Naruto: Monthly Refreshing Stand Abillity

A thrill surged through Ishiki Kujo. His fingers snapped, sending a kunai flying, steel wire unspooling behind it, aimed straight at the eye within the lava pit.

But in that precise instant, a jolt of instinct tore through him—hair raised, spine bristling.

A massive dinosaur tail exploded into view beside him.

Its owner: a blue-scaled dinosaur, skin patterned with bold, letter-like stripes—just like DIO's.

THWACK!

Ishiki's body went flying, pain searing through his arm. The kunai had snagged the Saint's Left Eye, pulling it from the magma—but before it got far, it crumbled into dirt and stone.

A fake.

Diego gripped the attached wire with one monstrous claw, jerking it with all his might, trying to reel Ishiki in like a hooked fish.

Ishiki slammed into the arena wall, blood surging in his throat, but he'd already let go of the line. Diego's prize: an empty wire and a kunai.

But Ishiki understood now.

Diego had used the Left Eye's trait of embedding into constructs—he'd hidden a decoy inside the eye socket of a fire-resistant dinosaur, sent underground via Earth Release.

He himself had taken the bombing, sacrificing a dinosaur's place for his own—and waited for the perfect moment to strike while Ishiki reached for the "eye."

His sudden speed was far beyond anything he'd displayed before—catching Ishiki, momentarily lulled, completely off guard.

After all, Hamon sense only confirmed something alive underground. And Diego had primed Ishiki into assuming the earth user was him, thanks to the elemental ninjutsu spam from the dinosaurs.

Even the Right Eye of the Saint, which could pierce through the terrain, required a moment to switch modes.

Ishiki had previously toggled it into Sharingan mid-battle—Diego must've noticed.

And even if he had switched in time, there was no way to confirm the dinosaur underground wasn't Diego—he had never fully transformed into a dinosaur before.

It was the dino's left eye in the scan that had fooled him.

Diego had accounted for everything.

But there was one thing he'd underestimated—Ishiki still possessed the Right Eye of the Saint and the Saint's Body.

As long as Ishiki held the Right Eye, the transformation of Scary Monsters was slowed, even potentially reversible.

Though how to trigger that reversal… Ishiki still didn't know.

From the outside, it seemed Diego had tipped the scales with a successful hit to Ishiki's arm.

But within, Ishiki still had control.

Even if the Right Eye couldn't stop the transformation, Ishiki believed he would still win.

Because he had contingencies Diego didn't know about.

Especially now that Diego had committed to full dinosaurification.

Diego, after hurling Ishiki, felt it—his breathing tightening, his body laboring under pressure.

It had begun gradually from the start of the fight.

Ishiki had been thickening the air.

Controlling the atmosphere. The weather.

Diego shook it off. It didn't matter. He'd already wounded Ishiki. He'd end this quickly. His allies outside the arena were struggling—he could feel it.

Only one of Ishiki's clones remained outside the arena, but that single clone was more than enough to dominate.

Because it was implanted with a Byakugan DISC.

The black mist meant nothing to it.

The Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms. Rasengan. Shuriken techniques.

The clone moved like a ghost, pummeling the three blind Iwa-nin mercilessly.

The fact that none were killed instantly was a testament to their skill.

But then came flashes of blue fire chakra, lashing in from the forest, striking into the mist.

The trio buckled under the dual assault.

And when the paper bombs began to fall?

Their suffering doubled.

One of them didn't survive.

The battle outside the arena would be over before the one within.

Diego knew it. Still, he charged—

Then stopped dead.

He tasted rust.

Blood.

Drip. Drip. It fell from his jaws to the ground.

His reptilian frame froze.

Why am I injured?

When did this happen?

Panic tore through his mind. His thoughts slowed. Each impulse took a second longer to form.

His legs hesitated.

And Ishiki, from across the field, began walking forward.

Step by step.

Blood loss came first.

Then: labored breathing. Cognitive decline. Memory lapses. Cellular aging.

The cause?

Weather Report.

The moment Diego had sealed the arena, Ishiki had begun.

High-altitude winds sucked breathable air out—leaving only pure oxygen behind.

A silent, invisible shift.

No one noticed.

But prolonged exposure to pure oxygen causes oxygen toxicity.

If Diego had been human, it might've taken ten to twelve hours of breathing pure O₂ to hit toxic levels.

But Diego wasn't human.

He was a dinosaur.

And like modern birds, dinosaurs had a specialized respiratory system—lungs paired with air sacs, enabling continuous, efficient breathing.

Increased atmospheric pressure meant more oxygen absorbed, faster onset of symptoms.

And once the arena pressure exceeded seven atmospheres, even nitrogen began dissolving into blood and tissue.

Nitrogen narcosis—like anesthesia. Mind fog. Delirium. Eventual death.

Ishiki was in the same pressure, the same oxygen bath.

But he'd shifted from Sage Mode to a new state—Yang Release Hamon Taijutsu Mode.

That form's chakra and Hamon energy constantly regenerated his cells.

Diego had no such counter.

He was being destroyed from within.

What could he possibly fight Ishiki Kujo with now?