"How... how is this possible?!"
The Third Mizukage's pupils contracted sharply. His eyes went wide, disbelief written all over his face as his body stiffened.
Aragaki Yasushi was so fast, it was practically like he had teleported.
No, that was teleportation!
"Space... Space-Time Ninjutsu?"
The Third Mizukage's voice trembled slightly.
He couldn't believe that a brat from Konoha had managed to catch him off guard like this.
Under normal circumstances, he would have sensed Aragaki Yasushi's chakra the instant he appeared.
With his Kage-level strength, there was no way Aragaki Yasushi could have gotten the drop on him.
But just now, he had been fighting Minato Namikaze, and most of his attention had been tied up by Minato. He hadn't noticed Aragaki Yasushi approaching, giving him the chance to land a successful strike.
Not far away, Karatachi Yagura, Terumi Mei, Ao, and the others were locked in a fierce struggle with their copies. When they saw what had happened, their faces filled with shock and disbelief.
They never would have imagined that Aragaki Yasushi could so easily land a fatal blow on the Third Mizukage!
This was the Third Mizukage, the Mizukage of their own village.
Even if he was a tyrant, his strength was beyond question.
Yet he was about to die at the hands of a brat from Konoha like Aragaki Yasushi.
And in such a humiliating way, too.
Terumi Mei stood there, stunned.
Karatachi Yagura was equally shocked, but he quickly came to his senses.
With the Third Mizukage's mortal wound, the copies grew weaker and weaker, even showing signs of dissipating as their bodies gradually turned transparent.
Karatachi Yagura stopped paying attention to his own copy and rushed toward the Third Mizukage.
After landing his strike, Aragaki Yasushi didn't linger for a moment. He flashed away, then reappeared behind Minato Namikaze, keeping him in front as a shield.
A Kage-level fighter's final desperate counterattack couldn't be taken lightly.
If the Mizukage dragged him down with him, that would be a terrible loss!
He had the Horse Talisman, so even if he got hurt, he could heal quickly.
But better safe than sorry. He couldn't afford to let his guard down and get caught out.
The Third Mizukage clutched his heart as blood poured through his fingers, staining his clothes and hands.
His face had gone deathly pale. His breathing grew weaker and weaker, and blood kept spilling from his mouth, splattering onto the floor.
Clearly, the Third Mizukage wasn't so tough that he could survive having his heart pierced.
A Kage-level fighter was still human.
Pierce the heart, and he would die.
The Third Mizukage struggled to lift his head. His gaze passed Minato Namikaze and Aragaki Yasushi to Karatachi Yagura, who was rushing toward him. His eyes brimmed with fury as his lips moved, and he spoke haltingly:
"You... you traitors..."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the Third Mizukage's eyes went wide. He died without closing them, his body slowly collapsing to the ground as his life faded away.
With the Third Mizukage dead, the copies instantly lost the chakra sustaining them. They turned to mist and vanished into the air.
The Anbu Ninjas who had been surrounding Karatachi Yagura and the others saw that the Third Mizukage was dead and immediately panicked. They looked at one another, leaderless and unsure whether they should keep fighting.
Aragaki Yasushi looked at the Third Mizukage lying on the ground and smiled triumphantly.
The old Third Mizukage was taken care of!
Three thousand points, in the bag!
Aragaki Yasushi couldn't help calculating in his head.
Three thousand points meant three ten-pulls.
This time, he had to get a Talisman—Dog Talisman, preferably. That was the only way to make sure he wouldn't just bite the dust out of nowhere.
Only then did Nara Shikaku and the others rush into the Mizukage Building.
They looked up and saw the Third Mizukage lying in the distance, covered in blood. They froze on the spot.
"The battle's already over?"
They looked from one another to the next, completely dumbfounded.
On the way over, they had still been figuring out how to help Minato Namikaze keep the Third Mizukage occupied. But the moment they walked through the door, victory was already theirs. They hadn't even had time to process it.
Nara Shikaku took a deep breath, suppressing his shock, then slowly turned his gaze toward Aragaki Yasushi in the distance, staring intently at his back.
He had been the fastest to arrive, and had happened to catch Aragaki Yasushi teleporting behind the Third Mizukage and stabbing through his heart.
That speed was definitely not the Body Flicker Technique.
Could it be Space-Time Ninjutsu?
Nara Shikaku was stunned.
Space-Time Ninjutsu was incredibly rare and difficult to learn. Only a handful of people in the entire Ninja World could use it.
He never expected that someone as young as Aragaki Yasushi would know Space-Time Ninjutsu, too.
When they got back, he would have to ask Minato about it. He was an expert in Space-Time Ninjutsu.
Nara Shikaku continued weighing things in his mind, his gaze still fixed on Aragaki Yasushi.
Regardless of what method Aragaki Yasushi had used, or whether the Third Mizukage had only been caught off guard because Minato Namikaze had kept him occupied, the result was clear: the Mizukage of Kirigakure had indeed died at the hands of Konoha's young prodigy.
As the Hokage's adviser, Nara Shikaku understood better than anyone what this meant.
This was more than just completing a mission. It would have a tremendous impact on the entire Ninja World War.
Minato Namikaze alone had put immense pressure on the other villages, forcing them to issue orders.
If they encountered the Yellow Flash on the battlefield, they could immediately abandon their mission and retreat, without it counting as a mission failure.
Now, with Aragaki Yasushi, who seemed to have mastered Space-Time Ninjutsu, added to the mix, the pressure on the other villages would become even more terrifying.
Aragaki Yasushi was even younger than Minato Namikaze, with limitless potential.
That only went to show that Konoha wasn't just brimming with talent—it could also produce talented shinobi far more effectively than the other villages.
If Konoha could churn out prodigies on Minato Namikaze's level one after another, that would practically spell despair for the other villages, wouldn't it?
Meanwhile, Aragaki Yasushi paid no attention to anyone else. He kept his eyes fixed on the system panel.
[Mission: Eliminate the Third Mizukage] [Reward: Points +3000]
Woohoo! It worked!
Three thousand points, in the bag!
Aragaki Yasushi's eyes were filled with anticipation.
All right, now that he had the points, what was he waiting for?
Draw now!
Three ten-pulls!
Give me a good draw!
[Universal Gravitation Scroll] [Braised Intestines] [Dezhou Braised Chicken] [Boiled Cabbage] [Flashbang] [General Tso's Chicken] [Valmont's Cane] [Buddha Jumps Over the Wall] [Magic Face Cream] [Sweet and Sour Carp]
Universal Gravitation Scroll?
Wasn't this the Newton-Defying Scroll?
Aragaki Yasushi froze for a moment, then lit up with joy.
As he remembered it, this thing was similar to the Rooster Talisman, except that it controlled gravity instead of Nen.
Aragaki Yasushi hurriedly checked the Universal Gravitation Scroll's details.
[Universal Gravitation Scroll: Control universal gravitation and use it to make yourself fly.]
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