Is Ye the natural enemy of the Great Clam?
Watching the subordinates arranged by Mei Terumī gradually bring Ye and Ringo Yuriko closer together step by step, Amane began to think.
First, if this sentence is understood literally, it means Ye's Ice Release can threaten the Great Clam. To inflict effective damage on it, one must either find it or be able to hit it.
[Could it be that Ye's Ice Release has a large-scale attack Ninjutsu, or a sensing Ninjutsu unique to Ice Release?]
At this moment, Ye and Ringo Yuriko had already rendezvoused. The two stood back-to-back, questioning who the two enemies before them were while engaging in combat.
At this moment, Amane finally caught a glimpse of Ye's Ice Release.
"Ice Release: Ice Bullet!"
A stone-sized piece of ice condensed at her fingertip and was then fired like a bullet. It felt a bit like the Hozuki Clan's Water Pistol, and its power, judging by the half-section of tree trunk it pierced through, was honestly not low at all.
However, unlike the Water Pistol, this Ninjutsu requires hand signs, which greatly reduces the threat of this technique. More importantly, this move was used openly by Ye.
Then, the more interesting part is the exhalation.
This was the Ninjutsu Ye had demonstrated during the team assignments. From the visual effect, it looked very similar to Kula Diamond's move in The King of Fighters, commonly known as the Ice Girl.
No hand signs are required; if blown onto the body, it causes the water molecules in the surrounding air to freeze and attach directly. One can imagine how explosive the effect would be if blown into the eyes.
But it was also a pity that Ye had no such intention; she seemed only to want to use this move to restrict the opponent's movements, forming a sharp contrast with the murderous attacks from Ringo Yuriko nearby.
"Hey! Take this seriously!"
Ringo Yuriko couldn't take it anymore. It seemed she couldn't stand Ye's fighting style, which was just like practicing at the training ground.
"But something's not right, Ringo Yuriko. They don't seem to have any killing intent at all."
"Why do you care so much! They are clearly enemies right now! If they're enemies, we must go all out to crush them and then interrogate them for intel! That way, everything will be clear!"
To be fair, she wasn't wrong at all, and Amane, watching from the side, also completely agreed. It wasn't a matter of sensing killing intent or not; it was that they had attacked you and were much stronger than you.
In this situation, Ye's fighting style was definitely problematic.
Ye was also receptive to advice, but she had already exposed all her threatening moves, and the subordinates brought by Mei Terumī were already much stronger than Ringo Yuriko and Ye.
[Even if I unseal all my abilities for the battle, and assuming these two Anbu know my information, it would probably take a while to take them down. Unless Ye has another trump card, she has no hope of turning the tables.]
As expected, it ultimately came down to a lack of combat experience and the resolve for a life-and-death struggle.
Amane felt that if she were to fight using Ye's kit, she was confident she could at least heavily injure the opponent with these two techniques.
These two techniques are truly practical, and most importantly, they consume relatively little Chakra.
At this time, Mei Terumī's two subordinates on the field saw that the timing was about right, so they gave each other a subtle hand signal and simultaneously activated the Hiding in Mist Technique.
"Well done, withdraw."
"Yes!"
The battle ended just like that. Amane, observing from the outside, and Ringo Yuriko and Ye, who had just been fighting inside the Genjutsu, were all a bit dazed.
What kind of maneuver is this? Using the Hiding in Mist Technique inside a Genjutsu? Was it just to make the retreat more mysterious?
Amane looked at Mei Terumī smiling silently in the mist and knew that she was holding back the answer to explain later.
The Hiding in Mist Technique is a Ninjutsu that spreads Chakra in the form of water mist in the surroundings, a standard for Hidden Mist Ninja. Its purpose is to give Ninjas already familiar with fighting in the mist an advantage and to facilitate a retreat; it is a very practical Ninjutsu.
Amane quickly went through the information on this technique in her mind and still couldn't figure out the point of using it in this situation.
To be clear, mist and sand are two different things; it's impossible to reveal the Great Clam's true form this way.
[From Mei Terumī's expression, this technique is useful. And she specifically mentioned Ye by name before... water mist and ice.]
Could it be that by having Ye turn all the water mist into ice mist, they could achieve the effect of Gaara's sand? But that's impossible because they lack the means to control it.
Amane was puzzled for a while, feeling that she was lacking some key information.
"That's too strange."
In the thick mist, Ringo Yuriko and Ye finally began to communicate after not being attacked for a long time.
"Yeah, what a bizarre attack."
Hearing this, Ringo Yuriko couldn't help but glance at Ye. If it weren't for the fact that the person behind her could use Ice Release and had a poor fighting style, she would definitely have suspected their authenticity first.
This mission must be a failure... Ringo Yuriko's mood suddenly soured, and she wanted to give Amane a beating.
Didn't you say there was no problem?! How could you be so unreliable this time!
[Where on earth did that guy go? Those two were clearly leading me and this girl to rendezvous on purpose. What was the point of them doing that? I can't figure it out at all; rather, thinking about these things is too exhausting.]
"Sigh... so troublesome, can't they just attack directly?"
Ringo Yuriko struggled to think, but her physical instinct made her not want to use her brain at all.
But what annoyed Ringo Yuriko the most now was that Amane's face would pop up in her mind from time to time, and she couldn't shake it off!
"Um, Ringo Yuriko, I might have a way to find the Great Clam's location."
Ye suddenly said something startling.
"Hmm? Let's hear it."
Ringo Yuriko didn't have much hope in her heart. But then Ye took a deep breath and exhaled a large cloud of ice mist into the air, and her eyes changed.
"This is! How did you find out!"
The white ice mist exhaled before them froze the water mist from the Hiding in Mist Technique into ice and fell. But during this transformation process, these tiny ice crystals that were about to form were converging in a specific direction!
Clap!
The sound of a clap suddenly rang out, and Ringo Yuriko and Ye immediately went on high alert. However, as time passed, nothing happened.
Outside the Great Clam's Genjutsu, Mei Terumī looked at the apologetic Amane with a very strange expression.
That clap just now was made by Amane uncontrollably; it was mainly because her doubts had suddenly become clear.
"But how did Ye find out? How did she know?"
Amane couldn't help but ask curiously.
The phenomenon triggered by the action just now proved one thing: the Great Clam's ability to create Mirages must stem from its 'breathing'!
The evidence was that the ice mist in front of her would move in a specific direction for a while and then accelerate and retreat in the opposite direction. This matches the pattern of breathing.
In this way, Amane could finally understand why Mei Terumī said Ye's Ice Release was the Great Clam's natural enemy. She didn't even need large-scale ice mist; she could inflict heavy damage just by getting close and blowing a single breath!
"Hehe, here's a hint: the Ice Release Bloodline Limit is a fusion of the Wind and Water Nature Transformations."
After Mei Terumī finished speaking leisurely, the Genjutsu enveloping the entire forest instantly dissolved. Ye and Ringo Yuriko immediately saw Mei Terumī and Amane beside her, who was looking at them apologetically.
The three finally gathered together. After an explanation, Ye breathed a complete sigh of relief, while Ringo Yuriko looked at Amane and gave a small, quiet sigh.
Then Mei Terumī expressed her desire to take the three of them as her disciples and subordinates.
Unlike Amane, who said she needed a night to consider, Ringo Yuriko and Ye agreed immediately, and the three then set out on the journey back together.
"So Ye has already mastered two Nature Transformations, right?"
On the way, the three of them began to review this operation.
"Yeah, after I awakened this power, I was able to master the Water and Wind Nature Transformations directly by instinct."
These words made Amane feel from the bottom of her heart that this really is a world where bloodlines rule. The genius Sasuke spent a month mastering Lightning, while over here, an Ice Release Bloodline Limit awakening grants mastery over two elements directly.
"So that's why you could sense the abnormal flow through the Hiding in Mist Technique? I see, it seems you're not as useless as you look on the surface."
Ringo Yuriko seemed quite unhappy. Amane and Ye exchanged a subtle look and decided that later they would not only have to soothe her but also probably treat her to some delicious food.