Purple chakra spilled out around Hayashi.
No hand seals, no buildup.
With the slightest flicker of thought, the dormant beast spread obediently, creeping silently across half the street like a living thing.
Even as it spread, it knew to take a detour-
Not a trace touched Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura behind him.
All the rest became countless icy tendrils, silently and precisely piercing toward the red-haired boy in the middle of the street.
The purple haze pressed into that scarlet brutality.
The instant the two terrifying waves of killing intent met, the air in the middle of the street seemed to have been sucked dry.
Loose dust swirled close to the ground, crushed beneath the two forces.
Lanterns hanging beneath the eaves on either side swayed wildly. A cloth curtain someone had forgotten to take down was pulled taut, snapping in the wind.
Far away, on the rooftops near the end of the street, Konoha ninja were already peering out.
They held their breath, instinctively gripping their kunai handles as cold sweat seeped from their temples.
This was not a battlefield they could enter-
Even watching made the flow of their chakra feel sluggish.
Naruto had still wanted to stand in front of Gaara, but Sasuke grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him to the side of the street.
"Dead last, stay back."
"What are you dragging me for?!-Oh, oh! Is Hayashi going to use that thing?!"
But no one paid him any attention.
Sasuke wasn't idle either. His single-tomoe Sharingan opened silently, engraving the currents of killing intent in the street into his eyes, strand by strand.
Sakura took half a step forward, then stopped.
She still couldn't wedge herself between those two.
Gaara's eyes widened until they nearly split their sockets.
The blood-red