The dense fog seemed like a living thing, thick and cold, silently devouring light, sound, and every point of reference the senses could grasp.
The instant Captain Hozuki's feet touched the ground, icy water submerged his ankles. The crimson jewel between his brows flickered unsteadily, but it could barely see half a meter ahead before the dense fog—born of the clash between ice and fire and mixed with chaotic chakra—shattered its light completely.
His world had been compressed into a narrow cage with a radius of less than a meter, centered on his body.
"Drip... drip..."
Above him, metal melted by the high heat turned into scalding molten iron and dripped into the water, making a clear, rhythmic sound. It was the only sound in this white hell, each drop striking the heart pounding in Captain Hozuki's chest with anger and unease.
He couldn't wait any longer.
Being passive meant death. That was a creed etched into the bones of every Mist Anbu.
He had to move, find the little rat hiding in the shadows who had toyed with him, and crush every bone in its body in the most cruel way possible!
Captain Hozuki drew a deep breath. The hot, damp fog poured into his lungs, bringing a burning pain. He lowered his center of gravity, his body taut as a drawn bow. His ears twitched as he tried to pick out any sound of life amid the monotonous dripping.
"Plip."
Suddenly, an extremely faint splash came from about three meters ahead and to his left.
It was a soft sound, as if someone had accidentally stepped into a deeper puddle.
There you are!
Captain Hozuki's pupils contracted sharply, and every muscle in his body tensed. He didn't charge over at once. Instead, he gripped a kunai in reverse, lowered himself further, and moved like a black panther preparing to pounce on its prey.
Was it a trap? Or had the rat finally slipped up?
He couldn't tell. But the first unusual sound in this dense fog was his only chance to break the deadlock!
He held his breath. Chakra flowed beneath his feet as he glided toward the sound like a specter, making no noise.
One step, two steps...
The water beneath his feet was icy, but every step fell silently.
Yet when he reached the spot where the sound had come from, there was nothing there. Only a faint ripple, slowly spreading outward, proved that something had indeed fallen into the water.
Had he been tricked?
Captain Hozuki's brows knitted tightly, and the anger in his heart burned hotter.
"Plip."
Just then, the same sound rang out again, a little farther away and to his right!
This time, Captain Hozuki didn't hesitate. He could feel the rat moving through the dense fog like a ghost. He had to keep up with its rhythm, or it would lead him around by the nose forever!
"Found you!"
He growled, chakra bursting beneath his feet as his speed abruptly increased. He charged toward the source of the second sound!
But once again, all that awaited him was an empty stretch of water.
"Plip."
"Plip."
The false footsteps began to ring out one after another through the dense fog, like the drumbeats of death, at a steady, unhurried pace.
Each time, they lured Captain Hozuki toward the wrong direction.
Like a blindfolded bull, he charged this way and that through the white maze, furiously chasing a phantom that didn't exist. His strength was rapidly draining away. More importantly, his reason and patience were being worn down, little by little, by this endless mockery.
And in the shadows beyond his sight, Mizuki Han knelt in water that reached his knees. His one uninjured right hand was as steady as a rock.
From his fingertips, tiny, irregular ice spikes, each no bigger than a fingernail, took shape one after another. Then he flicked them away with extraordinarily precise force.
The ice spikes fell into the water in the distance, making splashes almost identical to the sound of someone walking.
It required an almost grotesque degree of control over force, angle, and the tension of the water's surface.
He wasn't fighting. He was fishing.
Using the cheapest bait to catch a big fish that had already lost its reason. Through the dense fog, his cold eyes calmly watched Captain Hozuki grow more and more frantic, as if savoring a play with a script that had long since been written.
Blinded by rage, Captain Hozuki didn't realize that the false footsteps were cleverly guiding him toward a specific area: the very center of the buffer room.
That was where the water flowed together most densely—and where Mizuki Han had laid the Ice Silk Killing Array anew, its core packed tight with deadly threads!
"Plip!"
When another footstep sounded ahead, Captain Hozuki had gone completely mad. With a beastlike roar, he charged forward without a care.
But the instant he took his third step, he felt something extremely faint yet unmistakable beneath his foot!
It wasn't soft mud, nor was it hard stone.
It was the sensation of catching on something... a thread, impossibly fine yet tough!
No!
At that moment, the battle instincts of an elite chūnin finally overpowered his rage! The hair on his body stood on end as a fatal sense of danger shot from his feet straight to his brain!
A trap!
The thing he had been chasing wasn't a rat at all, but a dead-end path leading straight to hell!
Without a second thought, he abruptly halted his charge, reversed the flow of chakra beneath his feet, and tried to retreat the way he had come!
But it was too late.
From the very first step he took into this area, he had already lost.
The corner of Mizuki Han's mouth curled into a smile of utmost chill.
Now.
He sprang upright from his half-kneeling position in the water. His right hand, which had remained submerged all along, opened wide, then clenched hard!
"Ice Release: Prison of No Return!"
He poured every last bit of chakra he could still muster into the water beneath his feet!
"Crk... creak... creeeak..."
A low freezing sound, enough to make one's scalp crawl, erupted behind Captain Hozuki!
The icy water seemed to be stirred by an invisible hand. Centered on the path he had taken, it rapidly collapsed inward and froze!
Captain Hozuki whirled around. Reflected in his pupils, contracted with fear, was a sight he would never forget.
A massive ice wall, half a meter thick and glinting with a sinister chill, was rising from the murky water before his eyes!
Its surface wasn't smooth. It was covered with countless sharp ice spikes like fangs, radiating a frigid force that repelled all living things.
In the span of a single breath, the ice wall had already risen three meters, and it kept climbing until, with a thunderous crash, it joined fast to the cracked ceiling!
His escape route was completely sealed!
Captain Hozuki's retreat came to an abrupt halt, his back nearly touching the icy wall.
He instinctively reached out to touch the sudden, unbreakable barrier, feeling the chill that could freeze his soul. The expression on his face shifted from rage to shock, then to disbelief, before finally turning ashen.
He was trapped.
Ahead lay dense fog he couldn't see through, filled with deadly traps.
Behind him stood an insurmountable wall forged of ice.
Like a beast driven into a cage, he had nowhere left to run.
"AAAAAAH—!!"
Utter terror and humiliation erupted from Captain Hozuki's throat in a hysterical roar!
He spun around, gathered all his chakra, and slammed his fist into the ice wall!
"BAM!!"
A dull, thunderous crash rang out, and the ice wall shuddered violently. Countless fine cracks spread from his fist in a spiderweb pattern.
But that was all.
The ice prison Mizuki Han had poured everything into creating hadn't shattered beneath his furious blow.
Captain Hozuki panted as he looked at his fist, cut by ice shards and streaming with blood. The last trace of reason in his eyes was swallowed by utter despair.
He knew the rat was somewhere in the dense fog, watching him coldly like he was a clown.
A beast backed into a corner would strike back with its wildest fury.
Captain Hozuki slowly lowered his head. A crimson flame of madness, bent on taking his enemy down with him, burned in his one remaining eye. He abandoned all defense and began forming hand seals at incredible speed, his hands twisting into eerie, contorted shapes.
An aura even more violent, scorching, and ominous than the one behind "Flame Wave Burning Kill" erupted from within him! The water at his feet began to bubble and boil!
What kind of counterattack would a chūnin backed into a corner unleash?
Before you continue