A Familiar Feeling

"W-Water... Lord Mizukage..."

Yuki Ling's legs trembled as he fell to his knees. His former arrogance had given way to sheer terror.

He frantically kowtowed and begged for mercy, hoping the strongest person in Kirigakure would spare his life.

But the Mizukage's gaze didn't fall on him. Instead, it kept roaming over Ao.

"You look unfamiliar. I don't think I've ever seen you in Kirigakure before, a shinobi of the Yuki Clan..."

"Where's your Forehead Protector?"

Karatachi Yagura leaned on his Hook Staff and asked calmly.

"I'll hold him off, Kyō. Take the others and go! If I don't make it, please look after Yuki for me."

Ao shielded the others behind him.

They were important materials for his research, and he'd been watching two of the promising ones for a long time.

They were vital to his further study of the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.

He couldn't let them die here.

It seemed he had no choice but to sacrifice this temporary body.

At his words, Yuki Yuki's body trembled. She asked in disbelief, "Who are you, really!? Why are you helping me so much...?"

She hadn't known there was anyone in her clan who cared about her.

Hadn't her clan members all considered her a monster, an outsider?

"I was a friend of your father's. I couldn't protect him back then, so now all I can do is my best to protect you."

"Once you escape, leave the Land of Water as soon as possible!"

"Go find someone named Orochimaru. He can shelter you for a while."

Ao said it deliberately.

The Yuki Clan member whose body he was inhabiting was really just an ordinary Chunin, a nobody in the clan.

He had no connection to Yuki Yuki, either.

He'd planned this story long ago.

It would pave the way for him to take away the Ice Release gene seeds.

Yuki had clearly believed him, but Yuki Kyō eyed him suspiciously. The name Orochimaru had obviously stirred some doubt in him.

"Senior, what's your name!?"

Yuki Kyō asked. His hand clenched into a fist, and his gaze was probing.

"I'm a dead man. There's no need to say more. Go!"

Ao replied.

With a wave of his hand, he shoved the two of them back.

Then he faced Karatachi Yagura.

"What a touching scene! Too bad your Yuki Clan is doomed to perish tonight."

"None of you are leaving!"

"Only the complete destruction of the Yuki Clan can ensure Kirigakure's eternal survival."

Seeing how devoted they were to one another, Karatachi Yagura couldn't help interrupting.

Two figures faintly appeared behind him.

"So this is that unusual Yuki Clan member?"

Obito knuckled one finger, propped his chin on one hand, and studied Ao.

"That's right."

"His strength is probably no less than yours."

Black Zetsu reminded him.

"He's already taken out the five Anbu Chunin surrounding them with just three ninjutsu."

"Oh? Interesting."

Obito's expression beneath the mask was unconcerned.

His Sharingan slowly turned.

Using his mental power to control Karatachi Yagura, he launched an attack.

"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"

Karatachi Yagura raised two fingers on his right hand, drew a deep breath, and gathered the Tailed Beast Chakra inside him in his mouth. His cheeks swelled slightly.

Splash!

A surging torrent burst from his mouth.

In an instant, it swept across the entire battlefield.

It sought to drown everyone beneath a crashing wall of water.

The Yuki Clan members were clearly slower than the rushing water.

Even if they ran for their lives, the current would catch them within seconds.

Yuki Ling's cowardice had cost him the crucial moment to escape.

He was the first to be caught by the surging water. His body was swept up at once, the sound of his bones cracking as his scream echoed through the current.

In the end, the torrent smashed him to death.

But the moment the water reached Yuki Yuki and the others, a chill suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Ice Release: Instant Freeze!"

Ao formed a hand seal, murmured, and pointed forward.

At his words, the rushing mass of water instantly turned into ice crystals, lost its momentum, and crashed to the ground.

Then he changed his hand signs and formed another seal.

His painstakingly practiced hand seals had finally become proficient.

"Ice Release: Thousand Mile Ice Seal!"

In an instant,

heaven and earth changed color.

As Ao unleashed his full power,

a bitterly cold storm spread outward along the ground from where he stood, forming a dense blizzard that sealed off the area.

"The most special application of Ice Release is breaking down and recombining the changes in Chakra nature."

Ao was glad he'd mastered Ryūchi Cave's Sage Mode first. It had let him experience the traits of various Kekkei Genkai while in a substitute body.

When the nature transformations of Wind and Water Chakra combined, they formed Ice Release. By breaking them down at the moment of casting, he created a blizzard-like, bitterly cold temperature, along with the ravaging force of the storm. This could quickly give him an overwhelming geographical advantage.

In other words, it was crowd control!

Ao knew his close-combat skills were weak, and he had less battle experience than these veteran shinobi.

So he'd put a great deal of effort into his secret techniques.

He'd pushed Ice Release's troublesome restraining abilities to their limits.

In the raging blizzard,

Karatachi Yagura shuddered a few times. A scarlet Chakra Cloak abruptly burst from his body, sweeping around him and keeping the snow and wind at bay.

"Impressive talent... but now it belongs to me!"

Karatachi Yagura commented.

"Water Mirror Technique!"

He swung the Hook Staff in his hand. A mirror appeared, and then someone who looked exactly like Ao's substitute walked out of it.

"Ice Release: Instant Freeze!"

The figure in the mirror formed hand seals and silently mouthed the words.

The raging blizzard froze instantly.

Ao's body froze along with it.

Thwack!

A heavy blow from the staff struck Ao in the back.

Pfft!

Ao spat out a mouthful of blood.

Without the Sharingan to support him in this body, he couldn't keep up with the Mizukage's movements at all.

Although he'd modified this body,

and refined the Ice Release Chakra inside it to its utmost,

breaking through the limits of Kage Level was still difficult.

After all, the original body had belonged to an ordinary person.

Even with his Sage Soul granting him Sage Mode and forcibly raising his strength to Kage Level, he was still at a disadvantage against the Mizukage.

"Damn..."

Ao cursed under his breath and wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

Aside from his weak resistance to genjutsu, Karatachi Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, was nearly at the peak of Kage Level in Taijutsu and ninjutsu. On top of that, the Three-Tails was sealed inside him, and he was a Perfect Jinchuriki who could fully control its power.

"Sage Art: Ice Release: Ice Dragon Descent!"

The Ice Release Ao had adapted from Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet formed a dragon nearly a hundred meters long.

The Natural Energy revealed by Ao's Sage Soul gave it a will of its own.

The ice dragon leapt into the air from the ice, lifting Ao's body away from Karatachi Yagura's range.

"Magic users shouldn't get into close combat! You need Space-Time Ninjutsu to open up some distance—at least a hundred meters!"

"Sage Art: Ice Release: Soul Body Freezing!"

Ao formed another hand seal, gathering Senjutsu Chakra in his palm until it took the form of a snowy-white light.

A freezing beam colder than minus one thousand degrees shot out.

Whoosh!

The light shot down instantly, striking Karatachi Yagura head-on and freezing him on the spot.

A clone!?

The frozen Karatachi Yagura vanished in an instant, turning into a mass of frozen water.

Ao sensed something was wrong and searched his surroundings.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he spotted a figure wreathed in a red-black Chakra Cloak, mouth wide open as he formed a threatening ball of Chakra.

"Tailed Beast Bomb..."

"Quick reaction!"

Ao cursed under his breath, then leapt aside. The Tailed Beast Bomb struck the ice dragon head-on and exploded, producing a mushroom cloud dozens of meters high.

The shock wave hurled him hundreds of meters away.

Karatachi Yagura's figure appeared behind Ao, moving even faster than the blast. A massive hand formed from Chakra swept down.

"Coral Palm!"

He tried to turn Ao's body into coral and tear it apart.

But the instant he touched Ao, the Chakra in his hand froze.

"Got you..."

"Sage Art: Ice Release: Absolute Zero!"

Ao's lips curled up. The Chakra inside him erupted, and a terrifying flash of light appeared around him. In an instant, everything within ten meters of his body froze solid.

The Chakra Cloak formed from the Three-Tails Isobu's Water-type Chakra froze under this force.

Karatachi Yagura was left standing with one hand raised, frozen in place. His eyeballs shifted slightly in their sockets, showing he was still conscious.

His eyes were full of panic and relief.

It seemed that in that instant, the Fourth Mizukage had regained his own consciousness.

"Tsk, tsk... Ice Release really is useful!"

"I wonder if I could develop it to the point where I could turn my whole body into an element, like with the Chilly-Chilly Fruit! Then I wouldn't be in such an awkward situation."

Ao's soul floated out of the ice sculpture. He studied his handiwork and sighed.

Taking out the Mizukage in one hit felt pretty good.

But the cost had been high.

He'd pushed the Yuki Clan's Ice Release to its utmost limits.

This move was a sure-kill technique.

Even his own body hadn't survived it.

In that instant,

Ao felt someone watching him. Realizing who it was, he didn't dare look back. His soul form turned into a streak of light and vanished into the distance.

The moment he left,

the Masked Man emerged from the void. Watching Ao's retreating figure, he murmured, "That figure looks so familiar. That soul... did he use the Spirit Transformation Technique?"

"It looks like someone's tampered with this Yuki Clan member. Obito, our plans in Kirigakure will probably be affected. We can't save the Mizukage..."

"What about the Three-Tails inside him?"

Black Zetsu examined Karatachi Yagura's condition, then controlled a White Zetsu Clone to gently touch the layer of ice. The cold instantly spread from the point of contact, freezing the White Zetsu Clone on the spot.

"Wow, that's cold..."

White Zetsu cried out. A vine grew from his hand, and he shoved the frozen clone over with all his strength.

Crack!

The ice shattered.

The White Zetsu Clone broke into dozens of pieces of ice along with it.

"There's really no saving him now."

"Forget it. Let's go back to the Akatsuki. We need to head over there anyway."

Obito said helplessly.

He glanced at the frozen Mizukage, and his figure slowly faded into the void.