Hong Meiling Sleepwalks Through the Heavens

Hong Meiling was surprisingly stealthy, and her ability to stalk a group of ninjas unnoticed felt commendable (to herself). Due to the fact that she has no chakra, even the most powerful ninja would have trouble passively detecting her. Moreover, the ninjas of Hidden Eddy were all rushing towards the front lines, so they had no time to pay attention to any sneaky green-clothed girl following behind them.

On the Eastern border of the Land of Whirlpools where Hidden Eddy resides, a battle was about to occur.

Hidden Eddy Village is surrounded by vast oceans in all directions, save for the west which borders along the Land of Fire. Hence, the coalition of ninjas gathered a large number of ships to attack Hidden Eddy from all directions.

Currently, hundreds of ninjas from Hidden Eddy are gathered together by the easternmost coast of the Land of Whirlpools, and each of them held solemn, anxious expressions.

Standing in front of the crowd is Ashina Uzumaki – the leader of Hidden Eddy Village, and the current leader of the Uzumaki clan.

He is already knocking on death’s door; a remnant of the Warring States. When the Hidden Leaf Village was first established, Hashirama Senju came to the Land of Whirlpools for an alliance. Back then, Ashina Uzumaki was still young, and he had just become the Uzumaki clan’s leader. After careful deliberation, he agreed to Hashirama’s alliance, and soon, Hashirama Senju would get married to Mito Uzumaki.

Then, Hidden Eddy would not participate in any disputes happening in other villages, maintaining a strict pacifist stance. They initially thought that they would be able to live in peace due to their pacifism and their alliance with Hidden Leaf, but they never expected that trouble would soon come knocking on their door step.

The ninjas stood close by each other as they stared at the dozens of ships on the sea that were inching closer and closer towards the coastline.

The ninjas knew that each ship must be carrying many ninjas, and if they were to reach shore, the Land of Whirlpools, let alone Hidden Eddy, will be done for.

If only we can sink those ships before they hit shore…

Ninjas were trained to skip across water, but if the ninjas onboard were to jump ship due to their ship sinking, it would buy Hidden Eddy enough time to launch a counterattack of their own.

“Hidden Eddy ninjas!” Ashina Uzumaki announced as loud as he could. “Listen! Sink those ships before they reach the shore!”

“Understood!” the ninjas responded in unison as each of them phased and blinked away.

Although they specialize in sealing jutsu, that doesn’t mean they weren’t capable of other types of jutsu.

Fire, wind, and water began to rain down upon the ships from the shore, bombarding the fleet ahead.

On a larger ship leading the other fleets, a middle-aged ninja stood watch. Seeing the incoming barrage about to sink their ship, he quickly formed seals with complex hand movements, summoning magnificent water dragons one after another to swallow up the oncoming rain of jutsu.

The other ninjas on other fleets followed suit, and all fleets defended against the rain of offensive jutsu.

However, one fire jutsu was lucky enough to slip past the countless barriers summoned by the enemy ninjas, and blasted upon one of the ships. Unfortunately, the location of the blast was sturdy, and barely caused a dent in the ship. A ninja on board simply extinguished the fire with water jutsu, and the ships continued to creep towards shore.

At this moment, Ashina Uzumaki’s eyes widened when he identified the ninja who casted the brilliant water dragon.

When Ashina Uzumaki saw the middle-aged ninja who created the water dragon in the first place, his expression also changed.

Sandaime Mizukage!

From the intel Ashina gathered, the coup consisted mostly of small to medium-sized villages, and it was led by the Hidden Mist Village and the Hidden Cloud Village.

However, the intel never told him that the leader of Hidden Mist, Sandaime Mizukage, would attend the battlefield in person!

Ashina Uzumaki felt his spine chill, and glanced back and forth at the countless ships ahead.

If Sandaime Mizukage is here, is the Sandaime Raikage here too?

If the two are here to attack the Land of Whirlpools, then this battle is completely doomed.

Although Ashina Uzumaki is almost equal to Hashirama Senju in terms of power, he isn’t the strongest by any means. He may be close to a Kage, but there is still a considerable distance in terms of power between him and a real Kage.

What’s worse is, Ashina Uzumaki is the strongest ninja Hidden Eddy has.

One can only imagine how dire the situation is currently when faced with a coalition consisting of two Kages.

If there was only one Kage, they may be able to defend until Hidden Leaf’s reinforcements arrive, but with the threat of two Kages looming over them, the entire village and land will be annihilated before any help could arrive.

Ashina hurriedly expanded his senses, and thankfully, he couldn’t sense any other chakras similar in strength to Sandaime Mizukage.

With a loud yell, Ashina ordered the ninja troops, “Attack!”

Sandaime Mizukage led the ships to cast defensive jutsu, but held back on the offensive for some peculiar reason. Perhaps he doesn’t want to damage his own ships? Ashina wondered.

No matter the reasoning, that means Hidden Eddy is still able to slightly delay the ships’ march towards shore.

The most important resource that Hidden Eddy has now is time. Even if they can delay for a minute, or even a second, it might be all they need until Hidden Leaf’s reinforcements arrive.

However, Sandaime Mizukage stepped forward, and completed a jutsu in the blink of an eye, “Water Release: Tidal Wave!”

Immediately, huge waves rose from the sea like towers, crashing towards the coast of the Land of Whirlpools.

Each wave was like a tall building, crashing down upon the coast one after another with terrifying power. Even a ninja may suffer a deadly fate when devoured by these raging tides.

“Mizukage! Mizukage!” the ninjas on the ship cheered in unison upon seeing their Mizukage’s power on display.

The Hidden Eddy ninjas hurriedly casted their own jutsu to resist against the waves.

Originally, they focused on offensive jutsu, but in the blink of an eye, the offense and defense were swapped, and now, they had to defend against the terrifying waves that crashed towards them.

When one jutsu defends against the waves, another would immediately come crashing down upon them.

Ashina Uzumaki frowned. With a quick gesture, he leaned forward and pushed his palms to the ground, “Earth Release: Earthen Wall!”

Under the urging of his chakra, a massive earthen wall violently curled up from the ground, shaking the foundations of the earth.

Although Ashina was no Kage, the earthen wall he summoned was much thicker compared to ordinary earthen walls – its width stretched a broad sixty or seventy meters, shielding the land against the thunderous waves.

Of course, the tidal waves brought forward by Sandaime Mizukage was gargantuan enough to envelop the entire coast.

If the fight occurred on land, it would be impossible for him to bring forward such an astounding tidal wave. However, water jutsu relies on surrounding bodies of water, and with the sea around them, he was able to conjure powerful Water Releases terrifying enough to level entire lands.

Ashina’s earthen walls may be able to resist against the waves for some time, but he knew that many of his ninjas were either killed or mortally wounded by the coastline.

However, the ninjas followed suit in Ashina’s jutsu, casting earthen walls to reinforce Ashina’s own walls.

Although the ninjas weren’t at Ashina’s caliber, with many ninjas casting walls of earth, it seemed like the earth itself had opened up to form a defensive wall against the terrifying flood.

Layers upon layers of waves crashed against the city wall, shaking the sky from its thunderous impact.

Although the walls were strong enough to withstand the impact of the waves, some parts were poorly reinforced, and highly pressurized waves burst through the cracks in the walls.

However, with the wall acting as a buffer, the causalities and injuries drastically reduced.

Of course, Sandaime Mizukage would not solely rely on conjuring terrifying tidal waves to defeat his enemy. It was simply to weaken the enemy’s defense.

With the Hidden Eddy ninjas focusing on defensive measures, the ships were able to sail smoothly towards shore, driven forward by the rapid tides.

Some ships were already preparing to dock, and the enemy ninjas jumped ship one after another onto the coast and went straight for the Hidden Eddy ninjas.

Seeing that there was no point holding up a defense anymore, the Hidden Eddy ninjas stopped casting earthen barriers, and began launching offensive jutsu once more.

“Fire Release: Dragon Fire Jutsu!”

“Water Release: Wild Water Wave!”

“Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!”

“Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spears!”

A continuous barrage of jutsu was firing out by the ninjas on both sides; it was a bloodbath from the air to land, harvesting the lives of ninjas one after another.

It was Sandaime Mizukage’s turn to unleash an attack.

“Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!”

This jutsu is complicated, requiring forty-four seals to be fully formed. However, Sandaime Mizukage was proficient enough to reduce that number to less than ten.

Immediately, a water dragon was conjured, rushing towards the battlefield.

Sandaime Mizukage’s strength far exceeds that of ordinary water-based ninjas, and the water dragons he conjures are several times larger than ordinary water dragons.

The dragon trained its eyes on five Hidden Eddy ninjas. Three of them were able to react, and ducked and dodged immediately to the side. However, two ninjas were unfortunately caught in its watery maw, and their bodies were immediately torn apart by its violent pull.

Sandaime Mizukage was about to cast more jutsu to press the attack, when suddenly, four golden chains were launched towards him.

Adamantine Sealing Chains!

These chains are a jutsu unique to the Uzumaki clan. They can be used offensively, and as a powerful sealing jutsu.

These chains of gold are formed from the ninja’s own chakra to subdue the enemy by binding them in these chains. These chains are incredibly durable, and are able to nullify its victim’s chakra.

Ashina Uzumaki knew he couldn’t fight Sandaime Mizukage head on, but he was the only one who was strong enough to hold him back. In order to defend Hidden Eddy, he had to fight him.

Sandaime Mizukage recognized these chains immediately, and immediately brought forth whips of water in his right hand, swinging it constantly to knock away the oncoming chains one after another.

While the two fought, Hong Meiling was also rushing towards Sandaime Mizukage.

She had reached the battlefield a while ago, and was observing the situation while perched on a big tree.

When a group of ninjas cheered on for Sandaime Mizukage, that was all the confirmation she needed to know who he was.

Originally, in Naruto, Sandaime Mizukage was barely mentioned. However, if he was the Kage of a village, that means he absolutely cannot be underestimated.

If he dies, it would definitely turn the tides of the battle, or, at least, dampen the morale of the Hidden Mist Village. A glimmer of hope still exists for Hidden Eddy!

However, in Meiling’s own judgement and estimations, she guesses that she will still be weaker compared to a Kage. I might not be able to fight him on my own…

As Meiling rushed towards battle, her eyes landed on Ashina Uzumaki, who continued to launch chains at Sandaime Mizukage.

We must be almost as strong as a Kage! If we fight together, we might be able to defeat Sandaime Mizukage! Meiling thought to herself.

Meiling leapt from tree to tree, and jumping down, she began running towards Sandaime Mizukage.