"The Eye of Detection?"
According to Kirigakure's previous intelligence on Rasa, aside from his Magnet Release and control over gold dust, one of his most important abilities was the Eye of Detection—a technique that allowed him to move one of his eyes outside his body.
With it, he could gain vision from multiple angles.
"But at a time like this?"
"Did he sense what we were trying to do?"
"Where did he hide the eye?"
A chill ran through Akebino. He hurriedly scanned the area around them.
"There!"
He spotted something resembling an eyeball and immediately signaled to Kushimaru.
Kushimaru reacted at once, redirecting his jutsu toward it.
But before the attack could strike, a mass of gold sand appeared and wrapped the eyeball tightly, completely blocking Kushimaru's ninjutsu.
"That's enough!"
Seeing that, Akebino let out a breath of relief.
"So Rasa really did sense something was wrong, which is why he suddenly used the Eye of Detection."
"But my reaction was faster."
"The moment the eye appeared, I had Kushimaru attack it."
"Rasa had no choice but to defend it with sand."
"And once he does that, the eye's vision is blocked. He won't be able to see Hozuki Kumo approaching from behind."
"Kill!"
Akebino shouted even louder, trying to drag Rasa's attention toward himself.
Kushimaru pulled out two kunai and lunged at Rasa.
Both of them believed they had fully drawn Rasa's focus, and that the Eye of Detection had been neutralized. There was no way Rasa could still see Hozuki Kumo, who had approached from behind while suppressing his presence.
But—
"Byakugan."
What neither of them knew was that the eye Rasa had detached was not an ordinary eye.
It was a Byakugan.
The Byakugan could see through objects, see over great distances, and possessed nearly three hundred and sixty degrees of vision.
And this particular Byakugan had awakened after Rasa obtained Otsutsuki bloodline power.
There were no compatibility issues whatsoever.
The moment it opened, he could use it perfectly.
The gold dust wrapping around it could not obstruct the Byakugan's sight in the slightest.
Rasa felt that the Byakugan and the Eye of Detection technique were simply a perfect match.
The Eye of Detection amplified the Byakugan's effectiveness.
And the Byakugan amplified the Eye of Detection in return.
Together, they granted Rasa a field of vision broader even than that of a Hyuga main branch shinobi.
"Then I'll call it…"
"Compound Ninja Art: Byakugan Reconnaissance Technique."
The entire battlefield lay within Rasa's vision.
Including behind him.
A silent figure had appeared there, dressed in dark blue shinobi garb. Both hands gripped the hilt of a blade—its cleaver-like edge unmistakably belonging to Hiramekarei.
At that moment, the suddenly arrived Hozuki Kumo was bringing the blade down in a vicious arc toward Rasa.
"It worked!"
Joy flashed in the eyes of both Akebino and Kushimaru.
"If that strike lands, even if Rasa doesn't die, he'll be gravely wounded."
"This three-on-one is over. Rasa loses."
"Hozuki Kumo may not have much of a brain," they thought, "but there's no denying he's stronger than Black Hoe Raiga—especially with a strike like this."
For the first time, the tension in their hearts eased.
At the start, no one had imagined the battle would develop into this.
They had only come to bully some junior shinobi from Sunagakure.
Yet Rasa had come in person.
And too quickly.
The distance from Sunagakure to this place was not short. A normal shinobi could never have arrived so fast without exhausting a huge amount of stamina and chakra.
But Rasa had.
Without even breathing hard.
"That giant summon…"
"So that's its doing?"
"It can not only produce explosive eggs, but also travel at incredible speed across long distances."
"That's exactly what Kirigakure is lacking…"
"The current battlefield is just too far from Kirigakure."
"Otherwise, even with Fuguki Suikazan's defection and the Kaguya Clan's rebellion, things wouldn't have become this bad."
Hozuki Kumo remained expressionless, eyes fixed only on the blade in his hands.
It was about to hit.
Then suddenly, without the slightest warning, Rasa moved one step to the side.
Just one step.
Not much.
But that single step was enough.
Rasa avoided Hozuki Kumo's strike perfectly.
Slash!
Slash!
Rasa had dodged.
But Akebino and Kushimaru could not.
The two sand soldiers caught up.
Their spears drove straight through both men's bodies.
Because the pair had poured all their power into diverting Rasa's attention, neither had any strength left to evade the attack from behind. The instant they saw Rasa take that one step, they understood.
It was over.
"He knew from the beginning."
"He did it on purpose."
"He pretended not to notice, made us waste all that attention, effort, and strength trying to distract him…"
"So the sand soldiers could strike us easily."
A bitter smile appeared on both faces.
The spears pierced into them, punching through flesh and organs alike.
Then they were pulled out again.
Blood poured from the wounds like a broken floodgate.
"But how did he know?"
"That movement… it was like he could see it happen."
"But how could he possibly have seen it?"
Akebino looked up into the air.
Rasa's detached eye was still tightly wrapped in gold dust. It was sealed so completely there was no way it could see outside.
And Kushimaru's technique had not yet fully dissipated.
"He doesn't have the Byakugan…"
Akebino could not understand.
Bang.
Bang.
Akebino and Kushimaru collapsed one after the other.
The sand soldiers raised their spears again and drove them down once more, punching fresh holes into the corpses.
Only after confirming the two were completely dead did they stop.
Meanwhile, the other two sand soldiers had already launched themselves at Hozuki Kumo.
Hozuki Kumo's face darkened.
It had been supposed to be reinforcements.
Supposed to be many against one.
Supposed to be an ambush.
But the moment he arrived, everything had fallen apart.
The ambush had failed.
Akebino and Kushimaru had dropped the instant he entered. Black Hoe Raiga was nowhere to be seen—meaning he had either fled or was already dead.
What remained was a straightforward one-on-one between himself and Rasa.
Hozuki Kumo was indeed a blade fanatic.
But he was no fool.
Still, things had already come to this point.
"Hiramekarei—Release!"
In an instant, the entire blade of Hiramekarei shone brightly.
It was the effect of chakra condensed to an extreme degree.
A ball of light slowly formed over the weapon.
Holding Hiramekarei, Hozuki Kumo pointed the glowing sphere toward Rasa.
"Go!"
The light sphere shot forward.
But before it could reach Rasa—
A figure stepped in front of him.
One sand soldier.
Boom!
The sphere slammed into it with a violent crash. Half the sand soldier's body was blown apart.
Yet it still stood firmly in place.
Hozuki Kumo's pupils shrank.
Two spears came at him from the left and right.
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