Kakuzu made the first move.
The back of his clothes exploded from within, something violently bursting out from underneath.
Within a moment, four dark shapes detached themselves from him and formed four monsters made of black threads and a single mask.
Thanks to my Byakugan, I could see the hearts hidden behind each mask, the chakra flowing through the agglomeration of threads.
Though I hardly had time to watch it, as Kakuzu wasn't foolish enough to give me a moment to react while he prepared his mask monsters.
His fingers instantly wove through hand signs. He was fast; even with the Byakugan, it was hard to keep up with his fingers. If I wanted to be able to figure out the ninjutsu based on his hand signs, I would need the Sharingan.
Still, I wasn't worried.
"Fire Style: Intelligent Hard Work."
My eyes widened at his ninjutsu; it might not be A-rank, but among B-rank ones, it was a dangerous one.
A fireball, a rather short one, flew from his mouth, yet I wasn't fooled by appearances.
I instantly fired a bone bullet from my finger at it before the fireball could cross much distance, and the instant it did, it exploded into a firestorm, fire blooming outward in a widening arc, fed by oxygen ripped from the air itself. Heat pressure slammed into me like a physical force, trees combusting mid-trunk, earth glazing into blackened glass as the inferno advanced.
I didn't bother dodging the oncoming wave of flames; instead, I answered ninjutsu with ninjutsu.
My hands moved in a smooth, practiced sequence—no hesitation, no wasted motion.
"Ice Style: Crystal Wall!"
Moisture ripped itself from the air and ground alike, crystallizing in an instant. A towering barrier of ice surged up before me.
Fire hit ice.
The explosion was deafening.
Steam detonated outward in a rolling shockwave that tore the mist apart and hurled debris skyward. The pressure alone flattened the forest for dozens of meters, trees snapping like twigs beneath the force.
"Ice Release Kekkei Genkai?" Kakuzu asked in shock and surprise, clearly not expecting me to suddenly show off something like that.
Still, he wasn't a young, inexperienced shinobi who let a minor surprise get the better of him. He was nothing like the man who would one day die to Naruto's sneak attack.
That Kakuzu had been arrogant, clearly not taking his opponents all that seriously from the start, which allowed him to suffer for it.
But he recognized that I was dangerous, that I was worthy of his full attention, and so he reacted quickly.
He stepped through the churning mists as he once more repeated the same hand signs as before.
"Fire Style: Intelligent Hard Work."
His fire jutsu was instantly joined by one of the masked monsters, who fired off a Wind Style ninjutsu, one I recognized as Wind Style: Pressure Damage, one that didn't rely on the cutting edge of wind, but on brutal force.
The two combined and reinforced one another, forming a combination ninjutsu that wasn't merely B- or even A-rank, but a full-on S-rank in power.
Rat, Hare, Dog. My hands worked their way through the needed hand signs, and once more, I answered his ninjutsu with one of my own. "Ice Style: Wolf Fang Avalanche Technique!"
This ninjutsu was mostly used in areas with plenty of snow and ice, as it made use of the snow and ice to form countless wolves to attack their target, drowning the enemy in an avalanche of them.
I, however, had more than enough chakra to overcome that limitation.
The ground answered my call.
Ice screamed outward in every direction, racing across scorched earth and shattered stone as the temperature plunged violently. Jagged frost spread over trees and debris alike, locking them in place as chakra condensed and shaped itself.
Then they came.
Wolves of ice tore themselves free from the frozen ground—dozens, then hundreds—each one formed of razor-edged crystal and compressed chakra. They didn't run.
They charged.
The combined Fire–Wind inferno slammed into them head-on.
For a moment, the world vanished.
Fire, wind, and ice collided in a cataclysm of force. The pressure wave detonated outward, flattening everything that wasn't anchored by chakra. Entire sections of forest were erased, reduced to ash and splinters as the frozen wolves were obliterated one after another—
—but not fast enough.
The avalanche continued.
Ice wolves crashed through the firestorm, exploding into shards that cut and tore at the wind-enhanced flames, destabilizing the jutsu from within. The inferno buckled, collapsed, and finally detonated upward in a pillar of steam and flame that punched into the sky.
Kakuzu skidded back several meters, boots carving trenches through the ground as he braced himself.
Two of his masked monsters were already moving.
Lightning crackled as one mask opened its mouth, a spear of concentrated electricity tearing through the steam toward me—
while another exhaled a dense sphere of compressed water that followed immediately behind it.
Water and lightning once more joined forces under Kakuzu's command to form a far more powerful ninjutsu, and while the water froze quickly, it still served its purpose of helping his lightning hit the incoming attack.
I was impressed; he was clearly well-versed in ninjutsu, as he knew right away that Lightning Release was the best way to overcome that particular Ice Release ninjutsu.
Eventually, the two ninjutsu cancelled one another, bringing a brief pause to our battle.
"I'm impressed. To think you were that skilled in Ice Release—you are full of surprises, aren't you?" Kakuzu said, though I wasn't so green as to not notice that his mask monsters were fanning out further, to avoid them all getting hit in one large-scale Ice ninjutsu.
Nor did I fail to see the threads he pushed through the frozen ground, intending to attack me from below.
I tensed the muscles in my legs and shot up from the ground moments before the threads attacked.
"Lava Style: Quicklime Congealing Technique!"
I spat out a large amount of quicklime; the hot, rocky material instantly burned the threads and covered the ground. Where the remaining ice helped it cool down, it formed a thick, strong layer of cement, stopping his threads from drilling through.
Once again, Kakuzu's eyes opened wide at the new Kekkei Genkai I displayed. While he could rationalize me as a rare union between the Kaguya and Yuki clans, the presence of a third Kekkei Genkai was something else entirely.
That surprise lasted less than a heartbeat.
Then his expression hardened.
"You are full of surprises, aren't you, Kaguya?" he said as his eyes narrowed.
"I could say the same thing about you. If anything, you are the unreasonable one." I didn't give away that I knew his secrets, because I knew that it would make it far more difficult to achieve my goal if I did.
Kakuzu just snorted, clearly trying to figure out how to defeat me.
He still had means he hadn't exposed, but he wasn't foolish enough to not know the risks he was facing.
Which led to the two of us standing in this ruined landscape, surrounded by frozen, burned, and cracked ground and trees, total devastation, and just looking at one another.
Kakuzu broke the silence first.
"You're not flailing," he said calmly. "Not reacting. You're choosing your techniques."
His eyes flicked once to the quicklime-cemented ground beneath my feet… then to the ice still creeping along the edges of the battlefield.
"That tells me you have to pick the method to counter with," he continued. "Which means you have multiple ways of doing it."
I didn't answer immediately.
Letting silence stretch was just as useful as words.
"Yuki clan blood," he went on, almost conversational. "No doubt rare to have it alongside the Kaguya clan's Shikotsumyaku." His gaze sharpened. "But lava?"
A pause.
"Earth and fire affinity?" he guessed. "You were born with two Kekkei Genkai and independently formed another?"
Careful questions.
Questions designed to make me correct him.
"I use what works," I replied finally. "Isn't that what you do?"
A thin smile tugged at his mouth.
"Very few people can do what I do," he said. "Still, I suspect that fewer can do what you do."
As we spoke, his mask monsters shifted again—subtle, almost lazy movements, drifting just far enough apart to avoid a single, decisive counter. Threads beneath the ground twitched, testing the cement layer, retreating when they met resistance.
He was mapping limits.
"So tell me," Kakuzu said, voice steady, "are you a collector like me?"
I raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Collector?"
"Kekkei Genkai," he clarified. "Techniques. Bloodlines. Power." His eyes never left my face. "Or were you born with all of it?"
A trap.
Either answer would give him something.
"I was born of noble blood," I said instead. "That gave me the potential; the rest had to be earned."
That earned me a low chuckle.
"Figures." He rolled one shoulder, chakra pulsing faintly beneath his skin. "People like us never get anything for free."
For a brief moment, something almost like mutual understanding passed between us.
Then it was gone.
"Still," Kakuzu continued, tone shifting just slightly, "there's a limit to how many tricks one body can support. Even yours."
"You underestimate what a noble blood clan allows for," I answered, seeing his chakra move in preparation. He was clearly done with his interrogation.
I let my own chakra rise to meet it.
Ice crackled beneath my feet.
Heat simmered in the air around me.
Bones extended out from my palms.