In Kirigakure.
A sharp gleam suddenly flashed through Yagura's vacant eyes. He rose to his feet in an instant and looked up.
The barrier had been disturbed. The intruder's chakra had nowhere to hide from his eyes.
"Zabuza Momochi again..."
Muttering to himself, Yagura nevertheless turned his gaze elsewhere. Through the barrier's senses, he saw Zabuza suddenly appear overhead, descending from the sky and breaking into the Mizukage Building.
Yet before the chaos Zabuza had caused, a small team had already breached the barrier from another direction and entered the Mizukage Building. They had skirted the layers of traps, evaded the barrier's detection, and charged straight into the courtyard inside.
Had Zabuza not alerted him and prompted him to fully activate the barrier, they probably would not have been discovered unless they made a mistake while breaking through its next layer.
When he noticed the group in the Mizukage Building's courtyard, a faint trace of struggle flickered in Karatachi Yagura's eyes. It was so slight as to be almost imperceptible, and in an instant, it was replaced by an intense, icy gleam and murderous intent, as though it had been nothing more than an illusion.
With a cold snort, Karatachi Yagura snapped his fingers, and an ANBU operative left the shadows to carry out his orders.
The ANBU guarding the Mizukage were his trusted subordinates, elites selected from thousands. Brainwashed by Yagura, they had become killing machines with no fear of death.
Even if the intruders had a few powerful fighters among them, they would gain nothing against a coordinated assault by those ANBU, who were practically weapons themselves.
With that done, Karatachi Yagura took a particularly strange weapon from a standing cabinet beside him: the Coral Staff. It was highly distinctive, a black iron staff with hooks at both