"Earth Clone Technique."
"Ninjutsu: Camouflage Concealment Technique!"
Before everyone's eyes, Kyoichi's hands flashed through seals, and more than a dozen earth clones crawled up from the ground. At the same time, they all invoked Camouflage Concealment, and their figures vanished into the rainless night. A chill immediately rose in the hearts of every Amegakure shinobi who witnessed the scene.
This—
This was deadly!
Tonight, there was no rain.
Moonlight spilled across faces, casting them pale.
Among the eight Ame-nin, two were sensory types. But the problem was, most sensory ninja required a stable state to perform their techniques. In this regard, the Byakugan of Konoha's Hyūga Clan had an unmatched advantage—so much so that all the great nations and villages coveted it in secret.
But to return to the point—
Those two sensory ninja couldn't maintain perception in such high-intensity combat. At best, they could strain their spiritual focus to sense a short distance around themselves, anything beyond that was lost to them.
In other words—
The Ame-nin locked in combat against Nagato's shadow clones were utterly helpless against Kyoichi's camouflaged earth clones. Even knowing those clones were hunting them, all they could do was heighten their vigilance, straining to catch the faintest sign of movement around them.
But—
Against the ferocious assault of Nagato's shadow clones, they had to devote one hundred percent of their concentration. They had nothing left to guard against sudden strikes from invisible enemies.
Puchi!
That was the sound of a blade piercing flesh.
A sharp edge entered through a Ame shinobi's left flank, sliding precisely past the ribs, skewering his kidney, then slicing out through the right side.
"Damn it—! Urgh!!"
Blood welled up from his mouth.
With nothing more than that final bitter curse, the Ame shinobi with the pierced kidney collapsed, life extinguished.
"Kuroū!!"
Not far away, the Ame-nin named Gōu—who had once chased Konan only to be humiliated and driven off by Yūsuke—cried out in fury and grief.
Truth be told, Gōu and Kuroū had no special bond. Their relationship was shallow, as were most bonds among Amegakure shinobi. The village's ways were cruel and cold—sympathy for comrades' deaths was a foreign concept.
But—
Not caring for comrades' lives did not mean they cared nothing for their own.
Gōu's cry was less for the fallen Kuroū and more for himself—for the despair of seeing his own imminent death reflected before him.
And not only him—
The faces of the remaining Ame-nin all twisted into despair.
Moments later, that despair was etched permanently onto their features: some pierced through the organs, some with their throats slit, others crippled and beaten to death by Nagato's clones. In barely ten seconds, of the eight Ame-nin, only two remained alive.
One was Gōu—terror drove him to sacrifice an arm and a leg in exchange for summoning his contracted beast, the Carrion Gull. Mounting it, he soared into the sky to escape the carnage below, clinging to life for now.
The other was Eryu—as one of the two sensory shinobi, his strength clearly outclassed his now-dead comrade. That one had fallen to the combined ambush of Kyoichi's concealed earth clones and Nagato's shadow clones, while Eryu survived. That fact alone proved his superiority.
But—
Survival was only temporary.
The battle had not yet ended. Death still prowled restlessly across this desolate battlefield, waiting to claim new souls for the underworld.
"Akaishi, you bastard!!!"
Hanzō, now over sixty, roared with fury.
It was all because of these useless Iwa-nin. They'd boasted of tearing the Koeda Clan traitors to pieces, yet instead, they had been crushed—by just one man!
And worse, they had dragged the disaster over to him.
Now his own front was collapsing.
Akaishi listened blankly to Hanzō's curses, offering no rebuttal. His heart had already sunk to rock bottom. He had thought to borrow Amegakure's power to stall Kyoichi until the man's explosive state burned out… but the Ame-nin were even more useless than expected.
Instead, they were routed by Kyoichi.
The battle situation plummeted.
"Hanzō…"
Akaishi turned his eyes toward him.
This was their final hope.
If anyone could still conjure a miracle reversal, it had to be Hanzō of the Salamander—the man who once stood at the very peak of the shinobi world.
Splash!
A formless repulsive force slammed into Hanzō. His body shattered—only to dissolve into water, scattering in droplets.
This was no Water Clone—
It was the Water Substitution Technique, one of Hanzō's specialties. With it, he had escaped countless deadly moments, turning crisis into counterattack.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"
Reappearing, Hanzō unleashed a high-level suiton.
A vast torrent, like a descending waterfall, roared forth, thundering across the flatlands like ten thousand warhorses. Nagato's shadow clones, too slow to evade, were smashed apart and swept away. Kyoichi's camouflaged earth clones were likewise dissolved back into mud.
Even Eryu, the sensory Ame-nin, was caught in the surge—swallowed by a cresting wave before he could utter a word, vanishing without a trace.
For Ame shinobi, moving underwater was no problem. But that did not make them immune to water release techniques—especially a high-rank jutsu like Great Waterfall, which weaponized sheer volume and impact. Eryu had been struck unconscious instantly. Without rescue, drowning would be his end.
"Sage Art: Earth Flow Wall!"
"Earth Release: Earth Rampart!"
Kyoichi's true body and Nagato's true body finished weaving seals almost in unison. Towering earthen walls rose up, holding back the flood.
And then—
"…Eh?"
Hanzō did not press the attack.
He chose to run.
The man who had once stood atop the shinobi world bolted at full speed back along the path he'd come. If he'd known Earth Release or could fly, he would've fled underground or into the skies without hesitation.
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