The order was executed but Kiri did not know, they were sending the Three Tails right towards the man responsible for suppressing it in case it was unleashed . . .
The Mizukage turned towards Hozuki Shingetsu once more, to firmly get him under control, when he saw something utterly unexpected.
A small, lithe shadow, surrounded by shiny floating red dust, manifested behind him and a reddish black flash of sword light moved towards the man's neck.
At that moment, the Mizukage did not question why the shinobi around the two of them did not react.
'Water Release: Water Spikes'
Compressed, pressurized spikes of water rose from the sea beneath the Kiri shinobi, all pointed at Shingetsu.
With this move, all the present Kiri Jonin had their eyes widen.
Some of them even wondered whether their Kage was choosing now to get rid of his political rival, burying him at sea.
Shingetsu however, was not among them.
Before the spikes could hit, his head was loped off in a single precise stroke and only then, the the spikes impaled his body along with whoever had just attacked him.
'Got them.' The Mizukage thought, sure of his perfect timing.
Alas!
There was a situation where perfect timing and technique were useless.
When the enemy was not even there, proved by the popping sound a cloud of smoke left behind by the invisible enemy.
'Shadow Clone.' The Mizukage immediately realized.
What he did not realize however, was a chakra enhanced blade about to plunge into his back as a different, indistinct shadow popped up behind him the moment his attention turned towards the first attacker.
At that precise moment however, water surged, trapping the attacker in an instantly formed Water Prison Jutsu.
"Got you!" An annoying voice sounded out as water formed the upper body of Hozuki Shingetsu at the top of his jutsu.
With the Hozuki clan's Hydrification Jutsu reflexively turning his body into water, neither Beni's slash, nor the Water Spikes had damaged him in the slightest.
"Nice work." The Mizukage grudgingly acknowledged but Shingetsu just snorted.
Bereft of concealment, the figure within the Water prison was now fully revealed, a certain familiar white haired boy.
"Ryumon Shiki. Your stealth and assassination abilities are well documented, you got far too overconfident." The Mizukage lectured.
The Kiri Elite Jonin looked on with shock and awe in their gazes at the perfect combination maneuver executed by two shinobi who absolutely despised each other.
Then again, sometimes, your enemies understand you far better than your allies.
"As expected of Mizukage-sama and Shingetsu-sama. In one fell swoop, one of our high value targets was captured alive." One of the Jonin praised.
"Indeed! Keep your eyes peeled though, his accomplice is still around and will undoubtedly try to free him." Another responded.
But with all of them alert as well as the Mizukage and Shingetsu present, none of them believed a successful rescue could be staged.
They all glared at the boy.
Not too long ago, he had caused massive damage to their forces in a humiliating debacle but now . . . now they had him at their mercy!
Within the prison, Shiki took in the glares . . . and just smiled, giving everyone a bad premonition, then . . .
He exploded.
A thunderous blast of force followed by flame, blew apart the Water Prison, scattering the aqueous form of Hozuki Shingetsu.
'Unfortunate. That Water Prison Jutsu was too powerful.' Shiki once again felt the power at the peak of the current shinobi world.
Shingetsu was scattered but suppressed the explosion enough to give even the weaker Kiri Jonin the chance to escape the blast radius virtually unscathed.
Shiki could bully and kill most Elite Jonin but true S rank/Kage tier opponents still tended to have an edge over him in raw power and obviously, experience, though his ability to sustain high level combat was greater than theirs thanks to the Nirvana Seal.
But while the boy was complaining about the poor results achieved by his Explosive Shadow Clone and gathering information from that, the Mizukage was trembling with suppressed rage.
'I knew . . . I thought I knew how that evil brat operated but . . . once he fell perfectly in the trap I set with Shingetsu, I believed I got one over him . . . And then reality slapped me in the face.' It was humiliating but the fault laid squarely on his shoulders.
If Shiki knew his thoughts, he would praise the Mizukage for his self awareness.
People believed what they wanted to believe and the boy loved using that to trap them.
Allow the enemy to form some sort of plan, see through their plan, act like it worked and then reverse the situation at the most critical moment, Shiki's favorite was to fight battles.
While Shiki and Beni did their little ambush, the Three Tails was sent underwater to destroy the Whirlpool Formations, occupied with suppressing it, the Sixth Elder no longer attacked Kiri's regular forces, allowing them to recover and regroup.
Meanwhile, the young pair communicated to figure out their next move.
'Both the Mizukage and the Hozuki clan members are S rank threats, we can't harass them to keep them busy with their army all around to bog us down and trap us. Should we try to cause some chaos by targeting the weaker ones first?' Beni mentally transmitted.
'No. If there was only one S rank enemy, one of us could run interference while the other targeted the weaklings but with two of them, going for the fodder leaves us open to them and if we split up one of us is not enough to hold both of their attention.' Shiki mentally responded.
'Then what is the next play, Shiki-sama?' The girl asked.
'We wait.' The boy transmitted back.
'Their jinchuriki cannot control the Three Tails, it is currently rampaging so Kiri will not risk going to help it without a good reason.
With that excluded, they have three options. Hold position, move to join the other two villages, or split their forces and do a mixture of both.' He explained.
'If they hold their position, I'll stay to support the Sixth Elder in case he needs to retreat while you'll get back to the others, Beni-chan.' Shiki began to mentally transmit the plan.
Clearly, the first option which would have them fight on different battlefields did not please her in the slightest.
'Who knows what kind of dangerous, suicidal things Shiki-sama will get up to if no one is around to keep watch.' This thought was one the girl did not transmit.
Unaware of his sweet Benihime's opinions regarding his modus operandi, the boy laid out the rest of the plan.
'If they split their forces, we wait for them to create some distance and then attack the ones heading towards the other battlefield. Once we deal enough damage to break them as quickly as possible, we'll double back to face the portion of the enemy that remained behind.
If they all advance, we'll both move to help the Sixth Elder subdue the Three Tails and hope the others can hold out.' Shiki concluded the mental communication.
And, as if waiting for that exact moment, the Mizukage called out to his forces to give the next set of orders.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -