"...What a shame."
The lazy trailing tone of the slovenly stubbled man, Hebiku, had yet to dissipate into the air when his loose, neighborly-old-man figure suddenly tensed. The blue electrical light of the Lightning Release Chakra Mode exploded across his body surface.
The ground beneath his feet burst into a large web of cracks. Like a cannonball launched from a trebuchet, he transformed into a blurred afterimage, charging straight at Bordore in midair.
At almost the same moment, Hayai—the twin-sword user—hurled his blades forward. He crunched down and shattered the lollipop candy, rapidly formed hand seals, and pressed his hands to the ground.
"Earth Release: Spear Rock Forest!"
Dozens of rock spears rumbled up from the earth, intersecting with the force to pierce the sky. Hayai lightly tapped his toes, leaping between the rock spears, catching the twin swords he had just thrown—which had served as a foothold for Hebiku to change direction—and channeling chakra through his feet into the rock spears. Riding the spears as they stabbed out again like thorns, he charged at Bordore, spinning to slash.
"Oh my, you gentlemen are so full of vigor. Not that I dislike that."
The purple light on Bordore's faceplate flickered steadily, as if he were completely unaware of the certain-death situation before him. "Well then, I suppose I'll be a little rougher as well."
The moment the words fell, the purple beam of "Ascend to the Star" suddenly brightened by an entire order of magnitude.
The beam that had been pinning Biroi in place now burst with nearly tangible impact, pressing him hard into the ground.
The earth layer shattered. The gravel flew. Biroi grunted, his entire lower body sinking into the fractured rock.
Just as when Bordore had ascended into the sky, this purple beam did not dissipate. The instant it finished its suppression, it bent at an impossibly strange angle—from vertically downward to a horizontal sweep—shooting directly at Hebiku, who was approaching from below.
"Hey hey?! Almost took a nasty hit there, huh?"
The purple beam, like a paper cutter, lightly sliced through the rock spears in its path. Hebiku, his perception enhanced by the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, forcibly twisted his body, kicked off the rock pillar Hayai had created, changed his charge direction, and narrowly avoided the beam's sweep.
"Though you said it was a shame, for me, this is truly a most fortunate encounter."
With the attack unsuccessful, Bordore did not maintain the output of "Ascend to the Star."
"Encountering three such excellent Kumogakure jōnin on this trip fills me with indescribable joy."
That said, he showed no intention whatsoever of engaging these "excellent data providers." As he spoke, the auxiliary wings on his back fully unfolded, revealing several significantly larger nozzles.
Seeing this, Hayai knew he was trying to escape. His slashing twin blades grew even sharper.
But the blades swinging from the side did not touch Bordore's body—they merely grazed the armor, leaving a trail of sparks.
Fuel compression, ignition, jet—a series of processes completed in an instant. The pitch-black figure, whose only heterochromatic color was the purple glow, transformed into a black line, flying into the distance.
Hayai, missing his strike, immediately tactics changed. He threw his twin swords into the nearby rock pillars and focused entirely on Earth Release.
Amidst the rumbling collapse, pillar after pillar rose "from the ground" within the original rock spears, fragmenting the space into scattered pieces, attempting to block Bordore's escape.
That purple beam, "Ascend to the Star," was a "linear" attack. Even if increasing its output could easily cut through Earth Release constructs, it could not open a stable path. The falling rock and earth would instead further obstruct flight.
Having seen only two exchanges, Hayai had already seen through the flaw in Bordore's armament. Such insight and Earth Release mastery truly befitted an elite jōnin.
Hebiku, who had landed to the side, had also regrouped. He charged rapidly through the network of rock pillars toward Bordore, who was performing various maneuvering actions with the help of his wings and nozzles.
Within three to five seconds, Bordore—whose movement path had been restricted—was caught by Hebiku.
"How about just coming back with us? Want to see some tricks? We can show you too~"
Even as he spoke in a casual, offhand manner, Hebiku's closed index and middle fingers, wrapped in the sharp sound of chirping birds, stabbed directly at Bordore's shoulder.
Hell Stab: Two-Finger Spear!
The penetrating power of the Hell Stab line of nintaijutsu increases as the number of fingers used decreases, but the accompanying reaction force increases proportionally.
Biroi, who specialized in Lightning Release and only practiced nintaijutsu as a supplement,
had reached his limit with the basic Four-Finger Spear. Hebiku's nintaijutsu mastery, however, was far higher.
"Ha! That's a pretty good offer. My little niece wanted to watch some boxing, and he wouldn't even agree to that!"
Hayai emerged from among the stone pillars, simultaneously releasing control of the other Earth Release pillars. He left only seven sharp spiral stone cones nearby. Amidst the collapsing debris, he drew his blades and slashed at Bordore's right side.
Earth Release: Spiral Lance Kill!
Cloud Style: Twin Fangs!
The essence of Earth Release lies in manipulating and altering the form and properties of matter. Hayai's specialty was shaping earth and stone.
"Oh my, how generous of you, sir—"
The viscous substance of "Reach for the Moon" sprayed from Bordore's hand, forming a black glue ball to block the approaching stone pillars and fingers.
The glue ball was instantly twisted into a pretzel-like shape by the penetrating forces from different directions. However, Bordore himself had taken the opportunity to drop vertically through the crushed opening.
He folded the balance wing and nozzles behind him, even shutting off the nozzles at his feet. Like a black falling stone, he plummeted straight toward the ground.
At the same time, a light distinct from lightning gradually lit up within the colloid twisted into a pretzel.
"Shit! Get out of there, kid!"
Seeing Bordore seemingly about to "jump to his death," Hebiku had just opened his mouth when he sensed something wrong. He hurriedly tried to pull back and dodge.
But his arm was already tightly wrapped by the gum of "Reach for the Moon." He couldn't break free.
Hebiku, momentarily furious, kicked Hayai away. The next moment—BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!!
Mixed into the "Reach for the Moon" released this time were millions of tiny micron-sized bombs.
These were created by Hii Kōri based on the principle of Deidara's later-developed C0: Self-Destruction. While not completely undetectable, they were very convenient for mixing into "Reach for the Moon" like this.
The consecutive explosions nearly stacked together. The fireballs from the tiny bombs were not large—each less than a fraction of a top-level chakra bomb. But millions of orange-red fireballs gathered in this confined space; quantity transformed into quality.
In the temperature, soaring past 3000 degrees, Hebiku maximally unfolded his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, using the tangible lightning armor to resist the explosion's heat.
Hayai, whom he had kicked away, simply sank into the collapsing earth and rock, using Earth Release to manipulate other stones to continuously repair the outer layer.
"Aren't you afraid... afraid of injuring yourself?!"
Hebiku's voice came intermittently through the flames, but the shock in it was completely real.
He simply could not imagine where a researcher got the nerve to casually throw out such a large pile of bombs at close range.
As for Bordore, he simply took the explosion's impact on his back—no, more like he directly used the explosion's force.
He adjusted his direction in midair. His coat-like coattails flapped in the flames. The explosion's force pushed him diagonally toward the ground at even greater speed.
With a bang, Bordore's feet struck the ground heavily. A web-like crack rapidly spread outward like bullets. He stepped forward in a smooth motion, and his hand—made larger by the armor covering it—covered the face of a chūnin, slamming her hard to the ground.
"This 'Shikō Tengai' is the culmination of my material technology."
His voice was as steady as if introducing a product he particularly trusted. Even kneeling on one knee, one hand suppressing the chūnin—a small spray of blood blooming from the back of her head—he remained elegant. "Resistant to slashing, impact, piercing, fire, cold, corrosion, and with additional chakra resistance. It can be called the finest material of this era."
"Mere explosions are not worth mentioning."
As if to verify his words, the female chūnin flipped a kunai into her hand and stabbed at his arm. The kunai could not even penetrate the seemingly leather sleeve. Instead, it sparked a series of small sparks, and the tip of the kunai shattered.
Bordore's hand slightly clenched. A teeth-aching sound came from his palm. A once-beautiful head was crushed into a foul mixture of red and white with a "puff."
"Of course, there are also the body's strengthening functions. Without them, I—who have almost lost the ability to move due to my experiments—would not be able to move as freely as I do now."
His free hand slightly hooked. The viscous "Reach for the Moon" slime scattered across the battlefield rapidly peeled from the ground, rocks, and even the air, gathering into a black stream, flowing back into his palm.
One stream of it casually rolled up the chūnin's corpse, squeezing it into the opening of a decorative object at his waist amidst crunching sounds.
"That said..."
The gathered liquid metal again rotates at high speed. "...if you gentlemen are my opponents, I must be economical with my energy reserves."
Transforming into hundreds of metal pellets, it shotgun blasted at Biroi, who was crawling oout of the ground.
"Tch!"
Biroi, covered in dust and dirt, let out an exceptionally irritable snort, as if even his nostrils were spewing two streams of dust. He crossed his arms before him. Lightning Release chakra danced wildly across his body surface. The blue electrical light collided with the incoming metal pellets, bursting into a dense, rain-on-banana-leaves-like crackling sound.
"More toys! Can't you just fight fair?!"
Withstanding a wave of "shots," Biroi roared. The ground beneath his feet exploded. He charged forward, dragging a lightning afterimage, at even greater speed.
His right fist clenched, lightning condensed, carrying an unstoppable momentum, he punched toward Bordore's face.
These were his true feelings. It was one thing for ninjas to fight each other with various ninjutsu, but constantly pulling out strange gadgets—what was that about?
Of course, Bordore wasn't a ninja, so saying this was meaningless. His greater intent was to try to "provoke" the opponent, to see if he could make this slippery bastard switch to a head-on confrontation.
"Oh dear, oh dear. I am a non-combatant, you know. I must respectfully decline such an energetic invitation."
But clearly, Bordore was not buying it. The tone of his response was calm enough to make one's teeth itch.
Not to mention how stable a jujutsu sorcerer's emotional control was, to maintain the "Bordore" cover identity, he could not engage in a direct battle.
As a jujutsu sorcerer who had reached Special Grade through mastery of cursed tools, Hii Kōri's taijutsu level was unprecedented in this world. His counterattacks were almost faster than his instincts.
Pretending to be a noob wasn't hard—learn a few stances, and at first glance, you could fool people. But an expert generally couldn't pretend to be a noob. His Divided Thinking was not meant for that.
Thus, Bordore had been avoiding close-quarters combat. As for ninjutsu—he had barely used any at all, relying entirely on pre-prepared equipment.
Before his words had even faded, the purple light on his faceplate suddenly flashed. The beam of "Ascend to the Star" shot out again, like Omega Rays from a certain famous dark-world boss, bending back and forth through the air, striking at Biroi from tricky angles.
At the same time, the nozzles spread on his boots intermittently adjusted their jet size, and he made a sharp turn to avoid the opponent's charge.
On the other side, Hebiku and Hayai had also extricated themselves from the explosion and returned to the battlefield.
Faced with the encirclement of three jōnin, Bordore—laden with "forbidden techniques"—began to show signs of being tired from running.
Over a minute had passed since the ambush began. The remaining chūnin had also arrived at the battlefield.
Seeing Bordore dodging under the assault of the three jōnin, and knowing that rashly joining the fray would only create openings, they did not step into the battlefield. Instead, they formed an encirclement.
"Lightning Release: Netherworld Lightning!" "Lightning Release: Thunderclap!" "Lightning Release: Lightning Roar Cannon!"
Various Lightning Release techniques shot from different directions. Though their accuracy was questionable, Bordore's movement space was still compressed. The operation of the nozzles at his feet and back was also more or less affected.
"It's working!" a chūnin shouted.
"Maintain interference. Watch his movement patterns!"
Harried by the three jōnin and constantly harassed by the peripheral Lightning Release, Bordore's movements finally showed a trace of discernible hesitation. The jōnin seized this opportunity, simultaneously unleashing large-scale Lightning Release techniques, intending to control him in one fell swoop.
Yet facing this seemingly unavoidable encirclement, Bordore's tone remained unchanged.
"Hmm... I see. I fully understand now."
"Well then... that's the end of the matter."