"Kushina-sensei, you look like a bit of a mess," Hagoromo said, a tired smile playing on his lips.
He looked even worse. As he spoke, he reached out to pull various pieces of metal—stray shuriken and kunai—from his own body. His reckless charge through the battlefield to reach her had invited a literal hailstorm of long-range attacks. While his speed saved his life, his body had paid the price.
His white hair was matted with crimson, and his mask was shattered across one side, revealing a sharp eye and his forehead protector. Blood seeped from several shallow punctures.
Kushina, while exhausted, was largely unharmed physically, but her appearance was terrifying. She was swathed in the bubbling, orange Version 1 chakra cloak of the Nine-Tails, with five tails swaying menacingly behind her. Her face was streaked with blood—not her own, but that of the three Anbu squads who had died to a man protecting her.
When she saw Hagoromo, her expression shifted into a complex mixture of relief and frustration. She knew exactly what it cost him to sprint back from the front line so quickly.
"Hagoromo... you shouldn't have come back here."
"Maybe not. But I'm here now," he replied. His smile didn't fade, despite the fact that the lightning flickering around his body suddenly sputtered and died.
He was out of chakra. Or, more accurately, he had hit his self-imposed "80% limit"—the safety margin he kept to ensure he never lost the ability to move. In a world where an empty tank means death, Hagoromo always kept a reserve.
The situation was dire. Kushina was using every ounce of her strength and Nine-Tails chakra just to keep the Shukaku pinned with her chains. Around them, the battle raged: 2,000 Sand ninjas against the 500 remaining Konoha defenders. With the field hospital and non-combatants in the line of fire, Konoha was on the verge of collapse.
"Hagoromo, your chakra is gone. Just stay by my side," Kushina commanded. At least near her, he had the protection of her chains and the remaining guards. A ninja without chakra on this battlefield had a survival rate of zero.
Hagoromo shook his head. "Actually... I'm about to enter Chidori Current: Phase Two."
Kushina blinked, confused despite the carnage surrounding them. "Phase Two? What's the difference?"
"The sound effect," Hagoromo said with deadpan seriousness.
"Huh?"
"Phase One is the chirping of a thousand birds. Phase Two... is Biri-Biri (crackle-crackle)."
Kushina stared at him, bewildered. What kind of difference could a sound effect make? But Hagoromo's next actions proved that it changed everything.
"For now, the ninja Kamishiraishi Hagoromo is going on hiatus..." he whispered to himself.
His secret was finally coming out. His A-Rank innate ability was not a ninja technique—it was Electromaster.
This was why he adapted to Lightning Release so instantly: his body was born for it. This was why he could ignore low-level genjutsu: he maintained an internal electromagnetic barrier. This was why his shuriken throwing was perfect: he could calculate trajectories and use Lorentz forces to micro-correct flight paths. He didn't just see the world; he sensed the bio-electric signals of every living thing around him.
He would have preferred a "Death Note," but in this world, being a human lightning rod was his hand to play.
Kushina felt no chakra rising from him. Instead, the air around Hagoromo began to hum with a terrifying, high-frequency vibration. Blue-white arcs of electricity, far thicker and more violent than any Chidori, erupted from his skin.
The magnetic field surged from the soles of his feet. His ponytail snapped, and his white hair stood on end, defying gravity—a state somewhere between Killua's Godspeed and an unleashed psychic.
He pressed a palm to the scorched earth. A low, raspy hissing sound filled the air as black dust began to swirl toward his hand.
From the soil, a blade made of Iron Sand rose, vibrating at such a high frequency that it emitted an ear-piercing buzz.
Meanwhile, the Sand ninjas were becoming desperate. Realizing they had stumbled upon the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, they abandoned all caution. They didn't care about their own casualties anymore; if they could kill or capture Kushina, the war was won. No matter how secret her identity had been, the sight of the Adamantine Chains and the overwhelming orange chakra made her identity undeniable.
Hagoromo stood between the swarm of enemies and his teacher, the vibrating black blade humming in his hand.