"However…"
The corner of Shinichi's mouth curled upward slightly.
"I like it!"
The moment those words fell, Shinichi stomped his foot, twisted his waist, and swung his sword!
The movements flowed in one smooth sequence, pouring the full power of his body and the wind-release chakra compressed to the absolute limit into this utterly straightforward horizontal slash!
Boom!!!
A terrifying explosion suddenly erupted!
Centered on the two of them, a visible milky-white shockwave spread outward in a ring.
Wherever it passed, the sand was overturned as if plowed by a giant blade, shattered rocks were reduced to powder, and even the distant sea waves were forcibly pressed into a sunken arc!
The two figures froze for an instant amid the raging storm.
In the next moment, Memaro's empty left hand suddenly thrust forward.
The bones in his palm rapidly proliferated and extended, transforming into a sharp bone blade that stabbed toward Shinichi's temple like a venomous snake!
Shinichi tilted his head slightly, the bone blade brushed past his hair tips, while his footwork flowed away like running water, widening the distance between them once more.
"Die! Die!! Die!!!"
Memaro Kaguya had completely descended into a frenzy. His body showed not the slightest pause as he let out crazed roars while pouncing forward again.
On the beach, the two figures crossed, collided, and separated at terrifying speed.
Memaro Kaguya's offensive was like that of an enraged, ferocious beast: wild and unrestrained, purely brutal, with bone blades flying everywhere, every pounce carrying the savage intent to crush everything before him.
Meanwhile, Shinichi's figure resembled drifting fluff in the wind or the moon reflected in water, light, elusive, impossible to grasp. Amid the flowing sword light, he precisely blocked, redirected force, and counterattacked, searching for the tiniest gaps within the berserk assault.
The violent collisions rang out like dense drumbeats, endlessly echoing through the bay's morning mist and the lingering smoke of war.
During the fierce clash, the two figures rapidly moved away from the original beachhead battlefield, leaving only the Konoha ninja and the remaining Kaguya Clansmen continuing their brutal slaughter upon the bloodstained white sands.
Bang!
Another muffled explosive collision rang out as one figure was blasted backward like a cannonball, crashing heavily into a massive reef as shattered stones scattered down.
"Hahahahaha!"
Memaro Kaguya held a grotesque bone sword that extended from his arm bones and burst into laughter at the sight.
"So this is Crimson Flame Shinichi? Just a little kid who hasn't even grown hair yet. Without daddy around, you're…"
Before he could finish, his words abruptly halted.
He suddenly realized that throughout the entire battle, Shinichi Higashino had not used even the slightest trace of the Fire Style Nintaijutsu for which he was famed throughout the Shinobi World.
Instead, he had been using Wind Style the entire time!
"Bastard!"
Memaro's wild laughter instantly twisted into an enraged roar.
"Aren't you Crimson Flame Shinichi?! Where's your Fire Style!? Why aren't you using it!? Are you looking down on me!?"
"As expected of the Corpse Bone Chain."
Shinichi slowly stood up. As he rose, streams of invisible airflow quietly appeared, intertwining around him like spirit snakes.
He dusted off his sleeves and calmly said: "This pure power and defense… among all the opponents I've fought, you can rank in the top three."
Huh?
Memaro was first stunned, followed immediately by a sense of humiliation from being belittled!
However, before he could react…
"Then, round two."
At the instant those words fell, Shinichi's figure suddenly vanished from where he stood.
Memaro's pupils shrank violently. Combat instinct made the bone sword in his hand stab fiercely leftward almost simultaneously!
But the sword tip pierced only an afterimage.
As if he had predicted it long ago, Shinichi merely rotated his sword once before striking at Memaro's right ribs from a tricky and bizarre angle like a venomous serpent!
Puchi!
The dull sound of flesh being pierced rang out.
The sword tip was barely blocked by tough ribs. Shinichi had no intention of lingering. With a twist of his wrist, he withdrew the blade and retreated, bringing out a spray of vivid blood before vanishing like a breeze again before Memaro's furious counterattack could reach him.
Step! Turn! Spin! Shift!
Over the next several exchanges, Shinichi's figure moved like the wind itself, light as drifting fluff, weaving freely through Memaro's furious lunges and the deadly forest of bone blades.
Every dodge was perilously close yet executed with exquisite precision.
Every sword thrust accurately pierced through the gaps in the opponent's skeletal armor, leaving wounds of varying depth across Memaro's powerful body.
The more Memaro fought, the more suffocated he felt. The more he fought, the more frenzied he became.
Clearly, the opponent was not faster than before, yet he had become even harder to grasp, as though he could predict every single movement!
"You kid from Konoha!!!"
Memaro roared violently while swinging his arm in a full arc. A gigantic bone blade the size of a door swept horizontally with a shrill wind, attempting to seal off a huge area.
"Your attacks…"
Shinichi's figure slid out from the blind spot of the bone blade's slash like a ghost, his voice calm and having no ripple.
"… Have already been seen through by me."
If the combination of Clarity and Lightning Speed Reflex had granted him eyes of perception comparable to the Byakugan, then under the terrifying computational power of Seeing Through Things as Clearly as Observing a Flame.
It was as though he possessed a pair of supercomputer eyes even more adept than the Sharingan at dismantling, analyzing, and predicting battle trajectories.
During the earlier storm-like exchange, he had already basically analyzed Memaro Kaguya's fighting style, force application patterns, and even the subconscious tendencies behind his attacks.
"Roar!!!"
Memaro let out another howl after receiving yet another wound!
He suddenly bent forward as his entire skeleton emitted a series of scalp-numbing cracking sounds. In the next instant, his body burst outward like an exploding porcupine!
Dance of the Seedling Fern!
Countless tiny bone shards like mugwort leaves exploded from his body, transforming into a death storm covering dozens of meters!
This was an attack that overwhelmed purely through quantity and area, intended to force back or even heavily injure the shadow-like opponent.
This move did indeed force Shinichi back, but only that much.
Shinichi's steps were light and traceless like walking upon water. The twin swords in his hands swept out arcs of cyan light, precisely blocking and deflecting the majority of the bone fragments aimed at his vital points.
As for the smaller portion of bone blade fragments attacking from tricky angles, the moment they reached within half a meter of him, they were quietly slowed down and redirected by the layer of invisible circulating airflow around him.
Flowing Clouds.
In the next moment, Shinichi's sword subtly guided the airflow.
The bone fragments wrapped within the currents abruptly reversed direction, shooting back toward their original master with even greater speed and ferocity than before!
Pupupupupu!!!
"Ah! My eyes!"
Dense sounds of flesh being pierced rang out continuously, mixed with a short, miserable scream.
Memaro Kaguya's body was now filled with tiny bone fragments, drenched in blood.
Most horrifying of all, a sharp bone shard had deeply embedded itself into his left eye socket, and blood flowed down his cheek in streams.
Shinichi had intended to press the advantage, but Memaro's next action forcibly stopped him in place.
"Ughhhhhh!!!"
Memaro released a howl no longer resembling a human voice. His right hand suddenly grabbed the bone shard lodged in his eye socket and viciously ripped it out, together with the pierced eyeball!