Chapter 388: The number keeps decreasing...

First, an explosion went off on Juzo's right foot. Immediately after, around a couple of dozen explosions went off on his chest, abdomen and arms! Each explosion was just slightly weaker than the explosions from an explosive tag.

Kisame, due to being very close to Juzo, was caught off guard. He was caught in some explosions. Fortunately, he was facing Juzo's back, so the explosions didn't harm him much. Only his cloak was badly damaged. He immediately moved away from Juzo and looked at him with a frown on his face. He wondered, 'What the hell? Why did so many explosions go off on Juzo's body?'

He turned his attention towards Fujin and wondered, 'Did he do it? But how could he set up Juzo?'

As Juzo was hit and Kisame was distracted, their control over the water defending them from the winds was lost. So the Wind immediately began piercing through the water.

Noticing the danger, Kisame took control of the water around them. It gathered around him forming a protective barrier. At the same time, 12 powerful jets of water were launched at the 12 Wind Clones who were still blasting them with Infinite Breakthrough jutsu. In addition, Kisame also launched water towards the winds to reduce their momentum and dull its sharpness.

Though it consumed a high amount of chakra, Kisame's quick action forced the Wind Clones to stop attacking and take evasive actions. It also dealt with the winds trapping him and Juzo. Having caught a breather, Kisame looked towards Juzo. His eyes widened and his pupils dilated as he saw Juzo's condition.

The smoke around Juzo due to the explosion had finally cleared. Despite the explosions, Juzo still stood straight! However, his condition was terrible. The skin on his right foot's sole was torn off due to the explosion. Attempting to walk on it would be worse than any physical torture.

His arms were in a similar state. The explosions were even worse here due to preexisting cuts on his arms. In some spots, the impact was so bad that all skin and muscles had been blown off and his bones were exposed to the air. However, they weren't visible due to being covered with blood.

The worst was his chest and abdomen. They were a complete mess. Despite having already seen a lot, Fujin's teammates were still affected by the gory state of his chest and abdomen. It was a shock that Juzo could still keep standing!

Kisame was shocked as well by the sudden change in the situation. So was Zetsu who was observing the fight from some distance. Only one person was unaffected by it. It was Fujin, who was observing without any emotion behind his mask. The entire situation played out exactly like he had pictured it in his mind.

Kisame's breather was short-lived. As per the plan, the Wind clones turned their attention towards Kisame and fired multiple Vacuum Bullets at him. Despite being much stronger than the clones, Kisame had no choice but to give those attacks all his attention and take evasive actions.

Fujin's teammates also understood Fujin's intentions behind his actions and words earlier and moved. All three attacked Kisame from range to keep him occupied.

With Kisame occupied, Fujin made a move. He shot a Vacuum Cannon at Juzo while moving towards him. The Vacuum Cannon easily pierced through the Water surrounding Juzo and moved towards him. At the last moment, Juzo snapped his eyes open and moved out of the way.

His resilience shocked Fujin once again. Despite such lethal injuries, Juzo moved as if he wasn't injured at all! However, it wasn't going to be enough to survive. After all, Fujin wouldn't take pity on someone who tried to kill him.

Fujin swung his sword to blow away all the water around Juzo and appeared in front of him. Juzo looked at Fujin and asked in a coarse voice, "You are a Fuinjutsu Grandmaster?"

Fujin didn't answer. However, Juzo knew he was right. But he was still confused. He wondered, 'Why couldn't I sense the explosive seals he placed on my body? Though I wasn't expecting him to be able to do this, I should have sensed it after he placed one on me and taken the required precaution.'

Fujin could easily guess what Juzo was thinking. The answer to it was the break Fujin had taken earlier. During his vacation, Fujin created Seal Imprints for the Explosive Seal. His idea was to simply put these seals on enemies when engaging them in Taijutsu or even touching them in general and blow them up after he had accumulated sufficient seals on the enemy's body.

But he faced one major issue. It was that the seal could easily be detected when a ninja circulated their chakra. So using them to surprise his enemies on the battlefield wasn't viable. Understanding the danger, any ninja would cut off that part of their skin in order to survive. Only Chunin-level and weaker or indecisive ninjas would fall prey to it. While it would still give Fujin an advantage, he wasn't satisfied with it.

In order to make it usable, Fujin's clones worked for several days in order to mix components of various stealth seals into the Explosive seal. That was why Fujin took longer to master all the seals in the Library.

After spending more than the equivalent of a year, Fujin's clones finally succeeded. The result was a seal that was very difficult to detect unless the opponent was a Grandmaster in Fuinjutsu as well or had incredible sensor skills.

The only drawbacks were that the power of the explosion was reduced a bit and the seal was far more complicated. However, thanks to Seal Imprints, that wasn't an issue. Fujin immediately removed the earlier seal imprint and created new ones.

And he hadn't created just one but instead created four of them. Two on his palms and two more on his knuckles. So every time Fujin's punch landed or he used his hands to block his enemy, he could create one explosive seal on the enemy's body.

Against an opponent of Juzo's caliber, Fujin wasn't sure if his new Vacuum jutsus would have much impact on the battle. So he decided to keep them hidden and instead decided to expose his Fuinjutsu.

As luck would have it, Akatsuki wasn't aware of Fujin's capabilities in Fuinjutsu. Onoki hadn't exposed Fujin's expertise in Fuinjutsu to anyone other than Kumogakure who had paid a large price, hoping that he would be able to take out some of the ninjas, especially from Akatsuki, who tried to hunt him before going down. Onoki's little scheme succeeded on this battlefield.

Juzo didn't even consider that Fujin had put a seal on his foot right at the beginning of their fight. Instead, he was more focused towards Fujin's ability to concentrate large amounts of chakra easily.

Later, when Juzo tried to unarm Fujin, Fujin gladly accepted the exchange because he wanted to engage in a Taijutsu to fight to put more seals on Juzo's body. As a result, Fujin managed to put several seals on Juzo without him even suspecting Fujin.

Of course, Fujin had no intention of explaining this to Juzo. He moved forward. Kisame noticed it and wanted to interfere, however, the Vacuum Bullets made it extremely difficult for him to interfere directly.

He muttered to himself, 'So annoying! Having to keep an eye on 12 ninjas who are ridiculously fast and keep spamming jutsus that I can't block or afford to take is a headache. And then there is also that ninja who uses Lightning jutsus into the water I am controlling.'

He turned his gaze back to Juzo and thought, 'You will have to hang on for a few seconds, Juzo.'

Suddenly, everyone in the battle felt a massive amount of chakra emanating from Kisame. The chakra was incredibly intense and massive. It was as if a Tailed Beast had arrived on the battlefield. A massive amount of water appeared around Kisame and began flowing in all directions.

Fujin's team became nervous but kept attacking from a distance. As for Fujin and his clones, they knew that even with a large amount of chakra, Kisame still wouldn't want to get hit by the Vacuum Bullets. So they weren't concerned.

Seeing Fujin rushing towards him with a sword in his hand and sensing Kisame's massive chakra and the water he released, Juzo's hands moved to weave a hand seal.

However, his right hand suddenly stopped. Dark markings suddenly appeared on Juzo's body, paralyzing him! Shock could be seen in Juzo's eyes as he realized, 'The Self Cursing Seal? When did he put it on me? And why didn't he use it until now?'

Just like the explosive seals, Fujin had placed this seal on his body when they had engaged in a Taijutsu. Fujin had used his left palm to stop an incoming punch and had put the seal on his at that instant. Fujin didn't activate it earlier as Juzo could try and break through it with his chakra, but in his current exhausted state, he stood no chance.

Before he could get any answer, he saw Fujin's sword flash past his neck. Unable to move or resist or get any help, he was beheaded and his head was sent flying away from his body.

Juzo, one of the last two surviving members of the original Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, died at the hands of Suzuki Fujin in the Land of Hot Water! The number of the Swordsmen from the Mist kept decreasing.