"It's Kaguya Ren's Hidden Mist!"
"Damn it—this jutsu will split us apart from reinforcements. We have to regroup with the others—"
"Where's Juzo-sama?! If Juzo-sama is here, he might be able to counter it—what about the sensory squad? Can you locate Juzo-sama and Fuguki-sama?!"
"No! There's too much chakra mixed into the fog—everywhere we sense, it's Ren's chakra. We can't pick out anyone else!"
Listening to the ANBU around him panic and scramble, the Third Mizukage took a slow breath and forced down the hollow weakness that came from suddenly expending so much chakra.
It had been nearly twenty years since he'd fought a real battle.
His ANBU would remain loyal—that was true.
But if he appeared too powerless in his clash with Ren, the village's jonin would not necessarily remain on his side.
Kirigakure was a village that spoke with strength.
Ren was being branded a traitor for launching an aggressive power grab, yes—but if he demonstrated the potential to defeat the whole village by himself, the "traitor" label would vanish instantly.
And the jonin standing with the Third now would immediately shift to support Ren as the Fourth Mizukage.
What Kirigakure wanted was a Mizukage who could lead them to victory and domination.
And the Third—who had repeatedly made disastrous calls in the war, even nearly wiping out the Seven Ninja Swordsmen in one stroke—clearly didn't meet their expectations anymore.
"Damn it…"
The Third's eyes flashed with a twisted fury.
"I already made up my mind to step down after the war and hand the seat to you. Why can't you wait even that long? Why would you force this—make up some ridiculous excuse—just to stomp on me one more time before I fall?"
His voice sank, feral.
"If you insist on calling me a puppet controlled by genjutsu… then don't blame me for using the move I was saving to die with invaders—on you."
A madness flickered behind his gaze.
Protected by a wall of ANBU bodies, he pulled out a summoning scroll from beneath his Mizukage robe, bit his finger, and smeared blood across it.
It was a technique developed years ago—back when compatibility with the Six-Tails jinchuriki kept failing.
Its purpose was simple and monstrous:
Force the Six-Tails into a berserk state, then use the small window before total insanity to summon it onto the battlefield—turning it into a disaster that would attack everything in sight indiscriminately.
The Third had long forgotten when he'd signed a summoning contract with a berserk Six-Tails, or how he'd ever convinced himself this could be a final trump card.
But if his heart told him it was so, then it had to be true.
He was the one who inherited the Mizukage name from the Second Mizukage, Hozuki Gengetsu.
He had served as bodyguard to the First Mizukage, Byakuren, and attended the first Five Kage Summit.
How could anyone possibly control his mind, memories, and body with a mere genjutsu?
"Come forth and destroy everything—Six-Tails!"
The Third slammed his hand down with a roar.
The ANBU around him froze.
They were in Kirigakure's core district—its busiest, most populated area.
That was why both sides had restrained themselves from using forbidden techniques with wide-area destruction.
Even the earlier lightning-water dragon had been aimed at the already-empty Mizukage Tower, and Ren had deliberately redirected the collision's aftershock into the sky, producing a wide lightning rain with minimal collateral damage.
But now the Third intended to summon a Six-Tails without a jinchuriki—one that hated Kirigakure for previous capture attempts and jinchuriki experiments—into the village itself.
The shinobi around him felt their blood run cold.
Even those who had thought Ren's accusation was just propaganda began to waver.
A Kage who unleashed an uncontrollable rampaging Tailed Beast inside his own village before being truly cornered…
Was his mind really intact?
And in the instant their attention slipped—when their bodies still shielded the Third, but their thoughts scattered—
A bone spear tipped with faint gray shot in from an impossibly sharp angle, slipping through their formation and striking the black chakra sphere forming above the scroll.
The incomplete Tailed Beast Bomb was pierced by the ash-gray bone tip of the Gray Sulfur Piercing Lance, forced into premature detonation—
A blast that would have erased everything within hundreds of meters.
But Ren arrived in Sage Mode at the same instant.
He drove one foot into the orb and kicked it straight into the sky, then formed seals in rapid succession.
"Sage Art: Severing Void!"
BOOOOM—!
A phantom sun hundreds of meters wide bloomed in the night sky.
A violent, scorching shockwave spread outward—
Yet when it reached above Kirigakure, it hit an invisible barrier and dissipated, as if the heavens themselves refused to let the village be burned.
Even the ANBU closest to the blast only felt a rush of heat pass over their faces.
"T-That was…"
Outside the Mizukage Tower, a young ANBU stared up at the still-glowing sky, unable to form words.
A veteran jonin nearby swallowed hard, his voice barely a whisper.
"That was… a Tailed Beast Bomb."
"Tailed Beast Bomb?!" Another jonin cried out in disbelief. "That scroll—what the Third-sama tried to summon—was the Six-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb?!"
"Has the Third-sama lost his mind?! If that thing exploded down here, half the village would be vaporized!!!"
Shock rippled through the crowd.
Then, like a blade turning in their thoughts, another realization slid into place.
"Wait—Ren said the Third-sama was being controlled by genjutsu… If that's true, then this behavior makes sense, doesn't it?"
"N-No way…"
While the village reeled, Ren stepped forward through the haze and stopped before the Third Mizukage, whose face was twisted in stunned confusion.
Ren placed a palm against the Third's forehead.
"How could it be… a Tailed Beast Bomb…?"
The Third's voice was broken, as if his mind couldn't accept what his hands had nearly done.
Ren sighed.
He formed the seal for dispelling genjutsu—slow, precise—and spoke with a tone almost pitying.
"Open your eyes, Third."
His voice was calm, but merciless.
"Sorry to wake you from your beautiful dream… but it's time to count your sins and failures."
"Release!"
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
patreon.com/Inkveil_