There was no clichéd scene where someone shouted "Poison!" only to take a massive gulp of the toxic mist before retreating.
The moment the smoke bomb detonated, six of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen immediately held their breath and leaped back, completely indifferent to whether Biwa Jūzō lived or died within the toxic cloud.
Seeing the grass wither and die instantly as the mist spread, the six only wished they had an extra leg to run even faster.
However, Jūzō, stuck in the epicenter of the explosion, didn't have it so easy. He held his breath instantly, but the multi-component toxin wasn't that simple. He felt as if a thousand ants were crawling over his skin; he wished he had a hundred hands just to scratch the itch. As the mist touched his eyes, a searing, needle-like pain flared up. He instinctively tried to close them and leap out of the range, but then—Screeeech! A piercing whistle, like a boiling kettle compressing wind to its limit, screamed down from the sky at high speed!
Jūzō's eyes bulged, bloodshot and stinging. With the skin on his face twitching, he didn't have time to flee. He immediately swung the Kubikiribōchō with everything he had.
Boom!
The massive blade whipped up a gale that cleaved the poison mist, clearing his vision just enough to see the incoming threat.
An arrow!
It was pale yellow and spiraling, wrapped in three visible, violent blades of wind—a ninjutsu arrow! This wasn't mere archery; it was a long-range, at least B-rank, offensive ninjutsu.
Caught in the transition between moves, where his old strength was spent and new strength had yet to gather, Jūzō desperately forced chakra through his pathways. "Haaaah!"
With a roar, he gripped the hilt in a reverse hold, defying the laws of physics to yank the Executioner's Blade back mid-swing. He braced the flat of the blade with his elbow to absorb the recoil and slammed it into the ground. He crouched behind it, forming a perfect equilateral triangle between himself, the ground, and the metal. He was using the door-sized blade as a shield.
Clang!
Screee!
The arrow struck with a violent resonance!
A piercing, screeching sound followed as the steel tip of the spiral arrow ground against the blade, spinning like a drill at a staggering 80,000 RPM. Jūzō finally understood Suikazan Fuguki's warning, but he couldn't help but curse, "You call this a damn arrow?!"
What kind of arrow has the impact of a cannonball?
By relying on the Kubikiribōchō to tank the hit in that split second, Jūzō realized when he lifted the weapon that a hole had been bored nearly all the way through the metal. He barely had time to sigh in relief and prepare to leap out of the enemy's range when he looked up. To his horror, he saw five more identical wind arrows descending in a perfect arc, falling like a rapid-fire volley. They were locked onto his waist, throat, crotch, heart, and palm.
Jūzō's heart hammered. His face turned as red as the war paint on his cheeks. Restricted to a narrow three-step radius, he spun frantically, his blade a blur of steel as he parried.
Clang!Clang!Clang!Clang!
And finally—
"Ugh!"
Jūzō blocked four of the arrows, but the last one managed to graze his arm, leaving a tiny, two-centimeter nick.
However, Jūzō's expression quickly shifted to one of sheer horror. His arm... it wouldn't obey him. Blackish-red lesions began to spread rapidly from the tiny scratch.
"Dammit, the arrows are poisoned too!"
On the other side, the six who had escaped the mist weren't idle. After scattering, they instinctively formed temporary pairs with those they found most tolerable. There was the "Heartless Duo" of Munashi Jinpachi and Kuriarare Kushimaru. Then the "Blunt and Lightning" combo of Akebino Jinin and Kurosuki Raiga—a pair with zero chemistry who only stuck together because they didn't want to be near Suikazan Fuguki, a hunter-nin known for killing his own comrades.
Finally, there was Suikazan Fuguki himself, paired with a blue-haired Mist Jonin from the Hōzuki clan who held the twin swords, Hiramekarei.
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen didn't cooperate closely; even their teamwork was begrudging at best. Once the group scattered, their first instinct wasn't to chase their attacker, but to watch their own teammates' backs.
Consequently, only the Heartless Duo—Jinpachi and Kushimaru—actually pursued Hyuga Yu.
"To the east, near the coconut grove!" Kushimaru adjusted his mask, calmly deducing Yu's position from the trajectory of the arrows. He nodded to Jinpachi. They had worked together many times, and Jinpachi understood immediately.
"You take the left, I'll take the right. Support me!" Jinpachi growled. "This time... I'm going to use Shibuki's maximum blast capacity and blow him to hell!"
But before they could act, a familiar figure stepped slowly out of the forest: Hyuga Yu.
He wasn't carrying his massive bow anymore. Instead, he lightly gripped an unsheathed ninjato. Yu stared at the two with an indifferent gaze. He didn't speak, nor did he draw his blade. He simply walked toward them, one steady, calm step at a time.
To the duo, Yu looked like he was nothing but openings. Yet his fearless posture made their skin crawl.
Yu had a simple reason for this approach. The last time they met, these two had broken his arm and blinded one of his eyes. Now, he was going to make them pay it back in full.
"This brat..." Jinpachi narrowed his eyes, a cruel smirk spreading across his face. "I'm starting to like him!"
He gripped the long handle of the Shibuki. The scroll on the blade unrolled, automatically layering the surface with explosive tags.
The more level-headed Kushimaru stopped him. He stared coldly at the approaching Yu and whispered, "Watch out for his poison."
"I know!"
"And... look. He's surrounded by 'wind'!" Kushimaru frowned, analyzing the abnormal air currents swirling around Yu. "There are two layers. The outer layer forms wind blades, like a Wind Style: Net or Wind Cutter Technique. But the inner layer... the one hugging his skin like a thin film..."
"It's moving in a completely chaotic pattern."
"What is that?"
"I don't know," Kushimaru replied. "But I'm sure as hell it isn't anything pleasant."
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