The days that followed settled into a new routine.
Every morning, Kenji and Aoi would make their way to Tsunade's medical tent for training. She'd drill them on anatomy, chakra control exercises, and practical healing techniques. Aoi soaked it all up like a sponge, her natural talent becoming more refined with each session. Kenji focused on the theoretical aspects that would help with his puppet research, learning how biological systems functioned at a level most ninjas never bothered with.
The camp itself had taken on a strange atmosphere. Aside from occasional skirmishes between small patrol units, no major battles had broken out between Konoha and Suna. It felt like both sides were holding their breath, waiting for something.
Kenji knew exactly what they were waiting for.
The Second Great Ninja War had dragged on too long. Both villages were bleeding resources and manpower. The next major engagement wouldn't be another skirmish or limited offensive. It would be the decisive battle that ended the conflict one way or another. And the constant stream of Konoha ninjas arriving at camp from various outposts confirmed his suspicions.
The calm before the storm lasted about three months.
Then the horn sounded for the decisive battle.
"Stay hidden."
Kenji lowered his voice as he crouched behind a thick tree trunk. Dense forest surrounded them on all sides, blocking out most of the sun. They were positioned along a dirt road that cut through the wilderness, the main supply route between Suna's forward positions and their staging areas further back.
He pointed toward the road. "According to intelligence, the convoy should pass through within the next thirty minutes. Get ready for an ambush."
"Understood," his three students responded in unison.
They dispersed immediately, each taking up position along the road. Haruto found cover behind a cluster of bushes on the left side. Kaede climbed a tree on the right, settling onto a thick branch that gave him a clear view and easy access to drop down. Aoi positioned herself further back, ready to provide support or medical assistance depending on how the fight developed.
Their current mission was straightforward: intercept and destroy a Suna supply convoy. With the decisive battle underway, both sides were targeting each other's logistics. Cutting off supplies meant weakening the enemy's ability to sustain prolonged combat. Food, weapons, medical equipment, chakra restoration pills, all of it was fair game.
Kenji extended his sensory technique, spreading his awareness across several hundred meters. The forest was mostly empty. A few small animals, some birds, nothing that posed a threat. He settled in to wait, controlling his breathing and keeping his chakra signature suppressed.
Twenty minutes passed in silence.
Then he felt them. Multiple chakra signatures approaching from the west, moving at the steady pace of a traveling convoy. He used hand signals to alert his students. Each responded with their own signal indicating readiness. Kenji focused his attention on the incoming targets, counting and evaluating.
The convoy came into view a few minutes later.
Three wagons loaded with supply crates, pulled by horses that looked like they'd been traveling for days. Eight Suna ninjas provided escort. Six wore the standard chunin vest, but their chakra levels marked them as genin. The other two had noticeably larger reserves, chunin, probably.
Kenji noted the composition. Suna's manpower shortage had gotten severe enough that they couldn't spare a jonin for supply escort duty. That made this significantly easier. He channeled chakra into his hand, forming it into a thin edge around a kunai. Then he waited for the perfect moment as the convoy moved into the kill zone.
Now.
The kunai left his hand, cutting through the air toward the chunin on the left side of the formation. The man was scanning the forest, alert but not expecting an attack from this specific angle.
Almost simultaneously, three more kunai flew from different positions. Haruto, Kaede, and Aoi had all thrown at targets of opportunity.
"Enemy attack!"
The left-side chunin reacted instantly. His head snapped toward the sound of Kenji's kunai. He twisted aside, the blade passing close enough to his neck.
But dodging the kunai was pointless.
Before the chunin's feet touched ground again, Kenji was already behind him. He had closed the distance in less than a second. His hand shot out, kunai positioned against the man's exposed throat.
The chunin's eyes widened. "Fuck—"
Kenji didn't let him finish. He drove the blade across the man's throat in one smooth motion. Blood sprayed out, splattering across his arm and chest. The chunin made a gurgling sound, hands coming up instinctively to clutch at the wound. Useless. The carotid was severed. He'd be unconscious in seconds, dead shortly after.
He didn't wait to watch the Suna ninja fall. He ripped the kunai free and threw it at the second chunin, who had just registered his partner's death.
The chunin brought his own kunai up to deflect. Metal rang against metal. He roared something incoherent and charged forward, clearly planning to close distance and engage directly.
He made it three steps.
The Swift Release puppet materialized behind him. The puppet's sword had already completed its arc, passing clean through the chunin's neck.
The man's head separated from his shoulders. His body stumbled forward two more steps, propelled by momentum, before collapsing. The head bounced once and rolled to a stop against one of the wagon wheels.
Kenji dispelled the puppet and turned his attention to his students' fights.
Haruto had engaged the closest genin immediately after throwing his kunai. The Suna ninja was already moving to dodge when he closed distance, kunai raised for a follow-up strike.
The genin blocked with his own blade. He twisted his wrist, trying to disarm Haruto with a leverage technique. It should have worked. Haruto's grip and positioning weren't perfect. But when the genin committed to the disarm, Haruto simply let go of his kunai and punched instead. The Suna ninja's eyes widened when the fist connected with his torso. There should have been soft flesh, maybe some muscle resistance. Instead it felt like hitting a stone wall.
The kunai scraped across Haruto's arm without leaving a mark. Not even a scratch.
Haruto grabbed the man's wrist with his left hand and drove his right fist into the genin's face. Bone crunched. The nose collapsed inward, blood exploding across both their faces. The genin staggered back, stunned by the impact.
Haruto didn't give him time to recover. He retrieved his dropped kunai and cut the man's throat. Blood poured out. The genin collapsed, hands clutching uselessly at his ruined neck.
"Watch out! That one's using some kind of defensive technique!"
Another Suna genin shouted from about ten meters away. He'd been moving to flank Haruto but reconsidered when he saw what happened to his comrade. He immedieately created distance instead, giving himself time to assess the threat.
But he didn't look behind him.
Kaede dropped from his tree branch directly onto the man's back. The Suna ninja went down hard, face-first into the dirt. Before he could roll away or substitute, Kaede's blade was already moving.
He swung in a horizontal arc aimed at the genin's neck.
The Suna ninja managed to bring his kunai up to block at the last second. The blades met with a sharp clang... Then Kaede's sword curved, slipping past the defense and slicing clean across his neck. The genin's head separated from his shoulders. His body twitched once and went still.
Kaede landed in a crouch, already scanning for his next target.
Aoi was dealing with a Suna kunoichi who'd been hanging back with the supply wagons.
The woman specialized in thrown weapons, keeping her distance and peppering Aoi with a constant stream of shuriken. Each projectile had been coated with poison. Aoi dodged and weaved, using trees for cover when possible. The throwing technique was good. The woman knew how to predict movement and cut off escape routes with overlapping trajectories. But she wasn't closing distance, which meant she was playing defensive.
Aoi pressed forward, accepting a few minor cuts on her arms and legs as she closed the gap. The poison was probably not lethal given how liberally the woman was using it. Contact poison, maybe paralytic. She'd deal with it after the fight.
Another volley of projectiles came at her from three different angles. Too many to dodge completely.
Her hands blurred through seals. "Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
A barrier of packed earth erupted from the ground in front of her, half her height and thick enough to stop the weapons cold. Kunai and shuriken embedded themselves in the wall with wet thunking sounds.
The moment the wall formed, Aoi was already moving. She used the barrier as a launching point, vaulting over the top and dropping into a dive aimed directly at the kunoichi.
Chakra gathered in her fist, glowing pale blue. Tsunade's teaching had been very clear about how to apply chakra enhancement to physical strikes. It wasn't just about hitting harder. It was about concentrating the force into a precise point, maximizing damage on impact.
The Suna kunoichi's eyes widened. She tried to leap backward but wasn't fast enough.
Aoi's fist connected with the woman's face.
Bone shattered audibly. The woman's jaw dislocated, her nose collapsed, and several teeth went flying. Her head snapped back with enough force that her neck should have broken. Her body launched backward, slamming into a tree trunk.
She slumped to the ground, motionless.
Aoi landed and took a breath, relaxing slightly. That should be... Multiple kunai shot from the trees to her left. She tried to dodge but they were too fast. They slammed into her torso and legs, pinning her against a tree trunk.
A puff of smoke erupted where the kunoichi had fallen. A log lay there instead, already splintering from the impact.
"Idiot!"
The voice came from above. The real Suna kunoichi was perched in a tree branch, poison-coated senbon already in hand and aimed at Aoi's exposed neck.
But before she could throw, the "Aoi" pinned to the tree shattered into jagged pieces of earth.
"What—"
The real Aoi appeared behind her on the same branch, fist already swinging. Her punch caught the woman in the spine. The sound of breaking ribs was sickeningly loud. She tumbled off the branch, fell three meters, and hit the ground. Blood poured from her mouth.
Aoi dropped down more carefully, landing beside the body.
The entire fight had lasted maybe ninety seconds.
Having just finished off his enemies, Kenji witnessed the scene and couldn't help but shake his head helplessly.
Ever since Aoi had started learning medical ninjutsu under Tsunade, even her habits had begun to resemble Tsunade's, that tendency to solve problems with her fists was practically identical. However, the only thing worth celebrating was that she hadn't inherited Tsunade's bad habit of gambling. And just now, she clearly could've used Earth Spear to tank the damage and defeat her opponent directly, but she refused to. Haruto, on the other hand, was particularly obsessed with the Earth Spear technique and loved charging straight into battle with it every single time.
Kenji walked over to check Aoi specifically. "You alright?"
"I'm fine, sensei. Just some scratches from the poison weapons. Nothing serious."
"Let me see."
She held out her arms. Several shallow cuts, already starting to bruise around the edges. Definitely poisoned, but she was still standing and coherent, which meant it wasn't anything immediately lethal.
Kenji pulled an antidote pill from his pouch and handed it to her. "Take this. It's broad-spectrum. It should neutralize most common contact poisons."
Aoi swallowed it dry and nodded thanks.