Motoi had seen many strange things in his life, but nothing could have prepared him for what unfolded near the Falls of Truth that morning.
From his vantage point among the trees, he watched as Naruto, Jiraiya, Sasuke, and Hinata sat in a perfect circle beneath the midday sun. Their postures were relaxed but purposeful, each one drawing in deep, rhythmic breaths. A hush fell over the clearing, thick with intent. Encircling them was a massive serpent—elegant, ominous, and still—its scales catching the light in a quiet dance of color. It didn't move or threaten. It simply watched, as if standing guard.
And then came the wolf. Kuro.
The enormous black she-wolf emerged from the forest shadows and made her way to the ledge above the waterfall. She looked out across the clearing, her eyes scanning the scene below. With a huff, she seated herself on the stone like a statue, tail curled, fur ruffling in the wind.
Motoi narrowed his eyes.
For minutes, nothing happened. Then, all at once, Kuro's ears twitched. She sniffed the air, her hackles rising as if she'd caught a scent.
Suddenly, the she-wolf bolted from her perch.
"I've got your shadow now—it's mine! Hahahaha!" she howled, sprinting in wild, joyful circles across the clearing.
Motoi blinked. "What?"
She stopped mid-step, skidding into the dirt. Her head tilted, her tail stilled. "Wait… SHE stole my shadow? No… no no no no—NO! This won't stand!"
With that, the giant wolf hurled herself back toward the waterfall. Again. And again. And again.
Motoi counted at least six attempts. Each one ended in frantic growls and swishing water. Eventually, she dragged her soaked, exhausted form back toward Hinata, her partner and collapsed beside her with a heavy sigh. She tucked her nose under one paw and curled up—small as a housecat despite her immense size. Her chest rose and fell slowly, already drifting into sleep.
The serpent let out a hissing chuckle. "That wasss pathetic," it whispered in a long, mocking drawl.
The wolf didn't react. Not even a flick of an ear.
The snake turned its head, its yellow eyes catching Motoi in the shadows. "Do you happen to know if there are any foxesss on this island?"
Motoi's mouth opened. Then closed. He shook his head and returned to watching.
Hours passed. Silence reigned. Then—movement.
Motoi turned sharply toward the cliff path where Mitsue had last coiled. But as he arrived, the ninja stationed there reported grimly:
"They're gone. All of them. Vanished—without a single trace."
Motoi stared into the empty clearing, feeling the chill crawl up his spine.
"...This is going to be a problem."
<<<< o >>>>
Several days had passed since they left Giant Turtle Island. The group had taken shelter in one of Minato's old hideouts—a remote cave preserved and hidden by Uzumaki sealing techniques passed down from his beloved Kushina. There, within the sanctified grounds of Yumegakure no Kai, they rested and trained. Time flowed differently inside the Silver Nodes, allowing Naruto and Sasuke the opportunity to refine their techniques under the watchful eyes of their respective families. Eventually, the promised day arrived.
The duel was to take place in a specially prepared Silver Node—one designed to offer no unfair advantage to either combatant. It was a wind-swept steppe, partially flooded in places, with scattered grass and the occasional animal watching from the distance. Suspended high above in a floating cube of compressed air were the spectators: individuals from the families of Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata. Select guests—such as Kurenai, Shino, and Kiba—stood among them, all watching with bated breath, eager to witness the clash of two titans.
Hinata and Naruto stood in complete silence, facing one another. Their spiritual auras pulsed in the air, colliding invisibly—like the war drums of ancient gods echoing across a timeless valley.
Hinata moved first. With a graceful twist, her fingers danced through a flurry of hand signs.
Flame Dragon Jutsu!
A massive stream of fire surged forward, coiling like a serpent through the air as it raced toward Naruto.
Unshaken, Naruto quickly clasped his hands together. Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Nine Narutos burst into existence, surrounding him in formation.
But Hinata wasn't finished. Her eyes narrowed, and with renewed speed, her hands flashed again.
Majestic Torrent Jutsu!
A powerful stream of water exploded from her palms, wrapping around the flame like a binding serpent. The result: a scalding, blinding mist that expanded across the battlefield with volatile intensity.
Naruto exhaled.
Wind Breath.
And suddenly, the world around him slowed.
The combined Jutsu had transformed into a multi-headed hydra of mist and heat, seeking to engulf him. But he and his clones moved like dancers caught in a perfect rhythm—each dodge fluid, each step reactive, almost subconscious. It was as if the wind itself whispered into his muscles.
Hinata's gaze sharpened. "Have you mastered the Dance of the Wind Leaf?"
Naruto's only response was a grin, eyes gleaming with mischief. He no longer needed to concentrate to maintain the dance, now he only had to breathe for it to always be in effect.
They both understood what that meant.
This variant of the Wind Breath had no offensive form. It was not a style of attack—it was a philosophy of motion. The Dance of the Wind Leaf was its purest expression: a legendary technique said to elevate the body into a state of instinctive evasion so perfect it bordered on precognition. To train it was to embody the wind.
And Naruto, she realized, was no longer merely using Wind Breath. He was becoming it.
After the release of Hinata's Jutsu, only five Naruto clones remained on the battlefield, each flanking her position. A sixth Naruto—the real one stood at a distance, observing. Those surrounding her didn't remain passive—in perfect synchronicity, each clone formed a Rasengan, now enhanced with a halo of slicing wind. The fusion of Wind Breath and Rasengan gave the technique a far more lethal edge, especially when paired with their blinding speed.
Hinata, recognizing the rising threat, smiled.
Channeling her World of Intent, she flowed into motion—a dance of evasion and steel. Her body wove through their attacks, and each of her counterstrikes with Shinsei, her beloved katana, came within a hair's breadth of striking true. Yet not once did they land and yet the air trembles with Shinsei passing and the earth cracks with its touch. Naruto and his clones, empowered by the Wind Leaf Dance, moved with preternatural grace. They were like phantoms—almost untouchable.
Her next tactic came swiftly. She began layering subtle Genjutsu into her footwork and strikes, each illusion designed to blur Naruto's perception or distract a clone's timing. But it was futile. Kurama's chakra, ever vigilant, neutralized every illusion before it could take root. Even the most insidious mental snares were rendered useless.
Hinata gritted her teeth and tightened her grip around Shinsei's hilt. For the first time, she truly acknowledged that conventional tactics wouldn't suffice. Power wasn't the answer—not here. If she wanted to match Naruto's evasion, she needed something more.
Closing her eyes for a breath, she reopened them with her Mind's Eye burning brighter than ever before. Her World of Intent surged outward—not as a shield, but as a weapon. Her perception shifted. She wasn't watching for movement—she was reading intention.
Naruto's evasions near her became legible threads of possibility. His instincts, once impossible to counter, now had shape—form—patterns. With each breath, each motion, she unraveled his rhythm.
The flow of battle turned.
At close range, she predicted and intercepted, striking not where he was—but where he would be. One clone fell, then another. Her offensive intent pierced their coordination. The seamless unity of the clones faltered as they began to flicker and vanish in bursts of dissipating chakra. The tide had shifted, and Hinata stood at its crest.
From a distance, Naruto simply smiled... but Hinata, to his surprise, leapt high into the air—graceful, weightless, as though gravity no longer bound her. Suspended mid-sky, her silver threads shimmered into existence, extending in sharp, unwavering lines toward the four clones he had stationed across the battlefield. Each was meticulously setting up sealing marks to reshape the terrain to his advantage.
Her threads struck with pinpoint precision.
The ground detonated in a series of violent shockwaves. Explosions rocked the field as all four seals were destroyed in brilliant bursts of pure inertia at the moment the threads materialized at impossible speeds.
Descending slowly, almost ceremoniously, Hinata touched down. She looked at Naruto with calm confidence, her silver-tinged eyes gleaming faintly.
"I've experienced that trick before," she said, her tone light but pointed.
"Shino's idea had merit—it's a shame," Naruto replied, grinning as he once more conjured a new wave of clones. This time, they came in dozens. They moved with synchronized precision, each charging forward, armed with a Rasengan infused with slicing wind.
And so the dance began anew.
From a distance, Hinata launched her silver threads in sweeping arcs, attempting to destroy the incoming Narutos. But the Wind Leaf Dance was alive in their every motion—they evaded the instant her threads became solid, slipping between the strands like whispers of air. Her offensive use of the World of Intent was still in development, and the overwhelming number of targets made it nearly impossible to read every individual movement.
Yet even as her attacks missed, the power behind them left scars on the battlefield. The earth cracked beneath Shinsei's reach. The sheer pressure from her strikes split stone and tore furrows in the ground, filling the air with trails of dust and flashing chakra.
Then, in a sudden flash of strategy, three clones seated in the background—silent, still, meditating—exploded into puffs of smoke.
The original Naruto, positioned behind the lines, drew in the gathered natural chakra with practiced ease, channeling it into three nearby clones through a seamless fusion of his unparalleled chakra control and masterful use of the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
In an instant, they activated Sage Mode.
Their auras changed—denser, more primal. Speed and strength surged exponentially. The fragile balance between them and Hinata shattered.
The sage clones descended upon Hinata with blinding speed. Their strikes of senjutsu chakra and kenjutsu moved like whispers of wind—visible to none but her. She saw the strikes—but they came too fast. Her only defense was a rapid weave of silver threads, forming a cocoon of protection.
Even so, one of the blows connected. The impact hurled her backwards, crashing her through dust and stone, her body thrown dozens of meters through the air.
As she tried to right herself mid-recovery, a clone leveled his arm.
A Rasenshuriken burst to life—howling—and flew straight toward her.
The threads surrounding Hinata stirred, shimmering with power—and with an unnerving gentleness, they redirected the Rasenshuriken's trajectory. The deadly sphere curved away at the last moment, soaring harmlessly into the sky. A thin silver trail of blood dripped from Hinata's nose, a sign of his taijutsu combined attacks with senjutsu—Frog Kumite.
"Thank you, Naruto-kun... I suppose it's time for phase two," she murmured, a faint smile on her lips.
Naruto didn't answer. His gaze sharpened. She still hadn't used her breath.
In that instant, dozens of clones rushed toward Hinata, kunai in one hand and wind-enhanced Rasengan in the other. Some were already Sage Mode, and all were cloaked in a vibrant orange aura—Kurama mode. Their speed multiplied tenfold.
Hinata inhaled—
And her Mirage Breath ignited.
The water she had seeded across the battlefield shimmered. Droplets began to float, suspended in midair like tiny mirrors.
Mirage Breath – Second Form: Dancing Embers in the Rain.
Reflections of Shinsei bloomed throughout the field. Illusory blades turned tangible at the moment of impact—silver strikes carving deep gashes into the earth. Several clones fell instantly, cut down by blades that shouldn't have been real.
Amid the chaos, the real Naruto only a spark of his will was needed and a second chakra cloak recovered him his six paths mode, behind him six black spheres emerged from nowhere—his Truth-Seeking Orbs, its power defied the rules that made up reality and It was seamlessly combined with his Kurama mode changing its color to a golden orange. He raised a hand and silently launched a Truth-Seeking Orb toward Hinata. The orb sliced through the smoke and destruction left by the fallen clones, its supersonic velocity veiled beneath their explosive demise.
It struck her.
Or so it seemed.
The moment it hit, her form shattered—not through resistance, but diffusion. Dozens of shimmering reflections rippled outward from the point of contact, like the surface of a disturbed lake.
Mirage Breath – Third Form: Silent Ripple.
All around, Naruto's clones suddenly found themselves face to face with multiple versions of Hinata. One clone drove his kunai through a mirage and scoffed, "They're not real—!"
Only to gasp as the illusion he pierced turned, swung her blade, and dispersed him with a single slash.
Another clone cried out, "But they can still hit us!"
In that moment, from within the crowd of Hinata mirages, one took a single step—
BOOM.
A deafening crack shattered the air as she broke the sound barrier.
Mirage Breath – Fourth Form: One Thousand Steps in One.
She vanished from sight, only to reappear beside what seemed to be one of the Naruto clones—mere meters from the true Naruto holding the Truth-Seeking Orbs. But it wasn't a clone. It was the real one, and she had seen through his misdirection.
She stood there with her blade still sheathed.
Naruto's reactions—powered by Sage Mode and Kurama's chakra cloak—were the only reason he could follow her movements at all. Even then, he saw only a blur as her sword drew close at impossible speed.
Mirage Breath – First Form: New Moon.
Naruto instinctively funneled chakra into his chest, and at the speed of thought, one of his hidden Truth-Seeking Orbs—tucked beneath his clothing—moved to intercept. It absorbed the strike, but the impact hurled him into the air like a meteor.
He didn't fall.
Suspended midair, Naruto wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. The strike had been brutal. His Truth-Seeking Orb had been completely shattered.
He descended rapidly, merging once more with the mass of his clones.
"That speed… and she knows which one is the real me..."
One of Hinata's illusions, hovering near the real Naruto, answered with a calm, almost gentle voice:
"Of course I do. Only you have a soul. The rest are merely chakra echoes."
As she spoke, Hinata began to ascend again, her body shimmering with grace.
Once more, she activated her Thousand Steps in One, and appeared behind Naruto in a flash, sword poised. But this time, she cut down a clone.
From nearby, the true Naruto called out, grinning:
"What? I can do that too, y'know. I always thought your substitution during the Chūnin Exams was cool. Thanks to my dad, I perfected it for myself."
Hinata's eyes widened in shock—but she had no time to react. A clone struck from behind.
Only to strike a Mirage.
Then a real Naruto emerged from the chaos and slashed at her, the real her among her multiple mirages.
She blocked, barely.
"What? I can find the real you too," Naruto said with a smile. "Your mirages don't have feelings. But you? You feel everything. That's how I know."
The battle transformed again.
A whirlwind of impossible speed, shifting mirages, and clones—both in the sky and on the scarred battlefield. For the onlookers, the only thing visible now was the storm of dust and debris—obscuring the earth, the fighters, and the truth.
Then, everything changed in an instant.
All of Hinata's mirages moved simultaneously, converging into a single, radiant figure. She raised her sword—Shinsei—and sliced through the air in a motion so precise, so absolute, that it seemed to sever reality itself.
The technique exploded outward.
Mirage Breath – Sixth Form: Thousands Cuts As One.
Every Naruto clone was cleaved apart at once, each one vanishing mid-motion, unable to dodge the strike. The battlefield cleared in a shockwave of pressurized air, the dust blown away in all directions by the sheer force of the attack.
At a distance, Naruto stumbled, his body bearing the marks of the impact. All three of his Truth-Seeking Orbs were shattered, reduced to motes of dark light. Blood dripped from his lips… his left arm was broken and yet he smiled.
Two clones appeared at his sides.
The three of them—Naruto and his clones—flared with blinding energy as they began to grow, each one assuming the chakra-cloaked form of Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox.
From their mouths, glowing orbs began to take shape—swirling masses of black and white chakra. It was something new… something terrifying. A fusion between Naruto's Rasenshuriken and the Tailed Beast Bomb.
"You're incredible, Hinata," Naruto said, voice steady despite the damage.
Hovering in the sky, Hinata returned his gaze. Her hand trembled, blood trailing from her palm—proof of the toll her Sixth Form had taken. Yet she smiled.
"Looks like we've reached the end… haven't we?"
Naruto gave a slow nod, his expression soft as he cradled his broken left arm.
The storm was about to reach its peak.
"My father taught me my final form..."
As the words left Hinata's lips, the air around her began to shimmer—heat rising from her skin like waves off sun-baked stone. Her chakra boiled, her Yang igniting with pure flame and power. And yet, that heat was tempered—guided—by the stillness of her Yin, the flowing calm of water and spirit. Her entire being aligned in perfect duality, merging fire and water, body and soul, into something transcendent.
She had never activated this form since reaching the Silver Stage naturally. But now, everything she was—every ounce of her spiritual heritage, every piece of her bloodline—was being transformed. Spiritual energy became physical force. Physical prowess became divine radiance.
Her eyes turned gold.
And above Yumegakure, the moon seemed to bend to her presence—its edges gilded in sunlight, as though dawn rose from behind it. In that moment, her seventh form no longer bore the name 'Last Moonlight.'
It had evolved.
Mirage Breath – Seventh Form: Eclipse.
At that instant, Naruto unleashed his fused attacks—Bijūdama-Rasenshuriken, three of them roaring toward her like collapsing stars.
Hinata raised Shinsei.
With a single, horizontal slash, she cut.
Reality fractured.
The sky screamed. The world cracked. And only through the combined efforts of Hagoromo and Hamura, channeling their divine chakra through Michel, was this Silver Node of Yumegakure kept from collapsing.
The devastating orbs—gone.
Naruto's clones—erased.
The form of Kurama cloaking him—dissolved.
He stood unharmed… but alone now, facing something beyond mortal comprehension. For just a moment, she had become something divine. And that moment… was enough.
Naruto raised his hand, grinning. "I surrender."
Hinata smiled, her eyes fading back to silver as she sheathed Shinsei. From her nose, ears, and eyes, thin lines of silver blood trickled down. Her breathing was ragged. Her body trembled.
Gravity took its hold on Hinata again.
But before she could fall, Naruto was there. Weakened, but not beaten, he caught her gently in his arm.
"I should've waited just a little longer," he chuckled, wincing. "We might've called it a draw."
Hinata let out a soft laugh, barely audible. "Good thing… we didn't."