Swish!
White bone stepped through the accumulating water.
Hinami suddenly lunged toward Ketsuken. Ketsuken turned to flee, but Hinami accelerated instantly, catching up to him. Her bone blade swung down toward his back.
Clang!
The sharp bone blade did not split Ketsuken in two as Hinami expected; instead, it was deflected off his back. Hinami's wrist trembled slightly; the rebounding force made her wonder if she had struck a small mountain. Seizing the opportunity, Ketsuken escaped.
Through the Byakugan, she saw a dense layer of Earth Style chakra covering Ketsuken's skin beneath his robes.
"Hardening Technique," Kirigarasu's sickening voice echoed from the surroundings. "What will you do now, Little Lady?"
Ignoring Kirigarasu's verbal assault, Hinami considered how to break the deadlock. The elite Anbu of the Mist were indeed formidable. Her explosive bursts of power resulted in a six-second vacuum of vulnerability, and her stamina and chakra were struggling to keep up. Without that burst, her six-year-old body couldn't generate enough force to kill a hardened target.
Kirigarasu excelled at the Water Instantaneous Body, making it hard to find an opening. Killing the weaponless, injured Ketsuken was the only solution, but breaking his Hardening Technique required a blunt weapon and brute force.
Grind, grind, grind!
Thick bone rubbed together as it emerged from her palm—slender at the tip, coarse at the base. The rounded bone deformed, creating sharp, square ridges along its body. A high-density, four-sided heavy bone mace (heavy jian) appeared in Hinami's hand. She swung it slightly; the tapered design felt perfectly balanced.
Ketsuken frowned, sensing something was wrong.
Whoosh!
Hinami vanished and reappeared before Ketsuken. Her porcelain arm raised high, the heavy mace whistled through the air, the wind pressure alone generating immense force. Ketsuken's temples throbbed. Maintaining the Hardening Technique significantly hindered his agility; he had no choice but to cross his arms to protect his head.
Thump!
The mace slammed into Ketsuken's crossed arms. An impact infinitely more terrifying than the previous blade strike surged through him.
Crack!
The yellowish, rock-like chakra shattered and sprayed outward. Ketsuken's large frame was sent spinning like he'd been hit by a dump truck, crashing into a tree trunk.
"Gah!" He vomited blood, his arms trembling as he propped himself up.
Whir!
Hinami swung the mace again, aiming the sharp ridges directly at Ketsuken's head. Ketsuken's hair stood on end; a hit to the head would be fatal.
"Got you!"
In the moment of crisis, Kirigarasu used the Water Instantaneous Body to close in. The water at Hinami's feet suddenly transformed into whips, coiling around her ankles. Her mace slowed as she pivoted to avoid the whip.
Unexpectedly, the fallen Ketsuken lunged upward, roaring as he tackled her. Though Hinami saw it, her momentum was spent, and she was caught in Ketsuken's bear hug.
Zing!
Her small frame shuddered as dense bone spikes erupted from her body, only to be blocked by Ketsuken's Hardening Technique. White bone sparks flew against yellowish skin. Hinami's muscle strength was exhausted from the previous strikes; she couldn't immediately break free.
Five seconds.
The number flashed in all three of their minds. Hinami needed five seconds before her next burst. Kirigarasu approached, extending his hands.
Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu!
The water on the ground swirled upward, becoming a living fluid about to envelop both Hinami and Ketsuken. Once formed, the prison was nearly impossible to break from the inside. It was an Anbu technique designed to drown even the strongest lone experts.
Now!
Hinami's eyes narrowed. Still pinned by Ketsuken, she released her weapon and pointed all ten fingers at Kirigarasu. The user of the Water Prison must keep their hands inside the sphere; with the ground water gone, his Instantaneous Body was sealed. Kirigarasu was defenseless.
Shikotsumyaku—
Gleaming projectiles emerged from her fingertips like chambered bullets.
Three seconds.
Suddenly, a spinning curtain of water rose between Hinami and Kirigarasu.
Water Style: Water Encampment Wall!
Another Kirigarasu appeared in the distance. After performing the wall, he turned into water and merged into the prison, accelerating its formation.
"Little Lady, that unlucky fool Meiko died to this trick, didn't he?" Kirigarasu's smug voice came from within the water wall. He had prepared for her hidden projectiles.
"It's over."
One second.
Kirigarasu counted the final number. Chakra surged, and the water buried Hinami and Ketsuken completely. Looking at the massive sphere and the two locked figures within, Kirigarasu finally exhaled. He just had to wait for the oxygen to run out.
Whew! What a formidable young—
Before he could finish, the sphere vibrated violently.
"What?"
Kirigarasu panicked, trying to stabilize the jutsu, but found his chakra flow blocked by an unknown foreign chakra. It clogged his pathways like dams. He opened his eyes in terror.
"This... this is!!"
Beneath the water sphere, extremely fine strands of hair had extended. Hidden by the night, the needle-like hairs had pierced Kirigarasu's pressure points, pumping foreign chakra into him. His network was locked.
Splash!
Without chakra to maintain it, the sphere collapsed, revealing a soaked Hinami and the still-clinging Ketsuken. The girl's wet clothes made her look bedraggled, but her pink lips curled into a smirk. She locked onto Kirigarasu through her blindfold and mimicked a pistol with her fingers.
Bang!
She mouthed the sound of a gunshot.
Shoo!
An invisible, high-speed finger bone pierced the air. Without chakra, the terrified Kirigarasu couldn't dodge. The bone pierced his forehead, spraying brain matter out the back of his head. He collapsed and twitched once before going still.
"KIRIGARASU!!!"
Seeing his comrade die, Ketsuken roared and locked his arm around Hinami's throat. His bulging muscles constricted her slender neck.
"AAAAAHHH!"
The roar exploded in Hinami's ear, breaking some limit. Visible blue chakra erupted from Ketsuken's abdomen, flowing into his arms. He grabbed Hinami's neck and slammed it down with a sickening twist.
Crack!
Hinami's head bent backward at a grotesque angle. Her neck was nearly torn open, exposing her bloodied windpipe. Ketsuken felt a flash of triumph, which instantly turned to horror.
The head folded over her back was still smiling.
Thud!
A bone spike erupted from the exposed cervical vertebrae, piercing Ketsuken's bloodshot right eye and driving through his brain.
"Ugh! AAAAGH!"
A scream echoed through the woods. Ketsuken's body stiffened, his hardening chakra faded, and more spikes erupted.
Pschht... pschht...
Ketsuken's large frame became a shredded pincushion. Ketsuken was dead.
The night wind howled. As the "Time of Encountering Demons" ended, a streak of light appeared on the horizon.
Hinami used her hands to pry herself from Ketsuken's embrace. The spikes retracted, leaving blood sprays. They decomposed into bone dust. She carefully grabbed her chin and snapped her head back into place. Visible bone fragments emerged to fix the vertebrae, while chakra reconnected the nerves and fascia. Steam rose from the repair.
Not bad. Not a fatal wound.
The Shikotsumyaku was powerful, but she wished for the Uzumaki or Senju "Sage Body" to handle such damage more easily.
She had won. No one should engage a Kaguya or Hyūga in close quarters; it was a rule they had broken and paid for. If not for the Rabbit Hair Needle (Senbon) trick at the end, she might have lost.
The "Blood Mist" village produced elites because only the cruelest survived. This cycle of blood was the village's lifeblood. She remembered her father's words: The mist cannot become the sea. It must be watered with blood.
As dawn broke, Hinami tore off her ruined clothes. Under the morning light, her vital areas were covered by geometric bone scales, looking like snake skin. She returned to her tent, which was miraculously undamaged.
She dressed, took her blind cane from Arata's body, and set the corpses on fire. The smell of burning protein made her hungry.
As the fire reached Ketsuken, a "flesh worm" containing massive chakra crawled out. It was dark blue, flat, and covered in slime. Though small, it held more chakra than Ketsuken himself—the source of his sudden power burst that broke her neck.
Thump!
She smashed the worm into the mud with a bone-clad fist. It squirmed.
Thump! Thump!
She hammered it until it stopped moving. She emptied a bottle of food pills and stuffed the worm inside, sealing it with a cork. She'd figure it out later.
Shouldering her bag, her cane tapped the earth. With the rising sun at her back, Hinami headed west. Toward Konoha. There, she would find the power to escape this cruelty.