As the wind cleared the fog, the battlefield was left covered in bodies and white bones.
Blood from both Anbu and Kaguya clan members had pooled into dark red streams, looking eerie in the night.
Karatachi Yagura glanced down. Right away, he realized there were traitors in his Anbu.
The ones killing each other weren't weak—clearly, they had once been trusted members carrying out missions.
He didn't know when they had been planted, but if someone dared to make a move under his watch, it had to be that old fox Genji.
Karatachi Yagura frowned ever so slightly.
The Kaguya clan, who had always been at a disadvantage, took the chance to strike back.
With their vision now cleared, it was like the heavens were on their side.
They didn't care who the masked people were. With blood in their eyes, they charged forward blindly.
"We can't even tell who you people are!"
"Crazy… you're all insane. People like you shouldn't even be alive!"
"Ahhh!!!"
"Damn it! If Kimimaro were here, you guys...!"
Screams echoed over the Kaguya clan's land, now filled with the dead and dying.
Genji's brow was tightly furrowed. His few precious people were being pierced through by bone blades in the chaos.
It hurt to watch—he knew how hard it had been to raise and place them near Yagura.
This kind of fight where no one could tell who was who… it was nothing but a waste of his talent.
Masked fighters kept teaming up only to get stabbed in the back. Everything was in total chaos.
Sharp white bones pierced through Anbu bodies, and in the middle of all this madness, the three sides ended up in a strange balance.
"Oh ho—now we can really see what's going on."
"So brutal~ It's all from the same village, and they're tearing each other apart like this."
HatakeSatoru sat on a tree branch, legs swinging, one hand shielding the top of his eye patch as he grinned and looked down.
Hozuki Mangetsu looked around, then noticed that Shisui seemed to be the strongest one down there. He pouted, a little disappointed.
"We don't really do the whole 'teammates' thing."
The Kaguya clan all wore white, while the Anbu wore masks.
In a fight where no one could tell each person apart—just sides—a figure in plain clothes stood out sharply.
They wore dark sunglasses, bouncing up and down with each movement.
A short, slightly wavy ponytail hung behind their head.
Shisui slapped down a bone blade that came stabbing at him, leaped into the air, and with one kick sent his attacker flying.
"Ugh—!"
The person kicked away let out a low groan before crashing hard onto the ground nearby.
Right after that, Shisui lowered his head and pushed down his sunglasses with force. The red Sharingan spun to life in an instant.
The Anbu nearby, who was sneaking in to land a cheap shot, clearly didn't expect to see a pair of Sharingan behind those glasses. Caught off guard, he fell straight backward.
Shisui grabbed the kunai from his hand with a twist of his wrist, then blinked to the ground, landing in a splash of blood that sent a few drops flying.
Before anyone could even catch up with what just happened, Shisui turned and threw the kunai behind him.
Bullseye. The kunai landed right into the head of a man who had just exploded himself into a ball of bones.
The whole sequence of movements was smooth and sharp, with perfect timing and aim. Not a single person could get close to Shisui.
Karatachi Yagura quickly realized that Shisui was the real problem here.
Sure, the Anbu were making a mess of things…
But without this guy, the fight might not have shifted so hard in one direction.
From his flashy outfit to his totally different fighting style, he looked like someone who had the words "here to stir things up" written all over his face.
Even if every Anbu died, it still probably wouldn't be enough to hurt this outsider.
Karatachi Yagura jumped down from the tree, charging straight toward Shisui, a spinning swirl of water suddenly forming in his palm.
"Water Style: Water Mirror Technique!"
The spinning water quickly smoothed out into a round, flat surface, like a mirror made of water.
Yagura then pulled a green rod from behind his back. The hook at the end caught the water mirror perfectly, and he slammed it downward.
Shisui quickly leapt back, forming a tiger sign with his hands and pressing it to his lips. A massive fireball burst from his mouth.
And inside the water mirror, the reflection of Shisui did the exact same thing—firing back a blazing fireball.
*BOOM!!*
The two fireballs collided with full force, sending out a wave of heat that rolled across the field.
The few blades of grass on the ground shriveled up instantly, as if scorched dry.
Shisui's feet dug into the ground as he quickly backed off, and a few of the traitor Anbu rushed toward him.
A group of kunai with explosive tags attached were thrown straight at the spot in front of the water mirror.
The two fireballs had just about steamed all the moisture out of the air.
*BOOM!!*
The moment the tags hit the ground, they exploded, shaking up a cloud of dust and even causing the earth under the whole area to tremble.
Hatake Satoru, sitting in a tree, let out a quiet cough and waved his hand to clear the thick smoke swirling around him.
"Cough, cough… so much dust."
That was a big blast, but something like this probably wouldn't do much to Yagura.
Over on the other side, Genma and Ao were staying fully alert. As a sensory ninja, Ao kept his eyes locked onto Karatachi Yagura below.
From the instant the explosion hit, Ao could feel a strange shift in Yagura's chakra flow.
A troubling thought slowly crept into his mind.
That was tailed beast chakra.
It wasn't Ao's first time seeing how Yagura's chakra looked when he was using the tailed beast, but today, something felt off—something weird.
It wasn't flowing as smoothly as usual. Instead, it seemed messy, but in a way that still felt forced down and controlled.
Right now, the amount of power Yagura was borrowing from the tailed beast wasn't too high, so it was still under control.
But if he tried to draw on more… with the state he was in now, it was hard to say whether he could keep the tailed beast fully in check.
Ao was starting to feel uneasy.
As the smoke slowly spread out, Yagura was crouched on the ground.
A huge spiked tail was curled in front of him, shielding him completely from the blast's impact.
Yagura's deep purple eyes lifted slightly, and a mix of chaos and emptiness could be clearly seen swirling in them.
Most of the Anbu couldn't help but grit their teeth—going head-to-head with a Tailed Beast was almost impossible.
Hozuki Mangetsu suddenly perked up, eyes shining as he looked down at Karatachi Yagura.
That giant tail clearly belonged to a Tailed Beast. It was his first time seeing something like this in person.
As the dust fully cleared, Karatachi Yagura rushed straight at Shisui, swinging his flower-marked staff.
The massive, spiked tail behind him swung wildly, knocking away all the kunai and shuriken nearby.
They had no choice but to try!
Shisui quickly lowered his head and pulled off his sunglasses, locking his eyes onto Karatachi Yagura's nearly unfocused gaze. The red tomoe in his Sharingan spun rapidly.
The moment Yagura met Shisui's eyes, his charge suddenly froze.
"There's an opening!"
A young-sounding voice suddenly cut through the tension.
Mangetsu, who had been watching from the side, reacted right away. He quickly formed hand signs and aimed at the stunned Yagura.
"Water Style: Spiral Shadowless Instant Kill Speed Line!"
In a flash, a thread-thin stream of water shot downward like lightning, heading straight for Yagura's heart—so fast he had no time to dodge.
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