Time passed. With Yūshin's constant use of these "Byakugan," he grew more accustomed to them. He also deepened his understanding and application of space-time ninjutsu.
His activation speed kept getting faster. That was normal. Practice made perfect. He also began trying more complicated operations instead of merely opening a hole to travel through space. That part came from pure creative impulse.
Yūshin used a small trick. It left the First Tsuchikage completely dumbfounded.
A "light blade" was lodged in the Tsuchikage's body. He reached out and tried to grip the blade to pull it free. He nearly sliced through his own palm, yet he still couldn't make meaningful contact.
"So it's a purely materialized chakra weapon…"
"And what's with the one eye? Focus?"
The Tsuchikage was genuinely shocked. He had never expected anyone to condense chakra to this degree.
He also couldn't understand why Yūshin kept closing one eye when he formed those chakra weapons.
Next, the Tsuchikage looked like a surgeon about to walk into an operating room. He carefully raised his right hand and kept condensing chakra in his palm.
When the chakra reached its highest density, he loosely "held" the blade's edge with that chakra layer. Then he began pushing the blade little by little toward his back.
He had to maintain the chakra in his palm. He also had to endure the pain of the wound being cut open again.
Even after being ambushed, the Tsuchikage didn't think this kind of move was impossible to deal with. The chakra weapon looked hard to defend against, but it was still within the range of his Dust Release. Even if it was chakra energy, Dust Release could still erase it.
The real problem was how he got ambushed in the first place.
Yūshin hovered quietly in midair. He didn't press the attack at all. It was strange. He had launched a sneak attack, yet he still carried himself like a grandmaster.
This felt less like a fight and more like a question being posed. He wanted to see how the "demigod" would solve it.
"Keeping that level of chakra at your age is impressive," Yūshin said after the old man finished his "surgery." "Is that an objective requirement for Dust Release?"
"Chakra intensity? Age?" the Tsuchikage replied. "Same to you."
He said "same to you," but he understood the gap between them perfectly well. If they compared chakra intensity alone, he was already at an absolute disadvantage.
There was nothing to be done. They both looked old, yet Yūshin somehow looked far younger. Maybe he took too many supplements.
If his jutsu didn't have the advantage, that gap in chakra would be despair-inducing. That was how the Tsuchikage saw it. Dust Release was the capital that let him keep fighting—and win.
Objectively, his thinking wasn't wrong. If Dust Release had no startup lag, it really would be an invincible move.
Unfortunately, there were no "ifs." Dust Release and Yūshin's Condensation Release were both kekkei tōta. Dust Release was stronger in raw destructive power, but Condensation Release was unquestionably faster to activate. Dust Release had the higher numbers, but for shinobi, speed was victory.
The First Tsuchikage clicked his tongue. Yūshin truly lived up to his reputation as an ancient monster from the Warring States era. He looked careless floating in the air, but the distance he maintained was precise. Only Dust Release could reach him.
The Tsuchikage stood his ground and assumed the "holding the lantern" stance again. This time, he formed a complex set of seals before attacking.
He condensed chakra. The air boomed. A white pillar of light covered the space where Yūshin had been.
Yūshin relied on keen observation. He read the enemy's startup lag and dodged purely by prediction. He darted around in midair like a fly.
The Tsuchikage swung the beam as if he were wielding some divine treasure, trying to line it up with Yūshin. No matter how he adjusted, Yūshin stayed one step ahead.
At the same time the Tsuchikage fired Dust Release, Yūshin threw several chakra weapons forward. As the beam spread, those weapons seemed to be swallowed instantly.
However—
The Tsuchikage kept shifting the Dust Release's attack range. He also leaned forward sharply. A huge shadow rose behind him and swallowed him in an instant.
He had already cast another technique before firing Dust Release. It was Earth Release: Golem Technique.
The ground bulged. A stone giant erupted into existence.
It looked unbreakable. Then dark-red light spears, chains, halberds, lances, long blades—every kind of chakra weapon—punched through it from different directions. It blocked nothing. It still served its purpose.
"Hm?"
The moment the stone giant was hit, the Tsuchikage's figure disappeared.
The Tsuchikage was also someone who excelled at ambushes. His stealth and concealment were so refined that he was known as "The Invisible." His technique, Dustless Bewildering Cover, didn't just grant optical invisibility. It could even hide chakra presence.
A good move, but it depended on who you used it against. Trying stealth in front of Yūshin was showing off in front of a master.
It was basically kicking an iron plate.
From the Tsuchikage's perspective, the enemy's fighting style had changed beyond recognition compared to the past. That was surprising. Still, the man was hovering in midair like a living target. That was practically suicide.
An enemy that arrogant had to be killed. Otherwise, what was the point?
Dust Release had startup lag. The Tsuchikage knew that best of all. Then why had his Dust Release been so dominant in the past? Because he could hide the cannon before firing. If the enemy couldn't even see where the shot came from, how could they predict the trajectory?
While the Tsuchikage hid himself, Yūshin stopped his one-eye "performance art." He opened both eyes. His pupils changed.
The Tsuchikage hid well. It didn't matter. The Byakugan saw through it. At least, the Ōtsutsuki Byakugan did.
Compared to Yūshin's current dōjutsu, the Hyūga's Byakugan was nothing. Yūshin's usage was also remarkably "elegant," as if it took no effort at all. He didn't even make the veins around his eyes bulge.
That expressionless composure was exactly why the Tsuchikage hadn't noticed the earlier eye-closing trick.
Under the Byakugan, the enemy had nowhere to hide. The Tsuchikage was invisible behind and slightly to the rear of the stone giant. The Tsuchikage, the giant's half-ruined head, and Yūshin in midair lined up in a straight line.
No need to think. Snipe.
A beam shot toward Yūshin. At the same time, a dark-red light spear dropped from the sky. If the Tsuchikage hadn't instinctively shifted his position after being ambushed earlier, he would have learned what "chakra straight to the head" meant.
He could only make a small adjustment if he wanted to keep Dust Release's "trajectory" stable. The spear immediately pinned his left hand and left leg together, nailing him to the ground.
"I… you…"
With his view cleared, the Tsuchikage finally saw the Byakugan in Yūshin's eyes.
So everything he had just done had been seen.
He looked like a clown.
He used the same method as before and pulled the chakra spear out.
Yūshin floated in the air. He looked stupid. He also held the advantage in strength and the advantage in information. How was he supposed to lose?
Or rather—if Yūshin still managed to lose, then he really would deserve to die.
The headless, perforated stone giant curled its lower limbs like a toad. It then shot skyward, charging straight at Yūshin.
Yūshin didn't dodge. He punched another hole through the stone giant. The Tsuchikage on the other side of the opening was forced into view.
The Tsuchikage didn't understand why Yūshin refused to use the mature techniques from decades ago. Still, if that was the case, he could try close-quarters combat.
Don't be fooled by the Tsuchikage's "mage" posture. His melee ability wasn't weak.
That "not weak" depended on Earth Release: Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique. In short, his melee was stat-based.
Yeah. Stat-based.
Have you ever been bound by super gravity?
This punch contains a thousand years of power. Can you take it?
Yūshin didn't need any special ability like Kagetsuchi. He could crush the Tsuchikage's gravity tricks with bare-handed brawling.
He caught the Tsuchikage's "heavy" punch with one hand. His five fingers clamped down like steel pincers. At the same time, blue flames began spreading over the Tsuchikage's left arm.
The Tsuchikage only felt a cool sensation. It even felt nice. The flames had already reached his shoulder.
He still hadn't "submitted his answer." Yūshin kicked him in the side.
The force tore the Tsuchikage's arm from his torso. The impact launched him like he'd been hit by a siege ram. He smashed straight through half of the stone giant's body.
A kick like that was a grievous injury. It also saved his life. Otherwise, he would have died to Condensation Release.
The might of the strange flame was terrifying. Only a Dou Di bloodline could withstand that power.
The Tsuchikage slammed into the ground and carved out an enormous crater. He rolled and sprang up almost instantly. He spat out a mouthful of blood, then fixed Yūshin with an unbroken, fighting gaze.
That look seemed to say:
You think I can't use Dust Release with one hand?
Yūshin shook his head. "Nice eyes. Wrong approach. Whatever. I'll give you the answer."
The Tsuchikage only had one hand left. He could still "hold the lantern."
Dust Release surged toward Yūshin again. This time, the beam extended only halfway before it stopped dead, unable to advance any further.
At the same moment, a dangerous yet deeply familiar feeling surged in the Tsuchikage's heart. He reacted on instinct and threw himself left in an ugly dive.
He was fast. Not fast enough.
A railgun-like pillar of light dropped vertically from the sky. It blasted a giant hole into the earth and took the Tsuchikage's right leg along with it.
The Tsuchikage's expression twisted in horror. Not because he lost a leg.
Because the attack that hit him was his own Dust Release.
He looked toward Yūshin and saw space distort at a point in midair. He looked straight up. Another distortion hung directly above his head.
"Space-time ninjutsu…"
"Finally get it?" Yūshin said.
Opening two "doors" on a space-time passage wasn't difficult. Every passage naturally had two ends. The difference was that Yūshin had only been opening doors in this fight. He wasn't walking through them.
If he oriented the opening toward himself and threw chakra weapons into it, they would shoot out from the other end.
If he oriented the opening toward the incoming Dust Release, then the other end would fire Dust Release.
Dust Release could erase any matter and energy, but it couldn't destroy something conceptual and higher-dimensional like a space-time passage. Even if it could, it still wouldn't interfere with Yūshin's attack.
All he had to do was throw the chakra weapons in before the opening was erased.
All he had to do was make the opening wider than the Dust Release beam.
"So that's why I got hit from behind…"
With an ability like that, hiding attacks under Dust Release's shadow was, frankly, inhuman.
Yūshin had his own excuse. His space-time ninjutsu also had startup lag. That lag just happened to be shorter than Dust Release's startup. If he didn't exploit that small discovery, he would feel uncomfortable all over.
The Tsuchikage finally confirmed something. They weren't on the same level. This so-called battle to the death had been nothing but his own wishful thinking. From beginning to end, the opponent had never been serious. He had been playing.
Even someone with the best temper and the calmest personality would be furious after realizing that.
The Tsuchikage was ruthless. He was so ruthless that he didn't even bother with threats.
Once he accepted he couldn't win, he abandoned any idea of grinding it out. While he still had enough chakra, he would use the killing move with the best chance of overturning defeat.
A shinobi always pays for arrogance.
The Tsuchikage should have died earlier to the Dust Release that had been "refracted" by space-time ninjutsu. Yūshin had deliberately aimed off-center. He let the edge graze the Tsuchikage instead of placing him in the blast's core.
Hateful.
But the Tsuchikage wasn't Retsudō. Yūshin had no reason to cater to his feelings, and no reason to give him some dignified "last treatment."
Everyone had their reasons. The final stage still came down to skill.
Yūshin had once thought Iwagakure's certain artistic styles were just individual flashes of inspiration. He was wrong. This style was Iwagakure's traditional art.
The Tsuchikage didn't look at Yūshin at all. He formed seals with one hand, preparing to cast Dust Release again.
Normally, Dust Release was fired with the palm facing outward. This time, after the seals were complete, the Tsuchikage aimed his palm at his own chest.
Yūshin understood immediately.
"Temper that big? Can't win, so you flip the table? The Tsuchikage's character is kind of mid…"
A massive pillar of light erupted into the sky. In the Rain Country forest, its range expanded outward at terrifying speed. The earth below, the clouds above, the rain in between—everything was swallowed by white light in an instant.
Was this really about temper? About being petty?
It could only be said—
Every era has its Deidara.
Every era has its artists.
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