Almost at the exact moment that thought appeared in Yuu's mind,
a line of notifications from the galgame system appeared before his eyes—
[Ding! Over-Spec Potential Wooing Target detected: Water Mirror Technique! Initiate Encounter?]
"Yes!"
Yuu made his choice without the slightest hesitation.
Even without the [Encounter], he was going to defeat the copy in front of him anyway.
Now the two objectives had become one.
That saved him some trouble.
Then, while continuing to fight one against four and dealing with the attacks coming from every direction, Yuu split off part of his attention to examine the Encounter mission for the Water Mirror Technique—
[On the Kirigakure battlefield, you encounter a graceful and extraordinarily talented woman dressed in blue. Her strength is considerable, while her memory and learning abilities are even more astonishing. After seeing a technique only once, she can effortlessly reproduce it and then perform it at a level no weaker than the original user.]
[You attempt to approach her, only for her sword to bar your path.]
[Water Mirror Technique: Do you wish to earn my recognition? Then defeat me using the exact same techniques first. The weak are not qualified to make me look at them seriously.]
Hmm…
So this one's character setting was that of a refined young lady from a prestigious family.
That made sense.
In the original story, aside from Yagura Karatachi, no one else had ever been seen using the Water Mirror Technique.
It was probably either a secret technique passed down through the Karatachi clan or something Yagura had personally developed.
In that regard, it was similar to the Hōzuki clan's Hydrification Technique or Konoha's Hatake Swordsmanship.
Considering that the Water Mirror Technique had been able to replicate Naruto in Chakra Mode, its rank had to be at least A-rank.
However, its actual effectiveness was probably limited by the user's chakra reserves.
After all, Yagura, without being a jinchūriki, most likely couldn't reproduce something at that level.
"Then…
"let me see the limits of your caliber."
Those words weren't directed at Yagura or the others.
They were meant for the Water Mirror Technique itself.
Besides defeating the opponent and obtaining a new technique, Yuu also wanted to use this real battle to confirm the results of his recent training—
to see how much of an effect those improvements could truly have in an actual life-and-death fight.
"Haa…"
Yuu slowly exhaled.
The aura around his body began to condense and rise.
If someone observed him with the Byakugan, they would discover that the chakra inside his body had suddenly begun surging at high speed, flowing through his limbs and every corner of his body.
The result was immediate.
His strength.
His speed.
His reactions.
All of them rose sharply in an instant.
Even the blade in his hand now left afterimages behind when he swung it.
Cell Activation Technique.
During the past few days, Yuu had already raised the Cell Activation Technique to fifty affection and unlocked the second stage of [Overload Pulse].
Compared with the first stage, the second stage increased the duration from forty-five seconds to sixty seconds.
The upper limit of the boost to neural transmission speed had also increased.
It was expected to raise Yuu's maximum combat ability by quite a bit.
However…
there was no need to activate [Overload Pulse] for the battle in front of him.
Ordinary Cell Activation was more than enough.
With another sharp exhale,
the White Fang short blade in Yuu's hand transformed into a streak of blazing white light.
His first slash went directly toward Jinin Akebino, the closest opponent.
Halfway through its path, fierce flames erupted across the blade, giving the attack terrifying momentum.
"!!"
Jinin's pupils contracted sharply.
Acting purely on instinct, he raised the heavy axe-and-hammer weapon to block.
Clang—!!
The weapons collided with an explosive metallic crash.
A tremendous force surged through Jinin's weapon and into his arms, instantly numbing them.
Even the water platform beneath his feet cracked apart with a sharp sound, nearly causing him to fall from the sky.
"This bastard…"
Jinin gritted his teeth.
Veins bulged across the backs of his hands and temples.
It felt as though he wasn't facing a human being at all—
but some kind of monster.
Kaguya Shingo beside him saved him from further pressure.
Dozens of pale bone spikes erupted from Shingo's arms, shoulder blades, spine, and ribs, making him resemble an exploding ball of spikes as he twisted toward Yuu.
"Dead Bone Pulse: Dance of the Willow!"
Yuu didn't even look at him.
He casually swung four or five times.
The slashes were completed almost simultaneously.
When they landed on Kaguya Shingo, the bone spikes, whose hardness rivaled steel, were sliced apart one after another.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A series of crisp snapping sounds rang out.
"…Impossible!!"
Kaguya Shingo's eyes widened almost to the point of splitting.
His spinning assault came to an abrupt halt.
He knew that his strength was inferior to Clan Head Kaguya Hiromitsu.
But even within the entire Kaguya clan—and Kirigakure as a whole—he was still considered fairly outstanding.
Yet before a serious Yuu…
he was this helpless?
A powerful sense of defeat surged through Kaguya Shingo's heart.
And immediately afterward came a faint feeling of despair.
The copied Yuu, on the other hand, remained calm.
It simultaneously increased its own sword speed, barely keeping pace with the original.
"Hm? It can even imitate the Cell Activation Technique?"
Yuu was slightly surprised.
However, he quickly noticed that the copy's version of the Cell Activation Technique was only superficial.
It was still slightly slower than the original.
At most, it could barely defend against Yuu's attacks.
It had no room to counterattack.
As for Yuu's unique system traits—
those were even further beyond its reach.
Before long,
the balance of battle visibly tilted.
Jinin Akebino, Kaguya Shingo, and the copy all began struggling to defend, their movements increasingly frantic.
Hōzuki Shimotsuki, who had been harassing from the flank, could no longer hold back.
He suddenly retreated several steps to create distance and formed hand seals.
"Water Release: Water Heaven Envelopment Assault!"
This technique was an advanced form of the Water Prison Technique, possessing both a greater range and stronger restraining power.
As Hōzuki Shimotsuki's chakra surged, all the moisture in the surrounding air was extracted.
It formed thick streams of water resembling enormous pythons, which took shape high above before sweeping toward Yuu!
Naturally,
Jinin and the others were also inside its range.
"Hōzuki Shimotsuki! Have you lost your mind?!"
Kaguya Shingo roared angrily.
"Are you trying to kill all of us too?!"
"Shut up!"
Sweat covered Shimotsuki's forehead.
The technique was clearly consuming an enormous amount of chakra, but his eyes were unusually determined.
"If we can't kill this brat here, then we're guaranteed to lose this battle!
"By then, every one of us will die anyway!
"We have to stake everything on this!
"Even if it means dying together!"
The enormous vortex emitted a deep roar as it was about to collapse downward, swallowing all four figures.
At that moment—
Splash!
A pillar of water suddenly rose beside Yuu.
It spun violently and shot upward—
the automatically triggered Water Formation Wall!
The two Water Release techniques collided head-on!
Boom—!!!
A deafening explosion shook the air.
Water exploded across the sky like a torrential downpour.
Countless streams collided, compressed, and shattered apart, transforming into finer arrows of water that shot in every direction.
For a moment,
the two techniques actually seemed evenly matched.
Yuu glanced toward Hōzuki Shimotsuki.
He freed one hand and formed a single seal.
"Ninja Art: Bringer-of-Darkness Technique!"
Without warning,
deep, absolute darkness spread outward from Yuu like spilled ink.
Everything within a radius of more than ten meters was swallowed.
All light—
all color—
was erased from existence.
"What is this… a genjutsu?!"
Jinin's vision instantly turned black.
Alarm bells screamed in his mind.
He immediately tried to use the same methods one would employ against the Hidden Mist Technique—
relying on sound and chakra perception to locate the enemy.
But suddenly,
his heart tightened.
An indescribable wave of panic surged through him.
[Trait — Veil of the Dark Night: Your understanding of darkness has deepened. You can deprive enemies of vision across a wider area and disrupt their senses. At the same time, you may designate one or more targets and continuously impose intense psychological pressure and suggestion upon them, preventing them from concentrating.]
That was right.
After reaching twenty-five affection, the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique had unlocked the additional trait of psychological suggestion.
It could amplify fear and other negative emotions already present in the target's heart by a certain degree.
And conveniently,
both Jinin Akebino and Kaguya Shingo already feared Yuu.
Even the movements of their hands unconsciously slowed.
Suddenly, Kaguya Shingo seemed to "see" something.
He violently swung his bone blade sideways—
directly at his own ally, Jinin Akebino.
"…Kaguya Shingo! Open your damn eyes!"
Jinin's shocked and furious roar came from the right.
He hurriedly swung his axe and hammer to block the bone projectiles Shingo had fired.
But because of that,
his own defense stalled for an instant.
The delay might not even have lasted a full second.
Yet during that tiny opening,
Jinin felt a scorching breeze brush past him.
The "wind" was so light and so fast that it almost seemed imaginary.
But the next instant…
his right arm suddenly felt weightless.
As if something had severed it.
The arm fell toward the ground together with the hammer he had wielded through countless battles.
The cut was perfectly smooth.
Only after a full second did blood begin spraying from the wound.
"This is…"
The thought had barely surfaced when—
a cold sensation crossed his neck.
Jinin felt his vision begin to spin.
He "saw" a headless body still standing in a defensive posture.
Blood surged wildly from the severed neck.
Yet the viewpoint from where his head had fallen grew darker and farther away…
until everything sank into eternal silence.
Jinin Akebino—
dead.
Next was Kaguya Shingo.
By now, he had fallen into a frenzy of despair, smashing and charging wildly.
Then he suddenly felt something cold against his neck.
A White Fang short blade had appeared against the thickest part of his spine.
Its edge landed precisely on the weakest section covered only by the periosteum—
and sliced the spine in half.
Puchi—
Kaguya Shingo's body stiffened.
His mouth opened as if he wanted to say something.
But no sound emerged.
Only dark-red bloody foam spilled from his lips.
Filled with anger and helplessness,
his consciousness sank into the abyss.
Kaguya Shingo—
dead!
At this point, only a dozen or so seconds had passed since Yuu activated the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique.
Only Hōzuki Shimotsuki and Yuu's copy remained standing.
Incidentally, after releasing the Water Mirror Technique, Yagura had not immediately joined the pursuit.
Judging from the situation, he was probably maintaining the existence of the copied bodies.
Hōzuki Shimotsuki was still holding the hand seal for Water Heaven Envelopment Assault.
Apparently sensing what had happened, his face turned as pale as paper.
"M-Monster…"
"Jinin and Shingo… Damn it! How can he be this strong?!"
And the existence of the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique had never been mentioned in any previous intelligence about Yuu.
That fact made Hōzuki Shimotsuki tremble.
First,
it meant Yuu might never have used this technique before.
If he had been capable of killing Fuguki Suikazan and the others without using it, then he had probably been holding back all along.
He had never truly reached the point where he exhausted every last trump card.
Second,
the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique had an extraordinary origin.
According to scrolls left behind by the Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hōzuki, the technique had been created by Senju Tobirama.
And whenever something became associated with that man…
things tended to become very serious.
Everyone knew Senju Tobirama was regarded as the first "Darkness of the Shinobi."
Compared with the "second-generation" Shimura Danzō, his intimidation factor was only greater, never lesser.
"F-Fight… Fight him!!"
Hōzuki Shimotsuki's lips trembled.
He suddenly locked his hands together.
"Stop him!
"Buy me time!
"I'm going to use that technique!"
As he spoke, cold water surged around his body and formed a sphere that enclosed him.
However, it deliberately left a small pocket of air for breathing.
This was another application of the Water Prison Technique.
Until the prison itself was broken,
no one could kill Hōzuki Shimotsuki inside.
At this moment,
among the four "people," only Yuu's copy remained outside.
It straightened its body and faced the original Yuu through the pitch-black darkness.
As a copy, this "Yuu" also possessed sensory ninjutsu and the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique.
Its proficiency was inferior to the original's, but those abilities were still enough for it to roughly locate Yuu.
"So you're the only 'counterfeit' left…"
Yuu turned his wrist.
The White Fang short blade spun once in a flourish.
"I'll start counting now.
"Within fifteen seconds—
"I'll completely crush you."
"Fifteen!"
Before his voice had even faded—
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
A dense series of metallic collisions rang out.
Yuu and the copy slammed into one another and immediately resumed their duel.
Blade light filled the darkness.
Their speed was far greater than before.
If Jinin Akebino had been forced to face swordsmanship at this level earlier,
he probably wouldn't have lasted nearly as long.
"Thirteen… twelve…"
Yuu continued counting while carefully experiencing every detail of the copy's swordsmanship, comparing it against his own understanding.
Opportunities to directly confront "himself" like this were extremely rare.
Even shadow clones couldn't fully reproduce the same experience.
For Yuu, this was also a chance to refine himself.
"I see…
"So I still have several bad habits in my swordsmanship that interfere with the flow of my attacks…"
"Looks like once this battle is over, I'll need to spend some time correcting them.
"This will definitely be useful next time!"
As the fifteen-second countdown approached its end,
Yuu finally prepared to finish things.
"Time's almost up…
"Let's end it here."
The instant those words fell,
Yuu's sword style abruptly changed.
With indescribable speed, he transformed into a streak of white lightning.
He pierced directly through the airtight web of sword light created by his copy—
and struck the copy's neck with terrifying precision.
The blade severed its "artery."
Splash—!