Aya quickly caught onto her son's silent cue instantly. She casually shifted her gaze toward the directed spot for a fraction of a second. To the untrained eye or even to ordinary sight... there was absolutely nothing there.
But Kaien didn't have a second to waste on hesitation as he moved in a blinding speed, he raised his hand and pressed his palm over his left eye, unsealing the Sharingan which he placed under a specialized chakra suppression seal. Instantly, he dropped into a deep squat, snapping his fingers through a quick sequence of hand signs as he whipped his head around toward the empty space.
"Water Release: Heavy Slicer Jutsu!"
A razor-thin pressurized stream of water hissed out from his mouth, cutting through with terrifying velocity. Kaien had deliberately calibrated the output; he made sure not to strike with lethal force, aiming instead to capture rather than kill.
The high-pressure water blade sliced cleanly through thin air... and then, with a soft pop, it sheared straight through a camouflaged soap bubble that had been floating silently high off the ground.
Inside the ruptured bubble was Ao or rather, a meticulously crafted water clone of him, wrapped in refraction soap bubble technique. The moment the invisibility barrier shattered and the camouflage dispersed, Kaien didn't give Ao a second to react. He ripped his hand away from his left eye to reveal a swirling blood-red Sharingan as he pumped a surge of concentrated chakra into the eye, his gaze locked onto the clone.
"Sharingan: Genjutsu!"
Before the water clone could even twitch a finger or initiate the chakra breakdown required to disperse itself, it was yanked into the suffocating depths of an illusion. Its eyes glazed over instantly, falling under Kaien's mental thrall.
"Answer me," Kaien commanded. "Are you a clone?"
"Yes," the Ao clone replied immediately, its voice went flat almost robotic and devoid of free will under his Genjutsu influence. Kaien didn't pause, diving straight into the next interrogation phase. "Who were you created by, and what is your purpose here?"
"I was created by the Mizukage," the clone recited mechanically. "I was ordered to infiltrate and scout the camp, specifically to check on Kumo's status with a primary focus on locating Byakugan user who caused us a lot of trouble... in order to map out vulnerabilities for a massive night assault."
A sweat pricked at the back of Kaien's neck. "How many more of you clones are out there?"
The clone's jaw twitched slightly as Kaien poured even more chakra into the Genjutsu to override the natural resistance. "About two hundred and t..."
Before the final syllable could leave its lips, the water clone overloaded under the strain and instantly dissolved into a puddle of ordinary seawater right at their feet.
Kaien stared down at the wet splash on the ground. "Mizukage must have created all this clones at such scale," he said grimly, looking up at his mother. "They're already laying the groundwork for the next offensive wave. But before we can deal with the main army, we need to hunt down and disperse those two hundred floating Ao water clones before they rely back our intelligence."
~~
After awhile when Itachi, Jugo, and Guren finally walked back in the campsite was busy... everywhere they looked, heads were tilted upward as they scanned the open sky for those sneaky invisible soap bubbles floating around.
Over by the main tents, Kaien was in conversation with a group of Iburi clan jounin. These guys have a unique Kekkei Genkai... they can turn their physical bodies into smoke and still interact with the world like normal.
However, their ability is deeply flawed. They suffer from involuntary transformations, randomly phasing into smoke when they least expect it. Worse still, if they're caught in a strong gust of wind while in their smoke state, they scatter permanently and die. Thanks to some of Jugo clan's DNA grafted into willing volunteers, many of them have finally found a way to stabilize and stop those accidental shifts.
Yukimi Iburi is one of the such brightest prodigies the clan has seen in generations. Kaien was right there with her, dropping in quick pointers as she struggled through a new exercise: trying to partially transform just parts of her body into smoke while keeping the rest solid, then reforming them seamlessly.
It wasn't clicking right away as every time she tried, she either completely dissolved into smoke or snapped entirely back to solid flesh, getting frustrated with the all-or-nothing cycle.
Standing quietly off to the side Itachi watched her for a moment, even he could see the talent off of her. If someone gave her right pointers her ceiling was practically limitless.
Breaking his gaze away from the Iburi clan's prodigy, Itachi stepped closer to Kaien and reported on their mission. "Juzo's cells were severely compromised," Itachi explained, holding out a piece of evidence. "Badly burned, and damaged from soaked in salt water for far too long. But right near the site... I found this. It's a half-torn explosive tag that was put out prematurely."
Kaien waved a hand, excusing Yukimi so she could keep working on her partial transformations without distractions. He took the scrap of tag, turning it over in his hands to inspect the charred edges. His suspicions were confirmed. "An Uzushiogakure signature kanji. No doubt about it and very high quality at that. Did you find anything else?"
"A bit," Itachi continued with his levelled tone. "While we were destroying the mist-generating machinery on the coastline, I caught a few elite operatives in a Genjutsu to dig up intel on their numbers and command structure. Even they were clueless about the bigger picture..."
"They only knew the movements of their immediate three-to-four-man squads. But based on the sheer number of squads operating out there, combined with the warship count... I'd estimate their forces are sitting somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 shinobi. There are roughly 50 warships in total, and each one comfortably carries about 100 to 120 personnel."
~~
A/N: With Mizukage at the coast he used his Aqua water clone technique and Utakata using the bubble technique, a nice combo to hide I would say.
And do you remember them smokers from Iburi clan? I liked their Kekkei Genkai's ability.
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