.
He had to find an opening and retreat immediately.
Watching Menma continuously accelerating toward him, Hiruko's expression turned grim as he rapidly formulated a plan.
His hands blurred into seals.
"Summoning—"
Just as he was about to call forth his chimera beasts to cover his escape...
The next second!
Alarm bells shrieked in Hiruko's mind.
The moment a bone-chilling wave of killing intent washed over him...
Relying entirely on instinct, Hiruko violently twisted his body to the right.
Clang!
Squélch!
A razor-sharp blade violently pierced through his lower left back.
Even with his body heavily fortified by Steel Release...
The brutal, hyper-lethal strike still punched cleanly through.
Three feet of cold steel buried itself into his flesh.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
A deafening roar of lightning instantly erupted from the blade.
Hiruko's face drained of color. He tasted copper in the back of his throat before violently violently coughing up a massive mouthful of blood.