Bone spikes poured down like a torrential rain.
Each one shrieked as it tore through the air, and every inch of space was filled with stark white death. Kimimaro stood amid the forest of bones, with nothing left in his hollow eyes but Orochimaru's killing order—test the vessel, or destroy the vessel.
Hyuga Xiao's Eight Trigrams Empty Wall Barrier shattered completely beneath the third wave of bone spikes.
The fragments exploded like glass, and the chakra backlash made his organs feel as though they had been smashed by a heavy hammer. The Caged Bird Seal burned on his forehead like a red-hot brand embedded deep in his skull, each heartbeat tugging at agonizing pain in his nerve endings. Forty-eight hours—no, perhaps only thirty remained now.
"I have to... end this quickly."
Xiao bit through his tongue, and the taste of blood exploded in his mouth. The pain cleared his mind somewhat. In his Byakugan vision, Kimimaro's chakra flow was plainly visible—a twisted, nearly berserk network, with Curse Mark energy coiling around his spine like venomous snakes. Its source was the black mark on the back of his neck.
The bone spikes came again.
Xiao did not dodge.
He drew a deep breath and formed a hand seal before his chest, one that had never appeared in the Hyuga Clan's records—it was a fragmentary memory forcibly poured into his mind by the system when his bloodline purity had surpassed 30%. It belonged to Hamura Ōtsutsuki's inheritance, to the Tenseigan Prototype.
"Open."
His voice was soft, almost drowned out by the shriek of bone spikes slicing through the air.
But at that moment, pale blue light flickered in those pure white eyes.
It was not the complete, brilliant blue starlight, but more like a hazy halo cast by moonlight through thin clouds.