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
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the heavens sent to drag Kirigakure to greatness?!"