The word "compatibility" runs through the very core of a ninja's profession.
Compatibility with chakra natures, compatibility between physique and training methods, compatibility with teammates... and of course, the most important: compatibility with one's enemy.
Just like the Puppeteer Corps led by Mataza back then—including six jōnin and nearly a hundred chūnin, equipped with hundreds of various puppets. If deployed on a frontal battlefield, they could even pin down forces three to four times their number.
Even in one-on-one situations, a puppeteer could easily turn the battle into a multi-on-one engagement.
By swapping puppets and mechanisms, replenishing ammunition, and other means, puppeteers could always unleash large-scale attacks at a lower cost and held advantages in prolonged battles.
Then they encountered Konoha's White Fang, a high-speed assaulter, and were slaughtered by him single-handedly.
Facing Sakumo Hatake, with his extremely high level of speed and swordsmanship, once the control strings connecting puppets were severed, the puppets were essentially useless—a flaw magnified infinitely.
Puppeteers whose puppet strings were cut couldn't even replace new puppets before falling to his blade. And ironically, the neural-connected puppet strings Hii Kōri had developed instead became a liability in such situations.
This was also why many jōnin, after reaching a certain level in their specialty, would branch out into other fields.
Not to become truly "omniscient" all-rounders, but to transform from "not being good at certain things" to being "better at certain things."
It was acceptable to not know, to not be proficient—but one must know how to cope.
Though no one would expect what they learned with diverted energy to compare with an enemy who had immersed in their specialty for decades, having more reaction time was still good.
Well, at the very least, it could also let one die with less unrealistic regret.
And at this moment, the "compatibility" between Hii Kōri and this mysterious figure was quite subtle.
When restricted from using large-scale, high-power attacks, fighting only with weapons and taijutsu, due to that Kusanagi sword, Hii Kōri did not have the advantage.
Truth be told, even in Hii Kōri's eyes, this mysterious figure's swordsmanship was undeniably superb.
Relying solely on this fierce sword technique, paired with that freely extendable, indestructible pitch-black Kusanagi sword, was already enough for him to carve out a name for himself in the fiercely competitive professional ecosystem of jōnin.
But when facing Hii Kōri—who, after discarding his weapon and fully activating Medical Ninjutsu and Reverse Cursed Technique, didn't mind at all (and was even happy) to trade injury for injury—the limitations of taijutsu, or rather swordsmanship, became too obvious.
Without attached Fire Release or Lightning Release—techniques that could enlarge wound area—slashes and thrusts not deliberately aimed at vital points were much simpler to heal with Reverse Cursed Technique compared to blunt force trauma or large injuries caused by ninjutsu.
And in terms of speed, Hii Kōri—having extreme activation of his physical state through the Seven Essence Release Gates, forcibly forming four afterimages through speed alone—was also superior to this mysterious cloaked figure.
He even had the leisure to simultaneously activate his technique while attacking, restoring damaged buildings to their original state.
Logically, under these circumstances, Hii Kōri should have already pounded this mysterious person into Chaozhou beef balls.
But such a future did not arrive.
A heavy side kick, enough to crush huge rocks, landed on the pitch-black cloak, yet only emitted a dull thud. The immense force wrapped around his leg vanished like a mud ox entering the sea, absorbed entirely by that surging obscurity. Even the burning cursed energy and chakra flames could not scorch its surface.
A hand blade containing cursed energy blast struck the opponent's raised blocking arm, but was slid open by the cloak, most of its force dissipated.
Such situations were countless. Even attacks the mysterious figure himself almost didn't react to were all neutralized by the cloak's subtle self-defense.
And now, after that series of rapid bursts, Hii Kōri could no longer maintain those speed-induced afterimages. However, this was not merely futile energy expenditure.
From the feedback of these repeated attacks and the information collected by his Spirit Thread Nerves, Hii Kōri could now determine that this cloak was fundamentally an extreme Yin Release creation—to be more precise, it was something further extended and deepened based on the idea of the Yin Release secret technique he had developed: Rashōmon.
"Heh!"
Decisively convergence the gradually unsustainable speed afterimages, Hii Kōri hugged the ground and charged forward. Ignoring the thrust aimed at his shoulder, he forced his way into the mysterious figure's center. Wrapping arm and hooking leg, he swung a fist from low to high—
"A sword without killing intent can't cut anyone, boy!"
Standing earth, towering cannon!
BOOM!!!
The unmistakable sound of bone cracking rang out. The mysterious figure's head snapped backward, the immense force lifting him off the ground.
Taking advantage of his completely opened center, Hii Kōri shot out Spirit Thread Nerves to restrain the cloak—which no longer bothered to obscure its own consciousness—and kicked solidly into the opponent's chest and abdomen.
BOOM!!!
The mysterious figure instantly turned into a pitch-black sack, hurtling upward. He crashed through the tower wall, then a second, a third...
Casually summoning an Iron Sand Clone and ordering it to take Akane—still on the other side of the platform—back to the office, Hii Kōri stomped hard and chased out through the hole the mysterious figure had made.
But once outside the Dragon Pulse Sealed Place, the mysterious figure no longer restrained himself. Hii Kōri had barely finished repairing the hole behind him with his technique, hadn't even passed through the second wall, when a leopard-shaped black lightning bolt slammed heavily into him.
"?! This is... Lightning Release: Black Panther?"
Black leopard-shaped lightning—that would be the unique Lightning Release technique developed by the Third Raikage.
During this time period, the Third Raikage had only been in office a few years. Whether he had even developed this technique was questionable. He had been deliberately concealing his identity at first, yet now casually using such a Lightning Release—it really gave one a feeling of self-abandonment.
Feeling the intense numbness and stinging pain, Hii Kōri's mood was quite cheerful.
Although he didn't know why this person, connected to him, was acting so awkward, seeing that he hadn't immediately stated any business and instead bothered with this kind of nonsense, presumably the environment he lived in the future hadn't encountered any universal dilemma. He had only come for some personal reasons.
"Then that means I can also peacefully conduct my research..."
Watching those few fierce beasts, gleaming with dark lightning, charging again Upon entering the corridor, Hii Kōri felt genuinely pleased.
***
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