"Kaede... this is Kirigakure no Jutsu!"
Rin, bathing in the chakra of the Three-Tails, stood to Kaede's right. She could barely make out his figure leaning close beside her and warned him quietly.
Kaede's voice was calm. "I know."
With his left hand, he quickly formed a hand seal, like a fleeting shadow, perfectly formed in an instant.
"Wind Release! Wind Dragon Technique!"
Though Kaede rarely practiced ninjutsu, he had trained a bit with the five elemental styles out of boredom, and this was the strongest wind technique he knew.
A roar erupted!
A fierce gust burst forth, sounding like a dragon's roar, swirling around him. The surrounding mist was instantly blown away, revealing a large clearing.
But as the wind dragon disappeared, the mist crept back, swallowing their area once again. The thick fog seemed to consume an unknown amount of chakra and had surely spread over a vast range!
Shing!
From within the mist, a sharp blade shot toward Lin.
The chakra-imbued kunai tore through the chakra cloak surrounding Rin's body. Just as the blade was about to strike, Kaede reached out, grabbed her shoulder, and pulled her back. His right hand swung the Kusanagi Sword backward, striking toward the blade's source.
The silver sword's gleam sliced through the fog, but there was nothing there, only empty air.
"I see... It's not just simple Kirigakure no Jutsu. There's also a genjutsu barrier cast by multiple people. Inside it, my perception is disrupted."
Kaede's eyes were calm as he observed.
From somewhere in the mist, the voice of Fuguki Suikazan echoed.
"Impressive, Silver Flash, you saw through it immediately."
"This technique was specially trained for Yellow Flash. We modified it and used it on you. Even if you see through it, it's useless, you can't get out now."
"In here, you can't tell the direction of attacks, can't sense our positions, and can't even be sure of your own location... Be careful. If you separate from the Three-Tails Jinchuriki, you might never find her again! Hahaha!!"
The voice seemed to come from everywhere, making the atmosphere inside the mist eerily tense. Rin shivered.
She gritted her teeth, taking a step back to lean against Kaede. Nervously, she scanned the surroundings, her mind racing for a strategy.
She couldn't determine the direction!
She couldn't pinpoint the enemy's location!
No matter how fast Kaede was, he couldn't fight effectively without knowing where to strike. Rushing blindly through the mist might lead them right into a trap.
At this rate, only full tailed beast transformation could temporarily protect them both.
Just as she was about to fully transform, Kaede's calm voice came softly in her ear.
"Don't turn around. Stay still."
"Huh?"
Rin stopped mid-turn.
Did Kaede want to fight back-to-back with her? That would prevent the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist from ambushing them from behind, though danger still lurked above and below.
As she thought this, she suddenly sensed Kaede's body softening slightly. Being female, she was sensitive to such subtle changes.
What...?
A flicker of doubt crossed her mind.
Then suddenly, Kaede's silhouette vanished behind her and plunged straight into the mist.
"Kaede!!"
She gasped, shocked.
Losing her support from behind, she felt herself slip into extreme danger. She poured out a massive surge of the Three-Tails' chakra and tried to sense Kaede's position, but found nothing in the fog.
One second...
Two seconds...
Three seconds...
As time passed, no one attacked.
She could hear sounds of fighting nearby, but the exact locations were impossible to tell. She also caught a scream of pain.
Unable to see or know what was happening, her anxiety grew. Just as she was about to lose control and fully transform, she suddenly paused, the mist was thinning.
"An illusion?"
"No... it's not an illusion!"
The fog around them was indeed clearing, and faster by the second!
When the mist finally thinned enough for her to see about ten meters away, she spotted a figure lying on the ground not far off.
Rin's heart jumped, and she instinctively prepared to attack, but then she noticed the bright red blood pooling on the ground and recognized the figure's face.
"Fuguki Suikazan?!"
Shock registered on her face.
The faint chakra signature was unmistakably his.
She saw Fuguki Suikazan lying there, blood flowing steadily from beneath him. His chakra was nearly dissipated, barely alive. His bloated face showed terror and disbelief, as if he had witnessed some unspeakable horror before dying.
Rin's heart trembled violently.
As the mist continued to disperse, she saw more bodies farther away, some lying tens of meters off, others shattered into countless pieces. Nearby lay a huge executioner's sword stuck in the ground. With close sensing, she could just make out who it belonged to.
Jūzō Biwa!
"Jūzō Biwa is dead too... Did Kaede do this? But they were inside the barrier and the mist technique... how could he, "
Rin's mind churned with turbulent thoughts.
Even she couldn't sense the enemies' positions in that environment. Kaede's perception wasn't supposed to be that strong. Yet the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were being killed one by one.
That could only mean,
Kaede's senjutsu training succeeded!
That was the only explanation she could think of.
With the fog clearing further, sounds came from a distance. She saw even more bodies, some intact, some shattered.
Kushimaru Kuriarare!
Raiga Kurosuki!
...
All these corpses belonged to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist!
The fog faded almost completely, no longer obstructing vision.
Then, from afar, Rin heard a crackling, thunder-like sound. She took a deep breath, looked in that direction, hesitated a moment, then leapt toward it.
Soon, after covering several hundred meters, she saw a figure leaning against a rock, pinned there by Kaede's Kusanagi Sword.
Electric arcs danced along the blade, crackling constantly in the air.
"Figure" wasn't quite accurate, the person's body had dissolved into flowing water, yet a human face remained on the water's surface, twisted in agony but unable to break free from the sword wrapped in crackling lightning, emitting ear-piercing screeches.
This was the Hozuki clan's Water Transformation Technique, the body could become water and avoid nearly all physical attacks, but was highly vulnerable to lightning.
"No... this can't be…"
"How could you find us inside our Crimson Mist Barrier Technique..."
Hozuki Mangetsu gasped in pain, disbelief written all over his face.
Even the most perceptive ninja couldn't sense their location here. Even Konoha's Byakugan's vision would be severely limited within their barrier.
But Kaede had found them precisely!
When Kaede first locked onto Fuguki Suikazan, they thought it was a lucky guess and tried to hide again within the barrier, but it didn't work.
The barrier's concealment was like it didn't exist to Kaede, who swiftly killed Fuguki.
That was just the beginning of the nightmare.
Within minutes, Fuguki Suikazan, Jūzō Biwa, and others were all locked on by Kaede and slain one after another without a chance to fight back!
==========
You can find much more on my Patreon: Patreon.com/Veltoria
There are currently 5 active fanfictions on Patreon, with over 490+ advanced chapters available across them!
From Naruto Onwards, I Control Time — Up to Chapter 301
Haikyuu!!: Rise of Sengoku — Up to Chapter 241
Danmachi: Is It Wrong To Aspire to Be An Adventurer? — Up to Chapter 97
Legend of Hogwarts (Harry Potter x League of Legends) — Up to Chapter 143
I Am Luffy: Partner System Online (One Piece) — Up to Chapter 126
Playing Genshin Impact in Danmachi (Danmachi x Genshin Impact) — Up to 56