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GSiN: Ch. 83
🕑 Added 2025-05-04 22:49:12 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
The sealing technique had already been fully activated. The enemy was now standing within the formation and should be completely unable to manipulate chakra.
To be cautious, Yagura asked the surrounding sealing ninjas, "Has the fuinjutsu succeeded?"
One of the closest users replied, "Yes. The target can no longer manipulate even the slightest bit of chakra."
Yagura's tightly wound nerves finally relaxed a bit, and a faint smile appeared on his face.
"No matter what plan you had, now that you can't use chakra, there's no turning the tables anymore."
Ryouma was Kiri's number one threat. Capturing him alive this time was undoubtedly a major achievement that could shift the tide of war for Kiri.
Thinking this, he praised Mei without hesitation. "You did a great job. I'll report your accomplishments to the Mizukage truthfully."
Mei said nothing. She stepped closer and squatted at the edge of the sealing formation, gazing at Ryouma, who was immobilized inside the jutsu.
She actually hoped she was wrong. It had been hard enough to find a truly handsome man in a village full of nothing but weirdos, and yet he turned out to be an invader.
If only he weren't from Konoha, she would have loved to recruit him into Kiri. Unfortunately, he was none other than the Leaf's Gale.
"What a pity," she sighed.
"Pity about what?" a familiar voice suddenly sounded by her ear.
Mei shivered instinctively. Without thinking, she flipped her hand and stabbed a kunai behind her.
Ryouma caught her wrist. Just as he was about to activate Chidori Current to deliver a killing combo, Yagura, the closest one, reacted instantly. Swinging his iron staff, he aimed it directly at Ryouma's head.
That blow was not one to take lightly. Ryouma let go of Mei's wrist and used the Body Flicker to reappear several meters away.
Having escaped death, Mei quickly looked back at the center of the sealing formation. Ryouma was still standing there, so she hurled her kunai at him.
The kunai cut through the air and struck Ryouma's shoulder. But instead of blood, there was only: "Poof~"
Turns out, all that effort, surrounding him, using fuinjutsu, had only caught a shadow clone.
All the Kiri ninjas present felt like they had been slapped in the face. Especially Yagura. No wonder the enemy didn't even try to dodge, even knowing a fuinjutsu was coming.
Thankfully, he hadn't called off the evacuation of the villagers just because they thought they had caught Ryouma.
Yagura shouted to Mei, "You need to evacuate now! This enemy is not someone you can handle!"
With that, he charged at Ryouma, wielding his iron staff.
Mei clenched her fists. She was frustrated. They were about the same age, yet Ryouma was already a war hero of Konoha, while she still needed others to protect her.
Taking a deep breath, she ultimately chose to follow orders and retreated from the center of battle. Complaining wouldn't help, the fact was, she was still too weak. Staying would only cause more trouble.
Yagura's weapon was quite unique, a massive iron staff taller than he was, almost 1.6 meters long, with a metal hook on the end.
Ninjas who wielded such customized weapons generally had one thing in common: a high level of taijutsu skill.
Ryouma sidestepped the attack and launched a Rasengan toward Yagura's chest, who swung his iron staff horizontally, not bothering with defense, clearly ready to take a hit in exchange for landing one himself.
But Ryouma activated the Flying Thunder God Technique, instantly teleporting to one of the marked kunai. While everyone's attention remained on the shadow clone, he had already placed several Flying Thunder God marks around the area.
"Not bad tactical awareness, Yagura."
Ryouma had always wanted to try speaking like a final boss.
Buzz—buzz—buzz—
He poured more chakra into his attack, evolving the Rasengan in his hand into a Rasenshuriken. After briefly charging it, he flicked it toward Yagura.
Facing the attack, Yagura gathered a ball of water in his hand and threw it in front of him to form a water mirror, then used the iron hook of his staff to tilt it downward.
"Water Release: Water Mirror Technique!"
The reflection of Ryouma in the mirror didn't simply vanish, it stepped out of the mirror world, becoming a real, identical clone. It also reproduced the Rasenshuriken he had thrown.
Ryouma tried to redirect his Rasenshuriken around the clone to strike Yagura directly, but the mirror clone lunged at him with Lostvayne.
Boom!
Two jutsu collided, generating a massive blue sphere. The powerful shockwave destroyed all the buildings around the street.
The surrounding Kiri ninjas scattered to avoid the blast. When Ryouma and Yagura had been fighting in close quarters, they couldn't intervene. Now that the battlefield had opened up, the Kiri ninjas formed hand signs and launched a barrage of jutsu at the real Ryouma, who was still fighting the mirror clone.
"Water Release: Water Bullet!"
"Water Release: Great Waterfall!"
Water jutsu came from all directions, some even embedded with explosive tags.
Ryouma activated Chidori Current at full power to drive back the mirror clone, then raised Lostvayne, "Full Counter!"
A formless domain expanded. The mirror clone was the first to enter it, and due to the nature of the jutsu, the moment it touched the domain, it shattered into a splash of water.
All the incoming water jutsu and explosions were reflected back along their original paths. In thunderous explosions, waves mixed with detonations and debris shot outward like bullets from the epicenter where Ryouma stood.
Some of the weaker Kiri ninjas nearby didn't dodge in time and were killed on the spot.
Seeing his subordinates suffer casualties, Yagura was enraged, but he didn't lose his composure. He immediately gave orders. "Everyone, spread out! Report to the Mizukage and send forces to investigate and destroy any suspected space-time coordinate marks in the village!"
"Well thought out," Ryouma praised as he emerged from the smoke.
Yagura stood on high alert. He had to hold Ryouma here no matter what.
"Hmm?" Ryouma suddenly sensed something and leapt back.
At the spot where he'd just stood, a deep slash mark suddenly appeared. He hadn't sensed any incoming attack at all, it was as if the slash had materialized out of thin air.
He looked up, not at Yagura, but at the black-haired man with narrow eyes standing behind him.
The newcomer was none other than the Mizukage.
Yagura noticed his superior's arrival as well. "Mizukage-sama, I'm sorry, the capture operation has failed."
"I've already been briefed. The opponent is no ordinary intruder, so don't blame yourself." The Mizukage nodded calmly. Though he hadn't shown himself until now, he hadn't been idle either.
The villagers had already completed their evacuation under his command. From reconnaissance, it seemed the intruder was acting alone, there was no sign of accomplices.
However, the space-time marks Ryouma had set were extremely well hidden, and so far, not a single one had been found.
Byakuya held his long blade, warily eyeing the enemy before him. Speaking of which, this was actually his first time meeting the Leaf's Gale.
Yagura glanced at the marks on the ground, immediately understanding the situation.
That move was a unique sword technique of the Third Mizukage. It allowed him to use the moisture in the surrounding air to unleash slashes at extremely close range.
It was called "Hazy Mist Slash."
Ryouma had read about this special sword technique of Byakuya in the intel; it was likely that previous strike.
The speed was indeed fast, but it was still within his ability to react.
Byakuya narrowed his eyes. Right now, he had only one thought, to quickly force this guy in front of him to retreat.
In any case, it was worth trying to scare him off first. Byakuya said arrogantly, "If you leave Kiri now, I can promise in the name of the Mizukage that we won't send anyone to hunt you down."
Yagura felt this was acceptable. They needed time to investigate the village anyway. Besides, the other party had space-time ninjutsu and couldn't be held back, better this than letting Ryouma blow up Kiri.
So Yagura followed up on Byakuya's words:
"That's right. Using so many Wind Release techniques must put quite a strain on your chakra reserves. In that state, you surely won't leave the Land of Water alive."
"When did I ever say I was going to use Wind Release?" Ryouma smirked with a mischievous grin.
He had actually wanted to go a few more rounds with Byakuya, but for now, it was time to take care of business.
"If you're not afraid of dying and want to come after me, then by all means, come on."
Upon hearing this, Byakuya quickly swung his water blade. The moisture in the air around Ryouma instantly condensed into three almost invisible water threads that sliced toward his body.
But he was still a step too slow, Ryouma had already activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and vanished from the spot.
The Hazy Mist Slash once again struck empty air, leaving only a few blade marks on the ground.
Byakuya's face was as dark as water. He barked an order to a nearby Kiri ninjas, "Immediately send people to search for him!"
"Yes!"
Yagura turned to him, about to say something, when suddenly a bright flash drew all his attention.
The mission hall of Kiri, along with a large area around it, was enveloped by a massive energy field, followed by a deafening explosion.
Boom—!
Smoke mixed with flames shot into the sky, and countless fragments of buildings were blasted away by a circular shockwave.
The attack came too suddenly. Yagura and Byakuya could already imagine how many Kiri ninjas had died in the explosion without even knowing what hit them.
Yagura couldn't help but curse. Byakuya wanted to curse too. But before he could even open his mouth, another attack had already followed.
Three Tailed Beast Balls suddenly appeared out of nowhere within Kiri, and thunderous explosions erupted again.
This time, both Byakuya and Yagura saw it clearly.
Yagura exclaimed in shock:
"Those are Tailed Beast Balls? How did he do that? Did Konoha send the Nine-Tails jinchūriki?!"
Byakuya looked at his village being destroyed like this, his heart filled with rage. He even entertained the idea of capturing the Three-Tails and throwing it at Konoha in retaliation.
But it was destined to be nothing more than impotent fury. Without space-time ninjutsu, trying to ambush a major hidden village was nothing short of a pipe dream.
Boom— Boom— Boom—
Three more Tailed Beast Balls exploded at three critical locations within Kiri, one of them even hit the Mizukage Building.
Byakuya was already numb, so much so that he didn't even have the energy to curse Ryouma anymore. Though the explosions weren't long in duration or interval, under Ryouma's precise control, they completely obliterated every surface-level structure in Kiri, except for the residential areas.
A few minutes later, the smoke and shockwaves began to dissipate.
In Byakuya and others' view, Kiri had already become a stranger to them. The village was now filled with rubble and ruins, and the previously clear blue sky was now clouded with thick gray smoke.
Water from underground had begun seeping into the cratered landscape, slowly filling the explosion pits. On the bright side, they might one day serve as artificial lakes for sightseeing.
"Aahhh…" Some of the surviving Kiri ninjas let out meaningless howls of rage, eyes bloodshot as they scanned the surroundings, desperate to catch a glimpse of Ryouma.
Though the village was filled with a stifling atmosphere, it was still their home.
Now, seeing it reduced to such a state, some of the more sentimental Kiri ninjas began to sob quietly.
Byakuya gathered himself, called a few subordinates, and began issuing a series of commands.
In addition to organizing rescue efforts, the most important order was to hunt down Ryouma. Regardless of what methods he used to teleport Tailed Beast Balls into the heart of Kiri, he must have expended a tremendous amount of chakra. This was their only chance to eliminate him.
"Oh? You were looking for me?"
Ryouma suddenly reappeared at the same spot from which he had vanished.
Byakuya jerked his head around. He hadn't expected Ryouma to be so bold, to still dare show his face after doing something so devastating to the village.
"Ryouma! Do you really think having space-time ninjutsu means you can do whatever you want? Even if you escape, your companion who launched those Tailed Beast Balls won't be able to! Don't forget how Tobirama was killed!"
Ryouma's smile slowly faded. He had never met the Second Hokage in person, but the materials Tobirama left behind had helped him greatly. The Third Mizukage's words rubbed him the wrong way.
"You've got it wrong. The only reason I dare come back is simply because Kiri is just that weak."
Yagura had already been consumed with rage due to Ryouma's destruction. Now, hearing this mockery, he felt a fiery anger surge straight from his nose to the top of his head.
In an instant, he was about to launch an attack with his iron staff, but Ryouma was even faster.
"Aa~"
Lightning surged with full force. Ryouma went from total stillness to full-speed motion in less than a tenth of a second, striking the Mizukage with a rapid diagonal slash.
Byakuya raised his blade in defense, while Yagura stabbed forward with his staff toward Ryouma's back.
Ryouma flung a Flying Thunder God kunai with his left hand and teleported several meters to the side using the second phase of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Evading Yagura's strike, he formed hand seals with one hand at lightning speed. A dark-purple flame arrow burst from his mouth and shot straight at Byakuya.
At this critical moment, torrents of water surged from the ground, rapidly forming five massive water walls.
"Water Release: Fivefold Water Formation Wall!"
But the intense heat of the Flaming Annihilation Arrow pierced through all five water walls without resistance, and under Byakuya's stunned gaze, it pierced him right where he stood.
However, Ryouma didn't feel the sensation of hitting a real body.
