Hidden Mist ANBU

Ever since he had escaped the Land of Water at the age of six, this shadow-like pursuit and assassination had continued on and off for six years.

Over the past year, because he had focused on treatment and kept a low profile, they seemed to have lost track of his exact whereabouts.

Now, he had swaggered into the port of the Land of Hot Water, and Tsunade, a top-tier powerhouse, had temporarily left his side.

The prey was alone. Naturally, the hunters would not let such an opportunity pass. Though who was truly the hunter was hard to say.

Yamada Soji's footsteps paused slightly before returning to normal. Watching Shizune and Tonton's figures gradually run farther away, he swiftly made his decision.

He could not make a move here!

The Land of Hot Water was a small nation, but it had its own ninja village and order. If things blew up, it would be troublesome. More importantly, Shizune could not be dragged into this.

Then...

Without changing expression, as though he were merely taking a casual stroll, he turned and entered an alley opposite Shizune's direction.

The alley was deep, with tall earthen walls on both sides. Its end was piled with discarded barrels and clutter. It was a dead end.

Within the Six Eyes' vision, those six presences moved as expected. Like sharks scenting blood, they silently spread out to encircle him, blocking the alley entrance and the escape routes across both rooftops.

This was a highly professional encirclement formation.

Yamada Soji stopped at the end of the alley, then slowly turned around to face the empty entrance.

The sea breeze swept through the narrow passage, stirring the ends of his silver-white hair and the black cloth over his eyes.

"Gentlemen, you've followed me all the way. Aren't you tired?"

He spoke, his voice clearly audible in the quiet alley.

There was no response.

But the Six Eyes saw it. Two people on each rooftop lowered their bodies and began circulating chakra.

The last two figures emerged from the shadows at the alley entrance. They wore bird masks of the Hidden Mist ANBU. One held a blade, while the other rapidly formed hand seals.

The blade-wielding ANBU spoke in a hoarse voice. "The Mizukage has ordered that the Shikotsumyaku must not remain at large. Either come back with us, or stay here forever!"

"Ah, after all these years, it's still the same line." Sōji sighed softly.

He had not fought for a year, and his hands truly itched for it. At this moment, his body seemed to catch the scent of a meal, slowly awakening and beginning to flow.

Chakra mingled with Cursed Energy and hummed through his meridians.

The next moment, he tore open the knot behind his head. The black cloth slipped down, and he casually tucked it into his clothes.

His tightly shut eyes slowly opened, revealing an exceedingly strange pair of pupils.

Their base color was azure, but deep within the pupils, nebulae of condensed ice crystals seemed to slowly revolve, indifferent and tranquil without a trace of emotion.

Yamada Soji smiled and extended his right hand, spreading his fingers slightly. "Come on. Let's see what this batch of yours is made of!"

Before his words had faded, the four Hidden Mist ANBU on the rooftops moved simultaneously.

Water Release: Hidden Mist Technique!

Dense fog gradually rose and filled the alley, making it seem as though they had entered a vast white world.

Water Release: Water Prison Whip!

Suddenly, four long whips condensed from high-pressure water silently emerged from the fog, coiling viciously toward Sōji's limb joints.

Standard Hidden Mist capture tactics, prioritizing the restriction of the target's mobility.

Yet before the Six Eyes, the dense fog was meaningless. The water whips' trajectories and speed, even the casters' tendency to shift chakra in the next instant, were as clear as lines on his palm.

Sōji did not even move his feet. He merely blew lightly, and in the next instant, the surrounding temperature abruptly dropped to freezing around him.

Before the four high-pressure water whips could reach him, they froze inch by inch, then shattered into ice fragments that filled the air.

Then, he slowly raised his right hand and curled his five fingers slightly.

Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff!

The next instant, five dull explosions rang out within the mist.

Five pallid finger bones shot from beneath the skin of his right fingertips. Wrapped in chakra and Cursed Energy, they encountered almost no air resistance, their spiral-shaped heads possessing tremendous penetrating power.

"Ah— Ah—"

Two brief screams rang out from the rooftops, followed by the sound of heavy bodies tumbling down.

Two ANBU had their throats pierced, their chakra circulation collapsing instantly. The other two narrowly avoided the attack with the Body Flicker Technique.

"Ice Release and Shikotsumyaku? Impossible!"

The blade-wielding ANBU at the alley entrance cried out in shock. He had clearly not expected his opponent to possess the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai as well.

And despite the interference of the thick mist, his counterattack had been so precise and ruthless.

In the blink of an eye, they had already lost two capable men.

"Haah—"

He immediately let out a low roar, his figure shooting forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. His ninja blade carved a pallid arc through the air, aimed directly at Sōji's neck.

At the same time, the companion behind him finished forming seals.

Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!

A small water dragon curled as it surged into the alley from the entrance. Together with the squad leader's blade, it nearly sealed off every avenue of escape for Yamada Soji.

Faced with this, Yamada Soji merely smiled calmly, as though watching children at play. Then he raised his right hand again, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and lightly pointed forward.

Ice Formation: Frost Bind.

Invisible Cursed Energy flowed from his fingertips. It was not a large-scale freeze, but a precise injection into one specific location.

The blade-wielding ANBU's foot landed right on it.

Crack!

The stone slab beneath his foot instantly became brittle and crumbled under the extreme cold. The ground abruptly vanished beneath the squad leader's foot, throwing his charge into disarray and involuntarily deflecting his blade.

And in that instant of opening.

Okita Sōji's figure closed in like a ghost. The skin of his left arm silently split apart, and a thirty-centimeter curved bone blade slid out.

A flash of pale, crescent-shaped cold light swept past. He used no flashy technique, only the simplest horizontal slash.

Fast, precise, ruthless.

The bone blade swept across the squad leader's throat, bringing forth a spray of warm blood mist.

The squad leader froze completely. Beneath his mask, his eyes abruptly widened, as though he could not understand why he had died so easily.

Sōji had already passed him by, facing the roaring water dragon.

Facing this attack, he opened both hands, palms forward, as Cursed Energy surged.

Ice Formation: Ice Prism.

A translucent barrier formed from countless tiny hexagonal ice crystals instantly unfolded before him.

The water dragon struck the barrier without producing a loud explosion. Instead, it seeped into it strangely.

The ice crystals refracted and diverted the water's energy and direction. The entire water dragon seemed to have crashed into a bizarre maze of light, its power scattered and dissipated layer by layer.

"How is this possible?"

The ANBU who had released the Water Dragon Bullet stared at the scene in astonishment.

In the instant he froze in surprise, Yamada Soji raised his right hand again.

This time, all five finger bones fired at once.

The finger bones passed through the Ice Prism before it had fully dissipated, their paths becoming elusive and strange through refraction, as though they were shooting from five directions at once.

The ANBU only had time to barely twist aside. Three finger bones grazed past him and left deep holes in the wall, but the other two struck him—one plunged into his left chest, while the other nailed itself into his right eye.

The battle had begun quickly and ended even faster. The dense mist gradually dispersed, revealing the gruesome sight within the alley.

Of the six Hidden Mist ANBU, two lay severely wounded on the ground and groaning. One had his throat slit, two had been gravely wounded by finger bones, and the last had been struck in the chest and eye before slowly sliding down the wall, blood spreading beneath him.

Yamada Soji stood where he was, not even the hem of his clothes dirty, though he was breathing slightly heavily.

The protruding bone blade on his right arm fell entirely to the ground. His skin rapidly healed, leaving only a faint white mark.

Used bones could not be taken back into his body!

Yamada Soji revealed a faint smile, bent down to pick up the bone blade, then walked step by step toward the six Hidden Mist ANBU.

To cut the grass, one had to pull out the roots!

The black cloth was tied tightly behind his head.

The Six Eyes shut down their active perception mode and switched to low-power passive reception.

The cold metallic voice in his mind did not sound. It seemed this level of slaughter was still insufficient to reach a new Cursed Energy threshold.

Faint voices came from outside the alley. It seemed the commotion had drawn the attention of nearby residents.

Yamada Soji no longer lingered. With a flicker, he swept onto the rooftop like a wisp of smoke, vanishing after several leaps into the shadows of the hot spring town's maze-like buildings.

In the distant hot spring inn district, lights gradually came on, and laughter drifted with the steam.

Within this dark alley, only gradually cooling corpses remained, along with the faint scent of blood and chill that had yet to disperse from the air.

Cursed Energy slowly flowed through his body, becoming a little more solid than before.

Sōji stopped atop a roof and glanced back toward the harbor. The merchant ship lay quietly moored in the bay beneath the dusk.