Scorch Release: Scorching Stream vs. Samehada

In the dense forest less than five kilometers from the town, Pakura had dispelled her Transformation Technique and held a kunai in each hand.

She crouched with bent knees, staring at the more than ten Hidden Mist Ninjas before her with murderous intent.

Two fireballs of Scorch Release: Over Steam Kill hovered beside her. Their searing heat rendered most of the Hidden Mist Ninjas' Water Release: Hiding in Mist Technique ineffective.

At her feet, a Hidden Mist jonin lay like a dried corpse, having completely lost all signs of life.

Without exchanging greetings or threats, Suikazan Fuguki, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, let out a sinister laugh and gestured to his companions behind him.

Although they had failed to lure all the Sand Ninja here as planned,

those Sand Ninja might even be hiding nearby, waiting to ambush them in turn.

But Pakura was the backbone of this Sand Ninja squad. As long as they took her down quickly, the remaining Sand Ninja would be nothing more than a scattered rabble.

"Water Release: Coordinated: Great Exploding Water Shockwave!"

Under Suikazan Fuguki's command, fifteen Hidden Mist Ninja simultaneously used Great Exploding Water Shockwave.

Vast streams of water surged from their mouths.

When they simultaneously used the same technique, their similar chakra natures merged and converged, forming a monstrous tide capable of submerging everything around them!

Pakura's eyes flickered. She leaped and dashed across the ground, rapidly dodging the waves surging in from all directions, constantly colliding and churning against one another.

Before she could drag out the battle and break through the Hidden Mist Ninja's encirclement,

the three Hidden Mist jonin following behind Suikazan Fuguki had already finished forming their hand seals.

"Summoning Technique: Black-Eyed Crab!"

"Summoning Technique: Giant Swordfish!"

"Summoning Technique: Man-Eating Shark!"

Chakra smoke enveloped the surroundings.

The three massive figures faintly visible within the smoke put tremendous pressure on Pakura.

Before the smoke dispersed, the three jonin had already joined forces with their Summoning Beasts to launch Water Release: Water Continuous Bullet.

Water spheres more than two meters in diameter and packed with chakra were like cannonballs, bombarding the encircled Pakura in relentless succession.

The fifteen Hidden Mist Ninja who had previously used the coordinated Water Release did not stop either.

Eight of them stood in eight directions, forming hand seals and maintaining their chakra output to prevent the water beneath their feet from dispersing.

The remaining seven plunged directly into the water and shot toward Pakura from below.

The ceaseless Water Release attacks quickly extinguished the Scorch Release fireballs spinning beside Pakura.

The seven Hidden Mist Ninja who had approached underwater also leaped out one after another to attack.

"Guhahahaha! Pakura! Where else can you run this time?!"

Suikazan Fuguki drew the Great Sword Samehada from his back.

Seeing that Pakura had suffered several wounds in a short time and could not mount an effective counterattack, only dodging in a sorry state,

he felt immense pleasure at the thought of finally avenging his great grudge.

With a push off the ground, Suikazan Fuguki gripped Samehada and charged straight at Pakura across the waves.

"Scorch Release: Scorching Stream!"

Pakura saw Suikazan Fuguki rapidly closing in.

After barely kicking away two Hidden Mist Ninja who had launched a sneak attack from underwater, she formed hand seals and slammed both palms down onto the water.

A scorching temperature began spreading from her palms.

The water surging beneath her feet turned boiling hot in the span of a breath.

Several Hidden Mist Ninja attacking from underwater hurriedly opened up the distance, trying to avoid the rapidly boiling water.

But two of them were a step too slow and were engulfed from head to toe by the boiling water.

When they barely managed to struggle out, their bodies were covered in blisters, and agonized screams poured from their mouths without pause.

Even one of the three enormous Summoning Beasts failed to dodge in time and turned into smoke before vanishing.

The other two were forced back some distance.

"How much chakra do you have left after using such a large-scale Scorch Release?!"

The smile on Suikazan Fuguki's face grew increasingly savage. He leaped over the scalding water.

The Great Sword Samehada in his hands came cleaving straight down at Pakura's face as she cast her technique!

"Scorch Release: Over Steam Kill!"

Pakura changed her hand seals and swiftly used the Scorch Release she was most familiar with.

She braced both palms, and the Scorch Release fireball collided with Samehada.

"Ssshhhaa!"

The Great Sword Samehada let out a pained hiss, and its gray-blue surface began to redden slightly.

Its blade twisted constantly, while the spikes along it all stood erect.

"Easy, sweetheart. You'll soon taste the most delicious chakra there is!"

Suikazan Fuguki soothed Samehada, completely ignoring his already scalded arm as he continued hacking with the sword.

Clang! Clang! Clang~!

Under his powerful blows, it took only a few strikes to knock the kunai from Pakura's hands.

Her hands and arms were also scraped and pierced by Samehada's spikes during their close-range clashes, leaving them drenched in blood.

A considerable amount of chakra had been drained from her body as well.

Facing Suikazan Fuguki's fierce assault and the entanglement of several Hidden Mist Ninja, Pakura knew she could not confront them head-on.

She secretly prayed that her teammates would arrive soon.

"Ah~!"

"It's the Sand Ninja's Wind Release!"

"Get out of the way!"

As Suikazan Fuguki continued applying pressure, the Hidden Mist Ninja's shouts rang out.

The eight Hidden Mist Ninja who had been preventing the Water Release from dispersing around them were attacked by Wind Release almost simultaneously.

Because they had been prepared, only one was directly decapitated.

Although two of the remaining seven suffered minor external injuries, they still avoided the Sand Ninja's surprise attack.

However, the Water Release they had kept confined to the battlefield lost their chakra control and rapidly spread outward.

The advantageous terrain they had painstakingly created vanished by more than half in the blink of an eye.

Taking advantage of Suikazan Fuguki's distraction, Pakura's Scorch Release: Over Steam Kill struck directly at the Great Sword Samehada in his hands.

Scalded, Samehada shrieked without pause.

The searing heat transmitted through the hilt forced Suikazan Fuguki to release it temporarily.

The twelve Sand Ninja clashed at close quarters with the remaining Hidden Mist Ninja.

The encirclement collapsed.

A brutal slaughter began.

No longer surrounded, Pakura faced Suikazan Fuguki without the Great Sword Samehada. Her killing intent soared, and she immediately shifted from defense to offense.

Meanwhile, in the town, Yamanaka Kei and Namikaze Minato waited for an opportunity.

Using the perception provided by sensory ninjutsu and the view supplied by crows circling high above, they quietly waited for their chance.

When they saw the Sand Ninja deliberately begin drawing out the battlefield,

leading the Hidden Mist Ninja away from the dense forest filled with water,

several seriously wounded Hidden Mist Ninja and a Sand jonin who had been gravely injured and had nearly lost the ability to fight were left alone behind.

Yamanaka Kei and Namikaze Minato immediately realized that their opportunity had arrived.

Three crows carrying Flying Thunder God Technique Formulas shot down from the sky under Yamanaka Kei's control, forming a triangular arrangement.

One flew straight toward the wounded Sand jonin who had lost the ability to fight.

Of the other two, one targeted the wounded Hidden Mist Ninja, while the last flew straight toward where the Great Sword Samehada had fallen.

"Minato, the sword! The Great Sword Samehada!"

Yamanaka Kei stared at Namikaze Minato with shining eyes.

The Great Sword Samehada!

The most special of the Seven Ninja Swords of the Hidden Mist—and the only one that was alive.

Not only could it absorb an opponent's chakra and provide that chakra for its wielder to use,

it could also stimulate the regeneration of the body's cells with the vast amount of chakra it stored.

And even if one did not care about appearances, one could fuse with Samehada and become a fish-man, allowing the body to live freely underwater and greatly increasing one's combat ability in water.

Although it ultimately backstabbed its wielder, Hoshigaki Kisame, in the original story, acting as a traitor and defecting to the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B,

this thing was genuinely useful under normal circumstances!

"You really are..."

Facing his close friend, whose eyes were practically glowing, Namikaze Minato truly could not bring himself to refuse. He could only smile helplessly.

His figure flashed as he directly activated the Flying Thunder God Technique and vanished from where he stood.