Feigning Death with Finesse to Evade the Sharp Edge, Kisame's Underestimation Leaves a Chance

The excruciating pain of a sharp blade piercing his chest nearly shattered Mizuki Han's consciousness entirely.

That water blade, condensed from high-density chakra, carried unparalleled piercing power as it struck from behind his heart and exited through his chest. Blood surged out like a bursting dam, instantly painting his pale, youthful face in a shocking, ghastly hue.

A look of unexpected bewilderment flickered across Kisame's shark-like face.

"What is this... turns out it's just a brat."

He looked at the face, which remained somewhat childish despite being twisted in agony, his tone tinged with bored disappointment. He had expected to drag a stubborn adult ninja out of the pipes, but it was just a child playing at clever tricks.

Mizuki Han's body hit the cold, stagnant water with a heavy thud, splashing up murky droplets. His pupils dilated rapidly, the light in his eyes fading at a visible rate as if the breath of life had been completely drained by this fatal blow.

Everything was over.

At least, that was how it appeared to Kisame.

However, hidden from his sight, a breathtaking display of micro-control had just reached its finale within Mizuki Han's body.

Just 0.01 seconds before Kisame's water blade emerged from the shadows to touch his body, Mizuki Han had unhesitatingly utilized the last and most critical portion of his "Three-Part Chakra Principle"—his trump card for escaping a desperate situation.

That remaining sliver of chakra, squeezed out from the corpses, was not used for defense or counterattack. With an inconceivable level of control, Mizuki Han had instantly condensed it inside his chest, directly in front of his heart, into an arc-shaped ice shield as thin as a cicada's wing yet incredibly tough!

This was no ordinary ice. It was a crystalized substance with density far exceeding steel, pushed to the absolute limit of Ice Release nature transformation.

"Splat!"

The water blade pierced flesh without resistance, but the moment it was about to penetrate his heart, it slammed into this inconspicuous ice shield.

The lethal kinetic energy was not completely neutralized, but under the perfect arc of the ice shield, it was deflected by a microscopic margin.

Those few millimeters of deviation decided life and death!

The water blade whistled past the edge of his heart, precisely piercing his left lung. Agony and suffocation struck simultaneously, but his most vital organ had been spared.

The moment the ice shield completed its mission, it disintegrated and melted due to the immense impact and body heat, turning into ordinary water that mixed with the gushing blood, leaving no trace behind.

This was a high-stakes gamble with the Grim Reaper, with his entire intellect, his ultimate understanding of Ice Release, and that paranoid, bone-deep anticipation of death as the stakes.

He had won.

But the play was not yet over.

Mizuki Han forcibly suppressed all of his body's stress responses, allowing his life force to "drain away." He emptied his mind, stopped his breathing, and even used his mental energy to forcibly intervene, slowing his heart rate to a near-stagnant level.

This was a technique of suspended animation derived from memories of his past life, combined with a ninja's powerful control over their body to form the ultimate deception—a fake death.

Kisame walked over slowly, his Samehada blade, wrapped in bandages, dragging on the ground and making a teeth-grinding "shushing" sound. He looked down at Mizuki Han lying in the pool of blood, his small eyes filled with scrutiny.

He raised his foot and kicked Mizuki Han's body casually with the tip of his boot.

The "corpse" rolled in the water without any reaction.

Seemingly still unsatisfied, Kisame crouched down and placed his rough fingers against the carotid artery in Mizuki Han's neck.

Cold, deathly still.

Not a single pulse.

He then reached out and placed his hand under Mizuki Han's nose.

Not a single breath.

Finally, his gaze fell upon the bloody hole piercing his chest. Although it wasn't dead center, it was definitely a fatal wound for a child. Blood continued to seep from the wound, staining a large area of the surrounding water.

"Tch, boring."

Kisame curled his lip and stood up.

A game of cat and mouse that ended with the mouse being instantly crushed left him feeling quite uninspired. He preferred the process of watching prey struggle and resist in despair before being completely torn apart by his overwhelming power.

Although this brat had played a few clever tricks, he was ultimately too weak—too weak to even be worth drawing Samehada for.

His gaze shifted to the little girl, Haku, who had been curled up in the corner the entire time, trembling like chaff in the wind from sheer terror.

Haku bit her lip hard to keep from making a sound, but tears slid down her face silently like beads from a broken string. She had watched with her own eyes as "Brother Han" was pierced by that water blade, watched as he fell into the pool of blood, motionless.

Kisame glanced at Haku twice and lost interest entirely.

A survivor with no chakra fluctuations who had been scared out of her wits wasn't even worth being a snack. His mission was to clear out the remnants of the Yuki and Kaguya clans; others would handle these small, escaped fish.

"Bloodline Limit trash, they really only know how to play cheap tricks."

Kisame offered one final, disdainful comment and turned to leave. He had to provide support in other sectors and had no time to waste here.

The heavy footsteps receded into the deep tunnel until they vanished completely.

The lethal crisis seemed to have passed.

The entire underground space returned to a deathly silence, with only the sound of water dripping from cracks in the pipes echoing in the empty space—drip, drip—as if tolling a funeral bell for a life lost.

Haku finally could not hold it back and let out a stifled sob. She scrambled over to Mizuki Han's "corpse," reaching out with trembling hands, yet she dared not touch the gruesome wound.

"Brother... Han..."

The girl's weeping was filled with despair.

However, she did not notice.

On Mizuki Han's bloodless face, a single, imperceptible eyelash trembled ever so slightly.

The state of feigned death had deceived Kisame, yet it had also plunged him into a truly desperate situation.

His lung lobes were pierced, he had suffered excessive blood loss, his chakra was completely exhausted, and his bodily functions had plummeted to freezing point... any one of these conditions would be fatal on its own. Now, they were all compounded together.

His consciousness, like a flickering candle in the wind, drifted in an endless abyss of darkness, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

Kisame had left, but the Grim Reaper had not.

Severely wounded and on the brink of death, Han was trapped within this gradually cooling shell. How could he awaken from this boundless, deadly trap and seize a glimmer of survival?