Even under that kind of pressure, Hikaru stayed calm.
He knew it better than anyone—lose your composure in a fight, and the one sleeping underground would be you.
With a slight twist of his body, he narrowly avoided the Third Kazekage puppet's iron-sand spear from behind.
Then he formed seals one-handed.
The moment Hiruko's massive tail spike was about to pierce him, Hikaru's chakra flared violently—
Puff!
Smoke and dust burst through the forest.
Sasori's gaze turned faintly puzzled.
His prey's reaction speed was… abnormal. Too fast.
And his fundamentals—basic ninjutsu—were almost too clean.
The tail spike had pierced a chunk of wood.
Substitution.
At the last possible instant, the white-haired brat had slipped away with a flawless Kawarimi.
And there was another detail Sasori couldn't ignore.
That speed…
It was ridiculous.
Hikaru didn't care what Sasori was thinking.
Hidden in the branches within the drifting smoke, he took a slow breath and began forming seals again—fast, crisp, practiced.
Facing Sasori—even a Sasori who was still playing "cat and mouse"—Hikaru's options were shrinking by the second.
For a brief, irrational moment, he felt like Kakashi was a walking calamity.
Before Kakashi joined his squad, when had Hikaru ever faced opponents like this?
In five or six years, the worst he'd dealt with had been "elite jōnin level," according to the system.
Then Kakashi joined and their first mission brought Kakuzu.
After that, Hikaru gained real benefits—like Lizardmaru.
And then the moment he got that benefit, he turned around and ran straight into Sasori.
This kind of disaster magnet… Hikaru honestly couldn't handle.
But whining wasn't his style.
He sensed three ANBU approaching their position.
If nothing went wrong, they were the ones meant to confuse Sasori's choice of pursuit—only to realize Sasori hadn't taken the bait and had come south instead.
So they turned around and came to support.
That much at least aligned with what Hikaru wanted.
Namuki's earlier move had left a bitter taste in Hikaru's mouth. Even if Namuki's logic was "correct," it had been the wrong choice in front of someone petty enough to remember it.
Going home didn't necessarily mean going back to Konoha.
Hikaru would teach him what the price was for trying to sacrifice a petty man at the edge of death.
"Sage Art—Water Release: Water Dragon Bite Burst!"
Chakra surged.
In a place with no water source at all, the ground split open—
A violent whirlpool erupted upward, blasting water from beneath the earth like a broken dam.
Sasori frowned and hopped lightly to avoid the initial pillars.
But the water spiraled into the air, fused, and condensed into a massive roaring dragon that lunged straight for him again.
Sasori had to respond.
The intensity of this brat's chakra was… excessive.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Wall!"
The Third Kazekage puppet shifted its hands, and the floating iron sand snapped into formation—dense, layered, hard as steel—building a thick barrier to meet the water dragon head-on.
And to prevent Hikaru from simply escaping, Sasori split a portion of the iron sand away, sending it drifting toward Hikaru's vicinity, ready to latch onto him at any moment.
Sasori hadn't been worried when they split paths for one simple reason:
The moment he revealed the Third Kazekage puppet, he'd already prepared to control the battlefield.
He'd shown the puppet partly out of curiosity—he wanted to test its power.
And sure, he didn't want it exposed too early…
…but even if it was exposed, it didn't matter that much.
The instant he chose to lay hands on the Third Kazekage, he'd accepted the consequences.
Besides, he found it amusing.
What would Sunagakure look like when they discovered the Kazekage they'd been searching for was already turned into a puppet?
Rasa would probably laugh himself sick.
Chiyo…
Chiyo would be shattered.
The water dragon smashed into the iron sand wall.
Under Sage chakra reinforcement, the impact was monstrous—the wall cracked.
Then cracked wider.
And finally split apart as the dragon surged through, slamming toward Sasori.
This time, Hikaru hadn't been stingy with chakra.
Magnet Release was terrifying—so was Sage Art.
As soon as he completed the attack, Hikaru turned, intending to retrieve Namuki.
He wasn't leaving that man behind.
Not even as a corpse.
And the ANBU reinforcements were closing in—this was not the moment for Hikaru to slip up.
"…Hm?"
His body suddenly went rigid.
Hikaru twisted to the side and barely avoided senbon that shot up from underground.
When he stabilized, he saw the Third Kazekage puppet had already reached him.
A massive triangular iron-sand prism floated beside it, then dropped like a guillotine toward his head.
Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle—Triangular Prism.
The Third Kazekage's signature technique.
Now, in Sasori's hands, it had become a slaughter tool.
Hikaru flipped back, avoiding the crushing strike by a narrow margin.
But he had no room to breathe.
A storm of sand-forged senbon followed immediately.
Teeth clenched, Hikaru forced a Shunshin sideways midair.
It was an ugly, unnatural movement—purely brute control.
He escaped the needles.
But the price hit immediately.
His body stiffened, and a tearing pain spread through his muscles like he'd strained them to the brink.
"So it really comes to this…"
Every technique had a cost—whether it was ninjutsu, taijutsu, or forbidden jutsu.
Even for someone as proficient as Hikaru, forcibly using Shunshin like that couldn't be free.
The fact that he only felt something like muscle strain was already proof of how absurdly refined his basics were.
He inhaled, steadying himself.
Hiruko and the Third Kazekage puppet were closing again.
Hikaru gathered chakra rapidly.
Namuki, watching from where he'd been thrown aside, couldn't help feeling a bitter awe.
Nightingale's strength was far beyond what he'd expected.
Even at Namuki's peak, he wasn't sure he could've done better.
And the most horrifying part—
This boy looked thirteen or fourteen at most.
A genius.
A real genius.
A genius dying here was a waste that hurt even Namuki to witness.
But Namuki also understood—
From the moment Hikaru had entered this battlefield, the ending had been decided.
"It's a pity," Namuki sighed. "He never should've come."
Then he saw Hikaru's chakra surge again—deeper, heavier.
He watched Hikaru bite his thumb hard, blood welling, and begin sealing signs.
Namuki's eyes sharpened.
What else does he have?
In the next second, Hikaru slammed his palm onto the ground.
A summoning seal spread out beneath his hand.
"Summoning Jutsu—come out, Lizardmaru!"
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