"What... did you say?"
Hii Kao's expression froze. Those clear amber eyes filled with disbelief. This thought had been like a demon bound deep within his heart—even just thinking about it plunged him into intense internal friction, let alone having it so bluntly spoken aloud by the other "party involved."
He was completely unable to understand how these words could come from his young father's mouth.
"..." Hii Kōri watched his son's dazed and shocked expression—as if his worldview had been shocked—and with a subtle mood scratched his hair, letting out a rather helpless sigh.
"Seeing you this hesitant, desperately suppressing your true emotions, I'm reminded of Big Brother's mental state when I first arrived at Sunagakure... Tch. In the end, Sasori turned out more like me, while you're more like Big Brother back then..."
Logically, since he was adopted by Chiyo, there shouldn't be a "nephew takes after uncle" situation. But considering his relationship with Tsunade, it seemed rather normal.
If he were to view this phenomenon as "historical inertia" or "humans always repeat similar mistakes," that would be making too much of it. Still, it left Hii Kōri with complex feelings, even a sense of absurdity.
"Indecisive. Sloppy. Too embarrassing to look at."
With this subtle sentiment, his tone became somewhat sharper. These comments made Hii Kao, crouching in the snow, tremble slightly. Yet he made no response.
"Although judging by the skills you've mastered and the fact you could come to this point in time, future me treated you decently—at least he didn't short of your resources. But raising children is the parents' responsibility. No matter what, it doesn't count as any favor."
Hii Kōri stepped forward, eyes blazing as he stared at his future son, expounding his own logic in an exceptionally natural tone.
"Just as the love and hate between Tsunade and me are our affair, having nothing to do with you. You're an independent person. What you want to do, what you choose to do, must be decided by yourself. Likewise, even if Tsunade told you in her will not to exclude future me, that's merely her one-sided request. Even if it was a demand, you have the right to refuse."
"If you think your father—that future me—is a bastard, then why not take this resentment and pour out your hatred for me?"
"One thing at a time." He emphasized, the placidity in his voice carrying inflammatory no weaker than future him's—
No, perhaps precisely because he merely stated "correct logic," no one could refute.
"As for what your future relationship will be like, leave that for the future. Emotions must be cathartic; keeping them bottled inside brings no benefit. This is rule of thumb as a jujutsu sorcerer."
"...One thing at a time, huh..."
Hii Kao murmured. This phrase, which future Hii Kōri often used, was deeply familiar to him.
He himself used it as self-comfort, as a suggestion to forcibly segment complex emotions.
But now, spoken by the young Hii Kōri, it seemed suddenly imbued with a certain liberating flavor.
"The smallest unit of strength is carrying out your own will, making your wishes come true as you desire."
Hii Kōri, as if doing warm-up exercises, hopped twice in the snow. Then he bent down, brushing snow off his trousers and boots, his voice slightly muffled: "Even if you do something, you won't always get the best result. But if you do nothing, there's definitely no result."
"Don't just inherit sensibility or rationality. What you lack most is that youthful drive—setting aside all the other clutter and just taking action."
Then he looked up at his son, still immersed in an inner storm, and revealed a near-malicious smile: "I told you, your spirit is still far from 'adulthood.'"
Before the words faded, Hii Kōri's arm suddenly swung!
Before the trainer makes eye contact, there's an opportunity to use a Heavy Ball. This is also documented in Pokémon ZA.
A snowball he'd casually packed—not particularly solid, but cold enough—wrapped in merciless force, pierced the silent, cold air and slammed squarely into Hii Kao's dazed face.
"Guwah!"
The snowball exploded on that melancholy and confused face. Cold snow foam scattered, some even landed inside his collar. Hit by this "strike" without killing intent but with considerable force, Hii Kao fell backward into the snow.
The sharp pain in his nose bridge and the cold from melted snow trickling down his collar instantly snapped him awake.
"What was that for?!"
That snowball was like a slap to an old electrical appliance, violently knocking open the floodgates of emotions Hii Kao had been sealed within his heart.
That cold touch instead ignited a searing flame in his chest.
Confusion, hesitation, shock, grief over his mother's passing, complex, inexpressible emotions toward his father... All that lay buried beneath this hollow snowfield was overshadowed by that anxiety.
"—You!" Hii Kao snapped his head up, wiping the snowmelt from his face. In those amber eyes, the melancholy and confusion that had always shrouded were replaced by an intense, almost angry light. He glared at Hii Kōri, his chest heaving.
"I don't mind filling in for future me to complete your education. But one thing at a time, right?"
Hii Kao could see that as he complained, Hii Kōri—looking down at him from on high—wore a malicious smile.
"Even if you're my future son, to present-day me, you're just a 'stranger' who showed up at an inconvenient time and disrupted my plans."
"Let me see what you're made of~"
Those words, delivered in a nerve-grating tone, became the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Pour out hatred for you? Lacking youthful drive?
"Ah, fine! I don't care about anything anymore!"
Lying in the snow, Hii Kao clenched his fists and squeezed out this response from deep in his throat through gritted teeth.
At this moment, only one simple, direct thought remained in his heart:
Throw this snowball hard at that father with the punchable face!
From the beginning, Hii Kao had mistaken the urge to vent the complex emotions he himself couldn't identify—long backlog in his heart—for the desire to defeat his young father and force him to do something.
Unfolding this imitation domain was precisely to have a real fight with Hii Kōri. It was only because of the presence of those young "senior disciples"—Nagato, Konan, and the others—that he momentarily suppressed this impulse and instead conversed with Hii Kōri.
Until his young father pointed out his inner conflicts and flaws, and was provoked by that precisely-aimed snowball and that near-provocative "encouragement," he no longer wanted to think about all that nonsense.
The ordinary snowball fight ended completely after about ten seconds.
Even with only an incomplete inner world, an imitation domain forcibly constructed using the Hiruko Shadow Bright Deity's functions, as the owner of this inner world, Hii Kao possessed absolute dominion over this snowfield.
Without even needing hand seals, with a mere thought, Yahiko and the others—hiding in the igloo watching from afar—along with the igloo and the off-road vehicle parked nearby, were all transferred to a more distant and safer edge zone.
Then, the entire snowfield seemed to come alive.
The snow accumulated across the vast plain, enough to drown half one's calves, stirred as if by an invisible giant hand, surging into boiling.
Scattered snowfoam condensed into countless fist-sized snowballs in midair, hurtling forth like fastballs from a high-powered baseball pitching machine used by Koshien contenders.
The shrill sound of piercing air, like thunder tearing across the sky. Countless falling snowballs from all directions into a seamless white barrage, pouring down upon Hii Kōri like an overturned heaven.
It was a barrage that threatened to completely bury him in this pure white.
"Heh—"
Facing this snowball storm that could even rival a thousand ninjas' simultaneous ninjutsu, Hii Kōri revealed an utterly delighted smile.
If he encountered such an attack outside, though his options wouldn't be many, they'd still number more than five. But the essence of a domain was the materialization of an inner world, an extension of the user's will.
As the famous radish cultivation expert, Brother Prosciutto, said: "By the time the words 'Kill them' appear in our hearts, our action has already been completed!"
This was the truth behind the so-called "guaranteed hit technique."
In such a situation, even the Rainbow Release, which could simulate celestial phenomena, would be useless.
"But it has to be like this, Kao!"
However, Hii Kōri—laughing as he called out the name of his future child, even if he didn't like it at all—
The Seven Essence Release Gates: Full Open!
"They're just snowballs! Watch me push them back!"
The blue enhancement tattoos surfaced inch by inch across his skin. The A liberated chakra, like a breached flood, transformed into a visible, violent aura coiling around his body.
"BOOM!"
Hii Kōri neither dodged nor evaded. Like a blue meteor piercing clouds, he forcibly passed through the oncoming "snowball canopy"—enough to pulverize any non-taijutsu ninja into minced meat.
The solid snowballs, wrapped in chakra, even shattered into the swirling snow powder before touching his body, were unable to hinder him in the slightest.
Hii Kōri's figure streaked a striking trail through the snow powder, illuminated like a deep blue sea, like an arrow loosed from a bow, heading straight for Hii Kao—who had already reached midair, controlling the snowstorm!
Having already personally experienced his young father's terrifying taijutsu prowess, Hii Kao naturally dared not be careless.
The piercing chorus of a thousand birds sounded. The fully squeezed Lightning Release chakra transformed into dazzling blue lightning, suddenly erupting from within Hii Kao, covering his entire body like armor.
That waist-length, soft wheat-colored hair stood on end. Furious arcs of electricity danced around him. Speed, strength, neural reaction—all bodily functions underwent explosive enhancement in this moment.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode!
This was precisely Hii Kao's means of confronting his father's inhuman taijutsu.
Swoosh—
Their figures instantly transformed into two blazing lights that continuously flashed, collided, and separated across the vast snowfield.
The meteor, steaming with blue aura, and the blue lightning, like a natural disaster, evaporated the remaining snow, imprinting countless hideous scars upon the barren plain.
Bang! Boom! Clang—the sounds of fists and feet colliding almost overlap, rendering the image of the thunderstorm the two had become even more concrete.
Having already achieved Yin-Yang Crossing, Hii Kōri still held the advantage in raw power. The continuous Black Flash he unleashed from time to time forced Hii Kao to rely on the extreme speed and reaction of Lightning Release Chakra Mode to evade.
Frustrated by this, Hii Kao promptly drew the Kusanagi at his waist, using the indestructible blade to withstand his father's Black Flash while counterattacking.
And Hii Kōri followed and played his next card. The Spirit Thread Nerves in his hair, carrying his other thought circuits, wove together technique after technique.
Wind Release Secret Art: Great Valley Echo!
This great Wind Release, named after the mountain god, transformed into a substantial wind wall, enveloping Hii Kōri and Hii Kao. Then, countless "Ice Release" icicles, frozen by the environment, burst from Hii Kōri's sleeves, guided by the "mountain god's echo," wildly reflecting within the wind wall alongside bursting vacuum blades.
"Tch!"
The moment the wind wall rose, Hii Kao knew what techniques his father would unleash. His irritated click of the tongue was drawn out in the realm of divine speed.
The next moment, faced with the almost unpredictable barrage trajectory, driven by instinct, Hii Kao made a response that even he found surprising.
Lightning exploded. Hii Kao pressed to the limit the output of Lightning Release Chakra Mode, enduring the incoming vacuum blades and icicles, charging straight at Hii Kōri!
Hii Style: Lightning Gap Sword!
The sound of vacuum blades and icicles being annihilated by that blue lightning was particularly harsh. And amidst that dazzling lightning, the pitch-black Kusanagi lost its concealment, standing out is particularly eye-catching.
Though what he used were all techniques Hii Kōri didn't favor or wasn't skilled in, and even the name didn't suit his taste, Hii Kao's character at this moment was exactly to Hii Kōri's liking.
Even if his spirit was obscured by accumulated gloom, his bones still lacked none of that stubbornness.
From this alone, Hii Kao had truly inherited Hii Kōri and Tsunade's traits.
***
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