That face...
That person was...!
Through his splayed fingers, Higure's face was pressed tightly into the depression in the ground, his whole body slanted as if lying on his side. His somewhat clouded eyes stared unblinkingly ahead at the profile nearly level with the right knee that had stepped down and knelt on the ground, watching as that profile was gradually obscured by falling strands of hair.
His heart suddenly clenched.
Though it had only been an instant, though he could only glimpse him through the gaps between his fingers, though this was actually the first time he had truly seen this face, he recognized him at once. He recognized the identity of this Konoha ninja, whose speed had been so fast he could barely react!
Crack!
Just then, as the thought flashed through his mind, the series of sounds of stones fusing and solidifying came to an end with one final noise.
With that sound, the billowing dust slowly dispersed, revealing the cave that had taken on a concave shape.
He actually... stopped my Rock Shelter Collapse? Drawn by the sound, Higure could not help rolling his eyes upward. From the very limit of his vision, he saw it—the cave, which appeared completely intact from his angle.
Just...
With a simple Earth Style Jutsu hand seal?
He stopped my Rock Shelter Collapse!
In that instant, he refined enough earth-nature Chakra to erase my Chakra, then reshaped a ninjutsu using the existing soil and rocks? Something like that...
Was that even possible? His mouth slowly fell open uncontrollably, and his eyes, rolled up to their limit, widened bit by bit as well. His pupils kept turning upward, as though unwilling to believe that the cave had not collapsed and the ninjutsu had been stopped, desperately trying to see clearly.
And