Though he didn't know exactly what Hagoromo had planned, Hizashi Hyuga moved with speed. He pulled a brush and paper from his pouch, pressed them against the Yatagarasu's broad back, and rapidly sketched the battlefield layout as seen through his Byakugan.
He mapped out the four squads in their "square" formation, noting the precise distance between each group and their respective depths.
Hagoromo took the paper. With his brain's high-speed processing, he overlaid the data onto the effective radius of his own techniques. A look of relief crossed his face; the distribution wasn't too sparse or too dense. He really could take them all out in one shot.
"I happen to have a forbidden jutsu that's perfect for this," Hagoromo explained, reaching into his equipment pouch. He rummaged through the disorganized mess of tools—scrolls, wires, and oddities—until his fingers closed around the specific item he needed.
"Found it."
He pulled out a small, black-covered scroll, no thicker than a thumb and barely ten centimeters long. To Hizashi's Byakugan, the scroll was clearly under a heavy seal; the exterior was swathed in a layer of protective chakra that blocked even the Hyuga's x-ray vision.
Hagoromo clamped the scroll between his palms and formed a hand seal that wasn't among the basic twelve. His left hand lay parallel to the ground while his right stood perpendicular, fingers interlaced in a complex web—right fingers pointing up, left fingers pressing firmly against the back of his right hand.
It was a variation of the "Ox" seal, a specialized sigil frequently used in the Uzumaki clan's high-level sealing arts.
"Release!"
Poof.
With a burst of white smoke, the miniature scroll's compression seal shattered. It instantly regained its true form: a massive cylinder nearly forty centimeters in diameter and over a meter tall.
Hagoromo tucked the heavy scroll under one arm and unrolled a segment with his free hand. He signaled the Yatagarasu to dive, skimming low over the sector where the sixteen ninjas were entombed. At a precise coordinate, he dropped the scroll.
"I'm releasing the summoning jutsu," Hagoromo said once the scroll hit the sand.
"What exactly is the plan?" Hizashi asked, his brow furrowed.
"It's not complicated. Just leave it to me," Hagoromo replied, his voice brimming with confidence.
He leapt from the bird's back first, followed closely by a wary Hizashi. Once they hit the ground, Hagoromo dispelled the Yatagarasu.
Unsure of the enemy's sensory capabilities, the two ninjas instinctively switched to silent hand signals.
Hizashi signaled: That scroll... is it a wide-range sealing jutsu? You plan to seal all the enemies at once?
Hagoromo signaled back: Exactly.
But the distance is too great, Hizashi countered, his hands moving in a blur of motion. A sealing jutsu of that scale will cause a massive disturbance. It won't be silent.
This method of communication was a grueling test of eyesight and manual dexterity, but as trained shinobi, it was second nature. Hizashi remained skeptical; a two-hundred-meter radius was an absurdly large area of effect. By all logic, a single ninja shouldn't be able to manifest a seal of that magnitude.
This is a Static-Phase wide-range sealing jutsu. It's high-power and covers a massive area, but it operates without a sound. Perfect for this occasion.
Hagoromo didn't bother addressing Hizashi's internal doubts about his chakra capacity. Instead, he pointed to a spot on the sand directly above one of the enemy squads.
Stand here, Hagoromo signaled. I'm going to flush this squad out of the ground. When they pop up, kick all four of them toward the central scroll.
Hizashi gave an "are you serious?" gesture.
Hagoromo explained: This last squad is just slightly outside the effective range of my seal. We need to deliver them into the 'zone'.
Hizashi understood—this seal was just a few meters short. He was willing to play along, partly because he knew Hagoromo was Kushina's student and likely knew some Uzumaki secrets, and partly because the complexity of the seals he'd glimpsed on the scroll was so advanced it fell into the category of "I don't understand this, but it looks terrifying."
Hagoromo gave the signal to get ready. He was about to flush the rats.
The enemies were roughly fifteen meters underground. To reach them, Hagoromo opted for the Chidori Sharp Spear. Specifically, "Phase Two"—a modified version where he sacrificed the blade's cutting power to extend its reach.
The standard spear reached five meters; Phase Two pushed it to twelve. Still not enough to impale them, but that wasn't the goal. He just needed to scare them. No sane ninja would stay in a hole once they sensed a high-intensity lightning strike piercing their ceiling.
As expected, the moment the lightning spear bit into the earth, the four ninjas erupted from the sand like startled geysers!
They didn't even have time to find their footing before Hizashi moved. In a blur of movement, he unleashed a series of Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palms. Four strikes, four hits—the enemies were sent tumbling through the air, hurtling directly toward the central scroll.
The trajectory was perfect.
At that exact moment, Hagoromo finished the final seal for his technique.
What was this "Silent Killing" forbidden jutsu? Simple. It was the Reverse Four Symbols Sealing.
Though the jutsu would drain the vast majority of his chakra, its effectiveness was absolute.