Chapter 18

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Unedited version, will update once it's edited.

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After I killed the massive clam, the battle rhythm changed, the Mizukage was faster, and so was his clone, at this rate I was going to lose within a few minutes, using the mind link Yumi and I had, I ordered my squad to run back to the base, my priority no longer was to kill the Mizukage, because I doubted I had the power necessary to do so, but to save my teammates, as expected Yumi tried to refute, but I quickly explained to her I had a plan, and she reluctantly accepted, leaving with the team.

If I had to be honest, I never intended to win… I had hopes for this encounter, but not certainty, which is why I had activated my Soulstone, in case the tide of this battle resulted as I expected.

"Do you have any idea how long will it take me to grow another clam!" Gengetsu bellowed in anger, "Six months! Six!"

That didn't sound as bad as he make it sound, but who am I to judge, "Chaos bolt!" with finesse the Mizukage dodge my attack, and blasted me into the ground with a powerful kick to the chest.

Seeing my chakra bar, I knew I was running out of cards, not that it mattered, all I was waiting was for my team to be out of his reach, while he had said he would let them live, I lived by Tobirama's principle of never trusting another shinobi unless that shinobi it's you comrade, and he was not.

"I have to admit kid, you are strong… frighteningly so, but you are a few years too early to kill me," The Mizukage boasted, what was with people boasting before winning a battle, it was almost like a requirement they had to fulfil.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" Cutting him short from his monologue, I blasted him with a great fireball, one he dodged by jumping over the attack.

"Steaming Danger Tyranny Exploding Barrage!" Doing some quick hand signs, he created five more clones, that cornered me. "Die!" soon after he said that, the five clones exploded, engulfing me in a steamy skin ripping prison of agony, that destroyed my body bit by bit.

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[Gengetsu Hozuki POV]

The brat was stronger than I had expected, six years old and he had managed to kill my precious clam and pushed me to fight him seriously, me a Kage fighting a six-year-old shinobi seriously, that alone was a testament to his strength. I shudder to think what would've become had I let him alive.

"Well, you fought well brat… but I was better," I said to no one in particular, looking at the blood steaming puddle that used to be him, his innards scattered all around the area, painting the very image of death.

With that said and done, I flickered out of sight, there was no point in staying here any longer, in my rage I had destroyed the kid's brain and body, making any information he had, a lost cause.

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When I casted soul stone, I wasn't sure how the spell worked, I mean… I had never died before, well, I did.. before coming to this world, but that's beyond the point, the point was I didn't know how my spell worked, how it would react after my death, and now I did.

After I died, there was nothing… for a very brief moment that is, after that, I was floating above my own… remains, it was a weird feeling, with a sense of continuance that I didn't expect, one moment I was alive and the next I was seeing my own corpse or whatever remained of it, all in the span of a blink. It was a somewhat disorientating feeling.

Then all I had to do was wait for the Mizukage to leave, which didn't take long. The rest came naturally, as breathing would come, I knew how to force the laws of nature to bring me back to life in my disembodied state, and so I did.

"That was… weird," I muttered under my breath, opening my eyes, once again with the same feeling of continuance, a blink and I was awake, tired and maybe a bit groggy but awake. "Time to go back,"

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Explaining people I could resurrect others was hard, explaining them I can resurrect myself was even harder, not like I planned to do so, but Yumi had felt when my chakra vanished, she had felt my sudden and violent death, and well, I had to explain, I didn't go much into detail, but I explained my squad the basics of what I had done, and the simple shrugged it off as one of the many weird times I do.

"Raiden," Kagami, who had been also sent to the Kiri post greeted, "I have good news for you,"

Curious, I looked at him, and asked, "You do?"

"The Gold and Silver Brothers tried to attack the third Hokage on his mission in Kumo, and he killed them," I stopped dead in my tracks at this… Sarutobi had killed those two.

"According to the report I was sent, the second Hokage had managed to kill their entire squad before dying, which left Hiruzen to destroy those two alone making the whole ordeal all the more easy," Kagami added and I cursed under my breath, this wasn't what Hiruzen had promised me, he told me I was going to be with him when they died… He PROMISED!

In anger, I flared my chakra up, breaking the very ground I was standing up, until Kagami put a hand on my shoulder, and said, "You are scaring your squad," at this I blinked in realization, stopping what I was doing.

"I apologize," I was angry, not at what Hiruzen accomplished, but that he did so without me there. I wanted to see those two draw their last breaths under my presence, I wanted to see their lives slowly vanish from their eyes… I wanted to kill them, myself.