Within the whirling tornado of kikaichū insects, threads of chakra webbing began to emerge. B was attempting to bind Yakushi Nono and deliver her to Danzō.
Nono glanced toward the sea.
Suddenly, a massive sword spun through the air with a howl—Samehada—and slammed straight into the insect storm.
B snapped his head toward the source.
Through the rising waves stood the towering figure of Fuguki Suikazan, his feet shifting with the tide.
"You, Wandering Miko," Suikazan growled, "you got Hōzuki Muratsuki killed, and now you think you can slink back to Konoha? I'll be taking your corpse—to shut the Hōzuki clan up. That way, they'll stop whining about Samehada."
Samehada thudded into the rock and began unraveling its bandages, revealing its sharkskin-like, spike-covered body.
B turned sharply.
"Yakushi Nono! You lured a Mist ninja here to ambush me?!"
"I told you!" Nono snapped. "The Blade Recovery Unit was annihilated. My position is completely exposed. I didn't even realize Suikazan had followed me!"
B lunged.
He rushed for Samehada and gripped its hilt—but the handle suddenly sprouted thorns, slicing his palm.
He yelped and flung it away instinctively.
Suikazan chuckled darkly as Samehada skittered back to his feet like a loyal pet.
"You think some Konoha ANBU has the right to wield this blade?"
The battle exploded.
Suikazan swung Samehada down, aiming for B's head.
Boom!
B's body burst into a cloud of kikaichū—a bug clone.
Insects scattered, only to reform nearby into the upper half of B's body. From the waist down, only thinning clouds of bugs remained.
Aburame Ryōma, Root's top infiltration specialist. Even a crack the size of a coin was enough for him to slip through in bug form.
He could fully dissolve into insects and reassemble anywhere.
"Yakushi Nono," he called, "fight with me! Then return to the village!"
B didn't fear her refusal. She'd always been weak in combat—and more importantly, Danzō had the orphanage. If she angry him, he'd slaughter every last child.
Every year, Danzō allowed Nono to return to the village for just two months. The orphanage was her only weakness.
Nono lowered her palm and formed a chakra scalpel.
But before she could get close, Samehada whipped out and knocked her flying.
Suikazan didn't even spare her a second glance. She was weak. The real threat was B.
Nono crashed into a rock wall. Blood spilled from her lips—but only as an act. The rock cracked behind her, but she hadn't taken a scratch.
Everyone thought of her as a passive infiltrator and healer. No one really understood her combat prowess.
B, realizing she wouldn't be much help, clasped his hands.
Beneath him, kikaichū surged.
"Secret Technique: Insect Swarm Prison!"
Thousands of insects burst from the ground, blanketing the entire field in black.
Chittering filled the air.
Then—the swarm rose.
Dozens of towering pillars, each over a meter thick and ten meters tall, spiraled upward and encircled Suikazan.
The Mist ninja jumped to the air.
Immediately, the bug pillars twisted mid-air, merging into dragon-like forms that lunged from every direction.
From afar, Yako watched in awe.
'Aburame Ryōma is terrifying. The scale of this swarm—it's at least four or five times what White Ram can produce.'
Suikazan raised both hands.
"Water Release: Giant Vortex Jutsu!"
The sea level dropped instantly.
Yako dove deeper, nearly exposed by the abrupt change.
Waves over thirty meters tall surged upward, collapsing the cliffs along the shore. The insect swarm was completely swallowed.
When it came to jutsu scale, no village rivaled the Mist.
Their Hidden Mist Technique could blanket kilometers. Their combined Water Release attacks could rival typhoons.
Ryōma's prison was impressive, but compared to Suikazan's water-based dominance, it was still lacking.
Riding atop the rising tide, Suikazan formed another seal.
His hair sharpened, plunging into the water like steel wires.
"Needle-Hair Kelp!"
In the sea, B's body had dissolved into a black cloud of insects.
Suikazan's hair bloomed like underwater grass, expanding across the entire wavefront.
While each strand couldn't pierce every bug, they wrapped, compressed, and collapsed, forming a deadly sphere.
Inside, the insects were shredded.
Green fluid stained the surf—splattered bug innards.
As the waves receded, the crushed bodies of the kikaichū piled up.
Suikazan gave a final Water Release to scatter the corpses—only to find no human remains.
'Did I kill him?'
He looked around. The Wandering Miko had also vanished.
'All that effort… and I got nothing.'
The sea returned to normal, waves settling.
Beneath the surface, Yako spotted a black mass darting through the water—he followed.
B had survived.
To fight Mist ninja in Uzushio, B had cultivated water-adapted parasites—tiny aquatic kikaichū.
Now they gathered to reform his body.
Once far from the fight, the insects assembled into his human shape.
B looked up. The moon was fragmented by ripples, sparkling above.
'Almost to the surface. Just a little more and—'
CRACK!
He shuddered.
A hand stabbed through his back and burst out his chest.
The fingers crushed his heart in front of his own eyes.
The heart housed a nest of kikaichū. They spilled into the sea—and died instantly.
Then—another hand drove through his lung, pulverizing it.
A fox mask slowly emerged beside his neck.
*That arm—*bronze red.
Fox.
B's mind spun.
'He actually dared—
How did he sneak up behind me?! I didn't sense a thing! What is this technique?!'
The final blow came without mercy.
His head was smashed to bits.
No clones. No reforming. No resurrection.
Dead.
Yako sank the corpse deep into the sea and weighed it down with rocks.
Only then did he rise for air.
Next stop?
Time to visit the Wandering Miko…