The battle between Might Dai and the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist lasted for an incredibly brief time. After all, Dai had to complete his battle within the strict time limit of the Eight Inner Gates Formation.
He was exploding with power the entire time. The enemy consisted of five elite Jonin, and Dai only attacked five times, yet every single strike was an instant kill.
After carving that line of text, Hagoromo didn't say anything more and fell silent.
He walked over to the enemy corpses one by one, first checking to ensure they were completely dead, and then picking up the ninja swords lying beside them.
Hagoromo had learned and witnessed many jutsu, but there were even more unknown jutsu out there in the world. Even if it looked like someone had been smashed into meat paste, it was hard to guarantee they hadn't used some special life-saving method to survive.
The possibility of someone playing dead to create confusion and attempting to escape after Dai burned out definitely existed.
However, this was Hagoromo being overly cautious and overthinking. No one among the Seven Swordsmen could take a fatal blow from Dai in the Eight Gates state. Even if they really had some life-saving technique, under such rapid attacks, they wouldn't have had the time to execute it.
As for Dai, Hagoromo didn't need to check to know that he was also dead.
Regret? Pity? Sorrow? Lament?
Hagoromo's mood at this moment was highly complex, not something that could be explained with just a word or two.
If he could have arrived here five minutes earlier, perhaps the situation wouldn't have been like this, and the outcome wouldn't have been Dai perishing together with the Seven Swordsmen.
But in the ninja world, there are no "perhaps" and no "ifs".
In this ninja world, where a single second can create drastically opposite outcomes and determine life and death, sometimes hoping to buy five minutes of time is an inevitable luxury.
Regardless of right or wrong, true or false, this battle was undoubtedly the best proof of Dai's existence as a ninja.
Annihilating five of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen single-handedly—what more could be said about such a Genin?
In any case, Dai's final curtain call stage had been perfectly prepared by the Seven Swordsmen.
Although Hagoromo collected the ninja swords, he had no intention of taking them all away.
After thinking for a moment, he sealed the first two he picked up—Nuibari and Hiramekarei—into a scroll to prevent a repeat of what happened with Samehada earlier.
He planned to take these two with him.
Next, he brought the remaining Lightning Blade (Kiba), Explosive Sword (Shibuki), and Blunt Sword (Kabutowari) beneath that rock, and began carving a sealing formula into the ground.
The purpose was to create a small-scale spatial lockdown to block summoning.
Hagoromo wanted to imprison these three swords here... not to console Might Dai's heroic spirit, nor to commemorate this battle. He didn't think that far ahead.
The reason he placed these three swords here was in the hope that people from the Hidden Mist would come to retrieve them soon.
Regardless of the methods they used, to retrieve the ninja swords, the Mist shinobi would come to this nameless little island, arrive beneath this rock wall, and then they would see the line of text Hagoromo had written there.
Hagoromo was using this method to tell the Hidden Mist: their most famous Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were completely wiped out by the hands of a nameless Konoha Genin named Might Dai.
This wasn't to make a name for Dai. The man was dead; what use was great fame? Might Dai was just a Genin from beginning to end.
Hagoromo simply wanted to tell certain people certain facts.
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen died at the hands of Might Dai. Whether they believed it or not, facts were facts. It was that simple.
He also left the battlefield in its original state without doing any cleanup. He wanted the exact effect of: "It looked like this when I saw it, and it will look exactly like this when you see it."
Although a massive amount of intelligence could be gleaned from the enemy corpses, and from Konoha's perspective, retrieving the bodies of the Seven Swordsmen was the correct, undeniable choice—no matter how "correct" it was, it was still only from Konoha's perspective.
Hagoromo was considering the issue from his own standpoint. As an eyewitness to this battle, compared to rational judgment, he preferred to make a biased judgment based on emotion.
Might Dai was worthy of respect, so Hagoromo's actions were driven by his own respect, not Konoha's rules or interests...
In reality, his behavior was a disqualification for a ninja.
Leaving Dai's name behind wouldn't actually be classified as leaking intel. Because the Seven Swordsmen intended to infiltrate the Land of Fire for a mission, and for any such mission, both the ninjas themselves and their village had the resolve that they might be sacrificed. Thus, if the Seven Swordsmen failed to return when expected, the Mist would naturally know they had been killed by Konoha.
Now, the only extra piece of information they would learn was that the ninja who killed the Seven Swordsmen was named Might Dai. But this held little meaning in terms of combat intelligence. Even if they knew Dai's name and the Mist dug through their files for this ninja, they would find that they knew absolutely nothing about him beforehand.
The Mist had Hagoromo's files. Whether vague or accurate, they definitely paid attention to ninjas like him. Because Hagoromo had previously fought several elite Mist ninjas and later publicly killed Fuguki Suikazan, he was a high-priority target.
But for an inconspicuous Genin like Dai—merely cannon fodder in the war—they knew nothing.
Of course, if the Mist was willing to believe the sentence on the rock wall, the only useful information they'd probably gain was the jutsu named "Eight Inner Gates."
Unfortunately, who knows what year or month it would be before the Eight Inner Gates completely bloomed again.
Having ensured his sealing barrier would function properly and an incident like Samehada wouldn't happen again, Hagoromo had finished everything he needed to do.
It was time to return to the Land of Fire.
Hagoromo carried Dai's remains over to Pakura, used the Summoning Jutsu, placed Dai and the half-dead Pakura onto the Yatagarasu's back, and prepared to fly back to the front lines.
If it were solely for convenience, Hagoromo could have naturally sealed Dai into a scroll, but he decided to carry Dai back just like this, rather than sealing him away like an object.
"What about the enemy corpses? Are you just going to leave the Seven Swordsmen here ignored?"
Pakura had watched the entire battle and Hagoromo's subsequent actions. Although this was a matter between Konoha and the Mist and had nothing to do with her as a captive, she couldn't help but speak up before they left.
Leaving all the enemy corpses right there? Even if he didn't take the bodies, shouldn't he at least take their heads? And even if he didn't take their heads, shouldn't he at least search them for classified intel?
But Hagoromo merely confirmed their deaths and did nothing else. This was clearly highly inappropriate.
"Right now, I only want to bring our man back."
Hagoromo said.
Dai's sudden incident had left his mind a bit chaotic. He didn't want to focus on any unnecessary matters. If Pakura spouted any more nonsense, he might just toss her aside here too.
...
Although Dai stayed behind to deal with the Seven Swordsmen alone to buy time for Guy and the others, in reality, because the battle ended so quickly and Hagoromo was traveling by air, by the time Guy returned to the front lines, Dai had already arrived before him.
But for Might Dai, this kind of arrival could never be called a return.
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