The Third Mizukage didn't waste another breath.
Rage boiled off him in waves. The lake, calm for a fleeting instant, suddenly rose in a frenzy. Water churned and twisted upward, spiraling into the sky with the Mizukage at its eye.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
A textbook opener. For water-style shinobi, there was no jutsu more beloved.
But "standard" meant nothing in the hands of a master.
Under the Third Mizukage's control, the dragon wasn't just a shape—it was an avalanche. A wall of surging currents roared forward, a living tide rearing dozens of meters high, thundering down on Sogetsu like an ocean turned vertical.
Water-style relied heavily on terrain.
And here, in the middle of a frozen lake, surrounded by an endless supply of water… a water-style Kage hit harder than most explosive specialists.
The incoming wave towered over Sogetsu, a moving fortress of water. Any normal shinobi would have slipped aside, bled its force, gone for survival over pride.
Sogetsu didn't move.
Why dodge?
His hands flashed through seals. He drew a long breath.
"Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame."
BOOM!
Fire erupted from his lungs in a solid wall, so hot the air caught instantly.
Flames fanned out into a sweeping sea of orange-red, tongues of fire twisting and rearing like enraged serpents. In a heartbeat, half the lake vanished under a rolling inferno.
The blaze surged forward to meet the flood.
Water and fire crashed together.
The collision detonated.
Neither side yielded.
Boiling steam exploded outward. Every impact birthed another chain of blasts—roaring pockets of vapor bursting like fireworks, lighting the shattered ice in white and orange.
Shockwaves rippled visibly through the air.
Water sheared sideways under the force, waves driven out in concentric rings. Steam and spray hammered the shores, scouring snow from the rocks.
The Mizukage's brows pulled tighter together. A straight-on clash should've overwhelmed any fire-style user, but Sogetsu's technique held, burning, biting, refusing to break.
And Isobu was still behind him, waiting.
He did not have time for a stalemate.
His jaw set. He sprang upward, feet briefly finding purchase on the writhing torrent below, hands flying into a new pattern.
"Water Release: Water Formation Pillar!"
High above, a dense sphere of water coalesced—compressed so tightly it may as well have been stone.
Then it fell.
Whump—
The "water meteor" screamed through the air, punching shockwaves out in concentric rings as it descended.
Here, the advantage of water-style showed in full.
The Mizukage didn't need to babysit his first technique; the raging flood would keep colliding with Sogetsu's flames on its own. That left his hands free to layer more jutsu into the assault.
Sogetsu cut his fire and threw himself backward, skimming over the water in a long glide—
The air above his head suddenly felt heavy.
A razor hiss sliced down toward him.
The Mizukage's chest expanded; chakra surged into his throat.
He spat a barrage of needle-thin water bullets.
Shff-shff-shff-shff!
They sliced the air with a low, eerie whine, dozens of them converging from above.
Sogetsu's Sharingan burned scarlet. His pupils tracked every projectile, mapping their angles in an instant. His body blurred, twisting and slipping through the gaps.
Each shot missed him by hairsbreadths, passing close enough to stir his cloak. He landed light—
—and used that landing to load power into his legs.
He exploded forward.
BANG.
The lake surface detonated under his heel, sending up a geyser.
He sprinted across the water, trailing white spray and pressure waves, leaving one afterimage after another behind him. Wind screamed around his shoulders; his charge felt less like a human dash and more like a bipedal missile aimed at the Mizukage's throat.
"Hmph. So your ninjutsu can't win head-on, and now you want to press me in close combat?"
The Third Mizukage's eyes narrowed. A veteran of too many fields to count, he read the shift in tactics at a glance.
And had no intention of indulging it.
His hands blurred. Seals stacked on seals until his fingers were almost invisible.
Seventeen seals—completed in less than half a second.
"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"
Water gathered around him, spiraling tighter and tighter.
With the lake as his reservoir, he didn't need to worry about a source. Under his chakra's pull, the surrounding waters surged toward him, forming a howling whirlpool.
Then the whirlpool broke.
A colossal torrent burst outward, a horizontal waterfall driven by crushing force.
Its breadth was monstrous—hundreds of meters wide. Its current was a solid wall.
There was nowhere to dodge.
Sogetsu vanished into the flood.
RUMBLE—
The vortex roared as it spun, dragging unimaginable volumes of water around its axis.
Anyone caught in that maelstrom wasn't just battered—they were trapped. The current gripped Sogetsu and hurled him downward, deeper, deeper, spinning as it drove him toward the lakebed.
Pressure mounted from every side.
His bones creaked.
He slammed into a submerged cliff hard enough to crack stone.
Pain flashed hot and white through his nerves. His organs lurched; his ribs screamed.
He exhaled slowly through his teeth.
As expected of one of the Five Kage, he thought, letting the pain sharpen rather than dull his focus. Even the "nameless" Mizukage Kiri keeps hidden from the world… still a Kage all the same.
He'd come in planning to test the waters—see what a Kage-level opponent really felt like.
He'd gotten his answer.
Even with no bloodline limit, the Third Mizukage's water-style alone rivaled Hanzō's poison and techniques.
And here, in his own element, surrounded by water on all sides, his destructive output and efficiency were multiplied several times over.
Taken together, the result spoke for itself.
Losing round one wasn't exactly unfair.
Boom.
Sogetsu kicked off the rock and blasted back to the surface, bursting from the depths in a spray of foam.
He landed lightly on the water, boots barely denting the surface.
The Mizukage stood above him on a crest of churning currents, arms folded, looking down like a judge over an execution block.
"Uchiha Sogetsu," he said coldly, "if this is the extent of your power, then die here."
"Not bad," Sogetsu replied.
Water dripped from his hair in dark strands, plastering his fringe to his forehead. His black frames were cracked through one lens; he plucked them off, flicked them away, and let the lake swallow them.
He lifted his head, Sharingan gleaming faintly.
"You actually surprised me."
"Hnh. Sharp tongue for a cornered brat."
The Mizukage's killing intent thickened, leaking like mist from under his lashes.
"Still posturing when your grave's already dug. Do you have another trick hidden? It won't matter." His voice dropped to a lethal promise. "Even if Sarutobi Hiruzen himself walked out here, I'd carve you into the ice with my own hands."
"Misunderstanding," Sogetsu said, hands spreading in a small, almost apologetic gesture.
"You're one of the Five Kage. Someone like me"—he tilted his head—"some 'little Uchiha brat'… I imagine you've slaughtered more than a few already."
The grudging flattery smoothed a fraction of the Mizukage's scowl despite himself.
"Hmph. It's far too late for begging," he snapped. "Even if you kneel and grovel, I won't spare you."
"No, no. You're still misunderstanding."
Sogetsu's mouth curled at one corner.
"What I mean is—since you're that strong…"
His eyes narrowed with quiet mischief.
"…you shouldn't mind if I bring a little help, right?"
"Help?"
The Third Mizukage blinked once, then his face darkened.
"There are more of you?"
"Mm…" Sogetsu considered. "Depending how you define 'people'… maybe not."
The answer came before the Mizukage could parse that.
A roar shattered the clouds.
The sound punched straight through the sky, ripping a hole in the snow-choked ceiling overhead.
The lake bulged.
Something vast pushed up from below, scattering ice like toys.
Armor-black shell broke the surface, studded with brutal spikes. A living mountain heaved free of the water, triple tails lashing behind it, each swing whipping the air into thunderclaps.
Three-Tails Isobu rose in full, steam gusting from its jaws in white torrents.
In its huge yellow eyes, three tomoe spun, reflected in the gloss of the pupil—tiny, bloody commas circling a void.
Killing intent surged from it in a tidal wave, a choking sea of malice that crashed over the Third Mizukage, driving the breath from his lungs for a heartbeat.
Sogetsu smiled up at his "partner."
"You don't mind if I add one more ally, do you, Lord Mizukage?"
"You call that… a helper?!"
For the first time since appearing, the Third Mizukage genuinely lost composure.
His chakra flared wildly in answer, as the tailed beast's shadow fell across both of them.
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