The instant the final word struck the night wind, the white light suspended in midair fell!
In the clearing, Mizuki tilted his head back.
In his slit pupils, a speck of white light grew larger and larger until it nearly filled them.
"ROAARR-!!"
A distorted growl rolled from his throat. His arms, locked down by shadow clones, suddenly strained. Muscles wrapped in black markings bulged one after another, making the hands clamped around his arms creak-
In the end, he was still a beat too slow.
The white light reached him in an instant!
Gripping his sword with both hands, Hayashi held his entire body in a straight line as he plunged from the moonlight!
The pressure of his descent arrived first, sweeping across the ground. Snow and broken leaves scattered with a rustle, and Naruto's hair whipped in the gust.
The sword hilt pressed painfully against the split skin between Uzumaki Hayashi's thumbs and forefingers. Another line of blood seeped out and crawled down the snow-white hilt.
But he couldn't be bothered with that now. Frost-colored sword light trailed behind the point in a long streak, cleaving the air with a piercing shriek-
One downward slash!
Shhk-!!
The blade cut straight into the center of Mizuki's chest.
A cloud of white mist erupted from the wound first.
The mist spread outward along the wound. Wherever it passed, the black markings writhing beneath his skin stopped dead, and fine ice crystals formed over his flesh with a crackle.
Only then did the blood have time to emerge.
Dark red beads barely squeezed out of the wound before the white mist caught them, freezing them into grains of red frost that pattered down.
Then Mizuki's entire back slammed into the ground!
BOOM-!!
The clearing shook violently. A ring of snow and