When Hagoromo's Summoning Jutsu completed, it manifested with overwhelming force. Unsure of what was being called, and sensing an unknown threat, the masked ninja couldn't follow through on his killing blow. He was forced to retreat instantly.
Clang! Clang!
Massive iron chains materialized out of thin air. One end of the chains trailed on the muddy ground, while the other stretched high into the sky, anchored to a sudden, towering structure fifty meters high and forty meters wide—a gargantuan red gate painted with a terrifying demon's face.
The gate rose abruptly from beneath Hagoromo's feet. This was his summon.
Ninja Art: Summoning - Rashomon!
This was the ultimate defensive tool used by the First Hokage to block Tailed Beast Bombs. An A-rank summoning jutsu, its sheer size and weight meant that only someone with the ridiculous chakra reserves of the First Hokage could easily summon a Quintuple Rashomon.
While Orochimaru of the Sannin could also use this jutsu, he could only manage a Triple Rashomon for self-protection. As for Hagoromo... well, he could just barely manage to summon a single gate and hold it for a short duration.
But no matter how powerful a summoning jutsu is, it's still primarily a defensive skill. Was there a point to calling it now?
Yes.
The enemy's Water Clone was instantly crushed by the physical force of the gate's rising impact. With the clone gone, the Water Flow Whip binding Hagoromo vanished. If the enemy's original body hadn't retreated, that impact likely would have crushed him as well.
Having backed away, the masked man looked at the massive barrier with a flicker of uncertainty. This thing was beyond his comprehension—what was the boy's intent? To summon something this massive just to block a kunai? It seemed absurdly excessive.
Suddenly, the torrential rain thinned into a fine mist. The dark clouds above seemed to drop lower, their thickness blotting out every stray ray of sunlight. The rain didn't stop, but the wind died down, and the sky grew even darker than before.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of ninja sandals hitting cold iron echoed. Step by step, Hagoromo walked vertically up the back of the Rashomon, eventually standing calmly upon its crest.
"You were right about one thing. My chakra is indeed nearly depleted. After using this summoning jutsu, I only have enough left for one more technique."
Hagoromo's voice wasn't loud, but in the eerie silence, it reached the enemy's ears with perfect clarity. The Chidori Current that had previously shrouded him was gone.
"But about the other thing... you were wrong from the very beginning. Knowing how much chakra Lightning Style consumes, why would I keep it active for so long?"
Hagoromo looked down at the enemy. From his vantage point, he could see the mud below still crackling with stray sparks of electricity.
He hadn't been wasting energy. Since the start of the fight, he had been constantly discharging lightning chakra to create a massive electrical field in this clearing. Because of that field, the storm clouds were centering themselves directly over this spot.
To release the next S-rank Forbidden Jutsu, he needed a high point. He hadn't summoned the Rashomon to hide; he needed it to get closer to the clouds.
"On a rainy day, the environment favors a Lightning user like me far more than it does a Water user."
With those words, Hagoromo prepared to release his final chakra and his last technique. To be precise, while it only required one burst of chakra to trigger, it was actually two jutsus in one.
Hagoromo extended his right arm naturally toward the sky, palm open.
Lightning Style: Chidori Sharp Spear - Phase Two!
A blade of light pierced the heavens. In that instant, the low rumble of thunder and the flickering lightning in the clouds vanished. They didn't disappear; they were being gathered.
Though it was daytime, the sky suddenly flared with a brightness that rivaled high noon. Behind Hagoromo, there was no sound, no movement—only an absolute, localized aura of destruction. A massive, crackling entity of natural lightning had condensed at his palm, stretching from the clouds to his hand.
Carved in thunder and painted in light, a beast appeared—the Kirin. It looked like a divine creature, a god of the storm.
The masked ninja stood frozen, his voice a trembling whisper. "It looks... like a Kirin..."
"Yes, because it is the Kirin. Through our exchange, I realized that while our speeds are comparable, your movement is far more agile than mine. It's hard to land a lethal blow on you with a single-target attack, no matter how fast it is. So, I abandoned that method. I chose an Area of Effect jutsu instead."
Hagoromo's voice was as indifferent as the storm.
The S-rank Lightning Style: Kirin is a legendary forbidden jutsu. Its advantages are clear: massive range, overwhelming power, and minimal chakra cost once the storm is prepped. It moves at the speed of natural lightning—too fast for any human to dodge.
Standing atop the Rashomon, Hagoromo stepped off into the void. He didn't fall; he tapped his foot against the vertical surface of the gate, using the momentum to sprint downward.
The Kirin hung in the air for a fraction of a second, then, ignoring the laws of space and time, it overtook him. It roared past his body and lunged for the ground.
Then...
"BOOM!"
The Kirin struck. The current surged outward like water poured onto a mirror, expanding in blinding rings of white light from the point of impact. The silence was shattered by a roar a million times louder than a Chidori—the scream of the heavens themselves.
The earth buckled. The ground cracked and shattered wherever the lightning "flowed." It was a technique capable of reshaping the very topography of the land. Within its radius, nothing could survive. The enemy had nowhere to hide, and no time to run.
Hagoromo landed softly on the scorched earth. With a poof, the Rashomon vanished. The Kirin had existed only for a heartbeat, and though stray sparks still danced in the mud, the divine beast was gone.
The enemy lay motionless on the ground. Hagoromo walked toward him—if you could still call that charred thing a "him." Most of the body was carbonized; a strange scent of roasted meat hung in the air.
Hagoromo stared at the body, his face expressionless. Was there a specific thought in his mind?
Probably not. In a world of shinobi undergoing massive change, everyone had to move faster than ever.
But no matter how hurried a ninja's steps, regardless of the partings and sorrows that came unbidden, there was always something that stimulated their senses and reminded them of where they came from—and where they were going.
Whether they liked it or not, reality pushed them forward. They packed, they traveled, they settled... and in this moment, the young ninja from the Hidden Leaf, Hagoromo Kamishiro, had finally found the "correct" way to cook a ninja.
Indeed, the title of this chapter should be: The taste of a Fuma ain't bad