In the dim light of the rainy forest, the very air seemed to grow thick and heavy. But at this moment, a nearly transparent figure, wrapped in boundless rage, tore through this stagnant air like an icebreaker.
The instant the cold metal, still carrying the lingering warmth of life, fell into the muddy water, Hii Kōri had no time to think his body instinctively drove him to Shunshin left.
'This speed...'
Though he had expected the speed of the spirit separated via Spirit Transformation, facing this spirit assault surpassing sound speed, he still felt a trace of pressure.
Yet the nearly invisible spirit did not continue pursuit. Instead, it slowly revealed its outline, blurring in the realm of divine speed, hovering in place.
It was Katō Dan's 'living soul.'
"Heh, so this is the Spirit Transformation Technique... To have cultivated such a technique, you're a genuine genius, Katō-kun."
Standing atop a nearby canopy, Hii Kōri looked down at Katō Dan's spirit, thus commenting.
This detached living soul seemed able to adjust its transparency, freely choosing whether to be seen. While moving, at most it revealed a faint outline.
Combined with the spirit's extremely restrained chakra operation, with Hii Kōri's perception and related experience, capturing traces of this soul was no simple task.
And for over ninety-nine percent of ninjas in this world, it was simply impossible.
Truth be told, the Spirit Transformation Technique-wielding Katō Dan might pose a greater threat than even Konoha's White Fang. That the former hadn't established particularly fearsome reputation instead proved this technique's strength.
The victories of skilled warriors bear no reputation for wisdom, no merit for valor.
But... still within plan.
Flipping his mental plan to Plan D, Hii Kōri casually undid his hair tie and shrugged off his loose coat to his waist, activating Spirit Thread Nerves and strengthening tattoos to maximum.
"...I'll subdue you and bring you back to Konoha. Before extracting every bit of intelligence from your mind, don't expect to die easily."
Sensing Hii Kōri's aura was significantly enhanced by several levels, Katō Dan, having briefly mourned farewell to his friend, looked up and declared thus in a deep voice suppressing strong murderous intent.
"Ah, I understand. Seeing comrades tortured to death like this, dying to kill me but having to consider village interests and capture me alive instead, right?"
Rolling his wrists in sequence, warming up like students before actual combat, Hii Kōri's tone dripped with provocation: "Lone wolf rogue ninjas, missing-nin—they can care for no one but themselves. But village ninjas must consider such things..."
"So won't you reconsider? My offer still stands. Hand over Spirit Transformation, and you can all go home safely..."
"But that's impossible, isn't it?"
"Save your dreams for prison tell them to the Uchiha!"
Nearly overlapping voices announced this battle's resumption.
Katō Dan's spirit once again became an invisible twisted silhouette, ignoring dense branches as it headed straight for Hii Kōri.
Having shed physical limitations, no longer recognized by appearance or chakra but sensing via soul outline, Katō Dan could completely ignore the perception mask's interference.
Hii Kōri instantly liberated all strengthened tattoos, his body flowing with cyan patterns as he transformed into a bright streak of light, howling through the forest like a storm. Even the mere wind from his passage was enough to shred sturdy branches to pieces.
Yet even so, he remained slightly slower in speed.
However, the complex terrain Katō Dan had expected would hinder movement and instead provided Hii Kōri more maneuvering room.
Using Spirit Thread Nerves extending from fingertips and hair as cables, combined with jet points and footholds created by Wind Release, Hii Kōri nimbly swerves through dense canopies, even easily executing extreme maneuvers beyond ninja imagination.
With his brain operating at full processing power, coupled with the sensory abilities expanded and enhanced by Spirit Thread Nerves, Hii Kōri could even achieve something akin to 'future sight.'
Based on predictive calculation and extraordinary maneuvers, even though Katō Dan's straight-line speed slightly exceeded Hii Kōri's, for now he couldn't touch him.
'Such speed and mobility must place quite a heavy burden on his body...'
Watching the cyan streak carve sharp turns midair, shaking off again and again, he is about to catch up with pursuit, the concealed spirit thought thus, his face unconsciously twisted.
The squad's infiltration failure, his comrade's miserable death every time he recalled these things, uncontrollable irritation surged within him.
Seeing Hii Kōri's cables whip up powerful air pressure, reducing nearby trunks shattered by the gale to even finer fragments, and even igniting them into flying flames rushing toward him, Katō Dan's spirit didn't even blink as he let them pass through his body.
Then, having discerned Hii Kōri's habits in these seconds of high-speed chase, he anticipated his movements and dropped downward first.
'Physical attacks completely immune, ninjutsu effects almost nil... as expected, I suppose.'
Feeling the feedback from Spirit Thread Nerves deliberately left in his trajectory passing through the spirit, Hii Kōri inwardly complained with displeasure.
'But... curses are still quite effective.'
Souls are easily infected
by curses and transform into cursed spirits common knowledge in jujutsu circles.
Though that usually concerns the dead's 'ghosts,' living souls and ghosts are both disembodied souls, aren't they? In the realm of curses, no difference.
Flipping midair as he descended, Hii Kōri watched Katō Dan's increasingly ferocious expression draw nearer, revealing an equally grim smile.
First step, complete.
"What's wrong?! Didn't you want my Spirit Transformation Technique?!"
His voice stretched nearly distorted in this world of extreme speed, yet Katō Dan's hatred and resentment remained clearly audible. "Stop and face me!"
"Heh who didn't hear ghost stories as a kid?!"
With obvious provocation, Hii Kōri laughed thus. "With this mobility yet thrusting at me, not attempting other techniques your main attack method now is possession, isn't it?"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Grinning, Hii Kōri flung three kunai with exploding tags, detonating dazzling fire between man and spirit.
Even though Katō Dan no longer relied on the five senses for perception and wouldn't be harmed by such explosions, Hii Kōri merely needed to obstruct his vision momentarily.
Through the explosion of fire, what met Katō Dan's eyes were three figures galloping toward different directions.
"Iron sand clones?"
Since arriving on the battlefield, Hii Kōri hadn't used his Magnet Release iron sand. Katō Dan had assumed Hii Kōri deemed it ineffective and shelved it—turns out he was saving it for now.
"You think this will help?!"
But regardless of clone type, what resides in clones is merely consciousness, not soul.
In Katō Dan's soul-vision, Hii Kōri's original body was unmistakably conspicuous.
"Hmm~ I never claimed to deceive you, did I?"
Hii Kōri directly tossed his wrist scroll to two iron sand clones, judging with absolute certainty: "Though physical damage and regular ninjutsu are ineffective against your spirit form, since your soul is here, your physical body is empty!"
"You didn't have your teammates attack me because they need to guard that fragile bod vulnerable to any random stone don't they!"
"Let's see, as I disembowel your teammates and crush their organs in order, whether you'll beg on your knees to hand over Spirit Transformation—Konoha's elite jōnin, Katō Dan!"
"You won't get the chance—!"
Under Hii Kōri's provocation, Katō Dan found it increasingly difficult to control his emotions. Not only his teammates, but even the image of his sister, who had died a tragic death in war, seemed to appear before his eyes.
Konoha indeed knew little intelligence about Hii Kōri. But his simultaneous activity under different identities on the battlefield, even attacking Konoha's camp as three-in-one, was quite widely known.
With such precedent, how could Katō Dan underestimate his chakra reserves? Even just his two iron sand clones were no easy opponent.
Anxious for his teammates, Katō Dan's killing intent can no longer be contained.
"Because I'll make you breathe your last before that! Immediately! Right now! This instant!"
Methods to dispel the genjutsu? Leave that to Orochimaru to study!
Suna Intelligence? Didn't Interrogation and Corpses have memory extraction techniques too! Even fragmented memories would suffice!
"Ha, as if you can catch me..."
Thus taunting, Hii Kōri's pace, propelled by Spirit Thread Nerves, suddenly seemed somewhat disheveled, and the light traces enveloping him flickered almost imperceptibly.
Taking all this in, the keen Katō Dan naturally wouldn't miss such details.
'Having allocated most chakra to his iron sand clones, momentarily unable to maintain the stability of this enhanced posture?'
Thinking thus, Katō Dan, nearly transformed into a raging spirit, how could he pass up this opening?
Though a ninja maintaining such combat effectiveness after splitting three ways showing such openings was somewhat questionable, pre-prepared techniques and improvised clones necessarily differ in preparation and stability, no? Moreover, that enhanced state should already place considerable burden on his body...
Wasn't his own Spirit Transformation only usable in stable conditions?
Whether exhausted or simply fluctuating, this weakness was real. He must not give this bastard any breathing room!
With this conviction, Katō Dan accelerates again.
No time even to conceal his form, his nearly tinged his spirit with blazing crimson. That demonic vengeful posture twisted the surrounding air like a sweltering summer afternoon.
His silver-gray hair wildly flew like an enraged lion's mane, seemingly about to devour this bastard before him.
"Tch!"
Seemingly to ensure safety on the other front, Hii Kōri had given all carrying equipment to his iron sand clones. In the nick of time, instinctively reaching for his wrist, he remembered his prior actions and could only remove an apparently half-finished device from the scroll around his waist.
Half a shell, cluttered with cables and gears, even the central core is obviously missing its cover not something to trust anyway.
But coming from the creator of giant puppets rivaling large summoned beasts, it demanded caution. Thinking this, Katō Dan suddenly felt he might be overreaching.
Come to think of it, hadn't this guy claimed at the start that the genjutsu affecting most of the front was his work?
In a flash, Katō Dan saw Hii Kōri—whom he'd just deemed exhausted—toss that grotesque device toward him. His heart seized.
"Dodge!"
'Soul Sealing Barrier Method: Activate!'
His soul's instinct whispered thus as he instinctively rose to evade the strange sphere. Simultaneously, Hii Kōri's voice rose with the barrier encapsulating everything within a four or five meter radius.
"Ah... so close. Sure enough, a master of the soul realm. Though I was very careful to exert influence, you still noticed at this moment..."
Looking up at Katō Dan outside the barrier, Hii Kōri's previously inciting and defiant tone instantly collapsed.
Though barrier techniques capable of restraining even tailed beasts—chakra incarnations—were equally effective against Spirit Transformation, Katō Dan's spirit speed made catching him with barriers in combat nearly impossible.
Thus Hii Kōri had created that device its shell completely meaningless, merely serving as a 'barrier technique' container. All the while deceiving Katō Dan into thinking he was just grasping at straws.
"Well, it doesn't matter."
Dispelling the Soul Sealing Barrier Method, condensing a combat staff of barrier technique in his hand, casually twirling it twice before slamming it into the ground, Hii Kōri's tone grew quite cold.
"Everything needing confirmation is confirmed. I'll just beat you down and take you away."
***
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