Kagami's Mangekyo

The attacker vanished into the mist.

It was impossible to tell whether they were male or female.

But Juri recognized the thick fog, which could even interfere with the Sharingan.

It was the first Chunin Ninja Exams, when Senju Diejian and Uchiha Juri had been in perfect sync.

During the second exam, they had struggled against Kirigakure Genin.

It was their past experience that let them sense that the thick fog now enveloping them was caused by a jutsu—and realize an attacker was present.

"I've fought Kirigakure shinobi before. I've already blown my flute to alert my comrades that something's wrong. Your surprise attack failed. What a shame."

Juri taunted the attacker, who was probably hiding in the mist.

Kirigakure's attack.

Its goal was to assassinate the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire.

Their deployment of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen meant Kirigakure was serious about killing him.

She had thought, Surely not—

But it wasn't impossible.

Had Juri herself—or the village—let down their guard?

Kagami Uchiha and Hatake Sakumo were among Konoha's most formidable shinobi.

But if all seven of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were there, even with Juri included, it would be three against seven.

The numbers were overwhelmingly against them.

How could they break through?

An unpleasant dampness clung to Juri.

"What...?"

The sword stuck beside Juri moved on its own, then disappeared into the mist.

A moment later, the needle-like blade shot out of the fog again.

Juri dodged and tracked its path with her Sharingan.

"Threads...? Damn...!"

A thread too thin to see with the naked eye was attached to the needle-like blade.

Juri deduced that the threads stretching out from the mist were controlling the blade.

The attacker then emerged from the thick fog.

They wore a mask and a dark cloak that covered their body. Their height was probably the only information Juri could glean about them.

Juri deflected the attacker's kick and launched a powerful spinning kick of her own.

The attacker ducked beneath it—and thrust a Ninja Blade, which had somehow returned to their hand, at Juri's leg, trying to pierce it.

Juri threw the Kunai in her hand, knocking the needle-like blade's trajectory upward, while swinging her suspended leg down to evade the attack.

In the process, Juri pulled a scroll from her waist, unfurled it in midair, and brought her palms together.

"Summoning Technique!!"

A cloud of smoke appeared, revealing a staff about as long as Juri was tall from the ground to her chest—the length known as a Milk Cut.

The staff swept through the air, cleaving wind and earth.

Its diamond-hard strength was more than a slender blade could withstand.

The attacker backed away, dodging the staff's ferocious blows and switching to defense.

"Pointless!!"

Juri easily knocked aside the needle-like blades the attacker hurled at her, roaring as she did.

The attacker leaped backward and yanked the needle-like blade back.

In the instant the blade returned, the attacker formed the Hand Seals for Water Release.

A compressed ball of water, spinning at high speed, shot toward Juri.

Juri turned halfway to the side and raised her staff in a graceful stance, ready to knock the waterball back.

The waterball struck the center of the staff with tremendous force, the two forces locked in a stalemate.

"Urah!!"

Juri put all her strength into batting the waterball back, letting out a mighty roar.

Just before the rebounding waterball struck the attacker, the attacker threw the needle-like blade again.

Juri easily knocked it aside—and watched as the attacker was hit by the waterball, sent flying, and slammed through a tree.

Juri moved to pursue—but sensed threads spread all around her.

The attacker hadn't thrown the needle-like blades again and again to wound Juri. It had been a setup, laying down a web of threads.

Juri frowned in frustration.

The tightening threads bit into Juri's body and bound her.

The other end of the threads binding Juri vanished into the thick fog.

Then, swallowing the mist as it appeared, came a gigantic shark made of water.

Just before she was bound, Juri had drawn on the Fire Release Chakra she'd built up while forming Hand Seals and forced it out through her pursed lips.

A giant dragon made of Explosive Flame burst forth.

But in the laws of nature transformation, Fire Release was inferior to Water Release.

And surrounded by mist, the power of fire would diminish.

Even if the Fire Dragon hit the Water Shark, it would surely be extinguished.

So Juri aimed for—

"I won't go down without a fight!!"

The Fire Dragon raced along the threads binding Juri and into the thick fog.

During the Chunin Ninja Exams, when she and Diejian had fought side by side, Juri had used a jutsu based on the same principle.

Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique.

Now, she had recreated it with a jutsu far more powerful than the one she'd used back then.

Was this it?

Faced with the shark bearing down on her, its jaws wide open, Juri realized this sudden end was upon her—

"Wind Release: Gale Blade Technique!!"

Suddenly, an invisible blade sliced through the Water Shark. The water that made up its body scattered and vanished into thin air.

"Don't take it personally. You're the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, after all. Let's make it two against one."

Kagami Uchiha stood protectively before Juri, his gentle eyes glowing red.

He spoke resolutely to the injured "Needle" lurking in the mist.

"Kagami..."

But Juri—

"Why did you abandon the person you were guarding?!"

She scolded her brother for abandoning his mission and rushing to her side.

With Kagami here, only Hatake Sakumo remained to guard their target.

Even for Sakumo, hailed as the "White Fang," facing the Seven Ninja Swordsmen alone—a force renowned throughout the Shinobi World—was far too much to bear.

More than the target or the mission, Juri worried about her dear friend Sakumo's safety.

"Sakumo's there, so the target is fine. There hasn't been an attack over there. Besides, 'he' is there too."

"He...? Did Diejian come?"

"No, not Diejian."

"Who in Konoha can keep up with Sakumo besides Diejian?!"

Her words revealed her boundless trust in her teammates' abilities.

Faced with his grown-up little sister, Kagami could barely hide how moved he was.

But this was a battlefield.

There was no room for the slightest carelessness.

"Kagami Uchiha... the Third Hokage's trusted man, the Uchiha's Young Lion. Even we of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen couldn't face you alone. 'Needle,' sorry for the wait. I'm here to help."

"Who are you?!"

Juri cried out.

A tall shinobi carrying a Great Sword emerged from the mist.

He wore a mask and a dark cloak as well, but there was no mistaking that enormous blade.

"—That huge Ninja Blade... You're...!!"

"Figures. This sword makes it hard to hide who I am..."

"You're... you're—who was it again?"

Juri's words froze the air around them.

"You're Uchiha Juri, aren't you? Have you forgotten me?"

"I asked who you are!! Answer me!!"

"Juri, calm down. Shinobi shouldn't let their emotions control them."

"Ugh..."

Having freed herself from the threads, Juri pointed her staff at the man carrying the huge Ninja Blade and demanded an answer.

The man looked somewhat dejected.

Kagami ignored him and, as her elder brother, reprimanded his sister for her lapse.

"I saw that Great Sword at the first Chunin Ninja Exams, six years ago. The examinee's name was Suikazan Fuguki. He now wields the Second Water Shadow's Seven Blades. As one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, he's earned a reputation to rival the 'Rising Dragon.' He's an elite Jonin of Kirigakure."

"I don't remember him..."

"I thought you'd seen him too, Juri... Never mind. It doesn't matter."

Kagami lowered his center of gravity and took a sword-fighting stance.

Kagami's fighting style resembled that of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

He fought at close range with a sword, using jutsu that required no Hand Seals and Dojutsu to keep his opponents in check.

"I'll end this as quickly as possible. Sharingan—"

"Oh, whoops. Sorry about that..."

Suddenly, Fuguki straightened up, his expression serious.

The man who emerged from the mist wore long sleeves. He had fair skin, a jaunty little mustache, and no eyebrows—

"I know all about how troublesome the Uchiha can be. One-on-One Escape, attack from behind when it's two against one—that's the saying, right? That's the strategy for dealing with the Uchiha. We're one person short, so for now it's two against three. Don't take it personally, Uchiha girls. You are, after all, the Uchiha Clan, the strongest clan of the Sengoku era."

"...W-why are you here...?"

"Hey, hey, are you all right? You look pale. I was only joking just now."

The moment Kagami saw the man emerge from the mist, his expression changed.

His colorless cheeks looked ashen.

Seeing Kagami's sudden change, Juri realized something was wrong, but she couldn't tell what—

"Second... Water Shadow...!!"

"Oh, you know me? Well, well, I guess I'm famous. Maybe I should become a legend while I'm at it."

"Though, Lord Water Shadow, you're already a legend."

Fuguki praised him sincerely.

The mustached man, smiling with an easygoing air, was none other than Kirigakure's Second Water Shadow himself—Hozuki Gengetsu.

"The White Fang isn't here, and neither is the Rising Dragon... Hey, Fuguki."

"Yes, sir!"

"You go on ahead and take out the target. I'll play with these guys."

As a Kirigakure shinobi, Fuguki knew the Second Water Shadow's personality well.

It was awkward for a guard to react this way, but if he clumsily stayed behind, he'd only get scolded. He probably wouldn't be killed, but he might get beaten up.

Fuguki obediently nodded and disappeared into the mist.

"Stop!"

"You're the one who should stop, Juri. Sakumo's over there. We're the ones in trouble."

Kagami stopped Juri from chasing after Fuguki.

His honed Sharingan gazed steadily at Gengetsu.

The Second Water Shadow.

He hadn't even been a trusted retainer of the First Mizukage. Yet during the First Shinobi World War, though a nobody at the time, he had fought the future Second Tsuchikage Mu to a standstill and prevented Kirigakure's retreat from turning into a rout.

His extraordinary strength and character had won him recognition. He had risen to the rank of Kage with unstoppable momentum, a genuine monster.

Unlike the other Kage, he had no legendary feats.

And that meant there was little information about him, making him the most dangerous shinobi of all.

"Even though you're from another village, a shinobi doesn't want to cut down a promising youngster... But that's the way of the world. Let's have some fun."

★

"Hey, hey, I let them go on ahead. Give me a more satisfying fight, would you?"

The mustached man—Hozuki Gengetsu, the Second Water Shadow—pointed both index fingers at Kagami and Juri as they fled.

Gengetsu's claim that he alone could handle Juri and Kagami wasn't an empty boast.

Water Bullet Technique.

A secret jutsu passed down through the Hozuki Clan.

It could fire highly destructive water bullets one after another with a single motion. The Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, was said to have used it as a reference when developing "Heavenly Weeping."

In other words, it had at least as much destructive power as "Heavenly Weeping," a jutsu the Second Hokage excelled at—if not more.

The trees Juri had passed and the ground Kagami had stood on exploded under Gengetsu's jutsu.

The devastation was undoubtedly the result of a Water Release technique, like the aftermath of an Explosive Tag going off.

"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!!"

As she leaped around, Juri unleashed a full-power Fire Release technique.

"Whoa—I thought you could only run away, but that's a pretty good Fire Release technique."

"Damn it!!"

Juri was furious at Gengetsu's praise.

Every Fire Release technique she unleashed was snuffed out by Gengetsu's Water Gun.

"—Konoha Style: Dance of the Crescent Moon."

"Oh?"

"Did it work!?"

Gengetsu's body was sliced in half at the waist.

Kagami had somehow circled behind Gengetsu and slashed him in two.

Juri cried out in delight.

But—

"Nice swordsmanship. But it won't do you any good."

Gengetsu's body, which should have been cut in half, returned to normal in an instant.

Gengetsu aimed his index finger at Kagami, who held his sword, and fired a Water Gun.

Kagami used the power of his Sharingan to read the trajectory and dodged by mere millimeters, swinging his sword at the same time to cut off Gengetsu's finger.

But the severed finger instantly returned to normal.

"Konoha's got some good shinobi. That swordsmanship—I'd love to recruit you into the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. Well, see you around."

Even as he took hits, Gengetsu kept running his mouth, but he never let an opening after an attack go unpunished.

He aimed his finger at Kagami again, preparing to fire a Water Gun.

"Aaaaaah!!"

Juri raised her club high.

It was a full-power strike in every sense of the word, wrapped in a blazing armor of fire.

But—

"Take this."

"Gah..."

Keeping his upper body perfectly still and his finger aimed at Kagami, Gengetsu kicked straight through Juri's abdomen.

Juri groaned as she was sent flying. She slammed into a tree trunk, then tumbled to the ground, spitting blood.

"That girl... Could she really be just a Chunin? Hey, hey, is that brat Sarutobi out of his mind, assigning a Chunin to an elite mission like guarding the Feudal Lord? She can't protect him at all."

"Urgh... ah... ah..."

Watching Juri suffer, Gengetsu furrowed his brow in pity.

"That was just an ordinary kick. And she's in that much pain. She's going to get killed, you know—by yours truly."

—At the sight of Juri's miserable state and the sound of Gengetsu's words, Kagami's eyes flew wide open.

"Oh?"

After watching Juri fly off, Gengetsu turned around and found that Kagami had vanished.

He tilted his head, puzzled by Kagami's sudden disappearance.

"—You're right."

Some distance away, Kagami stood with his head lowered, his expression hidden.

"We've all grown soft and complacent in peacetime. We thought we could protect them, just because we wanted to."

Gengetsu quietly listened to Kagami's muttering.

He wasn't so tactless as to interrupt a man's cry from the depths of his soul.

Besides, this was exactly the kind of atmosphere Gengetsu loved.

"I forgot. After I buried my father and mother with my own hands—I swore to follow the way of the shinobi. I vowed to 'protect them to the very end.' I won't let them be killed. Never—!!"

Kagami's aura changed.

Feeling the wild surge of Chakra, Gengetsu relaxed his face in delight.

"That pattern... I know it. Mangekyo. The legendary eyes said to be the same as Uchiha Madara's."

"—I am Kagami, the Young Lion of Konohagakure. I will carry my shinobi's vow to protect my little sister through to the very end!!"

The Mangekyo pattern that appeared in Kagami's eyes danced like a fierce flame—