The crashing waves roared against the jagged rocks, and under the heavy, gray sky, the battlefield remained shrouded in a cold, tense silence.
Kakashi turned his gaze toward the direction where Shisui was engaged in battle. A moment ago, he had been worried about the overwhelming numbers Shisui faced. But now, observing more closely, he realized those fears were unfounded.
While the enemy's bodies were indeed resilient and hard to bring down, making it difficult to take them out in large numbers quickly, Shisui's terrifying speed and seamless switching between illusion and reality rendered him nearly untouchable. His ghostly figure flickered through the battlefield like a phantom, and none of the Kaguya clan warriors could keep up with him.
After a moment of watching, Kakashi came to a conclusion—unless Shisui ran out of chakra, there was practically no chance he'd be injured. And with that, Kakashi nodded to himself.
"Let him hone his skills a bit more," Kakashi thought. "Real strength is forged in the crucible of life-and-death battles. The stronger my teammates become, the better our chances in the war to come."
Satisfied, Kakashi withdrew his gaze and turned his full attention to the imposing Magic Mirror Ice Crystal Array—an elaborate and dangerous jutsu.
Nearby, Byakuya Katsuhisa, the commander of the Ice Release clan's forces, had also been observing the battlefield. When he noticed the young shinobi—who had so easily defeated the Kaguya clan leader—turn his attention toward the Ice Crystal Array, a chilling sense of dread swept over him.
"Everyone, use the Thousand Killing Water Shots together to assist the Hui Yoruichi clan… Not good!"
Before Katsuhisa could finish his command, his expression twisted into disbelief as he saw Kakashi suddenly blur and vanish—only to reappear inside the Magic Mirror Ice Crystal Array!
"What?!"
Only members of the Ice Release bloodline, those who had awakened the kekkei genkai, could enter that formation. How had this outsider done it?
Could it be—was he secretly a descendant of their clan who had been lost to the outside world?
"But… what about the Magnet Style he used earlier?" Katsuhisa thought, his mind spiraling. "That's not part of our clan's bloodline at all!"
His brain went into overdrive, concocting theory after theory until, finally, a narrative clicked into place:
> "Yes! That must be it. A member of our clan, one who had not yet awakened the Ice Release bloodline, fled the Land of Water. After many years of wandering, he settled in the Land of Wind and married a woman who also hadn't awakened her Magnet Style. They had a child—this child! Then, during the war, the couple fled to the relative safety of the Land of Fire, only to perish in a skirmish between ninja. And that's when Konoha found the boy and raised him as one of their own!"
Katsuhisa's eyes widened.
"That's right! My child… You are of our bloodline!"
Just as this dramatic revelation crossed his mind and he prepared to speak—planning to awaken Kakashi's dormant familial love—the battlefield trembled with screams.
"Ah!"
"Ahh!"
"Agh!!"
Cries of agony echoed from within the Ice Crystal Array. Katsuhisa's blood ran cold.
Within the mirrors, the bodies of his fellow clansmen fell one after another, lifeless and broken. Outside the mirrors, they slumped to the ground, defeated. And the one who dealt the killing blows—was Kakashi.
"No… you little brat!" Katsuhisa howled. "Even if you are of my blood, I will kill you today!"
Furious, he gathered his chakra and activated a secret technique, merging with the icy reflections in the mirrors to quickly move toward Kakashi's location.
"Ice Release: Frost Nova!"
Inside the mirrored realm, Kakashi was weaving through his enemies, blade in hand, dispatching his foes one by one. Suddenly, a flash of white light streaked toward him.
His instincts screamed danger. In a split-second reaction, he activated Lightning Flash and vanished just before the attack landed.
BOOM!
The white light struck where Kakashi had just been standing—and exploded into a terrifying cross-shaped burst of freezing energy.
Crackling ice surged outward, engulfing everything in its path. Dozens of Ice Release clan members had no time to react. In mere seconds, they were frozen solid, their bodies turned into sculptures of death.
Kakashi, now at a safer distance, glanced around the battlefield. The pale, frosty skin of the frozen shinobi had lost all vitality.
"...What terrifying ninjutsu," Kakashi whispered.
But even as he acknowledged the enemy's power, a smirk tugged at his lips.
"Thanks for the help, Katsuhisa. You saved me a lot of effort and handed me an S-rank secret technique for free. What a generous enemy! I'd take a dozen more like you any day."
Still, there was work left to be done.
With Katsuhisa still present and the Ice Crystal Array intact, Kakashi began preparing his next move.
"Sage Art: Great Fire Annihilation!"
Fwoosh!
A sea of fire erupted from Kakashi's position, rushing forward like a tidal wave. The intense flames collided violently with the icy surroundings of the mirror world.
Sizzle!
Steam billowed upward in thick clouds as fire met ice. The battlefield became a misty blur of heat and cold clashing.
Cracks began spiderwebbing across the surface of the mirror array.
Snap!
One by one, the icy mirrors shattered, unable to sustain the jutsu after the clan members' chakra was lost. With a final burst of steam and light, the entire Magic Mirror Ice Crystal Array collapsed, vanishing into the mist.
When the battlefield cleared, only one member of the Ice Release clan remained standing—Byakuya Katsuhisa.
Surrounded by the bodies of his fallen kin, Katsuhisa swallowed his grief and composed himself. He forced a kind smile onto his face and addressed Kakashi:
"Child, you possess the Ice Release bloodline. That means you and I are of the same clan!"
His voice was soft, almost fatherly.
"Now that I see you up close… yes, I remember. A baby was taken from our tribe right after birth. If he survived, he would be just your age."
He paused, then added dramatically, "It must have been Konoha. They saw your potential and kidnapped you to steal our bloodline."
Kakashi frowned, his expression conflicted.
"Your biological parents left the Land of Water in search of you," Katsuhisa continued. "They died trying to rescue you… murdered by Konoha Shinobi!"
The emotion in his voice was raw and intense. His tale was so passionate and sincere that even he began to believe it.
Kakashi's face twisted in disbelief. Doubt flickered in his eyes, followed by hesitation, then pain. He looked down at his hands, as if questioning who he really was.
Seeing this, Katsuhisa pressed forward. "Come back to us. Reclaim your heritage. Together, we can rebuild the glory of the Ice Release bloodline!"
His heart raced. If he could win this shinobi over, their clan could rise again!
But then…
"Chidori!"
A cold voice rang out behind Katsuhisa.
He froze.
Every instinct screamed that something was wrong.
A flash of lightning lit up his chest.
Pain. Blinding pain.
He looked down—and saw a glowing hand covered in crackling lightning, piercing through his heart from behind.
He gasped. "You… when?!"
His eyes widened in disbelief as he turned toward the Kakashi in front of him.
Poof!
The figure vanished in a puff of white smoke.
"A Shadow Clone?!"
From the shadows behind him, the real Kakashi emerged, voice flat and unimpressed.
"You really thought I'd fall for that ridiculous story?"
Kakashi had used Earth Release to silently hide underground and wait for his chance. If he hadn't wanted to bait Katsuhisa into lowering his guard, he would've struck much earlier.
"You're the head of your clan, and this is the kind of nonsense you came up with?" he said coldly. "A missing baby? Konoha conspiracies? Please."
Katsuhisa coughed violently, blood spilling from his lips. His body trembled as his strength faded.
"But… you do have the Ice Release bloodline…" he murmured, confused and devastated.
"Oh, that?" Kakashi smirked. "I learned it just now. After watching you perform it."
"...What?!"
"Yeah. It's just Ice Release. You only need hands to do it."
"You…!"
Pfff!
Katsuhisa spat blood, overcome with fury and despair. His knees buckled, and the light in his eyes vanished. He fell to the ground, dead, eyes wide open in disbelief.
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