Chapter 213: Kaguya Clan Revival: Dance Of Heavenly Reversal!
Hotaru received the command while watching his wife Natsuhi wielding a feather duster to discipline their mischievous son Subaru.
“Then I’ll head out on the mission first.” As an experienced jonin of Hoshigakure, he was well aware of the mission’s urgency.
“Safe travels!” Natsuhi’s concerned gaze followed her husband out the door, without inquiring about the mission details.
“Daddy! Daddy!” Six-year-old Subaru seized the chance to run over, hugging Hotaru’s leg to escape his mother’s feather duster: “Take me with you on the mission!”
Hotaru laughed heartily, promising his son treats upon his return.
When Hotaru bid farewell to his family and arrived at the Second Training Ground, three figures were already waiting there.
Kimimaro Kaguya stood quietly, his ten-year-old frame already showing a straight-backed poise beyond his peers.
He wore loose dark gray training clothes, overlaid with a standard Hoshigakure lightweight vest, a brand-new Star Ninja Headband on his forehead, exuding a serenity and alienation mismatched with his age.
Most striking were his pure white eyes, the Byakugan from the Hyuga Main Family, now calmly watching Hotaru approach.
Mizuki Haku stood beside Kimimaro, also around ten years old, wearing a dark sweater inside with a deep green outerwear, a gentle smile on their refined face like the warm sun of early winter.
The slightly older Yukimi, about fifteen, wore standard Star Ninja combat suit, her short dark brown hair appearing neat and sharp.
As the most talented clan member of the Iburi Clan, her Bloodline Limit “Smoke Transformation” ability was extremely valuable in reconnaissance and special operations, making her impossible to guard against.
Upon seeing Hotaru, she immediately straightened her posture.
“Hotaru jonin!” The three saluted in unison, their voices clear with youthful brightness and respect for their senior.
Hotaru’s gaze swept over the three, without a trace of underestimation.
He knew well that these three youths were no simple matter: Kimimaro possessed the terrifying Bloodline Limit Corpse Bone Pulse, and after transplanting the Byakugan, his strength was immeasurably deep, already at jonin level.
Haku not only had the Ice Release Bloodline Limit, perfect for offense and defense, but also masterful senbon throwing technique.
Yukimi’s Bloodline Limit Smoke Transformation ability, along with her maturing taijutsu and ninjutsu, also made her a reliable ninja.
They were all outstanding among the younger generation of the Land of Stars, commonly known as geniuses.
“Ahem, no need for formalities.” Hotaru’s voice was steady and powerful, carrying a jonin’s authority: “I’m the leader of this support operation. First, a quick rundown of our mission objective.”
“Head to the Land of Shadows Border, support Jonin Gōta and his Agricultural Cooperation and Development Association team, against the encirclement and threats from the Land of Shadows Army. Our primary duty is to ensure the safety of all our personnel and hold the land we’ve painstakingly developed. Remember the command: defense first, no proactive provocation, but if attacked, counter with full force, crush the enemy! Understood?”
“Understood!” The three replied in unison, eyes resolute.
“Good, let’s move!” Hotaru said no more, turning to lead the way at high speed toward the downstream Ghost River.
Kimimaro, Haku, and Yukimi followed closely, the four figures like arrows loosed from bows, quickly vanishing along the road to the border.
——————————
A biting cold wind swept across the thick snow on the Ghost River Plains.
After a full day of hard travel, as night fell over the land, Hotaru and the three finally reached their destination.
The Land of Shadows Border, that land once given new life by the Star Ninja.
It had been a muddy, neglected wasteland due to repeated floods from the Ghost River.
Through the tireless efforts of Land of Stars earth style and water style ninja and the construction team, sturdy earth style embankments firmly restrained the Ghost River banks, with dug channels guiding the water, turning raging floods into irrigation sources.
The former mudflats had become neatly planned fertile plains awaiting sowing, fields of hope in the eyes of countless drifters.
Yet the scene before them now was shocking.
This vibrant fertile soil was covered by a thick, filthy layer of snow.
Planned field ridges were crudely trampled and destroyed, newly built simple water facilities damaged to varying degrees.
Most glaringly, around the outpost reinforced temporarily with earth style by the Land of Stars Agricultural Cooperation and Development Association, a brightly lit, heavily guarded army camp was stationed!
Crude wooden fences, patrolling torches, and faint shouts from soldiers formed a cold blockade line.
The flags fluttering in the camp bore the daimyo of the Land of Shadows’ crest and those of several prominent nobles.
The camp teemed with mixed personnel: mostly ordinary soldiers in leather armor wielding spears or bows, interspersed with a few fierce-aura wandering samurai with various weapons, and even detectable faint but hostile chakra fluctuations, clearly hired wandering ninja.
Hotaru’s eyes narrowed, giving a subtle hand signal to the three behind him.
The four swiftly blended into the night, using superb stealth skills to silently bypass the lax outer patrols, easily infiltrating the besieged Hoshigakure Outpost interior.
The atmosphere inside the outpost was oppressive and tense.
Within the low earth style walls, space was maximally utilized.
Besides four or five weary-faced Star Ninja wearing Star Ninja Headbands on alert, there were over a hundred workers in Land of Stars Second Construction Corporation uniforms, faces etched with worry.
The largest group was nearly a thousand ragged, gaunt drifters and commoners!
They huddled in crude earth style shelters, or leaned against the low walls, gathered by campfires for warmth, eyes filled with fear and confusion.
The air reeked of sweat, earth, and unease.
Hotaru and the others’ arrival immediately drew the Star Ninja’s attention.
Soon, they were led to a slightly larger earth hut at the outpost center, Gōta’s temporary office.
The resolute-faced, sturdy-built Gōta was frowning over a map in deep thought.
Wearing mud-stained work clothes overlaid with a Star Ninja Vest, he looked up as Hotaru entered, his fatigued face breaking into a relieved smile, striding forward.
“Hotaru jonin! You’re finally here!” Gōta clapped Hotaru’s shoulder hard, voice hoarse but strong, then his gaze swept over Kimimaro and the others, flashing surprise but more trust.
“And Kimimaro, Haku, Yukimi! Perfect! With you here, I feel much more secure!”
“Senior Gōta, you’ve worked hard.” Hotaru said gravely, quickly scanning the crude office.
“Clan Head!” Yukimi greeted warmly.
Kimimaro and Haku nodded as well.
“Jonin Gōta,” Hotaru cut straight to it: “The situation seems worse than intelligence described. How long can grain and cold-weather supplies hold?”
Gōta’s face darkened: “Grain can last half a month, but cold-weather supplies at most ten days, if we ration tightly. Those bastards outside not only destroyed fields and besieged us, but cut all supply lines. These people…”
He gestured outside: “They’re drifters and commoners who responded to our recruitment to settle here. The Land of Shadows nobles turned hostile, sent soldiers to drive them out, nowhere to go, so they fled here. Now, with over a thousand people, our daily grain and cold-weather supply consumption is massive.”
Gōta’s tone brimmed with anger and sympathy for the commoners.
Though he could lead a few Star Ninja to slaughter this ordinary army, he was no longer the man who once hid with clan members in a tree hole; here he represented the Land of Stars.
He had much more to consider, couldn’t act on impulse like before.
So Gōta had been restraining himself, awaiting Lord Shura’s orders.
Hotaru nodded, repeating Menma’s command: “Lord Shura’s orders are clear: hold and await aid, no proactive strikes, observe developments. But if they dare attack, counter with thunderous means, crush the invaders, show Star Ninja might! Make the enemy pay the cost!”
Gōta had already received Menma’s command via the engraved chakra network, nodding firmly: “I know the Lord’s command. If they dare reach out, they’ll regret it!”
Next, Hotaru and Gōta discussed defenses.
Gōta’s ninja had been on high alert for two days, mentally exhausted, so they agreed: tonight, Kimimaro, Haku, and Yukimi each take one direction, Gōta and other ninja rotate another, Hotaru at center coordinating with resting ninja as support team.
“No problem!” “Understood!” Kimimaro and the two immediately acknowledged.
Meanwhile, in the largest, most ornate tent of the Land of Shadows army camp.
Fukazake Nutou’s chief strategist Shogetsu Ryunosuke was leisurely sipping hot tea, listening to a portly Land of Shadows noble in lavish brocade robes spit while describing the encirclement.
“Lord Shogetsu, you wouldn’t believe it, inside that broken earth wall, it’s not just a hundred or so Star Ninja and workers, but over a thousand lowly commoners crammed in! Useless trash, just wasting grain! If not for those Star Ninja’s weird tricks, I’d have ordered a full assault to drive them all out to feed the wolves!” The noble waved his fat hands disdainfully.
Shogetsu Ryunosuke set down his teacup, his narrow eyes glinting, lips curling in a cold smile: “Oh? Over a thousand drifters? That’s… a usable chip.”
He looked to the ice-blue chakra armor-clad Jonin Rōga Yukinami standing by.
“Lord Yukinami,” Shogetsu Ryunosuke’s voice carried a seductive tone: “Star Ninja are hunkered down, we need to give them some ‘pressure’, test their depths, and incidentally… create chaos, make those commoners more panicked. Chaos often brings unexpected ‘opportunities’.”
Rōga Yukinami’s helmet-shaded eyes showed no ripple, just a slight nod, voice icy: “Understood. To what extent?”
“No need to assault the outpost, just add casualties.” Shogetsu Ryunosuke smirked slyly: “Take three men, infiltrate, cause destruction, kill a few Star Ninja or workers, set some fires, stir chaos inside.”
“Focus on probing their defenses and response speed. Remember, make just the right ‘noise’—hurt them, but don’t corner them into using those commoners as meat shields. Withdraw immediately after.”
“Understood.” Rōga Yukinami was concise.
He led three similarly chakra armor-clad, cold-aura chunin subordinates; the four like snow leopards in the night silently left the camp, sneaking toward the Hoshigakure Outpost.
Rōga Yukinami targeted the east outer perimeter, where defenses were relatively weak and sightlines open.
Night as ink, winds howling.
Leveraging chakra armor boosts and Snow Country ninja snow stealth, Rōga Yukinami’s four easily evaded the outpost’s crude outer traps and sparse sentries.
Like four ground-hugging shadows, they swiftly approached the three-meter earth style-reinforced low wall.
Rōga Yukinami signaled, all four channeled chakra to leg armor, leaping lightly to vault silently.
But just as Rōga Yukinami’s toe touched the wall-top snow, an icy gaze locked him!
Atop the wall, unbeknownst when, a figure stood quietly.
A boy seemingly only about ten, white hair faintly swaying in the cold wind, clad in dark gray standard Star Ninja combat suit.
Most chilling were his eyes, pupils pure white!
In the dim night, they seemed to glow faintly, coldly overlooking them like a deity upon ants.
“Byakugan?!” Rōga Yukinami’s heart jolted, motion instinctively halting a moment.
He never imagined a Hoshigakure sentry would be such a young child, let alone wielding the legendary dojutsu Byakugan!
One of the ninja world’s two great dojutsu families!
Even Snow Ninja had heard of Byakugan and Sharingan!
But Hoshigakure intelligence made no mention!
Shock gave way to anger at being belittled and a pro assassin’s cold ruthlessness.
A ten-year-old kid, Byakugan or not, so what?
How much combat experience?
“Brat, out of the way.” Rōga Yukinami’s voice filtered through his faceplate, thick with contempt.
He didn’t bother acting himself, nodding to a tall chunin beside: “Yukiyuki, deal with him. Quick, don’t alert inside.”
The Snow Ninja chunin Yukiyuki grinned ferociously at the slight figure atop, eyes cruel.
He didn’t take Kimimaro seriously at all.
“Kid, next life, don’t glare so wide!” He growled low, chakra bursting in feet, ice crystals condensing on armor, launching like a cannonball at the wall top, sharp kunai with bone-chilling cold aimed at Kimimaro’s throat!
Extremely fast, clearly Ice Release armor boosted.
Facing this lethal strike, wall-top Kimimaro’s expression unchanged.
His pure white eyes clearly captured every muscle twitch, every chakra flow path, even the kunai’s air-piercing trail.
Just as the kunai neared his skin!
“Pffft!”
A teeth-gritting, bone-piercing-flesh dull thud erupted!
Yukiyuki’s charge halted abruptly, his ferocious grin frozen, replaced by utmost pain and incredulous terror!
He slowly looked down, seeing a stark white sharp bone spike, like hell-grown thorns, protruding from Kimimaro’s raised palm, precisely piercing his heart!
Scalding blood gushed along the cold bone spike, dripping onto wall-top snow, blooming stark red plums.
“Urgh… guh…” Yukiyuki’s throat gurgled strangely, eyes dimming rapidly.
Kimimaro’s arm shook lightly, the heart-piercing bone spike retracted instantly, leaving only a tiny hole in his palm.
Yukiyuki’s corpse fell like a tattered sackcloth bag from the wall, “thud” smashing into snow below, splashing bloodied flakes.
The process lightning-fast, silent, yet with eerie cruel beauty.
“!!!”
Below-wall Rōga Yukinami and two Snow Ninja pupils shrank, chill surging from soles to crowns!
Instinctual shudder facing unknown terror!
A ten-year-old instantly slaying a chunin with such grotesque bloody method?!
“Corpse Bone Pulse?! Kaguya Clan Remnant?!” As a jonin, Rōga Yukinami recognized the horrific Bloodline Limit instantly, alarms blaring, no more underestimation!
“Attack together! Ice Release trap him! Now!”
The remaining two Snow Ninja chunin, stimulated red-eyed by the horror, shocked and furious.
They hand sealed simultaneously, chakra armor glowing ice-blue, emanating intense cold.
“Ice Release: Ice Rock Dome!” One roared, slamming palms to ground.
Ground snow instantly froze, bulging into massive sharp-topped ice pillars like a prison cage, stabbing rapidly from all sides at wall-top Kimimaro, aiming to trap and kill!
“Ice Release: Blizzarding Winds Technique!” The other inhaled deeply, armor-boosted exhaling vast frigid winds mixed with sharp ice crystals, howling toward Kimimaro, not just obscuring vision, dense crystals like countless flying blades to shred flesh!
Cold spread instantly, wall-top temperature plummeted, ice crystals danced, vision blurred.
Rōga Yukinami moved too, no seals, madly channeling chakra into leg armor, ghost-like skimming wall face at high speed, instantly forming a solid ice longsword.
Blade edge flickered deadly chill, under ice crystal storm cover, silently stabbing from side at Kimimaro’s ribs!
Tricky angle, viciously ruthless!
Facing this all-around Ice Release kill, Kimimaro’s pure white eyes rippled not.
“Corpse Bone Pulse: Rotation Dance!”
A low clear shout.
Kimimaro’s body spun like a top around his left foot!
Not Gentle Fist chakra blue vortex, but countless razor-sharp stark white bone spikes like blooming death lotus, erupting from limbs, torso joints!
Clang clang clang!
Pffft! Pffft!
Dense collision and piercing sounds rang!
The huge incoming ice pillars shattered like fragile glass before indestructible bone spikes!
The howling ice crystal storm utterly shredded, deflected by high-speed spinning bone barrier!
Rōga Yukinami’s sly ice blade precisely parried by a sudden arm bone, sparking ice chips!
Bone spike barrier perfectly defended all attacks!
Spin halted, bone spikes retracted alive into body.
Kimimaro reemerged unscathed, not even a clothing hem ice-scratched.
He coldly eyed the below bone spike-repelled, horrified Rōga Yukinami trio.
“Impossible?!” The ice pillar Snow Ninja chunin cried out, his Ice Release so worthless against those weird bones!
In his distraught moment, Kimimaro moved!
Speed leaving afterimage!
“Pine Tree Dance!”
Pff! Pff! Pff!
Sharp arm bones like striking snakes instantly shot from Kimimaro’s elbows, shoulders!
That Snow Ninja had no time to react, protective chakra armor pierced like paper!
Several bone spikes precisely through throat, heart, abdomen!
No scream, impaled by force onto rear ice block, blood flowing along bone and ice, instantly dead!
“Damn you!” The blizzarding Snow Ninja eyes split in rage, comrade’s death igniting ferocity.
He madly urged chakra armor, hands sealing: “Ice Release: Swallow Blizzarding Snow!”
Countless ice swallows shot fast, like senbon or darts, raining toward Kimimaro!
Kimimaro expressionless, white eyes locked target.
Didn’t even bother defending, body slightly leaned forward.
“Willow Dance!”
His body instantly weightless, supremely flexible, like wind-dancing willow branches.
Under Byakugan 360 vision, the seemingly dense ice swallows’ gaps clear.
His figure wove, swayed through senbon rain, speed trailing afterimages, no ice swallow touching!
Like Shinigami dancing on knife edges!
Instantly past ice swallow rain, closing on last Snow Ninja chunin.
Right hand five fingers together, finger joints popping five short-sword-like sharp finger bones.
“Ten Finger Bullet!”
Pff pff pff pff pff!
Five white flashes!
That Snow Ninja’s chest, abdomen pierced with five bloody holes!
Incredulous, he looked down at gushing wounds, body swayed, fell backward.
In a flash, three Snow Ninja chunin, all wiped out!
Rōga Yukinami watched liver-gall splitting!
Not battle, unilateral slaughter!
This Byakugan and Corpse Bone Pulse boy, monster crawled from hell!
Fear overwhelmed battle intent, he turned without hesitation, madly boosting chakra armor to flee!
“Want to leave?” Kimimaro’s icy voice like Shinigami’s verdict.
He raised hand, palm at Rōga Yukinami’s back, arm bulging several bone spikes like loaded crossbow.
“Tsubaki Dance: Willow Bullet!” Power-infused sharp bone spikes tore air with screech, straight at Rōga Yukinami’s back heart!
Rōga Yukinami sensed rear killing intent, soul flying, twisted desperately to dodge, turning ice blade cross-chest to block!
Clang!
Pffft!
One bone spike barely deflected by ice blade, but other two like eyed: one through shoulder, one grazing thigh spraying blood! Agony stalled him, speed dropped.
“Ice Release Secret Technique: Demonic Mirror Ice Crystals!” A clear icy voice suddenly rang.
Rōga Yukinami looked up in horror, air around instantly condensed countless mirror-smooth huge ice crystals!
They floated, sealing his escape routes!
Each ice mirror reflected a refined-faced youth.
It was Mizuki Haku, sensing battle chakra rushing over!
“This is… true Ice Release Bloodline?!” Rōga Yukinami saw Ice Release far beyond his armor’s, heart surging absurdity and despair.
Haku stood before one ice mirror, eyes clear but micro-angry: “Calling that crude fake Ice Release? Those who defile ice’s purity don’t deserve to live.”
Hands formed seal before chest.
“Secret Technique: Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!”
With Haku’s cold voice, all ice mirrors blazed!
Countless extreme cold ice senbon glinting deadly chill, like invisibly guided, burst from every ice mirror!
Not chaotic, under Haku’s precise manipulation, like pouring rain or living swarm, from all directions, every angle, fully covering Rōga Yukinami’s space!
Density, speed, angles thousands times beyond his prior “Swallow Blizzarding Snow”!
“Ah!!!” Rōga Yukinami roared desperate unwilling, wildly swinging ice blade, armor releasing cold shield.
Clang clang!
Pff pff pff pff pff!
Blade blocks and shield breaks drowned by senbon piercing flesh thuds.
Rōga Yukinami’s body shook like ragdoll in storm.
Chakra armor groaned overloaded under dense stabs, ice crystals shattering flying, but couldn’t stop omnipresent ice senbon!
Moments later.
Ice mirrors faded, cold wind swept.
Rōga Yukinami stiffly stood, body bristling dense chill-glinting ice senbon, like a porcupine.
Blood dripped along senbon, pooling stark crimson on snow.
His wide eyes froze utmost fear and disbelief, light gone.
His proud chakra armor full of holes and cracks.
“Thud.” Rōga Yukinami’s corpse toppled stiffly forward onto cold snow, silent.
Kimimaro slowly retracted bone spikes, white eyes sweeping four ground corpses like trash piles.
Haku landed lightly beside, eyeing Rōga Yukinami’s corpse, soft sigh: “His ice was too impure.”
Then turned to Kimimaro, eyes concerned: “Kimimaro, you okay?”
Kimimaro shook head, voice flat: “Fine. Small fry.”
Then, Hotaru, Gōta, Yukimi, and other outpost Star Ninja alarmed by intense chakra and battle noise, rushed to east wall.
Seeing four ice-blue armored, gruesome-death corpses on outer snow, especially Rōga Yukinami’s senbon-bristled horror, Gōta inhaled sharply: “Hiss… this is Snow Country’s Rōga Yukinami?! You took them down?”
Hotaru’s gaze on Kimimaro and Haku brimmed shock and praise.
Though knowing their strength exceptional, seeing pierced Snow Ninja littered with countless senbon and bone spikes still heart-shaking.
Rōga Yukinami at least Snow Country jonin, leading elite squad night raid, casually slain by two youths.
“They tried sneaking attack.” Kimimaro stated fact simply.
Haku nodded, to Hotaru: “Hotaru jonin, what next?”
Hotaru deep breath, calming ripples, eyes to distant lit Land of Shadows camp, light hum: “Leave Rōga Yukinami’s corpse, search other three for intel, then toss back to Land of Shadows army camp gate.
