Chapter 486: The Scramble for the Children
Obito Uchiha was naturally unharmed by Kisame's Water Release attack. A simple phase allowed him to ignore the wide-area jutsu completely.
Then, spotting a Kiri ninja, he quickly moved toward them.
Obito's first instinct was to kill these ambushers. Daring to provoke him without knowing their own limits—they were truly tired of living. Of all the Six Great Villages, Kirigakure was the one he feared the least. Against this village he had once played like a fiddle, Obito had a strong psychological advantage.
But just as he was about to close in on the Kiri ninja, a dense fog rapidly spread, obscuring his vision.
"So they came prepared," Obito noted, unconcerned. Although the Sharingan's penetrative vision wasn't strong, it was more than enough for close combat in a dense fog.
His vision blocked, Obito halted his advance and waited, ready to counter any attack. Since Kiri had come so well-prepared, they surely had more tricks up their sleeves.
He waited for a few seconds, but the expected attack never came.
The next moment, he understood: Kiri was simply here to rescue the children.
"Damn it! White Zetsu, grab the kids!" Obito ordered the Zetsu clone attached to him.
The clone acknowledged, but just as it was about to relay the command, it cried out in surprise.
"I can't! Those Kiri ninja froze the water's surface! I can't contact the other clones."
Obito looked down and saw that the water beneath his feet had indeed frozen into a thick layer of ice.
"Ice Release... the Mizunashi clan. They use the Hidden Mist to block my sight and Ice Release to sever the Zetsu clones' connection to the ground. A good tactic," Obito muttered.
The Zetsu clone on him added, "And in this situation, even if I broke through the ice and contacted the clones underground, it would be useless. With the ground sealed by ice, any of my other clones that emerged would be killed instantly."
"Damn it! Can't they use Wood Release to break through the ice?!" Obito roared.
The Zetsu clone said innocently, "There aren't many of us here. Do you really want to fight them head-on?"
Obito finally calmed down. White Zetsu's strength was not in individual combat; their specialty was reconnaissance. After Ishiro's last raid, their numbers were already low. Each one lost was a significant blow. While the main body was cultivating new clones, the rate of consumption was faster than production. Their total numbers were constantly decreasing.
It wasn't worth sacrificing his Zetsu clones for a few children with average talent.
Fortunately, the most talented ones had already been moved to his other dimension.
"Fine. I'll get them myself," Obito said.
He shifted his focus from the Kiri ninja to the children scattered by the flood. They hadn't undergone strict training and couldn't move quietly like the ninja. He quickly located his nearest target.
Obito appeared beside the child, grabbed her arm, and quickly transferred her into the Kamui dimension. Then, after getting his bearings, he rushed to the next location.
After capturing six children, Obito and a Kiri ninja spotted another child at the same time. Obito saw the ninja, but the ninja, in turn, had no idea that the phased Obito was right there.
A silent, cold smile spread across Obito's face. I wasn't looking for trouble with you, but since we've met, you can only blame your bad luck.
He scanned the area with his Sharingan. No one else was around. He decided to capture the man alive.
Using Kamui, he silently approached the Kiri ninja from behind. The ninja was still checking on the child, completely unaware of the danger.
Slap. Obito placed his hand on the ninja's back, activating Kamui at the same time.
The Kiri ninja felt an immense suction force from the hand. Even as an elite jonin, he had no time to struggle before he was being pulled into another dimension.
But at that moment, everything changed. A thin jet of water shot out from the current near Obito's feet.
Like an arrow leaving a bowstring, the small water jet shot straight for his head.
"Water Release: Water Gun!"
Obito was shocked. He immediately aborted the attack on the ninja and tried to phase. His reaction was incredibly fast, but he was still hit by the Water Gun on the right side of his jaw. If he had been a fraction of a second slower, his entire head would have been pierced.
Clutching the bleeding wound, Obito quickly retreated. A name surfaced in his mind: Mangetsu Hōzuki.
The attacker had been Mangetsu, who had been hiding in the water all along. To be precise, it was one of Mangetsu's water clones.
This time, every Kiri ninja was accompanied by one of Mangetsu's water clones, created with the Hydrification Technique.
The clone fired another water jutsu at the fleeing Obito, but this time, the attack passed harmlessly through his phased body.
"A pity. If my main body had been here, that shot would have gone through his head," a voice came from the water.
The Kiri ninja who had narrowly escaped death was about to speak when he heard the water clone let out a soft "huh." He looked down.
He saw that some kind of rock had already collected the blood Obito had just spilled. He recognized it. It was the same type of rock that made up the porcelain platform they had flown in on.
He looked up at the sky, but the dense fog obscured everything.
"Such powerful perception, such precise chakra control. The Hidden Mist Technique doesn't seem to hinder that Tsuchikage's senses at all," the ninja said.
The Mangetsu clone in the water grunted in agreement.
At that moment, the blood, encased in the porcelain rock, quickly flew up into the sky. As it flew, the rock changed shape, finally forming a sphere.
Unseen by the two below, dense fuinjutsu formulas materialized on the sphere's surface, rapidly sealing the blood inside.
By the time the rock sphere reached Ishiro, the seal was complete.
Ishiro put the sphere away and refocused his attention below.
Obito, having narrowly escaped Mangetsu, had already healed his wound with the help of the White Zetsu clone and the First Hokage's cells.
The wound on his body was healed, but the humiliation in his heart would not disappear so quickly.
"I actually suffered a loss at the hands of Kiri again." Obito forcibly suppressed the rage boiling within him, constantly reminding himself that now was not the time to be impulsive.
After a moment, he calmed down. He then heard the heavy breathing of a child somewhere nearby.
Activating Kamui, Obito moved in a straight line toward the source of the sound. He found three children, huddled together tightly, drenched and covered in muddy water.
He paid no mind to their disheveled appearance. He approached and placed his hand on one of them, activating Kamui.
But just as he was halfway through, the mud on the children's bodies suddenly came to life, transforming into sharp rock spikes.
The spikes flashed, stabbing viciously toward Obito's right eye.
The attack was too sudden, completely beyond Obito's expectations.
Ishiro hadn't expected it to be so easy either. His porcelain mud contained his chakra; normally, such a sneak attack would be useless against the Sharingan. But now, both the mist in the air and the water on the ground were filled with the casters' chakra. This severely interfered with the Sharingan's ability to read chakra and identify enemies.
Mangetsu had just used this to ambush Obito.
This time, Obito had again failed to notice that the mud was a problem. His attention was focused on the possible appearance of Kiri ninja, especially Mangetsu, who could emerge from the water.
Of course, the main reason was that he never expected to encounter Ishiro during a Kiri operation.
The moment the spikes pierced him, Obito vanished, leaving behind only the three screaming Kiri children. Their screams immediately attracted a Kiri ninja.
He was cautious. After carefully checking the surroundings and the children, he said to the empty air, "All clear. No one in sight."
His gaze fell on the few rock spikes on the ground. "It must have been the Tsuchikage. That Uchiha was probably scared away."
As soon as he finished speaking, a voice came from the water. "Take the children back first."
"Yes, sir." The ninja quickly took the three children and left.
In the sky, Ishiro was stunned. "Izanagi?"
Did Obito just lose a life that quickly?
With Obito gone, Ishiro stopped his attacks and instead sent large amounts of porcelain into every corner of the battlefield below.
After a while, Obito still hadn't reappeared.
Most of the Kiri ninja didn't know Obito had vanished and were still rescuing children at top speed.
But Kisame, who still had a slight connection to his wide-area water jutsu, was puzzled.
Where did he go? It's been so long, and not a single child has disappeared.
Kisame hadn't moved from his original position. His task was to protect the children as they were brought to him.
After a long while, Obito finally reappeared.
This time, he didn't choose to flee. The successive failures had nearly driven him mad. He charged directly at Kisame.
In the time he had been gone, he had performed an eye transplant in the Kamui dimension. In other words, he had just added another life.
His thinking was simple: You're all trying to rescue the kids, and you don't have space-time ninjutsu. You can only gather them in one place. I'll just go and take back all the ones you've worked so hard to collect!
He had sensed that only Kisame was guarding them.
In a one-on-one fight, have I, Madara Uchiha, ever feared anyone? Even the Yellow Flash was tricked and killed by me.
He had some impression of Kisame. He was just a ninjutsu-type ninja. Dealing with someone like that should be incredibly easy.
Kisame sensed Obito's approach and grinned.
He formed hand seals, then brought his palms together. "Water Release: Great Endless Water Dragon!"
The moment he spoke, Obito saw a massive water dragon head rushing toward him. The dragon was so thick that from his angle, it looked more like a wall of water.
"Ignorant." Obito didn't dodge, charging straight ahead.
An attack like this is useless against me. Once it passes, I'll be right in front of you.
Obito had decided. This time, he would take the Mizukage down with him. He didn't care if Ishiro or Mangetsu attacked him in the process. He would just use Izanagi again after the Mizukage was dead.
He charged forward. A few seconds later...
Why isn't it over yet?
Ten seconds, then a minute passed.
How is this water dragon so long?!
Sensing something was wrong, Obito tried to move sideways to get out of its range, but the dragon moved with him. Its massive body made it impossible for him to escape quickly, giving Kisame enough time to adjust its angle.
Three minutes later, Obito panicked. What the hell is this? A water dragon this thick and this long... how much chakra does it take?
Is this Fifth Mizukage also a Jinchuriki? Aren't the Three-Tails and Six-Tails still in their revival period? Obito thought, gritting his teeth.
In the sky, Ishiro was also speechless. So there's this way to counter Kamui, too. Unfortunately, the biggest problem with Kamui was that it couldn't be detected by normal sensory ninjutsu.
Sure enough, seeing he couldn't shake the technique, Obito had no choice but to dive underground.
Once the phased Obito was underground, Kisame was at a loss. He couldn't locate him, so he couldn't maintain the attack. He had no choice but to cancel the bizarre "Great Endless Water Dragon" jutsu.
The battlefield quickly quieted down. The mist had also been dispersed by the massive jutsu.
Obito reappeared in the distance.
In that moment, he felt that all the mystery his space-time ninjutsu had once held was gone. Raiga's suicide attack, Mangetsu's Water Gun, and Kisame's super-long water dragon all proved it: in the eyes of the great villages, his intelligence was no longer a secret.
Obito had chosen to reappear next to a child. He grabbed them.
But he didn't put the child in his dimension, because a wisp of mud was circling in the air beside him like a happy little loach. The mud wasn't attacking, clearly waiting for the moment he activated Kamui.
Obito punched the chakra out of the wisp of mud, only to see another one quickly swim over from a distance.
He discovered that once his Kamui was known, he was truly powerless.
Taking a deep breath, Obito looked up at the sky.
Sure enough, there was a porcelain platform high above, though Ishiro himself was not visible.
Obito gave up on grabbing more children. He tossed the child in his hand toward Kisame, then used Kamui to teleport himself away.
Ishiro could have interrupted his Kamui, but he didn't. There was no point; he couldn't capture him anyway.
The battle was over. The ground beneath the children Kisame was guarding quickly rose. It turned out a porcelain platform had been there all along.
Ishiro could have moved the children to the sky long ago, but he had wanted to see if Obito would take the bait.
As it turned out, Obito had indeed charged over, only to have his self-confidence shattered by one of Kisame's ninjutsu.
The Kiri ninja quickly gathered the remaining children onto the porcelain platform, also moving the original villagers to the side. Then, they jumped on themselves.
The platform ascended, and the children were finally safe.
But Ishiro didn't leave immediately.
He created a shadow clone, which flew from his platform to the larger one. It walked up to a child and infused its senjutsu chakra into their body.
Then, a white, humanoid monster emerged from the child's body.
This was White Zetsu's Spore Technique. The shadow clone casually sealed it.
Then, under the grave gazes of Kisame and the others, the clone went through all the children, removing the Zetsu spores in the same way, sealing them one by one.
The clone then returned to Ishiro's platform with the sealed Zetsu. After dispelling it, Ishiro said to Kisame, "Mizukage, I wonder if my contribution today is worth one Haku?"
This time, before Ning Mizunashi could speak, Kisame said directly, "Tsuchikage, we owe you for this. From now on, Haku is a member of Iwagakure. Kirigakure will not interfere. In addition, the payment for this mission will be sent to Iwagakure after I return."
Kisame was magnanimous. It was just an S-rank mission; no need to be stingy.
Ishiro smiled. "Thank you for your generosity, Mizukage."
He paused, then added, "Mizukage, before your initial water jutsu hit the village, that Uchiha had already moved about a dozen children from one of the rooms, including the child with the Red Eye Kekkei Genkai. He then grabbed another six. In total, he took about twenty children."
"I wanted to ask, was Haku's sister, Yi Mizunashi, among those you rescued?"
Kisame couldn't answer. He didn't know who Haku's sister was. He turned to look at Ning Mizunashi.
Ning shook his head. "I never saw Yi."
Ishiro turned to Haku, who looked nervous, and sighed.
He then took everyone back to the small island where they had first met.
After dropping off the Kiri ninja and the children, he planned to return to Iwagakure with his three disciples.
But Kisame suddenly spoke. "Tsuchikage, are those white monsters for sale? I'd like to buy a few for research."
Ishiro said, "Is your village interested in these things? Do you know how to research them?"
Kisame said, "We don't. I heard that the Tsuchikage once traded one... a White Zetsu clone... to our village? But at that time, our Fourth Mizukage was being controlled by this Uchiha, so that clone was probably released. Elder Genshi mentioned this to me, so I wanted to get a few to study."
Ishiro nodded. "How about this: one S-rank mission's price per clone. How many do you want?"
Kisame smiled. "Three, please. I'll have the payment sent along with the other."
Ishiro nodded and threw over three of the sealed Zetsu.
At this moment, Mangetsu Hōzuki suddenly leaned over and whispered something to Kisame.
Kisame then said to Ishiro, "Tsuchikage, you collected quite a bit of that Uchiha's blood. I wonder if we could trade for half of it?"
Ishiro was surprised. "Does Kirigakure have research related to blood?"
Kisame nodded. "Some, but not much."
Ishiro thought for a moment, then said immediately, "Trade it for your research techniques."
Kisame's reply was swift: "No problem."
After the transaction, Ishiro took his disciples and returned to Iwagakure.
On the way, Haku said to him, "Teacher Ishiro, thank you. It's okay that my sister is gone. When I grow up, I will find her myself."
Ishiro rolled his eyes. By the time you find her, she'll have already been turned into Obito's tool.
But he could tell Haku was trying to comfort him, so he wouldn't blame himself.
Haku was still the same good-natured boy from the original story. He didn't need to worry too much about his character. Now that his most difficult issue—his allegiance—was resolved, he could be nurtured without worry.
Ishiro was in a good mood. He didn't have to worry about painstakingly raising an ungrateful traitor, or making a wedding dress for others to wear.
Of course, it would be even better if he could rescue his sister, Yi Mizunashi. Not only would it increase Haku's sense of belonging, but he might also gain another Ice Release user.
Ishiro's thought was: When it comes to increasing the village's strength and foundation, I will never say no to more.
He began to consider the possibility of getting the children back from Obito.
After returning to the village, he first let his three disciples, who had done nothing but gain some worldly experience, go off to train on their own.
Then he took the large pile of sealed White Zetsu clones to the laboratory.
Watching the ninja in charge place the Zetsu into special storage, Ishiro began to ponder how to use them.
Every child abducted by Kiri had had a Zetsu spore inside them. This had caused the number of Zetsu clones in his possession to skyrocket. With this quantity, he could no longer treat them as rare research materials.
"For now," Ishiro muttered to himself after a while, "this matter will have to fall on Orochimaru's shoulders."
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