The wooden buildings in the Land of Water tended toward shades of gray, resembling lifeless coffins.
When a heavy fog rolled in, the entire town took on the eerie appearance of a graveyard.
Obito stepped onto the street, his face carrying a look of relief after having finished his business.
The light from the lanterns filtered through the light mist, casting a hazy glow on the stone pavement below.
The main street, which saw at least some activity during the day, was now hollow and silent.
"There aren't ghosts here, are there?"
Obito's eye twitched. Even though he had been in the Land of Water for a week, he still hadn't adjusted to this horror-movie atmosphere.
Wrapping his khaki rain cloak tighter around himself, Obito oriented himself toward the inn.
The fog grew thicker as he advanced.
Left with no choice in the pitch-black streets where he couldn't see his hand in front of his face, Obito stayed close to the storefronts.
To weather tonight's storm, every household had boarded up their doors with wooden planks.
Compared to the daytime, the town had transformed into a completely different place.
Obito's already hazy memory grew even more muddled.
His brow furrowed as he realized he was getting lost.
The surrounding houses were becoming shorter and sparser.
In his confusion, he was heading toward the outskirts of town.
It felt as though someone was using the fog to blind him.
At that thought, his gaze sharpened.
The One-Tomoe Sharingan activated in both eyes.
The thick fog, laced with traces of light blue chakra, became clearly visible to his sight.
*Is this... a ninja's jutsu?*
*Why are the Mist ninja using ninjutsu here? Or are they coming for me?*
Obito's mind raced. Knowing that doing too much within someone else's technique without information was a mistake, he stopped immediately.
Back against a low wall, Obito pricked up his ears and scanned his surroundings with his Sharingan, trying to find the enemy hidden in the technique.
"Tch, the kid noticed."
"It shouldn't have been this much trouble."
"Mangetsu, this kid is about your age. Looks like he's a Konoha genius."
Several voices drifted in from all directions within the thick mist.
As Obito realized they were indeed coming for him, memories from the Academy about this technique surfaced in his mind.
The Hidden Mist Jutsu.
The core move of the Hidden Mist Village's Silent Killing Technique.
Even the Sharingan could not see through fog fueled by chakra.
He just didn't know what the Mist Ninja intended by attacking him.
"I am a Konoha ninja on an escort mission—"
"Enough. Shut up."
A boy's voice, the same age as Obito's, rang out as three figures slowly emerged from the fog.
"Lately, someone has been attacking Mist ninja, causing several of our people to go missing."
"We suspect a plot targeting Tailed Beasts and Bloodline limit clans."
"We've already investigated and interrogated all other foreign ninja who entered recently."
"Now, only your Konoha squad remains."
"To maintain the peaceful relations between the Mist and Konoha, we need your cooperation."
Kunai appeared in the hands of the three Mist ninja.
Obito saw they were serious.
Facing a real conflict for the first time, he was nervous, but his well-trained muscle memory took control of his body.
His index finger hooked into the ring of a kunai in his tool pouch.
"Move!"
At the Mist Genin's shout, kunai and shuriken carved afterimages through the fog.
With his Sharingan's precise tracking, Obito saw through every attack trajectory.
He drew a kunai in a reverse grip.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Bracing himself, sparks from the colliding cold steel erupted just inches before Obito's face.
*The situation with the Mist ninja is unclear. I can't let them catch me; I have to regroup with the Captain and the others.*
His thoughts flashing, Obito perfectly blocked all the projectiles, threw his kunai back, and his fingers blurred into seals!
Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger
Voom!
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
A fireball three meters in diameter illuminated half the street, blasting through layers of mist as it rolled toward the three enemies.
One of the older Mist Genin had just parried Obito's kunai and had no time to dodge.
In his panic, the sound of hand seals being woven echoed beside him.
Hozuki Mangetsu slammed both palms onto the ground.
A wall of water rose from the earth, meeting the fireball head-on.
With a roar, a massive cloud of steam—not produced by the Hidden Mist Jutsu—surged from the sides of the water wall toward the three Mist ninja.
Scalding steam obscured their vision.
Obito leaped onto the roof, using his full physical speed to leave the three behind.
Jumping between eaves and roadside trees, Obito's thoughts continued to churn.
*A C-rank mission shouldn't have ninja opponents. Encountering hostile ninja is never a simple matter. I have to tell Big Brother and the others quickly. The Mist are targeting Konoha ninja for no reason.*
As Obito was weighing his options, warning bells suddenly rang in his head.
"Water Pistol Jutsu: Two-Gun!"
While he was distracted, the Mist ninja named Mangetsu had silently closed in on him.
Turning his head, Obito's Sharingan pupils constricted.
The boy's hands were shaped like pistols, with two spheres of highly condensed water aimed right at his temples.
*What kind of jutsu is this?*
Bang!
The water bullets compressed the air with a loud crack, flying toward Obito's head with the speed of a thunderbolt.
Obito focused chakra into his feet, gripping the tree branch tightly.
Converting his forward momentum into rotational energy, he instantly flipped his entire body around the thick branch.
As he hung upside down, his rain cloak fell around him. He looked at his opponent's stunned expression and gave a smug grin.
"Frilled Lizard Technique!"
Hozuki Mangetsu's raised hands froze. He had clearly never seen such a bizarre move.
"Frilled Lizard? What the hell is that?"
"Are all Konoha's jutsu this weird?"
The two older Genin behind him looked equally bewildered.
Obito seized the moment of their confusion.
Still hanging upside down, he grabbed handfuls of shuriken and threw them in rapid succession.
Amidst the whistling of the wind, the shuriken curved through the air, grazing Hozuki Mangetsu and splashing against him like liquid.
"Shuriken? You can't beat me with useless tools like these."
Heh.
Obito didn't reply. Countless steel wires, thin as hair, snapped taut as he pulled them tight with his palms.
With a metallic twang, the wires locked down every possible escape route for Hozuki Mangetsu.
A look of disdain appeared on Mangetsu's face.
No matter how well he used low-level tools like shuriken, they couldn't hurt someone who could use the Hydrification Technique.
*These Konoha ninja have lived in peace for too long. He actually forgot the Hozuki clan's famous Hydrification Technique.*
With his body liquefied, Mangetsu easily slipped through the wires, closing in on Obito with his ninja blade drawn.
Voom!
Snake → Dragon → Hare → Tiger
Four seals completed.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu!"
Obito bit down on the end of the wire. Chakra-infused flames surged along the steel lines, rushing toward Mangetsu in an instant.
But halfway through the attack, another water wall rose up.
Of the two older Mist Genin, one released the jutsu while the other charged at Obito with a kunai.
Amidst the billowing steam...
Sensing that he had little chakra left, Obito flipped off the tree and quickly fled.
He knew he couldn't afford to be stalled any longer.
If they did this again, he definitely wouldn't get away.
*I wonder if the Captain, Big Brother, or that arrogant Kakashi will notice all this noise...*
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