Once,
She had been the pride of the Hidden Mist Village. A gifted kunoichi who became a jonin at a young age and earned the full trust of the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura. But during one mission, she was struck by a meteor.
And from that shattered meteor, a young man stepped out.
In a single instant, he shattered every image of what she thought a man could be. And with every encounter that followed, she found herself more and more captivated by the overwhelming presence of Hatake Kaede.
Later,
Kaede arrived in the Hidden Mist and fought an enemy within the village. The sheer shock of his power, displayed during that battle, crashed into her heart like wave after wave.
Even though she knew it was wrong, she still remembered clearly how he casually grabbed Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, and flung him away like a helpless chick. The scene had left her entire body trembling.
After that,
She never encountered Kaede again, not for many years. But she remained in the village, training diligently, gradually earning the recognition of her peers. Just recently, she had taken on the mantle of Fifth Mizukage.
Now, Kaede has begun his campaign to unify the ninja world. Iwagakure fell almost overnight. The Hidden Mist was the only one left. Mei Terumi had decided that, as Mizukage, she should step forward and negotiate with Kaede in hopes of avoiding further bloodshed.
But before she could act,
Otsutsuki Urashiki had arrived.
With ease, he had defeated the combined efforts of the village's forces. The Anbu, Chojuro, Ao, all fell before him. She had spent nearly all her chakra, teetering on the brink of collapse.
And just at that moment,
He appeared.
Bathed in a faint golden light, stepping out of a spatial rift, that man returned. Seeing his figure again, Mei Terumi suddenly understood one thing:
No matter what happens, I must get that man!
As Mei Terumi stood dazed, her eyes sparkling as she gazed at the sky, Urashiki, who was floating opposite Kaede, narrowed his eyes, a cold gleam flashing within.
With a sudden flick of his red fishing rod, countless crimson hooks shot through the air, streaking toward Kaede.
But Kaede didn't even flinch.
He hovered there calmly, hands gripping the hilt of his sword. The next instant, snap, his figure vanished into thin air.
Shhhh!!
It was as if night had fallen across the entire sky.
From within that darkness, a flash of white light sliced through the battlefield, crossing behind Urashiki in an instant, the blade held frozen mid-swing in Kaede's hand.
Time itself seemed to stop.
Urashiki's expression was frozen in place.
Shhh! Shhh! Shhh! Shhh!!
All around where Urashiki had been floating, the sky suddenly looked like a wall of shattered mirrors. Countless invisible threads crisscrossed in perfectly aligned grids, like an intricate fishing net drawn tight.
They emitted no light, but distorted the air around them, space itself had been severed.
Boom!
Urashiki's body exploded.
His form scattered into hundreds of red origami cranes that fluttered away in all directions. Then, far from Kaede's position, his body reassembled in midair.
"So fast…"
"This kind of speed…"
Urashiki's expression was stiff.
Though it looked like he had dodged in time, his body was covered in wounds. If he hadn't been on high alert, he might have been cleaved apart entirely by Kaede's attack!
His sliced flesh throbbed with pain, not just physically, but deep into his soul.
"This kind of power…"
"Damn it… If I take that hit head-on, I'll die!"
Fear crept into Urashiki's eyes. The gap in strength was undeniable.
How is he this strong?!
Gritting his teeth, Urashiki turned. The space behind him tore open in an instant. His body flickered and vanished into the rift, he had chosen to retreat without hesitation.
You couldn't blame him.
Urashiki's understanding of Kaguya's power was based on knowledge from a thousand years ago. But the God Tree she had planted on this world had absorbed a massive amount of chakra from the Dragon Veins.
It had nearly reached full maturity.
If the Sage of Six Paths and Hamura hadn't sealed Kaguya away, given another thousand years, Kaede had no doubt that even Urashiki and Momoshiki would have been flattened by her like ants.
Kaede calmly watched as Urashiki used Yomotsu Hirasaka to escape.
Then, with a single step, whoosh, he crossed the void and stepped directly into the rift, chasing after him.
Urashiki's chakra signature was even stronger than the Six Paths power Kaede had received from the Sage of Six Paths. His strength was somewhere between Phase One and Phase Two, if he absorbed enough chakra, he might reach Phase Two.
Though Kaede remembered Urashiki getting into a childish squabble with Six Paths Sasuke, not even cracking the ground during the fight, he was still a genuine high-tier Otsutsuki who had come to hunt Kaguya.
Someone like that, if allowed to fight in the Hidden Mist, could easily destroy the entire village with the aftershocks alone.
So Kaede had no intention of battling here.
Whoosh!
Kaede entered the dimensional rift left behind by Yomotsu Hirasaka.
The space inside was pure darkness. A spatial rift zone, similar in feel to Kamui's dimension, but fundamentally different. This place could serve as a portal to virtually any dimension, but the farther the destination, the more chakra it consumed.
"He followed me in?"
Urashiki's eyes narrowed as he sensed Kaede's presence.
He clenched his teeth and activated his Byakugan, his pupils rippled into concentric rings.
After witnessing Kaede's terrifying attack just moments earlier, Urashiki knew that even a single misstep could mean death. He immediately entered Time Rewind Mode, shifting his eyes into Rinnegan state.
Unlike Kaede's Time Reversal, which restored his body and anything in contact with him to an earlier state, Urashiki's Time Rewind allowed him to return to the world a few seconds prior. A more accurate description: "rewind to the past."
In theory, it was an extremely powerful ability.
If one could return far enough into the past, it would be absolutely broken. Unfortunately for Urashiki, he could only rewind a few seconds. Not nearly enough to change the tide of battle.
Silence filled the space.
In the dark void between dimensions, Kaede and Urashiki stared at each other in stillness.
Something seemed to happen.
And yet… it also seemed like nothing had.
Suddenly,
Urashiki's eyes flickered. Something changed.
A new wound appeared on his body, like it had appeared out of thin air.
"A different kind of time rewind, huh…"
"Interesting."
Kaede saw it and immediately understood.
A faint smile tugged at his lips as he swung his blade again toward Urashiki.
If Urashiki could rewind far enough, it might've posed a real threat.
But a rewind of only a few seconds?
Utterly pointless.
It was even worse than foresight. At least precognition lets you see yourself getting hurt and avoid it entirely. But rewinding a few seconds after the fact? The damage was already done.
A worthless ability.
Not even qualified to negotiate with.
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Completed version available on Patreon.com/Veltoria