When Yamashiro Aoba, Sarutobi Asuma, and Yūhi Kurenai arrived at Hagoromo's battlefield, they immediately understood why—at the very start of the fight—Hagoromo had insisted on splitting the battlefield.
And why he had emphasized that the two engagements needed to be as far apart as possible.
Looking at the scene before them, none of them wanted to imagine what would have happened if they had been caught within the range of that jutsu.
Earlier, the rain had thinned slightly. But the moment Hagoromo released Lightning Release: Kirin, the downpour surged again, returning to the same torrential intensity as before.
And the terrain—
What had once been open and relatively flat had been completely transformed.
The ground looked like glass—yet at its center, it was as though a colossal hammer had smashed down with brutal force.
The earth hadn't merely fractured into chunks. It had buckled and collapsed inward, forming a massive depression centered on a single point. At its deepest, the ground had sunk eight to ten meters below the surrounding area.
The lightning had vanished, but the damage remained.
During its spread, Kirin had torn open cracks of every depth and width—some no wider than a finger, others so deep and broad they defied easy description. Rainwater pooled briefly on the surface before pouring straight down into the earth through those fissures.
At the outer edge of the forest, trees bore scorched black marks. Closer to the center of the jutsu's range, the damage was far worse—
Entire trees had been completely carbonized, their wooden fibers reduced to charcoal.
Although Lightning Release: Kirin was broadly classified as an S-rank jutsu, its actual destructive power varied each time it was used.
In short—
It depended on the weather.
For example, Kirin activated using storm clouds artificially generated by Fire Release simply could not compare to one drawn from naturally formed thunderclouds. The scale and density of energy accumulation were fundamentally different; ninjutsu-induced weather could never rival nature itself.
A single lightning strike was composed of multiple layered discharges, while Kirin forcibly compressed and released all that energy in a single instant.
Before releasing Kirin, Hagoromo had deliberately created an energy-accumulating electrical field across the clearing. Though he couldn't calculate it with absolute precision, he had estimated the jutsu's output from another angle.
At its peak, Kirin's voltage reached roughly 500 million volts, with an average current between 150,000 and 250,000 amperes.
By those numbers, the energy released was—by the standards of this world—comparable to a small-scale nuclear detonation.
Ignoring focused lethality and considering only raw electrical output, it far exceeded the maximum instantaneous discharge of conventional electrical attacks.
This was lightning in the truest sense.
Of course, because Kirin relied on natural lightning, its release method was inherently crude. It excelled at wide-area annihilation, not pinpoint strikes—something that couldn't compare to Hagoromo's usual precision-based combat style.
Low chakra cost.
Overwhelming damage.
The only drawback was its extreme environmental limitations.
At its core, this was a jutsu that could only be used under very specific conditions.
Well—one couldn't reasonably expect an S-rank forbidden jutsu like this to be usable anytime, anywhere.
Using Kirin against this opponent did feel somewhat excessive.
But given the mission requirements, Hagoromo couldn't afford a prolonged battle. And this enemy's movement style—agile, erratic, flea-like—happened to counter Hagoromo's usual tactics rather well.
So—
Question: How do you quickly get rid of fleas on a feral cat?
Answer: Electrocute the cat along with them.
Hagoromo was now checking what remained of the thoroughly overcooked ninja, hoping—perhaps unrealistically—to find something of intelligence value.
It was impossible.
Reality was brutal. Literally.
Carbonized flesh and exposed white bone—black and white in the most literal sense.
What intelligence could possibly remain?
Was the Fūma Clan especially prone to burning when struck by lightning?
Unsurprisingly, Hagoromo found nothing useful—and, honestly, he wasn't frustrated.
If the enemy had survived that, then Hagoromo would have been annoyed.
"Hagoromo… this was your jutsu?" Asuma finally asked hesitantly as the three of them approached, carrying something with them.
If Hagoromo answered "yes," it would be a devastating blow.
After all, they'd all graduated together—how were they supposed to keep getting along if this was his idea of "playing fair"?
"More or less," Hagoromo replied. "Did you notice the flashes in the sky earlier? I just used Lightning Release to draw down natural lightning. The effect looks exaggerated, but strictly speaking, it's not entirely my own power."
That… sounded plausible.
And also absurd.
Lightning didn't just come down because someone asked nicely.
Before issuing his earlier orders, Hagoromo had warned his teammates not to panic if they saw unusual flashes in the sky.
At the time, he hadn't known for sure that he'd need to use Kirin—but given the weather, it had been a possibility worth accounting for.
Yes, the sky had flashed.
But no one expected that.
As they spoke, Hagoromo decisively abandoned his search of the charred remains.
The reason was simple—
In a three-on-one fight, Asuma's group had captured the other enemy alive.
At that moment, Yamashiro Aoba was carrying the unconscious ninja.
"A live capture? Genjutsu?" Hagoromo asked.
Aoba nodded.
Capturing an enemy alive was far more difficult than killing one. Even in a three-on-one situation, all three had suffered injuries.
Asuma was the worst off—blood was still flowing steadily from his right shoulder.
Aoba had multiple cuts as well.
Only Kurenai, likely because she wasn't a close-combat specialist and had been protected by her teammates, emerged uninjured.
"But wait," Asuma suddenly said. "With that kind of power and range… how did you survive it?"
"That's not something we can discuss now," Hagoromo said immediately. "We need to evacuate—right now. That attack was far too conspicuous."
Even though they were technically still within the Land of Fire, the Land of Rain was only a stone's throw away.
Forget the sound—
From a visual standpoint, Kirin had been a gigantic lightning flare hanging in the sky. Any nearby ninja—enemy or ally—would have noticed it.
Thunderstorms or not, anyone with a functioning brain wouldn't mistake something like that for natural lightning.
So now was not the time for questions.
For the safety of the squad—
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