White Yaksha's Advent (II)

"Teacher Kushina, you look a little worse for wear," Hagoromo said with a smile.

He looked even worse himself. As he spoke, he reached out and pulled the pieces of metal embedded in his body out one by one.

That reckless thrust of his had drawn a barrage of long-range attacks. He had dodged some, but plenty had still hit him.

His white hair was already stained with blood. Half the mask on his face had shattered, exposing his forehead protector and one eye.

Blood flowed from his wounds.

Kushina looked battered, but she was not seriously hurt.

With a sigh of relief, Hagoromo took off the Extra Suit he wore on the outside and tossed it aside, revealing the Extra Suit underneath.

The outer cloak had become soaked and heavy, stained with both his blood and the enemy's.

Kushina was wearing Konoha's mission uniform. Against the night, her bright red hair was especially eye-catching.

An orange Nine Tails Chakra cloak had already surged around Kushina, and five tails had appeared behind her. This showed that she had drawn upon the Nine-Tails' power.

Her face was also covered in blood, while the three Anbu squads responsible for protecting her had all been wiped out.

When she saw Hagoromo, the expression on Kushina's face became difficult to describe. In any case, it was not a pleasant one.

From Hagoromo's appearance, she knew he had rushed back from the front lines.

"Hagoromo, you shouldn't have come back here."

"Maybe. But I'm already back."

Hagoromo spoke, the smile on his face not diminishing in the slightest. He even seemed to be in a pretty good mood.

But after the Lightning Glow around him flickered twice, it went out completely. His chakra was no longer enough to sustain his Lightning Release.

In other words, he was out of chakra.

Generally speaking, when a ninja exhausted their chakra, it meant they no longer had the stamina to keep moving. Hagoromo was different. He had set a limit for himself: under normal circumstances, he could only use eighty percent of the chakra in his body. In other words, he always kept some in reserve. If he pushed himself to the limit now, he could still squeeze out a portion of chakra.

That reserve existed to ensure he would never lose the ability to move, no matter the situation.

The tailed beast was right beside them.

Kushina was already exerting herself to the utmost just to suppress Shukaku.

Countless ninja were protecting her.

Hagoromo could no longer use ninjutsu.

In terms of strength, it was now two thousand against five hundred. Konoha was at an absolute disadvantage, and there were also many noncombatants at this command center... Konoha would soon be crushed.

"Hagoromo, it seems you've run out of chakra too. Stay by my side," Kushina said.

At a time like this, it was safer to keep Hagoromo beside her. If he tried to flee, a ninja without chakra would have a survival rate close to zero on this battlefield.

Hagoromo shook his head instead. "Next, I'm entering Chidori Current Second Stage."

Kushina froze at his words. What the hell was Chidori Current Second Stage? She had never heard of it.

"Chidori Current Second Stage? What's the difference between that and Chidori Current?" Though the ninja on both sides were fighting so fiercely that brains were practically spilling out, and Konoha's situation was dire, Kushina still asked the question.

"There is one. A huge difference."

"Mm, and what is it?"

"The difference is the sound of the current."

"Huh?"

"That's right, the sound of the current. Chidori Current sounds like birds chirping. Chidori Current Second Stage sounds like bzzzt-bzzzt." Hagoromo seemed extremely serious, utterly ignoring the expression on Kushina's face.

What difference could changing the sound effect possibly make?!

But Hagoromo's next action told her that changing the sound effect made a very real difference.

"Next, ninja Kamishiro Hagoromo will be temporarily going out of business..." Hagoromo said in a voice only he could hear.

Yes, the suspicion had been confirmed. Hagoromo's A-rank skill was called Electromaster.

Why could he adapt so well to Lightning Release? Because he had been shocked so many times that he had gotten used to it. His body was naturally suited to electricity.

Why had he been able to avoid ordinary Genjutsu at the beginning? Because he had used an Electromagnetic Barrier. In a sense, Genjutsu bore some similarities to mental manipulation.

Why did he possess such superb shuriken-throwing skills? Because he could always correct the trajectories of projectiles in flight, and before throwing them, he could calculate their paths in an instant.

Why did he have a certain degree of scouting ability? Because he could always identify the bioelectric signals of living creatures around him.

Why did he have such high comprehension, learning, and memory abilities? Because he had once undergone high-intensity brain development.

Honestly, compared to an ability like Electromaster, he would have preferred something like a Death Note, but that was obviously impossible...

Hagoromo was first and foremost a ninja. Fighting like a ninja was his best choice, but under these circumstances, he could no longer afford to hold anything back.

Kushina could not sense any chakra fluctuations from Hagoromo at all.

Yet in the darkness, thick blue-white electric arcs far greater than those produced by his Lightning Release burst from Hagoromo's body, and an electric current shriller than Chidori began to ring from him.

An electric field rose from beneath his feet.

The hair tied behind his head suddenly came loose, and his white hair stood up in defiance of gravity. To describe this state precisely, he looked somewhere between Killua using Lightning Speed and Hyoubu Kyousuke after breaking free of his restraints.

One of his palms remained pressed against the ground. If one listened carefully, a soft rustling could be heard in the night.

The Iron Sand Sword was pulled from the ground.

The buzzing sound of high-frequency vibrations was even more piercing to the eardrums!

At this point, the Sand Ninja's attacks had begun to disregard friend from foe. In order to deliver a devastating blow to Konoha's command center, they could no longer care about their own casualties.

More importantly, by sheer accident, they had discovered a second target of strategic value: the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki!

No matter how highly classified Konoha's intelligence on the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was, some of it would always leak out.

For example, the current Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was a member of the Uzumaki Clan.

Perhaps if Kushina had done nothing and simply stood before the Kazekage, he might not have known that she was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. But once the Uzumaki Clan's distinctive chakra manifested, her identity as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was exposed beyond doubt.