Hayama Shirakumo approached Yagami. "Thank you, Jonin Fox. If not for you, my squad and I would be dead."
Yagami replied, "Your Wind Style swordsmanship is impressive. To release several wind blades with just a single hand sign... it's fast, efficient, and powerful. Once you master that technique to its limit, it will be a core ability worthy of a Jonin."
"Thank you, Jonin Fox," Hayama responded. "The technique is called the Vacuum Sword. Lord Sakumo granted it to me as a reward after I completed a set quota of missions on the River front. I am deeply grateful to him; otherwise, I don't know how long it would have taken to find a core ninjutsu that suited me so well."
"I see. So it was Lord Sakumo."
Yagami already knew this—he had personally witnessed Hatake Sakumo granting the jutsu to Hayama in the Land of Rivers—but he wanted to hear Hayama's own evaluation of the man.
"Hayama, handle things here. I need to interrogate the swordsman we captured."
"Understood, Jonin Fox."
...
Yagami reached the spot where Antelope and the others were guarding Mangetsu Hozuki. He gestured for the three of them to leave, indicating he would perform the interrogation alone.
Dragging the charred, paralyzed Mangetsu behind a large reef, Yagami sat on a stone. A single droplet of water hovered at the tip of his lowered finger.
Seeing that the Leaf Anbu remained silent and didn't ask a single question, Mangetsu couldn't help but snarl, "Dog of the Hokage, I won't tell you a single word!"
Yagami smiled thinly. "You're overthinking it. I wasn't planning on asking a single thing."
He raised his hand, the water droplet of the Water Pistol jutsu forming at his fingertip. "I'm only 'interrogating' you so I have an excuse to claim I extracted this Water Pistol technique from your mouth. Whether you speak or not, the secret technique is already mine. Why should I waste the effort?"
"What!" Mangetsu's eyes bulged. His charred eyelids cracked, but he didn't even notice the pus and blood flowing into his eyes as he stared in horror at the Water Pistol on Yagami's finger. "Where did you learn that? That is a Hozuki clan secret! Did the village betray me?!"
In his pain and despair, Mangetsu's screams grew louder, echoing across the shoreline.
In the distance, Antelope glanced toward the reef. He hadn't expected the Unit Leader to have such refined interrogation methods. Why hadn't he seen the Captain use this before? Was the gap between them really this vast? Just listen to Mangetsu—even a clan being wiped out shouldn't sound that miserable.
High-level paraplegic or not, Mangetsu struggled, but his body remained limp; only his head thrashed as he tried to look at the Fox mask.
Yagami remained unmoved, continuing to practice the Water Pistol right in front of Mangetsu. Shot after shot punched holes through the surrounding reefs. Velocity, droplet density—it all required precise chakra maintenance. Despite being an sign less jutsu, the chakra consumption was significant.
When Mangetsu finally exhausted himself from screaming, he stared blankly at the Fox. "Who wants me dead? Is it that old bastard Elder Genji? Or the Karatachi clan?"
Yagami was momentarily stunned by the question. "I'm standing right in front of you. Obviously, I want to kill you. Why are you accusing others?"
Then, a thought occurred to him. He realized Mangetsu was filling in the blanks himself.
"Heh... heh heh... hahahaha." Mangetsu's laugh was hollow and tragic. "Fighting you, I felt like every move I made was seen through. My swordsmanship, Taijutsu, ninjutsu—even my secret arts—you knew everything. You knew every weakness and exploited them perfectly. Tanking Hiramekarei with Taijutsu, using Lightning Style to counter my Hydrification, then Fire Style to cripple me. And now, you reveal the Hozuki secret art. There is only one possibility: someone in the Hidden Mist sold me out."
'Actually,'Yagami thought, 'this is the second time I've fought you. Of course I know your abilities.'
In a ninja battle, intelligence was everything. If Yagami's own data leaked and someone hit his Absolute Defense with high-level Lightning Style, he'd be in deep trouble too.
Mangetsu continued, his voice cracking: "No! They didn't just sell me out—they sold out the entire Hozuki clan! After the Second Mizukage fell, the Third suppressed us, and we had to grovel in the shadows. Now that the Third is dead, the clan is making a comeback. Elder Genji, the Karatachi, the Kaguya—none of them want to see the Hozuki reach the top again. Genji conspired with the other clans to force us to surrender the swords. We showed our sincerity by giving up Nuibari and the others, so why does the village leadership still want us dead? Not only did they leak my intel to the Leaf Anbu, but they even gave away our secret arts. From now on, the Hozuki will be puppets to the Leaf. They want us extinct!"
Yagami listened with great interest. The internal strife in the Mist was even more cutthroat than he'd imagined. He played along with Mangetsu's logic:
"Say less. I was simply commissioned by your Hidden Mist to kill you. Your life is worth a lot. The Water Pistol and the Twinsword are just my payment. I'll pretend I tortured the secret out of you, then leak the news back to the Mist that you 'confessed' the Hozuki secrets. Mission accomplished."
"You... you're a monster! You're evil!"
"How can one be a ninja without being ruthless? How can one be Anbu without being malicious? Quiet down now. It's just death. I'll send you to see the Second Mizukage."
Everything was moving toward escalating the chaos within the Hidden Mist.
Yagami's fingertip surged with chakra. A single Water Pistol shot pierced through the center of Mangetsu's forehead.
It was over.
Yagami emerged from behind the reef and signaled Antelope to approach. "Take the body. We're moving."
The Fox platoon didn't linger, quickly reuniting with Commander Yellow Dog. Yellow Dog's eyes lit up when he saw Yagami carrying the oddly shaped twin blades. As expected of Fox—he had completed the task with clinical efficiency.
"Commander, this is the Twinsword: Hiramekarei. Please seal it immediately before the Hozuki clan can summon it back."
The Hozuki held the summoning scrolls for the Seven Swords; if lost, they could be summoned back via contract. Before Kushimaru could report back and alert the clan, the connection had to be severed.
Yellow Dog signaled his assistant, Butterfly, to bring the sealing bandages. Under the control of a sealing jutsu, the bandages flew out, wrapping Hiramekarei tightly. It took Yellow Dog five minutes to complete the seal, completely cutting off the blade's connection to the Hozuki scrolls.
Yellow Dog said, "We can't actually use this blade, Fox. Our next step is to use it as bait to lure more Mist ninja into a trap. We need to maximize the friction between the Mist leadership and the Hozuki. As for Mangetsu's body, seal it and send it to the Root. They'll want to dissect it."
"Commander," Yagami added, "I also extracted a secret technique. It's mine now."
Yellow Dog asked with genuine interest, "Oh? You tortured a secret art out of him? Which one?"
***
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