The leading kunoichi exchanged a bout of taijutsu with her opponent, then suddenly used the momentum to pull away, quickly forming hand seals with both hands.
A massive volume of water gushed out of her mouth as if it cost nothing, torrential and overwhelming, quickly forming a gigantic elliptical water prison on the ground, spanning a full hundred meters, enveloping the entire battlefield.
Everyone on the battlefield lost their balance under the impact of the surging water. By the time they managed to stabilize themselves, they were already surrounded by endless water, severely limiting their movement. However, the kunoichi who cast the jutsu was unaffected, moving even more nimbly than before. The next moment, she split into four. Each figure darted through the water like a fish, weaving and turning at high speed before mysteriously vanishing.
When she reappeared, she was already behind four of the enemies, each of her avatars extending a right hand toward them. The four ninjas immediately tried to retaliate but found themselves completely immobilized, slowly sinking toward the bottom of the water. At the same time, the massive water prison could no longer hold and collapsed with a thunderous roar, turning into torrents that surged outward. But the enormous waves didn't travel far before dissolving into water particles that scattered across the sky and vanished into the surroundings.
Only in front of the kunoichi and her clones, a water sphere about three meters in diameter remained, each trapping one of the enemies inside.
After doing all this, she looked completely drained, as if the technique had sapped her strength. The water prisons also looked ready to break at any moment. Fortunately, she had allies. Four figures rushed in immediately, striking the imprisoned enemies the instant the water prisons collapsed.
Seeing all the enemies rendered unconscious, her legs gave out and she slumped to the ground, gasping for air.
"Yumi, are you alright?" A ninja with flowing blue hair, dressed in combat gear and carrying two short blades on his back, appeared in front of her in a flash, asking with deep concern.
A flicker of annoyance passed through Yumi's eyes, but she clenched her teeth and shook her head with difficulty. "I'm fine... just overused my chakra. Don't worry about me. Go treat them first."
The male ninja called Tsukishima sighed but obediently moved to the four injured enemies their squad had taken down and began healing them one by one.
As he performed the healing, he found the strangeness of fate truly baffling. How had he ended up crossing paths with this woman again? What kind of messed-up fate was this? And now he'd somehow become her subordinate.
As he continued the healing, Shin was also sorting out the thoughts in his head.
That's right, Tsukishima had already been replaced.
Ten minutes earlier, before the battle began, everyone had been resting in a relatively relaxed state. Shin took the opportunity to ambush and secretly replace Tsukishima, who had gone to the restroom, and sent the real one to his research lab.
He had no moral qualms about targeting enemy ninjas.
But just as he'd succeeded and hadn't yet had time to fully read and absorb the target's memories, they were suddenly ambushed and the battle began. Only now did he finally have time to properly digest all the information, including Tsukishima's memories, and gain a general understanding of what had been going on inside Kiri.
Biwa Tsukishima, 18 years old, was the elder brother of Jūzō, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. He was also a medical-nin in Kiri.
And this Jūzō, was the same one known for his fearless combat style, who once cleaved a Tailed Beast Ball in half with Kubikiribōchō and was nearly kicked into oblivion by Duy.
The reason Shin once again used identity substitution to infiltrate Kiri was simple, he had no intention of revealing his true identity. Sure, he could easily sneak into the village using the Flying Thunder God Technique. But nowadays, that technique had practically become his signature. If anyone witnessed it, his identity would be guessed instantly.
When it came to Madara, he was always cautious.
Not that he feared him, but if conflict could be avoided, it was better not to provoke the man.
From Tsukishima's memories, the so-called White Calamity of the Mist started about three months ago. At that time, the Kiri forces had failed in their campaign against the Land of Whirlpools. Only Genji and Yumi had returned alive. Under normal circumstances, the two would have been severely punished.
Luckily for them, other allied shinobi villages also suffered total losses, which made their failure seem less disgraceful in comparison. As a result, the Third Mizukage only issued a stern warning and allowed them to remain in their positions of authority.
However, in the following days, a strange development occurred, dozens of ninjas, previously presumed dead in the Whirlpool campaign, began returning to Kiri.
At first, everyone was happy, after all, every extra survivor was a miracle. But then one particular returnee raised red flags for everyone: A ninja named Getsu.
He was thought to have been long since replaced by an infiltrator and was even blamed as the primary cause of the failed war effort.
Genji immediately led a team to arrest Getsu and interrogated him. What they uncovered was shocking. Because this person was not Getsu at all. Under torture, he morphed into a white humanoid creature. This creature had sparse, tangled grass-green hair, and instead of smooth skin, its body was covered in a fleshy, moss-like substance, giving it a grotesque and unsettling appearance.
Its limbs were human in proportion, but the muscles in its arms and legs were underdeveloped, making it look weak. Its hands and feet resembled human ones, but the fingers and toes were shorter, and the nails were sharper. Others might not have known what it was, but Shin recognized it immediately.
It was a White Zetsu.
It possessed the ability to absorb a target's chakra and read their memories through physical contact, then perfectly replicate the target's appearance, voice, chakra signature, and even ninjutsu.
Their imitation was so flawless that not even the target's closest allies or sensory ninja could tell the difference, making them incredibly effective in espionage and infiltration.
Genji was instantly on high alert. He had all the recently returned "survivors" checked. What he discovered was chilling, half of those who had returned were actually White Zetsu imposters.
At first, he felt lucky to have uncovered them early. But soon, he realized that the replacements didn't stop at the Uzushio survivors. Others, including ninjas from different missions, and even some ordinary civilians, had been quietly replaced.
Worse still, the number of these infiltrators wasn't especially large, but they had managed to infiltrate nearly every part of the village.
Initially, he and a few elders planned to launch a village-wide purge to root them all out. But to their surprise, the Third Mizukage publicly opposed it.
He claimed that launching such a large-scale operation would cause widespread panic and instability in Kiri, and instead ordered a covert investigation.
Since it was a direct command from the Mizukage, Genji and the others had no choice but to obey.