Inside the Seisai household.
"Dodai… that guy sure can take a hit."
Muttering under his breath, Yamanaka Shinno yanked off his ninja sandals, which were now stretched out of shape from the struggle.
Glancing around and finding no convenient place to dispose of them, he sealed the damaged footwear into a storage scroll for the time being. Then, he rummaged through the shoe cabinet and found an old pair to slip on instead.
With a quick clap of his hands, he activated Ninja Art: Destroying Smell Smoke Prison, completely erasing any lingering scents from his body.
Not long after he had burrowed underground using Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique, Dodai retaliated with Earth Release: Open Earth Excavation, churning up the ground in a wide radius.
Originally, Shinno had planned to escape immediately using Flying Thunder God Technique, but as luck would have it, the battle had ruptured a buried water main.
Thinking on his feet, he combined Hydrification Technique with Water Release: Surging Wave, riding the pressurized water flow to put some serious distance between himself and the chaos—while also washing away all the dust and grime clinging to him.
Only then did he teleport home with Flying Thunder God Technique.
Now cleaned up, Shinno glanced out the window at the alarm lights flashing all over Kumogakure. The piercing wail of sirens filled the air.
Feigning shock, he bolted into Musai's room.
"The alarm's going off! Wake up already!"
Two sharp slaps to the face later, Shinno grabbed the groggy kid by the collar and dragged him downstairs.
"Dad! What's happening?! What's going on?!"
Jolted awake from a genjutsu-induced slumber, Musai was still half-asleep, utterly clueless about the situation.
The sirens blared throughout the village. In the distance, the sounds of jutsu clashing and battles unfolding could be faintly heard.
A fresh genin with no experience in real combat, Musai couldn't help but panic.
"Remember last night's assassination attempt?"
Shinno's voice was low and serious as he joined the other shinobi rushing toward the distress signal lighting up the night sky.
This was all part of his plan.
The moment his fight with Dodai concluded, his shadow clones would initiate the assassination operation.
Given Dodai's importance to both Kumogakure and the Third Raikage, the instant Shinno engaged him, the Raikage would have no choice but to prioritize Dodai's safety.
That created the perfect opportunity for his remaining shadow clones to launch their attacks on their preselected targets. Even if the skirmishes got loud, the Third Raikage wouldn't be able to intervene.
And just as Shinno had expected, while the commotion was significant, all eight of his shadow clones had flawlessly completed their missions.
However, something didn't add up.
The distress signal lighting up the sky… wasn't from any of the locations where his assassination targets were.
Wait… wasn't this the area where Killer B lived?
And those battle sounds…
Shit. Did someone else's assassination plan just crash headfirst into mine?
Who was the poor bastard who picked the worst possible night to act?
...
"Genin, fall back! Chunin, lock down the surrounding streets! Jonin, tighten the encirclement—we take him alive!"
"Genin, stay out of the way! Move, move, move!"
"Damn it! Finally caught one who didn't manage to escape! Let's see which village this bastard belongs to!"
"You dare attack Kumogakure? You're dead, you hear me?!"
"Chunin, tighten the perimeter! Hurry up!"
Amid the chaos of shouted orders, Shinno tossed Musai aside and whispered to him,
"Stay out of this. Assassins who target shinobi villages aren't to be underestimated."
"You be careful too, Dad."
Musai nodded quickly, retreating into the crowd of genin gathered at a safe distance.
Meanwhile, Shinno frowned. Something felt off about this situation, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what.
In the middle of the night, a colossal octopus tail whipped through the air, accompanied by the roar of thunder.
The battle raged for over ten minutes before the blinding flashes of lightning finally began to fade.
Throughout the fight, the so-called assassin never managed to break through the Kumogakure jonin's encirclement.
"Attention! All jonin and Anbu—inspect your ninja sandals. Anyone with damaged footwear, any embedded mechanisms, or anyone who isn't wearing any shoes—stay behind. Everyone else, continue checking the chunin and genin."
The order came from the battlefield's center.
Shinno raised an eyebrow, his gaze locking onto the shinobi who had issued the command.
Dodai, that bastard… he's trying to track me by my shoes?
Too bad for him—I already swapped them out.
Besides, my old sandals didn't have any special markings or triggers.
During the fight, though…
At the last moment before impact, seeing that Dodai was bracing himself to tank the kick, Shinno had made a snap decision.
He had activated Water Release extending a short mantis blade from his sandal's toe cap.
It functioned similarly to a chakra scalpel, but thanks to his Water Release Mastery trait, it was faster and more versatile.
No hand seals required.
Quicker than a Rasengan.
Efficient. Deadly.
With the command issued, Kumogakure's shinobi sprang into action.
Seven individuals were pulled aside. The rest of the shinobi continued the inspection process, checking every single chunin and genin at the scene.
Having been dragged out of bed and hauled downstairs before he even had a chance to put on shoes, Musai—predictably—ended up among the shoeless suspects.
"Why aren't you wearing shoes?"
A Kumogakure jonin narrowed his eyes at the boy.
"I-I was asleep! My dad heard the alarms, ran into my room, slapped me twice, and dragged me out! I didn't even get a chance to put them on…"
Musai pitifully showed off the red handprints on his face.
No joke—those slaps had hurt like hell.
If he hadn't been used to getting hit since childhood, his skin toughened by years of beatings, his face would've already swollen up like a balloon.
The Kumogakure jonin twitched slightly at the sight but didn't comment on the father-son dynamic.
"…Go stand over there."
Seeing this, Shinno immediately chimed in,
"That's my son! My son! I should stay with him…"
Thus, he moved to stand among the suspects, taking the opportunity to observe what the hell was going on.
Before long, two medical-nin arrived, carrying a stretcher from Dodai's residence.
Lying on it, pale-faced and unconscious, was Dodai himself. His hands were clasped in a hand seal, using his Lava Release Kekkei Genkai to detect and control the rubber chakra residue scattered around.
During the fight, when he had grabbed onto the enemy's sandal, his Lava Release had been active. Since the rubber soles of the footwear had absorbed his chakra, tracking it should have been easy.
However, after a long period of sensing, Dodai could only shake his head at the Anbu captain standing beside him.
"The ones without shoes—follow me. Jonin, join the pursuit teams. Everyone else, dismissed."
With new orders issued, the investigation continued.
Shinno and Musai trailed behind Dodai's team.
One by one, shinobi were eliminated from suspicion. Eventually, around ten barefoot shinobi followed the group toward the battle's ground zero.
As they approached, the devastation became clear. Within a hundred meters of the battlefield, buildings lay in ruins. Cries of pain and agony echoed through the night.
Medical-nin scrambled to treat the wounded.
And at the very heart of the destruction—a fifty-meter-wide crater—several medical-nin were desperately tending to a massive shinobi wearing a white headscarf and dark sunglasses.
Surrounding him were the Third Raikage, his son, and several high-ranking Kumogakure officials, all with grim expressions.
Killer B?
The Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki?
Was he the target of the assassination?!
Wait… which lunatic had the balls to go after Killer B?!
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
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