"Since you're silent, I'll take that as confirmation," Chiyo said decisively.
Her words were answered not with denial—but with the sudden thrust of a silver blade.
The sword shimmered with wind-nature chakra. Its hilt was a deep indigo, and its straight, gleaming blade measured roughly ninety centimeters. If not for its distinctive guardless design, its appearance—both in color and length—would have closely resembled Orochimaru's famed Kusanagi blade.
Of course, that very lack of a guard made it far easier to carry.
The sharp edge, laced with chilling killing intent, reached Chiyo in the blink of an eye.
"Trying to eliminate me first?"
Even as she manipulated four puppets into a tight defensive formation, Chiyo directed her remaining four to launch a counterattack against Shimizu.
But at the moment of contact, Shimizu split into three figures, striking simultaneously from the left, right, and above as he pressed his assault.
Leaf Style: Crescent Moon Dance!
Chiyo's expression shifted.
The more she knew, the more alarming it became.
This technique was the pinnacle of Konoha's sword technique—a lethal move said to kill in a single strike. There were even rumors that it had once been used by the Second Hokage himself.
The attack came like lightning—far too fast.
With her age dulling her reflexes, there was no way she could evade it completely.
In that fleeting instant, she thought she caught sight of a fourth Shimizu, a flash of green cutting across her peripheral vision—
Slash!
The arc of green cleaved cleanly through two puppets before crashing into the golden sand barrier.
"Chiyo!"
Rasa's intervention came just in time.
Crack!
The two puppets split cleanly in half, utterly destroyed and no longer able to fight.
Four puppets… already gone.
A chill of both fear and anger surged through Chiyo.
And then, in the next instant, a wave of scorching heat rushed forward—
"!!"
Shimizu didn't dare take it lightly. He immediately retreated at high speed, using the Body Flicker Technique to widen the distance.
The flames before him were unlike any he had seen before. Their color was a vivid, almost enchanting orange, completely different from the usual dark red of standard Fire Release techniques.
"Your reaction speed is decent," Pakura remarked casually, though there was little sincerity in her tone.
"There's wind-nature chakra attached to his blade…" Chiyo muttered, examining the clean, precise cuts on her destroyed puppets.
To slice through the ten puppets crafted by the legendary master Monzaemon so effortlessly—just how sharp was that blade?
"Yes. My Magnet Release chakra clashed directly with a strand of wind chakra," Rasa added, having personally intercepted the strike with his golden sand. His understanding of its power was far more immediate—and far more unsettling.
Powerful Water Release.
Fierce Lightning Release.
Strange and unpredictable Wind Release.
Unfathomable swordsmanship.
And that near-miraculous Body Flicker Technique…
The explosive strength and relentless offensive pressure Shimizu displayed left a deep impression on all of them.
"…Sigh."
Chiyo let out a heavy breath.
"These young people… it seems this old woman really can't deny her age anymore."
"Tsunade escaped. The mission has failed… I must at least make up for it."
Her resolve hardened—Shimizu had to be eliminated here.
Raising her voice, she spurred her allies on. "He's nothing more than a newly promoted jonin. How long can he possibly sustain such high-intensity combat? How much chakra does he have left?"
"Here we have Magnet Release and Scorch Release, while he's just a common-born ninja. What is there to fear?"
"Pull yourselves together! Look at the state you're in—have you no shame?"
With Chiyo's seniority and prestige within Sunagakure, she had every right to speak this way—even with the Fourth Kazekage among them.
After all, he had risen to that position under her influence.
Her words took effect almost instantly.
The Sand shinobi regained their composure, their spirits reignited.
It was as if they were about to unleash everything they had—
And yet, watching all of this unfold, Shimizu merely curled his lips into a faint, indifferent smile.
"Heh."
Puppet master Chiyo.
Magnet Release user Rasa.
Scorch Release wielder Pakura.
None of them were at their peak right now.
But battles were never about fairness—only life and death.
And in their current state…
They probably couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes.
At that moment, an overwhelming confidence surged from deep within him.
He could win.
"What are you laughing at?" Pakura asked, frowning slightly.
In the very next instant, Shimizu vanished as if he had evaporated from the world itself.
He's coming!
A chill ran through everyone's hearts at once.
A sharp gust tore through the air behind Pakura, the sound slicing like a blade. She reacted on instinct, twisting her body to evade while simultaneously unleashing Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder in a counterattack.
The terrifying heat forced Shimizu back in the end, his blade stopping just short of striking her directly.
Yet when Pakura glanced down at her waist, her pupils tightened—
A thin line of blood had already appeared, stark and alarming.
"Wind-nature chakra…" she said quickly, warning the others. "His attack extends about a finger's length beyond the blade…"
But before she could even finish speaking, Shimizu had already closed in again for a second strike. The sharp longsword swept forward, wrapped in a streak of green light.
Slash!
Once again, the blade met a wall of golden sand.
Rasa—again.
At the same time, four puppets closed in, and a scorching fireball from Scorch Release had already taken shape—
No retreat. I have to take one of them down first!
In that critical instant, Shimizu raised his right hand, a faint blue glow gathering at the tip of his index finger.
"Pakura, move!" Chiyo shouted.
Boom!!
White Lightning pierced through the blazing fireball, detonating violently midair.
"How is it?" Rasa immediately raised a wall of sand to shield Pakura.
"It didn't hit anything vital… I'm fine," Pakura replied, though she already knew—her left arm was temporarily useless.
Her gaze fell unwillingly upon the water stains scattered across the ground—remnants of a water clone that Chiyo's puppet had "killed."
"He's too fast," Rasa said grimly. "His movement speed… and even his hand seals."
"And his reaction speed is just as terrifying," Pakura added, having witnessed it clearly at close range.
At the exact moment Shimizu released White Lightning, he had almost simultaneously used both the Water Clone Technique and the Body Flicker Technique.
An opponent like this—
How were they supposed to land a hit?
How were they supposed to defeat him?
"He's coming again!" Chiyo warned sharply.
A streak of green light shot forward at high speed, once again targeting Pakura—
"Rasa!" Chiyo shouted.
"Got it!"
In an instant, vast amounts of golden sand surged up from the ground around the battlefield, churning violently.
Rasa had infused the earth itself with magnetic chakra—he was attempting to reshape the terrain.
Yet Shimizu showed no hesitation, as if Pakura was the only target in his eyes.
The attack arrived in the blink of an eye—
But just as he was about to land the strike, his forward momentum suddenly stalled.
Threads?!
In that frozen instant, a scorching fireball and a dense barrage from six puppets came crashing down all at once—
BOOM!!
After the violent explosion, Chiyo's expression changed abruptly as she realized yet another puppet had been completely destroyed.
"He's still alive!!" she snapped, both shocked and furious.
As the smoke cleared, blue currents of water and crackling arcs of lightning could be seen swirling around Shimizu.
Water Wall… and Chidori Current—
A dual-layered defense that had perfectly blocked both the overwhelming Scorch Release and the relentless puppet assault.
"You set threads in advance, using your puppets to lay traps in specific areas… then used a decoy to lure me in. After that, you hid the threads within the sand to slip past my perception before launching your ambush…"
Shimizu spoke calmly, piecing it together step by step.
"That's how it went, right?"
"A clever plan."
"But… is this all you've got?"
There was a faint note of disappointment in his voice.
Objectively speaking, the conditions had never been equal.
Chiyo, Rasa, and Pakura had all just come out of a major battle, their chakra already significantly depleted—while Shimizu had entered the field in peak condition.
And yet the reality remained: three against one, even with careful planning, and they still couldn't bring him down.
When this battle was eventually recounted by others, no one would care about their condition. They would only remember that the three of them had outnumbered him—and still failed to win.
"Damn it… we're just feeding his arrogance now," Rasa muttered, anger rising in his chest.
If Konoha chose to publicize this, the humiliation wouldn't just fall on them—it would stain the entire Hidden Sand.
"Shimizu… do you really think you can still escape?" Chiyo said coldly.
"That depends on whether you can actually keep me here," Shimizu replied lightly.
"Just you?" Rasa scoffed, finding the Konoha ninja unbearably arrogant.
"Oh? What if I join in?"
A cold, eerie voice suddenly echoed from behind them.