In the real world, fire and lightning don't exactly trigger an Overloaded reaction.
But two savage masses of chakra colliding? The explosion was vicious.
A pillar of fire laced with crackling lightning shot skyward.
"Hm?! She used the fire pillar to 'roll' the Chidori away?"
Kakashi, watching from the stands with his Sharingan open, immediately caught it—Hanabi had used the fire pillar to deflect the force. Without that redirection, the raw blast would have sent Sasuke flying.
"Damn it…"
The explosion's shockwave hurled Sasuke to the ground.
"In that case—Sharingan!"
Sasuke activated his Sharingan once more.
And this time, it was different. Three tomoe.
"Ohhh!"
The most excited person in the building was Orochimaru.
Seeing that Sasuke had unlocked the three-tomoe Sharingan, Orochimaru was beside himself with glee.
Sasuke drew his short blade again and formed seals.
Lightning began crawling up the blade.
That same screaming hum—like a thousand birds—rang out again.
"Ohhh!"
The crowd went wild.
Forget the jutsu—the explosion alone had been worth the price of admission.
Ordinary spectators couldn't parse ninjutsu, but an explosion that had punch and presence? That was more than enough.
And now there was something even bigger coming.
[These effects are incredible]
[Give the cameraman a raise]
[Now give us a close-up on the rope, come on]
[I wonder if the rope on Hanabi's body is knotted in… specific places, lol]
[You're not right in the head!]
[Shame we can't see underneath anymore]
[Actually what I really want to know is what that ball on the back of the outfit does]
[Isn't it a counterweight to keep the skirt from blowing up?]
[Huh? Isn't it meant to go inside the bo—]
[???]
[??? You are NOT right in the head!]
[Don't bother, that person just got muted by the super-mod. Ten seconds flat. Speedrun]
While there was nothing on her body she needed to hide, that didn't mean the audience got to see everything.
For one thing, the platform had restrictions, so self-regulation was necessary. Even if Hanabi wanted to dish out fan service, the Stage itself would cut those shots from the broadcast.
You—cannot air this!
For another, if the audience saw everything, it would actually lower their emotional engagement.
Once they'd seen it all, their threshold would spike—then what?
Leaving something to the imagination was always the best approach.
Hanabi herself didn't care. The live audience had gotten an eyeful too.
But exactly one person was trapped in a spiral of anguish and heartbreak.
"Hanabi… put on some more clothes…"
Poor old Hiashi clutched his chest.
Watching his daughter walk around in what amounted to a few strips of fabric—it hurt.
All that fair exposed skin across her back and thighs—every frame was a bombardment against this father's heart.
Mercifully, Hiashi's hypertension episode didn't last long.
When Sasuke drew his short blade, Hanabi switched out of Ninja Outfit mode and into Red Outfit Mode.
This was a tutorial fight.
Whether taijutsu, ninjutsu, or kenjutsu—Hanabi could match Sasuke in any discipline.
What about genjutsu?
Sorry. Sasuke didn't have any genjutsu that worked on Hanabi.
Not even the Sharingan.
"I'm actually surprised you can channel Chidori into a weapon, Sasuke." Hanabi was genuinely impressed—this was a technique Sasuke shouldn't have developed for another three years, yet here he was using it already. Not bad at all.
"There's a secret technique within the Sharingan. In that world, even stretching time isn't a problem."
Sasuke looked proud.
"I see."
Hanabi knew exactly what he meant.
Tsukuyomi.
Inside Tsukuyomi, everything was defined by the caster—including the flow of time, which could be set to whatever ratio they wished.
Uchiha Itachi could live an entire lifetime with Uchiha Izumi inside a Tsukuyomi illusion.
Using Tsukuyomi to train swordsmanship and chakra Nature Transformation?
Hanabi hadn't expected that angle.
Then again, Hikari could create an entire VR virtual world in the original story, so using this method for Sasuke's intensive training actually made sense.
"Hanabi Style. Now—shall we dance?"
Hanabi's interest was piqued by Sasuke's bladework and his Raikiri.
Unlike Sasuke, Hanabi didn't use any Nature Transformation at all. She simply held twin blades.
"So fast!"
Hanabi was in front of him almost instantly.
A relentless rain of dual-blade strikes poured toward Sasuke.
"I see it—I see all of it—"
Fast, but not invisible.
A month ago, Sasuke couldn't have tracked Hanabi's speed at all. No amount of training inside Tsukuyomi could improve his physical body.
But the current Sasuke—after copying Lee's taijutsu with the Sharingan and reinforcing himself with Lightning Style—could keep up.
"Yes! There's an opening!"
He'd blocked both of Hanabi's blades with his short sword.
A chance!
He had a shot at winning!
"Then—how about this?!"
Hanabi had planned to just overwhelm him with dual blades.
But the look on Sasuke's face—that "I can turn this around" expression—she just couldn't resist.
She pulled out two more blades.
"Nani?!"
Two more puppet arms emerged from behind Hanabi, each gripping a sword.
Now he was in trouble.
"Not done yet!"
Four blades were already more than he could handle—but then four more appeared behind Hanabi.
Eight-armed mode.
"Hanabi Style: Nata Kubera."
[Holy crap, Nezha]
[Huh? What are you guys talking about?]
[Nata Kubera—that's Nezha]
[Isn't it called Saraswati?]
[Saraswati is the empty-hand mode? Nata Kubera is the armed mode?]
[I screenshotted it—different from last time, these are different arms]
[But doesn't Nezha have six arms?]
[Hey, the capital city has a nickname: "Eight-Armed Nezha City"]
[Grass (a type of exclamation), obscure knowledge acquired]
Unlike the earlier arms, which housed hidden mechanisms and could deploy the Mechanical Illusion, these puppet arms were purely for close-quarters weapon combat. They could assist with hand seals, but their primary purpose was wielding blades.
Saraswati—meaning the Goddess of Music—was by nature versatile and multitalented, proficient in Gentle Fist and Mechanical Ninjutsu alike.
Nata Kubera, on the other hand, was all-out offense.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Wall!"
Eight blades. Sasuke had absolutely no answer for this.
His only option was to leap back and throw up a fire wall to buy distance. This Great Fire Wall was another Fire Style technique Sasuke had learned from Hikari.
"Hm?"
But just as Sasuke was drenched in cold sweat and scrambling for a plan, he realized Hanabi had already stowed the Nata Kubera arms—along with every other weapon. All she held was a single blade.
No—a sword.
An ice sword.
"After thinking it over, I decided this is the better way to end the fight."
"You mean if I take this hit, you'll concede?" Losing was one thing, but Sasuke wasn't about to lose the verbal war too.
The short blade in his hand still crackled with Chidori.
"Mm-hm. If you can take what comes next, I'll admit defeat."
Then Hanabi took a single step forward—and her figure dissolved into thin air.
In that instant, a horrifying sensation engulfed Sasuke's entire body.
An ultimate technique he had never seen before.
"Ephyra's Bloom and Demise—"