Naruto looked at the man who was standing up from the rubble. He knew that it wouldn't be easy to kill him.
Jigen emerged from the rubble, a slight bruise mark on his face that was slowly healing. He looked at Hinata and remarked, "What a good way to use your eyes."
He wasn't worried that he would lose the fight.
Hinata simply ignored him. The light beneath her feet crackled, and she disappeared from there, reappearing in front of Jigen.
The lion head in Hinata's hand flickered, and she assumed the Gentle Fist stance. With everything in her field of vision, she declared, "8 Trigrams 128 Palms."
With her shout, the relentless assault began . Their hand movements were a blur of speed. Jigen countered with his own taijutsu style. Each time her palm connected with his body, a jolt of pain coursed through him.
When the lion head came into contact, her jutsu suppressed and absorbed his chakra. This was the specialty of her technique—it drained an opponent's chakra and suppressed it.
As the onslaught continued, Jigen realized there was no escape through conventional means.
Thousands of black chakra rods materialized behind him, and with a mental command, they shot out at lightning speed.
~~Swish~~
All of the chakra rods launched directly at Hinata, aiming to kill her in milliseconds.
"Rotation!" she exclaimed, and in an instant, a high-speed rotating chakra dome formed around her. The dome was one meter wide, crackling with lightning, and it expertly deflected all the incoming chakra rods and hit Jigen.
The speed at which Hinata activated "Rotation" was extraordinary.
Jigen flipped in mid-air and stabilized himself, gracefully landing on the ground. The earth beneath him cracked upon impact.
However, before he could think or react further, Jigen sensed imminent danger at his neck. With instincts honed by battle, he ducked, narrowly evading Naruto's roundhouse kick imbued with lightning chakra.
Naruto landed on the ground and commented, "Your instincts are quite good."
The rings around Naruto's wrists flew out and transformed into a staff. The Truth-Seeking Balls were always with him. Two of them merged with each other and transformed into a staff.
~~Thud~~
Naruto struck the staff onto the ground, causing the earth beneath him to crack, and some of it even erased.
Jigen looked at his weapon and commented in a nonchalant voice, "Truth-Seeking Ball, the mixture of all 7 chakra natures."
Without pause, Naruto flicked his fingers, disappearing from his current spot and reappearing behind Jigen. With all his might, he swung his staff at an incredible speed, cutting through the air with a resounding howl.
Jigen twisted his body, conjuring a similar staff in his hand. Although it was not made of Truth-Seeking orbs, it held immense power.
Jigen placed the staff in front of him to protect himself.
~~Boom~~
The two weapons clashed into each other, and with a loud boom, the staff in Jigen's hand shattered, sending him flying with the sheer force behind Naruto's swing.
Jigen was in the air when he felt a burning sensation on his back, and he was sent flying in another direction. Hinata landed on the ground.
Jigen flipped in the air and stabilized himself. It was getting harder and harder for him to fight them; their teamwork was flawless.
Squinting his eyes, Jigen summoned three chakra rods in front of Naruto. Their speed was incredible, yet they stopped just two inches away from his body.
In a burst of speed, Jigen disappeared from his position and reappeared behind Naruto. He twisted his body, delivering a powerful axe kick.
Naruto turned around and crossed his arms in an 'X' shape. With a force greater than he had ever felt, Jigen's kick stopped just an inch away from his body. Naruto was sent flying with breakneck speed, even though the kick didn't make contact. He could still feel the force behind the kick.
'If I continue to use my Space barrier, my focus will be divided between maintaining the barrier and fighting with him,'
"Fuck it... I'm going all out," Naruto said in a low voice, emerging from the shattered stones.
He closed his eyes slightly, and lightning chakra surged forth from his body, with lightning cracking all around him.
With a sprint, he became a blur, and the ground beneath his steps shattered. Naruto appeared in front of Jigen, his left hand moving with incredible speed to strike his face. Jigen slightly shifted his head to avoid the punch and thrust his right hand. Naruto blocked his punch with his empty hand.
Jigen attempted to move his body to create distance, but to his shock, he couldn't move. He quickly looked down, his eyes widening.
"Shadow Binding," he called out. Jigen's shadow was bound by Naruto's.
"Yup."
But before Jigen could break the bindings of his shadow with brute force, a brutal kick struck his head. He registered the pain; the kick was so brutal that it shattered the shadow binding and sent Jigen flying away, crashing into the ground and creating a large crater. Hinata landed beside Naruto.
Jigan touched his head, he was bleeding. He looked at his blood.
"Damn you…. I will kill you"
He roared in anger, and the ground around him was pushed away by his chakra.
Naruto felt the chakra pulses coming from Jigen. His chakra started to rise with incredible speed, and the black lining started to appear on Jigen's body as he activated his Karma seal. Due to this, his chakra rose exponentially.
"I think he is getting serious," Hinata commented.
"Sure he is," Naruto replied while sensing Jigen's rising chakra.
~~Swoosh~~
Before Naruto could react, a punch struck him in the chest, sending him flying like a cannon and destroying all the ground and boulders in his way.
Hinata crossed her arms in front of her, and without any delay, a kick hit her forearms. She lifted from the ground, and with a sonic boom, she was sent flying, crashing into the rocks.
Naruto emerged from the cave he had created, a slight trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth. The bruise on his chest had already healed.
"Are you all right, Hinata?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied.
Jigen didn't wait; he appeared in front of Naruto. Naruto's eyes glowed slightly, and everything around him seemed to slow down. The world became segmented, and Jigen was now moving at a normal pace in this slowed-down world.
He was surprised that Naruto could see his moves. Naruto's eyes followed Jigen's every movement.
Naruto's eyes were sending too much information to his brain. He infused lightning chakra all over his body to help him keep up with his eyes.
Naruto deflected the punch aimed at his head, lightning crackling around his left leg. With a swift turn, Naruto landed a powerful kick on Jigen's right hand, but Jigen managed to block Naruto's kick with a chakra rod.
Boom!!
The sheer force behind Naruto's kick was tremendous, causing the ground beneath them to shatter. Jigen was sent hurtling away from Naruto, landing in the opposite direction.
As this happened, everything returned to normal speed. Naruto felt a slight headache as his eyes had processed an overwhelming amount of information in just a few seconds, but his healing chakra quickly alleviated it.
"Your reflexes are good," Jigen commented, shocked that Naruto could keep up with him.
"Hah... you haven't seen anything yet," Naruto said as two Rasengans began to appear in his hands. The temperature started to rise, and his fire chakra seeped into the Rasengan, making its core turn black with fiery red rings rotating around it. {image}
Naruto vanished from his spot and reappeared behind Jigen. "Fire Style: Rasengan!" Naruto announced, slamming two Rasengans into Jigen's back.
Burn!
Jigen's clothes burned, and two bruises appeared on his back as he was sent crashing away.
Naruto flicked his hands, and the Rasengans hit the ground. Where the Rasengan hit the ground, it melted away, leaving nothing but ashes.
"Your body is really tough," Naruto said while looking at Jigen's burns
Naruto extended two fingers toward Jigen. "Repel," he commanded. A repulsion force struck Jigen in the chest, sending him soaring into the air.
Hinata appeared in front of him with Storm Release crackling in her hand. With all her might, she slapped Jigen on his back.
Boom.
Jigen hit the ground with a loud bang, and dust rose high into the sky. He created a pit where his body had struck the ground, and there was a palm print on his back.
He had been Bitchslapped to the ground, and he couldn't tolerate such disrespect any longer.
"You... I will kill both of you," he said as his Karma seal started to blacken. The black lines crawled all around his body, and a horn appeared on his left side of his head, circling around his head to the right and pointing upwards.
Naruto looked at the new transformation. "He's getting serious again."
"Be ready..." Hinata said while observing Jigen's new appearance.
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AN~ Two chapters today, enjoy.