Elder Gensui of Kirigakure was under extreme tension as he stood guard outside the island where the Land of Water's castle was located.
"Even if we become the Bloody Mist itself, we must complete the village's mission! We must fulfill our duty to protect the Daimyo! Now is the time to show the will of the Bloody Mist!"
Gensui shouted those words to raise the morale of the Mist ninja—and to raise his own.
Castle Island was shrouded in thick fog, yet Gensui feared that fog like a ninja from another village.
The reconnaissance ninja had reported that Konoha's forces were only a few hundred meters away.
Inside the mist, every shadow of varying depth seemed like the figure of a Konoha ninja.
The shallows and shore around Castle Island were covered in traps. Gensui placed great hope in those traps.
They had made their preparations.
Now they only had to wait for the Konoha ninja to arrive.
At that moment, everyone heard something cutting through the air.
The Mist ninja activated their senses and detected a strangely shaped iron lump flying through the dense fog at a relatively slow speed.
"Wait!"
Gensui stopped the Mist ninja who were about to block it with a combined Water Formation Wall.
The object's arc was high, and it was not moving quickly. It did not seem to be an offensive weapon.
With a hiss, something stabbed into the beach.
When the Mist ninja looked closely, their faces filled with horror. They looked at one another, unable to believe their eyes.
That…
Was that the Seven Ninja Blades?
More accurately, it was the Seven Ninja Blades—or fragments of them—welded together.
Samehada was dead.
Hiramekarei had become "Eight-Bladed Flounder."
Kabutowari's hammer and axe had become a small hammer and half an axe.
Nuibari had become a bent needle.
Kiba had become fangless.
Shibuki had truly become splatter.
As for the Executioner's Blade, the broken edge had been welded to the other blades. It would never be restored.
Gensui's shoulders instantly sagged.
He knew the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were dead, but he had never imagined they had died this miserably.
Nor had he expected Konoha to be so extreme, so wasteful of priceless treasures.
In the past, it was not as though the Seven Ninja Blades had never been taken by other villages. But those villages all understood how precious the blades were, and they knew Kirigakure would pay a high price to retrieve them.
This time, Konoha had waged war with the purpose of thoroughly destroying Kirigakure's inheritance.
The Seven Ninja Blades, Kirigakure's pride, had been reduced to this wretched state.
From the other side of the fog, three voices rang out.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Three terrifying gusts of wind blew forward, actually scattering the dense fog around Castle Island.
Gensui faced the fierce wind and looked ahead.
He saw the three who had acted—
Fox.
Jiraiya.
Orochimaru.
Fox took a few steps forward.
"Your Kirigakure mist is far too weak. Let me show you mine."
Then Fox clapped his hands together and called out a technique Gensui could not understand, yet which still made his heart tremble.
"Kekkei Tōta: Erosion Release!"
A high-speed crimson storm-mist dozens of meters wide burst forward.
It was like water and hurricanes eroding everything over hundreds of millions of years—washing, dissolving, grinding, and weathering away all things.
Anything struck by the storm-mist seemed to be eroded for an eternity.
The shallow sea instantly dried up, revealing the seaweed and coral beneath. Then the seaweed and coral weathered away in an instant as well.
The sand on the beach was likewise eroded into powder.
The explosive tags, kunai, and other traps the Mist ninja had buried beneath the sand all became a joke.
The iron kunai instantly turned into rusty-red iron powder and dissolved into the crimson storm-mist.
Over a hundred Mist ninja were washed over by the storm-mist. Flesh peeled away, and white bones turned to dust.
The storm-mist brushed past Gensui and rushed toward the area behind him, leaving half his body stiff with terror.
The target of the storm-mist was the castle behind him.
Gensui forced himself to turn and look at the castle.
The castle gate could not withstand the crimson storm-mist at all. Every stone was eroded into powder, and the gate tower disappeared in an instant.
The crimson storm-mist rushed into the castle.
The castle fell silent.
What horrified Gensui even more was that after the storm-mist entered the castle, it lost its forward momentum and began spreading outward.
Every building and person that touched it melted.
Houses dissolved into powder.
The nobles, just like the Mist ninja washed over by the storm-mist, had their flesh stripped away and their bones turned to dust.
The silent, terrifying crimson fog rapidly spread through the castle.
Gensui's neck had never felt so stiff.
Slowly, he turned his head back and faced forward again.
One technique could erase an entire city?
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen had slaughtered cities before. But compared to the efficiency of killing slowly with blades, Fox's Kekkei Tōta was far more efficient.
Kushimaru Kuriarare had been infamous for his cruel, murderous perversion.
Yet compared to Fox, he seemed almost kind.
"Fox! You—"
Yako knew what Gensui wanted to say, so he kindly explained:
"I have read many histories and heard many stories.
Incomplete revenge is the same as never taking revenge at all.
Enemies will return in a more brutal form.
An incomplete revolution is the same as no revolution at all.
The enemy will seize the fruits of that revolution through more hidden methods.
The Daimyo and noble system belonging to the old era should be completely destroyed.
I do not trust the wisdom of future generations.
So I'll make things harder for myself and bear the infamy.
Therefore…"
Yako paused briefly before continuing:
"Gensui, you are stubborn beyond saving. You actually brought four thousand Mist ninja to guard the Daimyo of the Land of Water.
Not only do you refuse to surrender, you even dared to defend the rotten Daimyo.
Say goodbye to your Mist ninja."
Gensui saw Fox act again.
This time, after clapping his hands together, Fox aimed toward the side of the Mist formation.
"Erosion Release: Crimson Mist Sweep!"
An even fiercer crimson storm-mist surged toward the flank of the Mist ninja.
Yako swept his hand, and the storm-mist swept horizontally, washing over all the Mist ninja in a short time.
Terrified screams burst from the Mist ranks.
Then everything came to an abrupt stop.
Orochimaru had originally prepared to act, but after seeing the power of Fox's new technique, his gaze lowered.
"Fox, this Kekkei Tōta of yours…"
Yako explained to Orochimaru:
"Ōnoki's Dust Release is the fusion of Earth, Wind, and Fire chakra.
Although I learned Dust Release, the chakra natures I control best are Earth, Water, and Wind, in that order.
On the foundation of Dust Release, I developed my own Kekkei Tōta—Erosion Release.
Judging by the results, it is quite good. Whether in range or offensive power, it lives up to the name of Kekkei Tōta."
Orochimaru nodded repeatedly.
"Indeed. Its power is excellent. Look, the Six-Tails is about to die."
Only then did Yako remember that the Mist still had the Six-Tails as a trump card.
He had nearly forgotten.
The Six-Tails Jinchūriki had been swallowed by Erosion Release, causing the Six-Tails to emerge already surrounded by the technique.
If Dust Release struck the Six-Tails, the Six-Tails would die.
Erosion Release was the same. As long as it wrapped around the Six-Tails, the Six-Tails' fate would also be death.
The slug-like mucus-covered skin corroded even faster inside Erosion Release.
Before long, the Six-Tails died.
Jiraiya frowned as he watched the figures vanish within the crimson storm-mist.
He could not understand why building a new order required destroying the old one.
Why did so many people have to die?
He did not agree.
So he said:
"Fox, Orochimaru, I don't think the next battles need me anymore. Konoha's crisis has been resolved. I'm going back to travel."
Only after watching Jiraiya disappear into the distance did Orochimaru say:
"Fox, it seems Jiraiya does not quite agree with your theory that incomplete revenge is no revenge at all."
"That's fine. I'll bear the infamy. Let Jiraiya hate me."