Mizuki clenched the thin transparent wire between his teeth, his gaze sharpening as a small smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth. In the very next instant, he jerked his head backward, and the shuriken that had seemed to fly off-course suddenly changed direction. The nearly invisible wire redirected its path perfectly.
Before the enemy could understand the trick, Mizuki moved again. His hands blurred through the air, releasing four more shuriken, each connected by the same hidden wires.
Within a moment, eight spinning blades twisted together, forming a tight crisscrossed knot of steel. Before Yamanaka could react, the wires wrapped around him and slammed him against a tree, binding him in place.
"This… this is impossible!" Yamanaka shouted, struggling wildly. "That pattern—you need Sharingan to pull off that kind of precision! You're not even from the Uchiha clan!"
But Mizuki only tightened the wire between his teeth and smiled calmly.
"True, I'm not an Uchiha," he answered. "But I'm also not relying on the simple Three-Way Stance shuriken trick. I used all eight wires. More wires mean lower failure, higher risk of exposure—but a much easier execution."
He tilted his head slightly, almost amused.
"I heard the Uchiha clan came up with this long ago. But civilian ninjas didn't want to depend on Uchiha techniques. So these methods ended up buried in the trash of history."
Before Yamanaka could speak again, Mizuki inhaled deeply.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
A long stream of fire roared from Mizuki's mouth, traveling straight along the steel wires, turning them into flaming conduits. The fire burst forward with unnatural accuracy, drawn by the direction of the wires.
Even a weak flame is still fire.
And the smell of burning flesh never lies.
Yamanaka's eyes widened as the flames raced toward him. "I… I underestimated you!"
His voice trembled, but something about his expression was wrong—he looked too calm, as if he had already accepted death. Mizuki felt a bad feeling rise in his chest.
But the flames were already seconds away from reaching their target.
If he hesitated now, he might lose any chance of victory.
"I have to test it," Mizuki muttered. Whether this was a trap or not, he had no time left.
"Dragon Flame!"
With a thunderous blast, the roaring flame swallowed Yamanaka whole like a speeding train slamming through a wall. The fire burst open around the tree, lighting up the forest with violent red.
But before Mizuki could breathe, the burning body erupted into white smoke.
Not a real person.
Shadow Clone.
Mizuki's pupils shrank. He jumped back instinctively—just in time to hear a cold whisper behind him, almost like Death itself leaning close to his ear.
"Unfortunately… you lost the bet."
Yamanaka's real voice echoed behind him, calm and cutting.
"I already told you—I'm not good at fighting. I'm a Yamanaka. My sensing abilities are what I excel at. Your fancy shuriken tricks? Take them with you to the afterlife… maybe Uchiha Madara will be impressed."
In that moment, Yamanaka burst through the water curtain behind Mizuki, a short sword already slicing toward Mizuki's neck.
The blade was only an inch away—
"Hmm?"
A sudden sound filled the air.
Pfft—!
It was the sound of something igniting violently.
Yamanaka instantly abandoned the killing strike, pushing off the ground to leap back as fast as he could.
"A detonating tag?!" he hissed. "Is this your escape route?"
But Mizuki's figure suddenly appeared behind him.
"Or maybe…" Mizuki said with a cold smile, "you're running into my attack instead."
Yamanaka froze.
How?!
He sensed Mizuki clearly before—how did he end up behind him now?!
No time to think. Kill first.
Yamanaka twisted in midair, raising his sword high above his head. With the momentum of his leap, he prepared to slice Mizuki clean in half.
But then—
Why didn't the exploding tag behind him blow up?
Yamanaka felt dread spread through his chest.
Something is wrong. Very wrong.
At that exact moment—
Mizuki's voice echoed again, this time much closer.
"Fake explosive tags. Did you really think only Jōnin can use deception? My strength… is genuine."
Yamanaka's heart stopped.
The Mizuki he had been chasing was the clone.
The one behind him now—the calm one—was the real Mizuki.
"Turn around!" his instincts screamed.
He twisted again, desperately trying to face the real threat. But after transforming direction twice midair, he had no more control left. His momentum was gone, his body hanging helplessly in the air.
Behind him, the second Mizuki—still in clone form—lifted two fingers.
His smile was unnerving.
"Clone Explosion!"
This technique wasn't some ordinary academy trick. Mizuki had obtained it from a secret Uchiha scroll—a dangerous A-rank jutsu rumored to have been invented by a child genius from the clan.
The clone was formed using a living creature as its core—Mizuki had used a crow. That gave the clone a lifelike aura strong enough to fool even a trained sensor ninja.
The downside?
When the clone exploded, the pain transferred back to the user.
But right now, Mizuki didn't care.
Yamanaka realized everything too late.
The real Mizuki had already escaped the blast zone.
The clone was swelling—rapidly—like a corpse filled with gas.
His pupils shrank like pinpoints.
"No—!"
BOOM!!!
A massive explosion ripped through the clearing.
The blast dwarfed the power of a normal explosive tag.
Fire tore through branches, leaves, and earth, sending shockwaves in every direction.
The entire forest shook from the impact.
And Yamanaka—caught at point-blank range—had no chance to resist.
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