Hashirama lightly tapped the ground beneath his feet and retreated backward, his hands already coming together.
He knew the enemy's second attack was coming.
Kyokushiki stamped his foot down, swung his black halberd, and cleaved toward Hashirama.
Just then, a wooden shield shaped like a fanged oni face grew from Hashirama's body.
It was the Ranked Shield Technique!
Boom!
With a dull crash, the Ranked Shield Technique shattered at once.
Even the Ranked Shield Technique, strengthened by senjutsu, could only block a single strike.
However, bringing Hashirama along this time was mainly to test the gap between him and the Otsutsuki experts.
So someone had been keeping an eye on him the whole time.
Minato, who was fighting Ranshiki, was the best emergency responder.
Before space was sealed off, he was the fastest.
Minato flashed, vanishing from in front of Ranshiki and appearing behind Hashirama.
Then, without a moment to spare, he grabbed Hashirama and flew back behind Itachi.
Minato was too fast. This kind of spatial traversal was far quicker than opening a Space Door.
Ranshiki naturally had no way to stop him and could only watch helplessly as Minato rescued Hashirama.
"Interesting."
Interest appeared on Homurashiki's usually stern face.
The Otsutsuki Clan constantly devoured Chakra Fruits, or thawed Karma, to obtain vast amounts of combat experience and skills.
But there had never been much innovation in Space Element abilities.
At least within their Divine Court Clan, very few specialized in Space Rules.
These Otsutsuki generally only knew how to open Yomotsu Hirasaka, with few other applications.
There was no other reason—it was simply too difficult.
Researching Space Element rules was an extremely dangerous undertaking.
Most people who awakened a Space Element dojutsu based on those rules simply continued using it.
They themselves only had a superficial understanding of