Magen: Kijō no Rōkaku ("Demonic Illusion: Steaming Multistoried Building").
Among genjutsu, few techniques could even be mentioned in the same breath - its scale was second only to the Infinite Tsukuyomi. It didn't simply trap a single target's senses. It swallowed an entire battlefield whole, dragging hundreds into a fabricated world where every landmark could be rewritten, every enemy duplicated, and every "opening" offered like bait on a hook. Once the mirage took hold, struggle became a slow drowning; the more you fought, the more you fed the illusion's rhythm, until exhaustion and doubt replaced judgment.
The theory of breaking it was cruelly straightforward: find Gengetsu Hozuki or locate the true body of the Giant Clam sustaining the technique, then destroy it. The problem was that both were hidden inside the mirage - manufactured by the mirage, protected by the mirage, and masked by countless decoys. Even if you unleashed a storm of attacks, it amounted to firing into fog with the confidence of a blind man. You could devastate the air and still never strike the target, because what you "hit" was often nothing but a carefully shaped lie.
Worse, ordinary sensory ninjutsu offered no relief. In a genjutsu like this, chakra signatures could be forged as easily as images. What you detected, more often than not, was still just an illusion.
Hoshigaki Kisame refused to hesitate. Samehada throbbed in his grip as he charged, the massive blade carving a vicious arc through the haze and crashing down onto the Giant Clam with a heavy, decisive impact - only for the creature to ripple, turn translucent, and vanish as if it had never been there at all.
Kisame's expression tightened into a sharp scowl. "Damn it… even this one's a fake?!"
He wasn't the type to fear direct confrontation. In a true clash of strength, he'd stare down even the most terrifying jinchuriki without blinking - monsters like the Hachibi's Perfect Jinchuriki, Killer B. Power, stamina, brute force: those were languages Kisame spoke fluently. But genjutsu of this kind turned raw might into wasted motion. You could swing harder, faster, more violently - and still be nothing more than a man slaughtering shadows.
Mei Terumi's gaze stayed calm, but the tension in her brow betrayed how quickly she was calculating. "To break the mirage, we need to destroy the Giant Clam," she said, voice steady. "But the clam is also concealed inside the mirage itself. Standard sensory techniques won't work."
She snapped her head toward the rear line. "Ao! Use your Byakugan - scan the whole battlefield!"
Ao, who had been engaged against the White Zetsu, immediately pivoted and activated his Byakugan, forcing his vision wide, trying to pierce through the haze, through bodies and terrain, through chakra flow itself. For a brief moment, it looked like they might catch the anchor of the technique -
- and then reality proved merciless. Even the Byakugan couldn't peel back the Mirage Genjutsu's structure.
Ao's jaw clenched. "Mei-sama… the Nidaime Mizukage's genjutsu is too vast. We may already be inside it completely. The Byakugan can't see through something that's rewriting the battlefield itself."
As if to reinforce that despair, Uchiha Sasuke arrived, Mangekyō Sharingan flaring with cold intensity. His eyes tracked chakra like a blade tracing a throat, searching for anything that didn't belong - anything "real" beneath the deception. Yet even his ocular power came up empty.
Mei's heart sank for half a beat. Even the Byakugan and Sharingan can't expose it…?
Then her focus sharpened instead of breaking. "There's still one way," she said, the words landing with the weight of command. "A method that doesn't rely on sight or chakra readings."
Hozuki Mangetsu turned toward her sharply. "What method?"
"Physical sensing," Mei answered. "If we can make contact across the battlefield - if we can touch what the mirage can't convincingly fake - we can outline the clam's true body."
Kisame clicked his tongue, annoyed not at the idea, but at the obstacle it implied. "We don't have anyone who specializes in that kind of physical sensing."
Mei smiled - small, confident, almost amused by how the war had forced Kirigakure to evolve. "We do."
She raised her voice. "Bi! Sagiri! All Sand-Control units - move! Activate your sand manipulation and spread it everywhere. Full coverage across the battlefield!"
This was the moment Chiba's earlier decisions paid off in the most practical way possible. Kirigakure didn't just steal techniques; it digested them, rebuilt them, and turned them into doctrine. The Sand-Control Unit - led by the jonin Bi, supported by gifted young shinobi like Sagiri who had been trained from childhood - answered without hesitation.
Sand exploded upward like a conjured storm.
A roaring wall of grit and wind surged across the battlefield, turning the air into a grinding sea, blotting out sight, swallowing screams, and coating armor and skin in stinging dust. But this wasn't mindless chaos - it was a net. Chakra threaded through every grain, making each particle a probing fingertip, sweeping, mapping, feeling for what the illusion couldn't fully falsify.
Mei's voice cut through the storm. "Use the sand to outline the clam's real body by contact. Once it's mapped, Kisame - finish it in one strike!"
Kisame's grin returned, feral and eager. "Understood."
The sand thickened - and within it, a shape began to emerge. First a faint outline, then a clearer silhouette: the massive form of the Giant Clam, drawn not by sight, but by pressure and contact, revealed by a technique that refused to be fooled by mist and light.
Mei's eyes widened with fierce satisfaction. "There - now!"
Kisame didn't wait for another word. He launched himself upward, muscles coiling, Samehada raised high. He twisted midair to add weight and momentum, then brought the blade down like an executioner.
The impact was catastrophic.
A violent crack rang out as the clam's shell splintered, fractures spiderwebbing instantly before collapsing into shards. The summoned creature shuddered, its body buckling beneath overwhelming force - then detonated into dispersing smoke as the summoning was forcibly undone.
The effect was immediate. The mirage mist vanished as if someone had torn a veil off the world. Sound returned. Depth returned. Blood and churned earth returned. Shinobi blinked, suddenly aware of how wrong everything had been a moment earlier.
And there, fully revealed again, stood Nidaime Mizukage Gengetsu Hozuki.
Instead of anger, he looked delighted - almost proud. He threw his head back and laughed. "Well done!" His eyes gleamed. "You figured out physical contact to locate the clam - and since when did Kirigakure start using sand control?! That's Sunagakure's work, isn't it? Nidaime Kazekage Shamon's secret arts!"
Mei lifted her chin, unshaken. "It is. Lord Chiba forcibly took it from Sunagakure - along with Magnet Release techniques and puppet techniques. Kirigakure has them now. We even formed specialized units: Sand-Control, Magnet Release, and Puppet Corps."
Gengetsu blinked, then burst into laughter again, this time with open astonishment. "Chiba… you absurd monster." His voice carried a strange warmth beneath the taunt. "No wonder you became Godaime Mizukage. You've surpassed me. Under you, Kirigakure isn't merely enduring - it's standing at the peak of the shinobi world."
For a brief moment, morale surged like a tide across the Mist ranks.
Then Gengetsu's grin sharpened into something mischievous and dangerous. "But don't get cocky," he said lightly. "Breaking my mirage doesn't mean you can seal me."
His chakra swelled - cold, heavy, unmistakably lethal.
"I may be dead," he continued, laughter in his tone, "but I'm not about to be put down easily. Come on, Kirigakure's brats - seal me if you can!"
Bi and the entire Sand-Control Unit moved in unison, hands flashing through seals as chakra poured into a single, crushing formation.
Sabaku Sōtaisō Fūin ("Desert Layered Grand Funeral Seal")!!!
The earth trembled. Sand surged in overwhelming volume, compressing and layering with merciless force until a colossal pyramid formed - massive, oppressive, and absolute - locking Gengetsu within as if the battlefield itself had decided to bury him.
For a heartbeat, it looked like the end.
Then, from the pyramid's peak, Gengetsu's head surfaced as though the seal were nothing but loose cloth.
"Suiton… Jōki Boi ("Steaming Danger Tyranny")…!"
Chapter 166: Suiton - Jōki Boi ("Steaming Danger Tyranny")! Nidaime Mizukage Gengetsu Hozuki's Trump Card!!!
Just as the Sand-Control Unit poured everything into Sabaku Sōtaisō Fūin ("Desert Layered Grand Funeral Seal"), aiming to lock Gengetsu away permanently, he rose through the pyramid as if he were surfacing from water.
Suika no Jutsu ("Hydrification Technique") - but not the standard Hozuki variant.
Gengetsu's liquefaction looked wrong, thicker, slicker - less like pure water and more like a mixture that shrugged off most physical force. Sand couldn't bind what refused to hold a stable form, and the weight of a seal meant little to an Edo Tensei body that could flow.
The instant he exposed himself, he unleashed the technique that had turned battlefields into graves.
"Suiton - Jōki Boi ("Steaming Danger Tyranny")!!!"
The battlefield drowned in steam.
From within the haze, a smaller clone formed - child-sized, wearing Gengetsu's face like a mockery. Its surface was oil; its interior was water. A grotesque design with one purpose: heat the outer layer, boil the inside, build pressure, and explode. Then cool down, shrink, and do it again.
An endless cycle of detonations.
And it wasn't merely a bomb. The clone moved fast - unnaturally fast - its arm reshaping into a massive blade of water as it carved through the Mist ranks. Every burst of speed threatened another violent expansion, another eruption of steam and force. Fighting it wasn't just dangerous - it was a countdown you could feel with every exchanged blow.
Mangetsu's eyes widened. "Everyone, be careful! That's Nidaime Mizukage-sama's trump card - Suiton: Jōki Boi ("Steaming Danger Tyranny")!!!"
He was Hozuki blood; he understood the technique's secret. But knowing the mechanism didn't solve the problem. A truth shouted out loud didn't stop an explosion from tearing bodies apart.
The Steam Imp clone lunged, water blade flashing.
Mangetsu threw himself forward, Hiramekarei raised, because ordinary shinobi couldn't hold the line here - not even for a second.
"Hiramekarei Kaihō ("Hiramekarei Release")!!!"
Chakra erupted from the sword's vents, unraveling into a brutal, condensed mass that shaped itself into an enormous axe-hammer of raw power. Mangetsu swung with everything he had, meeting the clone head-on.
The collision shook the air.
A shockwave rippled outward as both were forced back - Mangetsu sliding, boots carving trenches into the mud, shock flashing across his face.
A clone… just threw me back?!
Gengetsu's laughter sparkled through the steam. "Hiramekarei… so you're Hozuki, huh? To draw out that sword's power like that - you're a talented brat. Not bad. Not bad at all!"
Mangetsu didn't have time to answer. The clone was swelling again - heat building along its oily surface, pressure rising within. He could feel it in the way the steam thickened, in the way the clone's movements became tighter, more unstable.
It's going to blow - !
Mei's voice snapped across the battlefield, crisp with leadership. "Don't let him control the pace! Strike the source - move!"
She led the Mist shinobi in a direct push toward the pyramid, aiming to overwhelm Gengetsu himself. But even from within that seal, Gengetsu was still Gengetsu.
He lifted both hands, chakra compressing into lethal focus.
"Mizu Teppō no Jutsu ("Water Gun Technique") - Suppressive Fire!!!"
Compressed water shots tore through the air like gunfire, a ruthless barrage aimed at the advancing shinobi.
Mei and Kisame moved as one, slamming their palms down.
"Suiton: Suijinheki ("Water Formation Wall")!!!"
A surging wall of water rose in front of the allied line, intercepting the barrage with roaring impacts and bursting spray.
Gengetsu smiled, clearly entertained. "Nice. Kirigakure really does have worthy successors - hahahaha!"
Then he flicked his hand again.
"Mizu Fūsen no Jutsu ("Water Balloon Technique")!!!"
Countless bubbles drifted forward - light, almost harmless-looking - until they detonated with violent force, popping across the battlefield like hidden mines. The effect resembled the Rokubi jinchuriki's bubble-based techniques, but these bubbles felt heavier, stickier, wrong in a way that made the skin crawl.
Oil disguised as water.
Mei's eyes narrowed, and she countered instantly.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu ("Water Dragon Bullet Technique")!!!"
A massive water dragon surged forth, jaws wide, devouring the incoming bubbles and tearing through them mid-flight. Explosions blossomed inside its maw and along its body, contained just enough to spare the shinobi behind it.
Kisame followed without hesitation, chakra roaring.
"Suiton: Ame Yonshako ("Four Sharks Rain")!!!"
Four massive water sharks formed and slammed into the bubble field. When the bubbles detonated, the sharks shattered - only to burst into a rain of countless tiny shark-bullets, screaming forward in a savage counterattack that ripped through the bubble barrage in a storm of impacts.
Explosions hammered the air. The ground shook hard enough to rattle teeth. Steam, water, oil, sand - everything blurred into one violent, deafening tempest.
Gengetsu's expression shifted into genuine surprise. He had always believed his Suiton stood at the pinnacle, rivaled only by Nidaime Hokage Senju Tobirama. Yet the two in front of him - Mei, summoning a dragon large enough to swallow the barrage, and Kisame, unleashing a technique that multiplied into a thousand fangs - didn't feel weaker than him at all.
His eyes narrowed. "What is with your chakra?!"
Mei's smile didn't waver. "Kisame has always been called the Tailless Tailed Beast. His chakra reserves are monstrous by nature, and Samehada can absorb chakra - his reputation is earned."
She lifted her chin slightly, gaze steady. "As for me… my chakra used to be good, but not like this. Lord Chiba stole Shodaime Hokage Senju Hashirama's cells from Konoha and created a diluted solution. I - and almost every shinobi in Kirigakure - merged with that power."
Her voice stayed calm, almost clinical, as if stating a battlefield fact rather than something that should have been impossible.
"Chakra, vitality, recovery… even stamina and physical strength - everything rose dramatically."
Gengetsu froze for a fraction of a heartbeat, then laughed again, shock and exhilaration mixing into something almost joyous.
"Again with Chiba?!" he barked, incredulous. "Hashirama's cells… you even pulled that off?!"
For the first time, the legendary Nidaime Mizukage sounded almost sincerely moved - like a man watching the village he loved become something beyond what he ever believed it could be.
"Is he really some kind of savior the heavens sent to drag Kirigakure to greatness?!"