Time moved slightly backward.
The scene shifted to Kisame Hoshigaki, who was advancing alone to scout the situation.
"Well, well… This is quite the ridiculous number."
Kisame Hoshigaki stood on a cliff beside the river.
Using the cover of the trees, he looked at the nearly one thousand ghost soldiers that had already formed ranks on the opposite bank, blocking the road they had to take next.
His eyes slowly narrowed.
After making contact with Miroku and Shion, he and Shisui Uchiha had rushed straight toward the Land of Swamps without any delay.
Although they had needed to account for the physical condition of their two clients along the way and had no choice but to reduce their speed somewhat, no matter how one thought about it, there was no reason for the ghost army that departed later to catch up with them.
Unless this ghost army had been lying in ambush here from the very beginning, waiting under Mōryō's order for the priestess who wanted to destroy him completely.
In that case, the relationship between Mōryō and the priestess became rather interesting.
One side knew how to completely destroy the other.
The other had long since laid an iron wall on the road to the Sealing Shrine.
"Heh. In that case, this ghost army didn't just suddenly appear. The Mōryō commanding them might have been released by some wandering shinobi who wanted to overthrow this country…"
"Yare, yare. This is troublesome now… If I don't deal with them, then breaking through safely later while taking those two women with us won't be guaranteed. But if I reduce them to a number that won't affect our passage, the commotion won't be small—"
Clang!
Dazzling sparks burst behind Kisame.
The savage-looking Kirigakure monster slowly turned his head and looked at the wandering shinobi whose expression had shifted to shock because Kisame had blocked his all-out sneak attack one-handed with a reverse grip on his blade.
Kisame grinned, revealing sharp, layered teeth like a shark's.
"Mōryō relies on trash of your level as his claws and fangs? Then your idea of reigniting war and conquering the shinobi world is truly laughable."
"Impossible. I clearly—"
Squelch.
The blade flashed.
The muscles in Kisame's arm bulged violently as the standard ninja sword in his hand erupted with the sharp and ferocious momentum of an ōdachi.
With one strike, he directly sliced off the sneak attacker's head.
Bathed in the rain of blood that sprayed high from the man's body, Kisame Hoshigaki turned around and looked at the wandering shinobi surrounding him.
A savage, bloodthirsty smile appeared on his face.
"You saved me the trouble of finding a reason to act conservatively. As thanks, I'll let you people without even forehead protectors see what shinobi from the Village of the Bloody Mist are like."
"D-Don't be afraid! He's only one person! We've already received special chakra enhancement from Lord Mōryō. Why would mere shinobi from a defeated country be able to beat us!?"
"Right, right! Kirigakure is nothing but a pack of stray dogs that tried to take advantage of the situation, only to get beaten bloody by Konoha instead. We, who obtained Lord Mōryō's power, are new-generation shinobi who will conquer the shinobi world and trample Konoha beneath our feet. How could we lose to outdated garba—"
Boom!
The wandering shinobi surrounding him were still using aggressive language to boost their courage.
But Kisame, standing in the middle of the encirclement, had already lost even the slightest bit of patience.
He burst forward with the Body Flicker Technique, like a hungry shark that had smelled blood, and began slaughtering the surrounding wandering shinobi who were running their mouths without mercy.
Black cursed markings like flames spread from the Cursed Seal of Heaven on his neck, quickly crawling across Kisame Hoshigaki's body and face.
An incomparably enormous amount of chakra was violently drawn out from within his body, forming the illusory shadow of a fanged giant shark around him.
His strength rose dramatically.
His speed increased sharply.
His senses became even more acute than when he was calmly training.
Following Kisame's heavy, wild, and unrestrained swings of his blade, the encirclement formed by the wandering shinobi was almost instantly torn open, leaving a gap filled with severed limbs flying everywhere.
The owners of those severed limbs were swallowed by shark-shaped water bullets carried by Kisame's swings, then chewed into mangled lumps of flesh that no longer resembled their original forms in just a few bites.
"So weak. So weak."
Bathed in the rain of blood from the wandering shinobi, Kisame Hoshigaki, who had activated the first state of the Cursed Seal, turned and looked at the wandering shinobi whose expressions had changed drastically.
He spat out a shuriken that had been thrown at him by some unknown wandering shinobi and laughed in carefree madness.
"Trash like you, who couldn't even pass a Ninja Academy graduation exam, dares compare yourselves to Kirigakure shinobi? Looks like Mōryō's purity isn't much either. Ignorant things. With insect subordinates like you, he actually dares keep words like conquering the shinobi world in his mouth…"
"Enhance! Quickly activate the power Lord Mōryō granted us! Have the ghost army join the battle too! That shark's blade is too fast. If we don't get serious, we'll be killed like those guys!"
The wandering shinobi facing Kisame from farther away saw their expressions change drastically.
They immediately began stimulating the brutal chakra Mōryō had granted them, guarding against being killed by this astonishingly powerful Kirigakure monster while they still had strength and trump cards unused.
Accompanied by painful roars, the bodies of the remaining wandering shinobi rapidly underwent savage and twisted mutations.
Strange patterns appeared on their faces.
Certain parts of their bodies suddenly grew additional organs.
Even their chakra auras abruptly expanded, becoming far more turbid and violent.
"Roar… hah… Shark… man…"
The wandering shinobi, clearly unable to control the violent chakra inside them and no longer fully sane, stared fixedly at Kisame like mad, starving beasts, panting at him.
"Kill you… tear you apart!"
"Oh? A power similar to the Cursed Seal of Heaven bestowed by Lord Fourth?"
Kisame saw through the essence of the changes in their bodies at a glance.
While his intention to slaughter them in order to correct the mistake of speaking arrogantly about Kirigakure remained, a bit more condescending pride and disdain entered his thoughts.
He looked at the ghost army behind the wandering shinobi, which was trying to cross the river and participate in the siege.
Then he licked his lips and revealed a cruel smile.
"Fine. Since you treat that inferior chakra transformation as your trump card, then I will respond with the Cursed Seal of Heaven bestowed upon me by Lord Fourth and eliminate you together with that ghost army… Cursed Seal Two, open!"
The black, flame-shaped cursed markings began connecting across Kisame's body and face, quickly turning his pale blue skin into a light black shade.
A black cross appeared at the center of Kisame's face.
As the second state of the Cursed Seal activated, his body also transformed into a terrifying monster that was half-human, half-shark.
Once the shark tail fin finished growing from his tailbone, Kisame's chakra aura became even colder and more brutal.
He briefly formed several hand seals with both hands and shouted with a savage grin.
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
An ocean-like mass of water poured out of Kisame's mouth.
Carrying the rushing river water with it, the water rapidly expanded into a massive aquatic domain nearly one kilometer in diameter.
It swept all the wandering shinobi into it, even those who had lost their sanity still showing despair before this enormous difference.
Then Kisame leapt into the water like a shark that had smelled blood and began his hunt.
"I'll tear you inferior garbage to pieces and turn you and those damned ghost soldiers into shark feed!"
"Water Release: A Thousand Feeding Sharks!"
In an instant, countless translucent sharks filled the entire aquatic domain.
Then the originally clear water sphere was instantly dyed a glaring red by miserable blood.
Amid the exploding filth of blood, countless ghost soldiers torn into pieces could be seen slowly sinking.
And as the aquatic domain continued moving forward, their numbers kept increasing at a rapid pace.
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