The bells moved once and settled.
Roen bent, picked the kunai up from the dirt, and rolled it once in his hand. The edge stayed dark. Itachi stood a few steps off to the side, sharingan still open, chest rising slower now, shoulders set but not relaxed. Genryu hadn't shifted. Kodachi low. Wind and lightning still wrapped close around the blade, tight enough that the air near it kept its pressure even in stillness.
No one spoke.
Roen straightened.
"You're not holding back."
Genryu's eyes stayed on him.
"No."
That sat there for a second with the blade between them.
Roen's hand went to his pouch.
"Then we won't either."
The kodachi came free and Roen's grip tightened with it, chakra pulling sharp into his arm before it spilled out along the steel in a single, violent line. Lightning didn't flare it bit in, racing from the base to the tip like it was carving its place there, snapping tight around the edge instead of bursting off it. For a second it looked unstable, like it might break loose, then it compressed, locked, and the blade just… changed. The air around it thinned. Roen's stance dropped with it, weight settling through his feet without adjustment, like the rest of his body had already caught up. Across from him, Itachi's gaze dipped to the blade for a fraction longer than before, then lifted again, the Sharingan steady now, not flickering, not curious anymore focused.
Roen drove in.
His foot hit the ground and it cracked under it, chakra and lightning tearing up through his leg as he launched forward, kodachi already coming up from low, the edge humming tight as everything lined up at once the step, the shoulder, the cut. He didn't think. Didn't adjust. The path was there in front of him, clear, already happening, and he went straight through it, blade cutting for the bells as the distance collapsed in a single push
Genryu moved.
The kodachi dropped short and hard, cutting across Roen's line before the swing could finish. Roen twisted through the clash, already ahead of the break.
The step was set. The angle was there. The cut followed clean through the space it was supposed to take
Genryu was in it.
The kodachi cut across his path before it could land.
The opening collapsed.
Itachi entered on the next beat.
He didn't come straight. One step off-center, body low, hand already moving for the opposite bell while Roen held the middle. For half a second their timing nearly matched. Genryu's shoulder turned. His front foot slid. The blade pressure cut between them and both entries lost shape at once. Roen got forced outside the line he wanted. Itachi had to change his wrist angle mid-reach and came up with nothing.
They drifted back out of range.
Roen stepped back in again, this time forcing actual contact. His blade met Genryu's and the answer came through his wrist immediately. The shock ran straight into the grip. His fingers tightened to keep the kodachi from slipping, lightning along the edge flickering once under the pressure. Itachi tried to capitalise on that exact beat, but the slight delay in Roen's arm changed everything. He had to adjust his step halfway through it. His hand still reached the bell line.
Too late.
Genryu's free hand turned him off it.
Still doesn't hold.
Roen eased back a fraction, then came in without fully coming in. Front foot committed just enough to force the read, shoulder threatening center, blade hinting at the bell without really taking it. Genryu answered anyway. His kodachi shifted toward the line, pressure gathering where the entry should have been.
Roen was already out.
No clash. No wrist shock. Just a step in and a step gone.
Itachi saw it.
The next time Roen forced the line, Itachi didn't move on his own read. He moved after Roen drew the answer. Roen stepped in, blade low toward the bell. Genryu's shoulder turned to meet it. Itachi entered on the opening that followed.
It still failed.
Genryu's second adjustment came too clean. His foot set wider, body turning just enough that Itachi's hand found cloth and cord but no bell. Roen was there for the follow-up, but the blade had already changed line. They had the idea now. Not the timing.
Again.
Roen forced the middle. Left before the collision. Itachi came in after the shift. Genryu adjusted and kept the bells. Closer.
Again.
Roen stepped in deeper, forcing the line.
Genryu answered harder. The kodachi cut in, heavier this time, straight through the path Roen had taken
Roen was already gone.
He slipped out early, body leaving the space just as the blade passed through it.
That was all Itachi needed.
He moved.
No pause. He stepped straight into the gap Genryu had opened, hand snapping in under the shoulder, fingers closing around the first bell and ripping it free.
A small, clean sound followed.
Genryu adjusted instantly.
The second bell swung wide with the turn. His blade came across for the new line
Roen moved.
Observation Haki spiked hard, the shift already laid out in front of him front foot planting, shoulder turning, the bell cord swinging through the arc and he drove straight through it, not meeting the blade, not slowing for it, body cutting around the angle before it could close. His step hit deep, shoulder following, the space collapsing in on Genryu from the side he'd just opened to answer Itachi.
No pause.
His hand came through low and tight.
For the bell.
His fingers closed
and tore it free.
The cord snapped.
The sound cut clean through the field.
Then the space stopped.
Roen landed two steps away, second bell in hand, breath harder now but still even. Itachi had the first one, cord wrapped once around his fingers. Across from them, Genryu stood in the same place he had before, kodachi still active, wind and lightning still wrapped tight around the edge. He hadn't lost balance. Hadn't lost posture. The pressure only dropped because the exchange was over.
No one moved for a second.
The bells hung still in their hands.
Genryu looked at them once, then at the empty cords at his waist.
"Good."
The blade in his hand stayed live another moment, then the pressure around it thinned. Wind loosened first. Lightning faded after. The edge went back to steel.
Roen lowered his hand slowly. Itachi did the same.
Genryu remained where he was, composed, unchanged, like the only thing that had shifted was the answer.
The bells stayed still.