At the entrance to the cavern, red light burst into bloom.
The Explosive Tag's power was multiplied several times over in the narrow rocky passage. Shards of stone and clouds of dust swept outward like shrapnel. At the last possible moment, the lead Anbu ninja managed to stop in his tracks and threw himself backward in an awkward roll, narrowly avoiding the heart of the blast. The two subordinates behind him weren't so lucky.
The chain reaction triggered by the Ice Thread Tripwire sent the Ice Shards, laid in wait beforehand, shooting in from all directions. Their screams were swallowed by the thunderous blast. Caught completely off guard, the two Anbu ninjas were pierced through their armor by a hail of ice spikes and toppled into the murky water.
"Enemy attack!" The leader regained his footing, Kunai instantly raised across his chest. His gaze swept like lightning over the cavern, shrouded in smoke and moisture.
He didn't panic. Instead, he quickly retreated while signaling with his hands. One of the two injured ninjas managed to struggle to his feet. Though the other had lost the ability to move, he immediately pulled a Signal Smoke Bomb from his weapons pouch, ready to call for help.
Above them, in the shadows of the stalactites, Mizuki Han clung to the cavern ceiling like a gecko.
He had forced his heart rate down to fewer than thirty beats per minute, and used precise chakra control to lower his body temperature until it matched the surrounding rock. He held his breath without even blinking. He was a rock, an inanimate object, even a wandering ghost.
He looked down at everything below.
This squad's tactical skill far surpassed that of the two chunin before them. The leader's first reaction to the ambush hadn't been to pursue. Instead, he'd formed a defensive line. His eyes warily searched every blind spot in the cavern, and he kept his Kunai ready to block at any moment.
"Three of them." Mizuki Han silently counted.
The badly wounded ninja was trying to send a signal, while the one still able to fight covered the leader as they moved farther in. It was an extremely seasoned method of clearing an area. They'd already anticipated the presence of traps and were trying to force their hidden enemy out with a slow, steady advance.
Mizuki Han's fingers dug slightly into the cracks in the rock. A faint burning sensation ran along the meridians in his left hand—the lingering injury left by overusing Ice Release earlier. But he showed no sign of discomfort. Pain of that degree was merely background noise to him in battle.
"Sensory Ninjutsu..."
His gaze settled on a ninja beside the leader, wearing a cat-faced mask. The man wasn't rushing to attack. Instead, he pressed a hand to the ground, sending a faint pulse of chakra rippling outward from him like waves across water.
It was Sensory Ninjutsu.
Mizuki Han's gaze grew colder. This was the real trouble. If the wave swept over him, his position would be exposed in an instant. Then, against three Anbu with extensive combat experience, he'd have little chance of turning the tables, no matter how many traps he had prepared.
"I can't let them find me."
He slowly adjusted his position, trying to make his body perfectly match the contours of the stalactite. His muscles tensed like a drawn bowstring, ready to unleash a sudden strike the moment he was exposed—or... find another hiding spot.
The search continued below.
"Captain, the standing water here shows signs of having been disturbed. That Ice Thread Trap was deliberately laid." The sensory ninja stood up and spoke in an even, unruffled tone. "The enemy's chakra signature is very weak and difficult to detect, but I can sense an unnatural chill in the air around us."
"A brat who's good at Ice Release," the leader said with a cold snort, sweeping his gaze across the cavern ceiling.
His eyes lingered for a moment on the stalactite beneath which Mizuki Han was hiding. In that instant, Mizuki Han felt a chill pass over his back. It was an instinctive sensitivity to killing intent, honed through countless fights for survival.
The leader furrowed his brow, seeming to sense something amiss. But instead of looking up, he signaled to the sensory ninja to keep searching.
"Keep moving," the leader ordered quietly. "He's injured. He can't have gone far. The moment he moves, he'll give himself away."
"Yes."
The three-man squad started toward the depths of the cavern. They didn't slow down for their injured comrade. Instead, they used him as bait, hoping to draw Mizuki Han out.
Mizuki Han watched as they crept closer to the area directly beneath him.
His mind raced. If he struck now, he was confident he could take out the sensory ninja first, but he'd have to reveal his position and would be unable to fend off the elite leader's counterattack. If he held back, they'd soon search this area, leaving him nowhere to run.
"I have to create chaos."
Mizuki Han turned his gaze to the rock wall on the other side of the cavern. A section of rock there had come loose, with hundreds of tons of stalactites piled above it. If he could shatter it and trigger a collapse, he could split the squad apart in an instant and create enough confusion to turn the battle in his favor.
But he didn't have enough chakra left to support a large-scale destructive technique.
"Unless..."
His gaze returned to the wounded Anbu ninja. To stay alert, the man had deliberately kept three meters away from the other two. And beneath his feet lay the support point of the loose rock formation.
The corner of Mizuki Han's mouth curled upward in the faintest smile.
He stopped suppressing his presence and slowly gathered the chakra he had left at his fingertips. A needle-thin sliver of ice quietly took shape. He didn't aim it directly at the wounded Anbu. Instead, he pointed its tip at a protruding pebble inside a crack in the rock beneath the man's feet.
If the ice needle hit the pebble and shifted it, it would trigger a chain collapse.
The sensory ninja seemed to notice an irregularity in the flow of energy. He whipped around, his eyes hidden behind his mask fixed on the spot above where Mizuki Han was concealed.
"Above us!"
The sensory ninja shouted and hurled his Kunai in the same instant.
At the same time, Mizuki Han didn't hesitate. The ice needle shot from his fingertip!
"Clang!"
The Kunai skimmed past Mizuki Han's ear, snipping off a strand of hair. The ice needle, meanwhile, sank precisely into the crack in the rock below.
"Rumble—!"
The entire cavern began to shudder violently. The loose rock formation, triggered by the ice needle, collapsed in an instant! Countless massive stalactites came crashing down like a rainstorm, burying the wounded Anbu ninja beneath the rubble and forcibly separating the leader and the sensory ninja on opposite sides.
Dust filled the air, obscuring their vision.
Mizuki Han leapt down from the stalactite and darted between the falling rocks like a snake. He ignored the Anbu buried beneath the rubble and rushed straight at the sensory ninja!
He knew that in this hunt, the eyes that could detect his location had to be blinded first.
The sensory ninja spun around in the dust, but all he saw was a streak of icy blue hurtling toward him at an unbelievable speed!
Before he could raise the Kunai in his hand, Mizuki Han's cold palm had already clamped around his throat.
"Got you."
Mizuki Han's voice rang out with startling clarity amid the surrounding chaos and thunder.
The sensory ninja's pupils contracted. He tried to form Hand Seals, but the choking pressure in his throat kept him from gathering chakra. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the leader bursting through the dust, a dazzling glow of chakra gathering in his hand as he charged straight for Mizuki Han's back!
There was no dodging this strike.
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