There was a moment of silence between Kaito and Jasper. The former didn't need to speak to understand just how troubling dealing with someone with the Eight Inner Gates was.
By the time Kaito flared his eyes to respond, Jasper ran forward, breaking the earth with each step.
Kaito's first instinct was to block or counter a direct punch, but instead of the punch he expected, Jasper feinted and appeared behind him. Then Jasper's hand shot out in a four-hit combo.
The first strike was a jab to the ribs. Next was a spin kick that connected on Kaito's head. The third was a low leg sweep that knocked off balance. Then, while Kaito was still in mid-air, the last was a knee to his back that forced Kaito skyrocketing upward.
Wind rushed past his ears, and for a moment, all he could hear was the rush of air.
Everything had been so quick that although he had seen the attacks, his body wasn't able to react in time. It was the kind of attack that reminded Kaito of his last training session against Arthur, someone who was simply impossible to guard against when he got serious.
Being compared to Arthur alone made one thing clear: Kaito had to stay very sharp now.
He quickly flipped mid-air before trying to regain control. But before he could do more, Jasper reappeared behind him. He didn't even have time to turn as Jasper's arms wrapped around him, locking him in a hold. Then, in the same motion, Jasper shifted their weight, driving them both downward.
"Severe primary lotus!" Jasper hissed.
The two crashed down to the ground with a deafening impact. That taijutsu attack, reminiscent of Might Guy's Primary Lotus, was executed at more than seventy feet in the air!
Dust and debris flew out as Kaito was seen crouched inside a crater. He was gravely annoyed but still able to continue fighting. His body also hurt with internal bruises that were healing.
If he hadn't used the Cellular Activation technique in time, he might have been in a more terrible position. Yet that didn't stop his injuries from being excruciatingly painful.
When Jasper looked at him, his eyes flared with recognition; he noticed that Kaito had a healing factor in play. That knowledge only fueled his aggression.
"Not gonna happen," he muttered, lunging forward.
Kaito sensed the attack and prepared himself by standing upright. When Jasper closed the distance, he aimed a kick at Kaito's torso, and Kaito managed to dodge just in time.
That was only the beginning.
Jasper followed with two quick punches, both landing with solid force. Blood seeped from Kaito's mouth as Jasper delivered an elbow to his ribs and an uppercut to his chin.
Backflipping in the air to land, Kaito spat out more blood. Then he quickly summoned the Boltswords. The weapons were raised defensively, preparing for what was to come.
"Think those are gonna work?!" Jasper taunted, running forward.
Kaito swung the swords, causing chakra chains to snake out into the air. Yet Jasper was fast, too fast, to be exact. He dodged the chains easily, leaving behind afterimages as he moved. Then he closed in with a shout.
"Get wrecked!"
With a strong kick to the chin, he sent Kaito high into the air. At the peak of his height, Jasper reappeared and struck him down with a punch. Kaito tumbled through the air, and then Jasper was behind him again. The next punch hit him to the side, then another, pushing him back and forth.
Jasper kept attacking, relentlessly. For each strike, Kaito's body absorbed the blows as blood slipped past his lips. He knew what technique this was; Jasper's blurry movements were not easy to track.
For the finality, Jasper reached the highest point and palmed Kaito's body.
"Severe hidden lotus!"
The impact caused Kaito to crash down to the ground. He was on his knees now, battered and exhausted. But Jasper wasn't finished.
While Kaito was still in the dirt, and he was still in the air, he summoned two more copies of himself—lightning clones, no doubt.
Each one of them took turns. "Severe—!" The first descended quickly, punching Kaito straight into the ground and expanding the already-formed crater. "—Mad dance—!" The second came down next to deliver the same forceful punch, enlarging the crater further. Then the third descended with an even greater punch that caused an explosion. "—Of infinity!"
When it settled, only one Jasper stood over the battered form of Kaito. His opponent was all bloodied and still. So Jasper waited, watching to see if Kaito could move.
But Kaito remained still, only breathing shallowly.
Had his opponent already given up? That only made Jasper suspicious as he activated his Byakugan to examine Kaito's body.
What he saw stunned him. Kaito's body was unnaturally compact, as if he had been squeezed tightly and born from an artificial womb. His skin alone was so perfectly pristine. And his chakra signature was bizarre—almost mocking, like something crafted.
"No wonder you lasted so long," Jasper commented.
He had won, but he didn't feel as if he did. That was because of something frustrating he was seeing: Kaito was still clinging to the Boltswords, refusing to let go.
Jasper's interest was therefore piqued.
From what he was seeing, the weapons weren't ordinary. They looked to have been modified, and that made them intriguing. So he reached down, intending to grab one. Then Kaito suddenly sprang up!
His movements were slow, but he was determined to stab Jasper's skull. As the tip of the blade was only inches from Jasper's eyes, Jasper furrowed his brows as purple electricity shot out from his body and skewered Kaito's arm off.
The shock was severe, and Kaito grimaced, but he didn't cry out. His face was only set in grim fortitude.
"Gotta admit," Jasper said, almost in an admiring tone. "You were a lot tougher than that snake boy."
With those words, Jasper grabbed one of the Boltswords and swung it in a quick motion that sliced off Kaito's head. The fight was finally over, and Jasper stood victorious as his opponent's own weapon dripped with their blood.
His eyes narrowed as he slowly used his Byakugan to scan the surrounding area. The war was a mess—debris, broken weapons, and scattered bodies—yet Jasper's focus was only on the residual chakras.
He needed to make sure that he won, that Kaito or Arthur didn't have some contingency plan in play. If even a minor trace of Kaito's chakra lingered, then he would never consider this a true win.
A couple minutes later, he confirmed what he suspected: no residual chakra remained from Kaito. The cloned shinobi was truly dead. No life signs, no hidden energy signatures. It was a clean kill. No strings attached.
Only after another minute did he finally remove himself from Kaito's dead body and deactivate the Eight Gates.
Distant skirmishes and explosions echoed through the land. The opposing forces, whatever remained of them, seemed oblivious to his triumph—too occupied with their own fights or perhaps too afraid to approach.
But Jasper's concern was not about the war; he had someone in mind, a specific threat that he absolutely had to eliminate. Who else could it be other than Arthur Bennett?
Jasper allowed himself a moment to breathe as his chakra slowly replenished. The toll of his fight was evident since he had pushed himself past his limits, forced to release up to the Seventh Gate.
His body throbbed with fatigue, muscles sore and joints aching. His chakra was also nearly depleted, leaving him vulnerable. Not from activating the gates, but from prior—when Kaito had been fighting him with the chakra chains.
This would be troubling for any normal ninja. Thankfully for Jasper, he was not a normal ninja; he had an advantage, his unique trait: Kaguya's Legacy. It was a power that could restore his reserves and heal his wounds, but only if he waited long enough.
As such, he waited for Kaguya's regeneration skill to finish.
And as he did, his mind drifted back to the weapon in his hand. They were strange, modified from their original form, yet far more compact and sharper than any weapon he'd ever laid eyes on. Jasper honestly didn't even know that they were the Boltswords.
Slowly, he walked back and picked up the second sword. He examined both of them carefully. Since he was currently vulnerable, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use them should someone random attack.
Yet Jasper was not stupid.
With his Byakugan still active, he peered further into the weapon's core. And what he saw surprised him. The weapon carried a natural current of electricity—an unusual trait for a weapon forged for combat. The energy seemed stable and potent at the same time.
His eyes sharpened as something about the weapons caught his attention: an intricate seal stamped into the metal. It looked familiar, and his experience told him it was no ordinary marking.
His gaze widened once he recognized it. The seal was unmistakable: a Flying raijin mark.
"That bastard!" he growled under his breath.
There was only one person who would use such a seal—the same person he needed to eliminate at all costs. The implications were also clear. Arthur had been involved in Kaito's weapons, perhaps even directly responsible for their modifications, so Jasper believed.
The idea that Arthur's achievements went far beyond anyone could track infuriated Jasper to the very core. Special, powerful shinobi as servants, an entire army to wage war, and weapon modification?
Jasper liked how these weapons functioned, as he could have used them to amplify his purple electricity. But Arthur's cunningness, his ability to embed hidden tools and traps in even the toughest of objects, was just too much.
Without hesitation, Jasper forced out a surge of chakra and shattered the Boltswords into pieces. The sound was sharp as the fragments scattered across the ground.
Now there was something else going on in Jasper's head: how did Arthur acquire such a weapon? Were they his to begin with, or were they actually Kaito's?
The thought was confusing for him to understand. So he analyzed the situation carefully.
Kaito was never told to use any other weapons apart from those chakra chains. At least that's what Alice told Jasper after the two fought in the mountains. And if that was the case, then it could only mean that Arthur personally gave Kaito those weapons afterwards.
'Think…' Jasper said internally.
Then it finally dawned on him. The way those weapons had functioned used natural electricity. Only one weapon came to mind that could do that: the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist.
That had to have been it. Only Arthur, a player who understood how the ninja world worked, would have been so daring as to seek at least one of them out. This was bad. Very bad. Because who's to say that he hadn't obtained more of them?
Then there was the thought of them having been modified. Such a feat was no trivial task.
Now Jasper was relieved that he destroyed the weapons now. Because if he couldn't have them, no one could. Especially Arthur.
Now Jasper slowly looked at Kaito's decapitated body. The reports about him had been shocking—an exceptional shinobi who had managed to fake his death, a feat only someone of Arthur's caliber could pull off convincingly.
The rumors said Kaito had served under Orochimaru before his supposed death. He apparently had also captured the dead bodies of three ninjas from the Sound Four. Yet what no one really understood was that it was Arthur who had done all those things.
This made Jasper suspicious since he didn't know this. Why would someone as strong as Kaito serve Arthur? And what was their connection exactly?
If Kaito was indeed this formidable, and if he served Arthur, then the scope of the threat was even greater than he had imagined.
All this pointed back to one thing: to end this war, Jasper had to take out the leader himself. That was the only way.
The idea of another Final Truthseeker Orb attack was tempting but reckless. Jasper had seen firsthand how Arthur's power could neutralize even his most destructive efforts. That alone told him he couldn't rely on a widespread.
His fist clenched as he stared toward the dark dust plaguing the war.
"Arthur…" he said with clenched teeth. "Just you wait…"