Translator's Note: Okay that was a mistake, and I apologize. I did post the correct chapter initially, but during an edit, I mistakenly copy-pasted the previous chapter.
Gomen nasai.
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In the quiet night, a long curtain of light illuminated by the full moon in the sky flew over the dense forest, making the entire sky dreamy and illusory giving off a surreal feeling; if not for a large number of shinobi in the dark gear chasing after the curtain of light that gave off a chilling cold air.
Upon closer look, one can find that the light curtain leaping over the forest was in fact a long queue of ice mirrors that made the surrounding forest extremely cold.
And the moonlight from the full moon was responsible for giving this queue of ice mirrors a fairy tale vibe.
This queue of moving ice mirrors was obviously, the Suijin specific, 'Ice Release Secret Technique: Straight Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals'
After months of practice and training, Suijin has finally able to fuse the Water Nature Chakra and Wind Nature Chakra and finally mastered the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai.
Of course, the main reason why he managed to do so is the 'Tenseigan Soul Descend Technique.' In not for that, Kuroto wouldn't have been able to personally experience the entire process of using the Ice Release, so learning Ice Release was majorly thanks to the Tenseigan Technique.
After finally attaining the fusion of Water Release and Wind Release into Ice Release, he spent a lot of time and effort studying the mechanisms of the various Ice Release Jutsu over the course of the past few months.
The last lesson from losing the Water Clone-A made him understand that, it doesn't matter if he can't beat the enemy, what's important is that he must always have an escape in every situation; if he can't escape, then all the effort will be worthless.
Why did Namikaze Minato, who grew up later overwhelmed the momentum of the three Sannin, and attained the position of the Hokage?
The reason is very simple, all his strengths, knowledge, weakness, character, charisma, loyalty, and talent aside, it was majorly because of the 'Flying Thunder God Technique,' this technique was thoroughly mastered by him and it gave him control of the entire battlefield.
When to fight, where to fight, who to fight, the option of retreat and everything was in the hands of Yondaime, he had the final say. Making him someone capable of even being able to kill a thousand shinobi alone without suffering any damage.
In the third Shinobi war, in any of the battlefield, if Konoha had a disadvantage, Namikaze Minato had the power to turn that disadvantageous situation into an advantageous one, if the situation was already advantageous then he could expand that advantage infinitely.
The main reason for all this was his mobility.
Therefore, after mastering the Ice Release, Kuroto didn't focus on learning or creating the strongest offensive ice Release techniques that would give him more firepower, no, he spent more effort in learning descent Ice Release Techniques that would increase his mobility.
In the last battle against Sasori, Sasori's ice Release puppet used the Ice Release Technique to make a path and smoothly moved on that track and therefore, easily caught up with him.
Although this type of use of Ice Release can also increase a ninja's mobility, the user would still be restricted by the terrain as treading on a complex terrain with the same mobility could be a bit difficult.
And among the enemy, he faced up to now or might be facing in the future, Obito has the ultimate technique Kamui, grating him as much mobility as he needs, Zetsu can travel through the earth, Pain can summon and un-summon himself, Konan can fly and hide using her Paper Style, Kakuzu can also fly to a certain extent using the thread monsters, there will be Deidara in the future who might also join the Akatsuki, he can fly using his 'Art.' So the mere Ice Track can't keep up with the likes of S-Class shinobi, therefore, Suijin needed another technique.
His 'Yama' form can use the 'Tenseigan Chakra Mode' to hover and fly, 'Hyuga Kuroto' form can use the 'Ryuumyaku Chakra Mode' that he has been trying to master, to fly, so, how can the 'Suijin' form be left without a unique technique that would grant him high mobility?
Therefore, he developed a new variant of the Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals, changing it from a certain kill technique to a technique granting Suijin very high mobility.
And the result was very good, exceeded what he initially expected.
Not only did it give Suijin enough mobility, which is akin to flying, but the Ice Mirrors also grants him high protection against other techniques as breaking the ice mirrors is not an easy feat.
Unless someone can destroy all the ice mirrors at once, it will be difficult to inflict any damage upon him as he could just transfer himself from the fragments to the other mirror as they continuously form.
The only drawback of this technique is that the Chakra Consumption is very high, if this technique is maintained for a very long time, it would cause a serious burden on the user!
'Heh, but that's not a trouble for me!'
After all, the Ice affinity of the Water Clone-B body is very high, and adding the Ryuumyaku Chakra that he has access to, even such a large volume of Chakra consumption is not a big deal for him.
Making it a cheat ability that is difficult to match.
Sandaime who was unable to catch up with the disappearing sight of the bounty-nin had a gloomy face.
As the Hokage, Hiruzen has to consider much more than any average Konoha Shinobi.
Tonight's events must be dealt with extreme caution, otherwise, it would again lead to more trouble for Konoha.
The biggest doubt at the moment was, 'How did he get inside the village without alerting anyone? He couldn't have used this similar Ice Technique to sneak inside Konoha as that would have alerted the barrier! The other question is whether his purpose is really the bounty on Watanabe's head as he says or something else because something leads me to believe that's not the entire story, and the final question is, where did he fight and kill Watanabe, or better yet, how did he get past Team-11!?' – Sandaime's mind was filled with so many questions.
From the report he has received up to now, there were no signs of fighting in and around the mansion where the Kumo delegation was staying, which means Watanabe wasn't attacked there, this also shows that Watanabe who should have stayed at the assigned mansion somehow managed to sneak out of there getting past the Anbu, and there are also no signs of the presence of Cat and Eagle.
All these signs indicate that Kumo undoubtedly had some shady plans, 'I can only hope that it had nothing to do with the Uchiha Clan!'
Hiruzen is also worried whether Uchiha Clan and Kumo would collide together to deal with Konoha.
Although he knows that Uchiha Fugaku wouldn't do something so foolish, he still can't help but worry, because if such a thing happened then Konoha would disappear.
Shaking his head helplessly, Sandaime decided to put away these thoughts for now, and focus on the enemy at hand, looking at his back, he was able to see that chasing at such a fast pace for so long is undoubtedly a burden for the shinobi following him, only the elites have managed to keep up while the newcomers that have only recently joined the Anbu department have been left behind.
The same is also the case with the Kumo ninjas since most of them are Chunin and Genin, therefore, they were all left behind, and only the Jonin closely followed at the end of the team.
Frowning his brows, a trace of helplessness appeared on the aging face of Sarutobi Hiruzen, but that helplessness was soon replaced by a resolute look.
He is the current Hokage, as the Konoha's 'Hokage,' he must not show any weakness and set an example for the rest, otherwise, would only lower the morale of his followers, he can't have his Shinobi lose their faith in his strength!
With that resolute look, Sandaime muttered, "Can't drag any longer!" – Biting his finger, Hiruzen performed the hand seals and shouted, "Ninpou: Kuchiyose!"
"Appear! Monkey God-King Enma!"
Puff…
With a puff of white smoke out came the Monkey God-King, Enma!
After a few ups and downs, the sturdy Ape caught up with Sandaime who didn't stop for even a second, and asked, "Sarutobi, who is the opponent?"
Sandaime pointed at the queue of ice mirrors in the air and said, "The enemy is hidden within those Ice mirrors, he can't be allowed to escape, transform into the Adamantine Staff!"
"Transformation: Adamantine Staff!"
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