Rewinding time slightly—beyond the smoke and dust of Komainu's raging battle circle, another deadly confrontation unfolded in parallel.
Gaishoku's intact right hand gripped tight that bone blade of deathly pale tinged with gray-blue, his techniques sweeping wide and aggressive.
His left arm, wrapped layer upon layer in blood-soaked bandages, lurked like a hidden scorpion—occasionally erupting without warning, bandages exploding to fire several short, sharp bone spikes that silently sealed off Itachi's evasion paths with cunning precision.
Relying on the dynamic vision granted by his Sharingan and the chakra transmitted through the slug on his shoulder, Itachi barely maintained fragile equilibrium, sustaining his rapidly depleting stamina and chakra reserves.
The young Uchiha heir's peripheral vision constantly monitored the surrounding situation.
Mizushoku had vanished. Shizune-senpai and Anko-senpai were in dire straits.
How long could that person in the rear courtyard sustain such massive chakra expenditure supporting three people simultaneously? Would the disappeared enemy cause their precariously maintained situation to collapse?
Shuji-senpai hasn't arrived yet. I'm the only one who can achieve results.
No more conservative fighting.
Itachi steeled his resolve.
Once again narrowly forcing back three incoming bone spikes, he seized an opportunity when the enemy attacked head-on. His Sharingan locked onto that lifeless eye.
Genjutsu: Sharingan!
Gaishoku's blade swing suddenly froze rigid.
Darkness... boundless darkness... cold metal restraint table... blinding white light...
"Hmm... bone alienation exceeds projections... vitality acceptable... try this..."
Serpents hissed in his ears.
CRACK! Searing pain! His arm forcibly twisted... pale hand bones one by one... brutally extracted... peeled away...
"AHHHHH—!!!!" Soul-deep screams threatened to tear everything apart!
"UGHHH—!!!"
In reality, Gaishoku violently arched his body, emitting a shrill, distorted howl barely recognizable as human!
The horrific memories buried deepest in his mind, under the Sharingan genjutsu's precise prying, erupted explosively! The violent mental impact made his blade-gripping right hand tremble violently, his offensive instantly collapsing as his entire body froze in place.
Right now!
Itachi's form showed no hesitation, charging straight at the wide-open Gaishoku!
The kunai in his hand stabbed directly toward the throat vital completely exposed by agonized howling!
However, just as the kunai tip was about to touch skin—
Gaishoku's bloodshot eyes, nearly bulging from their sockets, suddenly locked onto Itachi at point-blank range!
The ultimate death threat actually overcame the mental storm brought by genjutsu at the last moment, triggering the most primitive mutual-destruction ferocity in his very bones!
He completely abandoned defense and evasion, his blade-holding right hand in a near-crazed posture sweeping upward from below, counter-slashing toward Itachi's unguarded waist and abdomen!
Pssshh!
At the critical instant, Itachi forcibly twisted his body, narrowly avoiding his vital organs! But that bone blade edge quenched with eerie luster, still carrying bone-chilling cold, scraped across his waist-side combat uniform.
"Heh... heh... together... to hell!!" Gaishoku's mouth sprayed scalding blood foam, his hand desperately clutching the kunai-pierced throat gushing blood, carrying endless malice and release, he collapsed thunderously to the ground.
Itachi glanced down at his waist.
The Aoki Ninja Tool Shop combat uniform had been sliced open by a wound about an inch long, the embedded metal plates' edges bearing clear scrape marks.
The gift, damaged.
His skin felt a trace of coolness—seemingly just a shallow scratch.
A minor, harmless wound.
Just at this moment, from the main battlefield's direction came a suppressed cry of pain, immediately followed by the dull thud of something heavy hitting the ground!
Uchiha Itachi looked toward the sound, through rolling smoke and dust catching the exact moment Shizune-senpai's blood-soaked right arm gave way as she staggered and fell! He instinctively moved to provide support—
An indescribable, bone-marrow-deep chill suddenly erupted from that minor scrape at his waist!
Like countless tiny barbed ice picks frantically drilling upward along blood vessels and meridians, spreading!
That coldness, like a living thing, carried intense corrosive and destructive properties, rampaging through his body! Not only madly gnawing at meridian channels, but like maggots clinging to bone, violently impacting his neural center! His vision instantly became blurred and distorted, as if covered by a layer of blood-colored veil.
His body conveyed irresistible heaviness and numbness, as if his blood was freezing!
He tried to steady himself, but his legs felt filled with heavy lead, as if treading in a bottomless quagmire.
A wave of dizzying vertigo struck violently—he dropped heavily to one knee, his right hand kunai plunging deep into the cracked flagstones before him, barely supporting his tottering body.
Each breath carried icy stabbing pain, the air drawn into his lungs seemingly transformed into fine ice shards.
His Sharingan still maintained its crimson glow, but the pupils' focus appeared scattered and strained due to his body's violent transformation.
Gritting his teeth, using the last of his willpower to raise his head, through the permeating smoke and blood mist, he gazed toward that storm's center—
Meanwhile, in the Wasabi estate's rear courtyard, at the deep corridor leading to the inner residence.
The air seemed frozen, permeated with tension and rust-like blood scent that even sea wind couldn't dispel. Mizushoku, like a specter crawling from swamp depths, tilted his massive brown gourd slightly, its mouth aimed at the corridor entrance and the faintly visible panicked figures deeper within.
Viscous, ink-black liquid reeking of intense putrid decay, like a living thing, gurgled from the gourd mouth, gathering and churning before him into an ever-expanding filthy tide radiating ominous aura. Where the black water passed, the corridor pillars' wooden surfaces rapidly blackened and decayed, emitting subtle yet heart-palpitating "sizzling" sounds and wisps of acrid white smoke. This slow yet unstoppable advance carried a death-announcing stagnant weight.
Just as this filthy tide was about to overflow the corridor threshold and swallow everything beyond—
"SWIIISH—!!!"
A sharp air-piercing shriek tore through the deathly silence!
A feathered arrow with white talisman paper tied to its tail, like a burning meteor, shot down from the towering watchtower! The arrow struck with perfect precision half a step before Mizushoku, at the churning black water's edge!
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion thundered! Blazing firelight instantly consumed several feet around the arrow's impact point!
The violent blast wave, carrying shattered stone, wood fragments and burning talisman paper shreds, suddenly spread in all directions.
That filthy black water was violently blown apart by this sudden fierce impact, countless tiny black droplets shrieking "sizzle" in the high temperature, instantly carbonizing and evaporating.
A strong stench mixing burnt and putrid decay spread through the air.
The explosion's shockwave made Mizushoku's hovering form sway slightly, his cloak violently billowing.
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
No pause! From atop the watchtower, bowstring vibrations like sudden storm—three more arrows with explosive tags tied to their tails, in triangular formation, shot viciously toward Mizushoku and the black water re-gathering before him!
Wasabi Jirōchō stood steadfast behind the watchtower battlements. Behind him, several Wasabi guards who volunteered to stay, faces equally pale but eyes burning with the same resolve as their master.
Their movements were swift and steady—one nocked and drew, arrow tip steadily pointing at that nauseating monster below; another deftly tied explosive tags covered in sealing runes to the special clasps at arrow shafts' tails.
"Steady! Aim at his feet! Disrupt his technique!" Jirōchō's voice was low and clear.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Three explosions nearly simultaneously erupted violently around Mizushoku! Firelight shot skyward, blast waves rolling! The newly re-gathered black water was again torn apart and evaporated by violent force! Scorching air currents swept up ground dust, forming a murky smoke screen.
"Continue! Don't stop! Suppress him!" Jirōchō growled low, taking an explosive tag-tied arrow from a nearby guard's hand, personally drawing his well-maintained hard bow.
The bowstring tightened, emitting teeth-grinding groans. He took a deep breath, his gaze piercing through smoke and dust, firmly locking onto that churning darkness below.
Arrow after arrow burning with flames of death, like unyielding meteors, continuously poured down from the watchtower top!
Explosion firelight rose and fell in succession, deafening roars continuous and unending, firmly suppressing Mizushoku along with the filthy black water he summoned in that limited space outside the corridor entrance!
Each explosion made that writhing black water violently churn and diminish.
Mizushoku attempted to control the black water's forward spread, but the continuous explosive shockwaves and searing flames constructed an invisible barrier, greatly interfering with and weakening the black water's cohesion and advance speed.
Those subtle, occasionally flashing in explosion firelight, restless insect swarms like black dust—before such dense physical impact and energy bursts, they too seemed to fall into brief chaos.
Reference Glossary:
Maggots clinging to bone – A classical Chinese idiom (跗骨之蛆) describing something persistently harmful that cannot be removed, like parasites eating away at one's very foundation.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild