"You guys step back for now." After hearing Hyuga Neji's report, Mizuki no longer hesitated. "Aoba, you take charge of Neji and Shino. I may not be able to take care of you later. Remember what I just said, don't be stubborn, and notify me in time if anything happens..."

No matter who the person is, Mizuki is not someone he can deal with calmly. If he needs to use the Sage Mode to increase his combat power, Mizuki's chakra manipulation ability will decrease with the chakra of the tailed beast mixed in his body, and his perception will also be much worse. This will make Mizuki's reaction to the changes in the surroundings not so quick and agile. At this time, he needs his companions to help him.

Time was running out, and Yamashiro Aoba did not waste any time, turning around and retreating with the two Genin. Mizuki took out the summoning scroll and summoned the giant bear directly. Under Mizuki's command, the huge Hata-kun quickly cleared the surrounding groves, and the huge force directly knocked down the trees on the road.

After a while, everyone watched as a large area of ​​​​space was cleared.

"Is this the captain's summoned beast? I've never seen one before..." Hyuga Neji was amazed at the power of the giant bear. This summoned beast, which had no special features, had nothing to impress people except its outstanding power. However, being plain does not mean it is not practical. The purer something is, the better it is to use. In the hands of someone who knows how to use it, it will always exert unimaginable power.

"What an amazing cleaning speed." Aburame Shino was also impressed by this simple and intuitive way of displaying power. This was completely different from the style of the insect manipulator who was good at exerting power silently and subtly.

Seeing that Mizuki had almost finished, Yamashiro Aoba said to Neji and Shino, "Your main task will be to provide support and guard against any hidden enemies that suddenly appear. Finally, be sure to protect yourself."

"Understood." At a time like this, Hyuga Neji and Aburame Shino also knew that this was not the time to show off. Protecting themselves was the most important thing, and the second was to try to help.

Seeing that the battlefield was set up and there were basically no blind spots to hide, Shuimu jumped onto Hata-kun's back. He stood facing the direction of the enemy's attack, then began to form seals and condense chakra.

As Mizuki moved, a huge wave of chakra began to spread in all directions with Mizuki as the center. It quickly attracted everyone's attention. Although Konoha, which had the strongest reconnaissance ability, had already given a warning, the Sand Village and the Rock Village did not act rashly because they were not very familiar with the intensity of the enemy's attack. They were also shocked by Mizuki's huge chakra. Generally speaking, a powerful jonin would not make much noise even when using a mutually destructive move.

"What is he going to do?" Maki looked at Mizuki and asked Temari in confusion, "Did he show this method last time?"

Temari shook her head and said, "Absolutely not. We are sure that he was not this strong last time."

"This level of oppression, just because of the huge fluctuation of chakra, is already tricky. No wonder Konoha would promote him to be a jonin at this time." Maki was also very envious of Konoha's abundance of talents. Even though it suffered heavy losses, there were endless talented ninjas who could support the overall situation. Compared with the poverty of the Sand Village, it was much stronger.

"What exactly is he going to do? Juan, do you know? Is it a sealing technique?"

"There are fluctuations of the sealing technique, but..." Juan observed carefully and said, "It is obvious that the sealing technique played a big role, but with such a huge amount of chakra, ordinary sealing techniques definitely cannot use so much. Moreover, there are some strange things contained in it that I can't see through..."

"Well, don't worry about that for now, let's see who the enemy here is." Maki was very angry that the enemy's target was the Sand Village, in other words, the One-Tail Jinchuriki Gaara. His students were targeted again and again, and the enemy was not relenting, even if it was an S-level rebel ninja from the Akatsuki organization, but it was a huge humiliation for the Sand Village, one of the five major ninja villages.

"Yura, Juan, cooperate with me in the attack later." Maki was very confident that his side was not weak, and it was not impossible to take the initiative to fight. "Temari, Kankuro, you cover Gaara, if the situation is not good, don't hesitate, use Shukaku's power directly, or even release Shukaku directly."

"Let Shukaku out? Is this a good idea?" asked Temari, who was surprised by Maki's arrangement.

"It's okay. Shukaku is also a powerful fighter. And there are so many jonin here. As long as Shukaku is temporarily subdued, there are also two outstanding sealing masters, especially that Mizuki. He should be able to deal with it."

Although Maki felt a little regretful that his side was not strong enough after setting his sights on other people, he still arranged a strategy just in case.

On the other side, the Iwagakure Village not far away, after discovering that Konoha and the Sand Village were starting to get nervous, they also began to arrange some countermeasures and became nervous.

"What should we do?" Heitu asked Chitu anxiously. "Should we go over to provide support?"

"No need." Akatsuki shook his head. "We don't know the specific situation of the enemy yet. Although Konoha has provided some information, its authenticity cannot be fully confirmed. Don't act rashly."

"But if we ignore them, will they come to support us later?"

"Why do you think we are here with so many subordinates?" Akagi didn't care about the so-called support from Sand Village and Konoha. "We never counted on them. Everything depends on ourselves."

"That being said, if anything goes wrong with Senior Brother Deidara, will Grandpa be unhappy?"

"Kurotsuchi, I know you used to have a good relationship with Deidara, but now, he is just a traitor." Akatsuki's body is like a huge rock, but his mind is not muddled. As the captain, he can judge the importance of things clearly. "We are from the same school, but since he has taken a different path, he must be responsible for his own choice."

"But..." Heitu said unwillingly, "Didn't Grandpa say that we should try to bring him back?"

"You also said that it's 'try your best', not a necessary task. And this is not what we are going to do." Although Akagi knew his fellow disciple Deidara inside and out, "The tradition of the Hidden Rock Village is unity. Since he left us and betrayed this tradition, he needs to pay the price."

The overall strength of the Iwagakure Village is in the lower middle position among the five major ninja villages, and it can barely overwhelm the Sand Village. In addition to the slightly better external environment than the Sand Village, the fanatical atmosphere of unity and externalization is also an important factor. It is one of the important cornerstones for the Iwagakure Village to stand firm in the ninja world.

Akatsuki, who had left Kurotsuchi speechless, then continued, "You just went to talk to Deidara, did he say anything?"

"No." Heitu shook his head.

"Since Deidara has no intention of communicating with us, we don't have to worry about it. Just try to bring him back. The rest will naturally be handled by the Tsuchikage-sama."

"Well, this is the only way." Heitu could only agree to Chitu's plan with regret.

"However, that Konoha Jonin really should not be underestimated." Akatsuki carefully observed Mizuki's actions and sighed sincerely, "I didn't see it before. I thought Konoha didn't take this operation seriously and didn't send out any capable generals. I didn't expect that there was such a big fish hidden among them."

"So what? We are no worse than them..."

"That's hard to say, Kurotsuchi."

The older red soil obviously has more experience than the black soil.

"That Shuimu doesn't seem much worse than me, but I don't know what he'll do next."

…

Shuimu had completely stopped caring about the concerns of outsiders. With the infusion of the tailed beast's chakra, the Breathing Technique began to release a large amount of chakra. As Shuimu's perception extended, a trace of natural energy began to gather and was absorbed by Shuimu's body, which was like a gunpowder barrel.

"With this kind of enormous power, if my natural energy perception and chakra control are not good enough, my whole body might be torn into pieces."

Generally speaking, the Sage Mode would not be so difficult, but Mizuki's physical condition made it much more difficult, and he was unwilling to rely on external forces to practice the second-hand sage techniques provided by others. After eliminating some hidden dangers, there were naturally fewer conveniences. If there were no outstanding chakra control and some means to solve the problem of yin and yang imbalance in his body, he might not be able to practice it, but even now, Mizuki has felt quite strenuous. Maintaining a certain degree of control during practice and maintaining a balance to generate sage chakra is basically a good thing. However, it is not an easy thing to really enter the sage mode in actual combat, especially to maintain the sage mode, and to ensure sufficient mobility, and to maintain the ability to release ninjutsu and combat while moving. Unlike Jiraiya, who has the cooperation of the Toad Sage, everything depends on himself. If it were someone else, he might have given up long ago due to the many difficulties.

"It's really too difficult to maintain the balance between yin and yang. For others, it seems to be an instinct to maintain the balance, but under the power of the curse, it is directly broken. It is really too difficult to maintain."

In addition to the Breath-Concealing Technique that is in effect all the time, Mizuki now also has a sealing technique that combines the things on Kakashi's Canine Summoning Contract Scroll with the Soul Gathering Formation. It gathers a large amount of mental fluctuations leaked from the summoned beasts, and condenses them into a group of yin-attributed mental power to make up for the defects caused by the imbalance of yin and yang.

Sure enough, as the seals on his body took effect, Shuimu's condition gradually began to improve. With a little extra strength, Shuimu began to sense more natural energy and gathered it into his body, which gradually became balanced with his own chakra. After reaching a certain limit, Shuimu's body finally began to change.

Unlike Jiraiya and Uzumaki Naruto's toad magic, and also different from the snake magic, the appearance displayed by Mizuki did not change so obviously, but the color of his hair changed slightly. Only Mizuki, who was close at hand, discovered the mystery. It was different from the bright silver-white color that was originally presented, and it was also very different from the pale color of aging caused by too much physical deficiency. Instead, it became a crystal clear hair color that was almost transparent. Because it was too similar to the past, if you don't pay attention, it's really not easy to distinguish the changes. And you will find that the ends of Mizuki's hair seem to have grown a lot longer abruptly. The hair that originally only covered the ears and part of the neck has directly stretched past the shoulders.

As for other changes, only Shuimu can distinguish them carefully.

Since Shuimu couldn't see his own face for the time being, he didn't know if there were any changes in his pupils and eyes, nor did he know if there were any things like eye shadow and facial makeup patterns. However, Shuimu stretched out his hand and took a closer look. There was no change in his skin color, and his figure had not undergone any sudden changes. Then Shuimu reached out and touched the top of his head.

"No horns? Did I succeed or fail?"

Although it was the first time that Shuimu used the Sage Mode with all his strength, and it was also the first time that he tried out something beyond the specifications in actual combat, he was still a little disappointed when he didn't find too many changes.

However, although he did not comprehend any special techniques after using the Sage Mode, his body seemed to feel good.

"Well, let's try out its power." Without any comparison or reference, he really didn't understand how much he had improved. So, he could just use a technique to find out if there had been any changes.

"Fire Style - Phoenix Fire Technique."

It was an ordinary fire ninjutsu, a ninjutsu that Shuimu had hardly used since he crossed over. There was nothing special about it. The only difference was that Shuimu had deliberately enhanced its power by sensing and mobilizing the natural energy around him. Small balls of fire flew out of Shuimu's mouth and scattered forward like blooming flowers. As the fireballs flew, their size grew larger and larger, and eventually formed huge rolling balls of scorching flames, burning a large area of ​​land in front into scorched earth.

"This power is really amazing, isn't it? Although this kind of ordinary ninjutsu is not easy to hit people, but with such great power, no one dares to ignore it. "

Mizuki looked at the burning and smoking land in surprise, and saw a figure within his perception rushing out of the sea of ​​fire. It was Scorpion of the Red Sand with a cold smile on his face. Even such a powerful ninjutsu did not seem to cause much damage to Scorpion.

"A quick win won't work. It seems like you're much more interesting than last time."