At this moment, Hyūga Hizashi had just broken free from Hyūga Natsu's genjutsu when a Chakra Scalpel—drawn back like a full crescent moon—slashed out with a cold, fierce glint, aiming straight for his neck!
Cold sweat broke out all over him. He immediately brought his palms together, snapped them open, and crossed his feet back and forth, driving the chakra surrounding his body into a violent eruption—
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Substantial purple chakra expanded and spun violently around Hizashi at the epicenter, forcing him to spin madly like a top right in the middle.
"Purple Eye: Revolving Heaven!"
At the center of the arena, a hemispherical dome of purple chakra over ten meters in diameter suddenly appeared, spinning like an overturned bowl. It spun faster and grew larger by the second!
From ten meters, to twenty, to thirty... fifty meters!
Empowered by the purple Byakugan, Hizashi had actually unleashed a super Revolving Heaven with ten times the force of a normal one!
Immense amounts of chakra formed a storm that crashed relentlessly inside the hemispherical dome. The dirt and stone ground of the arena collapsed instantly, throwing countess stones into chaotic flight, some even hurtling toward the spectator stands over two hundred meters away!
Screams immediately erupted from the crowd.
Right then, two barrier jutsu of different colors rose in the nick of time from the edges of the spectator area, enclosing the central arena along with Natsu and Hizashi mid-battle, shielding the audience from the shockwaves of the clash.
One barrier was purplish-black, while the other was a faint white.
In a corner of the spectator stands, Orochimaru withdrew his hand after casting the Four Violet Flames Formation. He narrowed his eyes, gazing thoughtfully at Hizashi in the center of the battlefield, whose ninjutsu power was appalling.
Not far beside him, another figure who had acted almost simultaneously with Orochimaru asked with slight surprise, "Huh? Lord Orochimaru? Why are you here..."
Orochimaru turned his head to look, his brow twitching slightly. To his surprise, the person who had acted at the same time as him was Uzumaki Kushina, who was accompanied by several members of the Barrier Team.
"You are... that member of the Uzumaki Clan..."
"Uzumaki Kushina." Since Kushina had not had much interaction with Orochimaru previously—they were mere acquaintances—she took the initiative to introduce herself and explain her assigned mission: "Lord Third Hokage ordered me to lead the Barrier Team and stay hidden around the venue, ready to control the situation at any moment."
"Oh?"
The corners of Orochimaru's mouth curled into a raspy chuckle. "Then it seems we received the same task."
The only difference was that Orochimaru's assignment came from Shimura Danzō, whereas Kushina's came from Sarutobi Hiruzen. After the secret lab was cleaned out by Hyūga Yū, Orochimaru's ongoing experiments were forced to a halt. Suddenly possessing a vast amount of free time, Orochimaru learned through the Foundation about the strange preparations Yū had left before departing last night. Driven by a desire to watch the spectacle, he had casually taken a mission from Danzō and come to the scene.
Now, seeing that not only the Foundation but even the old men of the Hokage's faction had made preparations for today's events within the Hyūga Clan, Orochimaru instantly realized—
The matters of the Hyūga Clan were far from simple, and the upcoming developments might exceed his expectations.
He couldn't help but feel a thread of curiosity. Probing Kushina, he asked, "Is all of this because of... the Tennin?"
Thinking it over, Kushina said to Orochimaru, "Since Lord Orochimaru is here as well, let's leave this area to the Barrier Team. Please come with me to the other side of the venue—Minato and several high-ranking members of Konoha's clans are all over there."
"According to the Tennin's arrangements, the village has already activated Level 2 Combat Readiness. Information at all levels is compartmentalized, so I don't know much either. Over there, we might be able to gather more intelligence."
It was essentially acting as a temporary wartime operations command center.
Orochimaru nodded thoughtfully. Having nothing better to do, he followed the direction Kushina pointed and walked toward the seats on the other side of the venue reserved for representatives of Konoha's various clans who were invited as guests.
After giving a few instructions to the Barrier Team, Kushina followed close behind.
At this moment, similar scenes were occurring across vast areas of the venue.
The Administration Department, the Secretariat, the Logistics Department, clans large and small... Even the main members of the Jonin Squad invited to attend the event had received notifications and were gathering toward the temporary command center where Namikaze Minato was stationed.
Meanwhile, in the center of the venue, inside the two rising barriers, atop the shattered arena:
Hyūga Hizashi was executing his extraordinarily powerful "Purple Revolving Heaven" in a manner that bordered on losing his sanity.
However, while he was frantic, he was by no means stupid. Furthermore, as one of the most elite members of the Branch House, Hizashi possessed vast combat experience as a shinobi!
In the few exchanges he had with Natsu, he had keenly analyzed—
Natsu possessed a strange tactile genjutsu. Contact with her chakra would cause an opponent to fall into the illusion.
At the same time, she also possessed a "phasing" ability that allowed her to ignore attacks directed at her.
Yet, in the brief span of those few moves, Hizashi noticed that between Natsu's first "phasing" and her second, she had actively executed a physical dodge—facing the giant hand formed by the purple chakra armor, she chose to jump away.
And the interval between these two instances of phasing was three seconds!
Furthermore, during the phasing state, Natsu did not launch any attacks. Her attacks were all completed while she was physical.
Although it could be interpreted as Natsu using the leap to adjust her attack posture, Hizashi, having no other choice, decided to continue probing this point—thus, he unleashed this super-large-scale Revolving Heaven.
The advantage of Revolving Heaven lay in using chakra to drive helical shockwaves of air rather than directly crashing into the target with chakra. This effectively avoided direct contact with Natsu's chakra. In addition, the duration of Revolving Heaven was long, with virtually no openings; anyone within its range had to continuously endure the impact of the shockwaves. If Natsu needed to materialize to launch an attack, she would inevitably be struck by Revolving Heaven. On the other hand, if her phasing was only temporary, the moment she could no longer maintain it and exited the phasing state, she would likewise be hit by Revolving Heaven.
Moreover, under the impact of such a terrifying Revolving Heaven, Natsu wouldn't even be able to weave hand seals and would be torn apart alive.
By relying on this technique, Hizashi could directly figure out the duration of Natsu's phasing state.
And right now, his judgment paid off—
Under the expanding shockwaves of Revolving Heaven, Natsu's dark eyebrows knitted slightly. As she leaped backward to escape the first wave of impact, she immediately activated her phasing, vanishing into thin air.
Revolving Heaven expanded to a diameter of fifty meters in just one second.
However, Hizashi received no feedback of a successful hit during this process.
From the overhead perspective of the purple Byakugan, Natsu's figure reappeared one second later beyond the fifty-meter range of Revolving Heaven. She stopped advancing, appearing somewhat hesitant to act.
Hizashi summarized another piece of intelligence—
Natsu could remain in a "phased" state for a prolonged duration. Furthermore, while phased, she could move at even greater speeds!
However, it was just as he had anticipated:
Once Natsu exited phasing, there was a three-second window of physical reality before she could enter phasing again. Moreover, she truly could not attack while phased.
Thus, the battle against Natsu came down to grasping that three-second physical window between "Phasing—Physicality—Phasing again." He could only inflict damage on her within those three seconds!
At this thought, a cold sneer curled up the corners of Hizashi's mouth as he spun like a top. If that was the case, he was in an invincible position!
As long as he activated Revolving Heaven, all of Natsu's attacks would be useless against him, and she would be forced to retreat from its range. What he needed to do next was intentionally sell a flaw to bait her into attacking him, then turn the tables on her within those three seconds of physical reality to deal a lethal strike!
For Hizashi, this was not difficult!
Empowered by the purple Byakugan, his physical stats were comparable to a Jinchūriki in a semi-tailed beast transformation. A casual strike from him could pierce through rock and mountain. Aside from being unable to use a Tailed Beast Ball, in terms of pure taijutsu, his Gentle Fist and Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm could even suppress and pummel a Tailed Beast Jinchūriki.
As long as he managed to touch her even once at close range using Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms, he could directly seal all of Natsu's chakra and secure absolute victory!
Meanwhile, on the other side, Natsu—having backed out of Revolving Heaven's attack range—remained perfectly calm in her gaze. Or rather, all those prior clues were deliberate pieces of real intelligence she had "sold" to Hizashi. Constrained by the physical constitution of a normal shinobi, the amount of Yin Release Tenseigan chakra she could endure was limited. She couldn't enter a Tenseigan Chakra Mode to unleash large-scale jutsu like Yū could. Objectively speaking, she could indeed only rely on her phasing ability to construct a combat style centered on genjutsu disruption and close-quarters Chakra Scalpel assassinations.
Yet this did not mean Natsu was incapable of defeating Hizashi.
After all, the purple Byakugan and Tenseigan chakra were fundamentally on two entirely different levels. This battle should have ended the moment Hizashi was controlled by her genjutsu for the first time. However, Natsu's goal was neither to kill Hizashi nor to defeat him, but... to stall for as much time as possible!
She needed Hizashi to feel he had a chance at victory, allowing his human side to temporarily suppress the logical frenzy of the purple Byakugan!
However, by doing so, after exposing her own intelligence and mechanics, the state of the battle became extremely dire for Natsu.
It was somewhat like the strange remark Yū had made during a casual chat in the past: "Once a character relying purely on mechanics loses their mechanical advantage, they become utterly fragile before pure numerical stats. Therefore, for a shinobi, intelligence is always the top priority—whether it's discovering the opponent's intelligence or protecting one's own..."
Yet right now, that situation was completely inverted.
Across from her, Hizashi stopped his Revolving Heaven, regained his footing, and adjusted his battle stance. He raised his palms into the Gentle Fist starting posture, glaring at her coldly.
Natsu, sensing that less than half of the Yin Release Tenseigan chakra remained in her body, took a deep breath and snapped her eyes open!
In the next instant, their gazes clashed at a single point!
Natsu immediately flipped backward into a leap, reaching to pull a scroll from the pouch at her waist. With a strike of her palm, she unrolled it, revealing a giant character for "Bow" written upon it!
Poof!
Amidst a swirl of smoke, a strangely designed heavy bow appeared in her palm!
It was a compound recurve bow that did not belong to this era.
Unlike traditional hunting bows, Yumi, or longbows in the Ninja World, the bowstring on this bow was exceptionally long. It was intricately woven through several pulleys connected to a pulley system on both ends of the bow frame, which was made primarily of horn, tendon, and wood.
"A bow and arrow?"
Seeing this, Hizashi's gaze narrowed. Though the design was peculiar, he immediately recognized the object in Natsu's hand. After a moment's thought, he realized with shock: Wait, could she be planning to... attach her chakra to the arrows and cast her tactile genjutsu from fifty meters or further away?!
If that's the case, she doesn't even need to hit me! She only needs to strike the stray chakra dispersing around my body to plunge me into genjutsu!
If it comes to that, I'll be forced to continuously use Revolving Heaven or Vacuum Palm to defend.
If I can't close the distance, I won't be able to break her phasing, so—
I must destroy that bow!
As his thoughts raced, Hizashi immediately finalized his next plan for the battle. He violently burst forth the chakra around his body, his movement speed surging once more. Transforming into a streak of purple lightning, he charged at top speed toward Natsu, who was already raising the bow with her left hand and nocking an arrow with her right mid-leap!
TWANG!
The bowstring boomed, and the arrow shot forth like lightning!
The two figures—one purple, one teal—engaged in fierce combat once more. During the clash, giant purple air cannons stretching over five hundred meters flew out one after another, slamming into the two massive barriers surrounding the venue!
In an instant, thick dust swirled through the field as the ground shook violently!
Even the crowd in the spectator stands could personally feel the terrifying intensity of the battle between those two figures!
Meanwhile, at the guest platform, near the seating area for Konoha's various clans, stood the temporary combat command center set up by Konoha.
Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Kushina, Uchiha Fugaku, Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi...
A gathering of Konoha's mid-to-high-level personnel were assembled here, about to conduct a final discussion regarding Hizashi's issue. Right then, everyone looked in astonishment at a fourteen-year-old girl who suddenly materialized out of thin air and landed smoothly on the ground—a girl who was shockingly the very same Hyūga Natsu currently locked in combat with Hizashi on the field!
Minato looked at Natsu appearing before them and quickly recognized her. "You are... the Tennin's fiancée! You were the one who passed intelligence about Rin Nohara to me earlier!"
"Then... who is that one out on the field?"
Natsu nodded and spoke directly: "That is also me, but it is merely a Yin Release Clone... Because it incorporates the nature transformation of Yin Release, it is difficult to distinguish real from fake, much like the clones of 'Shisui of the Body Flicker' from the Uchiha Clan."
Out on the field, Uchiha Shisui—who had just received the news and rushed to the scene—was standing behind Uchiha Fugaku. Hearing her words, he shook his head with an unusually grave expression and spoke up: "There's still a difference. I can tell that your clone technique is even more sophisticated than my Mirage Clone Technique..."
Hearing this, everyone present revealed expressions of surprise. A single clone could fight on equal terms with Hizashi, who was currently comparable to a Tailed Beast Jinchūriki. Furthermore, her ninjutsu standard was personally acknowledged by the strongest member of the Uchiha Clan.
This caused them to view the Tennin's fiancée in a new light, and their attitude toward Natsu couldn't help but become considerably more formal and respectful.
At this moment, Natsu did not engage in mutual pleasantries with Shisui. She simply looked at the gathered powerful Konoha shinobi and spoke with an extremely solemn face: "Let's skip the idle talk, my lords."
"There are more than a few among you here who are capable of defeating or even killing Hyūga Hizashi. Yet none of you have made a move. I imagine you have all likely discovered it by now—the true danger of Hyūga Hizashi!"
Hearing this, Minato looked at Fugaku. Fugaku nodded to him, stepped forward, and spoke with furrowed brows: "Hyūga Hizashi... hidden within his eyes is an extremely powerful visual prowess."
"And after devouring a massive number of Byakugan... this visual prowess expanded into a terrifying entity that is extremely difficult to handle. Furthermore, this visual prowess is frantically devouring Hizashi's life force while locking onto every single Hyūga clan member present who possesses a Byakugan."
"Any attack directed at that thing risks driving it into... a rampage!"
"When that happens, it might instantly strip away the Byakugan of every Hyūga clan member present, fusing them into an even more horrific entity!"
"If chakra of such scale and quality goes out of control, it will bring immense destruction upon all of Konoha!"
"Could this... be the true crisis the Tennin spoke of!?"
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