Tobi's power was massive. If Mizuki went head-to-head with him, he'd have no shot. Still, aside from their massive chakra reserves, the White Zetsu clones were lacking when it came to solid offensive moves. Of course, compared to most ninja, these clones were still far superior. Thanks to the Genes of the First, they outclassed most ninja by a long shot.
In reality, what Mizuki couldn't handle was the overwhelming brute force of Tobi's Wood Style techniques. Without those, Mizuki could manage to hold his ground for a while. Numerical advantage? Piercing Palm Jutsu? They were annoying, sure, but not enough to scare Mizuki. Honestly, as long as he had time to prepare and wasn't completely outmatched, Mizuki wasn't too worried.
"At the moment, it seems the Akatsuki members are cautious about using large-scale, high-damage ninjutsu. As long as Tobi doesn't use his Wood Style techniques, I just need to hold out until others arrive, completing my mission."
Easier said than done. The real trick was convincing Tobi he could win without using his secret moves—while dragging the fight out as long as possible. This required sharp judgment and quick thinking, both depending entirely on Mizuki's skills on the battlefield.
"Teacher Mizuki, there're too many of them. What should we do?" Sasuke Uchiha asked anxiously, staring at the sudden appearance of enemy figures.
"Don't worry..." Mizuki replied, drawing a kunai and hurling it directly into the head of the White Zetsu duplicate impersonating Iruka. Then glancing at Sasuke and Naruto, he added, "Do exactly as I instructed, especially you, Naruto—stay focused..."
As long as Tobi hadn't unleashed his full strength yet, there was no need to be overly concerned. The key was maintaining combat advantage without forcing opponents to resort to desperate measures like ultimate techniques. The Akatsuki's goal was capturing the Nine-Tails Beast; killing the jinchuriki would risk the tailed beast's death as well. If they failed to gather all nine tailed beasts within a few years, the organization would suffer a significant setback. Although they could wait another three years, given partial exposure of their intelligence, carrying out the plan again after that would be much harder than now.
After assigning specific tasks to Naruto and Sasuke, Mizuki started dealing with waves of White Zetsu duplicates' attacks. With Naruto Uzumaki serving as an endless chakra wellspring, many previously chakra-intensive wartime techniques were now feasible. Despite the disadvantage in raw power, His home turf advantage—using traps and barriers he'd set in advance—gave him the upper hand—as long as the opponent refrained from using Wood Style techniques, they lacked the ability to overwhelm through sheer force. Therefore, Mizuki wasn't completely hopeless; quite the contrary, this was a great opportunity to test his conventional combat capabilities...
"I need to monitor my physical condition carefully and avoid serious injuries. Chakra is sufficient, and my body remains unharmed—that's good..."
This time, unlike previous battles where he immediately charged forward brandishing his [cleaver], Mizuki avoided direct melee combat. In situations where you're badly outnumbered, engaging enemies in close-range fights without Naruto's monstrous stamina was basically suicidal.
The shift in tactics came not only from differences among enemies but also from Mizuki's own improvement in strength.
If Mizuki faced the Land of Waves with his current strength, he wouldn't have ended up critically injured and unconscious for nearly a month. But each enemy he had encountered was stronger than the last. The so-called training match with Sakura wasn't even worth mentioning, and the practice fight with Sasuke and Naruto in the Forest of Death? Barely even worth calling a fight. Among them, Yakushi Kabuto was already one of the more ordinary opponents—and even then, Mizuki barely managed to fight him to a draw through underhanded tricks. How could other enemies compare? Orochimaru in the Forest of Death scared his Artificial Jinchuriki clone so badly that it used its ultimate technique and fled immediately, afraid of leaking any information.
And after the Chunin Exams, even a weakened Orochimaru made Mizuki hide like a turtle. Who else did he face later on? Red Sand of the Desert? Deidara? Itachi Uchiha? Kisame Hoshigaki? When did anyone skip straight past grunts and jump right into fighting A-rank elites? Within less than three years, battle readiness had soared beyond what Mizuki's growth rate could keep up with.
Luckily, this time around, aside from Tobi, the White Zetsu clones weren't too hard to deal with—although their bizarre way of appearing was definitely unsettling. Their combat power remained within manageable limits.
As the White Zetsu clones closed in, Mizuki activated a barrier. In an instant, several of his own clones appeared out of nowhere. They quickly took form and charged the nearest White Zetsu clones, diving straight into close combat.
"Huh? This barrier effect?" A silent-faced duplicate of Mizuki appeared before Tobi. While fending off attacks from these puppet-like clones, Tobi tried to identify the type of barrier: "This can't be genjutsu, nor are they typical physical clones. What exactly is this?"
"You'll understand soon enough when you experience it with your own bodies and deaths... Maybe then."
Without numerical superiority, the White Zetsu clones lost half their advantage. Now that things were dragging on, it started playing into Mizuki's favor.
The White Zetsu clones often overwhelmed Mizuki's duplicates through superior physical strength, but Mizuki's clones behaved more like illusions—capable of rapidly regenerating and continuing the fight even after being hit in vital areas. They looked like physical clones at first glance, but they were something far more extreme—almost like immortal shadow clones. The White Zetsu clones struggled to break through his defenses.
Mizuki felt satisfied as the first trap unfolded smoothly. Originally designed to counter [low-intensity swarming tactics], this technique was meant for situations in which the user was outnumbered during team battles. However, until now, he had always faced individually strong opponents, so it had never been useful. Today, though, finally offered a chance to test its effectiveness.
The concept initially came from the [Mirrored Sudden Attacker Technique] used by Might Guy's squad during their rescue mission for Gaara—the jutsu involving identical-looking attackers. Of course, Mizuki still hadn't worked out exactly how the enemy made those mirror-image clones. Still, if he couldn't copy others' methods, making copies of himself worked just fine.
Using barrier techniques to set up traps has one major benefit — you can draw not just from your own chakra stored inside the barrier, but even other people's chakra. That cuts down on how much chakra you burn during a fight.
If this was just a barrier version of something like the Shadow Clone Technique, it wouldn't be worth Mizuki spending much effort researching. The real trick? These clones have a kind of pseudo-immortality. The principle behind it comes from imitating Suigetsu Hozuki's water-body technique. As for how to turn one's body into water and then restore it back into flesh and blood, Mizuki currently has no idea yet. But if you created a barrier-based version of the Shadow Clone Jutsu, using the fact that shadow clones are basically chakra clusters, could you turn parts of the clone into pure chakra and then regenerate them again? Would that even work?
From what Mizuki's figured out? Yeah, it works. Sure, he doesn't fully understand why Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage, created such an amazing jutsu as the Shadow Clone, or through what principles it can transfer memories and experiences at all. But none of that stops him from studying the effects this jutsu can produce. Not knowing the theory is fine — being able to use it well is impressive enough.
Like how Mizuki could freely adjust how much chakra each shadow clone got instead of having it split equally by default. Going even further, combining shadow clone traits with sealing arts and using Shadow Clone forms as hosts, he made some wild Artificial Jinchuriki clones.
In Mizuki's opinion, the mysterious treasure trove of the Shadow Clone hasn't been fully explored yet. Maybe it isn't as directly powerful as other techniques the Second invented, nor as miraculous as Impure World Reincarnation, or as famous as the Flying Thunder God Technique — but there's still plenty about it worth serious study.
Take the issue of clone immortality itself — actually not hard to solve. All depends on how tough the setup is. Why does a shadow clone disappear when attacked? A clone formed from condensed chakra lacks any external or internal support, so it's inherently unstable. Add in natural chakra dissipation, and even without getting hit, a shadow clone won't last long.
Theoretically speaking, disappearing when struck is unavoidable. But what if enemies couldn't land a hit in the first place? After all, even Sasori hides inside Hiruko — if the outer puppet gets destroyed, he just switches bodies.
Mizuki's idea? Make tiny shadow clones with barely any chakra and wrap them in a Kara shell of pure chakra. The miniature inner clone controls the outer shell during combat. If the shell gets destroyed — meaning only the surface chakra disperses — restoring fresh chakra inside the barrier field is easy. And since the core inner chakra amount stays minimal, making lots of these clones doesn't cost much overall, aside from the heavier drain from maintaining the barrier itself. Of course, this kind of drain is just part of the cost when you're going all-out with sheer numbers.
So it was clear how vital Naruto Uzumaki was in holding up the barrier against the enemy's overwhelming numbers. Mizuki created miniature Shadow Clones through the barrier and manipulated the chakra-based clones like puppets, using a method similar to the Puppet Technique.
It made sense for Mizuki to focus on combat while Naruto took the brunt of the chakra drain—it fit their current situation well.
"Sasuke, do you see that person wearing the swirling mask covering one eye?" Mizuki adjusted the battlefield through slight modifications to his illusionary techniques and barriers while issuing instructions. "Keep an eye on him. If he gets close, don't hesitate—use your Sharingan and pull Naruto out of there…"
If Tobi broke through, standing around wouldn't do Naruto any good. Besides, after storing so much chakra for this long, it should be enough to maintain the barrier until rescue arrived.
After instructing Sasuke, Mizuki turned to Naruto. "When reinforcements don't arrive and the enemy uses an unstoppable jutsu, immediately summon Gamabunta. Pay attention to controlling your chakra amount. When things really get critical, if you can't successfully summon Gamabunta…"
"What then?" Naruto asked, swallowing hard but not complaining—not yet, with the battle still raging.
"Everyone near the hospital, except me, will probably be wiped out completely." Once Wood Style techniques appeared, without equal firepower, total annihilation would be inevitable. Naturally, the one with the highest survival chance would be Mizuki, who understood Tobi best—after all, no one could judge the timing for dodging attacks or deciding when to flee better than himself.
…
Jiraiya gasped for breath as he glared at the four enemies facing him. Despite how long this had lasted, he still couldn't defeat them, and even began feeling somewhat overwhelmed.
"Jiraiya, what should we do? The enemy's tactics and coordination are too seamless…" Elder Shima also asked with concern. Itachi Uchiha's Susanoo, being both offensive and defensive, offered no good countermeasures other than direct confrontation. Zetsu's Wood Release occasionally assisted as well, while Obito Uchiha's space-based jutsu kept Jiraiya constantly alert. Even Kisame Hoshigaki, though not directly attacking, presented a serious threat because Samehada could absorb chakra.
"Should I use large-scale Sage Art?" Elder Fukasaku expressed doubts.
Although Jiraiya had used Sage Mode earlier, significantly increasing his physical strength, speed, chakra reserves, and recovery rate, due to being within Konoha village, he hadn't dared employ several powerful sage arts because their destructive potential could endanger the village. Now however, he realized it might require significant effort—even with Sage Mode, defeating these enemies wouldn't be easy.
"The Five Shadows Dance and the Toad Choir shouldn't be used unless absolutely necessary," Jiraiya shook his head. "So realistically speaking, my options aren't many."
"Alright then, let us coordinate with you."
"Mm, let's begin." Resolutely decided, Jiraiya wasted no time despite potential inappropriateness; he had no choice but to proceed now.
[Sage Art - Earth Release: Yomi Swamp]
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