Kagami stood tall - barely.
In front of him loomed a monster. It walked on two legs like a man, but the four thrashing tails behind it said otherwise.
The raw chakra pouring from its body was thick enough to leave scorched gouges in the rocky terrain. Each breath it took pulsed with pressure that made the air feel heavier.
Kagami's legs trembled. His body was already worn from the last high-output technique he used, and his chakra reserves were running dangerously low. Worse yet, the beast didn't let up for even a second, not even long enough for him to regain his stance.
With a feral growl, the creature lunged forward, its punch aimed squarely at Kagami's gut. Even with his Mangekyō Sharingan spinning violently, predicting the blow nearly came too late.
He twisted out of the way by a hair's breadth, the air displaced by the punch slamming into his ribs like a hammer.
"Tch… if not for this damned vision… and that man…"
Kagami clicked his tongue and pulled back, widening the distance.
His breathing was shallow. The edges of his vision blurred, ghostly lines, doubling figures. He could still see, but the clarity was gone.
It was the price of power, the curse of the Mangekyō Sharingan. The more he used it, the more his vision decayed, and it was hard adjusting to the sudden decayed vision.
But such sacrifice was necessary as this was no ordinary enemy. This was Kinkaku, one half of the infamous Gold and Silver Brothers of the Hidden Cloud.
The last time Kagami had seen him was at the Kumo-Konoha allyship ceremony over five years ago. He hadn't expected to face him like this- alone, monstrous, and burning with unfiltered hatred.
Just thinking about that day made Kagami's hands clench.
That was the day he lost him.
Tobirama.
The man who guided him. A leader. A father-like figure. He was taken from them because of the Kinkaku Force- more than twenty rogue S-rank shinobi from Kumogakure, led by the Gold and Silver Brothers. They had ambushed the diplomatic entourage, seeking to sabotage the treaty. In the chaos, Tobirama had sacrificed himself to protect the others and gave us time to escape.
And now, standing before Kagami, was that same man, the one who helped make it happen.
Kinkaku, still transformed and seething with rage, had recognized Kagami's Konoha headband immediately.
"You damn monkeys… I'll make every last one of you pay for what your Sandaime did to me!" he had howled.
His left arm was missing, a wound from that same ambush years ago. His chakra flared with hate, unstable and wild. And yet he had grown even more dangerous, having absorbed some of the Nine-Tails' chakra- evident from the fiery cloaked tails forming behind him.
Kagami had sensed his chakra the moment he entered the region. It was unique, dense, and bitterly familiar. He acted immediately, breaking formation from the rest to intercept.
The fight started fast and bloody.
Kinkaku was alone. His brother, Ginkaku, was long dead, something Kagami learned from the man's own lips during the fight.
In his blind rage, Kinkaku had ranted about how Tobirama slaughtered nineteen of his comrades, leaving only him and a few others alive. His mind had fractured under the loss. The famed shinobi was no longer the legend, he was now a beast driven by hate.
Kagami fought him toe-to-toe, but the longer it went on, the more he realized: he couldn't drag this out.
His chakra was running out. His Mangekyō had already been activated once today and his left eye still hadn't recovered from using Kotoamatsukami, a forbidden genjutsu so subtle it could manipulate thoughts without the target ever knowing.
It was unbreakable… unless interrupted by someone outside.
And that's exactly what happened.
A subordinate of Kinkaku had intervened, sacrificing himself by taking his blunt attack and snapped Kinkaku out of the genjutsu before dying, wasting Kagami's chance.
Now, Kinkaku has five tails. He had grown stronger with each minute, with each tail.
Kagami gritted his teeth, barely blocking an overhead smash, his knees buckling from the impact. There was no more time.
He needed to end this.
With one last chakra surge, Kagami leapt backward, putting distance between them. The air crackled around him as he channeled his final trump card.
"Susanoo."
A towering, emerald skeleton erupted around him, jagged bones forming a ribcage and arms. Only the upper torso had manifested, his chakra too depleted to fully sustain the avatar, but it would be enough.
Kinkaku charged, blinded by fury.
And in a split second, a massive skeletal hand met him mid-lunge, and crushed him into the ground.
The impact thundered through the earth. Bones crunched. The five tails and the monstrous form disappeared in a violent convulsion of chakra.
It all happened in an instant.
Then, darkness.
Kagami's eyes bled. His vision went completely black for a moment as his Mangekyō blinked out. His Susanoo shattered like glass, chakra dissipating into the wind.
He collapsed to his knees, gasping for air, unable to move.
His body was out of strength. His chakra was at its lowest.
But he was sure… the strike had landed. He'd felt the recoil through Susanoo's hand. It had crushed something.
Still he forced himself to move toward the crater. Just to make sure.
And there-
Kinkaku was lying inside. Back in his human form.
Barely breathing.
And worse… he body was healing. Slowly but steadily.