"Kyusan!"
Fumikawa had just been mocking Konoha with smug satisfaction before being bitingly rebuked by Hatani. Now, his rage reached a boiling point as he watched an elite Jonin he had handpicked die at the hands of a mere Genin. He was as shocked as he was livid.
But Minato wasn't about to offer him any sympathy for his fallen comrade. On the contrary, sensing that the enemy leader was shaken by the sudden loss, Minato pressed the attack with a cold, decisive ruthlessness—the kind that aimed to finish a weakened foe.
"Choza!"
Minato knew that now that Hatani had killed one of them, the element of surprise was gone. The enemy would never underestimate them again. Since he still found it difficult to go head-to-head with a veteran Jonin in his current state, he called out to Choza, who had finally recovered after the massive chakra drain of blocking the Great Waterfall.
"Secret Technique: Multi-Size Jutsu!"
In perfect sync with Minato, Choza instantly expanded his right hand. He swung his massive arm in a wide arc toward Fumikawa, intending to force the leader to retreat to the left or rear.
However, the death of Kyusan had hardened Fumikawa's resolve. He forced his mind back into a state of combat-ready calm.
"Water Style: Water Clearing Wave!"
Faced with the oncoming giant hand, Fumikawa didn't retreat. He transformed his chakra into a high-speed rotating vortex of water that rose from beneath his feet, clashing head-on with Choza's hand and parrying the blow with sheer force.
"Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld!" "Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!"
The other two Iwa Jonin finally completed their combined technique.
The shorter Jonin turned the vast area beneath Hatani and the others into a deep, treacherous mire. Caught off guard, everyone's feet sank into the muck. Choza, still partially enlarged, instantly sank up to his waist, forcing him to cancel his expansion immediately.
Simultaneously, a massive water dragon let out a roar, lunging toward the group as they struggled to move in the swamp.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Wave!"
Driven into a corner, the Namikaze brothers unleashed their Vacuum Waves in unison. Relying on the technique's ability to sever even chakra-based structures, they sliced the water dragon into three harmless segments.
But even as the dragon collapsed, its massive volume of water poured into the mire. In an instant, the swamp was transformed into a waterlogged lake. In the chaos, Choza found himself submerged up to his neck.
"Water Style: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
The Iwa onslaught showed no signs of stopping.
Fumikawa acted like a high-pressure fire hydrant, unleashing an A-rank Water Style jutsu that sent a massive surge of water sweeping across the battlefield. Trapped in the swamp-turned-lake, Hatani and the others were completely engulfed by the raging torrent.
Fumikawa finally revealed his lethal edge. He moved through the water with the grace of a predatory fish, swimming at high speed toward his primary target: Nawaki.
As a ninja, he might have felt a flash of impulsive anger when Kyusan was killed, but he had quickly prioritized the mission.
However, he seemed to have forgotten one thing: Nawaki was a Water Style user himself. Furthermore, Nawaki's grand-uncle was Tobirama Senju—the man famously joked about having signed a blood contract with the ocean itself.
The Swamp of the Underworld had trapped Nawaki, but the flood from the Water Colliding Wave actually provided him the buoyancy needed to escape the mire.
"Water Style: Instant Water!"
Just as Fumikawa's hand closed in on him, Nawaki completed his seals. With a speed akin to a Body Flicker but executed through the medium of water, he vanished, reappearing several meters away next to Hatani. He grabbed Hatani and began a rapid retreat, desperate to escape the effective range of Fumikawa's jutsu.
Nawaki's Water Style had improved significantly under Jiraiya's tutelage, but it was still outclassed by a specialist like Fumikawa.
"Water Style: Water Shark Bullet!"
Fumikawa wasn't about to let his prey slip away. He wove his signs again, encasing himself in a shark-shaped shroud of chakra. He lunged through the water toward the retreating duo, his heart set on tearing them apart.
"Aaargh!"
But just as he was about to strike, a distorted scream—filled with terror and agony—ripped through the air.
He recognized the voice. it was Kyu, the subordinate who had initiated the swamp jutsu.
The target was right in front of him, so Fumikawa couldn't afford to check on Kyu. He poured everything into the shark shroud, snapping his jaws at the two boys whose terrified expressions were now clearly visible.
"Water Style: Water Formation Pillar!"
Suddenly, a massive geyser of water erupted with tremendous force, intercepting the chakra shark and knocking it backward.
Without Fumikawa's constant chakra maintenance, the flood from the Great Water Colliding Wave finally began to disperse across the open terrain. The group was finally free of the drowning current.
As Fumikawa was pushed back, he finally saw the disaster behind him. Kyu was lying on the ground, blood gushing from three deep wounds inflicted by kunai. He was staring with wide, wary eyes at the final teammate, Ichi, who stood nearby.
"Captain, watch out! There's something wrong with Ichi!" Kyu gasped. It was clear the kunai in his back were Ichi's handiwork.
"That's the Spirit Transformation Jutsu... You're Dan Kato!"
Fumikawa finally realized what he had overlooked. He felt a surge of pure hatred.
Kyusan, whom he'd sent to hunt down Dan Kato, had died at Hatani's hands. Meanwhile, Dan—who had appeared to be fleeing—had used his Spirit Transformation to possess Ichi, backstabbing Kyu and saving the boys with that Water Formation Pillar.
"Heh. And you lot aren't Rain ninja. You're Iwa," Dan's voice said through Ichi's mouth, exposing their true identity.
As he spoke, "Ichi" pulled another kunai from his pouch and, without a second's hesitation, drove it toward his own heart.
Dan's soul-form was at its limit. His physical body was still ravaged by injury; possessing a Jonin was only possible because he'd caught the man completely off guard. Even so, after the strain of the sneak attack and the high-level defensive jutsu, he was spent.
But before leaving this host, he intended to make one last contribution.
Hatani had killed one Jonin. If Dan could force this one to commit suicide, the remaining duo—a one-legged Fumikawa and an injured Kyu—would be easy pickings for Minato's team.
"No!"
Fumikawa and Kyu roared in unison, desperate to stop the suicide. But then, they watched as Ichi's hand suddenly froze mid-thrust. Ichi dropped the kunai like it was a poisonous snake, his face pale with a look of lingering horror.
"Oh no!"
Minato's face fell, replaced by a look of deep concern.
Dan Kato was a veteran Jonin. If he had intended to end the technique after "killing" the host, there was no way he would fail to follow through. There was only one explanation for the jutsu being forcibly interrupted.
Something had happened to his physical body.
Is there another enemy ambush?!
A cold dread settled over the group as they realized the situation had just spiraled out of control.