[Like hell it's a Stand. But it really does look like one]
[Hurry up and use that all-purpose Star Platinum of yours, JoJo-tarō!]
[Damn, looks even cooler than her Six-yue/-#ai~debut//#hand state]
[Still hiding things, still hiding more]
[How many secret techniques does Hanabi have left]
[Wouldn't be surprised if even the eye covering's a fake. Then at the critical moment she yanks it off—and unveils the Byakugan]
[If she's hiding it this hard, my money's on her eyes NOT being Byakugan but something else entirely]
The audience response to Ice Style and the Summoning Technique was excellent.
With the proper "buildup," these techniques could be deployed cleanly in combat. One of the OVA's biggest payoffs was that it had legitimized every one of Hanabi's hidden moves.
Now she could flex with them openly.
"You've gotta be kidding. Ice Style?" Kankuro and Temari were both stunned.
"She's a Hyuga, but she can use Ice Style?!" Even Temari had lost her composure.
After the trauma Hanabi had inflicted on day one, the Sand-nin had specifically dug into her file. The intel said she was a Hyuga, but with no functioning eyes—the clan had apparently decided to wait until she was an adult, or at least until her body had finished growing, before transplanting a pair of Byakugan. Whether the eyes would come from the prodigy Neji or the main-house failure Hinata, even the Hyuga themselves hadn't decided.
But everything else they had on her—skill in genjutsu, even Fire Style ninjutsu—they already knew. Ice Style, though?
That was beyond their expectations.
"It might not be her own technique. It could be tied to that Summoning."
Kankuro had already brought his puppet Karasu to combat readiness.
Temari snapped open her fan.
Both of them knew this wasn't a battlefield they should be stepping into. But circumstances no longer allowed them that luxury.
If they didn't summon Shukaku, Gaara almost certainly couldn't hold his ground.
"What…?"
Gaara had finally regained his sanity.
Or rather—in the face of an even greater killing intent, his own had become irrelevant.
The blizzard sweeping in from her exhalation had turned the clearing into a frozen, terrifying expanse.
And Hanabi's attacks grew more terrifying still. Every strike now carried an ice blade with it. Every blow shaved away a massive chunk of Gaara's Armour of Sand.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it…"
But no matter how he raged, Gaara could only flail in helpless fury.
Hanabi could practically predict Gaara's strikes before they came. She walked past him with effortless grace, ignoring him entirely.
"Sickle Weasel Technique!"
Temari unleashed her attack.
But her wind couldn't even pierce the freezing storm.
"Karasu… damn it…"
Kankuro had been controlling Karasu, but suddenly he could feel it—Karasu was no longer his to command. The control of his own puppet had been wrenched away by the enemy!
"That girl. She wasn't going all out before…?"
Temari's expression turned grim too.
Both she and Kankuro had already realized: Gaara had hit his ceiling in this fight. He was already pushing past anything he'd ever shown before, into the territory of overperformance.
But even that limit had been drawn out of him by the enemy. Every time Gaara felt one more push would shatter her, he had reached his own breaking point first—and his opponent had simply produced more power.
"So this is what a Hyuga prodigy looks like…"
Temari murmured.
"Gaara, that's enough! We surrender! You can have the scroll!" Kankuro was now playing the role of cooler head.
"But weren't the two of you also unwilling to stop when those Rain-nin begged earlier?" Hanabi tilted her head.
The childlike expression sat in violent contrast to her aura.
[Karma's a boomerang. Sooner or later it comes back and clocks you]
[You set the precedent—don't be surprised when others follow]
[Lmao]
[The Rain-nin begged exactly the same way]
[Wifey, atta girl, atta girl!]
[Don't get carried away. Something's seriously off about Gaara]
[He's gotta have another card to play, but they look like they've got a different plan]
[Don't tell me there's a backstab script]
[Classic]
[These Sand-nin are sus though, who knows what's actually going on]
"Besides—"
With one stroke of her sword, Hanabi froze Gaara solid where he stood.
"You can still keep fighting, can't you?"
Hanabi said.
"You flatter us." Watching Hanabi finally call a halt, Kankuro broke out in a cold sweat. "Sand and Leaf are formal allies, after all. Even if we did have something genuinely powerful in reserve, certain techniques can't be used against allies."
"Allies?" Hanabi tilted her head. "But from what I've heard, the Daimyō of the Land of Wind actually trusts the Hidden Leaf more than his own village. Plenty of his contracts go to Konoha rather than to his own Sand-nin."
[Hanabi knew about THAT?]
[No wonder her attitude was off from the start]
[Hold up—a sovereign who doesn't trust his own army and hires foreign mercenaries instead, why does this plot point feel so familiar?]
[Earlier reference: Louis XVI]
[Plenty of Western kings had foreign-born royal guards too]
[Lmao, drawing from real history this time]
That was when Kankuro really started sweating.
What did it mean to kill someone and crush their spirit at the same time?
This. This was what it meant.
—wait. Did this person somehow know about Shukaku, too…?
Hanabi sheathed her weapon.
"So, please, get this clear. The one making the Hidden Sand's situation difficult—who is that, exactly?" Hanabi tapped her own temple. "Think it through carefully, hm?"
"…" Kankuro didn't dare think it through!
"You—you bastard!" Gaara roared.
"Hahh. We can't really have a conversation with you in this state."
Across the entire original story, the first time Gaara ever opened up emotionally was in front of Naruto. With anyone else he was the hard man of few words. And right now, with his sanity "evaporated," he couldn't even string a sentence together.
"Well then—one last thing. Genjutsu."
Last of all, genjutsu.
Just a simple genjutsu. Put Gaara to sleep, then make him dream of his mother. Of course, the moment Gaara fell asleep, Shukaku inside him would awaken—so a small reinforcement was necessary. Hanabi simply drove an ice sword from the Ice Crystal Puppet straight into Gaara's chest. The blade carried both the chakra of her genjutsu and Jingliu's killing intent.
Because of the near-disaster during the OVA shoot, Hanabi had decided never again to attempt full resonance through a puppet. But limited resonance—summoning only a portion of the power—remained perfectly viable.
"Gaara!" Kankuro had lost count of how many times he'd called out his brother's name now.
The scene was that horrifying.
"Shh." Hanabi raised a finger to her lips, signaling the two of them to silence.
"Calm down, Kankuro. That ice sword… it doesn't seem to have actually hurt Gaara?"
In fact it had. But Zhuixia's Hushen was active, and the wound would only manifest once the ice sword dissolved.
"Now then, good night. Sweet dreams."
Hanabi turned, and in the next moment she was gone.
Kankuro and Temari rushed to Gaara's side.
Gaara lay there, eyes closed, sleeping soundly.