The wind howled across the shattered peak where the temple once stood, its ruins still smoldering beneath a sky darkened by soot and smoke. The crater glowed faintly in the night, molten stone dripping from exposed cliffs.
Jigen stood on a distant ridge, arms crossed, watching the devastation with unreadable eyes. His cloak fluttered gently as heat shimred upward from the ruin. The very mountain trembled under the weight of the destruction Haji had unleashed.
"So he noticed back then," Jigen murmured.
He had watched the entire battle in Agakure from afar, how Haji obliterated Kakuzu without effort, how even the gravity of the Rinnegan couldn't move him. The golden halo… that strange force. It was not chakra. Not any form he recognized.
That was when his desire ignited. Not curiosity. Greed.
"I thought I was the one hunting him… But he's co for instead."
A sudden shimr distorted the air behind him.
Jigen turned calmly.
And there he was.
Haji appeared without sound or flash. One mont, the ridge was empty. The next, he stood there, helted, silent, eyes glowing faintly beneath the visor. The silver of his armor reflected the embers still rising behind them.
Jigen studied him closely.
"Perfect," he said, a smile curling his lips. "You're even more valuable than I thought. I sensed it back when you fought those Akatsuki fools… but now that you're here, this close… it's undeniable."
He raised a hand.
"Co. Beco my body. Together, we'll be sothing the gods themselves would fear."
Haji didn't respond. He didn't even shift his stance.
He simply lifted his arm, and in his hand, summoned his halberd.
Warp energy coiled around the blade like serpents made of lightning. Purple arcs cracked in the air as the weapon extended, humming with unnatural power. No chakra radiated from it. Only sothing deeper. Older.
Jigen's smile faltered.
"…That energy," he said, narrowing his eyes. "That's not chakra. What are you really?"
Still no answer.
The wind scread between them.
And then Haji moved.
In a blink, he closed the distance, his halberd crashing downward in a precise arc.
Jigen leapt back, summoning a black rod from his palm mid-air. The weapon t the halberd with a clash, tal shrieking against dense chakra alloy.
But Jigen's eyes widened.
The halberd wasn't just hard, it vibrated with raw kinetic energy, the mont of impact reverberating through his body like a shockwave. He barely redirected it, the force cratering the ground beneath them.
Haji landed soundlessly and struck again, this ti sweeping low.
Jigen shrank instantly using Sukunahikona, his body vanishing to microscopic scale. Haji's strike carved a trench into the earth, stone exploding outward in all directions.
Jigen reappeared above him, flipping mid-air and summoning a rain of chakra rods from his Daikokuten space. The black spears fell like missiles.
Haji looked up.
And didn't move.
The rods struck his armor, and stopped, suspended an inch from the surface. A shimring psychic barrier had blood outward like a second skin, arresting all montum.
Jigen's eyes narrowed again.
"Tch."
He landed a distance away and launched forward again, his Kama Seal glowing across his face and arm. His speed spiked sharply, and he reappeared behind Haji in a blur, palm outstretched to absorb the halberd.
But as his hand touched it
Pain.
It seared up his arm like fire.
"What!?"
Haji turned and slamd the butt of his halberd into Jigen's ribs, sending him hurtling through two cliffs. Jigen rolled through the stone and skidded out, coughing, his chest armor cracked.
"That's… not chakra. Not even natural matter…"
Jigen rose, eyes narrowed with more calculation than before.
"Fine," he muttered. "You want a fight. You'll get one."
The Kama seal extended over his entire body. Dark marks crawled across his skin. His power surged as he teleported behind Haji again, this ti faster. Haji blocked with the halberd, but Jigen struck with multiple rapid jabs using his reinforced rods, each blow targeting joints and pressure points.
For a mont, sparks flew from Haji's armor.
Then, Haji moved. Just one step.
And Jigen's entire world tilted.
The halberd spun and caught Jigen's shoulder, flinging him across the battlefield like a ragdoll.
Jigen twisted midair and shrunk again to evade a follow-up bolt of warp lightning. He reappeared underground and launched a surprise pillar of chakra rods upward.
Haji didn't dodge.
He turned and drove his foot into the ground.
The entire earth buckled, and a localized shockwave blew the rods away before they could pierce the surface.
Jigen surfaced again, visibly irritated now.
"You really don't speak, huh?"
Haji tilted his head slightly. His voice, when it ca, was calm. Distant.
"You Otsutsuki types never shut up, do you?"
The statent landed like a stone.
Jigen's expression hardened.
"You think I'm like them?" he spat. "I am a god. You? You're just a container. And I will take what I need."
He rushed forward again, activating full Kama absorption. The very air bent around him as he attempted to draw in Haji's halberd
but it didn't work.
His ability flared and fizzled.
The halberd refused to be absorbed.
Haji's eyes locked onto him.
"You are wasting your ti."
The warp lightning surged again, and Haji struck in a full-bodied rotation, his halberd trailing afterimages of violet plasma.
Jigen ford a dinsional portal mid-spin and escaped through it, but Haji reacted instantly, slamming his hand into the sa space and disrupting the coordinates with a psychic pulse. Jigen staggered out of the exit portal only to find Haji already waiting.
Another strike, this one aid at the Kama seal directly.
Jigen blocked, but the force cracked the edge of his ribcage.
He coughed, blood spitting from his mouth.
His body was already starting to wear down.
Even with all his power, he was using too much.
And Haji… hadn't even broken a sweat.
Jigen stepped back, trying to calculate again.
"You're not like the others," he admitted, wiping his mouth.
Haji didn't answer.
Instead, he walked forward, slow, deliberate steps.
With each one, the air grew heavier.
Jigen could feel it now. Not chakra. Not physical weight.
But presence.
Haji's re existence pressed down on the battlefield like a mountain.
Jigen smirked despite the pain.
"I see it now," he said. "You're not just a vessel. You're sothing else entirely. Sothing… not ant for this world."
Haji didn't deny it.
He raised his halberd.
The storm above gathered again, lightning spiraling down toward his weapon as warp energy exploded across the cliff face.
Jigen stood his ground, but his expression had changed.
He was no longer amused.
Now, he was wary.
And sowhere beneath that…
Afraid.
"To be continued...
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