Utakata easily held back the shinobi from Hoshigakure, preventing them from getting anywhere near the meteorite.
"Hey, you guys stay a hundred meters away. No sudden moves."
He lounged lazily inside a large floating bubble, suspended in midair, observing the battlefield from above.
The shinobi of Hoshigakure had all been gathered near the village center, but they were completely sealed off by a dome of Water Release bubble nets stretching in every direction.
Hatred burned in their eyes as they glared up at Utakata.
Some of them shouted curses or demands at him.
But Utakata couldn't hear them. And even if he could, he wouldn't have let the noise ruin his mood.
Spinning the bubble wand idly in his fingers, Utakata blew another bubble down to patch a breach in the wall caused by a few star shinobi who had recklessly tried to charge through.
One of them had managed to break through the first layer of defenses and soared into the air using the Mysterious Peacock Method, heading straight for Utakata!
Utakata quickly directed several bubbles to pursue him, but the Hoshigakure jonin was agile, weaving through the air and dodging every single one. He was getting closer and closer to Utakata's position.
On the ground, the rest of the star shinobi were poised to launch a full assault the moment Utakata was knocked down.
The jonin closed the distance in a flash, forming hand seals midair. His chakra morphed into a blade using the Mysterious Peacock Method, and with a sharp thrust, he pierced Utakata's bubble.
"Got you!"
But Utakata calmly descended with the mist of the burst bubble swirling around him. He looked up with an indifferent gaze.
"Bubble Technique."
Boom!
The bubble exploded, releasing a corrosive acidic mist that swallowed the jonin whole. His form and voice vanished in the blast.
Utakata was about to blow another bubble to regain his aerial advantage when an attack suddenly came from below—from within his own shadow!
Wings of energy from the Mysterious Peacock Method shot up like spears aimed straight at him.
"I've already seen through your bubble technique!"
Despite their fragile appearance, the bubbles possessed tremendous durability. Ordinary jutsu or even explosive tags could only pop one bubble at a time and could never break through the entire wall.
Worse, the bubbles would explode after being broken, releasing highly corrosive acid.
Many Hoshigakure shinobi had already learned this the hard way—charging headlong into the barrier had cost them their lives.
The attack from Kirigakure had come swift and strong. Hoshigakure had no time to come up with an effective response. All they could do was throw more lives at the problem.
It was true that those who borrowed power from the meteorite were stronger than most shinobi of the same level.
But that only applied to their peers.
Against Utakata—who faced no Kage-level opponents here—the advantage was meaningless. He had absolute dominance.
To Hoshigakure, that meteorite was the cornerstone of their survival. No matter the cost, they had to reclaim it.
Saiken:"Need a hand?"
Utakata:(surprised to hear Saiken's voice)"Thanks, sensei. But no need."
This level of opposition didn't even warrant tapping into his Tailed Beast's power.
And he wasn't talking about just one jonin—he meant all the Hoshigakure shinobi present.
Utakata calmly turned his body, took a deep breath, and exhaled a bubble. This time, instead of the usual sphere, he blew a long, flat, shield-shaped one.
As the Mysterious Peacock's energy attacks rained down on him, the bubble shield absorbed the impact. The pointed energy strikes pressed into it like needles into rubber—distorting its shape but failing to pierce through.
The jonin's attack was a complete failure.
"Damn it!" he growled, withdrawing his chakra wings.
He knew better than to get caught in prolonged close combat with Utakata. That acid would be the death of him. After the failed strike, he quickly retreated.
Chakra bubbles with corrosive properties? No one in Hoshigakure had ever heard of such a thing before.
"To think you can even change their form...?"
The jonin looked at Utakata, floating easily in the air, and sneered in frustration. Hoshigakure's own power came at a cost—overreliance on the meteorite wore down their bodies over time.
"Freak..."
Utakata casually blew another shield-shaped bubble to stand on, regaining his altitude and blocking another incoming attack from below.
He gave his bubble wand a small twirl before hooking it to his belt.
His combat style had never been limited to just defense.
The bubble shield he had just used to block the last strike suddenly popped and reshaped itself into a barrage of shuriken-like projectiles. They flew after the retreating jonin, much faster than ordinary bubbles.
Caught off guard, the jonin flailed as he tried to dodge and block them all at once.
Snap.
Utakata snapped his fingers.
The shield-shaped bubble beneath him expanded upward, reshaping into a sphere once more and surrounding him completely, suspending him midair.
He glanced toward the tent where the meteorite was being kept and murmured, puzzled,
"They're taking a while down there. Is the Mizukage still not done? Or is he just watching for fun?"
Yagura had a nasty habit of popping up unexpectedly, just for kicks.
Even though Utakata wasn't part of Yagura's inner circle, he was familiar enough with the man to be wary.
"My dear—Yu—ta—ka~ Seems like you were thinking something very rude just now."
—!?
The voice came from above, sending a chill down Utakata's spine.
Enemy?! Since when?! How did someone get so close without him noticing?!
It took him a second to recognize the voice—Yagura. He looked up to see the Mizukage plastered against the top of his bubble.
Relieved but flustered, Utakata quickly looked away, standing up stiffly.
"My apologies, Lord Mizukage."
He peeled open the top of the bubble to let Yagura drop inside.
Yagura gave him a pointed look, lips pursed like a smug cat, clearly waiting to see how Utakata would worm his way out of that little mental slip.
Trying to steer away from the awkward moment, Utakata asked the obvious: "How's the meteorite?"
"Hmph~ Fine, I'll let you off the hook. Business first."
Normally, Yagura would just let Utakata finish fighting before showing himself—but not this time. Things were urgent.
They weren't quite in full-blown crisis mode, but every second counted.
Yagura didn't even bother looking at the Hoshigakure shinobi below.
"Mission complete. We're pulling out, just as planned."
Back on the ground, the jonin had finally dealt with the last of the bubble shuriken—only for his comrades to urgently warn him:
"Look! They're retreating!"
The jonin gritted his teeth, revving up his chakra again.
"All jonin, pursue! Everyone else, hold your positions!"
"Bastard! You're not getting away!"
But despite what people thought of bubbles as slow and floaty, Utakata's technique was anything but. His bubble flight was as fast as Gaara's sand, slicing through the air at high speed.
The continued use of the Mysterious Peacock Method was taking a toll on the star jonin's body.
Glancing back at the shinobi still chasing them even though their figures had disappeared from sight, Utakata asked casually:
"So, what do we do about them?"
"Hm? The star shinobi?"
Yagura sat in quiet meditation, absorbing the chakra energy from the meteorite within his body, completely forgetting the Star Shinobi still tailing them.
"Just shake them off," he said.
At their current speed, there was no chance the Star Shinobi could catch up.
As for silencing them to create an information gap... the entire Hidden Star Village had witnessed what happened. Killing a few Jonin wouldn't change anything.
He opened his eyes in response to Utakata's question, then calmly entrusted the matter to him before shutting them once more and returning to the Tailed Beast space to finish digesting the lingering chakra.
The chakra infused in that chunk of moon rock had been a delightful surprise.
He'd originally estimated that it could push Isobu's power close to the level of the Eight-Tails—but now, even brushing up against half of the Nine-Tails' strength didn't seem impossible.
The chakra those petty Star Shinobi had spent decades absorbing didn't even compare to what Isobu could devour in a single gulp.
[Yagura (feeding chakra one handful at a time): Come on, Isobu! You've got this! You can still eat more!]
[Isobu (about to burst): ######!!!]
Ignoring the turtle's protest, Yagura kept shoving chakra into him like stuffing cotton into a duvet.
[Yagura (hand over heart): You stretch, I ache. This is a team effort!]
[Isobu: That's bullshit####!]
Their banter filled the Tailed Beast space with a strange sort of joy—but ingesting chakra comparable to a full Three-Tails all at once was no small feat.
Outside, Utakata cast a concerned glance at Yagura. The Mizukage was drenched in sweat as he sat in meditation, his breaths coming out short and shallow.
Utakata couldn't help feeling guilty for bothering him earlier about the Star Shinobi situation.
Before he even realized it, his body had already knelt down. With careful hands, he took out a handkerchief and gently wiped the sweat from Yagura's forehead.
For a moment, it was hard to tell who the older brother was.
Yagura might have been nearly ten years older and their Mizukage, but his youthful face made that easy to forget.
Time seemed to freeze as Utakata's world narrowed to the sound of Yagura's quiet breathing and the buzz of mosquitoes.
Rising to his feet, Utakata raised a hand toward the noise.
"Buzzing pests. Time for you to give it up too."
[Utakata: Sensei, I didn't want to call on your power. I could've handled this.]
[Saiken: Ehehe~ Use it, use it~ Your master's still raring to go!]
The beast cloak shimmered around him as the Six-Tails' chakra expanded to envelop the entire bubble.
A massive Tailed Beast energy beam roared through the sky, obliterating the pursuing Star Shinobi in a single strike!
With their pursuers vaporized, the chakra bubble lifted off from the land and soared north over the ocean, toward Kumogakure.
The task of recovering the Seven-Tails had been delegated to the Akatsuki.
The Five Kage were being stalled by Mangetsu, Gaara, and the others.
As for Yagura and Utakata—their next target was the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails of Kumogakure.
...
Elsewhere—
Shisui was stationed at the northern edge of the Star Shinobi Village, watching the wind patterns and blocking the path of Konoha's shinobi.
The village sat between Konoha and Kirigakure. Any move it made could easily affect Konoha's interests, and so Danzo was watching closely.
The previous village leader had been removed after refusing to follow Danzo's directives.
Now, under semi-surveillance, any disturbance in Star Village immediately attracted the attention of Konoha's forces.
"It's been years since I picked up the identity of a shinobi again… and my first enemy is Konoha."
Prepared to go head-to-head with Danzo's Konoha, Shisui glanced down at the Konoha shinobi who had fallen at his feet. Despite being mentally ready, he still felt a pang of regret.
He allowed himself only a moment's rest before getting to work cleaning up the traces of his presence.
Then, a memory bubble arrived from Utakata, confirming that the Mizukage's mission had been completed.
Not that he really needed the message.
That monstrous blast of Tailed Beast chakra in the sky moments ago had already told him everything he needed to know.
He left a few Konoha ninja alive—trapped them in a Sharingan illusion—and began to extract information.
His goal here was vengeance against Danzo. He needed intel.
"Where is the Hokage, Shimura Danzo, right now?"
The Mizukage had promised to retrieve the eye for him.
But if the opportunity arose, Shisui intended to reclaim it with his own hands—and avenge the Uchiha.
Of course, these were just regular shinobi—not Root, not ANBU. They had no idea where Danzo really was.
They simply responded: "The Hokage, Danzo-sama, is in the village."
That didn't sit right with Shisui. Danzo should have been en route to the Five Kage Summit.Danzo might travel in secrecy, but a Hokage's movements couldn't be completely hidden.
No... wait...
Shisui reevaluated the situation.
That infuriatingly sharp Mizukage—
[Yagura: Hey! I'm older than you, you little punk###!]
—had used the summit as cover to attack the Two-Tails and Eight-Tails in Kumogakure.
Could Danzo be planning something similar?
Unable to get clear information on Danzo, Shisui changed tactics.
"Where is the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi?"
The genjutsu ensured total honesty.
Some of the Konoha ninja said, "In the village." Others said, "He's already left."
That contradiction could only mean one thing: Sarutobi's whereabouts were uncertain.
Had Hiruzen Sarutobi taken Danzo's place at the summit?
Was Danzo plotting something in secret—just like Yagura?
Unsettled by the murky intel, Shisui knew better than to charge in blind for vengeance. That kind of reckless, hotheaded move… was more Sasuke's style.
He erased his tracks and cleaned up the battlefield.
But no immediate plan came to mind that could allow him to take down Danzo solo.
So, he set off to regroup with Yagura and the others.
That Mizukage… was someone he could trust and rely on.
Well, aside from his occasional bouts of immaturity.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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