Infiltrating the Hidden Mist Village! Checking In at the Water Shadow Office, Obtaining the Boil Release and Lava Release Bloodline Limits!

Kamizuki Yu vanished from the Daimyo's Estate in the Water Country. In the next instant, he was standing amid the turbulent sea outside the Hidden Mist Village.

He had not chosen an ordinary landing point. Such places were surely covered with Hidden Mist sentries and barriers.

With his ever-growing sensory abilities and extraordinary understanding of Water Release ninjutsu, a seemingly ordinary cluster of undersea reefs revealed a different sight in his eyes.

The currents formed a faint whirlpool here, leading down into a hidden cave.

"Heh, enjoying the shade planted by those before me."

He slipped into the water with practiced ease, and the currents naturally parted to create a path for him.

The passage was deep and winding. It had clearly formed naturally before receiving subtle human modifications, enough to evade all conventional detection around the village's perimeter.

After passing through the underwater passage, his view suddenly opened up.

He had arrived at the Hidden Mist Village.

The air was thick with the stench of blood and moisture, cold and oppressive.

There were few pedestrians on the streets. Even the ninja mostly hurried along with guarded expressions, keeping a wary distance from one another.

The murderous chill of the Blood Mist policy had seeped into everyone's bones.

What a "wonderful place." Kamizuki Yu sneered inwardly.

To him, all this outwardly tight security was as good as nonexistent.

Like a breeze, like a shadow, he darted between the village buildings. He had pushed Water Release to its limits, blending into his surroundings so completely that no one could detect his presence.

His target was clear—the office of the Fourth Water Shadow, Yagura Karatachi.

It was the power center of the Hidden Mist Village, and the place where Obito was most likely to have left traces of his control.

The Water Shadow Building stood in the center of the village, its perimeter covered in layer upon layer of guards and sensory barriers.

Kamizuki Yu approached and swept the area with his senses.

"Interesting. These barriers actually contain elements of the improved Water Release concepts I just mastered."

A slight smile curved his lips. In his eyes, these barriers were riddled with flaws.

He did not even need to deliberately break them. By merely adjusting the flow of his chakra, he perfectly synchronized with the barriers' fluctuations and entered as though the place were unguarded.

The guards stood like wooden stakes, utterly oblivious to him.

Before long, he arrived outside the Water Shadow Office.

There was no one inside.

Kamizuki Yu spread out his senses. Yagura's chakra was at the other end of the village, unstable and seemingly occupied with handling some troublesome "rebellion."

"Handling a rebellion? More like a controlled puppet eliminating dissidents."

He pushed open the door and calmly walked in.

The office furnishings were simple, yet they exuded an unquestionable authority.

[This location is suitable for check-in. Would you like to check in?]

Check in, Kamizuki Yu silently said to himself.

[Ding! Check-in at the Hidden Mist Village Water Shadow Office successful!]

[Congratulations, Host! You have received the rewards: [Boil Release Bloodline Limit (Perfect Mastery, Instant Cast)] and [Lava Release Bloodline Limit (Perfect Mastery, Instant Cast)]!]

In an instant, two entirely different yet complementary torrents of power flooded into Kamizuki Yu's body.

One was Lava Release, capable of producing highly corrosive acid.

The other was Boil Release, capable of generating high-temperature, high-pressure steam.

These were precisely the two powerful bloodline limits possessed by Mei Terumi, the future Fifth Water Shadow.

Kamizuki Yu could clearly feel that his understanding and control over these two powers had instantly reached an unimaginable state of perfection.

It was not merely a matter of knowing how to use them. They felt innate, as if he had been born with them. Every detail and every variation was crystal clear to him.

"Boil Release, Lava Release... perfect mastery, instant cast."

He could even sense that the power of these two bloodline limits in his hands now likely far surpassed Mei Terumi's at this stage. He could even combine them in more complex ways.

"Products from the system truly are premium. It even maxed out the proficiency directly."

This was far more convenient than cultivating them through painstaking training.

He began carefully searching through the office.

Before long, he found several recently signed orders in a hidden compartment of the desk.

Most of the orders carried an irrational cruelty and urgency. Some called for the unprovoked purge of certain clans, while others mobilized large numbers of ninja for meaningless suicide missions.

"Just as expected, Yagura has already been completely controlled."

These documents were irrefutable evidence.

Then, his attention was drawn to a specially made kunai lying casually on the desk.

The kunai had an ancient design, with strange patterns engraved upon it.

More importantly, Kamizuki Yu sensed an extremely faint yet unmistakable residual fluctuation of space-time ninjutsu from the kunai.

"Traces of the Flying Thunder God Technique... faint, but there is no mistaking it."

This kunai was clearly one of the mediums Obito used to mark and control Yagura.

He put away the kunai along with the abnormal orders.

"With conclusive evidence, it will be easier to explain things to the daimyo."

Now, the source of the Hidden Mist Village's chaos clearly pointed to that masked man.

Just as Kamizuki Yu was preparing to leave—either to deal with Yagura, the puppet, or to directly search for Obito's whereabouts—

His brow suddenly lifted slightly.

A familiar chakra fluctuation somewhere in the village abruptly became chaotic and weak.

That chakra carried the pliancy of the water attribute, yet also contained two entirely different special natures...

"This feeling... Mei Terumi?"

Moreover, her current condition seemed to have fallen into grave danger.

Kamizuki Yu remembered that Mei Terumi should have been one of the few ninja in the Hidden Mist Village who dared to oppose the Blood Mist policy and strove to bring about change.

Her danger was most likely connected to this so-called "rebellion."

"Interesting. I just obtained her bloodline limits, and now something has happened to the person herself?"

He considered it briefly.

"Since I ran into it, giving her a hand won't hurt."

After all, he had come to set the Hidden Mist Village right.

Removing those "disobedient" obstacles also meant protecting those "obedient" allies.

Kamizuki Yu's figure silently vanished from the Water Shadow Office.