Before Kakashi could make a judgment, Shin-chan had already pushed open the door.
"What's there to be scared of? Misae isn't inside anyway..."
Kakashi did not have time to pull him back and could only follow together with Uchiha Toru.
The villa's living room was brightly lit.
The Mist ninja leader Shin-chan had seen earlier and his two subordinates were standing respectfully on either side. Sitting in the main seat was an unfamiliar woman.
When she saw Shin-chan push the door open and come in, she smiled.
"You arrived just in time."
"I had just arrived with Lord Mizukage's orders and was listening to this useless fool talk about his stupid plan to ambush you at the reef area at three tomorrow morning." Her gaze passed over Shin-chan and landed on Kakashi and Uchiha Toru. "I didn't expect you to deliver yourselves to my door."
Kakashi's pupils suddenly contracted, and his right hand instantly pressed against the hilt of his ninja sword.
"Who are you?"
"Allow me to introduce myself. Mizunashi Nagi, temporary commander-in-chief of this operation."
As she spoke, she stood up.
"As for you..." Mizunashi Nagi laughed softly. "There's no need for introductions. I know who you are. Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Toru, and..."
Her gaze shifted to Shin-chan.
"Nohara Shinnosuke."
Shin-chan pointed at his own nose. "You know me?"
"More than know you." Mizunashi Nagi looked at him. "You're tonight's main character."
Kakashi's heart sank. She could recognize each of them at a glance with such precision. Since when had Kirigakure's intelligence capabilities become this strong?
"If Konoha's famous three geniuses all fall here..." Mizunashi Nagi laughed again. "Konoha will probably be heartbroken for a long time."
The temperature in the living room suddenly dropped, and a cup of tea in the corner began freezing at a visible speed.
"Mizunashi." Uchiha Toru quietly repeated the surname. "Ice Release kekkei genkai."
"The Uchiha boy has good eyes." Mizunashi Nagi formed a seal with one hand, and white mist instantly surged through the villa.
"In this villa, one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three explosive tags are buried. I remember the position of every single one of them clearly." Mizunashi Nagi's voice came from all directions. "Don't worry. I won't detonate them for now."
"What good memory." Shin-chan turned to look at Uchiha Toru. "Toru, is her memory even better than yours?"
The corner of Uchiha Toru's mouth twitched. "Is now the time to praise someone?"
"This is the gift I prepared for you, Nohara Shinnosuke." Mizunashi Nagi's voice grew several degrees colder.
Shin-chan looked left and right, his face showing confusion. "What gift? I don't see it."
The icy mist surged violently.
Kakashi keenly caught the fluctuation in Mizunashi Nagi's emotions. "She's angry."
"Why is she angry?" Shin-chan looked innocent. "I really didn't see any gift."
Uchiha Toru watched their surroundings vigilantly. "Shin-chan, stop provoking her."
"When they explode, you'll know what kind of gift it is." Mizunashi Nagi's voice carried undisguised killing intent. "Your Flying Thunder God Technique is indeed fast, but so what? With so many Konoha ninja here, how many can your Flying Thunder God save?"
"But..." Shin-chan looked puzzled. "Won't you die here too? If more than a thousand explosive tags go off together, this whole house will collapse, right?"
"It seems you know nothing about the power of Ice Release."
Hearing her confident words, Shin-chan continued asking, "Then why don't you detonate them now?"
"If one thousand seven hundred and twenty-three explosive tags detonate at the same time, even if I use Ice Release to protect my entire body, I won't be able to come out completely unharmed." Mizunashi Nagi's voice regained its calm. "But as long as you don't run, I won't detonate them."
The moment her words fell, the mist that had filled the entire space condensed into ice walls in the blink of an eye.
Shin-chan, Kakashi, and Uchiha Toru were surrounded by the ice walls, forming a completely sealed ice prison.
"So cold." Shin-chan poked it with his finger. "It's exactly like the real thing."
"This is the real thing."
"Then I'll try it." Shin-chan took a kunai from his ninja tool pouch, tapped it against the ice wall, then stabbed it down hard.
The tip of the kunai left a small white dot on the ice surface.
"And it's really hard." Shin-chan evaluated it seriously.
Mizunashi Nagi's voice came from outside the ice wall, carrying a trace of mockery. "Don't waste your strength. This ice prison can trap jōnin-level ninja. No matter how you three brats struggle, you still—"
Shin-chan raised his right hand. Pure chakra wrapped around his fingers like a materialized current of air.
The front wall of the ice prison was struck by one punch. Cracks exploded outward from the center of his fist, spreading across the entire ice wall like a spiderweb.
The next second, the entire ice wall shattered into countless fist-sized chunks, crashing all over the floor.
The living room appeared before them again.
Mizunashi Nagi's pupils contracted slightly. "What technique is that?"
"Big Sister Tsunade taught me." Shin-chan shook out his hand. "She said I have good chakra control, so this would suit me."
Kakashi and Uchiha Toru rushed out from both sides almost the instant the ice wall shattered.
Kakashi drew his ninja sword, aiming straight for Mizunashi Nagi from the front.
Uchiha Toru circled around from the right, the kunai in his hand drawing an arc.
"Not bad coordination." The ice beneath Mizunashi Nagi's feet suddenly rose and turned into an ice shield in front of her. "But not enough."
The ice beneath their feet suddenly burst open, and countless ice spikes stabbed upward from the floor.
Shin-chan threw out a kunai. The kunai brushed past Kakashi's ear and nailed itself into the wall behind him.
"Don't throw it at my ear!" Kakashi flipped in midair and landed on a crossbeam.
Shin-chan threw out two more kunai. One nailed itself into the pillar behind Uchiha Toru, while the other stabbed into the chandelier frame in the center of the living room.
Uchiha Toru retreated to a safe area. "The hardness of her Ice Release is too high. Ordinary ninja tools can't break through."
"Then I won't use ordinary ones."
Shin-chan took four uniquely shaped kunai from his ninja tool pouch. The handles of the kunai were engraved with densely packed formula patterns.
He held two in each hand and threw them in four directions at the same time.
"Coordinate markers for the Flying Thunder God Technique?" For the first time, clear vigilance appeared on Mizunashi Nagi's face. "Ice Release: Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals."
"These mirrors feel wrong..."
Before the words had fully left his mouth, Mizunashi Nagi's figure merged into the nearest ice mirror.
An ice needle shot out from the mirror behind Shin-chan.
Shin-chan turned sideways and dodged. The ice needle brushed past his ear and nailed itself into the mirror opposite him.
In the next instant, Mizunashi Nagi's real body rushed out from the ice mirror beside Uchiha Toru. An ice blade condensed in her hand as she stabbed straight toward Uchiha Toru's heart.
Uchiha Toru saw her movement clearly, but his body could not keep up.
A red figure blocked in front of him.
Shin-chan tried to block with his kunai, but the ice blade still pierced into his chest.
"Shin-chan!!!"
An indescribable surge of anger and despair erupted from the depths of Uchiha Toru's heart.