The moment the words left his mouth, Shimizu vanished once again.
"Be careful!" Suikazan Fuguk, having already experienced the terrifying reality of Shimizu's speed, shouted an immediate warning.
Even without the prompt, Juzo Biwa—the closest to Satomi—sensed a lethal crisis. Instinctively, he swung the Kubikiribōchō upward to parry.
The next instant, a sharp clink echoed as the Chakra blade clashed violently against the Kubikiribōchō.
"Don't get..." The moment Juzo successfully blocked the surprise attack, he swung the massive blade back in a heavy arc. "...too cocky!"
The cold edge tore through Shimizu's body with frightening ease—
But there was no resistance.
It missed?!
An afterimage!
"You take this one."
Shimizu's voice echoed from afar. In the blink of an eye, he had already appeared dozens of meters away, directly confronting Kurosuki Raiga and Suikazan Fuguki.
Among the three, Jūzō Biwa—who relied mainly on the Kubikiribōchō —appeared to possess the weakest ninjutsu. He was the most suitable opponent for a taijutsu specialist like Satomi.
Besides, every member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist possessed strength above that of ordinary jōnin. For her, this was also valuable combat experience.
"Got it!"
Satomi wasted no words. Gentle Fist erupted into motion as she charged straight at Jūzō.
...
On the opposite side of the lake, Shimizu's figure flickered endlessly across the battlefield as he attempted to eliminate Fuguki and Raiga as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, his "Instant Water" movement technique had failed to intimidate them.
The two fought side by side with exceptional coordination, constantly covering each other's blind spots and defensive openings. After several failed surprise attacks in a row, Shimizu realized something important.
Trying to rely on speed alone to expose flaws in their defense and defeat them quickly would not be easy.
These were not ordinary jōnin.
Because Might Duy had once fought the Seven Ninja Swordsmen alone and killed four of them, Shimizu had subconsciously assumed the group was nothing more than overrated trash.
Of course, Duy had used the Eight Gates.
And in Shimizu's eyes, Duy's normal taijutsu ability had never been absurdly powerful to begin with. Even with the Eight Gates amplifying his strength, there should still have been limits based on the user himself.
Which meant that from the start of the battle until now, he had underestimated the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
"He's infused chakra into the water," Fuguki warned grimly. "Watch out for attacks from below."
Kurosuki Raiga's expression tightened. "He didn't even form hand seals… how the hell is he doing this?"
As soon as he heard the warning, Raiga immediately began forming seals.
At the same time, Shimizu himself was equally surprised.
The tall shinobi with orange hair had neither the Byakugan nor the Sharingan, so how had he detected the chakra hidden beneath the water?
Experience?
Impossible.
Then Shimizu's eyes shifted toward the exaggerated weapon in Fuguki's hands—
Samehada.
"Thunder Sword Technique: Thunder Gate!"
Raiga drove his twin blades upside down into the lake surface. Instantly, streaks of blue light flashed across the sky before countless bolts of lightning poured downward toward the water below.
A large-scale lightning attack.
Since single-target ninjutsu would be too easy for Shimizu to dodge, Raiga had deliberately chosen a wide-area technique instead.
Lightning raged wildly across the lake.
But Shimizu had vanished.
"He used a Water Clone ahead of time," Raiga muttered in realization. "Same trick as before."
"Then I'll force him out!"
"Lightning Burial: Banquet of Lightning!"
Violent currents surged from the tips of Raiga's blades into the lake. Blue light spread in every direction, hunting recklessly through the water for its target.
A few moments later, Raiga's face lit up.
"Got you at last!"
But immediately afterward, his brows furrowed.
"How is he still moving that fast underwater?!"
Before he could think further, Raiga suddenly shouted a warning.
"He's coming up—!"
A figure burst out of the lake in an explosion of water, trailing countless arcs of lightning behind him.
"Samehada: Flying Chain Slash!"
The handle of Samehada suddenly extended more than ten meters, bending and twisting through the air like a living chain as the massive blade lashed toward the seemingly desperate figure fleeing from the lightning currents.
At the critical moment, a heavy boom echoed out.
What Samehada struck was not flesh—
—but a wall of blue water that had appeared out of nowhere.
Water Release: Water Wall!
"What?!" Fuguki's eyes widened in shock. He had absolute confidence in the speed of his attack. "There's no way he had time to form hand seals…"
But before either of them could recover from their surprise, Shimizu had already appeared silently behind them.
Hand seals formed instantly.
"Storm Release: Aurora!"
Nine laser beams screamed through the air at once…
"Watch out behind you!"
Too late.
The two Mist shinobi instinctively raised their weapons, trying to block the attack rushing toward them.
But the nine blue-white beams curved through the air in an incredibly strange trajectory, slipping effortlessly around their hurried defenses before piercing straight through their bodies.
Blood erupted instantly, staining the surface of the lake red.
"We underestimated him…"
The two shinobi from Kirigakure retreated violently, and in that brief instant, they caught sight of Shimizu raising his hands.
What was he doing?
Then two more flashes of blue lightning shot toward them in pursuit.
Lightning Release: White Lightning!
This bastard… doesn't need hand seals?!
The shadow of death closed over him. At that moment, Suikazan Fuguki unleashed every last bit of chakra he had remaining. His orange hair suddenly grew wildly outward, expanding in all directions as it attempted to block the fatal bolt of lightning aimed at him.
...
Further across the lake, Kurosuki Raiga had a gaping hole through his heart. His body slowly began to sink into the depths.
As for Fuguki, his entire body was wrapped tightly within layers of orange hair. Although White Lightning possessed terrifying piercing power, it had failed to break through hair as hard as steel.
The strategy had worked perfectly. From the very beginning, Shimizu had constantly baited them into attacking, deliberately exposing openings while using absurdly fast, seal-less ninjutsu to neutralize every danger at the last second. That alone had already created a moment of hesitation in the minds of the two Mist shinobi.
Then, at the exact instant the Water Wall appeared, he created the first true opening since the battle began—
—and the only opening he needed.
Because that Water Wall had not only blocked Samehada's attack, but also obscured their vision for a split second.
First came Storm Release: Aurora to heavily wound the enemy.
Then followed the instantaneous, seal-less Lightning Release: White Lightning to finish them off.
The combination was flawless.
Unfortunately… he had only managed to kill one of them.
And there would be no chance to follow up.
Because the Kirigakure ANBU had arrived.
Shimizu immediately halted his pursuit.
A four-man Mist ANBU squad now stood protectively in front of Suikazan Fuguki.
"Aren't you worried about your companion's safety, Shunshin Shimizu?" the ANBU captain asked coldly.
Further away, Satomi had already been surrounded as another Kirigakure squad rushed in to support Jūzō Biwa.
Blue chakra erupted brilliantly around her as Gentle Fist was pushed to its limits again and again, shattering the enemy's coordinated attacks.
With techniques like Rotation at her disposal, there was no way she would be defeated quickly.
Shimizu truly wasn't worried.
"The Seven Ninja Swordsmen. Only two are left," Shimizu noted.
For a moment, no one answered.
The death of a comrade—especially one of the shinobi who represented the face of Kirigakure—was nothing short of humiliation for the village.
To kill one of them and cripple another in such a short amount of time…
That terrifying display of strength made every Mist shinobi present instinctively tense.
Even though he could not see their faces beneath the masks, Shimizu already knew what expressions they wore.
Fear.
And anger.
"Damn you…" Fuguki's orange hair slowly receded, revealing a body drenched completely in blood. Showing bloodstained teeth, he let out a savage grin. "So this is the speed of Shunshin Shimizu…"
He raised Samehada once more and glanced toward the now-empty patch of water where Raiga had fallen.
"Raiga didn't die unjustly."
"Samehada: Chakra Transfer!"
Almost immediately, Fuguki's injuries began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Not only that—
his chakra reserves rapidly returned to their peak condition.
This was Samehada's true ability.
The sword could return the chakra it had previously devoured back to its wielder, eliminating fatigue, rapidly healing wounds, and even enhancing the user's physical strength and speed to maintain peak combat performance.
This thing was practically a divine weapon.
"I'm curious," Shimizu said slowly, his gaze fixed on the grotesque blade. "Where exactly did your Samehada come from?"
Only now did he finally realize something deeply wrong.
Years ago, during the battle involving the Three-Tails, he should have wiped out the entire Samehada species completely.
The very last surviving one should have been the creature currently inside his own body.
So why—
Why did Kirigakure suddenly have another Samehada?
Where the hell did it come from?
...
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