Hoshiyomi drew his Mikazuki Munechika, meeting Orochimaru's gaze.
Orochimaru gave him a small nod. A few tiny snakes peeked out from his sleeves, flicking their tongues.
If anything went wrong during development, Orochimaru would use Hidden Shadow Snake Hands without hesitation to pull Hoshiyomi to safety.
Hoshiyomi nodded back, then began his first trial.
At first, things seemed easier than expected.
Infusing chakra into his blade had long since become second nature to him.
Soon, Mikazuki Munechika glowed with a soft cyan light.
But that wasn't Hoshiyomi's final goal. Under his control, the chakra coating started to ripple like waves.
He was trying to create irregular, chaotic wind chakra flows along the blade's surface.
But this part wasn't so easy.
Wind Release by nature is unstable—chaotic currents clash against each other.
When Hoshiyomi made the Wind Barrier, he deliberately allowed turbulence to crash around inside a sealed space. Since it fired off immediately afterward, he didn't need to worry about the internal conflict of chakra flows.
But this was different.
The Wind Barrier was meant for short-term defense.
The Wind Armor, however, needed to maintain continuous flow.
When different currents of wind chakra canceled each other out, it wasted chakra unnecessarily.
And trying to stabilize multiple opposing wind flows at once was like trying to control a bunch of silk threads, each pulling in different directions, without letting them tangle.
Even with Hoshiyomi's top-tier chakra control, it required extreme concentration to pull off.
It was miles away from what he'd imagined—
A simple, passive defensive armor that would automatically blow away poison gas, reduce incoming attacks, and even boost his movement speed.
Orochimaru quickly saw the problem and called out:
"Stop. This method won't work."
Hoshiyomi dispersed the chakra coating from his blade and nodded.
"You're right. This is nothing like what I had in mind."
Orochimaru frowned in thought.
"If chaotic turbulence doesn't work, maybe we should try another approach?"
Hoshiyomi glanced at him.
"Like what?"
Orochimaru tapped his chin, his eyes narrowing.
"Turbulence is out. Trying to control multiple currents like that isn't practical.
At that point, it'd be easier to just use a standard chakra cloak or stick with spiral rotation… Wait—spiral?"
His voice trailed off as something clicked in his mind.
Hoshiyomi noticed the shift immediately and kept silent, waiting patiently.
After a long moment, Orochimaru's eyes lit up. He looked at Hoshiyomi with excitement.
"I've got it. Hoshiyomi-kun, the answer is still spiral flow. We need to build around that."
Hoshiyomi blinked.
"What do you mean?"
Orochimaru raised his hand and performed a series of hand seals.
It was the seal sequence for Gale Palm, but when the jutsu activated, a small cyclone formed in his palm.
This was the same principle as Boruto's Boruto Stream, except Orochimaru was using it directly—creating a rotating air current in his hand.
He picked up a small stone with his other hand and smiled.
"This stone represents you, Hoshiyomi-kun."
He tossed the stone into the cyclone.
Since the very center of a spiral is calm—the eye of the storm—the stone landed gently in his palm without getting blown away.
Orochimaru looked up.
"Do you understand now?"
Hoshiyomi stared at the spiral in Orochimaru's hand.
A sudden flash of insight hit him.
He got it.
Rather than forcing chakra to directly coat his body, he should create a spiraling barrier of airflow around himself—like the Rotation (Kaiten) technique of the Hyūga Clan.
This would let him deflect Hanzo's poison gas through pure air current manipulation.
It wasn't exactly the Wind Armor he'd originally envisioned, but for now, it was the most practical solution.
As for the true Wind Armor?
He could continue developing that later.
Right now, the priority was to figure out a way to deal with Hanzō.
Hoshiyomi nodded to Orochimaru to signal he understood.
Then, following Orochimaru's suggestion, he began developing the new technique.
Compared to the convoluted Wind Armor idea, this method was far simpler.
In essence, it was just an expanded variant of Boruto Stream—amplified to a large area.
Using his mastery of chakra nature transformation, Hoshiyomi converted his chakra into pure Wind Release without even needing hand seals.
He let the chakra spread out from under his feet, then directed the escaping chakra to begin rotating at high speed.
Immediately, a massive vortex surrounded him.
Dust and pebbles swirled in the air, caught by the spiraling winds.
It was surprisingly easy to complete the technique.
As he stood within the vortex, Hoshiyomi got another idea.
He unsheathed Mikazuki Munechika again.
Under his control, the same spiral chakra formed along the blade's edge.
After a moment of hesitation, he thrust the sword forward toward a nearby grove of trees.
The swirling wind around the blade actually shot out like a spear—a rotating wind spear that drilled through a tree, leaving a hole the size of a fist.
It continued piercing through four or five trees in a row before finally losing momentum and dispersing.
Well, that's another new jutsu added to the list.
It wasn't that different from sword energy, but the piercing power was on a whole other level.
Who knew? It might come in handy at the right time.
For now, Hoshiyomi set the Wind Armor aside.
He named the new defensive technique Wind Protection—the spiraling vortex that protected him from poison gas.
As for the offensive spear, he called it Wind Spiral.
When Tsunade returned, Hoshiyomi explained everything to her and asked her to test it.
She released a cloud of standard poison mist toward him.
Just as he and Orochimaru had predicted, the Wind Protection sucked the poison into the spiraling air currents before it could even reach him.
Even though Hoshiyomi was completely enveloped in a violet whirlwind, he could still breathe normally without any signs of poisoning.
When Tsunade's poison mist ran out, Hoshiyomi used Wind Spiral to slowly compress the poisonous air, gathering it all into a small chakra orb.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru both exchanged satisfied glances.
Tsunade, however, frowned.
"It's not enough. This will protect you from large-scale poison clouds, but during battle, Hanzo's breath will constantly release small amounts of poison. You'll still be at risk in close quarters."
Hoshiyomi smiled.
"That's why I have this too."
He activated Wind Spiral again.
Seeing that, Tsunade finally relaxed, no longer objecting to Hoshiyomi facing Hanzo head-on.
Everything was ready now.
All that remained was to wait for the day of battle.