Shino scanned the scorched village, heart pounding. "Where's Chimaru?" he asked again, voice sharp.
The team went silent. Eyes met, but no words came.
Then—
Panic.
They burst into motion, scattering across the fallen ruins, shouting his name as they darted through broken alleys and shattered walls.
"CHIMARU!!"
"CHIMARU!!"
The smoke grew heavier. The air, tighter.
Shino ran—eyes wide, mind racing—until he saw it.
A single figure.
Alone, kneeling amidst the rubble.
Chimaru.
"...It can't be."
He stood at the center of a crumbled plaza, body trembling. Both palms clasped in front of him, head bowed.
Chakra swirled around him in violent waves, distorting the air like heat on asphalt.
The ground cracked beneath his knees.
His breath was ragged.
Determined.
Shino's voice cracked, "Chimaru! Don't do it!"
But Chimaru didn't even flinch.
He was gone—mentally, spiritually—already locked into the technique.
Shino's eyes widened.
He recognized it.
One of Niri's most dangerous jutsu—ancient, absolute.
A planetary-level water-based technique.
MIZUNO KŌBAN.
The "Tidal Judgment."
No coming back.
Shino turned away, full sprint.
"EVERYONE!! RUN!!" he screamed with every ounce of his soul.
"RUN NOW!!"
Back in the plaza, Chimaru whispered, barely audible, voice filled with pain and purpose.
"…Haru-san… this is for you."
His eyes opened—bright, glowing blue like oceans reflecting the sun.
SMACK.
Both palms slammed the earth.
"MIZUNO KŌBAN!!"
The ground shattered beneath him.
A deep hum erupted, followed by a blinding flash of light.
Water surged.
Not from beneath—but from nowhere.
Sky-splitting torrents spiraled upward, then crashed down in colossal waves. The heavens turned black. The storm had awakened.
The village vanished in the roar.
They could see it—all of them.
As the sky cracked open above the village, a spiraling surge of celestial blue water descended like divine punishment.
The team froze, eyes glued upward. A roar—louder than thunder—ripped through the air.
Then they saw him.
Shino.
Running—no, sprinting toward them, soaked in sweat and panic.
"The hell is that?!" Akiro yelled, shielding his eyes as the light from above intensified.
Shino didn't answer.
Behind him, a wall of water came crashing down, flooding the sealed village, drowning its very foundations. There was no escape. The air reeked of raw chakra, of something ancient unleashed.
Akiro's instincts kicked in. He stomped his foot and raised both arms—his honeki surged. Rubble, tiles, broken beams—everything lifted into the air at his command, swirling rapidly to form a protective dome.
"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!!"
Shino dove in last.
The instant he slid beneath the barrier, BOOM—the tidal force hit.
The shelter groaned under the weight of the water, creaking, straining, but held—for now.
Inside the trembling dome, soaked and breathless, Hiro turned to Shino, wide-eyed.
"…What the hell was that?!"
Shino, still gasping, slumped against the debris wall, blood trailing from his lip.
He looked up slowly, eyes filled with something beyond fear.
"Chimaru…"
He coughed.
"…Chimaru did it…"
Back in the void...
Haru quietly pulled the door shut behind him, the sound echoing like a whisper in the hollow silence. Dust drifted from above as the frame clicked into place, sealing them from the chaos outside.
He didn't speak.
Neither did Henji.
The two stood there—battered, broken—breathing slow, heavy breaths. Blood trailed down Haru's cheek, soaking into his already-torn robes. Henji leaned back against the crumbling wall, his only remaining arm pressed against his side to stem the bleeding.
The room was dark, lit only by the dim flickering of firelight outside, pushing shadows across the walls like ghosts.
Haru closed his eyes.
A long pause filled the air, like the world itself had stopped spinning.
No strategies.
No more tricks.
Just silence… and survival.
And in that silence, they waited—
For the next move.
For an opening.
For luck.
Just as the two sat there, breathless and still, a tense silence blanketed the room. The crackling of burning wood echoed in bursts-sharp, then quiet-like the breath of something collapsing. Then came a new sound.
A distant splash. Then another. Like waterfalls being unleashed from unseen heights, the sound grew-soft at first, then swelling, a torrent that filled the air with dread.
Henji, pale and weakened, winced as the pain of his missing arm pulsed through him. He turned to Haru, whose expression had frozen mid-thought, eyes wide-wider than Henji had ever seen. Haru stood still, as if the sound alone had pierced through his calm.
Then, without a word, Haru dashed to the door and threw it open.
The moment his eyes met the outside, his face twisted-not in fear, but in disbelief. Henji saw it, and despite his pain, scrambled across the floor with one arm, dragging himself to the doorway.
He peeked out.
And what he saw stole the breath from his lungs.
Every single door that once sealed off the void now poured open-raging torrents of water flooding in from all directions. The Mizuno Kōban had been unleashed.
The pressure was monstrous-beyond anything they'd imagined. In one blinding instant, Sanji Koruko-one of the demons attacking from the outside-was reduced to nothing but a burst of blood and mist, ripped apart by the sheer force of the incoming flood.
The ocean wasn't entering.
It was devouring.
Endo dropped effortlessly from above, slicing through the smoke and chaos like a falling blade. Below, Ejin and Qisa stood locked in concentration-holding up the crumbling ceiling of the void with every ounce of strength and will they had left.
Ejin's eyes glowed faintly, his arms raised, tendrils of psychic energy rippling through the air. His telepathy was more than communication-it was dominion. Whether it had a mind or not didn't matter. His ability defied logic, bending matter to his command. It was this same overwhelming force that had severed Henji's arm in an instant.
Opposite him, Qisa plucked her harp with increasing speed. Each note resonated through the collapsing void, controlling the falling debris like a conductor guiding a dying symphony. Every string, every vibration, held back destruction by the edge of a thread.
Then-impact.
Endo landed with a heavy stomp behind Tanzegtsu, who sat calmly on a floating chunk of splintered wood. His sword hugged close to his chest, a smirk playing on his lips. Legs swinging lazily, he didn't even flinch.
Endo didn't waste time. He turned to speak-only for Tanzegtsu to cut in, his finger raised toward the heavens.
"Oh," he said, voice laced with amusement. "What's that?"
All eyes turned upward.
The void's ceiling-a swirling, distant black-was now cracking. But it wasn't crumbling.
It was flooding.
A wall of water churned in from above like the sky itself had broken open. An ocean, impossibly massive, descending upon them.
Ejin faltered for the briefest second-his psychic grip trembling.
"What the hell is that?!" he shouted, eyes wide.
Endo gritted his teeth, scanning the impossible sight. "I don't know! But whoever cast that... they're beyond elite. That's not just Mizuno Konan... it's either Mizuno Kōban or-hell-maybe even Mizu Zhi. But the volume... it's apocalyptic."
Qisa's voice came quiet. Steady. "Mizuno Kōban."
Both men turned to him. His expression was stone-cold.
He continued, fingers never pausing on her harp. "You underestimated them. These aren't ordinary shinobi. This technique-this is water at its peak. It can't be stopped or redirected. Whoever cast it knew it was the perfect counter to us."
He looked at Ejin. "It's over."
Even Tanzegtsu's smile faltered.
Qisa never missed.
And when he said it was over... it was.
He rose, sword still in hand, gazing at the roaring flood. Somewhere in that chaos, their true target was still alive-still in the void.
"We're not done yet," Tanzegtsu said, firm. "You're coming with me."
Back at the lower chamber, Haru stood frozen at the edge of the door, staring upward. The light in his eyes reflected the ocean crashing down.
Henji, pale and weak, dragged himself beside him.
Together, they watched as the void was swallowed whole.
Henji's voice cracked, disbelief wrapping around his words.
"It... it can't be. Is that-?"
Haru didn't respond at first. His eyes closed for a moment. A nod followed.
"...Chimaru."
Henji slumped, stunned. "Chimaru could use Mizuno Kōban? Water techniques were all he ever learned... but that? That's the pinnacle. How strong has he become...?"
Haru shut the door with force. The thunder of rushing water echoed behind it like a warning.
"It doesn't matter now," Haru muttered. "He bought us an opening. We're using it."
Henji looked at him, confused. "An opening? Haru, all the doors are flooded. That water is sealing every exit. Not even a god with infinite knowledge could find a way out of this void."
Haru stood still, arms folded, breathing heavy. Then he spoke, calmly but with weight.
"That's where they failed."
He pointed to the floor.
"This place isn't just a prison. It's a funnel. We're at the neck of it. Below us-" he paused, "-is infinite space. A forbidden pit. 'The Party' doesn't allow anything to drop into it. Not even light."
Henji's eyes widened.
"You're saying...?"
"They're fighting to keep Mizuno Kōban from falling into that space," Haru continued. "But once the water rises to our level-and it will-there's no 'door' anymore. Just pressure. Force. Flow. Once it hits critical height..."
He looked Henji dead in the eyes.
"We ride the flood. We don't escape through the doors."
"We escape through the abyss."
---