After Mitsuri left to help the others, Akira and Akaza stood facing one another in the ruined forest clearing.
Akira lowered his stance, adjusting his footing. Then, almost casually, he shifted into the exact same stance Akaza was using.
Akaza narrowed his eyes.
"What are you doing now?" he asked, tone halfway between irritation and disbelief as he looked at Akira's posture.
"I'm trying to copy your techniques," Akira replied matter-of-factly, as if he were saying he was trying out a new hobby.
Akaza's brow twitched. "Are you playing around?"
"Don't worry," Akira said, completely serious. "I'm not playing around. Believe me, you'll see."
Akaza clicked his tongue, a faint smirk tugging at his lips despite himself.
"Fine. Don't die easily… otherwise I'll be bored."
Without another word, Akaza punched the air in front of him.
"Destructive Death— Air Type."
BOOM!
Shockwaves tore forward like invisible blades.
Akira instantly activated Thought Acceleration, the world slowing around him. With his Mystic Eyes of Truth, he dissected the attack frame by frame, Akaza's posture, muscle tension, the exact timing of when his Blood Demon Art triggered, and the way the shockwave formed.
And he understood something immediately.
He could copy the movement, but not the Blood Demon Art. To recreate the shockwave himself.
He would have to be faster than Akaza.
Akira copied the exact posture. The exact twist of the hips. The exact angle of the fist.
Then he punched.
Not with Akaza's speed, but faster.
His punch didn't create a shockwave…but it collided directly with Akaza's invisible blade of force.
SHRRR! WHUM!
The shockwave dispersed like smoke.
Akaza's eyes widened.
"…What?"
Akira lowered his fist, calm as ever.
The real copying had just begun.
Akaza didn't pause for long. Shock or not, he attacked again immediately.
"Destructive Death— Eight-Layered Demon Core!"
His fists blurred.
EIGHT shockwaves erupted forward, each heavier and sharper than the one before. Any normal fighter would have been shredded.
Akira knew the truth:
If even one of them hit cleanly, he'd be overwhelmed.
But he didn't dodge.
Instead, he observed.
Thought Acceleration instantly activated and his Mystic Eyes tracked every micro-movement: the twist of Akaza's hips, the tightening of muscle fibers, the exact angle of each punch.
And then…
Akira copied him.
Perfectly.
His fists moved in the same sequence, just without the Blood Demon Art. No shockwaves formed from his side, this time too, but his punches intercepted Akaza's shockwaves one by one.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
All eight shockwaves were dissipated.
Akaza's eyes widened, a rare crack in his composure.
"How are you doing that!?"
Akira shrugged lightly, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
"I'm just copying your movements. That's all."
That answer only made Akaza angrier.
"Tch… don't mock me!"
He vanished and reappeared right in front of Akira, fist already flying toward his face.
Akira punched back.
Their fists connected at the exact same angle.
Their kicks collided with identical timing.
Their spins mirrored perfectly.
Even their footwork looked synchronized.
To an outsider, it would look like two Akazas fighting each other, down to the smallest detail.
Akira placed his entire consciousness on one thing: Observing Akaza's movements and replicating them with absolute precision.
And the more he watched…the faster he learned.
Akaza clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed.
Realizing his mirrored exchanges weren't getting anywhere, he suddenly backflipped high into the air.
"Destructive Death — Air Type!"
Shockwaves rained down like invisible blades.
Akira mirrored the movement instantly, with the same posture, same arc, and same twist of the wrist. But this time, something clicked inside him.
After observing Akaza and himself for so long…
He finally punched fast.
Fast enough to generate his own shockwave.
It wasn't as strong as Akaza's, but it was unmistakably there.
The two shockwaves collided and shattered midair.
Akaza's eyes widened.
"Impossible."
Akira grinned, "Nothing is impossible for me."
That pushed Akaza over the edge.
With clear irritation, he lunged again.
"Destructive Death: Crushing Type — Ten Thousand Leaves Flashing Willow!"
He came in with a brutal, spiraling punch meant to tear through anything.
Akira copied it perfectly.
Their fists met.
BOOM!
Another explosion of shockwaves bursts outward.
They matched each other blow for blow.
Kick for kick.
Elbow for elbow.
A perfectly even match.
But only on the surface.
Because while Akaza was fighting to kill…
Akira was fighting to learn.
He was already a genius at copying techniques, but with his Noble Art Exp Overclock fueling him, his learning speed reached something monstrous.
He focused on nothing else, not winning, not losing, not killing.
Only Akaza's movements.
Every foot placement.
Every twitch of muscle.
Every shift in weight.
Every breath.
Because of that focus.
Akaza's Compass Needle began failing.
His Blood Demon Art could sense killing intent and fighting spirit…but Akira had none.
He wasn't fighting.
He was studying.
So he changed his intent.
He no longer aimed to win the fight; he aimed to observe it.
And the moment Akira's fighting spirit vanished.
Akaza's Compass Needle stopped working properly.
Akaza froze. "…What? My Compass Needle…"
Akira didn't answer.
His gaze was locked only on Akaza's movements.
At the same time, something else was happening to Akira.
A shift.
A breakthrough.
The world around him…slowed.
Not the clean mental stillness of Thought Acceleration, but something deeper.
More instinctive.
His senses expanded outward and inward simultaneously, and suddenly.
He could see.
Not just Akaza's stance.
Not just his movement.
But everything inside him.
As if Akaza had become transparent under a bright moon.
Akira saw the flow of blood through veins, the expansion of lungs, the tightening of muscle fibers, and the micro-twitch of tendons before a punch.
Even the subtle rotation of joints, movements so tiny no ordinary eye could track, were now clear to him, vivid and bright.
It was as if the entire structure of Akaza's body was laid bare before him, and with every breath, Akira understood more:
How the body moved. Why it moved and what it was preparing to do next.
Yes, Akira has finally achieved the transparent world.
A punch was coming.
He knew it before Akaza even threw it.
Akira lifted his arm and blocked it flawlessly, as if he had read Akaza's intentions straight from the core of his being.
Akaza's eyes widened.
"H-How did you do it!?"
Akira didn't answer.
He couldn't.
He was still new to this state, still adjusting to the overwhelming clarity of the Transparent World he had just stepped into.
Any distraction might break it.
Akaza growled, but inside he is completely shocked.
The Compass Needle, his ability to sense fighting spirit, couldn't detect anything from Akira.
Akira was standing right in front of him…but might as well not exist.
"You…why can't I sense you?!"
Akaza's voice cracked with confusion.
He struck out again.
But now every strike was futile.
Akira blocked them all, effortlessly, precisely, and naturally, as if he knew the attacks before they were thrown.
Then.
A single opening.
Akira rotated his hips and delivered a precise, perfectly timed punch directly to Akaza's forearm.
CRACK! FWOOSH!
Akaza's entire hand was torn clean off, severed from his body, and sent spinning through the air.
Akaza's eyes widened in disbelief.
He regenerated quickly, but the shock remained.
Because even after reforming the limb, something was wrong.
He still couldn't sense Akira.
Not his killing intent.
Not his presence.
Not anything.
It was as if Akira had vanished… while standing right in front of him.
Akaza gritted his teeth.
Akira was growing stronger, Faster, and more dangerous with every passing second.
And Akaza could feel it.
This boy…was becoming a threat unlike anything he had ever fought.
Realizing the fight was slipping out of his grasp, Akaza made his decision.
He would use his strongest move.
Akaza's stance shifted. The air trembled.
The Compass Needle appeared beneath his feet, and a red snowflake pattern suddenly appeared and then shifted and turned to blue.
Akaza's voice deepened.
"Destructive Death… Final Form."
In the next instant.
Twelve red energy clones manifested around him, each positioned perfectly at the points of the snowflake, each one copying his movements with absolute precision.
"Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow!"
The world exploded.
Akaza and all twelve energy clones unleashed a simultaneous barrage of omnidirectional shockwaves.
Shockwaves that ripped apart trees, shattered boulders, and tore the ground itself into pieces.
A storm of destruction.
But none of it touched Akira.
Because Akira could see it all.
With the Transparent World, every incoming punch lit up like a trail of light before it was even thrown. Every angle, every vector, he saw the entire attack pattern as if it was slowed to a crawl.
Akira weaved through the deadly storm with near-unreal grace, slipping past shockwaves that would have obliterated him moments earlier.
While moving, he reached into his inventory and took out a small piece of scarlet iron bar.
He clenched it, activating Star Breathing.
The tiny scarlet iron bar glowed purple, energy coursing through it.
Akira exhaled.
This would be the final strike.
He lowered his stance, coiled his body, and poured everything into his fist.
A purple flame ignited around his arm, as if a flaming star condensed into it.
And Akira launched forward with one final.
"FALCON PUNCH".
The purple flaming Falcon Punch connected cleanly.
Akira's fist smashed straight into Akaza's head, obliterating it instantly, sending the Upper Moon flying backwards like a fired projectile. Akaza's body crashed into the ground with tremendous force and slid before finally going still.
Akira exhaled as he slipped out of the Transparent World, the world returned back to normal.
"Phew… I finally achieved the Transparent World. Mission accomplished," he muttered.
Only then did he notice his own condition.
He lifted his right hand to see it, seriously burned, mangled, the skin blackened and twisted from the force and friction of his own attack. The regeneration had begun, but it was painfully slow.
Too slow.
Akira stared at it, mildly annoyed. He had been trained to ignore pain long ago, so the damage didn't bother him emotionally, but the inefficiency did.
"Ohhh, that looks pretty bad," Selena's voice echoed telepathically in his mind. "I don't think it's going to heal soon."
"I know," Akira sighed. "Seriously… what's the point of having a healing factor if it can't fully heal stuff like this?"
"Well," Selena replied, "your healing factor just isn't strong enough yet. But don't worry, it'll heal back. Eventually."
"I'm not really worried about that," Akira said. "Sigh… don't worry about me. How are the others doing?"
Selena answered. "Not bad. The village is safe. Yoriichi Type Null Alpha defeated Gyokko. And the Hantengu battle is reaching its final stage."
"I see… After this is over, I'm going to have a good rest." Akira said with a sigh.
Then Selena said, "By the way, brother… Akaza isn't dead yet."
"Yeah, I know," Akira said casually.
Sure enough, Akaza's headless body was rising and slowly walking toward him. A new head was starting to regenerate, but the process was sluggish, almost agonizingly so.
"Why not finish him now?" Selena asked. "He can't fight back at this point."
"No, sister," Akira said firmly. "I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"He's in the middle of a flashback."
There was a long telepathic silence.
"…So?"
Akira looked almost offended. "It's rude to interrupt a flashback."
"Didn't you tell me once that you should beat them right in the middle of their flashbacks? Otherwise, they will come back stronger?"
"Normally true," Akira admitted. "But we already know how his story ends. So cutting him off here would just be… rude."
"…Whatever. Just finish it soon. I'm going to help Erika-chan now."
"Ah, by the way, sister, before you go, can you…"
"Eh, oh, that's fine, just wait a moment."
And then suddenly, a soft melody began playing in the air.
[Naruto OST – Sadness and Sorrow]
Akira blinked. "…Perfect music choice. Thank you, sister."
"Don't worry~."
Her presence faded, leaving him alone in the quiet clearing.
Slowly, Akaza's head slowly regenerating, but when only half of his face had formed. Akaza looked at him and gave him a grateful smile.
Akira stayed silent as Akaza raised his hands… and aimed his own fists at himself.
One after another, shockwave punches tore through his body.
His torso split.
His legs collapsed.
His form shattered.
Bit by bit, Akaza crumbled into dust.
Akira watched quietly until the last fragment faded.
"…At least have a happy life in your next one," he said softly.
He knew Akaza's past.
And for once, he genuinely meant those words.
Akira dusted off his clothes and finally turned to leave, only for Selena's voice to echo sharply in his mind.
"Oh, brother."
Akira paused. "What is it, sister?"
"I… don't know how to say this, but… just look at the sky."
Akira tilted his head and glanced upward.
"Ah… yeah, the sun is already rising." He didn't expect the time to pass this soon. "I guess time does fly when you are having fun."
"Not that side. The other side."
"…The other?" He turned and looked.
And.
He screamed, which is completely out of character for him.
"WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING!?"