"Tatsuma!"
As Tatsuma lunged forward, blade mid-swing, he felt a sharp, sudden sting at his neck. The next thing he knew, his body was hurtling sideways through the air. Just before he hit the dirt, he slammed into a soft, furry cushion that broke his fall.
"Woof!"
The sharp bark snapped Tatsuma back to his senses. He scrambled up from the ground and looked back at the spot where he'd been struck. A puppet stood there now, perfectly still, while a Suna Jonin stared him down with a murderous glint in his eyes.
"You again?!"
Tatsuma recognized this ninja instantly. He was the one who had blocked his path during the rescue of the Hyuga squad, right after Tatsuma had been forced to kill Hyuga Miyako. If Tatsuma hadn't hidden a Rasengan up his sleeve to wreck one of the man's puppets and catch him off guard, he might not have made it back to camp at all.
Behind Tatsuma, the large ninja hound sprinted back to Inuzuka Shin's side. Shin glared at the Suna Jonin. "Sajin? What, did you lose your way back to the village?"
Sajin's master was none other than the current Third Kazekage—the man responsible for the annihilation of the Hyuga scouting party.
"Inuzuka Shin?"
Sajin narrowed his eyes, recognizing the Konoha Jonin. At their level, raw power wasn't enough; intelligence was everything. Any Jonin with a public record was meticulously studied by enemy villages. Sajin knew Shin, and Shin knew him.
Shin watched Sajin with practiced caution. Sajin didn't have a list of legendary feats to his name yet, but his pedigree was terrifying. Not only was he the apprentice of the Third Kazekage, but he was also a direct descendant of the Second Kazekage, Shamon—the genius who had pioneered puppet theater and sand-manipulation techniques.
In Sunagakure, Shamon held a status similar to Tobirama Senju in Konoha; both were visionaries who developed the core systems that empowered their future generations. As his descendant, Sajin likely possessed puppets that were far from ordinary.
Sajin flicked his fingers, his chakra threads taut as his puppet faced Shin, but his focus remained entirely on Tatsuma.
Tatsuma remembered him, and Sajin certainly remembered Tatsuma. That bizarre technique the boy used was a nightmare for puppet masters. Puppets were intricate machines—deadly but delicate. A masterwork puppet could withstand high-level elemental ninjutsu without losing function, but internal damage was a different story.
Tatsuma's last attack had turned one of his puppets into literal scrap metal. The repair costs were so high it was actually cheaper to build a brand-new one from scratch.
He had intended to end the brat with that last strike to the neck, but... something had gone wrong. Either his aim was off, or the kid's neck was made of iron. How was a mere Genin still standing after taking a direct hit from a puppet's blade to the throat?
Tatsuma himself hadn't quite realized the magnitude of the hit he'd just tanked. It was an attack that should have killed him instantly, but the injury had triggered his White Yaksha talent. His damage resistance had surged to an absurd degree.
The White Yaksha constitution was a fickle, mysterious thing with an unknown ceiling. It thrived on adversity; he could look like a battered mess after a fight with a common thug, or he could trade blows with a legendary Yato warrior and walk away. The only catch was that the bill always came due once the adrenaline faded.
After a tense silence, Sajin flicked his right hand. His humanoid puppet lunged at Inuzuka Shin. Simultaneously, he raised his left hand, fresh chakra threads glowing faintly as they reached for Tatsuma.
"Tatsuma! Watch out!"
Shin barked the warning as he and his hound of over a decade engaged the puppet with practiced synchronicity. Tatsuma gripped his Gale Blade, his sensory field expanded to its limit.
Whish-whish-whish!
A volley of kunai suddenly streaked toward Tatsuma. A closer look at the ring-pommels revealed they were all attached to nearly invisible wires.
Thud-thud-thud!
Facing the dense rain of steel, Tatsuma didn't bother parrying. He used his superior speed to weave through the projectiles, but every time he found a new footing on a tree branch, another volley was already screaming toward him.
Does Suna get their kunai for free or something? Tatsuma grumbled internally as he triggered another Body Flicker.
Sajin didn't seem to be in a rush. He moved his hands like a conductor leading a macabre symphony, simultaneously micromanaging the duel against Shin while relentlessly hounding Tatsuma. As a master of projectile projection himself, Tatsuma wasn't truly afraid of the kunai; he could predict the trajectories almost instinctively.
Squelch—!
Suddenly, Tatsuma skidded to a stop. The wound on his left shoulder, which he had just managed to stabilize with medical ninjutsu, erupted in a fresh spray of blood. As the crimson mist hit the air, a massive, shimmering web of wires became visible between the trees.
"You're already in my web," Sajin called out. He produced a scroll, performed a quick seal, and summoned a massive, multi-legged puppet. The mechanical spider, Jorogumo, hovered suspended in the air.
Tatsuma performed a quick, one-handed medical seal to numb the shoulder. He looked at Sajin's smug composure, then at Shin's growing desperation, and finally... he smiled.
"Chakra threads interlaced with steel wires, alternating between physical and ethereal states to weave a trap... Truly impressive. To push puppet theory this far is a feat of genius."
Hearing the praise—and remembering Tatsuma's bizarre habit of complimenting his enemies from earlier—Sajin's expression faltered for a fraction of a second.
Inuzuka Shin was sweating bullets. The puppet he was fighting was incredibly durable; even his hound's reinforced claws were only leaving surface scratches on the casing. He couldn't break through.
Tatsuma seemed unbothered by the tension. He took a half-step back, straightening his posture. The wires were pressing against the very tips of his hair, but they hadn't touched his skin yet.
He raised his hand. "I don't know if you've heard the phrase 'threading the needle,' but compared to the person who laid the wires, the person acting as the needle is actually the one in control."
Sajin noticed then that Tatsuma's tool pouch was hanging wide open—and it was completely empty. A cold spike of dread shot through his chest.
Tatsuma's fingers were pinched around a single strand of wire. Looking at Sajin with that same bright, infectious smile, he delivered the punchline.
"As a puppet master, you shouldn't try to play with ninja tools. Leave that to the experts. Consider this a lesson."
With a sharp flick of his wrist, Tatsuma yanked the wire. A dozen kunai and shuriken—the very ones Sajin had thrown—suddenly whipped through the air. Guided by the wires Sajin himself had laid, they rocketed back toward the puppet master.
And every single one of them was carrying an Explosive Tag.
"Art is an explosion!"
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!
"Jorogumo! Defense!" Sajin screamed.
The spider puppet snapped its legs inward, cocooning Sajin in a ball of reinforced wood and metal. It took the brunt of the blast, but the Suna ninja standing next to Sajin didn't have a legendary puppet to hide behind. He was sent tumbling through the air by the shockwave, hitting the ground and going still.
As for the five Suna ninjas who had initially cornered Tatsuma? Shin had killed two, Tatsuma had carved one open with his Gale Blade, one had just been caught in the tags, and the last was currently unconscious after being slammed into a tree by the blast radius.
[Ding! SPD +25, ENG +20, SEA +15. Would you like to pick them up?]
[Pick up.]
Tatsuma marveled at the massive stat gain, but his moment of triumph was cut short by a roar of pure, unadulterated fury.
"Leaf brat! I'm going to tear you apart!"
Suddenly, a rain of senbon, each tipped with a sickly, glowing venom, descended upon Tatsuma like a lethal curtain.