Hikaru and Kakashi burst into the room at full speed—and at the same time, the "castle" started shaking violently.
It was as if the summoned beast sensed a lethal threat.
A deafening roar rolled through its body, and the internal environment twisted and warped in response. The illusion it had been barely maintaining collapsed completely. On the fleshy walls, cell-like tissue churned and swelled, spreading in a blink until it covered everything.
The tentacles attacking them multiplied, lashing out more and more frantically—like it had decided this would end only with death.
"Cover me, Kakashi."
Hikaru's voice had lost its usual warmth. He wasn't panicked, but the coldness in that tone was something Kakashi had never heard from him before.
Kakashi didn't waste time reacting to it. He knew exactly what this moment meant.
If they succeeded, Hikaru would gain a powerful summon of enormous size—and that was good for Konoha too.
If they failed, both of them would become food.
They were still young. And Kakashi no longer carried that old, hollow impulse of "If the mission fails, I'll just go join Obito and Rin."
So he clenched his teeth and went all-in.
"That many tentacles…" Kakashi's mind raced. "If I can't clear them in one go, it'll turn into a nightmare."
Lightning crackled into his palm.
Arcs of electricity spread outward, dyeing him—and everything around him—an intense blue. The current didn't stop there. It began to extend, expanding its reach.
"It has to spread," Kakashi calculated, eyes sharpening. "Cover my whole body so I don't get grabbed. And clear a path so Captain can move…"
His gaze turned firm.
The lightning surged.
And then—
The arcs wrapped around Kakashi's body.
Blue light swept through the space like an aurora. The tentacles crashed down… and were instantly torn apart, shredded by the electric wave.
Kakashi didn't care about his chakra reserves anymore.
He poured chakra out as if it was free.
Lightning flooded the air, the "aurora" surging without restraint. The sound was like a thousand Chidori crying out at once, and the stench of scorched flesh filled the room.
In the blink of an eye, a wide space was cleared around them.
Hikaru stared, momentarily dumbstruck.
He swore he'd seen that technique before—in the manga, in the anime.
But in his memory… Kakashi wasn't supposed to be able to use it. At least, he didn't remember Kakashi ever displaying it.
"Even if he laid the groundwork for it…" Hikaru thought, stunned, "I remember him never using it like this."
For a split second, Hikaru almost suspected Kakashi was the one who'd been reborn.
Because that was Chidori Stream.
One of Uchiha Sasuke's signature techniques.
And even if Sasuke developed it, that would only be after he'd defected from Konoha. Kakashi and Sasuke wouldn't even meet again until years later—three years after Sasuke's escape.
Right now, they were at least sixteen years away from that point.
Yet Kakashi had just used it.
How could Hikaru not be shocked?
But the urgency snapped him back fast.
There was no time to obsess over it.
"Deal with the summon first," Hikaru forced himself to focus. "Then I'll interrogate Kakashi later."
And besides…
Kakashi was already running out of time.
Hikaru could sense it clearly.
Kakashi's chakra couldn't support that level of expenditure for long. On top of that, the burden of the Sharingan on a non-Uchiha body was brutal.
A transplanted Sharingan constantly consumed chakra. Without Uchiha lineage, the drain was even worse. Most people needed Hashirama's cells or other extreme measures to stabilize it.
Kakashi was the only anomaly in the shinobi world so far—at least in this era. In the future, there might be another… someone named Shin.
But Kakashi paid for that anomaly with a constant tax: his chakra was always being siphoned to feed that eye.
Hikaru didn't waste time.
He yanked the scroll open with his left hand, tossed his kunai down with his right—and in the instant the kunai fell, his thumb cut across it, slicing a shallow line into his skin.
Before the wound could close, he didn't even bother looking closely. He signed his name with speed and certainty:
Senju Hikaru.
For a summoning contract, he wasn't about to gamble with a false name like "Shinkami Hikaru." If the contract rejected it, they'd be finished.
The moment the signature was completed, the beast seemed to weaken—only for an instant.
Then—
Hikaru felt it surge back to full strength.
And the malice in it sharpened.
It roared even more violently, tentacles blooming again across the entire space. From the walls, foul-smelling green slime began dripping down in thick streams.
A few strands of acidic fluid splashed onto Kakashi's clothing, melting holes straight through.
If they didn't get out now, they'd be dissolved alive.
Hikaru grabbed Kakashi—who was already close to empty—and hauled him up. He slung the scroll across his back.
Then he formed seals with one hand.
In a heartbeat, the technique was ready.
"Water Release: Hard Whirlpool Water Blade!"
Chakra surged.
A raging whirlpool formed around Hikaru's right hand—fast, violent water spiraling into a condensed shape. The technique compressed further, becoming a water spear made of layered, rapidly rotating currents.
Hikaru leapt and drove it forward like a lance, stabbing into the flesh-wall ahead.
The entire "castle" convulsed.
A massive, agonized cry shook the air.
BOOM!
Under that extreme compression and rotation, the Hard Whirlpool Water Blade drilled a clean breach through the flesh.
Sunlight poured in.
For a split second, Hikaru felt as though he'd seen long-lost daylight.
He threw Kakashi through the opening with all his strength—then jumped after him.
The instant they cleared the breach—
Hikaru saw it begin to heal.
Less than a second, and the wound was already closing.
"That regeneration is ridiculous…"
And now, what stood before them was no longer a castle.
It was a colossal lizard, head thrown back as it roared to the sky.
Its eyes locked onto Hikaru—the one now tied to it by an unmistakable contract.
It stared.
Then—
Poof.
The beast dissolved into smoke and vanished.
Where the grand Shouqi Castle had stood, only a barren foundation remained—stripped down to bare stone.
Hikaru landed steadily and let out a long breath.
The entire ordeal hadn't actually taken that much time.
But for him and Kakashi… it felt like hours.
He glanced at Kakashi lying motionless nearby and shook his head. Then he set the scroll down.
His own exhaustion hit him a beat later. His grip slipped.
The scroll fell, hit the ground, and rolled open.
Hikaru sighed and crouched, intending to tidy it up before dragging Kakashi away.
But as he reached for it—
His gaze snagged on a name.
And Hikaru froze.
"…This is…"
He blinked, slowly, as if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
"Masashi Kishimoto?"
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