All of a sudden, Kaida vanished from his position and appeared behind Byakko, and before Byakko could turn or jump away, he heard something:
"Takamagahara."
Before Byakko could react to that, all of the color from his surroundings vanished, and when he tried to move to see what was happening, he came to a shocking realization that he was stuck, unable to move even a single muscle in his body.
'What the hell is happening?' a thought bounced around Byakko's mind, because the situation was too bizarre to comprehend. In the moment of confusion, a voice sounded, breaking the deafening silence of the area.
"You know, throwing so many killing moves during a not so serious fight can actually make your opponent really furious. I really died there," Kaida said, coming in front of Byakko, and that's when Byakko noticed, in this colorless space only Kaida had colors.
Someone who could move freely while his enemies were bound to their place, not even allowed to move a muscle let alone chakra, a power way too bizarre.
"Hahahahaha!" a thunderous laughter came from Byakko's mouth. The amount of chakra and power he used to do that was insane, but he couldn't control himself from doing this. The boy he was evaluating till now was now standing in front of him, fully capable of ending his life if he ever wanted to.
The situation was too bizarre for him—he, the mighty Byakko, being defeated by a boy who is not even an adult. There was no way he was going to accept it.
Kaida, whose left eye was now going on overdrive to control Byakko, gave up. The opponent not only had more chakra than him but was also using that unconditionally. Heck, even just the laughter had cost Byakko more than 10 percent of his chakra, the most he had used till now.
But then something happened that completely changed the situation altogether: Byakko started absorbing nature's energy from the surroundings. Kaida had very well sealed the chakra from being used, but nature energy couldn't be sealed. For some reason, Kaida had not thought about this till now.
Byakko, seeing the shock on Kaida's face, actually smirked.
"So you have sage mode as well. You just keep getting better and better as a partner, but just so you know, in this space I am completely in control," Kaida said, and suddenly a shadow clone appeared next to him, and then one more, and one more.
Soon Byakko was surrounded from all directions.
"Let's see how you will handle this," Kaida said, and suddenly all of the shadow clones around him started preparing one jutsu or another.
Fire release: Fireball, Fire Stream, Phoenix Sage Fire, Fire Dragon Flame Bullet. Wind release: Wind Blade, Great Breakthrough, Divine Mountain Wind, Spiralling Wind Ball, Beast Tearing Gale Palm. Earth release: Earth Spear and Bottomless Swamp.
With four shadow clones creating earth walls at strategic locations to keep the fire focused on Byakko, with fire and wind jutsu combining, the result was going to be the deadliest fire zone possible.
Something that even a kage level ninja couldn't dream of defending against, and since dodging was not an option, Kaida was almost sure of his victory.
But then he saw something truly incomprehensible: Byakko was smirking. Not panicking, thinking, or struggling, but smirking.
Kaida knew that he was channeling nature energy like a madman and would definitely go into sage mode soon. That's why he had gone for an all-out attack; in his domain, all of his moves were almost instantaneous.
So the combined jutsu attack would reach Byakko in no time, meaning there should be no way he would be able to achieve sage mode before he took all those attacks.
'So why the hell is he smirking?' Kaida shouted in his mind.
But before he could get the answer to his question, all of the attacks released by his shadow clones reached Byakko at the same time, creating an explosion that shook the entire mountain. With earth walls blocking fire from going out of range, the area around Byakko effectively became an oven, melting the rock around him.
With only Kaida having color in the area, all this looked so unreal and deadly at the same time. There was no way anyone would be fine after taking such an attack.
But that smirk of Byakko was etched in the back of Kaida's head, like something was going to happen.
All of a sudden, everything in the Takamagahara space cracked and shattered like glass, the colorless world breaking apart with a piercing shriek that felt like the sky was being torn open.
Crimson and gold bled back into reality like a flood—and standing in the center of the now shattered domain was Byakko, his body surrounded by a blinding white aura shaped like a roaring tiger. His fur bristled with wild energy, every strand standing up like lightning rods, and his golden eyes blazed molten, staring straight into Kaida's soul.
His wounds, the minor burns and cuts from the earlier attack, sealed up in an instant, muscles tightening like drawn bowstrings. Nature itself seemed to recoil around him for a moment before bending to his presence.
The very air grew heavier—oppressive, dense—like gravity itself was bowing to him.
Kaida's eyes narrowed as the clones surrounding Byakko started to tremble. One of them twitched—and then simply disintegrated, turning into smoke without being touched. Another followed, and then another. All of them, erased by sheer proximity.
But Kaida was not paying attention to that. The forceful breaking of the Takamagahara was not without consequences for Kaida; his left eye was now bleeding and sharp pain was coursing through his eyes and brain.
"I surrender," Kaida said. Though there were still many moves he could use, the chance of having any permanent damage to his eyes shattered any idea of continuing this spar in his mind.
"Forcing me to use this... your confidence was backed by true strength, boy. I, Byakko, acknowledge your strength," Byakko said, cancelling the oppressive technique he was using, and for a second, nature itself sighed in relief.
"Thanks," Kaida said before creating a shadow clone to look into his eyes, while he also did an internal check.
"You still in one piece, kid?" Byakko asked, concern evident in his voice, as he had seen Kaida healing himself from lethal injuries like they were not a big deal at all, and now that same boy was fussing over a small bleeding from his eyes.
"Almost, just give me a second," Kaida said before once again focusing on his eyes. It was true that every time he used his eyes, a small irreversible damage happened to them.
But this time, something different happened. The damage was not from the usage of the MS ability but from the forceful breaking of it.
After a few minutes of careful healing and analysis, Kaida dispersed his clone.
'Phew, the damage was not as severe as I thought,' Kaida analyzed. Even after using his MS ability three times till now and this incident happening, his eyes were still mostly fine, which was understandable as Itachi used his MS for years in the anime before succumbing to blindness.
That means the damage, though permanent, was not rapid enough to be too concerning.
'Though I have to stop using this on random occasions as well,' Kaida concluded.