A puff of white smoke erupted as the summoning technique completed—but instead of the twin swords Hiramekarei, two explosive tags appeared in Hoshigaki Kisame's hands.
"Shit—!"
His face twisted in horror as he tried to tear off the tags, but it was too late.
BOOM!
The explosion sent Kisame flying. Any ordinary elite jonin would have been killed instantly, but the shark-man was merely left on the brink of death.
"Tch…"
Zabuza Momochi, witnessing this, sucked in a sharp breath. A cold sweat dripped down his spine.
Had he been the one to summon the swords instead, those tags would've reduced him to chunks of meat. Unlike Kisame's freakish durability, two point-blank explosions would've been game over.
"Cough…!" Gasping for breath, Kisame glared at Samehada—why wasn't it healing him immediately? "Samehada! Give me chakra, NOW!"
The sentient blade writhed in reluctance—after a prolonged battle without feeding, even it was injured by the blast. But defiance wasn't an option.
"Samehada Chakra Transfer!"
Kisame's cells visibly regenerated, his wounds stitching shut at an unnatural pace.
"Tch. Unlucky." Umino Yoru sighed. If only Zabuza had been the one to summon the swords…
Zabuza caught that glance and felt his blood freeze.
Originally planning to team up against Yoru, he abruptly changed tactics. "Kisame, I'll reinforce Ameyuri's group. You handle the White Blood Demon alone."
Before Kisame could protest, Zabuza vanished in a Shunshin—unaware that an even deadlier threat (Peacock Flame) awaited him elsewhere.
Now alone against Yoru and two mechanized puppets, Kisame showed no fear. With Samehada's healing, he was back at full strength.
"Senbon Shower!"
His wild orange hair hardened into a storm of needles, firing at Yoru with lethal precision.
Yoru dodged behind a puppet, effortlessly avoiding the barrage.
"A yang-release hair technique?"
His eyes gleamed with interest. This was clearly a variant of Jiraiya's Needle Jizo—though less versatile, the principles were similar.
He signaled a shadow clone inside the puppet to activate Sonic Radar, analyzing the technique for replication.
"What a terrifying jutsu! Almost got me!" Yoru feigned awe, baiting Kisame's ego.
"Hahaha!" Kisame laughed, pride flashing—but his eyes hid something sharper.
Then—
"Hair Needle Senbon!"
Spikes of hair erupted from the ground beneath Yoru's feet!
Turns out, Kisame wasn't just brute force. His hair had secretly burrowed underground like Kubikiribōchō's wires, waiting to impale his foe.
Too bad Sonic Radar made stealth attacks useless.
"Damn. I'm kinda jealous of that hair density." Yoru smirked.
Kisame snarled and swung Samehada in a devastating arc. A veteran fighter, he avoided close combat, using the blade's massive reach to break Yoru's six-sword formation.
When the central twin swords tried disarming him, Samehada nearly bit the puppet's wrist instead!
"Samehada Devour!"
Seeing pure skill wasn't enough, Kisame unleashed the blade's true power.
Yoru crossed all six swords to block—
CLANG!
—barely holding against the monstrous slash.
"Brute force? Fine." Kisame grinned, muscles bulging as he pressed down, forcing Yoru to strain.
Then—yank!
The bandages tore as Samehada's spikes flexed, scraping toward Yoru's arm to drain his chakra!
But Yoru anticipated this. Unlike Sarutobi Asuma, he wasn't getting sucked dry today.
"Gale Slash!"
Both puppets spun, their (Executioner's Blade and Hiramekarei) whirling toward Kisame's flank.
He barely parried—
"Hidden Mist Swords: Triple Spit!"
—when Yoru's three heads spat pressurized water blades from point-blank range!
THUNK! One pierced clean through Kisame's chest.
Yoru lunged to seize Samehada, but the living blade resisted fiercely. Even a puppet's full-force strike couldn't knock it loose.
"Cough…! Heal me, damn it!" Kisame staggered back, relying on Samehada's regeneration again.
Yet this time—
"…Samehada?"
The blade was thrashing, its excitement palpable. It wasn't just healing Kisame…
It was trying to break free and leap into Yoru's hands.
Turns out, after absorbing chakra from Yoru's water blades, Samehada had developed… new preferences.
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