"Fall back!"
The moment he was wounded, the Third Mizukage immediately gave the order to retreat—not just because of his injury, but because he realized his objective was now unachievable.
A Kage is certainly not someone who fears death or shies away from danger. In fact, every village's Kage is a ruthless individual—harsh not only toward others, but even more so toward themselves. Losing one arm, or even two, would definitely hinder combat effectiveness, but it would never break their fighting spirit.
Who hasn't lost a hand before? It's no big deal.
The real problem was that the Third Mizukage had no idea what exactly Haseo had done earlier.
Even now, a strange chakra was surging wildly within him, disrupting his own chakra flow.
If another ninja were to examine the situation, externally it might resemble someone caught in a genjutsu. But to the Mizukage himself, his mind was completely clear—the attack Haseo used was purely physical.
Then there was the sudden explosion of that Mist ninja. Haseo's attack seemed even more bizarre… A simple palm strike shouldn't have produced such an explosive effect at all.
"Be careful. His techniques are strange, but they probably only work on contact, so keep your distance!" the Mizukage warned again.
A ninja's true quality shines in how quickly they can make a call when facing unknown threats.
Though his judgment was spot-on and his commands appropriate, the key issue remained: how could they stop a high-speed ninja like Haseo from closing in?
Clutching his severed arm, the Third Mizukage quickly stepped back several paces, then turned and fled without hesitation… He was already unable to continue fighting.
No matter the original intent of this ambush, taking down Haseo now was out of the question.
There were just too many unpredictable factors in battle. Whether it was Haseo becoming a "Jinchuriki," or Konoha unexpectedly adding a ninja with shockingly strong taijutsu to their ranks—all these variables led to the Third Mizukage's defeat.
Most importantly, it was the scale of Haseo's jutsu. If it weren't for that Earth Release technique just now, the Water Release Secret Arts handed down through generations would've been enough to end this fight.
Haseo, having retreated temporarily to avoid collateral damage from his own attacks, charged forward again. Naturally, he had no intention of letting them escape so easily.
"I'll hold them off!" One of the Mist ninja suddenly stopped running, turned around, and prepared to cover the retreat of the Mizukage and the rest.
Haseo's high-speed mobility from his Lightning Release Ninja Taijutsu made evasion nearly impossible, because none of the Mist ninjas could outrun him—they'd eventually be caught. That's when someone has to stay back and hold the line.
Faced with the figure rapidly growing larger in his field of vision, the Mist ninja clenched his teeth and began forming hand seals... Even among ninjas, most people feared death; this was simply human nature.
Yet there were always those willing to sacrifice themselves. Was this ninja actually under the impression that he could defeat Haseo, thus prompting him to stay behind?
[Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall].
Rather than launching an attack, the Mist ninja opted to use this jutsu to block Haseo's advance.
But in the end, he hadn't had much of a choice. What were the odds—a Mist ninja using Earth Release at a time like this? Talk about bad luck.
Faced with such an obstacle, Haseo didn't slow down for a second. He drove his left elbow forward and crashed straight into it.
Lightning-like cracks spiderwebbed across the surface of the earthen wall before it exploded outward in a burst of earth.
The Mist ninja's face wore an expression of disbelief, but Haseo moved too fast for even that expression to fully form before, once again, he raised his right arm and pierced through the enemy's chest... From the start, Haseo seemed unusually fixated on stabbing others—an uncharacteristic move for someone like him.
"Friend, you've achieved your goal."
As he said this, Haseo tightened his right fist and lightly pushed with his left hand against the opponent's shoulder. His deeply embedded right arm slid back out.
Then Haseo immediately leapt backward.
This Mist ninja had stayed behind purely to "buy some time," and indeed, he had delayed Haseo's pursuit just enough—he got exactly what he was looking for—fulfilling his own purpose through sacrifice.
Slowly lowering his gaze, the enemy saw the blood pouring from his chest wound, yet pain like this was nothing to him now.
Something within him felt far more indescribable, drowning out any sensation of pain.
He lifted his arm and saw white arcs flickering across his palm—like crackles of lightning chakra—and his breathing quickened slightly.
Soon afterward, these white flashes filled his entire vision.
A chakra sphere similar to the [Big Ball Rasengan] instantly engulfed the enemy entirely, except its color was glowing white—a unique touch from Haseo.
The orb flickered briefly before vanishing from sight… along with the ninja inside.
"This time… it should have worked."
Haseo raised his right hand and flexed his fingers slightly, as if attempting to memorize the feeling—it was clearly not a Rasengan. And naturally, only he himself knew exactly what had happened to the enemy just now.
Yet now wasn't the time to indulge in the joy of successfully developing a new technique. Immediately, Haseo dropped his arm and resumed chasing forward.
However, when he reached the seashore, he found that the remaining members of the Mist group had already reached the ocean's surface.
They continued running forward relentlessly, but there was one problem—there was no sign of the Third Mizukage among them.
"Hydrification Technique… can it be performed without hand seals?"
Haseo narrowed his eyes slightly.
If the Third Mizukage had hidden himself within the ocean using the Hydrification Technique, finding him would be practically impossible... Trying to find him would be harder than finding a needle in a haystack — more like trying to catch water in your hands.
He couldn't find that one specific handful he was looking for.
"Shall we continue the pursuit, Haseo?" Nagisa Nara asked as the rest of the Konoha team arrived, catching up to where Haseo stood, gazing out at the sea.
"If we have no way to take him down, chasing after him isn't going to do any good — and this is one of those cases," Haseo said, shaking his head. Pursuing the Mist ninja without the Third Mizukage present made little sense because...
"What matters more is that we return to the Front-line Camp as soon as possible."
At the same time the Mizukage ambushed Haseo's group, another Mist force attacked Konoha's Eastern Front camp. They were few in number and spread out across the area, still getting settled in, while the Mist came well-prepared. Because of this, Haseo now felt deep concern over the situation at the front camp.
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