The act of beheading Juzo immediately gained everyone's attention. Despite working with him for over a year, Fujin's squad were still surprised to see Fujin kill off such a fearsome ninja so quickly. After all, though Fujin had fought with Roshi and Kitsuchi in the past, he hadn't succeeded in killing any of them.
Of course, the one who was shocked the most was Kisame. He couldn't help but exclaim, "Impossible!"
Had Juzo managed to hold on for a few seconds, Kisame would have been able to rescue him and force Fujin to retreat. However, to Kisame's disbelief, Juzo didn't last for even a short while.
Some distance away, White Zetsu said, "He is indeed scary. Poor Juzo was so helpless."
Black Zetsu agreed and added, "Yeah. He also used him as a trap to hit Kisame. Had Kisame not been careful, he would have been hit by the explosions as well. In that case, he could have tried to kill them both."
Black Zetsu's mind quickly began calculating why Juzo suffered a loss so quickly.
Despite the achievement of killing such a high-level ninja, Fujin didn't get lost in it. Instead, at the very next moment, he opened up a scroll, sealed Juzo's body and quickly moved towards his head.
However, multiple jets of water were launched at him suddenly. At the same time, water was moving towards him like a Tsunami. Fujin's team and his clones were already retreating. Fujin was about to seal Juzo's head when a water jet hit Juzo's head and pierced into his brain, destroying it from the inside.
Fujin frowned and retreated. He looked at Kisame. Annoyance could be seen in his eyes, but it was just an act. Though taking Juzo's head would seem like Konoha would get a lot of information and would benefit heavily, it was actually extremely counterproductive.
Itachi was a spy Hiruzen sent to Akatsuki. So he already had a lot of information about the Akatsuki without the Akatsuki, except Obito, knowing about it. As for Fujin, he was the person who was the most clear about what Akatsuki was, who their members were and what their goals were.
So any information that Juzo might have was borderline useless for both Fujin and Konoha. On the contrary, Akatsuki would know that Konoha had a lot of information about them. So they could be forced to make a move on Konoha and effectively change the future to a large degree.
It was something that Fujin didn't want to see. That is why he first sealed Juzo's body and used a storage scroll to seal his body instead of one of the many storage seals on his bracer to waste some time without making anyone suspicious of his actions. It warned Kisame and gave him an opportunity to destroy Juzo's head.
As they retreated, the massive amount of water kept following them like a Tsunami. Fujin said softly, "Back me up."
He immediately began building up his chakra. His clones and teammates immediately felt a massive amount of chakra from him. While his teammates would usually be very impressed, at that moment, the chakra that Fujin built up was much less than Kisame's. Regardless, everyone prepared themselves too.
'Wind Release: Infinite Breakthrough jutsu'
'Wind Release: Air Bullet jutsu'
'Fire Release: Searing Migraine jutsu'
'Lightning Release: False Darkness jutsu'
Almost at the same time, Fujin and his team launched their attacks. Fujin led with a massive Infinite Breakthrough jutsu. Bunjiro couldn't use Water jutsus while his Wind jutsus were far weaker than Fujin's. So he just shot a few Air Bullets in his attack.
Yugao shot her Fireball on one side of the Infinite Breakthrough while Fumito launched his Lightning jutsu on the other side. They were followed up by Fujin's Wind Clones who exhausted all their remaining chakra and launched Vacuum jutsus into the combination attack.
The massive combination attack combined seamlessly and hit the incoming Tsunami that Kisame had started! The intense winds put a stop to the water's momentum temporarily and even forced some of it backwards. Some sharp winds pierced into the water but couldn't travel far within it.
The fire evaporated a lot of water but wasn't very effective considering the large amount of water. Only Fumito's Lightning spears managed to enter the water and electrify it. However, Kisame created layers within the water and controlled their flow to keep the electrified water away.
The Vacuum jutsus shot by Fujin's clones pierced into the water easily and moved towards Kisame. However, due to the disturbance they caused in the water, Kisame could easily see and dodge them.
Sweat gathered behind Fujin and his team's masks. Despite the four of them attacking together, they were only evenly matched with Kisame. In fact, some water had already begun moving towards them through the intense winds!
Fujin analyzed, 'This guy is nuts! Kiri was crazy to use him merely to kill his teammates. He is already in a whole different league as compared to someone like Juzo.'
Though Fujin was already aware of how strong Kisame would be by the start of the Fourth Great Ninja War, he was interested in checking how strong he already was. His observation made him very unwilling to fight Kisame so far away from Konoha.
Fujin decided, 'It's time to retreat. But running away from him will be difficult if he doesn't intend to let us off. Even though I'm faster at escaping, the other 3 won't be able to shake him off. Sigh, I'll have to expose my summons as well.'
Fujin was about to summon Kaito when he suddenly sensed something. A look of surprise appeared behind his mask as he wondered, 'What are they doing here?'
He suddenly put over 10% of his chakra into the Infinite Breakthrough jutsu. The sudden infusion of chakra into the jutsu powered it up considerably, causing it to force its way through the water Kisame was controlling.
His actions surprised Kisame and his teammates. Kisame retreated backwards while wondering, 'What is he intending? Though he forced me back, such a chakra expenditure will be very disadvantageous for him.'
Suddenly, 3 Shadow Clones, each with 10% of his maximum chakra appeared around Fujin. At the same time, a seal lit up on his bracer and 600 Explosive Tags appeared in front of him. He said, "Retreat!"
Fujin's teammates, who weren't able to understand the reason behind his actions, immediately flickered in the opposite direction along with Fujin. They finally guessed the reason behind Fujin's actions and wondered, 'Does he intend to delay Kisame long enough that we escape his detection range? But why is he still keeping his chakra field active? And why did we fight first if he wanted to withdraw?'
Unlike Fujin, his teammates weren't aware of Zetsu's existence and his abilities. Due to Zetsu, Fujin knew that escaping like usual wasn't possible. The only way to escape was by either deterring Kisame from chasing them or flying away.
Unfortunately for them, Fujin didn't bother clearing their doubts. He consumed a soldier pill and said, "We will keep running until we reach Konoha. No breaks. And at least one of us will keep chakra fields active at any given time. If any more strong enemies appear, we will avoid them."
His teammates nodded and kept moving at a fast speed.
Back on the battlefield, Fujin's Shadow Clones controlled the explosive tags and rained them down towards Kisame in waves. Kisame immediately spat out more water to douse those explosions.
As he did, he realized, 'Despite having so many tags, he is only using a few in every wave. He wants to delay me until he can get out of the range. It looks like he doesn't know about Zetsu's abilities.'
Kisame didn't mind wasting some time to defeat the Shadow Clones. He could find Fujin easily with Zetsu's aid. He blocked all the waves of the explosive tags and then rode a water wave to move closer to Fujin's clones.
Fujin's clones analyzed, 'This might be a good time to test some of Kisame's abilities. For instance, would contact with the sword immediately pop up a Shadow Clone due to its ability to suck chakra?'
One of the clones flickered and appeared on top of Kisame. Chakra concentrated on his fist as he punched Kisame. Kisame immediately raised his sword to block the punch. The chakra gathered around the clone's fist was easily absorbed by the sword.
Despite that, when the clone's punch landed on the sword, Kisame felt an intense force. Had he been weaker, he would have been forced under the water.
As soon as his fist landed on the sword, the sword began absorbing his chakra. The clone analyzed, 'Hmm, so the clone won't be dispelled in an instant. I guess it will only happen after it sucks away enough energy.'
As he was analyzing, sharp scales broke through the bandages and hit the clone's hand. Fujin's clone immediately used Iron Skin jutsu to harden his fist, however, the chakra the sword absorbed caused his jutsu to fade away instantly and created deep cuts in his arm, dispelling him.
