Kitazawa and his team headed for the coast.
Although Uchiha Itachi and the other Anbu were moving with them, they kept out of sight. Like Aburame Torune's rinkaichū, they were sweeping the area for traces of Suikazan Fuguki's ninja squad.
After walking for a bit, Kitazawa sprang up onto the crown of a tree. While putting some distance between himself and Kurenai's group, he activated the Byakugan—then deliberately mimed performing a sensory technique to mask the Byakugan's chakra signature.
He took a slow look around, shut the Byakugan, and moved on.
Before long, they reached the shoreline.
The coast was a danger zone; most Konoha–Kiri skirmishes happened here. The Hidden Mist had the terrain advantage. They were on the offensive, and if a strike failed they could simply fall back to the islands. Konoha squads usually wouldn't pursue into open sea—the Mist's Water Release was too dominant there. That was why Kirigakure could keep dragging Konoha into a tug-of-war.
Of course, plenty of elite Konoha squads did raid the islands to seize outposts and forward bases.
"We just got intel—ten minutes ago, Suikazan Fuguki's squad hit the northern outpost," Itachi said as he dropped into view in front of Kitazawa and the others.
"Move!" Kitazawa didn't waste a word; he just accelerated north.
They were fast—five minutes later they reached the target outpost—only to find they were a step too late. The Konoha squad manning the post had been wiped out. Fuguki's team hadn't occupied the site; they killed and left.
"No sign of them nearby," Torune reported from his rinkaichū's scouting.
"Damn." Itachi frowned slightly. "We've lost the chase."
"I think we change tactics," Kitazawa said after a beat. "Being a step behind means we'll always be passive."
"What are you proposing?" Kurenai asked, looking to him.
"Do unto them as they do unto us," Kitazawa replied. "We'll hit the Mist the way Fuguki is hitting us."
"Worth a try," Itachi murmured. "With our strength we can inflict heavier losses on them."
"Agreed," Kurenai said. "That'll force Fuguki's squad to come to us."
"We'll take the right flank; Itachi, your unit takes the left," Kitazawa said, spreading a map and pointing along the coast. "If you encounter Mist shinobi, eliminate them as fast as possible."
"These are Anbu signal flares." Itachi handed Kitazawa two flares. "Fire one and we'll converge."
"Got it. Everyone, keep your guard up," Kitazawa said with a nod.
Itachi vanished.
"Torune, wide-area reconnaissance," Kitazawa ordered.
Torune raised both hands. Two dense plumes of "smoke" billowed out—an ocean of rinkaichū taking flight, fanning through the air in all directions.
Kitazawa climbed another tree to scan the sea, slid on sunglasses, and opened the Byakugan.
"Torune, there's an island that way," he said, pointing.
Torune immediately sent his rinkaichū swarming that direction. Moments later he reported, "Mist outpost on the island—one special jōnin, three chūnin inside."
"We go now." Kitazawa stepped onto the water and set the pace. The other four hurried after him.
"They've spotted us," Torune warned.
Kitazawa looked up. On the island ahead, four Mist shinobi were braced for a fight. He gauged the range, then flashed through hand signs. The sea heaved; under his Water-style control, a mass of seawater rose and coalesced into a ten-meter water dragon.
"D-defend!" the four Mist ninja blurted. They'd never seen a Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet that massive. Flustered, they fired back—two Water Walls and an Earth-Style Wall snapped up in front of them, and a giant fireball streaked out.
The dragon snuffed the fireball effortlessly, smashed through all three walls, and blew the four Mist shinobi apart like leaves.
"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"
"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
Uchiha Izumi and Yakushi Kabuto finished their seals; wind fed fire, and the blaze swallowed the Mist squad.
"Next target," Kitazawa said. He didn't even land on the island—he pivoted away.
"Kitazawa-sensei's Water Release is basically untouchable at sea," Kabuto couldn't help saying.
Izumi nodded in agreement. Their jutsu had just been the finisher—the Water Dragon had already taken the four out of the fight. And those four hadn't even been weak; against a lesser team, they wouldn't have needed to spend chakra to finish them at all.
"Don't throw the word 'untouchable' around. It invites trouble," Kitazawa said offhandedly.
Kabuto blinked. Since when was that a rule?
"Two o'clock," Torune said after they'd moved for a dozen minutes. "A Konoha outpost is under siege by Mist shinobi."
Kitazawa instantly sped up.
Moments later, a battlefield came into view—Mist and Konoha clashing around an outpost. The Mist squad had the upper hand—its captain was a jōnin; Konoha's strongest was a special jōnin, and even with the outpost's defensive position, they were being pushed back.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Kitazawa sent a roaring water dragon streaking straight at the Mist jōnin. Both sides froze for an instant, startled by Kitazawa's sudden entry.
"It's Kitazawa-sama!" the Konoha special jōnin cried, elated. "We're saved!"
"Kitazawa? Retreat!" the Mist jōnin barked, already flashing through seals. A Water Wall surged up before them. The three Mist chūnin abandoned the fight without hesitation and bolted.
Kitazawa's name—and his squad's track record—had been impossible to ignore lately. Few in the Mist hadn't heard of him. The jōnin chose to run without a second thought.
Kitazawa's brow ticked. Running made things easier.
"Water Release: Water Formation Pillar!"
He spat out a huge water sphere even as the dragon smashed through the Water Wall. With the wall gone, the sphere hurtled at the Mist jōnin.
Sensing danger, the jōnin spun, finished his seals, and launched his own water dragon. The sphere hit it and burst like a balloon—the deluge hammering the jōnin like a sudden cloudburst.
"Water Formation Pillar…?" he realized too late. It was a Mist technique—he'd subconsciously assumed Kitazawa wouldn't know it and took the sphere for a generic Water Release. The cascade blasted him back several meters. Skilled as he was with Water Release, he wasn't badly hurt—but he'd lost his window to flee.
Screams cut through the rain. He glanced back to see his three students cut down under a combined assault from Kurenai's team and Kabuto.
A heartbeat later, darkness fell—his sight vanished.
"What technique is this?" the Mist jōnin blurted, bolting blindly.
A knife-wind hissed from behind. "Water Release: Water Formation Wall!" He snapped around, throwing up a water shield. The kunai clattered harmlessly to the ground.
"Uchiha Style: Gale Sword!"
Kitazawa appeared behind him and cleaved. Zangetsu's arc burst into a sweeping blade of flame that split him wide open.
Kitazawa canceled the Bringer-of-Darkness Technique. Because the target was a Mist jōnin, he drew a summoning storage scroll and sealed the body away.
"Kitazawa-sama! Thank you!" the Konoha special jōnin said, overflowing with relief. "If you hadn't come, we'd be corpses."
"Secure the field. We're moving," Kitazawa said, waving them off and leading Kurenai and the others away.
Time slid by. With Torune's rinkaichū and Kitazawa's Byakugan, their efficiency spiked through the roof—by midday they'd already cut down seven Mist squads. Combined with Itachi's Anbu operations, the Mist had suffered a brutal morning.
On a certain island, Suikazan Fuguki's team was taking a lunch break when a slicing wind sounded. Fuguki tensed until he saw the newcomer's Anbu mask, then relaxed—somewhat.
"Fuguki-sama." The Anbu bowed slightly and produced a scroll. "Ao-sama asked me to deliver this."
"What assignment now?" Fuguki snorted, unfurling the scroll. He had no love for Ao—first for dragging out this tug-of-war with the Konoha, and second for taking the front-line commander post. Their ranks in the Mist were comparable; either could have been placed in command. But Fuguki had still been away from the village then, and with people like Genshi backing Ao, Ao had beaten him to it.
"Bold brat," Fuguki growled, a grin twisting his face. "So he dares copy my playbook?"
"Who?" asked a middle-aged shinobi beside him—an Earth-style specialist.
Fuguki tossed him the scroll. "Kitazawa?"
The man's expression hardened. "He's provoking us. We need to teach him a lesson."
Kitazawa's aim had been to draw Fuguki's attention—to force him into the open—so his team had been anything but subtle. Word reached Ao quickly. Ao kicked the job to Fuguki: stop Kitazawa.
"If he's delivering himself to us, we'd be fools to say no," Fuguki said, standing and slinging Samehada across his back. "We'll deal with Kitazawa's squad, then eat."
"Sir!" the other three Mist shinobi answered in unison.
They left the island, heading northwest. Without being told, a young sensor formed seals and spread his chakra.
Half an hour later he spoke up: "Two thousand meters ahead."
"Get ready," Fuguki warned. "They've got an Aburame—once we get close, they'll know."
"Four Mist jōnin are closing on us!" Torune suddenly said, rising to his feet, face tense.
"I'll pin down Fuguki," Kitazawa said at once, firing an Anbu signal flare. "The rest of you play it defensive and wait for Itachi's team."
He didn't need to ask who the four were. Their tactic had worked; the Mist couldn't afford to let them keep this up.
Kurenai, Kabuto, and the others nodded. Against four jōnin, they couldn't win head-on; their job was to buy time.
"They're here!" Kabuto shouted as soon as he saw Fuguki's team. He flashed through seals—an enormous translucent wind sphere blasted out like an artillery shell.
Fuguki tightened his grip on Samehada. With a flick of his right hand, the bandages binding it snapped away, revealing the sword's true form—a deep blue, barbed blade that wasn't metal at all but something alive.
He hewed at the wind projectile. Samehada's maw gaped wide and devoured it in a gulp.
"So that really is Samehada—the blade that absorbs jutsu?" Kabuto's heart skipped. The Seven Ninja Swords were infamous, and the Konoha had detailed notes on all seven. Samehada was the strangest—alive, and capable of eating chakra.
"Earth Release: Earth Spear!" The middle-aged Mist shinobi slapped the ground; a forest of razor-edged stone spears erupted beneath Kitazawa's team, lunging to impale them.
Kitazawa didn't budge. He stamped once—Heavenly Foot of Pain. The monstrous force shattered the lances and cracked the ground into a spiderweb, leaving the terrain pitted in a wide radius.
"Tsunade's Monster Strength?" Fuguki burst into motion, lightning-fast, and was on Kitazawa in a blink. He leapt, gripping Samehada in both hands, and brought it down like a falling mountain. The air screamed.
"Uchiha Style: Sword Jump Blaze!" Kitazawa drew Zangetsu up to meet Samehada.
Boom—
The ground under Kitazawa's feet caved. His clothes snapped and fluttered in the shockwave.
"Good power," Fuguki admitted, eyes narrowing. Most shinobi would be injured taking that strike. Kitazawa looked fine. Then again, he was Tsunade's student; monstrous strength made that less surprising.
"Samehada!" Fuguki roared, driving down. Samehada bit onto Zangetsu—its surface flames dimmed as the sword drank them away.
"Supervibrato Lightning Release Swords!" Kitazawa's face didn't change as he flooded Zangetsu with lightning chakra. Sparks jumped. Samehada recoiled—the edge suddenly felt like biting a mouthful of needles; another second and its "teeth" would chip.
The living blade yanked back instinctively.
"What?" Fuguki's pupils tightened. He'd never seen Samehada react like that.
Monster Strength—Kitazawa's left fist crashed forward. Fuguki hopped back and brought Samehada up to block; even so, the sheer force left his arms buzzing and numb.
"Uchiha Style: Gale Sword!" Kitazawa flashed behind him and cut—Zangetsu hurled a searing blade of flame.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Shuriken!" Kitazawa flicked his left hand, hurling a wind-charged shuriken straight at Samehada's gaping mouth.
Samehada snapped its jaws shut in a hurry. For any living thing, the insides were the weak point—Samehada was no exception.
Fuguki frowned. The blade that never failed him had just been checked twice in a row.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!" he reacted instantly, a water shield blooming up. It caught both the flame-wave and the wind shuriken while he vaulted back to open the distance. A second later the wall burst, but both attacks had spent themselves.
Kitazawa spared a glance for Kabuto and Kurenai—clearly losing ground against three Mist jōnin. The only thing checking the enemy was their wariness of Torune's rinkaichū—but only to a point. As Kitazawa's fame rose, the Mist had compiled dossiers on all five of them, including Torune's bugs. With prior intel, their jōnin were hard to catch off guard. Even so, the rinkaichū were still dangerous.
He drew his focus back. Kurenai and the others could hold a minute or two—maybe not long enough for the Anbu squad, but Itachi should make it in time.
"Worry about yourself, kid!" Fuguki sneered. Samehada swept across in a howling cross-cut.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!" A wall surged up and caught the blow. Fuguki leaned into it and shattered the wall—
—and a bolt of lightning dropped from the sky.
Fuguki sprang forward, eyes flicking to the second blade now in Kitazawa's hand—Thunderclap. It had the same lightning-attracting property as the Thunder Swords: Kiba; that all but confirmed it was a reforged Kiba.
In the instant the thought passed, Fuguki twisted Samehada's hilt. Chains snapped out—the blade shot toward Kitazawa at blinding speed.
Samehada: Flying Chain Slash.
~~~
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