Ice Senbon Blinds Both Eyes, Water Release Counterattack Forces Cornered Death

The air inside the cavern seemed to have been sucked dry, leaving behind only the thick scent of blood and the eerie red glow emanating from that black scroll.

Wildcat's pupils constricted violently the moment he saw the scroll. It was no ordinary mission scroll; it was an encrypted beacon used by the Mist Anbu to receive top-secret directives during the "Great Purge." Once this item fell into the hands of an outsider, it meant the entire base's purge plan, evacuation routes, and even the trigger mechanism for the poison gas release would be exposed.

"That belongs to me." Wildcat's voice was low and hoarse. His injured right arm trembled slightly, but his left hand gripped his ninja blade tightly. His body was like a fully drawn bow, ready to spring into action at any moment.

Mizuki Han did not move to snatch it. He stood where he was, his body like a statue; not even the rhythm of his breathing fluctuated at the appearance of the scroll. He knew clearly that the scroll was right there and could not run away. The immediate priority was to finish off this last "beast" before him.

Wildcat's tactical proficiency was extremely high. He did not lose his composure to anger; instead, he used the shadows of his body to mask the subtle movements of his feet. He was searching for an opening—an opportunity for a one-hit kill.

Mizuki Han's gaze dipped slightly, shifting from Wildcat's ninja blade to his face. The Anbu mask covered most of his features, revealing only a pair of eyes filled with murderous intent.

"Where are you looking?" Wildcat let out a cold snort and lunged forward, his speed so great that he left a blurred afterimage in the air.

This was not merely a physical charge. As he moved, the moisture in the surrounding air was instantly drawn away and gathered onto the blade in his hand. Water Release: Water Blade Slash!

The strike was fast, accurate, and ruthless, aimed directly at Mizuki Han's throat.

However, Mizuki Han moved. He did not retreat, nor did he even block. His right hand darted out at an incredibly strange angle, his fingertips pinching three pre-condensed Ice Senbon.

They were not aimed at Wildcat's blade, nor at his heart, but at his eyes.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

Three crisp impact sounds overlapped almost perfectly. The Ice Senbon struck the eye-holes of Wildcat's mask with precision. Although blocked by the mask, the chakra-infused Ice Senbon shattered upon contact, turning into countless tiny shards of ice that forced their way through the gaps and pierced directly into Wildcat's eyeballs!

"Aaaah—!"

A scream of extreme agony echoed through the cavern. Wildcat's assault came to an abrupt halt in mid-air. He dropped his ninja blade and clutched his eyes tightly with both hands, bright red blood mixed with ice shards gushing out from between his fingers.

Vision, for a ninja, was life itself. The moment he lost his sight, Wildcat's body instinctively fell into chaos. He swung his arms wildly, attempting to drive away the surrounding darkness.

"Scum! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Wildcat descended into a frenzy. He began weaving hand signs frantically, no longer caring about his chakra consumption or whether he might accidentally injure himself.

Mizuki Han watched all of this with an expressionless face. He did not take the opportunity to move in for the kill, but instead slid backward rapidly. He knew too well the nature of such elite ninjas who had lost their sanity; even if blinded, the sheer volume of chakra they had accumulated could level this entire cavern in an instant.

"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"

Amidst Wildcat's hysterical roar, the chakra within him erupted like a burst dam. The standing water on the cavern floor was instantly agitated, as if an invisible dragon had awakened underground. A massive torrent of water broke through the constraints of the rock, forming a terrifying column of water several meters in diameter that swept toward Mizuki Han's position!

The cavern space was already cramped, and this large-scale Water Release technique sealed off all paths of retreat.

Mizuki Han's expression darkened. Having just used his chakra to instantly kill the sensory ninja and then to counter Wildcat's surprise attack, he had very little left. He could not possibly withstand a ninjutsu of this magnitude head-on.

"Run!"

He grabbed the dark shadow on the ground—it was Haku, who had been shivering in the corner. Not bothering to check if she could keep up, he grabbed her by the back of her collar and forcibly flung her toward a crevice in the rock high up in the cavern.

"Stay hidden!"

He dropped these two words coldly before his entire body was violently struck by the terrifying torrent of water.

"Boom!"

The massive impact slammed him directly against the cavern wall. The crisp sound of ribs breaking echoed in his ears, and his internal organs felt as if they had been displaced. The water flow did not stop; instead, it surged along the rock wall, pinning him firmly into a crevice and leaving him unable to move.

This was a desperate situation.

Although Wildcat was blind, he used his keen perception of chakra to lock onto Mizuki Han's position with precision. He wove hand signs, and the violent water flow formed a closed vortex within the cavern, trapping Mizuki Han completely in that narrow dead end.

"Got you..." Wildcat was covered in blood, his mask long since shattered, revealing a twisted and hideous face. Listening to the sound of the water crashing against the stone, a cruel curve tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Under this suffocating water pressure, how long can your chakra last? The moment you suffocate, I will crush every single one of your bones!"

Mizuki Han was pressed hard against the rock wall, the freezing water constantly washing over his wounds and draining the last of his body heat. The air in his lungs was rapidly depleting; every breath felt like swallowing shards of glass.

His vision began to blur.

But this was not the end of hope; it was the peak of his composure.

Within the violent vortex of water, Mizuki Han's pitch-black eyes stared fixedly at a spot less than three meters away: the black scroll, which was tumbling along with the current and about to be swept into the depths of the underground river.

His hand reached quietly toward his waist. There, he still had one last Explosive Tag.

But he did not detonate it immediately. He was waiting.

He was waiting for this violent current to push him toward that corner about to be swallowed, and simultaneously toward the only fulcrum that could turn defeat into victory.

Wildcat's footsteps grew closer. Accompanied by the roar of the water, he was closing in on this corner sealed off by the current. His right hand had already condensed a high-pressure water sphere—a lethal strike capable of piercing through rock.

At this moment, the corner of Mizuki Han's mouth slowly curled into a smile.

He took one deep breath of the air remaining in his lungs and wove a strange hand sign.

It was the starting form for "Ice Release," yet it carried a trace of "Water Release" fluctuations.

Wildcat had reached him. The high-pressure water sphere glowed with the light of death in the dim light. He grinned hideously, his blood-soaked right hand pressing down fiercely toward Mizuki Han's chest!

"Die!"

The instant the high-pressure water sphere was about to touch Mizuki Han's chest, Mizuki Han's pupils contracted sharply. He did not dodge; instead, facing the lethal sphere, he slammed his hand, infused with Ice Release chakra, directly onto the relentless vortex of water!

"Freeze... for me!"

With this low growl, the previously violent water vortex seemed to hit a pause button in that very instant.

Starting from the point of contact, a terrifying chill spread upward along the water on Wildcat's arm at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Wildcat's movements froze.

The hand he had pressed toward Mizuki Han, along with his entire arm, turned into a crystalline ice sculpture in an instant! Even his hideous face was rapidly covered by a layer of white frost.

However, Mizuki Han's face turned deathly pale in an instant; his chakra had been completely drained, and his meridians throbbed with a tearing, agonizing pain.

He looked at the enemy before him, who was on the verge of being frozen into an ice sculpture, but his gaze drifted past the man's shoulder, fixed intently on the black scroll that had drifted to the edge of the cliff and was about to plummet into the abyss.

He was unable to move, yet at the very last moment before being frozen solid, Wildcat's other hand had miraculously grabbed the edge of the scroll!

If Wildcat's body were to collapse, or if he were to use his remaining chakra for one final struggle, the scroll would vanish forever into the depths of the subterranean river.

Mizuki Han gritted his teeth. In the final second before his consciousness plunged into darkness, he used every last ounce of his strength to tear his body away from the stone wall and lunged fiercely toward the scroll!

Just as his fingertips were about to touch the scroll, an unexpected change occurred—the scroll seemed to sense something, trembling slightly in Wildcat's hand, before a dense, almost tangible blood-red chakra erupted violently from within it!