Mangetsu's eyes were locked on the cloaked figure in front of him, alert and ready to strike at any moment.
"A man even Kisame couldn't track down back when he was with the ANBU…"
During the era of the Third Mizukage, Kisame had been tasked with uncovering whoever had sent the tailed beast proposal to Fuguki Suikazan. When Yagura took over, he kept that investigation alive, assigning to continue the search.
But they never found even a trace.
Now, Mangetsu considered himself lucky. His eyes narrowed as he prepared to fight.
"Lucky me… looks like I've caught a big one."
The man in the cloak turned slowly, lowering his hood. Beneath it was a mask that revealed only a single eye.
From the build, Mangetsu guessed he wasn't very old.
But the oppressive aura rolling off him constantly kept Mangetsu's senses on edge.
Yagura trusted Mangetsu to handle almost any situation.
But this wasn't just any situation. This was someone from his original timeline. His old enemy—Uchiha Obito.
Half-buried in the earth nearby, the black-and-white figure of Zetsu muttered from the Venus flytrap-shaped opening,
"Tch. We just heard something interesting was happening in the Land of Water and came to watch the show. Didn't expect to be targeted. Talk about rotten luck."
Obito didn't intend to get dragged into anything unnecessary.
The single eye visible from the mask began to spiral, distorting the space around him as he tried to absorb himself into the Kamui dimension.
"You're not getting away!"
Mangetsu threw his long blade like a javelin—aiming directly at the eye at the center of that swirling space.
Whoosh!
With his other hand, he launched the Water Gun Technique to intercept Zetsu before he could intervene.
The flying blade disrupted Obito's teleportation just in time, forcing him to phase instead of vanish.
The sharp edge of the thread-woven blade embedded in the ground behind Obito. The trailing wire shot through his body and ended up gripped in Mangetsu's hand.
Mangetsu began to piece things together. As he pulled the thread from both sides of Obito's body, he noticed something odd: no visible change, no damage.
"This isn't like Mukumo's Cloud Release. This guy can phase through physical attacks… and the source is his eye? A dōjutsu?"
Obito stepped away from the threads. "That was fast."
From that brief clash, he realized he couldn't just slip away by absorbing himself—he'd get interrupted again.
A clean retreat was no longer possible. The only option was to fight and find an opening during the battle.
Chains clinked as they dropped from his body, ending in handcuff-like rings that snapped onto his wrists.
Mangetsu narrowed his eyes. "So that's your weapon…"
This Mist ninja was no ordinary opponent. Obito glanced over at Zetsu.
"Zetsu. Who is he?"
Zetsu, with eyes and spies spread all across the shinobi world, answered:
"He's Hōzuki Mangetsu. Leader of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. The Mizukage's top confidant."
"The Seven Ninja Swordsmen…" Obito muttered, remembering the name from his time in Konoha.
"So that's who you are."
Shnk—!
Mangetsu fired a Water Iron Cannon straight into the ground in front of Zetsu.
If Zetsu had hesitated for even a second, it would've drilled straight through his head.
Mangetsu raised his water pistol and aimed it at Zetsu again, snapping his fingers with the other hand.
"Bubble Technique."
Bubbles erupted from the ground, surrounding Zetsu and attacking in tandem with the water blasts.
Between the two of them, Mangetsu judged that the masked man was the real threat.
But the flytrap freak—silent, able to burrow underground, and likely possessing intel on him or even the Hidden Mist—was too dangerous to ignore.
Under threat, Zetsu sank back into the earth, leaving the fight to Obito.
"Like a rat hiding in the sewers," Mangetsu muttered.
With Zetsu gone, he turned his full attention on Obito.
This masked man wielding chains and cloaked in darkness exuded a danger that made even the bloodthirsty Mist of old pale in comparison.
Mangetsu yanked his thread blade back, once again observing Obito's phasing ability. He didn't give him even a second to escape. Charging forward, he shouted:
"Coming to watch the fireworks festival in Kirigakure? Since when do rats have an instinct for light?!"
Obito didn't bother replying. He needed to end this quickly.
He swung his chain weapon hard, meeting Mangetsu head-on.
Mangetsu formed a one-handed seal. "Bubble Technique!"
From the grassy field, bubbles surged out faster than his own body, shooting toward Obito—only to pass harmlessly through him, just like the needle-thread blade earlier.
The bubbles exploded on the ground like water balloons, sending pressurized water bolts everywhere.
But none touched the masked enemy. Not a single drop.
"Not just physical attacks… even ninjutsu passes through. Either he can phase through any attack, or, like Cloud Release, he can make his body intangible."
If it were the first case… then he was practically unbeatable, like Yagura's Water Mirror Technique.
But someone with that kind of power wouldn't be hiding in the shadows like a rat.
Mangetsu leaned toward the second option—something that could be countered—but he needed confirmation.
Engaging him at close range, Mangetsu purposefully used sloppy swordsmanship, swinging his thread blade in wide arcs.
Not just the blade—his entire body passed through Obito's as if he weren't even there.
Even the handcuffs controlling the weapon chains didn't make contact—he phased right through those too.
Mangetsu's body landed right on Obito's chain.
...
With a terrifying clank, the chain yanked taut. Obito's arms snapped forward, twisting the chain to bind Mangetsu tight.
Mangetsu struggled hard. "So your weapon can switch between solid and intangible based on when you attack. Same goes for your arms."
And he was strong—strong enough that even Mangetsu couldn't break free.
Obito pulled the chains tighter. Then, in a moment of distraction, he phased his arms out to slip off the cuffs and began absorbing his body into Kamui for escape.
But Mangetsu responded instantly, turning to liquid and surging through Obito's chain weapon like a roaring current.
His body became a tide of water crashing back toward Obito.
Obito had no idea what the name "Hōzuki" truly meant.
Zetsu did—but Mangetsu had already silenced him before they could exchange intel.
Lacking that information, Obito didn't expect Mangetsu to possess a technique so similar to his own—something that could also nullify physical attacks.
Mid-absorption, Obito had no time to phase. The water torrent slammed into him, knocking him into the air.
He phased a second too late, barely avoiding a direct hit.
"So your power lets you phase to avoid attacks. Not too different from our Cloud Release."
Mangetsu's upper body reformed from the crest of the wave, and in his hand now gleamed a new blade:
The Explosive Blade.
The water created from his transformation now filled the battlefield—restricting Obito's movement.
Muscles swelling from absorbed water, Mangetsu raised the blade and slashed down with force, releasing a scroll covered in explosive tags.
"You can't phase through attacks while you're escaping. So you had to stop and switch to phasing. Just like a rat cornered in daylight!"
He switched seals, his body fully reforming, severing his connection with the water stream.
The scroll whipped through the air, its tags igniting with fiery bursts of chakra—
BOOM!!
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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