Chapter 40 — Shikotsumyaku: Willow Dance
At the mountaintop,
the battered earthen fortification was on the verge of collapse.
Though Mist-nin were famed for Water Release, by the time one reached the rank of jōnin, it was rare to obsess over a single chakra nature. Most developed multiple natures to broaden their combat repertoire and adapt to complex battlefield conditions.
Among the Mist forces attacking the mountain were a jōnin and a tokubetsu jōnin both proficient in Lightning Release—their combined jutsu and explosive tags had pushed the earthen walls to their limit.
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Inside the fort, the remaining Konoha shinobi reported the grim situation between gasps:
"Walls are about to give."
"We've got plenty of explosive tags left, but all our barrier seals are gone."
After holding out for so long, the fort's defenses had been ground down to the point where a single blow might topple it. Supplies were running low.
They had at least inflicted casualties: four Mist-nin dead on the hillside, three more wounded and forced to retreat.
Their own side still hadn't suffered a single fatality.
But the Mist still vastly outnumbered them.
More than ten enemy shinobi continued attacking relentlessly, and the two Mist jōnin leading the assault were still nearly unscathed—clearly planning to break the fortress in one decisive strike and finish the Shigushan line today.
"Nothing left to say," the taciturn Konoha captain muttered.
"When this place falls, we go out fighting. Stick close and follow me!"
But just then—
the Yamanaka tokubetsu jōnin, who had been using his clan's sensory technique with his eyes closed, suddenly broke into a grin.
His eyes snapped open.
"Reinforcements! Reinforcements are here!"
"What!?"
"For real!?"
"I thought the main camp forgot we existed!"
For a moment the nearly hopeless defenders erupted with manic energy, like men injected with pure adrenaline. They shouted, venting all their pent-up fear and frustration.
"How many!?" their captain asked urgently.
"Two!"
"What?"
The captain froze.
Every shouter immediately fell silent.
Except the Yamanaka shinobi, who grinned wider and declared:
"Don't worry. One of them is Shisui of the Body Flicker!"
---
Shisui of the Body Flicker.
That name alone radiated an almost supernatural reassurance.
Numbers suddenly didn't matter.
Outside, the Mist-nin's assault abruptly slowed.
One of their jōnin had already formed seven or eight seals, no doubt preparing a high-level jutsu—but he stopped midway. Their sensory-nin clearly detected the incoming chakra signatures as well.
From their formation, it was obvious the Mist forces were divided—both jōnin seemed to be arguing.
But before they could reach a decision—
Two blurs—one white, one black—exploded out from the treeline like bolts of lightning.
The Mist reacted instantly, launching a storm of kunai and shuriken.
But—
Neither of the two newcomers slowed.
Neither attempted to block.
Under the stunned gazes of the Mist-nin, the white-clad and black-clad figures twisted through the rain of steel—
graceful as cranes, swift as leopards—
their movements impossibly fluid.
Not a single knife or shuriken so much as grazed them.
"Damn those Byakugan and Sharingan!"
A Mist-nin cursed.
All Mist-nin were adept in Water Release—but Mist jōnin were no amateurs. They understood clearly that both the Byakugan and Sharingan could effortlessly read the trajectory of shuriken and kunai.
Unless the projectiles were so dense that no space remained to evade, such attacks were meaningless.
Worse—
Because the reinforcements were a Hyūga and an Uchiha, their signature technique—Hidden Mist Jutsu—was completely useless.
Thick fog could blind ordinary shinobi, but it could never obstruct the Byakugan or the Sharingan.
"Chūnin, form up and defend!
Send a flare for reinforcements!"
he barked.
They still had the advantage in numbers. Yes, the enemy reinforcements were only two people—but one was a Hyūga, and the other was an Uchiha…
and that Uchiha happened to be Shisui of the Body Flicker.
Even with ten or more Mist-nin combined, they might not withstand Shisui alone.
The second jōnin didn't argue. He simply flashed through seals and unleashed a Water Style technique.
[Water Release: Water Clone Jutsu]
The shallow puddles and damp depressions around his feet churned, then rose up into rows of watery humanoid copies.
The moment they stabilized, the water clones grabbed the discarded kunai scattered on the ground and charged toward the two charging Konoha shinobi.
"Stalling tactics, huh?"
Hyūga Ritsu instantly read their intention.
Water Clones were the weakest among all solid clone techniques—they possessed only one-tenth of the user's strength, though they also consumed far less chakra.
A good tool for mowing down fodder.
But against high-level opponents, water clones had only one purpose:
To buy time.
Even weakened, they still had killing power.
They couldn't simply be ignored.
And since they cost so little chakra, a jōnin could casually produce fifty or sixty of them.
"If this were before, these things really would be annoying…"
Ritsu accelerated—wind whistling around his steps.
"But now?
This trash means nothing to me."
The instant his words fell—
sharp, ivory-white bones erupted from his palms, elbows, shoulders, and knees.
Each bone spike stretched nearly sixty centimeters long, branching outward like skeletal tree limbs.
From afar—
he looked like a human porcupine.
[Shikotsumyaku: Dance of the Willow]
Ritsu didn't dodge or weave.
He simply let his body sway like a willow in the breeze and charged straight in.
The razor-like bones pierced through the watery bodies with zero resistance, destabilizing their fragile chakra structures.
The clones instantly collapsed back into splashes of water, drenching Ritsu's clothes.
"Shikotsumyaku?!"
Both Mist jōnin stared, wide-eyed, utterly stunned.
—Why Shikotsumyaku?
That was the bloodline of the Kaguya Clan, a tribe of battle lunatics infamous in the Mist.
How could that appear on a man from the Hyūga Clan?
That meant he possessed both the Byakugan and the Shikotsumyaku?
And while rare, dual bloodline users weren't unheard of. Mist had one such genius girl—but her parents came from two of the village's bloodline clans, so her dual inheritance made sense.
But this creature before them?
What was he?
Did some Kaguya clansman and a Hyūga secretly elope and produce a monster like this?!