"Drip... drip..."
Drops of water fell from the tips of the stalactites and struck the pool below. In the silent cave, the sound was amplified endlessly, like a tireless metronome playing the prelude to the death that was soon to come.
Mizuki Han clung tightly to the shadows on the cave ceiling, as camouflaged as a relief carved from the same stone. His breathing was slow and faint, his heartbeat forcibly suppressed to an extremely low rhythm. The life force he gave off was almost indistinguishable from the cold rock around him.
Below, three Mist Anbu advanced cautiously in a standard triangular search formation.
The leader, codenamed Wildcat, was a seasoned veteran. Every step landed on the sturdiest rock, and his sharp gaze swept over every possible hiding place like a searchlight. To his left was a burly ninja codenamed Heavy Hammer, who carried a pair of short axes. His muscles bulged, marking him as a typical assault fighter.
The one who truly gave Mizuki Han trouble was the masked ninja at the very center of the formation, whom the other two seemed to protect, whether deliberately or not.
That ninja, codenamed Jingting, had barely moved since entering the cave. Most of the time, he maintained a one-handed Hand Seal, and faint pulses of chakra rippled outward from him.
A sensor ninja.
A cold killing intent flickered deep in Mizuki Han's eyes.
This squad was far more professional—and far more deadly—than any enemies he had faced before. They had a leader, an assault fighter, and an "eye" capable of seeing through everything. In an environment like this, no physical trap or concealment could be counted on to escape Sensory Ninjutsu.
Right now, he was like a fly crawling across a pane of glass. He thought he was well hidden, unaware that the person on the other side could see his every move.
He couldn't wait.
If the enemy's sensory range reached the area above them, he would instantly become the prey instead of the hunter.
But he couldn't attack recklessly, either.
Until he was absolutely certain who the enemy's core was, any attack would be a gamble. If he chose the wrong target for his first kill, he would have to face the furious counterattack of two Anbu elites at full strength.
Countless plans flashed through Mizuki Han's mind, only to be dismissed just as quickly.
He was running low on chakra. Every attack had to be aimed at crippling the enemy's fighting ability. He had to find the squad's most vulnerable "Achilles' heel"—then kill it with one strike.
A bold idea, almost insane, took shape in his mind.
Since probing them physically was too risky, he would try to "fish" on a psychological and chakra level.
He would deliberately release his killing intent.
It sounded like suicide. Releasing killing intent in front of a sensor ninja was like lighting a torch in the dark.
But Mizuki Han wasn't going to light a torch. He was going to strike a match that would burn for only a tenth of a second.
He would release killing intent compressed and controlled to the extreme—an incredibly faint but utterly pure killing intent. It wouldn't be enough for Jingting to pinpoint his exact position, but it would be more than enough to stir the battle instincts of a veteran ninja, instincts carved into his very bones.
It was a precise psychological experiment, a gamble on the enemy's unconscious reaction.
Mizuki Han drew a slow breath, emptying his lungs of stale air. He focused his mind and compressed the killing intent born of his hatred of death and desire to survive, forged over two lifetimes. He compressed it again and again, until it became a "needle" finer than a strand of hair.
Then he gently "stung" the center of the three-person squad below with that needle.
There was no sound, no flash of light.
This was a threat that transcended the five senses, a warning that came from the soul.
The moment that faint killing intent leaked out, the three Anbu below abruptly froze!
Time seemed to slow down.
Mizuki Han's pupils narrowed to dangerous pinpoints as he clearly caught and analyzed every microexpression and every twitch of the three men's muscles.
The leader, codenamed Wildcat, narrowed his eyes and instinctively stepped half a pace to the side. He raised the Kunai in his hand across his chest, taking up a standard defensive stance. His gaze swept around like an eagle's, searching for the source of the killing intent.
The assault fighter, codenamed Heavy Hammer, reacted even more directly. With a low growl, he crossed his short axes in front of himself, his burly body forming a wall on the leader's other side.
But the sensor ninja, Jingting, who had been protected in the center all along, recoiled half a step the instant the killing intent appeared. His Hand Seal fell apart, and his face filled with uncertainty.
A perfect, instinctive protective formation!
The moment the two fighters sensed danger, they didn't act independently. Instead, they both moved in unison to shield the sensor ninja in the safest position!
"Found you."
Mizuki Han coldly mouthed the words in his mind.
His experiment had worked.
Jingting was the squad's brain, its core—and its greatest weakness! Once he was dead, Wildcat and Heavy Hammer would be no more than beasts without eyes. They wouldn't be a threat.
The first kill was decided!
"What was that?" Wildcat asked in a low voice, full of caution. "Jingting, did you sense it?"
The killing intent had come and gone in an instant, as if it had been nothing but an illusion.
Jingting looked pale. He formed Hand Seals again, closed his eyes, and carefully sensed the chakra flowing around them.
"Captain... just now... it seemed like something... flashed by." His voice was uncertain. "It was incredibly faint, like... a startled mouse. But the malice... it was pure."
"A mouse?" Heavy Hammer snorted dismissively. "In a place like this, it's either rats or bats. Captain, I think you're just too tense."
Wildcat ignored Heavy Hammer. His gaze remained fixed on every shadow in the cave, especially the jagged stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
His instincts told him that something was wrong.
That fleeting killing intent couldn't have come from a rat. It was a cold will, tempered through countless trials, with every emotion stripped away until only the pure logic of killing remained.
The one he was hunting tonight was no ordinary Kekkei Genkai remnant.
"Heighten your guard!" Wildcat ordered, his voice decisive and unquestionable. "Jingting, expand your sensory range to the limit. I want every grain of dust in this cave turned over!"
"Yes!"
Jingting took a deep breath, and his hands moved faster as he formed Hand Seals. A surge of chakra several times stronger than before spread outward from him like a radar sweep, covering the entire cave without leaving a single blind spot.
Mizuki Han's eyes narrowed.
The enemy was getting serious.
He had at most ten seconds—no, five! Then his position would be completely exposed!
He had to assassinate Jingting before he was discovered.
But how?
Jingting was wedged between two experienced Anbu elites, forming an iron triangle with almost no blind spots. If Mizuki Han attacked from where he was now, no matter which one he targeted, the other two would immediately overwhelm him.
Unless... he could split them up.
Mizuki Han slowly shifted his gaze away from the three men and toward the rubble on the other side of the cave, where his Ice Thread Trap had gone off.
A plan to create a diversion quickly took shape in his mind.
He needed bait.
Bait that would draw everyone's attention in an instant and create a fatal one-second opening.
His gaze finally settled on the less than thirty percent of his chakra that remained.
A cold, cruel smile curved Mizuki Han's lips. His left hand remained clamped tightly to the rock wall to keep his balance, while his right hand silently reached into the deepest shadow behind him.
Chakra began to gather in his palm in an extremely subtle way.
Water...
This cave had no shortage of water. Whether it was the moisture in the air or the droplets seeping from the rock walls, everything could become a deadly piece on his board.
The sensory wave below had already reached his feet.
Three seconds.
Two seconds.
One!
Just as Jingting's senses were about to touch him, Mizuki Han moved!
But his real body remained as still as a statue.
What moved was the shadow behind him!
A Water Clone, identical to him and formed from moisture and filthy water, silently slid from behind a stalactite on the other side. It hurtled toward the back of the assault fighter, Heavy Hammer, at incredible speed!
"Who's there?!"
The instant the Water Clone appeared, Jingting's senses picked up the sudden chakra disturbance. His eyes flew open, and he let out a startled shout!
Wildcat and Heavy Hammer reacted with lightning speed, both turning at once.
Heavy Hammer let out a roar and swung his twin axes behind him without even looking, the blades tearing through the air!
Everyone's attention was drawn to the Water Clone that had suddenly appeared!
Yet none of them noticed that, in the instant they turned, a real, deadly shadow had slipped down from the cave ceiling under cover of the flowing water. Like a specter, it bypassed everyone's line of sight and soundlessly appeared behind the sensor ninja, Jingting—in the one and only blind spot!
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