Blood gleamed bright against the yellow-red flames. Then layers of human blood spattered across the ice mirrors.
Some were dead. Several bandits hadn't reacted before ice spikes from the mirrors impaled them.
Others saw blood in the mirrors but found no bodies and could not locate the boy.
Against Hyōton (Ice Release) the ordinary bandits had no answer.
In seconds, when the Hyōton mirrors dissolved, the plaza was piled with bandit corpses. The twenty-odd ninja who remained were wounded all over and staggered, half dead.
When the ice cleared, the villagers who had watched burst into ecstatic cries. Some knelt and kowtowed. "Please, kill them! Kill them!" Their plea began scattered and then swelled into a roar.
The caravan men were stunned. A-Mo's skill alone had impressed them. They had not expected the villagers to be so elated.
"Kill them! Kill them!" the shout echoed through the valley.
Dark shapes crossed the sky.
Shigeo frowned and looked up. Countless sheets of paper fell from above. Just before they hit earth they transformed into blade-like projectiles and launched at the twenty-some ninja standing on the corpses.
Ppf ppf ppf…
Paper sliced through flesh. The ninja spurted blood and collapsed in pieces.
A figure landed on the pile of bodies. She had pale blue hair in a bun with a purple paper flower tucked to the side. Her eyes were orange and cold. A lip stud below her mouth. She wore cloud-red and black. It was Konan, the Akatsuki angel.
She stood like a hellish oni on the corpses. Her gaze slid from Ame-Neri to a long-haired youth nearby. She regarded him with mild difference, lowered her gaze briefly, then faced Ame-Neri. "Ame-Neri, today is your death!" she said and lunged. Sheets of paper gathered in her hands and struck.
Ame-Neri vanished with a slip technique. Fujitsu threw himself before Konan. "Don't kill my brother. Kill me instead!"
Konan hesitated almost not at all. Her fingers moved. Paper coalesced into a spear that impaled Fujitsu through the chest. He died with his eyes wide open.
Shigeo barked in surprise. "What the—she's cutting in! Stop! I've got him half-way—where did you come from? You can't just steal my target—"
He rushed forward. Konan glanced back coldly and flicked her fingers. Thousands of sheets surged at Shigeo. If they touched him they would cling and wrap him until he suffocated.
"Kami no Mai (Paper-Style Dance)," Konan's paper-jutsu flooded the air. It was not a kekkei genkai, yet it rivaled many bloodline limits.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)!" Shigeo used Katon. The paper ignited. Explosive tags in the sheets detonated with sharp pops.
He charged and smashed into the cliff face.
Everyone froze. He crashed into the mountain as if willing to die to catch the bandits. But under the torchlight he was gone. He had used Doton: Iwagakure-style Earth Concealment to dive into the rock.
"Doton: Suichaku no Jutsu (Earth Release: Adhesive Mud Technique)…" a strange voice intoned from the mountain. Shigeo looked back and found the ground around him had turned into a cement-like slurry.
He struggled but the sludge pulled him tight. If not for chakra shielding, he would already be filled and immobilized.
Damn! He cursed silently. No wonder they call him Ame-Neri—the slippery eel who can bind with mud.
Stones around the slope sucked moisture out of the slurry and it thickened rapidly, beginning to set. He could not free his fingers to make hand seals.
He forced chakra into his hands and shattered the concrete-like layer around his palms. With one hand he formed a seal and unleashed Ranton (Storm Release) — a concentrated beam that split the mountain in two.
Shigeo leapt out. His mirror-image sensory perception pinged. Ame-Neri was hiding inside the mountain.
He no longer needed to capture him by hand.
He used Ranton again. A massive beam struck the hiding place. Ame-Neri's abdomen was pierced by the beam. He twisted, then burrowed into the soil.
"Cunning eel," Shigeo muttered.
Shigeo dropped to the ground and shouted, "Mokuton (Wood Release)!"
Instantly Mokuton roots and wood bindings rose and trapped Ame-Neri within three hundred shaku beneath him. Up or out was impossible.
From above, Konan flew down on paper wings. Her sheets shifted with her will and surged at Shigeo. He dodged and answered with Katon again.
If only he could copy the Second Mizukage's oil technique, handling Konan would be easier. Konan's Kami no Mai hates oil. The Second's Suiton: Yudeka (Water-to-Oil) could turn water into oil and ruin Konan's control. But Mizukage is dead. Only Edo Tensei could show him now.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique)!" someone called — water formed and struck.
(End of Chapter)
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