Shino scanned the scorched village, heart pounding. "Where's Chimaru?" he asked again, voice sharp.
The team went silent, their Eyes met, but no words came.
Just as they thought they were in a pickle, they just happen to be in a double pickle. There was 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 became tighter.
Shino ran with his eyes wide, mind racing with concern, this has been one of the toughest time of his life, his first actual mission as a death squad member and his fist mission as the leader... Thoughts rushed into his mind until he saw it.
A single figure.
Alone, kneeling amidst the rubble. He saw Chimaru, his hands forming a seal as he just knelt there, muttering silently to himself.
"...It can't be."
He stood at the center of a crumbled plaza, body trembling. Both palms clasped in front of him, head bowed. Honeki swirled around him in violent waves, distorting the air, The ground cracked beneath his knees.
His breath was ragged.
Shino's voice cracked, "Chimaru...."
But Chimaru didn't even flinch.
He was gone mentally, spiritually already locked into the technique.
Shino's eyes widened. His breath skipping, his palms getting wet.
He recognized it.
One of Niri's most dangerous jutsu, absolute.
A planetary-level water-based technique.
MIZUNO KŌBAN.
An ability that summons crazy amount of water from another dimension entirely to the space where the ability was summoned. Once the seal is complete and the technique has been opened.
No coming back.
Shino turned away, His eyes completely widened, his body at full sprint. His mind and body completely disoriented
Sweat rushing out from the pores profusely, his blood rushing faster and the heart beating faster than usual. He could only feel cold in his chest and his legs, he wanted to run faster but it seems like he was getting paralyzed.
"EVERYONE!! RUN!!" he screamed with every ounce of his soul.
"RUUUUUUUUN....DAMN IT!!"
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 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 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 fr faraway, maybe he didn't heard or refused to
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 honeki, of something ancient unleashed.
Akiro's instincts kicked in. He stomped his foot and raised both arms, his Honeki surged. Rubble, tiles, broken beams and 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.
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, saliva 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 talk, Neither did Henji.
The two stood there,battered, broken and 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.
And in that silence, they waited 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 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 his harp with increasing speed. Each note resonated through the collapsing void, controlling the falling debris like a conductor guiding a dying symphony. Every string held back destruction by the edge of a thread.
Then—THUD!
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?"
The void's ceiling, a swirling, distant black and 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. D..damn it.!..T..the.. 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 his harp. "You underestimated them. Ejin, Wee didn't get to even fight... You placed all concentration at Haru while losing the rest of the death squad.. . This technique is water at its peak. It can't be stopped or redirected. Whoever cast it must have known 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 shaking every syllable. More like his body never imagined such scenes before.
"It… it can't be. Is that—?"
Haru nodded once, slowly.
"…Chimaru."
Henji slumped. His body paralyzed by the shock.
"Chimaru can use Mizuno Kōban? I mean, water techniques were the only jutsus he ever mastered… but this… this is something else. Just who is this guy?"
Haru stepped forward and closed the door behind him, sealing off the roaring chaos outside.
"It doesn't matter anymore. He's given us an opening. We escape with this disaster."
Henji's head snapped up, confused.
"An opening? Haru, all the doors are shut. Water is crashing in from every entrance. Not even a god with infinite knowledge could pull us out of this mess."
Haru exhaled deeply, folding his arms as if bracing for impact.
"You're thinking too small. Yes, the entrances are sealed. But they've overlooked something. The water's not just flooding us in, it's carving a path. Straight into the bottom of the void."
Henji frowned.
"The bottom? But that place…"
"Exactly," Haru continued.
"Think of the void like a bottle—we're stuck in its neck. Below us is the main body, a space that stretches endlessly. In other words, THE PARTY, whoever they are, This group have been doing everything to stop anything from entering it. Especially techniques like Mizuno Kōban. Which means this water isn't just dangerous… it's forbidden in the party"
"If Chimaru's water keeps rising, they'll either have to let it pour through or risk shattering everything trying to contain it. Either way, the water's going to break balance. It'll spread,not just through the entrances, but into the deeper space."
Haru unfolded his arms, his voice resolute now.
"That's our window. When it overflows and floods the void, we dive in. Let the current carry us out before they can stop it."
Henji swallowed hard, staring at the sealed entrance behind them.
"Swim out of the void… That's.. Absurd"
"No," Haru said. "It's Unimaginable."