"Too pitiful...?"
Reflected in Gaara's pupils, the red-haired girl stood directly before the sand hand and lowered her eyes to the ground.
"I wish everyone in this Shinobi World..."
"Could become the sort of pitiful person you described..."
As her words fell, a translucent ice mirror quietly appeared before her.
It became a solid barrier, shielding Hayashi securely.
No matter how the quicksand surged against it, it was as though it had struck a mountain, unable to advance another inch!
"What... do you mean?"
Gaara stared at the sand hand as it gradually settled, his face twisting even further.
Countless ninja had died beneath this move before, yet the girl before him had stopped it with just a single ice mirror!
"Nothing much."
As Uzumaki Hayashi spoke, he slowly walked toward Gaara.
"I understand what you're thinking."
"You just think I saw how you'd kill me, and that looking like this now makes me pitiful."
The moisture in the air seemed to be suddenly sucked dry by an enormous, invisible mouth. The surrounding temperature rose at first, then the chakra erupting around Hayashi swept it into a bone-deep chill.
White frost spread wildly from beneath his feet, crystallizing the ground wherever it passed.
In an instant, snow danced and churned across the sky, as though the entire arena had been dragged into the depths of winter.
The moment the temperature reached its lowest point, Hayashi reached down and drew the Tachi at his waist.
The clear ring of the blade leaving its sheath instantly echoed in every direction, and an icy blue glow climbed from the hilt along the blade.
In a flash, the entire long blade erupted with a piercing radiance bright enough to blind!
Ice-nature chakra flowed perfectly through his hand, becoming one with the blade and turning