Using His Own Plan Against Him: Raising a Dense Fog to Steal His Sight and Seize the Initiative

Orange-red waves of fire, like an ancient ferocious beast breaking free of its chains, opened its gaping maw and roared as it swept across the entire buffer room.

The air warped under the scorching heat, releasing a sharp, sizzling whine. The steel weapon racks glowed red at a speed visible to the naked eye, then bent, warped, and finally melted into pools of scalding-hot iron. The ninja tools hanging from the ceiling fell like a desperate rain of metal, clanging as they dropped before the sea of flames swallowed them without so much as a ripple.

Everything Mizuki Han had so carefully prepared was as fragile as a paper lantern before this absolute, brutal force.

The ice mirrors he had painstakingly positioned at tricky angles gave off a violent hiss the instant they touched the fire. They didn't last even a second before vaporizing completely and vanishing into thin air. His nearly transparent web of ice threads, spread across the entire space, began to crumble from the edges, inch by inch, like a spiderweb scorched by the blazing sun. They snapped and evaporated in an instant, rendered useless.

"Boom!"

The last row of weapon racks shielding him finally gave way and crashed to the ground, swallowed completely by the roiling flames.

With his final cover gone, Mizuki Han was completely exposed in this burning hell.

Scalding waves of heat struck his face. His skin stung as if pricked by needles, as though it would crack open at any moment. Every breath seared his lungs with sulfurous heat, as if his internal organs were being roasted over a blazing fire.

His Ice Release kekkei genkai was utterly countered by Fire Release!

Captain Hozuki hovered in midair, the crimson gem between his brows gleaming with cruel delight. He looked down coldly at the sea of flames he had created with his own hands, the corner of his mouth curling with confidence.

As far as he was concerned, this game of cat and mouse was over.

That self-important mouse had either already been burned to a crisp in the flames or could only flee in a panic through a gap in the fire, where he would be easily crushed like an ant.

But the screams and pleas he expected never came.

At the center of the sea of flames, the desperate boy did not run. Instead, he did something Captain Hozuki couldn't understand.

Mizuki Han actually charged forward instead of retreating!

He stepped into the oncoming waves of fire, hot enough to melt gold and iron!

"Suicidal fool!" A vicious glint flashed in Captain Hozuki's eyes.

But the next second, his expression froze.

Mizuki Han slammed both hands against the ground. His unharmed right hand plunged into the drainage channel beneath him! Rather than resist the flames surging toward him, he forced the little chakra he had left to flow in reverse, pushing it with an almost self-destructive intensity!

"Ice Release: Reverse Dissolution!"

This wasn't an attack, nor was it a defense.

It was self-destruction!

He was deliberately undoing the Ice Release techniques he had laid down earlier, the ones the flames hadn't yet reached!

The ice he had formed beneath the floor and in the drainage channels to set his traps instantly broke down from solid into its most primal form: freezing-cold water, forced apart by the reversal of his chakra!

"Whoosh—!"

Water surged from the drainage channels in every direction like a floodgate had opened, quickly rising over his ankles.

The freezing water and scorching flames clashed in the cramped space!

"Hiss—! Hiss—! Hiss—!"

A deafening series of violent hisses erupted, loud enough to feel as if they would tear apart anyone's eardrums!

An unimaginable amount of white steam surged skyward!

In less than a second, the orange-red flames that could have burned everything to ash were doused by the torrent of steam. The firelight quickly dimmed, replaced by a thick, roiling fog that blotted out the sky and was dense enough to cut with a knife!

The temperature in the buffer room plummeted in a bizarre fashion as ice and fire clashed, but everyone's vision was snatched away in an instant!

Turning the tables!

Turning a disadvantage into an advantage!

There was no trace of relief on Mizuki Han's face. Only his eyes, still startlingly bright in the dense fog, gleamed with icy calculation.

From the moment Captain Hozuki began weaving his Hand Seals, Mizuki Han's pathological Persecutory Delusion and razor-sharp rationality had been running through every possible outcome.

Fire Release. Wide range. Indiscriminate attack.

His Ice Release would be countered, his traps destroyed, his hiding place exposed... Every disadvantage flashed through his mind.

But what happened when Fire Release countered Ice Release and high temperatures melted ice?

Water vapor!

An enormous amount of water vapor, enough to obscure everything!

A shinobi raised in Kirigakure felt an instinctive kinship with fog, something etched into their blood.

Captain Hozuki thought he had crushed all Mizuki Han's plans with sheer force. He didn't realize his own violent Fire Release had become the most crucial, indispensable part of Mizuki Han's new plan!

He had personally created the ideal battlefield for Mizuki Han!

"Brat... you're dead!"

Captain Hozuki's roar, filled with shock and fury, rang through the fog.

Hovering in midair, he watched the crimson gem between his brows flash wildly as he tried to pierce the fog and pinpoint Mizuki Han's position. But the fog, formed by the violent reaction between ice water and Fire Release, was full of chaotic chakra particles that severely disrupted his senses.

His "eyes" were blind!

The prey he had toyed with moments ago had disappeared.

In its place was the prickling sense of danger that came from being targeted by an unknown hunter!

"Come... out!"

Captain Hozuki roared and formed Hand Seals again. Another violent wave of fire burst from his palms, as he tried to use even hotter flames to evaporate the accursed fog.

But this was exactly what Mizuki Han had wanted.

More flames would only evaporate more water, creating an even thicker fog that would be even harder to disperse!

"Boom!"

The flames charged into the fog. Far from clearing it, they turned the entire space an even more impenetrable white. Visibility had dropped to less than half a meter!

Captain Hozuki finally realized his mistake and abruptly stopped his jutsu.

But it was too late.

The entire buffer room had become a white prison where he couldn't see a hand in front of his face.

And within this prison, Mizuki Han was the true master.

He slowly rose to his feet, moving so quietly that he made no sound. Under cover of the fog, he was like a ghost who had merged with the white world around him.

His right hand reached into the water beneath his feet once more.

Cold chakra spread silently through the water.

The ice threads that had melted and broken under the heat had lost their original form, but hadn't vanished completely. They had become the tiniest ice crystals, suspended in the fog and standing water.

Now, under Mizuki Han's renewed control, the ice crystals began to weave and link together again, like venomous bees waking from their slumber!

A new web of death, even more concealed and deadly, was silently taking shape in this white world.

"Drip... drip..."

The sound of molten metal dripping from the ceiling into the water became the only sound in the room.

Each drop struck Captain Hozuki's heart, pounding wildly with fury and unease.

At last, he could no longer maintain his hovering position. He slowly descended to the ground.

He had to act.

He had to wrest back the initiative!

He would drag that mouse hiding in the shadows out with his own hands and tear him to pieces!

He had no idea that the instant his feet touched the ground, Mizuki Han's lips had already curled into a smile, cold beyond measure.

The stage was set.

And the actors were in place.

Within the dense fog, could the twelve reactivated traps finally bury this experienced elite Chunin for good?