[On the observation deck, both battlefields had reached a desperate point.]
[Hinata looked at the badly wounded Konohamaru, then at Yor, who was caught in an inner struggle. She bit her lower lip. Slowly, her hands formed the opening stance of the Gentle Fist.]
[On the other side, Nobunaga's killing intent felt like solid ice, stinging Yor's skin.]
[I could get hurt... I could be scarred... Loid's gentle greetings, Anya's delighted smile whenever her mother came home...]
[Those warm memories had become the heaviest of shackles.]
[In a daze, Yor seemed to return to a more distant past: a girl clinging to her younger brother Yuri amid the ashes of the Fourth Shinobi World War, struggling to survive among ruins and death.]
[Blood and fire... Their shattered home... Yuri's lips, pale with hunger... The bloodstained stone she had first gripped to protect him.]
[Back then, she had no way out and no room for hesitation. All she had was the resolve to tear through anything to protect the person who mattered most.]
[What am I afraid of?]
[Someone like me already has blood on her hands. I walk in the dark. Having this ordinary, warm life at all is a miracle I don't deserve.]
[Loid gave me a home. Anya gave me the happiness of being a mother.]
[And that's exactly why I can't let other people lose that happiness because I was too afraid to act!]
[I'm sorry, Loid. Anya. Yor whispered the words in her heart, full of longing and resolve. Someone like me was never suited to having a family after all.]
[Bzzzz!!!]
[Terrifying lightning erupted from Yor without warning! This was no longer the restrained power she had used earlier, but violent, blazing blue Lightning Release Chakra that seemed ready to rip everything apart!]
[Electricity leaped