People Die When They Are Killed

Whoosh!

Dōmeki swiftly landed atop the Mizukage Building, only to hear something cutting through the air. A dark figure immediately flew past him.

"What kind of hidden weapon was that?" Dōmeki was startled for a moment, but then his expression turned strange.

The roof of the Mizukage Building was empty, and the whole of Kirigakure could be seen from it.

The battlefield where Dōmeki had expected a fierce battle to unfold was silent, and the impassioned senior Zabuza was nowhere to be seen.

Under the cold moonlight, only the Mizukage, who looked no different from a young boy, stood with his coral staff extended in a swing.

"I gave you a chance, and you were completely useless!"

Meeting Karatachi Yagura's icy gaze, the red-haired boy couldn't help covering his face.

"That waste Zabuza's helper is just a kid?"

Yagura looked the boy up and down. He was utterly unremarkable and about the same age as Yagura's own son. Yagura tilted his head, seemingly puzzled.

"Lord Mizukage! Could we make a deal?"

Believing that harmony brought wealth, Dōmeki made Yagura a proposal with a smile.

"How about you give me some of the Three-Tails' Chakra, Mr. Yagura? I think about one tail's worth should do, and I'll leave right away. What do you say?"

Karatachi Yagura's gaze sharpened, but a smile appeared on his usually unsmiling face.

"Coveting the secret treasure of our Kirigakure? You're quite ambitious, kid. The question is whether you have the strength to back it up!"

"Secret treasure? I heard the First Hokage gave you the Three-Tails," Dōmeki muttered.

But sensing the vast Chakra across from him, like a restless volcano, he couldn't help loosening his sleeves. "Looks like we'll have to fight after all!"

"Still, I'd like to give you a kind warning."

"I have a special technique for dealing with Tailed Beasts. If you use Isobu, I expect you'll be in a sorry state, Mr. Yagura, as his Jinchūriki. Why not reconsider my proposal?"

The red-haired boy's answer was a powerful swing of Yagura's coral staff, his face dark.

A short blade had already formed in Dōmeki's hand once more, and he raised it to block the coral staff just in time. The two weapons met in midair with a piercing screech, sending a shower of hot sparks flying.

"What strength!"

Their gazes met for an instant. It was hard to imagine that such power could erupt from their two rather small bodies.

The weapons parted as soon as they met, then traced two black lines as they clashed and tangled in the air. Their footwork played across the roof like a symphony, now still, now swift; when they were close, it was fierce and slow, and when they drew apart, swift and sharp.

The two small figures looked less like they were fighting than dancing an intense and dangerous dance together.

Cold moonlight lit half of Yagura's face. With an icy smile, he sent his coral staff whistling through the air, the heavy weapon moving fast and furiously in his hands. The boy's figure drifted like white mist, avoiding the deadly weapon that seemed capable of splitting the air in two, then thrusting in response. Metal rang against metal.

"Interesting!"

Yagura tightened all five fingers around his weapon.

In a sudden flash of light, Yagura slammed his Chakra-infused coral staff into the ground. Amid surging water, coral erupted and rushed toward Dōmeki.

"Ninja Art: Lightning Snake Net!"

Dōmeki leaped gracefully into the air, having already thrown his short blade into the coral thicket.

The blade exploded amid the coral, and countless little black snakes swarmed out of its fragments.

The surging, sharp coral struck the black snakes' bodies with the clang of metal. The eyes of the lifeless black snakes suddenly lit up, and bolts of lightning shot from their open mouths.

Almost instantly, the endlessly growing coral was utterly destroyed by the magnetic snakes' lightning beams, while the mass of snakes, enough to chill anyone afraid of clustered patterns, slithered toward Yagura.

"What the hell?"

Countless bolts of lightning came raining down at once. Yagura held his coral staff backward and drew a circle in the air.

Within the circle, a thin mirror of water abruptly appeared in front of Yagura. Almost instantly, countless identical lightning bolts shot from the mirror, which reflected the incoming lightning.

The two volleys collided with a roar. The earth-shaking explosion swept countless black snakes away.

Yet more snakes continued forward through the smoke and dust in an unbroken stream. Lightning flickered as fierce bolts gathered, ready to fire.

Karatachi Yagura's expression changed abruptly. He cast a wary glance at the endless swarm of snakes, and a tremendous amount of Chakra surged out, cloaking his body almost instantly.

In the blink of an eye, Yagura's small body transformed into a red humanoid monster radiating a terrifying aura. The monster crouched forward on the ground, two thick tails swaying behind it.

The tails swept out, flames flaring in the air they stirred. All the black snakes scattered beneath the tails enveloped in Tailed Beast Chakra.

Dōmeki looked into the humanoid monster's eyes. Amid the madness, they still held traces of calm and reason.

"Partial Tailed Beast Transformation, and he can still stay rational. No wonder he's called a Perfect Jinchuriki!"

Having entered Tailed Beast Transformation, Yagura gained a comprehensive boost to both speed and strength, bringing the already astonishingly powerful Mizukage to an inhuman level.

His four limbs struck the roof, shattering the stone beneath them, and his humanoid figure appeared before Dōmeki.

"Coral Palm!"

A blood-red palm slammed into the boy's chest. Drawing on the Three-Tails' power, the technique caused coral to grow rapidly from the body of any ninja it struck. Countless ninja had met their end under this move.

Countless pieces of coral burst from Dōmeki's body and quickly hardened, while a thick tail shot out from behind and smashed toward the boy.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz!"

A sound like the beating of a hummingbird's wings suddenly rang out. The hardened thicket of coral began vibrating at high frequency, and the hard coral shattered to pieces in an instant. Dōmeki swung a fist to meet the thick tail, but was still sent flying.

Dōmeki gouged a deep trail across the building's roof as he flew backward, finally flipping over and stopping in a half-kneel on one knee.

"Honestly! I only wanted to fight you as an ordinary ninja, Mr. Yagura, but you went and used Isobu's power."

Dōmeki patted the dust off himself, and his short red hair began to stir without a breeze.

Sensing tremendous danger, Yagura entered full Tailed Beast Mode without hesitation. In an instant, a turtle dozens of meters across, covered in hard armor and spikes, appeared where he had stood.

The Mizukage Building suddenly groaned under the unbearable weight, and crushed stones fell from it from time to time.

The giant turtle opened its mouth, and a pitch-black sphere filled with a terrifying aura of destruction gradually took shape, causing the surrounding dust and stones to float upward against gravity. It was the Tailed Beast's strongest move—the Tailed Beast Bomb.

Dōmeki stared coldly at the behemoth, an unrestrained smile spreading across his lips.

"Adamantine Sealing Chains!"

Countless Chakra chains instantly extended from the red-haired boy's body. Unlike the golden chains of other Uzumaki Clan members, however, the boy's chains were pitch-black and gave off an ominous aura, perhaps altered by the Magnet Release within Dōmeki.

In the blink of an eye, the countless chains wrapped around the Three-Tails, even forcing shut the great mouth where Chakra was gathering and interrupting the Tailed Beast Bomb's formation.

The enormous Isobu struggled desperately, but all the Chakra in his body was restrained, as though held in check.

He could only watch as the red-haired boy from whom the chains emerged threw off his coat. The moment it hit the roof, it smashed a hole through it.

Then his body gave a sharp crack, and Isobu found himself "flying."

The boy who had kicked the Three-Tails into the air lightly stepped off the ground and rose swiftly, floating upward until, a moment later, he was directly above the turtle.

Dōmeki raised his right leg high and, in an instant, brought it crashing down like a battle-ax onto the enormous beast's shell.

Isobu plummeted like a meteor, and the Mizukage Building collapsed with a thunderous crash.

"People die when they're killed. Even the Mizukage is no exception!"

Dōmeki stood on the shell of Isobu's back, a longsword vibrating rapidly at an inaudible frequency appearing in his hand.

A moment later, Isobu let out a pained roar as his tail, famed for its defensive power and covered in armor and spikes, fell to the ground.

Under Dōmeki's regretful gaze, the high-frequency blade that could cut through anything shattered with a crash, leaving only his blood-soaked right hand.