Charge! Annihilate! The Art of Speed!

At this moment.

Inside the harbor.

A group of Anbu ninjas from the Hidden Mist, lurking within the docked ships, were waiting in full battle readiness.

"Attention all squads, the target cargo ship is about to dock!"

"According to intelligence, the rogue ninja Zabuza is on that ship!"

"This time, we must not let him escape again!"

Watching the large cargo ship gradually approaching from the distance.

The Anbu captain of the Hidden Mist reminded his team members in a low voice.

They had been under orders from the Fourth Mizukage to capture that Demon Zabuza for so many years now.

Letting him slip away time and time again was utterly humiliating!

And now, the man was actually sailing brazenly toward the Land of Water, walking right into their trap.

If they couldn't capture this rogue madman today.

These Anbu members might as well cripple their own ninjutsu and go home to farm...

Just like that, the Hidden Mist ninjas continued to hold their breath, sharpening their blades in anticipation.

Soon, the large cargo ship was less than a hundred meters from the shore.

Just then.

A figure suddenly appeared on the bow of the ship in the distance.

"What's the situation? What's going on?"

"Why did only a brat show up?"

"Is that brat a ninja too?"

"Is Zabuza actually using a brat like that to come here and die?!!"

The Anbu of the Hidden Mist were slightly stunned.

They had dealt with Zabuza quite a few times.

Logically speaking, that guy wasn't the type to be so shameless!

"Captain, wait, I feel like that brat is not quite right!"

"Not right?"

Everyone looked again.

Only to suddenly discover.

The young figure on the cargo ship had vanished in an instant.

The next moment.

He instantly crossed a distance of several dozen meters, appearing on the surface of the sea near the shore.

He began walking toward the shore step by step.

With every step he took, a violent surge of chakra rippled and vibrated, stirring up waves on the surrounding sea surface and kicking up circle after circle of spray, as if whipping up a light drizzle.

In the hazy field of vision, countless water droplets fragmented everything around, as if plunging one into a gray, dreamlike state where everything became illusory...

"Something is very wrong!"

"Forget whether it's wrong or not, kill him!"

"We cannot let Zabuza and his lot escape today!"

The Anbu captain roared.

He quickly commanded his team members to launch an assault.

Clearly, all the Hidden Mist ninjas realized.

The young figure shrouded in the mist, steadily approaching them, was by no means simple.

And so.

The next second, over twenty ninjas poked their heads out.

They launched their attacks.

Countless kunai, shuriken, Water Release ninjutsu... and so on.

Hundreds, thousands of them, blanketed the air as they surged toward Natsume.

But unfortunately, none of these attacks hit the boy; they all passed through his figure as if he were a phantom, striking the seawater in the distance and splashing up even more waves.

Seeing this, the Hidden Mist ninjas almost questioned their own sanity, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets!

Every face was written with the words 'I don't believe it'.

What kind of monster is this?

How did he dodge so many attacks?

"Was that the Body Flicker Technique?"

"Is it an afterimage left by high-speed movement?"

"Impossible! Unless it's the Raikage, how could any Body Flicker Technique reach this level?!"

"And to avoid hundreds of attacks without a scratch—I fear even the Fourth Raikage couldn't manage that, right?"

"What on earth is going on?!!"

Clearly, the scene before them had far exceeded the comprehension of these ninjas.

But in the very next second, a cold, eerie voice suddenly exploded in the ear of this Anbu captain.

It made his scalp crawl.

"It's not a movement afterimage; it's a temporal afterimage!"

Swish—

A flash of cold light streaked by.

Swift and violent, like wind, like lightning!

Blood sprayed, instantly claiming the life of this Anbu captain!

Ever since obtaining the Hashirama Cells, which significantly weakened the side effects of using the Sharingan, Natsume had taken a massive leap forward in the development and utilization of his ocular powers.

His left eye alone had already climbed from its original maximum of third-stage Setsuna to the fourth stage.

"Mangekyo Sharingan, Left Eye, Setsuna!"

"Fourth-stage, sixteen-fold speed boost!"

A sixteen-fold speed boost!

It made Natsume's instantaneous speed infinitely close to the sound barrier.

At such a speed, it was almost equivalent to a car racing at 1,200 kilometers per hour!

No techniques were needed; simply colliding with someone was enough to easily turn them into a pulp of flesh!

If not for Natsume using the Hashirama Cells to enhance his physique and shielding his body with a massive amount of chakra, moving at such speeds would likely have crushed his own body into a pancake under the immense wind resistance...

At this moment, seeing a figure suddenly appear beside them while their captain had already dropped dead, the surrounding Mist Anbu ninjas were terrified out of their wits!

Yet, many still steeled themselves, roaring as they swarmed toward Natsume once more.

"Kill!"

"Attack!"

The next second, the Grim Reaper moved again.

He vanished from his spot in an instant, leaving two deep craters of recoil on the deck.

At the same time, the three nearest Mist ninjas hadn't even seen anything clearly before they were sent flying backward, slamming heavily into the cabin, their internal organs shattered, dying on the spot.

Charge! Dash! Slaughter!

Unrivaled!

Every enemy standing in Natsume's path was instantly dismantled, erased, and terminated!

Mist ninjas lunged forward one after another, only to drop dead, like moths to a flame.

That sharp chakra blade sliced across the back of a person's neck.

It was like cutting through soft tofu, leaving behind a thin line of blood.

Only then did it suddenly burst open.

With unstoppable gushes of blood, it ravenously devoured lives.

And that figure, ghost-like and moving too fast to track, was as elusive as a phantom, picking off its prey.

Anyone touched by him was killed in a single blow!

There was absolutely no possibility of survival!

This is true efficiency!

This is the art of speed!

In the distance, aboard the large cargo ship.

Nichiyo, Tsukihime, Gin, and Zabuza were all stunned into silence.

"Brother Nichiyo? What is happening? Can you see him?"

Gin asked, stuttering.

Within his field of vision, he could only see bursts of explosions erupting across the distant harbor.

Kirigakure ninja were sent flying backward like helpless chicks, dying instantly.

Ship after ship was being ravaged and torn apart with brutal, savage force, as if they were being dismantled—fragile as weeping little girls.

Yet, the young clan head who launched the attack was nowhere to be seen.

Nichiyo's mouth hung slightly open as he strained his Two-Tomoe Sharingan, trying his absolute best to lock onto the young clan head's figure.

Alas, he could only catch fleeting, blurry glimpses during the moments Natsume shifted his position.

"It's taijutsu! It's pure speed!"

"The young clan head's speed has already surpassed the limits of what your eyes can track."

Tsukihime, who had her Three-Tomoe Sharingan activated and had remained silent until now, spoke up to explain.

Even she could only barely make out Natsume's movements.

If she were to try and counter, it would be far too late!

I fear that before I could even react, the young clan head's blade would have already slit my throat!

Is this the true strength of the young clan head?

What magnificent taijutsu!

It was not just Nichiyo and the others who were deeply shaken.

Zabuza, who had originally been an enemy, was even more horrified.

He could not believe that the boy possessed such speed and power! How many times faster was this than his own Mist Body Flicker?

No wonder the brat had been so calm and composed all along.

With such strength, if he had wanted to...

Back at their first meeting.

I would have likely been killed by a single slash to the throat, wouldn't I?

And here I was, taking such pride in my Silent Killing Technique.

Compared to this kind of extreme speed, I am nothing!

So, this is the confidence that allowed him to dare to take on the entire Kirigakure?

Zabuza let out a self-deprecating laugh in his heart.

He struggled to steady his right hand, which was trembling uncontrollably.

At this moment, merely from watching from afar, he had once again tasted the flavor of fear.

How truly pathetic!

A moment later, having recovered from the profound shock, Tsukihime was the first to leap off the ship and join the battlefield.

"Stop staring, let's move!"

"If we let the young clan head kill them all, what use are we?"

Nichiyo drew a kunai and let out a cold hum.

He also jumped off the deck and charged toward the shore.

"Right, right, wait for me!"

Gin shouted and chased after them.

Seeing this, Zabuza and his companion also hurriedly moved out.