The surging flood continued to batter everything, steam spreading like thick fog.
Uchiha Hikari activated her Mangekyō Sharingan.
The patterns in her eyes spun rapidly, their powerful ocular abilities allowing her to see through ordinary visual obstructions.
Her gaze strained to pierce the overlapping layers of mist and steam, locking onto and tracking the chakra signature at the center of the enormous waves. It remained scorching and violent, but was clearly being suppressed and disrupted.
It was Roshi!
She could "see" Roshi struggling to maintain his Lava Release Chakra Mode within the torrent, his four lava tails thrashing wildly as he tried to scatter the water and carve out space.
At the same time, he kept creating fresh magma beneath his feet, trying to secure his footing and evaporate the water closing in on him. But against the ceaseless, seemingly endless Heavenly River Cascade, his resistance was proving difficult. His chakra was draining rapidly, and his room to maneuver had shrunk drastically.
Just then, Naruto suddenly moved.
Rather than maintaining or strengthening Heavenly River Cascade, he closed his eyes and used the Mind's Eye of the Kagura to sense Roshi's position.
"Found you..." Naruto murmured, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.
The next moment, he snapped his eyes open, a sharp gleam flashing through their blue depths.
Ice Release: Absolute Traces.
He leaned forward slightly, then leaped straight off the gold dust platform!
But he did not plunge into the flood still raging below.
The instant he jumped, a smooth, solid ice foothold formed naturally beneath his feet, and he landed lightly on the surface of the rushing waves.
Precise chakra control guided the ice foothold, keeping him steady atop the waves like an ice spirit walking across the surf as he continued toward Roshi's sensed location.
He unfastened