Every jutsu has its flaws.
Every jutsu can be countered.
Kuriarare Kushimaru's deduction was perfectly sound.
The technique Hyuga Yu used, Wind Style: Heavenly Subjugation, worked by creating an ultra-high-pressure environment around his body. By utilizing the impact force of the instantaneous expansion of air pressure, he triggered a storm of repelling force.
This was the power of "fluid mechanics."
However, as the air pressure expanded and surged outward like a flood, a relative low-pressure environment would form around Yu. In this state, it was impossible to immediately follow up with another Wind Style: Heavenly Subjugation.
In other words, although the technique didn't consume much chakra and could be used repeatedly, there was a gap of approximately 15 to 30 seconds between bursts. The sooner he tried to trigger a second one, the weaker it would be. He had to wait for the ambient air pressure to return to normal to unleash the technique's full potential.
Kushimaru had seen through this and reacted accordingly. He had even caught Hyuga Yu's most fatal flaw at that moment—he couldn't move.
On this point, Kushimaru was mostly correct.
The [Byakugan: Wind Style Chakra Mode] required constant maintenance and the reshaping of the surrounding air pressure. It demanded an immense amount of Yu's mental focus to use Wind Style: Chakra Scalpels for molecular-level manipulation of the air's form. Under these conditions, Yu's control over his own physical body was further weakened.
But that wasn't the primary factor.
The true reason lay in the "Drag-Reduction Membrane" adhering to the surface of Yu's body.
Ninjutsu that harms others can also harm the user. Whether it was the extreme altitude sickness caused by high pressure, the risk of suffocation in a low-pressure vacuum, or even the sharp wind blades swirling around him—any of these could tear a shinobi's fragile body apart.
This Drag-Reduction Membrane was designed to protect Yu himself.
For instance, right now—by manipulating the gases in a low-pressure environment before Kushimaru's attack landed—Yu quickly turned his surroundings into a complete vacuum. He created a massive "vacuum layer," using the pressure differential to pull everything outside that layer toward him!
Building on this, he constructed a model similar to a "vacuum pump" to solve the issue of debris accumulating, which would otherwise prevent him from capturing his true target. Meanwhile, the membrane on his skin isolated him from the extreme pressure environment, ensuring he could breathe and fight normally.
While the membrane reduced resistance and dampened damage from external attacks, it also constrained Yu's own movements. The membrane was sturdy yet delicate—so fragile that even a slightly larger movement from Yu could cause it to shatter and vanish. Due to the miraculous power of chakra, these two contradictory properties existed simultaneously.
It could be said that this membrane was Yu's final barrier in this state.
At that moment, a look of realization flashed in the eyes of Kuriarare Kushimaru, whose throat was gripped by Yu. As a shinobi who had spent his life steeped in slaughter, he didn't understand fluid mechanics or the pros and cons of these scientific models. However, after being sucked in like a ragdoll by Yu, his first instinctive reaction was to raise his blade and attempt to pierce the membrane covering Yu's body—to kill the boy behind it!
He endured the various agonies of a human body exposed directly to a vacuum:
His blood began to boil; blood vessels rapidly necrotized, expanded, and burst. His heart, lungs, and brain were failing due to the lack of oxygen and nutrients, and his consciousness began to blur. The gases in his chest cavity were violently expelled through his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. As the moisture in his body was rapidly released, his skin became dry, brittle, and cracked.
Yet, at this very moment, the only thing still executing the final command before his consciousness faded was his muscle.
The killer instinct rooted in his fibers made him explode with violence. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, red veins crawling across the whites, as he stared ferociously at Yu, who held him by the throat and intended to let him die in the vacuum.
Despite his vessels exploding, his spindly legs dragged and arched against the ground in defiance of physical logic, allowing him to dig his toes into the earth to gain the initial momentum needed to move. Then, he tossed the longsword, Nuibari, upward. In the silent vacuum, the spinning needle was caught firmly by his other hand—a hand where the skin was peeling and the flesh was a mangled mess. Holding it in a reverse grip like a deadly windmill, he adjusted his stance and lunged the longsword toward Yu's throat!
His fading will let out a silent, demonic roar:
"Die!"
At this critical juncture, Yu felt a chill in his heart!
Faced with the taijutsu assault of an elite Jonin, it was absolutely impossible for him to react using his restricted body alone. But Yu still had ninjutsu!
His greatest reliance right now was certainly not the Wind Style: Heavenly Subjugation or Wind Style: Vacuum Attraction—techniques he had developed using fluid mechanics models to mimic the abilities of the Rinnegan. It was the [Byakugan: Wind Style Chakra Mode].
In this mode, Yu had moved beyond the traditional path of a shinobi—learning through family heritage and scrolls to master techniques. Starting from the most unadorned essence of ninjutsu and using his understanding of "mechanics," he could freely write and revise his jutsu list, which had previously been empty aside from Wind Style: Vacuum Blade.
In other words, the essence of the [Byakugan: Wind Style Chakra Mode] was a "Wind Style Editor" built upon modern physics!
In that instant, the longsword Nuibari pierced through the vacuum toward Yu's body. The tip... the point of the needle jabbed into the Drag-Reduction Membrane in front of Yu's throat. The force, capable of piercing through steel, was frantically stripped away during this process!
To an observer, it looked as if Kushimaru had suddenly lost his strength upon reaching Yu's throat, his hands slipping as he failed to push the blade further.
But the truth was different. While the "Resistless Wind" shaved away the momentum and the pulling force from Kushimaru himself, the vacuum environment meant there was no air resistance acting on the blade. At that moment, Nuibari reached a state of near-zero resistance, and the inertia remained. This inertia supported its continued movement in a straight line at a constant speed. That is to say, if nothing else happened, it would proceed to pierce through the Drag-Reduction Membrane and use its remaining inertia to run straight through Yu's defenseless throat!
In that terrifying split second that an ordinary person could never comprehend, Hyuga Yu slowly lifted his head. The veins around his eyes bulged, and he stared calmly at the demonic Kushimaru before him. He slowly uttered words that only he could hear and transmit in that environment:
"Byakugan: Intimidation!"
In the next heartbeat, an imperial majesty of power and authority manifested!
The cyan chakra within Yu's body roared frantically, overflowing from his tenketsu and pouring into the microscopic world, transforming into countless reality-altering Wind Style: Chakra Scalpels!
CRACK-BOOM!
Outside, thunder rolled and lightning flashed!
At that moment, the gloomy sky shook with a heavy rumble, as if the heavens and earth were collapsing. An infinite, crushing gravity descended upon this patch of the nameless forest, pressing down with overwhelming force!
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