Shadow over the Naka River

The autumn wind swept through the reeds with a dry rustle, and cold sunlight shone on the river's rippling surface.

A murderous chill spread along both banks.

Since the Kikawa brothers' plan left no way out for him or Hiruzen Sarutobi, they would have to fight their own way to survival.

Setsuna made up his mind in an instant.

The red-masked man's fingers had barely twitched when the Shuriken flew from Setsuna's hand.

The red-masked man sneered.

Shuriken thrown by a child, and straight at me, too? Nothing but a dying struggle.

He tilted his head slightly, and two Shuriken skimmed past his ears and buried themselves in the reeds behind him.

But those two Shuriken were only meant to restrict his room to dodge.

The third, thrown a moment later, was the real killing blow.

The Shuriken grew rapidly in the red-masked man's eyes.

Its angle was vicious, its trajectory strange, and it flew straight toward his face.

It was too late to tilt his head, and stepping back would send him into the reeds behind him. He could only raise a hand to catch it.

Just before the Shuriken pierced his eye, he caught it precisely between two fingers.

He turned his hand and lowered his gaze to the object between his fingers.

A derisive laugh rolled out of his throat.

It was nothing but a grass-woven Shuriken.

This little girl meant to take on an adult ninja like me with a toy?

"Hiruzen, run!" Setsuna roared, his fingers already forming hand seals.

The red-masked man was about to mock his naivety. Neither of them was getting away.

But at that very instant, the grass-woven Shuriken between his fingers changed abruptly.

The woven grass pulsed in his hand, and a black shadow burst from its center.

By the time he reacted, it was already too late.

The black shadow wrapped around his entire head like a living creature, giving him no chance to breathe.

Then serrated, sickle-like blades sprouted along its edges and spun sharply around his neck.

Crack.

As the shadow dispersed, the head wearing the half-face mask slid from his neck, and blood spurted upward in a fountain.

The headless body seemed unaware that death had come. It took a few steps forward, then crashed to the ground.

"Fifth Brother!" A heart-wrenching roar came from across the river.

The three men instinctively tried to rush across and save him, but Naoki Senju's Earth Release had already activated-Earth Strangulation!

Several sharp earthen spikes suddenly rose from the ground, cutting off their advance and throwing their formation into chaos.

At that moment, the fifth man, who had been lurking out of sight, finally revealed himself.

He rushed out of the shadows beneath the rocky riverbank, planted his feet on the water, and raced toward Setsuna.

But Liangzhu Senju reacted even faster.

Seizing the opening while Naoki disrupted the three men, he rapidly formed hand seals. The instant chakra took shape in his palms, he shouted in a low voice-

"Water Release: Water-Wind Dance!"

The surface of the Naka River exploded.

Gale-force winds swept up the river water, raising a rapidly spinning waterspout from the center of the riverbed. Wind and water mingled in a deafening shriek.

The fifth man was running across the water, and the tornado formed almost directly beneath his feet.

He wanted to escape, but there was no longer anything beneath him to push off. He wanted to counterattack, but he could not form hand seals faster than the tornado could engulf him.

In an instant, the Water Dragon Tornado swallowed him whole.

Blades of wind lurked within the raging current, spinning at high speed and slicing through everything caught inside.

His body was as though it had been thrown into a juicer. Blood burst inside the tornado, staining half the column red.

"Big Brother!"

The three remaining Kikawa brothers stared in such fury that their eyes seemed ready to burst. They no longer cared about taking anyone alive.

All three formed hand seals in perfect unison. Their chakra resonated, creating a triangular wall of air between them.

"Wind Release: Secret Prison!"

Wind Release surged from three directions at once, forming a triangular prison. Wind blades spun wildly inside the cage and rapidly closed toward its center.

Anyone caught inside would fare no better than the man swallowed by the Water Dragon Tornado.

Naoki Senju's combat instincts were no less sharp. He formed hand seals without hesitation.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

A circular earthen wall suddenly rose around him, sheltering both him and Liangzhu Senju. Wind blades struck the earthen

wall with a teeth-grating scrape, sending dirt and debris flying.

Across the river, Setsuna clenched his fists.

The only good news was that they were safe for the moment.

Two of the Kikawa brothers were dead, and the remaining three were all on the opposite bank. For now, no one would come after him or Hiruzen.

But the problem was that if they fled now, Naoki Senju could still be killed by the Kikawa brothers inside that earthen wall.

The pressure of Wind Release: Secret Prison tightened inch by inch. The wall would not hold much longer.

Once it shattered, Naoki and Liangzhu would be helpless prey.

The Senju would never believe the testimony of two children like him and Hiruzen Sarutobi.

How much weight could the words of two children around six years old carry? The Senju would simply conclude that the Uchiha had sent the attackers-that the Uchiha had hired men to pose as rogue ninja and murder the Senju's young clan heir.

In the end, the blame would still fall on the Uchiha.

Naoki Senju's death would only add another grievance to this thousand-year blood feud.

He turned toward Hiruzen Sarutobi. Mud splattered during the fight still dotted the boy's face, and his eyes were filled with lingering terror.

"Go back and tell them. Have Hagoromo and the Uchiha send people here," Setsuna said calmly.

"What about you?" Hiruzen heard what Setsuna had left unsaid.

Sailor Moon's fight just now-from using Shuriken to cut off escape routes, to hiding a killing move inside a grass-woven Shuriken, to finishing the enemy with a single shadow ninjutsu strike-had flowed so smoothly and cleanly that Hiruzen had completely forgotten the pampered young master who had once clutched his head and bawled after White Ape pulled off his wig.

Sailor Moon was strong. Stronger than he was.

But that was no reason for him to stay. However strong he was, he was still a child.

Sailor Moon had only killed that man because the enemy knew nothing about his technique. Now three Jonin-level rogue ninja remained across the river, their eyes burning red with hatred.

Setsuna stared hard at the opposite bank, his gaze fixed on the earthen wall being shaved thinner, layer by layer, by the wind blades.

This ninjutsu required three ninja to cast it. If he could force just one of them out of formation, the technique would collapse.

"I'll find a way to buy time," Setsuna answered.

But one enormous obstacle lay between him and the opposite bank-the Naka River.

And right now, he could not walk across the water.

He was too young, and his body's chakra control was still unstable. Level-four recovery had more than doubled his chakra reserves, but he had not yet had time to adapt to that sudden surge in power.

Water walking required extremely precise chakra control. In his current state, he would only step into empty space and be swept downstream by the current.

He slipped his fingers into his sleeve and found the hideously misshapen grass-woven Shuriken. His grip slowly tightened.

A plan took shape in his mind-

If he could throw the Shuriken across the river, draw a Shadow Thread from the shadow it cast, and pull himself over, he would not need to walk across the water.

In theory, it could work.

The Shadow Technique's teleportation essentially swapped the positions of his body and his shadow, or moved him by letting the shadow pull him along.

But across the entire Naka River?

He had never tried it over such a long distance.

Would he have enough chakra? Could the Shadow Thread withstand that distance? He had no confidence at all.

But time would not wait. Cracks were spreading through the earthen wall across the river.

He turned his head. Hiruzen Sarutobi was still standing there in a daze.

"Go!" Setsuna roared, threatening him. "If I die, it'll be because you didn't get help fast enough!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes reddened for an instant.

He gritted his teeth, swallowed everything he had wanted to say, and abruptly turned, plunging into the reeds.

Setsuna drew his gaze back.

Across the river, the Earth-Style Wall finally groaned under the unbearable strain.

He took a deep breath, aimed at the reeds on the opposite bank, and hurled the hideously misshapen grass-woven Shuriken with all his strength.

In this instant between life and death, everything rested on that Shuriken!