Luckily, Gekkō Raito reacted quickly, turning the mist into two enormous hands and scooping them both back up.
Once they had regained their footing, both of them were pale with fright. They clamped their chakra firmly onto the cloud's surface, terrified of experiencing free fall again.
Gekkō Raito stood at the bow, a tailed beast cloak radiating from his body and forming a red wind shield that blocked the cutting gale ahead.
On the way there, they had run across the sea for seven or eight hours, exhausting themselves like dogs.
On the way back, it took less than thirty minutes.
If he had not wanted to avoid drawing too much attention in the village and exposing his trump card, the Nimbus Cloud, Gekkō Raito could have flown straight into the Mizukage's Office.
The three of them landed on the sea a few kilometers from Kirigakure.
Gekkō Raito tapped his toe down, and the sea instantly froze.
An enormous ice snake burst through the waves, carrying the three of them toward the harbor amid sparks and lightning.
The Mist Ninja guarding the harbor stared, dumbfounded. "What is that?"
"Ice? Why is there such a huge ice snake on the sea?"
"That's a road! Someone froze the sea!"
Looking along the ice road, they saw Gekkō Raito and his two companions approaching over the waves.
"Are those... the Genin who just left?"
When Gekkō Raito led the two men and one cloud through the crowd toward the Mizukage Building as though nothing had happened, everyone at the harbor fell into a stupor.
The Anbu Ninja whispered behind them:
"Didn't they say they were going to capture the Six-Tails Jinchuriki?"
"It's only just past noon, right? Why are they back already?"
"Maybe they gave up halfway, or came back for supplies?"
Meanwhile,