On the beach, the two figures crossed, collided, and separated at terrifying speed.
Umemaro's attacks resembled those of an enraged beast—broad, savage, and utterly brutal. Bone blades flashed wildly as every charge carried the intent to crush everything in its path.
Shinichi, meanwhile, moved like a wisp caught in the wind, like the moon reflected upon water.
Light, elusive, impossible to pin down.
As sword-light flowed around him, he precisely parried, redirected, and counterattacked, searching for the smallest openings amidst the relentless assault.
The sound of violent collisions echoed endlessly through the bay's morning mist and the lingering smoke of battle, like a ceaseless barrage of drumbeats.
As their fierce exchange continued, the two rapidly moved away from the original beachhead battlefield.
Behind them, only the Konoha shinobi and the surviving Kaguya clansmen remained, continuing their brutal slaughter across the bloodstained white sands.
Bang!
Another dull impact exploded through the air.
A figure was launched backward like a cannonball, crashing heavily into a massive reef as fragments of stone tumbled down.
"Hahahahaha!"
Holding a vicious bone sword extended from his arm, Umemaro burst into laughter.
"So this is the famous Crimson Flame Shinichi? Nothing but a brat who hasn't even grown all his hair yet. Without his old man—"
His words suddenly caught in his throat.
Only then did Umemaro realize that throughout their entire battle, Shinichi had never once used the Fire Release Nintaijutsu that had made his name famous throughout the shinobi world.
He had been using Wind Release the entire time.
"Bastard!"
His laughter instantly twisted into an enraged roar.
"Aren't you Crimson Flame Shinichi?! Where's your Fire Release!? Why aren't you using it!? Are you looking down on me!?"
"As expected of the Shikotsumyaku."
Shinichi slowly rose to his feet.
As he stood, invisible currents of air quietly appeared, intertwining around him like serpents.
Patting the dust from his clothes, he replied calmly, "Among all the opponents I've fought, your raw strength and defense rank in the top three."
Huh?
Umemaro froze briefly.
Then came the burning humiliation of being looked down upon.
Unfortunately, he never had the chance to react.
"Now then."
"Round two."
The instant those words fell, Shinichi vanished from sight.
Umemaro's pupils contracted violently.
His combat instincts made him thrust his bone sword leftward almost simultaneously.
But the sword struck nothing except an afterimage.
As if he had anticipated everything, Shinichi merely rotated the sword in his hand.
Then, from a strange and vicious angle, it shot toward Umemaro's right ribs like a striking viper.
Splurt!
The dull sound of steel piercing flesh rang out.
The sword tip was barely stopped by the tough rib bones.
Shinichi had no intention of lingering.
Twisting his wrist, he withdrew the blade and retreated, drawing forth a spray of vivid blood.
Before Umemaro's furious counterattack could arrive, he had already dispersed once more like a passing breeze.
Step!
Turn!
Spin!
Shift!
Over the next several exchanges, Shinichi moved as fluidly as the wind and as light as drifting cotton.
He weaved effortlessly through Umemaro's furious charges and the deadly forest of bone blades.
Every dodge was perilously close, yet executed with flawless precision.
Every sword strike slipped through gaps in the bones covering Umemaro's body, leaving wounds of varying depths across his powerful frame.
The longer the fight continued, the more frustrated Umemaro became.
The more frustrated he became, the more violent he grew.
Clearly, Shinichi wasn't moving any faster than before.
Yet he had become far more difficult to grasp.
It was as though he could predict every single one of Umemaro's actions.
"You Konoha brat!!!"
With a furious roar, Umemaro swung his arm in a full arc.
A gigantic bone blade the size of a door swept horizontally through the air, attempting to seal off a vast area.
"Your attacks..."
Shinichi's figure slipped out from the blind spot of the slash like a phantom.
His voice remained calm and emotionless.
"I've already seen through them."
If the combination of Clear Insight and Flash Step had granted him perception comparable to the Byakugan—
Then, with the terrifying computational power of Piercing Insight enhancing it, he now possessed something akin to a pair of "supercomputer eyes," even better than the Sharingan at dismantling, analyzing, and predicting combat patterns.
During their storm-like exchange moments ago, he had already finished analyzing Umemaro's fighting style, methods of exerting force, and even his subconscious attack tendencies.
"ROAR!!!"
Another wound appeared on his body, causing Umemaro to bellow furiously.
He suddenly hunched over.
A chain of bone-grinding cracks erupted throughout his body.
Then his entire frame expanded outward like an exploding porcupine!
Dance of the Bracken!
Countless tiny bone fragments, as numerous as mugwort leaves, exploded from every part of his body.
They transformed into a deadly storm that blanketed dozens of meters.
This was a technique that overwhelmed opponents purely through volume and area of effect.
Its purpose was to force back—or severely wound—the enemy that clung to him like a shadow.
And it did force Shinichi back.
But only that much.
His footsteps remained light and traceless, as though he were walking across water.
The twin swords in his hands traced arc after arc of cyan light, precisely batting aside and deflecting most of the bone fragments aimed at his vital points.
As for the smaller portion that approached from trickier angles—
The moment they came within half a meter of him, they were quietly slowed and diverted by the invisible currents flowing around his body.
Flowing Clouds.
In the next instant, Shinichi made a guiding motion with his swords.
The bone fragments wrapped within the airflow abruptly changed direction.
Traveling faster and more fiercely than before, they surged back toward their original owner!
Flying Snow!
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!!!
"AAARGH! MY EYE!"
The sounds of flesh being pierced rang out repeatedly, accompanied by a brief, miserable scream.
Umemaro's body was now riddled with tiny bone fragments.
Blood streamed everywhere.
Most horrifying of all, a sharp bone shard had buried itself deep within his left eye socket, blood flowing continuously down his cheek.
Shinichi had intended to press the attack.
But Umemaro's next action brought him to an abrupt halt.
"Urrrghhhhhh!!!"
Umemaro let out a roar that scarcely sounded human.
His right hand suddenly grabbed the bone shard embedded in his eye socket and, together with the pierced eyeball, ripped it out by force!
The next moment, under Shinichi's stunned gaze, he stuffed the blood-soaked shard and the mangled eyeball straight into his mouth.
His throat worked once.
Then he swallowed them whole.
Shinichi: "..."
Damn.
What kind of shinobi-world is this?
Father's essence, mother's blood—nothing should be discarded, huh?
Shinichi silently mocked in his mind.
Naturally, Umemaro had no idea what he was thinking.
Slowly turning his head, his remaining right eye was now completely bloodshot.
Half his vision had sunk into eternal darkness.
The other half was drowned in a sea of rolling crimson.
He stared at Shinichi.
Then a smile twisted across his face—a smile so insane it bordered on madness.
"Cry!"
His voice was as hoarse as a broken bellows, yet filled with a chilling excitement.
"Scream!"
"And then..."
"Die obediently!!!"
BOOM!!!
An enormous, terrifying amount of chakra erupted from his mutilated body like a volcanic eruption!
The next instant, both palms slammed onto the ground!
Dance of the Seedling Fern!
The earth groaned under unbearable strain before splitting apart.
Countless bone spikes, thick as pillars and sharp as spears, burst from the ground.
Like a forest of death growing in an instant, they spread and stabbed wildly toward Shinichi's position.
The disturbance was so enormous that even the shinobi fighting in the distance couldn't help but look over in horror.
Their eyes fell upon the suddenly rising forest of bone blades that made their scalps tingle.
"Die die die die die!!!"
Standing at the center of the bone forest, Umemaro's lone eye glowed crimson.
He looked completely deranged.
"Good! Good! Excellent!"
Faced with such a ferocious attack, Shinichi wasn't alarmed in the slightest.
Instead, delight appeared in his eyes as battle intent surged through his chest like blazing fire.
The Weaknessless Soaring Shortswords suddenly separated into two.
The mechanisms within their hilts clicked together.
The pommels connected end-to-end, forming a single weapon that began spinning rapidly in his hands.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Violent Wind Release chakra poured into it.
Compressed.
Condensed.
Transformed.
As the blades spun faster and faster, they became a humming wheel of death whose edges glowed with serrated light.
Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!
"Go!"
With a low shout, he hurled the wheel of destruction.
Shrrrk!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
Nothing could withstand the Rasenshuriken's advance.
The approaching forest of bone spikes shattered like wheat stalks cut by an invisible giant blade.
They broke apart in great swaths, collapsing into clouds of bone dust.
A straight path was forcibly carved through the thorns of death.
And Shinichi was already moving behind it.
Like a cyan meteor, he shot through the passage toward the center of the bone forest—
Toward the madman standing there.
As he sprinted forward, both hands curled into claws.
Highly condensed Wind Release chakra gathered at his fingertips, extending outward as trembling, razor-sharp wind blades nearly ten centimeters long.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!!
After carving a sufficiently deep path, the Rasenshuriken finally exhausted its energy and dispersed into the air.
The twin swords embedded themselves within one of the bone trees and came to a halt.
But by then—
Shinichi had already reached Umemaro.
His clawed hands twisted forward in a motion resembling a serpent constricting and devouring its prey.
Umemaro's remaining eye widened.
The bones in both arms surged outward, transforming into two bone shields crossed before his body.
A sharp light flashed through Shinichi's eyes.
His hands shot forward like lightning.
"Cry!"
First claw!
He seized the edge of the bone shield on Umemaro's left arm and violently yanked.
Crack!
The shield—and the arm beneath it—was torn open, leaving a massive gap as blood sprayed outward.
The second claw immediately struck the right-arm shield.
Using the exact same method, he ripped it apart.
"AAAAAHHHH!"
Umemaro screamed in pain.
At the same time, more bone spikes erupted wildly from his chest, shoulders, and back.
"Scream!"
Third claw!
Fourth claw!
Both hands grabbed the rapidly proliferating bones covering Umemaro's chest.
Wind chakra burst from his fingertips.
Then, in an overwhelmingly savage display of brute force, he tore outward.
RIIIP!!!
Bones shattered.
Flesh split apart.
Countless fragments of bone and blood exploded outward within the gale created by his claws.
Then—
Fifth claw!
Sixth claw!
Seventh claw!
Each strike came faster than the last.
Every slash precisely tore apart newly formed bone blades, leaving horrifying wounds so deep that bone could be seen beneath the flesh.
Blood splashed across the ground around them like spilled ink.
The scene was grotesque and surreal.
Mad and brutally violent.
After seven consecutive claw strikes, Umemaro was covered in wounds.
The rate at which new bones formed could no longer keep up with the rate at which they were being destroyed.
His movements became sluggish and weak.
And amid the repeated violent collisions, the two combatants continued moving across the battlefield.
Before they realized it, they had returned to the edge of the main battlefield where the Konoha shinobi and Kaguya clansmen were fighting.
Then—
Under the shocked, horrified, and even dumbfounded gazes of both sides—
The muscles in Shinichi's arms suddenly swelled.
Veins bulged like coiling dragons.
The sleeves of his clothing exploded apart.
Both hands shot forward.
His ten fingers clamped onto Umemaro's head like iron vises.
"And then!"
A flash of crimson appeared in Shinichi's eyes.
The battle spirit and fighting intent that had climbed to their peak erupted together with the Fire Release chakra bursting from his palms.
"Die!!!"
BOOOOOOM!!!!
Blazing crimson flames erupted from Umemaro's head like a volcanic explosion.
The fire instantly engulfed his ruined body.
The terrifying heat and shockwave incinerated and shattered every remaining bone around him.
Severed limbs.
Bone fragments.
Flames.
All were blasted outward from the center of the explosion.
Umemaro of the Kaguya Clan—
The Kirigakure powerhouse infamous for his madness and bloodlust—
Was ultimately reduced to a field of charred fragments and drifting sparks upon this foreign shore.
The flames dyed half the dawn sky crimson.
They also illuminated every frozen face upon the beach.
Like a rain of blood, the falling embers drifted gently onto the bloodstained sand.
Only the figure standing proudly at the center remained.
Slowly, Shinichi lowered his stance.
The currents of wind around him gradually faded.
And in the end, only the sound of the ocean waves continued crashing against the shore.