"Watch the ground!"
Hyūga Mo, his Byakugan still active, suddenly shouted a warning.
The earth beneath them erupted. A dark blur shot out from underground—then gleamed coldly as it launched a razor-thin projectile straight toward Hyūga Mo.
Boom!
Uchiha Yuan flashed beside the blur and smashed his fist into it. The object exploded into fragments.
A puppet.
Almost at the same instant, Senju Gen appeared next to Hyūga Mo, grabbed him by the collar, and leapt aside just as a poisoned needle shot out from the puppet's mouth.
Aida Kai wasn't so lucky. The needle grazed his arm, and within seconds, the flesh around the wound turned a sickly, inky blue.
Uchiha Yuan immediately thrust out his fingers, striking several points along Kai's arm with pinpoint precision. "I've sealed your meridians—chakra flow blocked. The poison won't spread."
"Now—circulate your chakra! Force the poison out!"
In a blur, Yuan appeared beside him, flipping a shuriken into his hand. With one swift motion, he cut a shallow gash across Kai's wrist.
A stream of foul, blackish blood gushed out.
Kai froze for several seconds, paralyzed with shock, before he remembered Yuan's words and began pushing chakra through his arm, forcing more of the tainted blood out.
Uchiha Yuan's gaze swept coldly across the battlefield. Four squads—twelve genin. One dead already, three injured—all in their very first clash.
He knew it all too well. Fresh genin like them were cannon fodder. Only those who survived the battlefield earned the right to be called real shinobi.
His eyes turned toward the front lines, where Shiranui Aoma and the other three squad leaders were locked in combat against a five-man Sand ninja unit.
Three of the Sand ninja were puppet masters, their hands blurring as chakra threads danced, commanding three deadly puppets that advanced relentlessly.
Watching the fight, Yuan's eyes flickered. In his mind, most ninja were like mages with boosted agility—capable of powerful ninjutsu, yet frail.
A single kunai in the right place could end them.
Fragile—paper-thin defenses. That was the reality.
The Sand puppet masters pressed in, their creations unafraid of retaliation. Aoma's group had to keep their distance; they couldn't risk close combat. Every inch of those puppets could conceal hidden blades or venomous traps.
Their attacks grew hesitant, defensive. They resorted to ninjutsu volleys and thrown weapons, aiming for the puppet masters themselves.
But two other Sand ninja darted around the battlefield's edges, harassing them with relentless attacks.
Before long, Aoma's squad began to falter.
"Wind Release—Sickle Weasel!"
A blade-filled gust surged toward Shiranui Aoma. He twisted aside, narrowly avoiding it—
But one of the puppet masters smirked and yanked his chakra threads.
A puppet behind Aoma's flank opened its chest, launching two spinning saw blades straight at him.
The blades were a breath away when Uchiha Yuan appeared in a flash, both hands gripping shuriken, intercepting them midair with a sharp clang.
"Yuan, behind you!" Senju Gen's voice rang out. His hands blurred through seals—
"Water Release—Jet Stream!"
A torrent of water blasted past Yuan, colliding with an oncoming wind blade, both dispersing into mist.
Aoma shouted, "Yuan, Xuan! Be careful—their puppets are all coated with poison-tipped traps!"
"Understood!"
Yuan and Xuan answered in unison, vanishing with Body Flicker as they launched their counterattack.
Senju Gen coordinated with Aoma, unleashing a barrage of shuriken and kunai toward one Sand ninja.
Uchiha Yuan went straight for a puppet master, sweeping a leg like a black viper.
Crash!
A puppet intercepted, taking the full impact. From its mouth extended an iron pipe, spewing thick, black smoke.
The smoke carried a pungent, metallic stench—poison.
Yuan leapt backward, one hand flashing through a seal.
"Earth Release—Earth Flow Wall!"
A wall of packed soil rose in front of him, blocking the spreading miasma.
"Hisss—"
The smoke sizzled against the wall, eating away at it.
Yuan frowned. So even random Sand nin use toxins this deadly? No wonder the Sand Hidden can stand among the Five Great Villages despite the Land of Wind's poverty.
As he thought, he flicked his wrist—four kunai appeared between his fingers.
He leapt high, hurling all four toward the puppet master.
The Sand ninja hastily maneuvered a puppet to shield himself. The kunai struck uselessly against the puppet's wooden frame—
Until Yuan appeared midair above him, his final shuriken already in motion.
It flew like a falling star—fast, silent, merciless.
The puppet master never even saw it before it pierced straight through his chest.
That was Uchiha Yuan's shuriken-throwing technique—without flair, without illusion, only pure, lethal precision.
With one puppet master down, the pressure on Aoma's group eased instantly. Within moments, they destroyed the remaining two puppets with powerful ninjutsu.
Realizing they were outmatched, the surviving Sand ninja threw down several smoke bombs.
Bang! Bang!
A cloud of dense, dark poison smoke billowed out, forcing Aoma's team to retreat.
By the time a jōnin used Wind Release to clear the air, the Sand nin were gone—along with the fallen puppet master's body.
A jōnin approached and nodded at Yuan and Xuan. "Good work. Both of you performed admirably."
But when his gaze shifted to the genin behind them, he only shook his head.
Shiranui Aoma walked up. "Yuan, Xuan… you saved us. Without you two, we might not have survived that ambush."
Yuan and Xuan stood silently, staring at the three genin corpses before them.
Three dead, five seriously wounded.
Senju Gen's expression dimmed. He hadn't expected their newly formed comrades to die so soon. The brutality of the battlefield hit him for the first time.
Seeing his expression, Aoma gently patted his shoulder. "Xuan… this is war."
Yuan knelt beside Aida Kai. "How's your arm?"
Kai's face was pale, fear written all over it. He glanced from his own bleeding wrist to the nearby bodies. "Yuan-kun… thank you. If not for you, I'd be dead."
The three fallen genin had all been struck by poisoned needles—their deaths swift and agonizing.
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