All three of them were strong shinobi.
And with the second round of the Chūnin Exams set to begin in just three days, time was tight.
No passenger boats this time.
In other words—they ran on foot.
Dry running is boring for shinobi.
So they decided to spice things up with some wet gossip.
Yagura, ever the warm-hearted type, casually checked in on his subordinate and friend's love life.
"Hey, Kisame, how are things going with your girlfriend lately?"
That's right—Kisame, the guy with thick eyebrows and a face that screams "forever alone," had actually gotten himself a girlfriend over the past year!
And among all the people around Yagura, he was the first to break free from the shackles of singlehood!
When Mei Terumī heard about it back home, she nearly went full Lava Release and melted her entire living room.
Tsk tsk.
No matter how Yagura looked at Kisame, he couldn't see the guy having any sort of romantic appeal.
But reality is often far more ridiculous than fiction.
Even the boldest novel wouldn't dare write a love arc for Kisame—but here it was, happening right in front of Yagura's eyes.
And to make it even more absurd, she was the one who made the first move. A former ANBU teammate of Kisame's—pretty, well-built, and kind as hell.
Kisame, clearly used to people prying into his business, casually brushed it off.
"It's… fine, I guess."
"'Fine,' huh?"
Yagura's curiosity burned even brighter.
But Kisame wasn't giving an inch.
Zabuza crooked his finger, motioning Yagura over.
"He's got a photo of her in his wallet."
Yagura rolled his eyes. "Please, I knew that ages ago. You're way behind. Kisame's just an old-school romantic."
"..." Kisame glanced off to the side, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.
That attitude made it hard to dig up any juicy details.
Yagura gave Zabuza a probing look, but the latter immediately looked away.
Don't even start—I haven't got a girlfriend, and I'm not planning on getting one either.
Yagura knew Zabuza didn't have much going on romantically yet.
But someday, that kid would.
Besides Kisame breaking out of bachelorhood, several others around Yagura had found their own small happiness in the past two years.
The Hōzuki Clan had a new member—Suigetsu had been born. Mangetsu finally got the little brother he'd been hoping for.
Kimimaro was born into the Kaguya Clan—a clan of battle maniacs, but this time, they hadn't gone completely off the deep end.
The Yuki Clan still stood strong. Haku was born into it under normal circumstances, and in this life, he bore the name Yuki Haku.
Funnily enough, on the exact day and time Haku was born, Zabuza happened to be visiting the Yuki Clan on official business.
Yagura's gaze grew more intense by the second.
Zabuza decided to deflect. "Where's Sasori? Didn't he say he'd come?"
Over the years, Sasori—once a rogue ninja—had gradually been accepted and integrated into the ranks of Kirigakure.
Still, he mostly holed up in his workshop and rarely came out.
"Him? Sasori still technically has 'rogue ninja' status, so showing up to meet the Kazekage would've been… weird."
Yagura, now distracted, nodded.
"Plus, his relationship with his grandmother Chiyo is… complicated. Hard to explain. So I didn't push it."
Zabuza let out a silent sigh of relief and raised an eyebrow at Kisame, signaling for backup.
As long as Yagura wasn't roasting them, he could go off on someone else all he wanted.
Kisame nodded in agreement.
Eventually, Yagura picked up on the odd vibe. The conversation was getting a little dry, so he dropped it and focused on the road ahead.
...
Two days later, they arrived at the coast of the Land of Wind, stepping into the desert.
Yagura knew full well the crimes he'd committed against Sunagakure.
So before setting out, he'd already expected this journey wouldn't be smooth sailing.
Just as he anticipated, they hadn't even made it half a day into the Land of Wind's interior before trouble showed up.
At a waystation along the main road, sand shinobi lying in ambush beneath the dunes burst out of the ground in a surprise attack!
"There's the Mizukage!"
"Kill him!"
"Die, and atone for your sins in the war!"
Zabuza swung his Executioner's Blade, batting away a volley of kunai.
"There's a lot of them."
Kisame struck fast and hard, cutting down the vanguard with brutal efficiency.
"Pathetic. Who gave them this kind of confidence?"
Surrounded on all sides, Yagura remained calm.
"Guess it's time to test whether you two are qualified to be my guards."
The moment they got the go-ahead to go all out, both Kisame and Zabuza launched into the enemy ranks like wolves among sheep.
Kisame fought like a beast—his wide, powerful swings and brutal taijutsu crushed the sand shinobi with overwhelming strength. They had no room to counter, no chance to react.
Even when one of them managed to land a hit, Samehada immediately healed him, restoring his chakra.
And the more chakra Kisame absorbed, the stronger he got.
On the other side, Zabuza's fight was less brute force and more horror story.
Thanks to the Executioner's Blade's ability to "drink blood," he didn't need to strike vital points directly to kill.
He just had to land a hit near a vital area. From there, the iron inside the target's body would absorb blood and grow—turning into a deadly iron bloom from the inside out.
Schk!
One sand shinobi took a hit near the collarbone—seconds later, an iron spike erupted through his neck from the inside, slicing his artery open.
Brutal. Terrifying.
Like two unstoppable killing machines, they carved through the sand shinobi ranks without mercy.
The enemy realized they couldn't keep wasting forces on these two members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
...
From the sidelines, the Sunagakure jonin leader shouted,
"Keep those two pinned down! The rest of you, with me—we'll kill the Mizukage!"
You can't even handle me and Kisame, and now you think you can assassinate Yagura directly...?
In the chaos, Kisame and Zabuza locked eyes across the battlefield. There was only pity in their expressions—for the ignorance of the weak.
With the swordsmen momentarily tied up, over three hundred sand shinobi surged toward Yagura under their commander's lead.
Yagura finally moved.
"Oh my, should I call this courage... or stupidity?"
In a flash of lightning, he disappeared from their sights.
The next moment, he reappeared outside their encirclement at three o'clock, smiling.
"Or maybe you're just overconfident?"
With his current strength, unless another Kage-level opponent showed up, Yagura didn't even register these cannon fodder as a threat.
Still, their morale and bravery were admirable.
"Just like intel said—Mizukage is fast! Taijutsu's strong too!"
"Don't let him close in!"
"Switch to Formation B! Use ninjutsu!"
Yes, use ninjutsu.
Yagura's smile deepened.
He'd deliberately let them get some distance. He was baiting them to attack with ninjutsu.
Over the years, he had fully mastered Isobu's Water Mirror Jutsu.
Not just mastered—it had evolved.
He had fused it with his water blade technique. And what's more—while Water Mirror Jutsu usually countered with a single mirror attack…
What if he reflected their jutsu twice? Three times?
Beneath him, Magnetic Release users manipulated iron sand to bind his legs.
Step one: immobilize.
Rows of sand shinobi formed snake-like formations and cast their jutsu.
"Wind Style...""Wind Style: Wind Cutter!""Shuriken Typhoon!""Scorch Style: Flame Sphere!"
Yagura condensed a water blade in his hand.
He reversed his grip. The blade gleamed like a mirror, capturing every technique coming his way.
The Magnetic Release ninja sensed danger and quickly wrapped his arms with more iron sand—but it was too weak.
Yagura broke free effortlessly and swung.
The blade flashed forward.
"Water Mirror Jutsu: Full Counterattack."
BOOM!!!
First wave: a perfect copy of the enemy's ninjutsu smashed head-on into their attacks, canceling them out.
Massive explosions rocked the battlefield.
Then came wave two.
From behind the smoke, the sand shinobi saw something horrifying:
Their own jutsu—wind blades, fireballs, and weapon techniques—coming back at them from the opposite direction.
Three hundred shinobi, each staring at the very technique they were best at, now aimed at their own throats.
They froze.
And then—
CRASH!
A deluge of destruction rained down.
Dozens—hundreds—were obliterated in an instant.
Only two Magnetic Release users remained.
Yagura broke free completely, locked eyes with them, and moved like lightning.
They instinctively threw up sand-iron walls for defense.
But Yagura poured chakra into his fist and shattered the wall, following up with a clean slice that ended both their lives.
All of this—done in the blink of an eye.
The sand shinobi who had surrounded the Mizukage were completely wiped out.
Blood-soaked, Yagura stood tall, eyes turning to the other two battlefields.
"Wrap it up."
His gaze, like that of a god of death, swept across the desert.
Seeing their comrades annihilated in a heartbeat, the sand shinobi fighting Zabuza and Kisame lost all will to fight.
And when Yagura got serious, there were no jokes—like now.
Zabuza and Kisame sped up their cleanup, ensuring no enemy survived.
No witnesses. No escapees. No intel leaks.
Whether they could threaten Yagura's life or not—that was a matter of strength.
But from the moment they decided to assassinate a Kage, their deaths were already sealed.
Zabuza emerged from a sea of corpses and walked up.
"You alright?"
"Yeah."
"Didn't look like anything could touch you."
Zabuza scowled, even while speaking casually.
"No matter how many times I see it, it's just… insane."
Yagura's—no, Isobu's—Water Mirror Jutsu could reflect and cancel any long-range ninjutsu.
That was the original version.
But after Yagura evolved it, it became an almost unbeatable instant-cast counterattack.
"Insane, sure. But it's not cheating."
Pulled out of his battle trance by Zabuza's sarcasm, Yagura added,
"It's not something I can just spam—it burns through chakra like crazy."
What he did just now—reflecting three hundred shinobi's attacks twice over—cost him twice the total chakra they used.
That was its flaw—against massive numbers.
But if the enemy count was small, then it became almost uncounterable.
Yagura tactfully skipped over the part that Mangetsu and the others always nagged him about.
"Let's pick up the pace. We need to reach Sunagakure before dark. After such a 'warm' welcome from the Kazekage, it'd be rude to keep such a passionate host waiting."
Kisame grinned. "Yeah. 'Passionate' is one way to put it."
Hundreds of shinobi lives, thrown away just like that.
Yagura let out a small hum.
"A trifle. He probably couldn't afford to feed all the conscripts from the war anyway."
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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