The endless yellow sands shimmered beneath a blazing sun that scorched the desert below.
A squad of over twenty Sand shinobi trudged across the burning dunes—an escort team transporting supplies.
At the center of the formation, three Sand ninja each carried a massive scroll upon their backs—storage scrolls used for sealing provisions.
As they reached the foot of a dune, the leading Sand ninja suddenly raised his hand, signaling the group to halt.
He was a middle-aged man with two knife scars running across his face. His sharp, hawk-like eyes swept the surroundings with a hunter's vigilance.
"Ambush!"
His expression shifted abruptly. In a flash, he hurled a shuriken laced with an explosive tag toward a spot beside the dune.
Almost at the same instant, another shuriken shot out from the opposite side of the dune, striking his own and knocking it aside.
Boom!
The explosion tore through the air, sand erupting everywhere as multiple figures burst out of hiding.
"Take down the Sand ninja!"
From atop the dune, a Leaf shinobi wearing dark sunglasses shouted, leaping down toward the Sand team.
Behind him, the other Konoha ninja roared as they followed, charging into battle.
Only one figure remained motionless atop the dune—Uchiha Yuan.
Arms crossed, Yuan observed the Sand shinobi below. His brows furrowed deeper by the second.
The Leaf nin had already engaged the enemy, blades clashing and chakra surging. Yet Yuan noticed something off—the Sand shinobi were fighting while retreating in formation, not in chaos.
As the melee continued, the Sand nin drew the battle into the low ground between two dunes—right into a perfect trap.
Suddenly, both dunes erupted. Four black figures shot out, lunging toward the Leaf ninja.
Puppets!
With a chorus of clacking gears, the four puppets unleashed a storm of hidden weapons—shuriken, kunai, and poisoned needles showered down like rain.
Screams filled the air. Several Konoha ninja fell instantly, their bodies bristling with embedded blades.
The puppets' arms then split and unfolded—each one brandishing multiple blades as they dove into the fray with terrifying speed.
In a blink, the battle turned. The Leaf forces were now caught in a deadly pincer between Sand shinobi and their puppets.
The puppets were not humanoid but grotesque, metallic constructs. Their movements were unnervingly fluid, their bodies clad in steel plating that easily deflected normal attacks.
Kunai and shuriken merely sparked against their armor, and even direct ninjutsu strikes left only shallow marks.
In the chaos, Aida Suke narrowly avoided a Sand ninja's strike—only for another to appear behind him, thrusting a shuriken straight at his back.
Bang!
A fierce gust swept past—Senju Gen appeared in time to kick the attacker away. Forming hand seals, he inhaled and unleashed several Water Bullets in rapid succession, forcing back several enemies.
But then—clack-clack-clack!—the mechanical whirring of gears drew near.
Gen yanked Aida Suke upward just in time to avoid a puppet landing where they had stood—a grotesque machine with eight arms, each gleaming with blades.
Though its strike missed, it turned swiftly, leaping again with frightening speed toward the two Leaf nin.
Water Style: Flowing Stream Dance!
Seeing the puppet's blades about to fall, Senju Gen spewed a torrent of water, wrapping it like ropes around the construct.
Aida Suke charged in with a shout—
But before he could reach it, an iron spike as thick as a finger shot through his left leg. A Sand ninja appeared, hurling a shuriken with an explosive tag attached straight at him.
At that instant, another shuriken whistled in from afar, knocking the tagged one high into the air.
Almost simultaneously, the watery bindings around the puppet burst apart with a thunderous crash.
The puppet tore free, its eight arms spinning into a storm of blades that enveloped Senju Gen.
Still reeling from the chakra backlash of his broken technique, Gen's movements slowed for an instant—
Boom!
Before the blades could strike, a figure dropped from the sky like a meteor, slamming down with earth-shattering force.
The puppet exploded into fragments under the impact.
"Yuan!"
Senju Gen exhaled in relief. The newcomer was none other than Uchiha Yuan.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
A barrage of shuriken and kunai sliced through the air toward Yuan from every direction.
"Kill him! That's the Leaf's Uchiha, the Deadly Tiger!" a Sand ninja shouted.
Uchiha, the Deadly Tiger.
Yuan moved—each step deceptively calm yet impossibly swift, weaving through the storm of weapons as though strolling through a garden.
So, they'd already given him a name. He hadn't expected that.
In the next moment, his figure blurred and vanished—only an afterimage left twisting in the heat.
To the Sand ninja, it was as though the world itself flickered. A dark figure flashed before them—and then came the silence.
Throats split open one by one. Blood sprayed across the golden sand. The bodies fell like puppets with their strings cut.
"Retreat!"
The Sand leader shouted, dual-wielding shuriken. His left blocked Yuan's horizontal slash, his right lunging toward Yuan's face.
Yuan's reflexes were sharper still—he pulled back his blade to parry, then drove a kick straight into the man's chest.
A puppet swooped in, catching its master midair before opening multiple compartments. From them erupted a rain of poisoned needles.
Yuan kicked off the ground, propelling himself high into the sky to evade.
"Don't let them get away!" a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old Konoha chunin shouted.
But before they could pursue, another puppet blocked their path—and exploded.
Black smoke billowed outward, thick with a choking, metallic tang. Two Leaf ninja at the front inhaled it by accident—their faces turned dark, and they collapsed.
Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!
Wind Style: Storm Gale!
Several Konoha shinobi unleashed wind jutsu in quick succession, dispersing the poisonous haze.
Yet by the time the smoke cleared, the remaining Sand ninja were gone.
Uchiha Yuan walked over to Senju Gen, who was tending to Aida Suke's wound.
"Didn't expect that supply team to have a puppeteer guarding them," Gen said grimly. "Controlling four puppets at once… he must've been at least a special jōnin."
He tied off Aida's bandage, then glanced toward the bodies of their fallen comrades being gathered nearby. "Still, we stopped the Sand supply convoy. Mission complete."
A Leaf ninja approached Yuan. "Captain, we've counted thirteen Sand corpses. We lost five of our own."
It had been three months since Uchiha Yuan arrived on the Sand frontlines. In that time, he had survived countless battles—some brief skirmishes, others brutal wars of attrition.
Every day, comrades died. Every day, Sand shinobi fell by his hand.
He struck with lightning speed and ruthless precision—a predator on the battlefield.
And so, among the Sand shinobi, a new name began to spread—
Uchiha, the Deadly Tiger.
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