Kaguya's Legacy

We stood there, just looking at one another.

No words. No wasted movement.

I waited—patiently, deliberately—giving my clone and the others time to reach a safe distance. Kakuzu did not rush me. He understood exactly what that pause meant.

Underneath my blindfold, my eyes hardened.

The instant stretched—then snapped.

My right hand flicked up.

Bone screamed through the air.

Kakuzu twisted left just as several ivory bullets tore through the space his torso had occupied, pulverizing reeds and blasting chunks of mud into the mist behind him. He didn't retreat. He flowed forward, turning evasion into offense in the same breath.

His kick came in low and brutal, heavy enough that I felt the intent behind it before it landed.

My body exploded into splintered wood.

A substitution—perfectly timed.

The log disintegrated under the force of his strike, fragments shredding outward as I reappeared atop a nearby tree. Kakuzu was already turning, threads flexing beneath his cloak as his gaze snapped onto me.

No surprise. No hesitation.

We formed seals simultaneously.

"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

The clash detonated between us.

Boiling steam roared outward, flooding the road and swallowing the trees in a white wall. Visibility vanished in an instant. The ground hissed beneath his feet as condensed water rained down, turning packed earth into slick mud.

Not the Hidden Mist Technique—

—but close enough to fool anyone without eyes like mine.

The Byakugan pierced it effortlessly.

Kakuzu was already moving.

He burst through the steam with terrifying speed, threads erupting from his sleeves like living spears. They lashed toward me in a storm of black, splitting and rejoining mid-strike, each one aimed with surgical precision.

Fast.

Faster than most jōnin.

But he was fighting the wrong opponent.

I leaned back, twisting just enough for the first thread to miss my throat by a hair's breadth. Another skimmed past my ribs, slicing fabric but failing to bite into flesh. I stepped into his range instead of away from it.

My palm snapped forward.

Gentle Fist chakra surged—

—and struck something wrong.

The impact landed, but instead of the familiar resistance of muscle and bone, my strike sank into something fibrous. Dense. Reinforced. Kakuzu grunted, feet skidding back a half-step as threads writhed to absorb the blow.

So that was how he did it.

His body wasn't just protected by Earth Grudge Fear.

It was structured around it.

"Interesting," he said calmly.

My eyes narrowed.

I knew very well that it was unlikely to work perfectly; his body was, after all, made of thick threads with very little normal human anatomy left. Still, I hadn't expected the threads to block the Gentle Fist that easily. The chakra I had sent into his body never got anywhere close to his hearts.

"That was the Gentle Fist of the Hyūga clan," Kakuzu said, voice flat, observant rather than impressed. "You really are full of surprises."

"I should be the one saying that," I replied lightly. "Few people can take a strike like that without flinching."

For a brief moment, neither of us moved.

The first exchanges had been nothing more than testing—measuring speed, reactions, intent. The shallow end of the pool.

Now that the basics were established—

—it was time to move beyond mere jōnin-level tricks.

The pause broke without warning.

Kakuzu moved first.

He blurred forward in a straight line, no feint, no flourish—pure, brutal acceleration. The ground cracked beneath his feet as he closed the distance faster than most shinobi could manage with Body Flicker.

I met him halfway.

Bone surged from my forearm, ivory plating knitting itself into a curved blade just as his fist came in. Metal-hard knuckles slammed into bone with a sound like striking stone, the impact shuddering up my arm.

Strong.

Stronger than his frame suggested.

I twisted, letting the momentum carry me past him, and raked the bone blade across his side. It should have opened him from ribs to spine.

Instead, it skidded.

Sparks flew as bone scraped against something dense beneath his cloak. Kakuzu grunted—not in pain, but in irritation—and drove an elbow toward my head. I ducked, felt fabric tear as the strike grazed my blindfold, and vaulted backward, bone retracting as I landed.

So that was his answer.

I formed seals mid-movement.

"Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide."

The ground between us split open violently, a jagged trench ripping through the road as slabs of earth heaved upward. Kakuzu didn't jump back.

He ran straight across it.

Chakra surged through his legs, threads reinforcing muscle and tendon just long enough to carry him over the collapsing gap. He landed hard, already swinging.

Fine.

I changed tactics.

Bone erupted from my shoulders as I spun, skeletal spikes firing outward in a wide arc. Kakuzu crossed his arms and took it, spikes shattering against his guard, fragments bouncing harmlessly off his cloak.

He let one pierce his thigh.

On purpose.

The bone sank in deep—then stopped.

Kakuzu looked down at it, unimpressed, and flexed. The spike cracked, snapped, and slid free as if it had struck reinforced cable instead of flesh. No blood followed.

He looked back up at me.

"A nuisance," he said. "But nothing more."

Interesting.

I realized what he was doing; he was pretending that he was immortal. He was letting me see that nothing could hurt him. And while it was true that nothing had really happened to him so far, it wasn't that I couldn't hurt him, but there was just nothing to hurt in his legs.

The only way to really hurt him was to attack his five hearts.

He knew that.

I knew that.

He didn't know that I knew.

That was fatal. I could use my advantage against him easily enough, but I didn't—wouldn't. After all, I didn't want to kill him.

"We will see if you can shrug this off as well," I said, feigning ignorance.

I raised my hands again.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique."

A storm of fireballs screamed toward him, weaving unpredictably. Kakuzu weaved through the first two, blocked the third with a chakra-reinforced forearm, and let the fourth detonate against his shoulder in a burst of flame.

Smoke curled around him.

He stepped out of it unharmed.

I had to admit, he was really damn good with Earth Release. In particular, I could tell he was using Earth Release: Earth Spear on his body to massively increase his durability, making it as hard as iron.

Normally, that ninjutsu was meant for attacking, but since his body was made of black threads, he could use it for defense.

Truly worthy of being considered an immortal shinobi.

Still, it wasn't enough to make me feel afraid, far from it.

I narrowed my eyes and shifted my approach.

Bone spikes instantly tore through my clothes all over my body, much like the future Kimimaro's Dance of the Larch. I turned myself into a living weapon—dozens of razor points jutting from my arms, shoulders, back, and legs—forcing him to either keep his distance or tear himself apart trying to reach me.

Kakuzu paused.

Just for a heartbeat.

He shifted his stance, lowering his center of gravity, fists tightening as chakra surged through his frame. The earth beneath his feet compressed audibly as he reinforced himself again.

Then he charged.

Straight in.

No caution. No hesitation.

Good.

He slammed into me like a battering ram.

Bone shrieked as his shoulder struck my chest, spikes snapping and shattering under the force. I slid backward through the mud, heels carving trenches, but I held my ground, ramming my forearm into his ribs and letting the spikes grow mid-impact.

Ivory spears punched inward.

Once more, they hit resistance.

But this time, I felt it—threads tightening, shifting, redistributing force. Not blocking the damage, merely moving it away.

Allowing him to reroute the stress and force.

Useful.

I twisted sharply, driving a knee toward his stomach. He caught it with one hand, fingers digging into bone, crushing it with brute strength. The limb shattered—but reformed instantly, bone knitting back together as I used the opening to rake my claws across his face.

This time, he pulled back, unwilling to let me harm his head.

That was telling; likely hurting his head would harm him, and even if it wouldn't kill him, he might end up like Hidan, forced to reform or heal his head before he could continue fighting.

I pressed the advantage.

Bone erupted from the ground beneath him, lances stabbing upward in an uneven forest. Kakuzu leapt back, landing atop a rising spike, and I followed—hands flashing through seals mid-air.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."

The blast caught him sideways, slamming him off the spike and hurling him through the mist. He crashed through a tree, bark exploding outward, and skidded across the road before coming to a halt.

I landed lightly a moment later, bones retracting just enough to restore mobility.

Kakuzu rose slowly.

His cloak was in tatters now. Mud streaked his clothes. Yet overall, the only damage either of us had suffered was to our clothes.

So far, the chakra cost was still too minor to even consider. Yes, it was much for a tokubetsu jōnin, but two monsters like us? A drop in a bucket.

He cracked his neck once.

"You adapt quickly," he said. "Most don't last this long."

"I could say the same," I replied, tilting my head slightly. "You are truly someone worthy of your reputation."

He laughed—low, humorless. "Why, thank you. I must admit, I haven't fought someone with the Shikotsumyaku Kekkei Genkai in a long time, and I have to say, I'm finding you lacking compared to those I remember."

I couldn't help but narrow my eyes at that. Yes, I hadn't focused on making my bones very strong, but were they really that weak? I thought I had made them around iron in strength. Though maybe I was mistaken.

"It seems I am being underestimated," I muttered in a low voice as a bone slowly slid free from my right palm.

A sword.

Ivory flowed outward from my palm and forearm, lengthening, flattening, refining itself into a long, straight blade. The surface was smooth and flawless, pale as moonlight, and strong—far, far stronger than any of the bones I had used so far.

I was Kaguya Ōtsutsuki. I wouldn't allow some of my far-off, distant kin to have more powerful bones than me.

I wrapped my fingers around the hilt.