151. Battle of Swordsman

BOOM… BOOM…

Various explosion occurs in a distance as Zengetsu fights against Mangetsu.

'Water Release: Hydrification Technique: Great Water Arm Technique'

Zengetsu raises his right arm. The arm absorbs the moisture from the body and compresses it into the arm. The muscles of the arm enlarge and gets strengthened.

Zengetsu clutches his sword with the right hand and performs a spin in air before slamming the sword towards Mangetsu.

"Kenjutsu: Decapitation Strike"

Bam…

Mangetsu blocks the attack with this blade.

Swoosh…

The force from the attack sends him flying.

Fwoosh…

He performs a summersault in air and steadily lands on the ground.

Whoosh…

Zengetsu strengthens his leg muscles using the Hydrification technique and increases his speed.

He instantly appears in front of Mangetsu and slashes his sword at him.

Clang…

Mangetsu blocks the strike.

Crumble…

The ground beneath him caves in. He struggles to push the blade away from his throat.

Crack… crack…

Some cracks appear on his blade.

Tch…

Mangetsu clicks his tongue.

"Water Release: Hydrification Technique: Jet Pump Kick"

He enlarges his right leg and kicks Zengetsu away.

"In all those years… your skills have improved Zengetsu. You forced me to use one of the Seven Swords."

Mangetsu makes some hand signs and summons a scroll in front of him. He slams his palm on one of the seals on the scroll and summons a blade.

"Behold Kabutowari!!"

Mangetsu wields a peculiar sword with a giant axe on one end tied to a hammer on the other end with a thin, leather-like rope.

Zengetsu makes some hand signs and slams his palms on the ground.

"Water Release: Tate Eboshi"

A giant gust of water erupts from the ground. The water turns into a giant pufferfish and moves towards Mangetsu.

Mangetsu raises his hand in the air with the axe part of the blade in his right hand and the hammer part in the left hand.

"Kenjutsu: Kabutowari: Deep Earth Slash"

He infuses some chakra into the blade and slams it on the ground.

Rumble… rumble…

Ground tremble underneath his strike as the blade releases a vertical blade of energy towards the pufferfish.

"Kenjutsu: Kabutowari: Endless Heaven Smash"

Bang…

He slams the blunt part of the axe with the hammer.

BOOM…

The axe and the hammer releases a shockwave which tears through the ground and smashes into the pufferfish.

BOOM…

The pufferfish disperses into countless raindrops, and the shock wave pushes Zengetsu.

Zengetsu holds his blade horizontally in his hands and infuses chakra into the blade.

"Kenjutsu: Surudoiken: Halo dance of Waning Moon"

The blade glows with a cyan hue. Zengetsu slashes it horizontally towards Mangetsu. The blade releases a cyan blade of water.

The cyan blade slashes through the shockwave and travels towards Mangetsu.

Mangetsu frowns as he looks at the cyan blade.

"Water Release: Hydrification Technique"

His body turns into the water as he receives the attack.

Bam...

The cyan blade slams into his liquified body and throws Mangetsu in the air.

Cough… Cough…

Mangetsu holds his chest as slowly stands up from the rubble.

"Now… die… it's time to end our long rivalry."

Zengetsu swings the blade towards Mangetsu's neck.

Slash…

He slashes Mangetsu's body in half.

Plop…

Mangetsu turns into a puddle of water and falls on the ground.

"A water clone."

Zengetsu frowns. He immediately turns around and blocks an attack from the real Mangetsu.

"Kenjutsu: Shibuki: Bakuto Ren"

Mangetsu swings a giant sword. The sword has two distinct sides with a narrow cutting edge on one side and a broad platform with a scroll attached to the other side.

The scroll unfolds and releases multiple explosive tags from it.

"Explode"

Mangetsu makes a hand sign. The explosive tags on the blade glow brilliantly.

BOOM… BOOM…

Zengetsu is blown away by the explosion.

Bang…

He smashes through multiple trees and finally collides in a giant tree.

Cough… cough…

He coughs out a mouthful of blood. Mangetsu slowly walks towards him.

"You are too soft… just like your father."

He lifts the blade and slashes Zengetsu.

---------------------------

Near a cliff on top of a hill,

Mei is fighting against Renjouro as she questions him.

"What are you trying to achieve through this?... you are the one who informed me of this ambush and now you are fighting against me."

Renjouro silently makes some hand signs.

"Water Release" Great Waterfall Technique"

He spits a huge amount of water from his mouth. The water cascades into a spinning vortex destroying land and trees along its way as it travels towards Mei.

Mei frowns as she looks at this jutsu.

'He is not pulling back his punches… in that case…'

Mei makes multiple hand signs.

"Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique"

She spits out a large amount of lava from her mouth. The lava razes everything to ashes as it collides with the giant vortex of water.

BOOM…

The clash between two jutsus produces a large amount of Mist which hinders their vision.

Renjouro grabs his blade as he makes some hand signs.

"Water Release: Hiding in the Mist Technique"

He slowly vanishes in the mist and moves towards Mei.

"This is looking bad for me."

Mei makes some hand signs.

"Boil Release: Skilled Mist Technique"

She exhales a small amount of mist which encompasses a small area around her.

Sizzle… Sizzle…

She senses some disturbance in her mist.

Clang…

Mei immediately draws out a kunai from her holster and blocks an attack from Renjouro.

"Hey!... what are you trying to achieve through this? You first informed me about the ambush… and now you are attacking me… was it a part of your plan?"

Clang…

She questions him as she blocks another strike from him.

"No… it's not a trap. I called you here for a purpose…" Renjouro replies to her as he disappears in the mist.

'Silent Killing… he is utilizing the art of Silent Killing… one of the sword art of Mist Swordsman.'

"… I have a younger brother called Chojuro… both of us were orphans. Akifumi-sama adopted us from the orphanage. He raised us and trained us to wield a sword…"

Clang…

Mei blocks another attack from Renjouro.

"… Chojuro is such a clumsy child… he can't properly handle a sword… so I was chosen to become a member of the Mist Swordsman… Cough… cough…."

Renjouro coughs a little blood from his mouth. He stops his attack and appears in front of Mei.

"… during all these years… I saw all the horrendous deeds committed by Akifumi-sama… I even did many dirty jobs for him… all these years… I came to know about the dark side of the Shinobi World. I have always thought to myself what if something similar happened to me and Chojuro…"

Renjouro draws hi blade again and attacks Mei.

Clang…

Mei blocks the attack.

"… so I thought of repenting my crimes… I thought of abandoning my position as a Mist Swordsman and thought of defecting from the village together with Zabuza… but Chojuro is still under their control. I can't leave him alone… in all these years… I… cough… cough… gained nothing but this disease."

Renjouro coughs another mouthful of blood.

"…I don't have long enough time to live and watch Chojuro grow… so when I heard about the tension between the factions… I thought of defecting for Chojuro's sake."

Renjouro throws a scroll towards Mei.

Mei catches the scroll and notices a location marked on the map.

"… this is the location of ambush plotted by Akifumi… he is personally involved in this ambush. As for the fight… I wanted to test your strength and see for myself… now…"

Renjouro stops all of his movements. He wields the Hiramekarei blade in his hands.

Snip...

The blade separated in two separate dual blades.

"… here is my final attack… if you can block this attack… then I will at least die happily as Chojuro would be in safe hands… if not then you will die together with me."

Renjouro takes a sword stance.

"Kenjutsu: Hiramekarei: Bloody Mist Sword Art: Bone Mutilation"

Both blades glow with a pale blue light. Renjouro slashes them towards Mei.

"Now… watch out for my attack."

Swish… swish…

Multiple large pale-blue chakra blades shoot towards Mei. Mei's expression turns serious.

"I have to give my all to counter this attack."

Mei clasps her hand together as she riles up her chakra.

"Lava Release: Bone Ash Annihilation Meteor"

She directs her hands towards the multiple chakra blades.

Boom…

A large lava meteor appears behind her. The meteor smashes into the multiple chakra blades.

BOOM… BOOM…

The chakra swords bombard the meteor.

BOOM…

The meteor explodes annihilating the swords. A giant pool of lava forms on the ground. Mei faints from Chakra exhaustion.

Renjouro stands at the edge of the cliff as he stares at the lava pool.

"Guess… I made the right choice."

He closes his eyes and silently falls from the cliff into the bottomless abyss of the Mist Sea.

---------------

"Oh! Those are some big words coming from your mouth." Izuna stares at Kisame.

He makes some hand signs and slams his palm on the ground.

"Let me see… if you can handle this…"

"Ice Release: Frost Apocalypse of End"

Rumble… Rumble…

The ground beneath them shakes as the surrounding temperature falls below the freezing point.

A chill runs through Kisame's spine.

'I have to stop him before he completes his jutsu.'

He grabs Samehada's handle and yells.

"Samehada transfer me some chakra."

Samehada follows his order and transfers an enormous amount of chakra to Kisame.

His skin turns blue as shark gills and fins appear on his body.

He clasps his hand together and stretches them towards Izuna while infusing a massive amount of chakra in his attack.

"Water Release: Great Shark Bullet Technique"

Kisame creates a gigantic water shark from his chakra and launches it towards Izuna. The shark opens its enormous mouth as it bites everything along its way and grows stronger by each second.

The shark arrives before Izuna in just an instant as it tries to swallow him.

"Too late."

Izuna finishes his hand signs and claps his hands together.

"Release"

Fwoosh….

A chilling wind blows through the entire area, covering the entire forest in ice.

The water Shark instantly freezes into ice.

Clatter… clatter…

It shatters into countless fragments of ice and falls on the ground.

The entire land is covered in snow as it continues to rain down snow.

Kisame's body gets frozen into an ice sculpture.

Clatter… clatter…

Obito clatters his teeth as his body starts to freeze.

"Wha… wha… what kind of Ju… jutsu… is this? Such powerful forbidden Ju… jutsu. If not for Hashirama cells… my body would have been frozen by now."

BOOM…

Izuna hears an explosion in a distance.

"That's from Mei's location."

He quickly dashes in Mei's direction.

"Qui… quick… grab him. Even my body is starting to freeze now."

Black Zetsu reminds Obito.

Obito immediately approaches the Kisame Ice Sculpture and stores him in his Kamui.

"We… we have to thaw him… out of ice. But for now… let's get out of here."

Swirl…

Obito and Black Zetsu teleport from the ice hell.