"First."
The moment Might Duy launched his attack, Hagoromo immediately retreated with Pakura.
He realized his earlier judgment of the battlefield had been too narrow. Even if he trusted Duy's strength, even if he had no intention of joining the fight, he couldn't forget that the enemy might prioritize attacking him first.
After all, Hagoromo was also a Konoha shinobi. In the enemy's eyes, he and Duy were on the same side—but compared to Duy, Hagoromo was clearly the softer target, the one easier to crush.
Hagoromo retreated quickly, yet he was still caught by the aftershock of Duy's strike.
Fortunately, it was only the residual force of a full-power blow, not a direct hit, and it caused no real injury.
As for the "first" Hagoromo spoke of—it wasn't merely that Duy had attacked an enemy.
It meant he had already killed one.
With a single, straightforward blow, the jōnin Kushimaru Kuriarare was dead.
From Hagoromo's observation, Kushimaru's spine had snapped at the point of impact, his entire ribcage crushed flat. Under that kind of force, his internal organs were likely reduced to pulp. He hadn't even struggled—death came instantly.
If Kushimaru could still be alive after that, it would have been a violation of basic biology.
As for how Duy had moved—
It was too fast.
So fast that Hagoromo hadn't perceived it at all.
That wasn't strange. At Duy's current speed, even a Mangekyō Sharingan might not have been able to track him.
"You are my final enemies," Duy said calmly, stepping out of the more-than-ten-meter-deep crater left by his strike.
"This is my last request and wish as a shinobi. So please—don't do anything unnecessary."
"Before you defeat me, any strategy is meaningless."
"Kushimaru… dead in one hit?"
"So you really are strong."
"But if we don't deal with him, the mission to assassinate Orochimaru is already impossible."
"He's strong—but it looks like he can only use taijutsu."
"He's strong—but that doesn't mean he can't be killed!"
Some of the words were exchanged among the four remaining enemies, others were directed at Duy himself. But they had reached the same conclusion—
Judging from that single blow, bypassing Duy to attack Hagoromo was clearly the wrong choice.
That speed left no exploitable opening.
As their voices fell, all four charged toward Duy almost simultaneously.
Duy didn't dodge.
He met them head-on.
He couldn't maintain this extreme state for long. He had no luxury of a prolonged battle.
Even though four enemies rushed in together, who would face Duy first had nothing to do with differences in their speed—nor with who was fastest.
The order of engagement—
Or rather, the order of death—
Was decided by Duy alone.
Like a second instant movement, Duy passed straight through the first three and appeared beside the last one—
Raiga Kurosuki.
A Lightning Release user, yet paradoxically the slowest of the four. Clearly, he wasn't going all out—either preparing a powerful technique or planning an escape.
Either way, he became Duy's top priority.
Duy moved like a ghost, his form resembling an asura—his appearance utterly untraceable.
Unlike Kushimaru, who had been struck from behind, Raiga was facing Duy directly. No matter how fast Duy was, an elite jōnin couldn't fail to react entirely.
The instant Duy appeared, Raiga instinctively attempted to swing Lightning Blade: Fang.
But awareness alone wasn't enough.
His body couldn't keep up.
The strike never came.
No matter how fast Lightning Blade was—
It wasn't faster than Might Duy.
Before Raiga could complete the motion, he saw his own arms fly away.
Duy raised his right arm, his body tilting as he appeared, then brought it down like a blade or an axe. The extreme speed and power produced a cutting force that severed both of Raiga's arms in an instant.
Before pain could even register, Duy turned and surged forward. His bent left arm, hard as iron, smashed into Raiga's neck.
This was originally meant to be the opening move of the Hidden Lotus—
But Duy stopped.
There was no need to continue.
Because the enemy had already been decapitated.
The three shinobi still charging forward slammed to a halt. As they turned, all they saw was Lightning Blade: Fang falling from the sky—
And Raiga Kurosuki's head tumbling through the air.
Shock?
Or fear?
Either way, retreat was no longer an option.
They all understood it now—
Against an enemy like this, running away only meant dying faster.
"Second."
Hagoromo continued counting coldly.
The next was Jinpachi Munashi.
The instant Raiga's headless body hit the ground, Duy appeared before him.
Though they couldn't truly track Duy's movements, after adapting slightly to his speed, they could at least make predictions.
Jinpachi seemed to have anticipated that he would be the next target. He was fully prepared—and even correctly judged where Duy would appear.
The moment Duy manifested, Blunt Blade: Kabutowari came down in a single-armed swing, striking straight at Duy's neck.
Kabutowari's axe connected—
And Jinpachi's hammer slammed down onto the back of the blade.
This blow was meant to split Duy from head to toe.
But the expected impact never came.
The axe cut through empty air, and the loss of resistance caused Jinpachi to stumble slightly.
He had struck nothing but an afterimage.
"Damn—!"
He thought he'd exposed an opening.
In truth, it was an opening—
But Duy didn't need openings at all.
In an instant, Duy flashed to Jinpachi's side, about five meters away. He drew his arm back, clenched his fist, and unleashed the attack in a blink.
A barrage of ultra-high-speed straight punches.
The friction between fist and air ignited massive fireballs.
Morning Peacock.
But Morning Peacock used in the Eight Gates was different.
First, the fireballs were tinged with deep crimson—
Blood mixed into flame.
Second, the power was on a completely different level.
Morning Peacock was originally a ranged technique, but at this distance—even before the fireballs fully formed, the shockwaves from the punches themselves were lethal.
The technique struck home before it could even bloom.
"Third…"
Compared to Raiga's death, Jinpachi's end could almost be called merciful.
"There are only two left," Duy said calmly.
"My body is already close to its limit."
"So the next two techniques…"
"Will probably cost me one arm each."
"Fortunately, I still have two arms."
After Jinpachi fell, Duy spoke to the final two enemies.
There was no need for explanation—Hagoromo could clearly see the toll the Eight Gates were taking on Duy's body.
So could the enemies.
Yet even so, before Duy truly fell, none of them dared to move rashly.
Because—
Though it was nothing but taijutsu,
The Eight Gates Formation felt… unsolvable.
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