With Mangetsu dead, the massive Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave he had unleashed began to recede. Still, it would take several minutes before all that water disappeared completely—meaning Mitsuki's previously marked Flying Thunder God kunai would soon be usable again.
Not that it mattered. The entire battle had lasted only a few minutes, and already five of the Seven Swordsmen lay dead. Only Jūzō and Raiga remained.
The two exchanged a glance—each saw the same grim resolve in the other's eyes.
Without a word, Jūzō lifted what was left of his Kubikiribōchō —barely a third of it remained— and charged alone at Shimizu Mitsuki.
He could have used his comrades' corpses to repair his blade, drawing the iron from their blood, but he refused to do that. Though born in the Bloody Mist, raised under a doctrine that valued results over humanity—even using comrades as tools—Jūzō still retained a sliver of honor. Deep down, he was the kind of man who still cared for his fallen allies.
At the same time, Raiga abandoned the use of Lightning Release, circling to attack Mitsuki from another angle. From the very start of this battle, every one of his lightning techniques had been completely countered by Mitsuki's style, leaving him practically useless—a spectator on the battlefield.
But while he had appeared idle, Raiga hadn't been doing nothing. Beneath the surface, he had been quietly releasing small pulses of weak electric currents into the water, hoping to paralyze Mitsuki from below. He didn't need much—just one second of paralysis would have been enough.
Unfortunately, not a single spark had gotten close. Under Mitsuki's Six Eyes full-field perception, Raiga's hidden attacks were as obvious as if he were waving flags in the open.
Now, the two surviving Swordsmen charged together, the final remnants of their strength burning bright like dying flames—tragic, yet proud.
But to Mitsuki, the two of them combined were less troublesome than even Fuguki had been. At least with Fuguki, he'd had to be careful not to let Samehada absorb his chakra.
Within minutes, the fight was over.
Raiga, his Lightning Release completely countered, was taken out almost instantly. The moment he fell, Shukaku seized control of the surrounding sand, trapping Jūzō in place. With his hands free, Mitsuki swiftly finished off the last surviving member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
And so, the legendary group formed under the Third Mizukage was completely annihilated.
As the Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave finally drained away, Mitsuki stood motionless beneath the now-clear sky, staring upward in thought.
Then, snapping out of it, he formed a single hand seal—dispelling his shadow clone and releasing the Four Red Yang Formation.
A soft "puff" echoed as the barrier vanished.
Outside, Might Duy saw Mitsuki's clone disappear and immediately charged into the battlefield.
The scene was chaos—the trees flattened by floods of water, the air still heavy with chakra residue. The battle between Mitsuki and the Seven Swordsmen had been nothing short of cataclysmic. Even visually, it had looked like an S-rank disaster—Mitsuki hurling one S-rank jutsu after another as if chakra were infinite.
Duy, who had long since closed the Eight Gates after the barrier went up, now ran in alongside Might Guy and the others.
What greeted them was the shattered forest, still wet from the water's retreat. A few shallow pools remained, and beside them lay scattered corpses — the same Swordsmen who had, moments ago, boasted about stitching Guy and his comrades up.
Guy scanned the field until he spotted Mitsuki collecting the fallen swords.
"Mitsuki! You're safe!" Guy jumped up in excitement, shouting so loud it echoed through the ruined trees. He'd been so worried outside the barrier he nearly pressed his face against it to watch.
Hearing Guy's voice, Mitsuki turned and flashed a confident grin, giving a thumbs-up.
"Ehehe~ (￣︶￣)"
Meanwhile, Might Duy—ever practical—had already begun dragging the corpses and their swords together with the efficiency of someone who'd spent decades on Konoha's river-cleaning duty.
With the cleanup handled, Mitsuki examined the Samehada in his hands—a weapon more alive than any mere tool.
After the battle, Mitsuki had planned to hunt down the treacherous sword, but instead, Samehada had come hopping toward him of its own accord, rubbing affectionately against his leg.
Shukaku's fury flared instantly. How dare a mere sword act so presumptuous? He formed a quick sequence of hand seals, surrounding Samehada in sand. Sealing formulas crawled up its scaly surface, binding it tight.
Mitsuki suspected Samehada might be akin to the Earth Grudge Fear—a cursed, parasitic entity. Before the arrival of the Ōtsutsuki and their God Tree seeds, the shinobi world had been full of native spirits and yokai. Most of the powerful ones had been sealed away by the Sage of Six Paths, but a few, like this one, had survived.
Walking over to where Duy had gathered the corpses, Mitsuki casually said,
"Nice work."
Then, he pulled a standard storage scroll from his pouch and began sealing the bodies of the Seven Swordsmen inside.
Their corpses were valuable. As Mist Village's elite strike force — especially Fuguki—they likely carried critical intel in their brains.
There were several members of the Yamanaka Clan stationed on the Mist front, so Mitsuki planned to deliver the scroll to them later. With any luck, they'd be able to extract all the necessary intelligence through their mind-search techniques.
After that, Mitsuki took out a blank scroll and a brush, beginning to inscribe a series of intricate sealing formulas.
Watching him write, Guy tilted his head and whispered to his father, "Dad, do you know what he's doing?"
"Uh… well, this, uh…" Duy hesitated, scratching his head. He'd seen something like it before but couldn't quite remember where.
Mitsuki chuckled softly and spared him the trouble of answering.
"This is a Ninja Tool Summoning Seal. I'm replacing the summoning contract on these blades. Otherwise, once word of the Seven Swordsmen's deaths reaches Kirigakure, they'll be able to summon the swords back."
In Mist Village, there existed a master scroll engraved with summoning contracts for all seven swords. If any of them were left masterless, the village could simply recall them instantly using the contract's seal.
What Mitsuki was doing now was writing a new summoning contract over each sword, sealing away the original Kirigakure connection—a seal within a seal.
It sounded simple, but in truth, only a handful of shinobi in the entire world could perform such advanced sealing work.
And Mitsuki was one of them.