Within the vortex of parasitic insects, countless strands of spider-silk appeared. B was preparing to bind Nonō Yakushi and bring her back to Danzo.
Nonō cut her eyes toward the sea. Suddenly, a massive blade spun through the air with a whistling howl, smashing into the insect tornado. B whipped his head around toward the source of the projectile.
Fuguki Suikazan's towering silhouette rose and fell with the tide. He spoke coldly, "Walking Miko, after you caused the death of Hozuki Muratsuki, did you really think you could just stroll back to the Leaf? I need your corpse to silence the Hozuki clan so they stop hounding me for Samehada."
The Great Sword Samehada slammed into a rock. Its bandages unraveled loop by loop, revealing a blade covered in serrated spikes.
B growled, "Nonō Yakushi! You actually brought a Mist ninja to ambush me!"
Nonō defended herself, "I told you, the recovery unit suffered a crushing defeat. My situation is desperate; I didn't even know Fuguki was tracking me."
B moved. He lunged toward Samehada, grabbing the hilt. Fuguki Suikazan had been arrogant enough to throw such a precious weapon away. However, sharp spikes suddenly erupted from the hilt, shredding B's hand. B reflexively let go; he hadn't expected the sword to possess such a will of its own. Samehada slithered back to Fuguki's feet like a loyal pet.
Fuguki picked up the blade. "You're just a Hidden Leaf ANBU. What right do you have to hold Samehada?"
The battle erupted instantly. Samehada swung in a wide arc, aiming for B's head.
*Boom!*
B's body burst apart, transforming into thousands of parasitic insects.
"Insect Clone?"
The insects swirled in the air before reconverging in the distance to form B's upper torso. Everything below the waist remained as a thinning, fluttering cloud of insects. Ryoma Aburame was known as Root's master of infiltration; even a gap of a few millimeters was enough for him to slip through using his clones. His body could turn entirely into insects and reform at will.
B shouted, "Nonō Yakushi! Help me deal with Fuguki Suikazan, then we return to the village!"
He wasn't worried about her refusing. The orphanage was under Lord Danzo's control; if the Consultant were angered, he truly would slaughter every orphan. That was Nonō's ultimate weakness.
Nonō lowered her hands, chakra scalpels shimmering over her palms. But the moment she stepped forward, she was swatted away by the broad side of Samehada. Fuguki ignored the "Walking Miko"; in his eyes, her combat power was negligible. His primary threat was the Aburame.
Crashing against a boulder, Nonō bit her lip, allowing blood to trickle from the corner of her mouth. The rock behind her cracked, but in reality, she wasn't injured at all. She had spent years cultivating an image of a spy who excelled only at disguise and infiltration; no one knew her true combat potential.
Seeing that Nonō was "useless," B formed hand signs, and the insects beneath him multiplied exponentially.
"Secret Technique: Insect Tide Hell!"
Countless insects erupted from the ground, covering every inch of the beach. The world turned black, filled with the sickening sound of thousands of tiny mandibles gnashing. The insects took flight, forming dozens of pillars a meter thick and ten meters high, bifurcating the battlefield.
Fuguki Suikazan leaped into the air to avoid the swarm. The pillars instantly transformed into insect dragons, lunging at him from all directions.
In the sea nearby, Yagami was genuinely impressed. Ryoma Aburame's strength was formidable; the scale of his insects was at least four or five times that of Ram's.
In mid-air, Fuguki Suikazan finished his hand signs: "Great Explosive Water Colliding Wave!"
The sea level nearby dropped instantly. Yagami had to dive deep to avoid being exposed by the shifting water. A wave dozens of meters high crashed down, obliterating the cliffside and swallowing the insects in a crushing sphere of water.
When it came to the sheer scale of ninjutsu, no village could compete with the Mist. Their Hidden Mist Jutsu could cover miles; their coordinated Water Style was a horizontal tsunami. B's "Insect Tide Hell" was impressive, but it paled before Fuguki's ocean-scale power.
Standing atop the surging wave, Fuguki formed another seal. The tips of his hair hardened and thrust into the water like hundreds of steel wires.
"Needle Senbon Seaweed!"
B's physical body vanished, leaving only a dark cloud of insects visible through the water. Fuguki's hair spread through the massive wave like kelp. While the hair couldn't pierce every individual insect, it formed a swirling, spherical vortex that trapped the swarm and collapsed inward with crushing pressure.
The insects were pulverized within the hair-sphere. Green fluid—the "juice" of the crushed parasitic insects—stained the seawater. When the wave receded, Fuguki released the sphere, revealing piles of dead insects. He used another Water Style to wash them away, only to find no human corpse among the debris.
Had he actually killed the ANBU? He turned his head and realized the Walking Miko had also vanished. After all that effort, he had neither a kill nor a prisoner.
As Fuguki's jutsu ended, the borrowed water returned to the ocean, and the sea level rose significantly. Yagami, hidden beneath the surface, noticed a dark mass moving through the depths and followed.
B had survived the needle technique. To handle the Mist ninja in the Land of Whirlpools, he had specifically bred "Water-Louse Insects." These insects, capable of moving freely underwater, had formed his body and allowed him to survive Fuguki's killing blow.
The mass of insects swam rapidly away from the battlefield before reconverging into B's human form beneath the surface. B looked up at the moon, which appeared as a shimmering, broken reflection through the waves. He only needed to breach the surface to breathe.
In the next instant, his entire body shuddered.
A hand pierced through his back and erupted from his chest. Before his eyes, the hand crushed his heart. The special insects he kept inside his heart to sustain him spilled out of the mangled organ and died instantly.
B stared at a reddish-copper arm.
'Copper Fox!'
How did he dare? How did he appear behind him without a single sound?
A second hand pierced his right lung, crushing it. More insects were squeezed out, dying in the brine. A fox mask slowly emerged from behind B's neck.
This "Heart-Gouging" move was something even Madara Uchiha couldn't shrug off; Ryoma Aburame stood no chance. Because B's insect clones were so potent, Yagami used this visceral, disgusting method to ensure a definitive kill.
Water Flicker was Yagami's greatest trump card. The Absolute Defense was just a facade for the public; the Water Flicker was his true lethality. In the ocean, this technique made him effectively a god. Hanzo of the Salamander had earned his "Demi-god" title using this in the rain; Yagami was just as terrifying here.
Root had to be weakened. Danzo's personality was such that he would only act if he had pawns to test the waters; if his subordinates were eliminated, his ambitions would be neutered. B was Root's second-in-command—essentially Danzo's most capable aide given Orochimaru's independence. He had to die.
After crushing B's head and waiting to ensure no more clones would form, Yagami dragged the body to the deep sea and weighed it down with rocks. Then, he broke the surface.
Next, it was time to meet the Walking Miko.