Analyzing Hagoromo's behavioral patterns from a shinobi's perspective revealed many questionable points.
For example, in a crisis like the one just now, the optimal choice would have been to hand the situation over to the mission commander—Namikaze Minato—and let him make the decisions and handle the response.
But Hagoromo didn't do that.
Which led to a crucial question:
What exactly was Kamishiro Hagoromo trying to do?
Having been given a hard-won second life, what was his goal—his purpose—for living again?
If someone more driven or ambitious had replaced him, they might have already shouted something like "I'm going to become the Ninja King!" by now.
But Hagoromo hadn't.
Was it a lack of motivation?
Not really.
When it came to things that genuinely interested him, Hagoromo was extremely proactive. On the other hand, most of the time—no matter how important the occasion—he only wanted to be an average ninja who completed his missions at a passing level.
To put it simply, his current state was somewhat similar to Hatake Kakashi many years later—minus the trademark dead-fish eyes. But even that comparison wasn't entirely accurate. Kakashi appeared lazy in daily life, yet was meticulous and decisive during missions. Hagoromo, meanwhile, maintained the same indescribable attitude both on and off missions.
Unless—
The mission itself interested him.
Take the present situation as an example. He rejected Hyūga Hizashi's suggestion to wait for Minato's instructions, citing urgency.
But was that really the reason?
Of course not.
He simply wanted to test his forbidden jutsu.
For high-difficulty ninjutsu and fuinjutsu, theory alone was meaningless. Practice was—that thing—the sole criterion of truth. After mastering the Four Symbols Seal (Inner Variant), Hagoromo had never found a suitable opportunity to use it. That had left him restless for quite some time.
And now—
Wasn't this the perfect chance, delivered straight to his doorstep?
From this incident and several of Hagoromo's past behaviors, one could derive a general rule:
The more interested he was, the more proactive he became—and the more likely he was to engage in reckless, life-threatening behavior.
This situation, for instance, was genuinely dangerous.
In order to wipe out the enemy in one stroke using the Four Symbols Seal, Hagoromo had openly operated above their heads, then deliberately used a highly provocative method to force them out of hiding.
Could he guarantee the enemy wouldn't grow suspicious?
Could he guarantee they wouldn't realize their cover had been blown and act prematurely?
Of course he couldn't.
At the end of the day, he couldn't even guarantee that his Four Symbols Seal would activate with one hundred percent certainty.
Yes—Hagoromo's behavioral pattern was actually very simple.
In one sentence:
He was a ninja driven purely by interest.
He was, at heart, an extremely free-spirited person.
Sometimes, when a problem could be solved in a safe and steady manner, he would deliberately choose a riskier path. Other times, when the situation was clearly dire, he could calmly produce a reliable and well-thought-out solution.
What Hagoromo would do in a given situation depended on fate—
And on his daily recklessness index.
After the four enemies burst out of the ground, they happened to be within the effective range of Hyūga Hizashi's Gentle Fist.
Because the plan had been agreed upon beforehand, Hizashi didn't hesitate. Before the enemies could even stabilize their footing, he unleashed Four consecutive Eight Trigrams: Air Palm strikes, carefully controlling their trajectories and sending all four flying toward the scroll's location.
Despite it being their first time working together, the coordination between the two was excellent. As Hizashi's palms struck home, Hagoromo's hand seals were completed at precisely the same moment.
The four enemies were blown away—but not fatally injured.
Hizashi had faithfully executed his role. His priority was to send the enemies into the sealing jutsu's effective area as quickly as possible, not to pursue lethal damage.
Naturally, killing all four instantly would have been ideal—but without clear intelligence on the enemy's exact strength, Hizashi wouldn't arrogantly assume he could one-shot any ninja with a single palm strike. In this situation, he chose to trust Hagoromo's plan.
The four enemy ninja barely spared a glance for the damage caused by Air Palm. The moment they landed, they prepared to counterattack.
Ninja selected for such a mission were elite in every sense. Even if they weren't veterans of countless battles, they would never freeze up like rookies after a sudden ambush.
Their experienced squad leader made the correct judgment almost instantly:
First—launch a counterattack against the two Leaf ninja.
Second—alert their comrades that their concealment had been compromised.
They needed to eliminate these two Konoha ninja as fast as possible, then abandon stealth and rush directly toward the two Kage under an emergency plan.
Their judgment was sound.
Their reaction was swift.
But it was already too late.
All they could see was the completed hand seal in Hagoromo's hands, the white mask on his face, and the empty black hollows of its eye sockets. What kind of expression lay beneath—
No one would ever know.
Without waiting for instructions, the squad leader and his three subordinates landed, pushed off the ground, and charged straight toward Hagoromo and Hizashi.
Fast.
Very fast.
They were going to show these two Leaf ninja that failing to press the advantage earlier had been their greatest mistake.
But just as they exerted force through their legs—just as they felt that, at this distance, they could reach their targets in an instant—
Everything went dark.
And then—
There was nothing after that.
Centered on the scroll, a curtain of darkness expanded in an instant—defying time and distance—forming a black sphere two hundred meters in diameter.
It lasted for one to two seconds.
Then it vanished, silently.
As if it had never existed at all.
If not for the fact that everything within that spherical space—living and non-living alike—had been completely erased.
All sixteen enemy ninja were annihilated simultaneously.
Hagoromo was very satisfied with the results of the Four Symbols Seal.
Hyūga Hizashi, meanwhile, silently rejoiced.
Even the Byakugan couldn't see through that black curtain—and it had expanded almost right up to his face. He was grateful that he had restrained his urge to pursue the enemies earlier.
Otherwise, he might have been dragged into it as well.
The power of the jutsu spoke for itself.
So did the chakra consumption.
After using it, Hagoromo's chakra was essentially drained dry. He couldn't even perform the Summoning jutsu anymore.
Right on cue, Minato's scheduled check-in arrived.
"Hyūga–Uehakuseki Team, why have you disappeared from aerial surveillance?"
Of course they weren't in the air anymore.
They were on the ground.
"Hyūga Team detected suspected Amegakure third-party forces infiltrating the restricted zone—four squads, sixteen individuals. We descended from the air to eliminate them. Targets have been neutralized… however, we are currently unable to resume aerial reconnaissance."
Before he could finish speaking, Hagoromo suddenly sensed two additional presences beside him.
In this kind of emergency, Minato had directly used the Flying Thunder God jutsu, bringing his "signal tower" with him.
At that moment, Hagoromo was close to breaking down.
He genuinely had no idea when Minato had placed a Flying Thunder God mark on him.
But from Minato's perspective, it made perfect sense.
Hagoromo had only participated in two wars, and Minato hadn't spent that much time with him—but it was enough to draw certain conclusions:
This was a young ninja with exceptional ability and immense potential.
More importantly—
He was nothing like a normal ninja.
This guy had never been stable.
So when necessary, he had to be watched closely.
Looking at the massive crater before him, Minato quickly figured out what Hagoromo had done. Kushina had probably already bragged to him about her disciple being capable of using a forbidden jutsu like the Four Symbols Seal.
Internally, Minato felt his soul cracking.
But he still asked the question—despite already knowing the answer.
"Are there any enemy survivors?"
"…There definitely aren't."
Exactly as expected.
"What was the enemy's deployment? Were there only these sixteen?" Minato asked again.
"No survivors. How would I know?"
That was… a rhetorical question?
Alright.
Minato really had walked right into that one.
Still—
Wasn't this kid being just a bit too righteously confident?
After all—
Wasn't this enormous crater your doing?
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