Chapter 17

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Unedited version, will update once it's edited.

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[Yumi Yamanaka POV]

The road to Kiri was rather uneventful, but we all knew what this meant, soon something would go wrong, it always did, when this type of silence happened.

As we skipped through the misty vegetation of Kiri, I felt a massive chakra enter my detection range, "There is an enemy incoming… a very strong one!" I informed my captain who studied me for a second, before he nodded.

"Any details?" Raiden inquired.

"It's a male… his chakra feels like it, he's excited, and maybe a bit angry too?" I answered, trying to get a better reading of the chakra approaching.

"I see," Raiden nodded, "once he arrives, I want you all to scatter and let me handle him, I have a feeling whoever is coming, is well beyond your pay grade," he was… of that there was no doubt, but we were a team, leaving him alone… felt wrong.

"We could help!"

"Maybe, but let me assess that," Raiden ordered.

Soon after, the massive chakra signature I had felt arrived with a loud boom. It was a man of tall and slender physique, he had blond hair, almost white, and a triangular goatee, accompanied by a thin moustache, the man had no eyebrows, and his eyes promised death itself.

"Who among you is the so-called walking calamity?" The man asked, his tone carefree as if our presence was unimportant.

"Me…" Raiden answered, his eyes focused on the target ahead.

"Holy crap, I knew you were young… but fuck, not this! Young… congrats I guess, the name is Gengetsu Hozuki, and I have to unfortunately kill you," Gengetsu Hozuki… the se-second Mizu-mizukage! We have to run, there is no way we can beat this guy.

"I understand," Raiden nodded, "Would you mind letting my squad scatter and leave? Or are you against that idea?"

"A shinobi that cares for his teammates, you have my respect… I won't kill them just for that," Gengetsu smiled.

"Scatter, I will deal with him alone," Raiden ordered, but a quick flick of his hands said otherwise, that small but important movement sent a message that said, hide and let me know anything you catch from him, he wanted us to observe and share with him through the mind body transmission.

"Understood!" I nodded, scattering with the rest of the team away.

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[Raiden Senju POV]

"Tell me," began Gengetsu, "Are you ready to die?"

At this, I quickly devised several possible answers. "Who knows How about you?"

"Hahaha! Fun!" Gengetu laughed.

I looked at him arms crossed and said nothing, he was ten levels ahead of me, meaning he had the advantage, but I planned to change that.

With a smile, I took a step forward as I uncrossed my arms, my legs parted slightly for better support as I waited for my opponent to start. Gengetsu noticed this and with a smile attacked, his speed was worthy of praise, but not mine, using Power Word: Shield to add some power, I parried his attack easily with one hand, and attacked with the other, using Slam.

Gengetsu dodged the attack in turn by pivoting on itself. With great speed, he grabbed my hand and sent me flying into the air, using the momentum of his move. Using a clone to stabilize, I easily maneuvered back into the ground, just in time to see Gengetsu pouncing on me again.

But I was ready for this, and used Hammer of Justice to stun the Mizukage into place, as I casted Rain of Fire.

Breaking out of my stun, Gengetsu cursed under his breath summoning a giant clam that blocked my Rain of Fire. "Impressive… didn't think you would have genjutsu in your arsenal," so Hammer of Justice is considered a genjutsu, interesting, "I will admit it brat, you are very strong, but this ends now,"

"We'll see..." I retorted by casting Soul Stone on myself, just in case.

Looking at the clam, I casted Hunter's mark on it, because something didn't feel right. My reasoning behind this action was simple, a summon like that had no real battle applications, meaning it was a support type of summon, and those types of summons were the worst kind to deal with.

"Let's see how you deal with this! Demonic Illusion: Steaming Multistoried Building!" As if on cue, the clam started to expel vapor from its shell, covering the entire area in a deep thick mist. As it did this, the clam started to move without making a sound, hiding as it continued to expel his heavy charged chakra vapors.

"Two can play this," I announced, summoning my Fel Guard and Deandre into battle, ordering them to go after the clam.

Noticing this, the now hidden Mizukage chuckled, "So you can see through the mist, very few understand the nature of my jutsu, and the few that do, die before they can do something about it,"

In reality, I still didn't understand what was the point of his jutsu, the hidden mist technique was very common in Kiri, but never with a summon, which led me to believe this mist was different to the others.

"Now the question is, will your summons defeat my clam first or will you die under my illusion", Ah, an illusionary mist, now I understood, meaning the clam was my main priority now. What a frightening technique.

—Captain! This mist is dangerous… I can feel it affecting your chakra paths!— a bit too late Yumi, but still appreciated, I inwardly thought as I ran towards the clam, with no doubt the Mizukage behind.

Using Bestial Wrath I empowered Deandre, increasing his damage output to the massive clam, as I barely parried an attack from the Mizukage that managed to cut my arm deep. Cursing under my breath I realized the Mizukage was not going to let me get his summon that easily, which means I would have to change my approach, using Spectral sight, I caught sight of the Mizukage and jumped at him, much to his shock.

"How can you…." In disbelief, the Mizukage lowered his guard for a brief second, giving me enough time to close the distance gap between us. Once in front of him, I unsheathed my tanto, and swung my blade at him, snapping out his initial shock. He responded by parrying my blows with a kunai, "You are more dangerous that I initially realized,"

"I've been told that," I muttered, jumping back transforming into my flight form.

"Not so fast!" Gengetsu shouted, "Steaming Danger Tyranny!" At this the vapor around the Mizukage started to gather in one place, creating a defective looking clone, but considering he was the Mizukage I doubted that thing was defective.

Looking over where the Clam was to check the process of my summons, I noticed it was about to die, thanks to the combined damage my Fel guard and Deandre were dealing.

Faster than I could see, the defective looking clone blurred out of sight appearing in front of me, the creature was fast… faster than the Mizukage, "Die…" Gengetsu smiled from the ground, as the strange looking clone morphed his arm into an axe bringing it down on me.

In the nick of time, I switched between forms into my Guardian form, tanking the attack, losing an arm in the process. The attack however had brought me back into the ground, where the illusionary mist started to cloud my senses.

"Aren't you full of surprises…" Gengetsu's voice echoed around the mist, seemingly coming from every direction.

Turning back into a human, I casted Flash Heal, regenerating my recently cut arm, as Yumi informed me via the mind link, the Mizukage was moving towards his clam, while the clone moved towards me.

It was clear the Mizukage wanted to keep the mist active, as it would give him an edge over this battle too strong to ignore.

Using Blink just when the clone was about to strike, I teleported pass the clone, and used Aspect of the Cheetah and Sprint, increasing my movement speed exponentially, within a second, I reached the second Mizukage, and with a smile I looked over the clam and used Shadowstep, teleporting behind the clam, "Game over," with a winning grin, I used Execute on the clam, breaking the summon in haft.

"You little bastard!" Gengetsu growled, as the mist dissipated.

"I am both little and a bastard, so I guess you are right on both accounts," I retorted, summing my water elemental into the battle.

"You really know how to push my buttons… just like that bastard of Muu," The Mizukage hissed, his weird looking clone hovering behind him.