Naruto: Monthly Refreshing Stand Abillity

The enemy had Scary Monsters, but Ishiki Kujo had Weather Report.

Gale Deluge was merely a passive, uncontrollable phenomenon—anyone who thought wading through it unaffected meant they had a shot at defeating him... was woefully naïve.

He'd been entertaining an idea for some time, and had already studied the terrain with care.

The sudden appearance of an enemy Stand user wielding Scary Monsters was, to Ishiki, the perfect crucible to test that idea.

The dinosaur pierced through the head with a chakra scalpel swiftly reverted to its original form—a wild pheasant—collapsing lifelessly to the ground.

But the surrounding raptors, like sharks catching blood in the current, attacked with renewed fury.

Yet before they could reach him, puffs of white cloud materialized around each.

Invisible, irresistible—binding them instantly.

The clouds blackened, lightning churning within them.

The struggling dinosaurs twitched violently, muscles locking, seizing—until their forms unraveled back into dead wild animals. Only then did the storm clouds vanish.

Just then, the Iwa-nin strike team of four arrived near Ishiki's position.

Three of them split immediately, sprinting toward Ishiki's shadow clones. Only Diego remained before the real Ishiki.

The raptors had been slaughtered, but behind Diego were four larger beasts—deinonychus, taller and more muscular than the previous pack.

Like their cousins, they had small but lethal forelimbs and long, sinewy tails.

They flanked Diego tightly, vicious intent in their eyes.

"Iwa-nin?" Ishiki didn't even glance at the others chasing his clones. He addressed Diego directly.

"Kujo Ishiki!" Diego barked, naming him outright. "Seems you've gained a special power too. That thing behind you—is that it?"

"Shouldn't you introduce yourself before asking questions?" Ishiki didn't confirm or deny, but the tone was dry.

Diego hesitated a moment… then nodded. "Diego."

Upon seeing Ishiki, a chilling certainty had sunk into Diego's gut—only one of them would walk away from this fight.

Destiny.

So he gave his name—a sign of respect to his opponent. And of submission… to fate.

But in his heart, fate had only one outcome: Diego would survive.

Ishiki blinked. He hadn't expected the wielder of Scary Monsters to actually be "Diego."

"So this is fate?" Ishiki laughed, then added, "Too bad I'm not a JoJo."

There was nothing JoJo-like in the name Kujo Ishiki, and he'd never once thought of himself that way.

Diego didn't understand the reference—but the word "fate" made him grin anyway.

Then—both moved.

Diego's hands blurred into a string of seals.

At the same time, the three Iwa-nin who had circled the clones also completed their sequences.

Ninjutsu erupted simultaneously.

Black mist surged around Ishiki's clones, while the ground beneath Ishiki and Diego buckled inward. Stone walls sprang up nearby—isolating them and the deinonychus inside.

Earth Release: Beast Arena

Diego wanted this to be one-on-one.

And he was sure this was the real Ishiki, thanks to the Saint's Left Eye in his socket.

He knew the clones were decoys, but he trusted his teammates, and this was part of the plan all along.

The moment the arena closed, Diego's deinonychus lunged.

They shot from his sides with terrifying speed, diving straight at Ishiki.

But Ishiki remained still.

The chakra scalpel solidified in his hand—and fire erupted at his feet.

Not jutsu fire—frictional flames, air ignited from sheer atmospheric compression, descending without origin onto Diego and the charging dinos.

Wind exploded within the arena, stoking the blazes—five miniature fire twisters spun into existence, carving glowing trails through the arena air.

But before they could consume anything, a deluge burst forth from a dinosaur's open jaws.

Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique

A dino whipped its head, spewing a torrent of water.

The firestorms had barely taken form before they were snuffed out mid-air.

Through the steam, one deinonychus reached Ishiki—only it didn't bite.

Its open mouth gathered raw natural energy, then—

Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves

A fusillade of wind blades erupted toward Ishiki.

He was stunned—not that they attacked, but that the dinosaurs were using ninjutsu.

He hadn't seen that coming.

Still—he was unfazed.

Before the blades even reached him, they vanished midair.

Wind, after all, remained within Weather Report's dominion.

Even wind infused with chakra, sharpened into cutting edges, couldn't escape its rule.

Using wind to suppress him was futile.

But then—the earth under Ishiki's feet quaked.

Two rocky arms burst from the ground, lunging for his torso.

At the same time, two more dinosaurs flanked him.

One exhaled flames, one crackled with lightning arcing down its spine.

The fireball—Great Fireball Technique—vanished before contact, extinguished in the turbulent winds.

The lightning couldn't even pierce the hovering white clouds that ringed Ishiki; the arcs simply fizzled and died in mist.

But physical force was another matter.

A massive tail cleaved through the air, smashing through the cloud barrier and whipping toward Ishiki.

Only to be met by a spinning sphere in his hand—

Rasengan.

The chakra orb crashed into the tail.

Muscle collapsed, skin tore, blood spurted. The beast reeled from the blast.

Behind Ishiki, Weather Report threw a punch.

An A-tier strength stat and compressed airflow delivered a pulverizing blow to the stone hands that had nearly grabbed him—shattering them in midair.

But from the raining stone debris, something leapt—

Red creatures, flea-sized and horrid, burst out—pouncing at Ishiki and Weather Report.

Miniature dinosaurs—mutated from ants embedded in the stone.

Diego hadn't touched every ant in that earth. So how? There had to be some hidden method for turning them.

Whatever the trick, it didn't matter.

White clouds surged around Ishiki again, freezing the little monsters mid-leap with a howl.

But then—something broke through.

A figure, too fast for the eye, tore past the cloud barrier.

Its arm, clawed and scale-armored, lunged toward Ishiki's waist.