Natsuhiko and Kakashi charged into the room.
At that moment, the entire castle began to convulse violently.
It was as if the summoning beast sensed an enormous threat.
It let out a deafening roar, and its internal environment underwent drastic changes.
The genjutsu that had barely been maintained collapsed completely.
Cells within the fleshy walls wriggled and expanded rapidly, spreading to cover the entire surface.
The tentacles attacking Natsuhiko and Kakashi multiplied, growing more frenzied with each strike.
It was clearly a fight to the death.
"Cover me, Kakashi."
Natsuhiko's voice had lost its usual warmth.
There was no panic in it—
But the coldness was something Kakashi had never heard from him before.
Still, Kakashi didn't dwell on it.
He understood that this was the decisive moment.
If they succeeded, Natsuhiko would obtain a powerful, massive summoning beast.
That would benefit Konoha as well.
If they failed—
They would both become food for this giant creature.
They were both still young. And Kakashi no longer carried the reckless thought of "If I fail the mission, I'll just join Obito and Rin."
So he gritted his teeth and went all out.
With this many tentacles, if I can't clear them all at once, it'll be endless trouble. Kakashi thought rapidly.
Electric arcs flickered into existence in his hand.
They spread quickly, turning him and everything around him blue.
And then—
The lightning began to expand.
It has to spread… cover my whole body to prevent attacks, and buy time for Captain…
His eyes hardened with resolve.
The lightning intensified—
Then suddenly surged over his entire body.
A brilliant blue glow swept through the space like an aurora.
Countless tentacles lashed toward him—
Only to be instantly annihilated by the sweeping electric field.
Kakashi ignored his chakra reserves entirely.
He poured chakra out as if it were limitless.
The blue aurora surged wildly without restraint.
Amid a sound like a thousand birds crying at once—
And the heavy stench of scorched flesh—
A wide clearing was carved out around them.
Natsuhiko stared in disbelief.
He swore he had seen this technique before—
In manga and anime.
But in his memory, Kakashi never used this move.
"Even if he laid the foundation for it… I'm pretty sure he never actually used it."
For a brief moment, Natsuhiko was so shocked he almost suspected Kakashi of being a reincarnator.
Chidori Current.
One of Uchiha Sasuke's signature techniques.
The tragic Uchiha who suffered the most in the rain and later became one of the world's saviors.
And even Sasuke only developed it after defecting from Konoha.
Kakashi didn't see him again until three years later.
Yet now—
At least sixteen years before that point—
Kakashi had just used Chidori Current.
How could Natsuhiko not be stunned?
But he quickly regained his composure.
There was no time to dwell on this.
He had something far more important to do.
Deal with this summoning beast first. Then I'll ask Kakashi about it later… though at this rate, he won't last much longer.
Natsuhiko could clearly sense Kakashi's condition.
It wasn't good.
His chakra couldn't sustain this level of Chidori Current output.
Ultimately, that Mangekyō Sharingan placed an enormous burden on him.
For those who aren't from the Uchiha clan, transplanting a Sharingan usually requires Hashirama Senju's cells to suppress it.
Likewise, Hashirama's cells require the Sharingan to balance them.
Kakashi was an anomaly—someone who didn't need that kind of balancing factor.
In the entire shinobi world, at least for now, he was the only one like that.
(Though in the future, there might be someone named Shin.)
But he paid a corresponding price.
His chakra constantly had to feed the demands of that Mangekyō Sharingan.
With his left hand, Natsuhiko pulled the scroll open.
With his right, he let the kunai drop.
As it fell, his thumb slid across the blade, cutting open a line of blood.
Before the wound could heal, he quickly signed his name without even pausing to look closely—
"Senju Natsuhiko."
For a summoning contract like this, he absolutely didn't dare use the alias "Fukami Natsuhiko."
If it failed, that would be disastrous.
The moment his name was written, the summoning beast's power seemed to weaken slightly—
But only for an instant.
A moment later, Natsuhiko sensed it not only recover its strength, but grow even more ferocious.
It began roaring madly.
The tentacles that Kakashi's Chidori Current had severed once again filled the space.
Green, foul-smelling mucus poured from the surrounding flesh walls, dripping down continuously.
A few drops of acid splashed onto Kakashi, burning holes straight through his clothes.
If they didn't escape now, being dissolved was the only outcome.
Seeing this, Natsuhiko immediately grabbed the nearly exhausted Kakashi.
He slung the scroll onto his back and formed hand seals with one hand.
The technique was completed in seconds.
"Water Release: Hard Whirlpool Water Blade!"
Chakra surged.
A violent whirlpool of water formed in his right hand.
The spinning torrent compressed into a spear-like shape, rotating rapidly in layered, chaotic patterns.
Natsuhiko leapt up and drove it into the flesh wall before him.
The entire structure trembled violently.
A massive, agonized howl echoed across the sky.
"Boom!"
Under the extreme compression and rotation of the Hard Whirlpool Water Blade, the flesh wall split open.
Sunlight streamed in through the gap.
For a moment, it felt like seeing the sun after a lifetime in darkness.
With force, Natsuhiko hurled Kakashi out through the opening—
Then jumped out himself.
Less than a second after they escaped, he saw the gap already beginning to regenerate.
"That regeneration… it's absurd."
Natsuhiko thought to himself.
And what stood before him now was no longer a castle—
But a gigantic lizard, roaring toward the heavens.
Its gaze quickly locked onto Natsuhiko.
It stared deeply at the one now bound to it by contract.
Then—
With a loud bang—
It transformed into smoke and vanished from their sight.
All that remained of Kubisaki Castle was a barren foundation.
Landing steadily on the ground, Natsuhiko let out a long breath.
Everything that had just happened hadn't taken much time.
Yet to him and Kakashi, it felt like ages.
He glanced at Kakashi, lying motionless nearby.
Shaking his head, he removed the scroll from his back.
But he was tired.
His grip slipped—
The scroll fell to the ground and rolled open.
With a helpless sigh, Natsuhiko crouched down to tidy it up before taking Kakashi and leaving.
But as he stepped closer—
His gaze suddenly locked onto a name written on the scroll.
He froze.
"This is… Masashi Kishimoto?"