"...Phew."
Feeling that the lightning beasts he had released were still coursing through the corridors, fulfilling their duty of stalling for time, the mysterious figure healed his jaw and chest with Reverse Cursed Technique, then his shoulders instantly slumped as he let out a dull sigh.
He removed the hood that possessed the effect of "concealing existence." As the hood slid down, the darkness obscured his face also vanished.
Amidst wheat-colored long hair, the hue of ripe wheat fields, a face emerged with eight-tenths resemblance to Hii Kōri. His clear amber eyes carried a trace of indescribable melancholy and fatigue.
Perhaps due to his temperament, he appeared slightly less sharp than Hii Kōri, with a touch more softness.
This mysterious figure's true identity was Hii Kao—the son of Hii Kōri and Tsunade, traveling upstream from the future, over twenty years hence.
And the completely hatched Yin Release beast: Rashōmon.
Hii Kao slightly tilted his head and complained to the pitch-black cloak on his shoulder in an irritable tone: "Hey, aren't you supposed to be my 'guard'? Can't you show some subjective initiative? Forget actively attacking or interfering—your defense isn't even watertight. You just watched him use me as a punching bag, completely treating yourself as an ordinary cloak, didn't you?"
Although he had anticipated his father's taijutsu prowess, he hadn't expected that even twenty years ago, his father was already this troublesome.
The almost immortal Reverse Cursed Technique, the even more exaggerated taijutsu output compared to what he learned from his mother, and the technique that could completely ignore the consequences of terrain destruction... He had thought the Dragon Pulse outlet would limit his performance, but instead, he himself had been the one constrained.
"I am your guard, yes. But don't forget one fact."
As Hii Kao spoke, the surface of that pitch-black cloak surged, and from the shoulder blade position emerged a slightly swaying little black sprout.
The little black sprout opened its "mouth" and responded in a dull tone: "I am the Eight Generals God, Rashōmon of Taisui. My master has always been only Kōri. You are merely permitted to borrow a part of me."
"Even if it's Kōri of the past, he is still my master."
"That's why I really dislike you."
Hearing Rashōmon's metaphysical elaboration that deadpan logic in a tone eerily similar to his father's, Hii Kao didn't bother arguing with It.
Seizing this brief opportunity before Hii Kōri escaped the Lightning Release harassment and pursued, he took out a pitch-black cube, about the size of a fist, from his robes.
"It's never me or Kōri that you dislike. It's yourself—the one who thinks you can't do anything—that you actually dislike, right?"
"..."
Hii Kao's movements paused slightly. He had no words to retort.
His birth was probably not blessed. Hii Kao was somewhat aware of this—after all, there wasn't a trace of warmth in his parents' relationship.
But he was probably also loved.
If his mother Tsunade had not a shred of maternal love for him, with her medical ninjutsu skills ranking among the top three in the ninja world at that time, she had no need to leave the village with Shizune-nee and give birth to him.
If his father Hii Kōri completely didn't care about him, then after killing Tsunade—who had actively sought death—he wouldn't have brought him back to his country and revealed everything to him.
If his teacher Orochimaru had merely adopted due to his mother's entrustment or some benefit, he wouldn't have taught him so diligently.
Hii Kao had once asked his teacher Orochimaru—who seemed to him to be in a very similar position—how to face and balance his parents' relationship.
After all, Orochimaru was both his father's comrade and his mother's old teammate. But Orochimaru had indicated that the love and hate between them had nothing to do with him, nor with Hii Kao.
"They are your parents, and also enemies mortal, as well as my friends and old teammates. Tsunade loves you, and that doesn't prevent her from hating Hii. Hii loves you, and that doesn't prevent him from responding to Tsunade's hatred. One thing at a time."
That's what Orochimaru had said back then.
But Hii Kao just couldn't understand.
That's why he was here.
"One thing... at a time."
Hi Kao murmured, more like self-hypnosis than a response to Rashōmon's pointed comment. Then he injected a thread of special chakra into that pitch-black cube.
With the chakra infusion, the black cube instantly began to dissolve from the edges like snow under sunlight, turning into points of faintly shimmering black mist that silently dissipated into the air, leaving no trace.
The object sealed within was thus revealed.
It was a silkworm-shaped mechanical beast—if stretched out, probably no longer than an adult's index finger. It was currently curled up, lying quietly in Hii Kao's palm.
Through the slightly inky translucent shell, one could clearly see the intricate and exquisite mechanical structures inside.
Looking down at that exquisite mechanical insect, Hii Kao felt Rashōmon was absolutely right.
He simply detested himself, the one who had done nothing.
Because of his repulsion toward Hii Kōri, he had learned the swords his father didn't favor among weapons, and used Lightning Release—a nature his father was comparatively less skilled in—as if this constituted resistance.
But whether it was the Rashōmon body given to him as a "guard," or the various other resources and teachings—the things his younger siblings enjoyed and possessed—he hadn't rejected any of them.
Ultimately, even the ability to travel back in time, and the device he now held as his trump card, were from Hii Kōri's hand.
When it came down to it, he was just like a child throwing a tantrum, refusing to talk to his family.
Watching Hii Kōri burst through the wall, having dispersed the Lightning Release he'd previously unleashed, Hii Kao smiled self-deprecatingly and activated the mechanical beast in his Hand.
"Mechanical Insect: Hiruko Shadow Bright Deity...Breaking out of the cocoon."
With this call, as insubstantial as a bubble, the curled "larva" in his palm suddenly tensed its body. Countless fine threads gushed from its mouth, madly intertwining at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow, layer upon layer enveloping itself, forming a pure white cocoon.
The next moment, a tiny crack split open on the back of that small cocoon. Countless pitch-black butterflies, radiating a chilling fluorescence, surged forth wildly. Their wings were a deep black, yet their edges shimmered with a ghostly blue halos. They flew silently, scattering stardust-like phosphorescence.
In almost the blink of an eye, the swirling black butterflies became a massive wave, filling the entire corridor, enveloping both Hii Kōri and Hii Kao in this vortex center.
Then, amidst The black butterflies, swirling with ghostly light, their figures—like portraits erased by a rubber band—rapidly faded, became transparent, and finally vanished completely.
***
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