The night grew darker, the stars and moon swallowed by the void—leaving only the firelight clinging to the treetops, flickering like a dying pulse.
A flash of flame.
Uzukage's eyes sharpened.
His hand snapped forward.
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
Two kunai streaked toward *Hikari's* face.
At the same instant, *Bloodhound* roared, channeling chakra into his legs and *kicking off* the ground with enough force to blast dust backward like arrows.
The recoil launched him forward—
His *nodachi*, longer than a man's height, thrust straight for Hikari's gut.
The blade and kunai arrived *simultaneously*.
A pincer attack. High and low.
Uzukage, already circling her flank, gripped another kunai. His eyes locked onto every vital point on her body. *One opening. Just one.* A single throw would end her.
Her escape routes were sealed. *Only retreat remains.*
And if she stepped back? Bloodhound would press forward. Uzukage would tighten the noose. Victory was inevitable.
That's what a decade in ANBU had taught him.
But tonight—
Tonight, he'd face something *beyond* experience.
Because standing before him was the *first* shinobi in a thousand years to wield both the *Byakugan* and *Shikotsumyaku*.
Two *Kekkei Genkai*, perfected in one vessel.
And in *Hikari's* hands?
They would *shine*.
**"Byakugan!"**
Hikari's veins *swelled*, crawling down her cheeks like roots.
Beneath her blindfold, her gray pupils sharpened to *knife-points*.
*Hmm!*
The world *slowed*.
Uzukage, circling like a hawk, kunai poised.
Bloodhound, charging, dust swirling at his feet.
The kunai's poisoned edges glinting midair—she could *count* the toxins seeping into the steel.
In raw perception? The *Byakugan* left the *Sharingan* in the dust. Precision strikes were child's play for the *Hyūga*.
A tilt of her head—
*Sssk! Sssk!*
The kunai *grazed* her ears, close enough to feel the wind—but not a single hair was cut.
Then—
*Schlick!*
Bone blades *erupted* from her palms.
*Clang!*
Bloodhound's nodachi *skewered* her—
—and passed *clean through*, drawing *no blood*.
An *afterimage*.
Her other blade *scythed* toward his chest.
Bloodhound *barely* twisted back, the bone edge missing his ribs by a breath.
*Too bad.*
Hikari's grip tightened.
The blade in her hand *stretched*—1.2 meters to *1.4*—then snapped back.
Her muscles *coiled*.
Chakra *flooded* her legs.
*BOOM!*
The ground *shattered* beneath her kick.
Uzukage *blinked*—
—and she was *already* in Bloodhound's face.
*Too fast.*
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
Two more kunai shot from his blind spot, aimed at her skull.
She didn't turn.
Her left blade *flicked* up, batting them away mid-swing.
Meanwhile—
Her *right* blade *morphed*—
—into a *massive cleaver*, wide as a door.
*SWOOSH!*
The wind pressure alone flattened the grass.
Bloodhound *knew*—no block would hold.
But he had *no choice*.
*CRACK!*
His nodachi *splintered* on impact.
The force *slammed* through his arms—
—shredding his palms, *bursting* capillaries in his wrists.
But he *lived*.
Then—
*SWISH!*
The *left* blade—already mid-motion from deflecting the kunai—*elongated* mid-swing.
Two meters of bone *screamed* down.
*How?! No recoil?!*
Bloodhound's mind blanked.
**"Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu!"**
Uzukage's hands flashed through seals—
—and *water* exploded from nowhere, twin hemispheres *clamping* toward Hikari like jaws.
*Now—*
*Retreat, and lose the advantage.*
*Attack, and drown.*
Hikari *chose*.
Her blade *fell*.
Bloodhound *split* in two.
Blood *fountained*.
Her Byakugan's dead-gray hue *deepened*, chakra *flooding* her eyes—
*POP!*
The water prison *shattered*.
So did Uzukage's illusion.
The *real* Bloodhound gasped, clutched by Uzukage meters away.
**"You good?"**
Bloodhound spat blood. **"Barely."**
Their eyes locked on the girl.
Her blades *retracted*, the cleaver's chips *sealing* smooth.
She stood.
Turned.
Her *blindfolded* gaze *locked* onto them.
Not a *scratch*. Not a *tremble*.
Muscle fibers, micro-torn in battle, *knit* themselves under chakra's glow.
Then—
*Hsss!*
*Steam* billowed from her pores—
—like a warship's engine.
A child's face.
A *monster's* aura.
*Gulp.*
Bloodhound's voice cracked. **"…We shouldn't have taken this mission."**
Uzukage's skull *throbbed*. **"Turns out the old bastards were right."**
Above them, the sky *blackened*.
No stars.
No moon.
Only *flames*—
—and the *true* Hour of Twilight.
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