Cloud Style Swordsmanship

To wait for this opportunity, the Anbu had been lying in ambush inside the barrier for over ten days.

At the moment when all forces within Uzu Hidden Village were at their weakest, when both sides had worn each other down, the Anbu charged down.

Beneath his mask, Yagami frowned.

That old fox Danzo had actually hung back at the rear instead of leading the charge.

No wonder the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju hadn't let Danzo become Hokage—this Will of Fire was far too lacking. He had no concept of sacrificing himself for his comrades, only knew how to send them forward to test the waters while he reaped the rewards at the end.

The first to charge was the Yellow Dog Squad Leader, which put Yagami in a very forward position.

This night was so long. The Uzumaki ninja finally saw the people of Konoha!

From their perspective, it looked like Konoha ninja had just crested the mountain and were charging down its slope.

Inside the shrine, the old and weak wept with reddened eyes, finally seeing Konoha's reinforcements.

After watching for a while, they realized the Konoha ninja were only as many as they'd first seen.

Where were the rest?

Why had so few come? Shouldn't there be thousands of Konoha ninja clashing in a great battle against the allied Mist and Cloud ninja?

Yagami followed the Yellow Dog Squad Leader as they charged into Uzu Hidden Village. The ground was covered in corpses.

Some had died from suffocation in Water Prison Technique, some from Cloud ninja blades, others from Mist ninja Water Style.

As he passed a wall, Yagami spotted a paper-thin figure.

It was a civilian crushed flat by the pressure of a Water Style technique.

The head had become a flattened oval, the chest pressed against the back, jagged ribs protruding from the sides.

A very powerful Water Style technique—the form of the water was exceptionally dense, similar to a Water Dragon Technique.

Many of the surrounding houses had their roofs burned away, yet the ground near them was especially damp, with mud left behind by Water Style.

Setting fires on one side, using Water Style on the other—utter chaos.

As he crossed the central Great River, Yagami turned his head toward the direction of the Third Mizukage.

The Mizukage was dead. Three Mist ninja squads guarded his corpse.

As for the Uzumaki Clan Head's corpse, the Mist ninja had nailed it to a boat hull—an extreme humiliation.

Lag behind and you get beaten; be weak and you get humiliated.

A Konoha squad rushed toward the Mizukage's corpse, intending to clear out the Mist ninja squad and seize the body.

The Mizukage's corpse might hold the secret to that powerful technique.

The Uzumaki Clan Head's corpse was also valuable—perhaps it could reveal the Uzumaki Sealing Secret Technique.

Wherever his gaze swept, flesh had turned to blood. It was horrifying.

Yagami followed the Black Gorilla Squad Commander as they pressed forward.

After reaching the north bank, the number of Uzumaki ninja corpses increased.

These Uzumaki ninja, like Konoha ninja, bore the Uzumaki spiral crest on their backs.

So many red-haired people had died here. The Uzumaki Clan was a major clan in the Land of Whirlpools, numbering several thousand.

The Konoha Anbu had already reached the north bank, yet the Mist ninja still hadn't reacted, still madly hunting down Uzumaki ninja.

Seeing this, the Cloud ninja quickly shifted direction, guarding their rear and keeping watch on the Konoha ninja.

The Yellow Dog Squad Leader immediately formed Hand Seals and unleashed a Fire Style of enormous scale.

A massive fireball engulfed over a dozen buildings.

Yagami suspected the Yellow Dog Squad Leader was from the Sarutobi Clan based on that Fire Style.

The Cloud ninja in the middle leaped up, desperately dodging the flames.

Two Anbu squads on the flanks looped around and pushed forward, keeping the Cloud ninja too occupied to focus on the Yellow Dog Squad.

The Yellow Dog Squad continued charging ahead, following the fireball as they broke through the Cloud ninja lines.

Yagami glanced left and right—too fast, they were deep behind enemy lines now.

Soon, the Yellow Dog Squad reached the gap between the Cloud and Mist ninja.

The Mist ninja still ignored everything else, killing Uzumaki ninja without restraint, bent only on avenging the Mizukage.

This let the Yellow Dog Squad rapidly close in on the Four Violet Flames Formation.

"Fox! Hold the rear!"

Hearing the Black Gorilla's order, Yagami had no choice but to slow his pace, dropping to the back of the squad.

The Cloud ninja behind them were closing in.

With a solid foundation in swordsmanship, Yagami could always read their movements when Cloud ninja struck and react accordingly.

After cutting down two Cloud ninja in a row, Yagami's performance caught the attention of a Squad Leader.

Who would have thought Konoha had a ninja with such solid fundamentals in blade work?

The Cloud Ninja Squad Leader charged suddenly, his blade chopping down from above.

Seeing this, Yagami hurriedly raised his own sword to block.

Yet the expected clang of metal never came.

The Cloud Ninja's shoulder, elbow, and wrist twisted with incredible speed, turning the downward chop into a horizontal slash!

Yagami sucked in his stomach.

His iron vest was cut open, and the flesh of his abdomen was sliced through.

Blood flowed from below his belly, and his abdominal muscles were severed.

What terrifying swordsmanship.

This Cloud Ninja Squad Leader's blade was eerily unpredictable.

It was no longer beginner-level sword arts; he had mastered some powerful technique.

The Cloud Ninja Squad Leader swept his blade sideways again.

Yagami quickly raised his ninja sword to block.

Once more, the Cloud Ninja's joints and muscles forcibly altered the blade's trajectory, shifting from a horizontal sweep to a downward thrust.

Yagami's thigh was stabbed, blood spurting out over a meter.

After three consecutive exchanges of offense and defense, Yagami lamentably discovered he couldn't even touch the Cloud Ninja's blade.

Until the final strike, when his throat was pierced, Yagami died atop the rooftop.

Lying face-up, his back pressed against the roof ridge, Yagami saw an inverted world.

The shattered Uzu Hidden Village, the precarious Four Violet Flames Formation, and the streets filled with corpses of young and old alike...

He was a corpse now too...

Danzo walked unhurriedly down the street, completely unaware that a masked Anbu subordinate wearing a fox mask had just died to his side.

--

His vision went dark, the scene shifted, and the full moon shone into Yagami's eyes. His gaze changed from chaos to clarity.

Consciousness returned. Yagami was back inside the Invisibility Barrier atop the mountain not far from Uzu Hidden Village.

In his previous life, after nearly ten days of crouching in ambush, he had been killed in seconds by the Cloud Ninja Squad Leader during the final charge.

[Arc of the Crescent Moon activated!

The host has one chance to revive each month, resurrecting on the previous full moon night after death.

Awarded one draw opportunity:

1 - Lightning Release Chakra;

2 - Chunin-level Chakra (stackable);

3 - Cloud Style Swordsmanship (Beginner).]

Lightning Release Chakra was out of the question; the remaining two options were both tempting.

Chunin-level Chakra was something Yagami urgently needed right now.

If he could obtain Chunin-level Chakra, combat would go much more smoothly.

Cloud Style Swordsmanship... Yagami recalled that the original work seemed to mention it—the sword technique used by Omoi, a style focused on deception.

In his previous life, when the Cloud Ninja had cut him down, Yagami couldn't even touch the Cloud Ninja's blade; every strike had been taken squarely with flesh and blood.

After much deliberation, Yagami chose Cloud Style Swordsmanship.

In an instant, Yagami mastered this sword technique.

He was currently lying on the ground observing Uzu Hidden Village through a telescope, and every muscle and joint in his body had changed.

Cloud Style Swordsmanship, as Yagami had guessed, was a special set of blade-wielding techniques.

During the swing, the waist, shoulders, elbows, and wrists twisted, altering the blade's trajectory to deceive the opponent, evade their blocks, and strike their weak points.

When mastered to the extreme, the arm would flow and stretch like a cloud, hence the Cloud Ninja named it Cloud Style Swordsmanship.

With this technique, at least he wouldn't die so quickly on the battlefield.

After learning this swordsmanship, Yagami's joints became much more flexible.

The 30,000-word first-choice editorial team didn't sign it, and the cross-review didn't sign it either. Sigh, is there any reader who's made it this far willing to tell me what exactly went wrong?