You Worked Very Hard

"Phew, phew."

"D-Did we get him?"

The tall Iwagakure ninja stared at the street flattened by the earthen pillars. Scattered smoke completely obscured his vision, and the violent explosion had left the surrounding houses on the verge of collapse. From inside, faint muffled sobs could barely be heard.

Even so, his attention remained entirely fixed ahead.

"Harado!"

Just as he muttered to himself unconsciously, Lord Ash Soil suddenly called his name.

"Yes."

Harado turned around and looked at Lord Ash Soil before him.

Then he saw him extend a hand toward the sealing box behind them, the one containing the S-rank intelligence.

Ash Soil stood before him without even turning his head, his voice low and heavy.

"Forget everything else for now."

"Follow the evacuation route we planned beforehand. Get out."

Harado froze at his words.

He was already over twenty and still only a Chunin. The fact that he had even been sent on this near-certain death mission showed just how little importance he held within the village.

Likewise, for the sake of the village, he had long prepared himself to die for it.

Yet precisely because of that, when he heard this order, his first thought was not relief at finding a way out of a hopeless situation.

It was confusion.

Then, he immediately blurted out, "Sir! You are far more important than I am!"

"Shut up! Carry out your orders."

Nearly two meters tall, Ash Soil stood there like a brown bear. The minor wounds on his body seemed not to have affected him at all, aside from making his breathing slightly heavier.

Only after two seconds, when he noticed Harado still had not moved, did Ash Soil soften his tone slightly.

"Everything is for the village."

Harado was immediately left speechless.

Yes.

That was the rule of shinobi.

Neither he nor Ash Soil was sacrificing himself solely for the other.

After realizing that, Harado finally came to his senses. Without another word, he turned, picked up the box behind him, and charged toward the planned route without hesitation.

But the instant he leaped up—

"Whoosh!"

Several shuriken spun through the air toward the direction Harado was fleeing.

Ash Soil did not pause for even a moment. His massive body erupted with speed no slower than a galloping horse, and as his knuckle guards swept through the air, the force of his punches alone knocked every ninja tool aside.

Almost at the same instant he moved.

From within the dust and smoke, a slender figure shot toward Harado, who was fleeing with the box, at a speed too fast for the naked eye to catch.

The moment Ash Soil saw this, a savage smile split across his weathered face.

At the same time, he sprinted toward the opposite direction without hesitation.

Earth Release: Light Weight Rock Technique!

In an instant, his body became light.

As he ran and leaped, his speed was no slower than Sahara Mizu's.

At the same time, tucked in his arms was a scroll bearing Tsunade's signature.

That was right.

Whether it was having Harado flee with the sealed box or putting on an act of blocking Sahara Mizu's pursuit himself, both were smokescreens Ash Soil had thrown out.

Back when he had fled from the Hokage Building, he had already taken out the item required for this mission.

The only reason he had not opened it yet was that the Fuinjutsu could not be resolved in a short time.

The instant he had exchanged blows with Sahara Mizu, he had realized it.

This fellow looked young, but he was absolutely not someone Ash Soil could kill quickly. Moreover, the meticulous planning behind using their entire group to set up this situation could not be underestimated.

Under such circumstances, there was only one way to complete the mission.

Use his subordinate as bait.

In order to earn the name Thousand-Faced Ash Soil, he had done this sort of thing more times than he could count.

As long as it was for a mission benefiting the village, he could bear any sacrifice and any darkness without hesitation!

"Whoosh—"

The wind howled.

He fled faster and faster. Even within Iwagakure, the secret Light-Weight Rock Technique reduced his weight to roughly one-third, while leaving his strength unchanged.

Thus, as he moved, his entire body seemed borne along by the wind, racing toward Konoha's walls at extreme speed.

Just a little faster!

Faster!

I'll be out alive soon!

That incomparably intense desire to survive seemed to drive every bit of chakra in his body to its limit.

As for Sahara Mizu and Harado, who had blocked his path earlier, he cast them completely from his mind.

Ash Soil did not realize it.

Every strand of his thoughts, every notion in his mind, clearly revolved around the words "for the village."

Yet the true force driving him to flee desperately beyond the village lay in the deepest part of his heart.

His overwhelming desire to live.

"Whew!"

His enormous foot crashed down, and borrowing that surging force, his body arced through the air.

Not far ahead of him was the escape route that had long been prepared.

At that moment, it was as though Ash Soil's eyes were shining.

However.

"Boom—"

Amid a deafening sonic boom.

A figure suddenly appeared in the previously empty wilderness.

"Thud."

A headless corpse was thrown onto the ground.

Ash Soil's footsteps came to an abrupt halt.

Looking at the young man before him, terror involuntarily surfaced on his weathered face. The way he looked at Sahara Mizu was nearly incredulous.

"That just now... was Space-Time Ninjutsu?!"

"More or less."

Sahara Mizu casually tossed the S-rank sealed box aside and explained gently, "The so-called Power of Stopping is actually the ability to manipulate space, turning a tiny distance into 'infinitely far.'"

"Naturally, if used in reverse, it can turn a very distant gap into 'infinitely close.'"

"It was my first time using it today."

"Pretty impressive, right?"

The instant he heard that information, Ash Soil's vast combat experience made him immediately realize something. His entire body tensed.

The next moment, Sahara Mizu suddenly stepped forward.

"Hum!"

A violent tremor seemed to rise through the air, making even the ground appear to shudder.

Sahara Mizu vanished.

When he appeared again, he was already one step away from Ash Soil, as though he had slipped directly into his embrace.

His forward-stepping foot suddenly exerted force. His seemingly slender muscles swelled abruptly as surging chakra ran through his entire body.

Force rose from the ground and flowed through his waist and back.

That vigorous power burst forth with unstoppable momentum, driving his arm forward.

"Boom—"

His heavy fist shot out, sending fierce ripples through the air. At such close range, a cone-shaped shockwave suddenly exploded with a piercing boom, shredding his sleeve to pieces.

It struck Ash Soil squarely in the chest and abdomen.

However, if one looked closely from nearby, one would find that Sahara Mizu's fist still maintained an extremely tiny distance from Ash Soil's body.

Only Ash Soil's body fully bore the rapid change of that brief Power of Stopping.

His enormous body was completely lifted into the air by that punch. Fractured ribs and sternum caused his chest to cave in completely, blood spraying from his mouth and nose with a "pfft," his eyes bulging outward.

Clearly, that terrifying destructive force had also been caused by switching between "infinitely close" and "infinitely far."

He used the attraction of "infinitely close" to throw an incredibly fast punch.

He used the repulsion of "infinitely far" to protect his own fragile body.

Of course, the consumption was just as terrifying as the destruction.

With his current Dojutsu Power, he could throw at most five strikes.

Before Ash Soil could react at all, Sahara Mizu's azure Six Eyes glimmered faintly. His three-hundred-and-sixty-degree perception, comparable to perfect Byakugan, made him turn and twist his waist without the slightest hesitation.

His long right leg swept upward like a battle axe.

At the same time he completed that motion, the Earth Clone that had lurked underground for so long had only just managed to leap from beneath the earth, its rock-wrapped arm smashing down viciously.

Earth Release: Earth Golem Technique!

The kick, accelerating sharply from the middle of its arc, burst another shockwave.

"Boom!"

Like a battle axe sweeping across.

With only a single short kick, he cleaved both the massive rock-wrapped arm and the Earth Clone made entirely of earth and stone cleanly in two at the waist.

A deafening crash erupted.

"Ha!"

Ash Soil, who had appeared completely incapable of fighting just a second ago, suddenly extracted the last of his life force the instant Sahara Mizu turned his back on him. He turned it into chakra, driving his massive body and pouring it into every corner.

Explosion Release: Explode

"Smack."

Before he could direct the chakra into the appropriate pathways, the dantian responsible for refining chakra suffered a sudden devastating blow, extinguishing even that faint flame of chakra.

At the same time, another hand gripped his throat tightly.

He could not make even the slightest sound.

"Guh."

Ash Soil's weathered face turned purple from lack of oxygen, yet his bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the young man before him.

Although he had long expected that he would likely not die peacefully in bed.

When this day truly came, this legendary spy who had dominated the intelligence world of the Five Great Nations for more than a decade still found it impossible to accept.

He could not accept that the one killing him was an unknown young Konoha Ninja.

Supported by that powerful obsession, even with his throat clenched shut, he still struggled to force out a voice.

"Who... who exactly are you?"

Sahara Mizu's smile remained as calm as it had been from the beginning.

"Do you want to know?"

"Open your mouth."

Ash Soil froze instinctively.

Then, a clear blue sphere of chakra appeared out of thin air in Sahara Mizu's palm without any Hand Seals.

Rasengan

The next moment, it was shoved entirely into his mouth.

"Bang—!!"

His entire head shattered.

As a spy, Sahara Mizu could not guarantee that he had truly left no traces in front of this veteran colleague.

If those people from the Yamanaka Clan discovered anything suspicious, it would be fatal.

"Thud."

He released his hand.

The headless massive corpse fell to its knees as well, hitting the ground with a dull thud.

Scattered blood mist filled the air, slowly drifting away on the evening wind.

Sahara Mizu stood quietly where he was and waited.

Before long, as though sensing something, he lifted his head toward the roofline.

Under the moonlight.

His azure eyes met Namikaze Minato's gaze, wide with shock.

Minato looked at the two mangled corpses on the ground, then at that familiar yet unfamiliar figure. For a moment, he could not find any words.

"Good evening, Namikaze-kun."

Sahara Mizu remained as gentle as ever.

As he spoke, his gaze fell upon the bloodstains covering the young Anbu's body and the wounds he had not had time to bandage in his urgent pursuit. He praised him softly.

"You worked very hard."