*Chapter 23: Crow and Hound*

The night grew darker, the stars and moon swallowed by the void—leaving only the firelight clinging to the treetops, flickering like a dying pulse.

A flash of flame.

Uzukage’s eyes sharpened.

His hand snapped forward.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two kunai streaked toward Hikari’s face.

At the same instant, Bloodhound roared, channeling chakra into his legs and kicking off the ground with enough force to blast dust backward like arrows.

The recoil launched him forward—

His nodachi, longer than a man’s height, thrust straight for Hikari’s gut.

The blade and kunai arrived simultaneously.

A pincer attack. High and low.

Uzukage, already circling her flank, gripped another kunai. His eyes locked onto every vital point on her body. One opening. Just one. A single throw would end her.

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Her escape routes were sealed. Only retreat remains.

And if she stepped back? Bloodhound would press forward. Uzukage would tighten the noose. Victory was inevitable.

That’s what a decade in ANBU had taught him.

But tonight—

Tonight, he’d face something beyond experience.

Because standing before him was the first shinobi in a thousand years to wield both the Byakugan and Shikotsumyaku.

Two Kekkei Genkai, perfected in one vessel.

And in Hikari’s hands?

They would shine.

*"Byakugan!"*

Hikari’s veins swelled, crawling down her cheeks like roots.

Beneath her blindfold, her gray pupils sharpened to knife-points.

Hmm!

The world slowed.

Uzukage, circling like a hawk, kunai poised.

Bloodhound, charging, dust swirling at his feet.

The kunai’s poisoned edges glinting midair—she could count the toxins seeping into the steel.

In raw perception? The Byakugan left the Sharingan in the dust. Precision strikes were child’s play for the Hyūga.

A tilt of her head—

Sssk! Sssk!

The kunai grazed her ears, close enough to feel the wind—but not a single hair was cut.

Then—

Schlick!

Bone blades erupted from her palms.

Clang!

Bloodhound’s nodachi skewered her—

—and passed clean through, drawing no blood.

An afterimage.

Her other blade scythed toward his chest.

Bloodhound barely twisted back, the bone edge missing his ribs by a breath.

Too bad.

Hikari’s grip tightened.

The blade in her hand stretched—1.2 meters to 1.4—then snapped back.

Her muscles coiled.

Chakra flooded her legs.

BOOM!

The ground shattered beneath her kick.

Uzukage blinked—

—and she was already in Bloodhound’s face.

Too fast.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two more kunai shot from his blind spot, aimed at her skull.

She didn’t turn.

Her left blade flicked up, batting them away mid-swing.

Meanwhile—

Her right blade morphed—

—into a massive cleaver, wide as a door.

SWOOSH!

The wind pressure alone flattened the grass.

Bloodhound knew—no block would hold.

But he had no choice.

CRACK!

His nodachi splintered on impact.

The force slammed through his arms—

—shredding his palms, bursting capillaries in his wrists.

But he lived.

Then—

SWISH!

The left blade—already mid-motion from deflecting the kunai—elongated mid-swing.

Two meters of bone screamed down.

How?! No recoil?!

Bloodhound’s mind blanked.

*"Suiton: Suirō no Jutsu!"*

Uzukage’s hands flashed through seals—

—and water exploded from nowhere, twin hemispheres clamping toward Hikari like jaws.

Now—

Retreat, and lose the advantage.

Attack, and drown.

Hikari chose.

Her blade fell.

Bloodhound split in two.

Blood fountained.

Her Byakugan’s dead-gray hue deepened, chakra flooding her eyes—

POP!

The water prison shattered.

So did Uzukage’s illusion.

The real Bloodhound gasped, clutched by Uzukage meters away.

*"You good?"*

Bloodhound spat blood. *"Barely."*

Their eyes locked on the girl.

Her blades retracted, the cleaver’s chips sealing smooth.

She stood.

Turned.

Her blindfolded gaze locked onto them.

Not a scratch. Not a tremble.

Muscle fibers, micro-torn in battle, knit themselves under chakra’s glow.

Then—

Hsss!

Steam billowed from her pores—

—like a warship’s engine.

A child’s face.

A monster’s aura.

Gulp.

Bloodhound’s voice cracked. *"…We shouldn’t have taken this mission."*

Uzukage’s skull throbbed. *"Turns out the old bastards were right."*

Above them, the sky blackened.

No stars.

No moon.

Only flames—

—and the true Hour of Twilight.

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