Tsunade wanted to step forward, but was stopped by Haseo raising his hand. Water Release: Rising Water Slicer was a one-hit-kill technique, however the Water Dragon's Crushing Snap wasn't.
Ninety percent of the ninjas here were brittle, but the remaining ten percent had skin like armor and bodies built for punishment. Two clans practically owned that rare breed.
Thus, the battle was far from over.
Haseo didn't rush into another move. The water from his technique spread outward across the street, pouring into burning houses. With sizzling sounds, the flames flickering in the night began to waver between brightness and darkness. At the same time, thick white smoke billowed skyward.
Once the Water Dragon's Crushing Snap faded, the crater left behind had filled with shallow water tinged red with blood—but there was no sign of the enemy anywhere.
That's right. So far, the enemy had used Wind Release, Earth Release, and Fire Release. Which meant he was at minimum a triple-natured chakra type.
Haseo focused intently, watching everything around him. Soon, his ears twitched lightly. Then suddenly, he snapped his gaze toward one direction.
Sure enough, the ground there first rose up slightly before a figure burst forth from beneath it.
Half of the enemy's body was already drenched in blood.
Though he'd narrowly escaped Haseo's immediate range earlier, avoiding the worst-case scenario of being hit repeatedly, it didn't mean he'd fully evaded damage from the Water Dragon's Crushing Snap. In fact, to dodge the fatal strike of Rising Water Slicer, he'd taken the entire impact of the Water Dragon's Crushing Snap head-on.
Using Earth Release to escape only came after that.
The moment the enemy appeared, Haseo pointed his hand directly at him. Countless water spheres shot forward like locusts, bombarding the enemy's position. Forced to keep rolling away to dodge, the enemy couldn't even tend to his wounds.
A trail of fresh blood splattered across the ground.
When the assault finally let up, the enemy steadied himself. Now, both ends of his pale shoulder bones jutted out into the air. Blood steadily seeped from the clean-cut wounds on either side of the bone, and he spat out more blood too—this blow was no ordinary hit.
Yet even so, he hadn't lost his ability to move. Right now, he stared hard at Haseo, clearly wary of his next move.
And this caution was entirely justified. Because even now, Haseo still had another attack ready—Water Release: Heavenly Weeping. As long as he clapped his hands together once, the technique would activate immediately. But the enemy had already escaped its effective range. So Haseo held off—for now.
Just as Haseo decided to advance, he suddenly sensed two figures rapidly approaching. Moments later, they landed beside the injured enemy.
"Lord, you're hurt..."
The two ninjas were also masked, clearly among those who had staged the rebellion tonight.
"I'm fine. How... how did the operation go?"
He drew a few ragged breaths before finally managing to say.
The two ninjas remained silent at first. Then one of them finally spoke, "It failed, sir. Just like we anticipated. Compared to the strength of the Hokage, our power is too weak... In fact, the failure of that surprise attack during the ceremony itself already hinted this plan wouldn't amount to anything."
Sure, pulling off an upset isn't impossible, and if it works, the payoff could be huge. But that's like hoping for lightning in a bottle. More likely, it'd end no differently than cracking an egg against a boulder. Put simply, these people were gambling — success meant betting on Tsunade having endless luck at the casino.
A success would be nothing short of a miracle, but failure? That's just how it should be.
Thus, the wounded leader also fell silent.
"You two go now. You might still be able to vanish into the night. Given the bigger picture, the village won't pursue this further, so… there'll always be another chance."
"Lord, what about you?"
"I'll hold off Lord Haseo; otherwise he won't let us get away."
"Lord, if all three of us fight together..."
"Go quickly. Don't attempt anything pointless. Even a small victory cannot reverse the fact that we've already lost overall. Do you understand?" At this point, he also noticed these two had been seriously wounded themselves, so even if all three combined their strength, what kind of result could there be?
The leader's intentions were extremely firm. Even if uniting their strength managed to defeat Haseo, it wouldn't change anything in the end. Moreover, they'd soon be surrounded by other ninja from the village. With just a glance between them, the two ninjas made the call to retreat.
Haseo watched those two disappear, then slowly advanced toward his opponent.
Just then, however, the battle suddenly shifted sides. The enemy abruptly stood up, barely raising his hand before swiftly forming hand seals. He began launching a more powerful Fire Release attack.
Haseo frowned, forced backward repeatedly.
This kind of combat... was utterly unwise. His opponent still clearly possessed fighting capability; in fact, in the upcoming battle, if Haseo only maintained his usual state, there was no guarantee he'd win.
Yet at this moment, his enemy chose to recklessly expend chakra. Although his attacks appeared magnificent, forcing Haseo not to advance even an inch, they ultimately couldn't cause any real damage... Rather than calling this a counterattack, it was more accurate to say he was buying time for his comrades' escape.
Therefore, this behavior could be interpreted as a form of self-sacrifice. He couldn't last much longer, and once his chakra consumption reached roughly seventy to eighty percent, Haseo could easily end his life.
Dodging left and right, Haseo felt the enemy chasing behind him. Soon, the entire street was set ablaze.
But not long after, the enemy's attack shifted from fierce to sluggish. Soon enough, those wide-range Fire Release techniques vanished entirely.
By the time Haseo approached the man again, he was already on the ground, completely incapacitated for the moment... Haseo gripped his long blade and used it to lift off the opponent's mask.
At this point, Tsunade joined Haseo's side. Seeing the face beneath the mask, she showed great surprise.
"Feel... surprised?"
He spat out a mouthful of blood and spoke.
"Not really," Tsunade replied, clearly the one taken aback—not Haseo. "After all, you guys have always hidden yourselves in the village under various identities. I had already speculated about who you were—just didn't expect you'd go this far. But now, as things stand, 'victory brings reward, defeat brings consequence'—the way of 'rewarding virtue and punishing vice,' isn't it?"
Looking at that face, Haseo said calmly, "That's true... However, tonight's events have nothing to do with my daughter."
"This statement... I can believe. But one last question—I'd like to ask whether your operation had any connection to the Daimyo of the Land of Fire."
"...No. This timing was entirely our own decision. Matters concerning the village will never be entrusted to outsiders."
"In that case, I can at least say you die today as ninjas serving the village... Not rogues in my eyes."
Saying so, Haseo raised his long blade.
"Thank you... Just for that evaluation, I still have one final thing to say—take Tsunade-sama and leave me behind."
"Hmm."
Haseo lowered his sword vertically, then instantly pierced through the eye sockets of the fallen foe, driving the blade into his brain core.
The man's body twitched weakly. At first, Haseo took it for the usual convulsions of dying—until realization struck in the next moment.
Before Haseo could even speak, he wrapped an arm around Tsunade's waist.
Blue lightning crackled around him as he swept Tsunade away from the corpse in a blur.
A swirling mass of darkness, similar to a Tailed Beast Ball, flickered over the body, quickly expanding outward. In no time, it transformed into a black sphere at least fifty meters in diameter.
When the dark sphere expanded to its limit, it flickered several times before vanishing—erasing everything within its reach: streets, buildings, even the very earth itself.
"What is... this?"
The scene before them even prompted Tsunade to instinctively tighten her arm around Haseo's neck.
"If I'm not mistaken, this is the Uzumaki Clan's Reverse Four Symbols Sealing—a deadly sealing technique employed only by... terrorists."
Haseo explained.
In his memory, this technique had only appeared once before. Yet such a devastating ultimate sealing method, activated via suicide assault, was bound to leave a deep impression.
And indeed, the person who used this sealing technique truly qualified as a terrorist.
The Uzumaki clan's jutsu are way too dangerous… They shouldn't have allowed such jutsu to circulate.
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