The Third Mizukage was clearly blind, yet wherever he faced, silence fell.
The Uzumaki ninja were all wary of the Mizukage, unsure how he would enter the fray.
The Kiri-nin's movements became more conservative, intentionally creating distance from the Uzumaki ninja.
The Kumo-nin slowly retreated even further.
When a Kage-level ninja appears, everyone on the battlefield, friend or foe, must be cautious.
If caught in the area of effect of a Kage-level ninja's technique, one could die without understanding why.
The surface of the great river flowing through the center of Uzushiogakure suddenly churned.
A giant lobster burst forth, spewing bubbles towards the Third Mizukage.
The Uzumaki clan had hidden another giant Summoning beast in the river.
Hearing the commotion, the Third Mizukage raised his hand.
A section of the river nearly severed, the water lifting to form a massive sphere that enveloped the giant lobster.
Water Prison Technique?
The scale of the Third Mizukage's Water Prison Technique was immense, trapping a giant Summoning beast to its death.
Unfortunately, those bubbles were covered by the Water Prison before they could even touch the Mizukage.
The water sphere, dozens of meters in diameter, filled all the Uzumaki ninja with despair.
The Third Mizukage formed hand seals. A dark cloud appeared above his head.
The cloud rapidly rose and expanded, transforming into an overcast canopy that covered the entire Uzushiogakure.
A drizzling rain began to fall.
Yōkō nearly crushed his telescope, the image it revealed chilling him to the bone.
If he were there, he would surely die...
As the dense raindrops fell, each drop that encountered a living creature transformed into a Water Prison Technique!
Faced with an attack of this scale, even the fastest Body Flicker Technique couldn't evade it.
All the Uzumaki ninja, and the giant Summoning beasts, were trapped within Water Prisons.
Even some villagers who had been cut down but still had faint breaths, detected as living by the technique, were also imprisoned in Water Prisons.
Instantly, all fighting ceased within the village, leaving only water spheres of various sizes.
One by one, the Uzumaki ninja struggled futilely inside the water spheres.
They flailed their arms and legs, but it was useless, unable to reach the boundaries of their prisons.
Some tried to form hand seals, but it was equally futile; they couldn't break the Third Mizukage's Water Prison Technique.
Inside the Water Prisons, the Uzumaki ninja blew bubbles, gulped down mouthfuls of water, struggled, convulsed, their faces turning red from suffocation.
Yōkō inwardly clicked his tongue. The Third Mizukage's area of attack was vast, capable of covering an entire village.
A legendary Kage-level ninja who could destroy a village single-handedly.
Moreover, the Third Mizukage could control it precisely, using the Water Prison only on the Uzumaki ninja, sparing the Kiri-nin and Kumo-nin.
Yōkō thought to himself, with such intimidating power from the Third Mizukage, no wonder Danzo remained unmoving – perhaps he didn't dare.
Just as Yōkō thought the Third Mizukage was formidable enough, the Third Mizukage opened his eyes.
Those eyes, closed for decades, opened!
The sockets held no eyeballs, but instead contained a dark red, ominous liquid swirling rapidly.
A crimson, fan-shaped light shot forth from the Mizukage's eyes.
Any Water Prison sphere touched by the red light glowed with the same hue. The Uzumaki ninja trapped inside instantly exploded, dissolving into bloody water.
This... Yōkō thought, being a ninja is too dangerous; one can die just like that.
With just one opening of his eyes, he killed half of the Uzumaki ninja.
One more look, and the men of the Uzumaki clan would be wiped out.
Without Konoha's support, this top-three ninja clan in the shinobi world was no match for one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
In the era of the Village-Nation system, no matter how strong a clan was, it couldn't possibly rival a major village. A clan that betrayed its village had only one fate: destruction.
The Senju clan, the Uchiha clan, were successively wiped out, yet neither had considered leaving Konoha.
Leaving Konoha would only lead to a quicker death.
The Mizukage turned his head!
He looked towards the other half of the Uzumaki ninja!
It's over, this clan is finished.
Yōkō looked at Danzo, wondering why he still remained motionless.
Could it really be that he saw the Mizukage appear and thus didn't dare to act?
It was possible. Danzo feared death; before becoming Hokage, he would absolutely not take such risks.
Just as the Mizukage slightly opened his eyes, a hint of red light appearing, a large lizard suddenly materialized!
This was another of Nagato's future Summoning beasts, the Camouflage Lizard.
The lizard appeared by the riverbank, opening its mouth towards the Third Mizukage.
Inside its mouth was the Uzumaki clan's old leader, Uzumaki Mito's brother.
The old man's originally red hair had long turned white, appearing frail and nearing the end of his life.
Before the leader appeared, he had already finished forming hand seals inside the lizard's mouth.
A translucent Death God appeared above the great river!
Dead Demon Consuming Seal!
The Third Mizukage, without forming seals, erected a Water Formation Wall behind him.
However, the Death God ignored all physical matter. Its translucent arm, covered in cursed seals, passed through the Water Formation Wall and grabbed the Third Mizukage's head.
Or rather, it grabbed the Third Mizukage's soul.
His spirit!
Was pulled out by the Death God!
The Third Mizukage struggled for a moment, then swiftly succumbed.
His body instantly decayed, resembling a long-dead, rotting corpse.
The Dead Demon Consuming Seal was different from ordinary ninjutsu, completely beyond a ninja's normal understanding, attacking the soul directly.
Simultaneously, the Uzumaki leader also fell from the lizard's mouth.
The Death God's seal completed. The Third Mizukage's soul was sealed away, and the leader's own soul became the Death God's offering.
The leader's face bore an expression of satisfaction.
He had given everything for the Uzumaki clan.
A commoner's only crime is possessing a priceless treasure. The Uzumaki clan's secret sealing techniques were coveted by all shinobi villages, even Konoha's Danzo demanded to share them.
What a pity. Senju Hashirama only knew how to appease the other four great villages. For the sake of his foolish dream of peace, he turned a blind eye to the Uzumaki clan's need for a Tailed Beast.
If not for the Senju clan's demands, perhaps the Uzumaki clan would also have possessed a Tailed Beast.
Now it seemed, the compromise of the Uzumaki clan providing the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki and residing permanently in Konoha was a poor one.
The Third Mizukage and the Uzumaki leader perished together.
"Leader!"
Inside the Four Violet Flames Formation, the women of the Uzumaki clan wailed.
Uzumaki Yuka looked towards the direction of Konoha. Why hadn't Konoha's reinforcements arrived yet?
All the Kiri-nin were incredulous; some even dropped their swords.
Their Kage... was dead?
That was a powerhouse who had attended the Five Kage Summit alongside the First Mizukage.
Although very old, his strength was immense. How could he just die?
The Kumo-nin looked at each other. They had been invited by Kirigakure to fight a major battle against Konoha, originally intending to create chaos in Konoha's rear and gain an advantage on the main battlefield in the Land of Hot Water.
Now, Konoha hadn't come, and the Mizukage was dead?
Several battalion commanders exchanged glances, then collectively turned their gaze towards the Uzumaki clan's ancestral shrine.
They couldn't let so many deaths be in vain. Since Konoha hadn't shown, they would seize the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques!
The Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques were too powerful; a ninja like the Mizukage was sealed to death without any resistance.
With sealing techniques like that, wouldn't creating perfect Jinchūriki be easy?
As for the Kiri-nin, they went completely mad, charging recklessly towards the remaining Uzumaki ninja!
Their eyes were bloodshot, they just want revenge against every single Uzumaki clansman!
Anyone with red hair deserved to die!
The Mizukage's Water Prison Technique had been too potent. The Uzumaki ninja who had just emerged from the prisons were coughing from suffocation, each struggling to breathe.
One by one, Uzumaki ninja died tragically at the hands of the Kiri-nin.
Yōkō put down his telescope. Danzo would surely act now.
The Mizukage was dead. The Uzumaki leader was dead.
Uzushiogakure was strewn with casualties.
Danzo stood up.
The three battalion commanders hurried forward to receive orders.
The battalion commanders then went to their respective squadron leaders, relaying commands down the chain.
The Black Gorilla Squadron found its three squad leaders.
"Charge towards the Four Violet Flames Formation at top speed! Fox and I will take the center, the other two squads on the flanks, in a wedge formation! Don't stop!"
...
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(Chapter End)