Above the sea surface, the Kirigakure command ship.
Qing Zhong stood before the bridge command console, and the chakra sensor disk in his hand had not updated its data for five minutes.
The feedback from the seventeen nodes still showed "normal," but this normalcy seemed so bizarre at the moment.
Too quiet.
Unnaturally quiet.
He snapped his head up and said sharply, "All ships, conduct physical confirmation immediately! Send divers to check every single node!"
Just as the order left his mouth, the door to the bridge was silently pushed open.
Qing Zhong spun around abruptly, his hand already resting on the ninja sword at his waist—but it was too late.
Three figures stood in the doorway.
The leader wore the traditional clothing of the Uchiha clan, and his scarlet Sharingan was as striking as a blood moon in the dim lighting.
To his left, a Hyuga ninja's pure white eyes were locked onto the chakra tenketsu of everyone inside the bridge.
To his right, another Uchiha elite had already finished hand seals, and an invisible genjutsu barrier had enveloped the entire bridge.
"You are..." Qing Zhong's voice was raspy.
"Konoha, Kagami Uchiha."
Kagami calmly stated his name without halting his steps: "I'm sorry, but your naval blockade ends here."
As he spoke, the other three Kirigakure communications officers inside the bridge slumped to the ground simultaneously—the Hyuga's Gentle Fist had struck their pressure points from a distance, precisely sealing their movements and chakra.
Qing Zhong's pupils constricted violently.
In an instant, he understood everything—why the node feedback had remained normal, why there had been no alarms, why... it had been terrifyingly quiet here after Lord Mizukage left.
It turned out the entire blockade line had long since been imperceptibly infiltrated, controlled, and... silently slaughtered.
His hand lashed out like