"One Thousand Years of Death!"
The ninja sword pierced through the Mist Brigade Commander from behind.
Yagami burst out from the water and delivered a flying kick, sending the Mist Brigade Commander tumbling away. The commander had been crouching with both hands pressed to the water's surface; it wasn't that Yagami was a pervert, it was simply that the angle was too perfect for One Thousand Years of Death.
The other Mist Ninja stared in horror at Copper Fox. This Hidden Leaf ANBU had actually used the cover of the mud to launch a sneak attack on their Brigade Commander.
Yagami looked at the two nearby Mist Ninja and felt that he was terrifyingly strong. At this moment, his long sword was stained with filth—who would dare to approach him?
A Mist Squad Commander shouted, "Kill him!"
Four Mist Ninja within the three-meter visibility range charged toward him. These people clearly didn't understand the situation; are they completely unafraid of E. coli?
After cutting down several people in quick succession, Yagami disdainfully threw the ninja sword at a Mist Squad Commander. The blade pierced the commander's abdomen. Say hello to your Brigade Commander's E. coli for me.
Yagami rushed into the thick fog, constantly looking for opportunities to get close, shattering the chests of the Mist Ninja one by one with his fists. The water level gradually receded, and by the time the flood had completely vanished, this Mist brigade was mostly dead.
The sounds of explosions to the southwest continued to rise and fall. Yagami pressed forward. As he neared the source, the thick fog in front of him suddenly rushed toward him, followed by a violent gale, and finally, a booming roar.
Meeting the shockwave before hearing the sound meant the explosion's force was incredibly powerful. Yagami felt increasingly uneasy; who exactly was fighting, and why were the explosions so terrifying? Was it Brigade Commander Yellow Dog? The scale of his Fire Style was certainly large enough.
The good news was that the explosions were thinning the fog, and Yagami's vision was improving.
Over a dozen Uchiha ninja were currently in full retreat. Uchiha Tohka was leading the remnants of a brigade, including Fugaku Uchiha, retreating in a sorry state while fighting back. Their opponent was a fat figure. On that fat figure's arm was a thick, curved scimitar.
No!
Yagami took another ten steps forward and realized that fat figure wasn't a person; it was the Hozuki clan's Steam Impelling Blast!
It was the infinite explosion secret technique once used by the Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hozuki. It used oil and water to create a clone that moved at extreme speeds and could fly freely through the air. Once attacked, the oil on its surface would heat up and expand, causing the water inside to rapidly vaporize and explode. After the explosion, the oil would cool down, returning it to a child-like form to prepare for the next blast. With high-tier Taijutsu and infinite explosions, Steam Impelling Blast was nearly invincible.
Yagami thought to himself that it was no wonder the Uchiha ninja he met on the way said they were being targeted; the Uchiha truly had no good solution for Steam Impelling Blast. The Taijutsu advantage provided by the Sharingan was useless against Steam Impelling Blast because it was a clone technique—hitting it would only cause it to explode sooner. The Fire Style the Uchiha excelled at would also cause the Steam Impelling Blast to detonate rapidly. As for Genjutsu, it was even more useless against a clone.
The Hozuki ninja stayed hidden in the shadows; they could render most Uchiha helpless using only their clones. He wondered which powerhouse from the Hozuki clan had come to the front lines.
Four Uchiha stayed behind to cover the retreat. They formed hand signs and released four Great Fireballs! They wanted to force the Steam Impelling Blast to explode to buy time for the others.
The Steam Impelling Blast was too fast, and the Fire Style was too slow. The Steam Impelling Blast dodged three Great Fireballs and actively collided with the last one. At this moment, the Steam Impelling Blast was very close to the four Uchiha.
A flash of white light shone.
The terrifying high-temperature steam expanded instantly, swallowing the four Uchiha. Amidst the erupting steam, the flesh and blood of the four Uchiha melted first, splashing backward, before their skeletons shattered. Steam Impelling Blast was truly cruel.
Yagami retreated to avoid the aftershocks of the blast and saw the Steam Impelling Blast reappear, the oil on its surface slowly returning to its child-like form. He dashed to the side. There was no point in risking his life against the Steam Impelling Blast; he had to find the Hozuki controller as quickly as possible.
The Uchiha ninja might not be able to find the hidden Hozuki ninja, but Yagami could. He pulled the Twin Swords Hiramekarei from his back, looking as if he were going to fight to the death with it. Holding Hiramekarei, he used it to smash a rock with great force. The rock shattered, and Hiramekarei vibrated with a loud hum.
In Yagami's hands, a famous blade like Hiramekarei was just a large piece of scrap metal. Any Mist Ninja would surely be pained by the sight.
"Stop!"
As expected, a Mist Ninja couldn't bear to watch any longer and appeared from the thick fog. A ninja sword that the Mist Ninja cherished as their heart's blood was being treated by Yagami like scrap metal to be hammered around. It was like a brand-new car someone couldn't bear to drive, and Yagami was standing up on the pedals to ride it.
Yagami looked toward the voice and saw two people. One was two and a half meters tall, as burly as a walrus, with red hair and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Fuguki Suikazan!
The other was lean but held a ninja sword covered in spikes, pointing it at him. The Great Sword Samehada! The wielder was an elite Jonin of the Hozuki clan, Hozuki Muratsuki.
In the original story, Fuguki Suikazan was the first master of the Great Sword Samehada in the Mist Hidden Village. For some unknown reason, the village had erased the names and deeds of many members of the Hozuki clan, as if they had never existed. This clan, once the largest in the Mist Hidden Village, vanished during and after the Third Shinobi World War, with only a few survivors struggling to get by. Even Orochimaru did a better job of protecting the Hozuki clan than the Mist Hidden Village did. As Orochimaru's experimental subject, Suigetsu Hozuki might not necessarily die, but if he returned to the Mist Hidden Village, he definitely would.
Yagami saw a figure rushing from the distance—it was the Steam Impelling Blast that had been pursuing the Uchiha ninja.
Uchiha Tohka saw the Steam Impelling Blast vanish and breathed a long sigh of relief. Fortunately, the ANBU Copper Fox had arrived, otherwise they most likely would have all died.
Yagami made a hand signal to Uchiha Tohka, indicating he could leave first and leave this to him. Uchiha Tohka nodded and said to the Uchiha ninja behind him, "Go! Let's find the other brigades!"
His Uchiha brigade had only about 20 people left; their casualties were heavy. Fugaku Uchiha couldn't help but ask, "Teacher, can Jonin Copper Fox defeat those two elite Jonin?"
Uchiha Tohka said, "He can at least maintain a stalemate. Copper Fox has an absolute defense secret technique; he won't die that easily."
Yagami looked at the two powerhouses from the Mist Hidden Village and thought to himself: an ambush turned into being ambushed, and the five Hidden Leaf brigades had suffered heavy losses. His dream of becoming a Brigade Commander was also shattered.
Yagami looked up at the moon revealed after the fog scattered. He would use the death of this full moon cycle for this critical ambush mission. Before dying, he had to gather enough intelligence to guarantee his promotion to Brigade Commander in the next life.
Yagami clanged the Twin Swords Hiramekarei against a rock and said, "Hozuki Muratsuki, to think these broken twin swords could lure out a big fish like you is truly unexpected."
Hozuki Muratsuki ground his sharp teeth and stared fiercely at Yagami hammering the Twin Swords Hiramekarei: "The Seven Ninja Swords are the precious legacy left to the clan by Clan Head Gengetsu! How dare you, a Hidden Leaf ninja, treat Hiramekarei like this?"
"Oh? A legacy left to your Hozuki clan by the Second Mizukage? Then why did I see a guy named Kushimaru Kuriarare holding the Longsword Nuibari?" Yagami mocked. "Could it be that you useless Hozuki descendants couldn't hold onto your ninja swords and the Mist Hidden Village forcibly took them from you? If Kushimaru Kuriarare can hold one of the Seven Ninja Swords, why can't I?"
***
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