The southern coast of the Land of Whirlpools had beautiful beaches and emerald-green seawater.
The northern coast of the Land of Whirlpools, where Yōkō was located, was all dark reefs.
The reefs stood densely, making the path difficult to traverse.
Yōkō carried the twin swords on his back, the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei wrapped in thick sealing bandages.
He stood on the highest reef, gazing at the sea.
Come on, Kiri-nin, come take a look.
Look at the silhouette under these bandages. Doesn't it look like your lost Twin Swords: Hiramekarei?
I'm the bait, a blatantly obvious bait.
A black line shot towards him abruptly.
Yōkō's heart leapt with joy. Finally, are they here?
A kunai with an explosive tag flew towards Yōkō on the reef.
After a loud explosion, thick smoke swallowed Yōkō and the reef.
The Kiri-nin knew Copper Fox's intelligence; this wasn't to attack him, but to signal and mark his location.
The Kiri-nin who first spotted Copper Fox used the explosive tag to mark the location for the others: Copper Fox is here.
As the smoke cleared, Yōkō's figure reappeared.
Kunai did no damage to Yōkō, but the impact force of the explosive tag was somewhat troublesome, making his head feel a bit dizzy from the shock.
He saw a tsunami.
The sea surface churned, a massive amount of chakra gathering.
A tidal wave dozens of meters high rushed towards the shore.
Three shinobi stood atop the wave.
Yōkō looked over; all three had sharp, shark-like teeth.
Many shinobi in Kirigakure had sharp teeth; he wondered what lineage it was.
Under the colossal wave, Yōkō's mind suddenly wandered.
He remembered a joke from his previous life.
Tell a very dirty story using one word: Oh.
Wouldn't it be dangerous if these female Kiri-nin with shark teeth said 'Oh'?
Yōkō shook his head repeatedly. Female Kiri-nin with sharp teeth? No good, definitely not a good match.
In the original story, Mei Terumī didn't have these sharp teeth; she was much more pleasant by comparison.
Mei Terumī is a few years older than Kakashi; she's probably in the Ninja Academy right now.
On the towering tsunami wave, the three Kiri-nin jōnin saw Copper Fox shaking his head and momentarily didn't know if it was mockery or... mockery.
The Twin Swords: Hiramekarei seemed to be sealed; Copper Fox couldn't use that powerful ninja sword.
The great wave crashed down, seawater covering hundreds of meters along the coast, turning this area into a home ground for Water Release users.
Yōkō turned and fled inland.
He needed to lure the Kiri-nin pursuers onto land; otherwise, they could escape too easily via the sea.
The great wave shattered reefs, broke coconut trees along the shore, and chased straight after Yōkō.
Yōkō was fast enough; the wave couldn't catch up to him.
Following closely behind the wave was dense, thick fog.
Behind the three Kiri-nin jōnin were three battalions of Kiri-nin.
Yōkō thought, The good news is we've hooked big fish – three jōnin. The bad news is the fish are a bit too big, likely to break the fishing rod.
After luring the three Kiri-nin battalions ashore, Yōkō fled into the distance.
The Kiri-nin were also stubborn; even though they knew Copper Fox was bait, they still pursued him.
The originally dark night became even worse for visibility due to the heavy fog.
Yōkō couldn't just put his head down and run for his life; he had to occasionally go easy and slow down, letting the pursuing Kiri-nin catch up.
A ninja sword suddenly appeared in front of Yōkō, slashing towards his abdomen.
In the heavy fog with visibility less than 2 meters, Yōkō completely failed to detect someone sneaking so close.
If not for the secret technique Copper Light, this single slash could have killed him.
The ninja sword was sharp but brittle; it snapped into three pieces upon hitting Yōkō's stomach.
Although it failed to injure Yōkō, it successfully stopped him.
Two Kiri-nin rushed out from the thick fog beside him.
Seeing the hand seals the two were forming, Yōkō immediately became alert.
What he feared most now wasn't a direct, head-on fight, but capture-type jutsu.
His intelligence had been spread by Sunagakure, and the Kiri-nin had also planned how to deal with Copper Fox.
The hand seals of the two shinobi on his left and right were unmistakably those for the Water Prison Technique.
If trapped by the Water Prison Technique, his absolute defense would be useless.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Rising Spears!"
After forming three hand seals, the ground around Yōkō suddenly bristled with stone spear thorns, forcing the two Kiri-nin back.
At that moment, over a dozen balls of firelight appeared in the coconut grove.
All the Fire Release users of the Yellow Dog Battalion used Fire Release simultaneously at this moment.
Especially Battalion Commander Yellow Dog, whose very first move made the air feel hot and dry.
Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!
A thick fire dragon, dozens of meters long, shot straight towards the center of the thick fog.
Over twenty Konoha shinobi used either Blazing Shot or Great Fireball techniques, attacking the faint, shadowy figures within the fog.
Yōkō quickly used an Earth Clone, disappearing beneath the ground.
When he reappeared, he was dozens of meters away.
Steamed by the Fire Release, the thick fog finally dispersed.
The Hōzuki jōnin closest to Yōkō spotted Copper Fox carrying the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei.
"Grab him!"
The Hōzuki jōnin formed hand seals with both hands, summoning another massive wave.
If submerged by the great wave, then when the wave receded, Yōkō could be caught in a Water Prison Technique, rendering his defensive abilities useless.
If Yōkō's Water Body Flicker could be used openly, these Kiri-nin would never catch him.
Water Release: Water Cutting Wave!
A water line shot out, forcibly splitting the Hōzuki jōnin's Water Shockwave tsunami.
Behind the great wave, the Hōzuki jōnin was cut apart by the Water Cutting Wave.
If it were any other jōnin, they would have been counter-killed by Yōkō by now.
The Hōzuki jōnin's body turned into two puddles of liquid, collapsing, then merging again within the spray, forming a new body.
The Hōzuki jōnin felt a surge of fear. If not for the Hydrification Technique, I'd be dead.
I only heard Copper Fox was good at defense. Who would have thought he also had such a strong Water Release?
Knowing the Water Cutting Wave couldn't kill the Hōzuki jōnin, Yōkō kept using it relentlessly, preventing the Hōzuki jōnin from fighting back, forcing him to continuously use the Hydrification Secret Technique.
A figure suddenly appeared to their side.
Seizing the moment when the Hōzuki jōnin turned into a puddle of water using his Hydrification Secret Technique, a fire dragon shot over.
Yellow Dog found the opportunity, succeeding in a sneak attack, his timing perfectly executed.
The thick fire dragon, dozens of meters long, instantly swallowed the Hōzuki jōnin.
A long, drawn-out scream came from within the fire dragon.
Whether it was the timing of the strike, the scale of the Fire Release, or the speed of the fire dragon, it was all worthy of being called perfect.
Yellow Dog was the strongest Fire Release user Yōkō had ever seen.
The biggest problem with Fire Release was its slow speed, making it easy to dodge. But Yellow Dog's fire dragons were extremely fast, combined with the super large scale of his Fire Release, leaving ordinary shinobi with no room to fight back against him.
After killing one Hōzuki jōnin, the situation instantly improved.
Yellow Dog and Yōkō joined the counterattack together.
The battle was pushed back from the coconut grove all the way to the coastline, leaving dozens of Kiri-nin corpses along the way.
When Yōkō returned to the coastline, he regretfully saw one Hōzuki jōnin escape into the sea.
Yellow Dog was also regretful, but killing two Kiri-nin jōnin meant this ambush had yielded fruitful results.
Far out on the sea surface stood Kuriarare Kushimaru. He fiddled with his wires and said:
"Haha, I thought I'd see the next wielder of the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei, but it turned out to be three pieces of trash."
"The Hōzuki clan ones are trash, and the one Teacher Genji picked is also trash."
"Two pieces of trash died at the hands of the Konoha ANBU."
"Oh, and there's one half-dead piece of trash who escaped and came back."
The surviving Hōzuki jōnin, his body slowly forming from seawater, stood up panting heavily. He said:
"We must report new intelligence to the Clan Head. There's a Sarutobi clan jōnin beside Copper Fox. His strength is extremely formidable; his Fire Release is the strongest I've seen among Konoha shinobi, stronger than even those Uchiha."
"Just shut up. You're as weak as a trampled jellyfish," Kuriarare Kushimaru said:
"How could there be a Fire Release user stronger than the Uchiha? Are you just making excuses for your failure?"
***
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(Chapter End)