"I admit you are strong, you can come with us!"
But before Torifū could speak, Hiruzen continued, "But the battle isn't over yet! I know you haven't used your full strength!"
Torifū was momentarily stunned, then gave a small nod. Seeing that, Hiruzen smiled.
Turning to the side, Koharu held her forehead in exasperation. She thought the sparring was already over, but to her surprise, Hiruzen was still fired up.
Mitokado Homura adjusted his glasses with a knowing look. "Come on, it's not like you just met Hiruzen today. He's always been like this."
Uchiha Kagami chuckled in agreement, the corners of his mouth slightly lifted.
Today had given him a new impression of Torifū—calm in battle, composed even when at a disadvantage, and capable of assessing the situation to find opportunities.
Meanwhile, Uchiha Naori stood on the sidelines, fired up as she watched the match between Torifū and Hiruzen. At first, she had been the most anxious of them all.
But as the fight progressed, she realized Torifū's strength far surpassed her expectations, and her worries faded.
Hiruzen rolled his joints, loosening up after the cold, and prepared to continue.
He dispelled the summoning of the Monkey King Enma. It looked like he was ready to end this with ninjutsu. Truth be told, ninjutsu had always been his specialty—taijutsu was just a flourish.
"Earth Style – Great Mud River!"
In an instant, the earth beneath Hiruzen's feet turned to sludge and surged toward Torifū. It moved fast and covered a massive area, flooding nearly half the battlefield.
There was nowhere to dodge.
Torifū's hands flashed through a series of hand seals, then he slapped the ground. Countless giant crystal spikes burst up from the soil, forming a towering wall that held back the mud entirely—not a single drop seeped through.
Hiruzen actually laughed at the sight. "Raising a crystal wall in the middle of a massive mud flow? You've just made yourself a bigger target!"
"Earth Style - Earth Dragon Bullet!"
A snarling dragon's head rose from the ground, its maw wide open as it fired a volley of earth bullets toward the gleaming crystal wall.
Even though the wall's material was stronger than the earth bullets, the repeated strikes at a concentrated point caused cracks to spider across its surface.
Still, the crystal wall held strong. Torifū continued to pour chakra into it, rapidly reinforcing it. The battlefield fell into a deadlock.
Sweat beaded at Hiruzen's temples. He had clearly underestimated the crystal wall's durability, but now, retreating would mean total defeat.
Gritting his teeth, he began weaving hand seals at lightning speed.
Perched in a tree to avoid the mud, Danzō saw what seals Hiruzen was forming and immediately sensed danger. He shouted, "Hiruzen! You're not ready for that jutsu!"
But it was too late.
"Fire Style – Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
Flames erupted from Hiruzen's mouth, morphing into a raging dragon that roared through the air. It slammed into the crystal wall alongside the surge of muddy sludge.
Hiruzen strained to control the fire dragon's trajectory, afraid it might ignite the entire forest through the mud. This combined-element ninjutsu was something he had conceptualized long ago, but never successfully executed.
And yet, here and now—it worked!
The clash of searing flame and freezing mud created rapid temperature changes. Countless hairline fractures spread through the crystal wall. Finally, with the continued pounding from the earth dragon's bullets—
BOOM!
The wall exploded into a spray of shards and vanished into the mud.
The flames and sludge surged through the breach, overtaking the once-clear zone inside.
Now the entire battlefield was engulfed in smoke, fire, and muck. Nothing could be seen.
It was only then that Hiruzen realized—maybe he'd gone too far today.
He quickly ended his jutsu. The flames and mud subsided, and he swept his gaze across the clearing.
But Torifū was nowhere to be seen.
Just as panic began to rise—
"Crystal Style - Mirror Palace Imprisonment!"
Before Hiruzen could even locate the voice, countless crystal vines erupted from the ground around him, forming a colossal cage.
From the vines bloomed countless flower buds.
Then the buds blossomed—each transforming into a polished, gleaming crystal mirror.
The dizzying series of changes left Hiruzen's head spinning. He could sense an overwhelming threat—his life was in real danger!
Then the mirrors moved again.
In every single one of them, Torifū's reflection appeared—stepping halfway out, his lower half still inside the glass.
His hands flew into seals, and in his palms appeared a gleaming lotus bud made of crystal.
"Crystal Style – Lotus Arrow!" All the Torifūs spoke in unison. At once, they hurled their crystal buds toward Hiruzen like a storm of arrows..
Seeing the incoming downpour that could turn him into a pincushion, Hiruzen immediately shouted—
"I surrender!!"
In that split second, all the buds bloomed into deadly crystal lotuses, their petals razor-sharp, glittering like a deadly garden.
Sunlight pierced the canopy above, casting radiant beams over the crystalline cage. The entire space shimmered like a sacred hall.
One of the lotus petals hovered just a shuriken's length from Hiruzen's throat. His forehead dripped with cold sweat.
Moments later, the cage and all the lotuses shattered into countless fragments, dissolving into glittering crystal dust and vanishing entirely.
Hiruzen collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath—not just from shock, but from the huge chakra drain after maintaining his jutsu for so long.
"I say... are... are you trying to kill me?"
Hiruzen said grumpily. For a moment, he thought Torifū really intended to kill him.
Torifū crawled up from the earth, rubbing the back of his head. "Of course not. It's just that you're too strong, big brother Hiruzen. I had to scare you a little."
Hiruzen clearly didn't believe a word of it. But he had to admit—the kid was strong. And only six years old!
In fact, just like Hiruzen, Torifū's final move was also a desperate gamble. He had only developed the concept of this move, but had never actually used it.
It was only under pressure today that he was forced to pull it off. In fact, the jutsu was a combination technique, made up of several smaller ones.
The crystal vines that first grew from the ground were a new creation of Torifū's.
He named it Crystal Style - Crystal Creation.
By planting crystal seeds into the ground, they would germinate and grow rapidly.
The seeds that ensnared Hiruzen had actually been embedded in the crystal wall from earlier. When Hiruzen shattered the wall, the seeds fell into the ground with the debris.
It was pure luck—if those seeds had landed any farther away, Torifū would've lost.
"Hiruzen-nii, I can go with you all now, right?" Torifū asked, scratching his head with a sheepish grin.
Hiruzen didn't hold grudges. The moment the fight was over, it was forgotten. He threw an arm around Torifū's shoulders and laughed.
"Of course, Torifū. I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, keep my word."
Hearing that, Torifū finally relaxed. He had pulled out every trick he had just to earn some Peace Points—it hadn't been easy!
Just then, a familiar voice echoed in his mind.
[Ding—Congratulations, Host! New function unlocked.]