The Suna nin decided to engage the Iwa corps head on after the numbers had evened out.
Sōshi raised one hand. "Frontline go. Puppeteers, stay back."
Six Suna shinobi dropped from the smoking branches, two jōnin, four chūnin. Their sandals hit the blackened earth with soft thuds.
Behind them, the puppet masters stayed hidden in the rear and used different puppets to charge at the Iwa shinobi.
From the ground, tiny wooden snakes, each the size of a man's forearm shot up like arrows. These puppets belonged to Sõshi.
Their mouths opened, poison dripping from needle fangs. They aimed for ankles and knees of the Iwa shinobi.
But Kurogiri was ready this time.
"Jump!" he barked.
His twelve remaining men leaped high. At the same moment, Kurogiri slammed both arms into the dirt up to his elbows. Chakra surged through his palms.
*BOOM!*
The ground under his feet erupted. A ring of fire and stone blasted outward in a perfect circle. The shockwave crushed the snake puppets flat. Even the ones underground were not spared.
The blast wave rolled like a wave, burying the broken puppets deeper. The wooden snakes were gone, crushed, burned, and buried all at once.
Kurogiri rose from the small crater he'd made, dust sliding off his cloak. "Come out, Sōshi!" he shouted, "Stop hiding behind your toys!"
His wish came true.
Three hundred meters away, Sōshi stepped into the open. Twenty meters behind him stood Shota, hands in pockets, looking bored.
Kurogiri barely glanced at the kid. Children on battlefields weren't rare. He'd seen eight-year-olds throw kunai and ten-year-olds blow themselves up. A staring boy was nothing.
The original plan had been simple: Shota hides in a tree, unseen, erasing chakra from the shadows. No one would notice him and he would be able to do his job without any suspision or trouble.
But the forest was gone. Trees were ash. Bushes were cinders. Nothing left to hide in.
Sōshi had changed the plan. He kept Shota close, right behind him, in plain view. Now the boy had a clear line of sight to every fighter. He could also keep watch on Shots to ensure his safety.
Shota's job was easy from here. Just watch, pick targets, erase chakra and help Suna win one small fight at a time.
Sōshi pointed at Kurogiri. "Kurogiri, today is the day you die."
Kurogiri threw his head back and laughed. "Bahahaha! Sōshi, you Suna dogs joke too much. What is this, a bedtime story for babies?"
Shota rolled his eyes so hard he nearly saw his own brain. 'Oh man. 'Today is the day you die'? Really? That's too young-master cringy. Next he'll say 'Your reign of terror ends here!' while striking a pose. Please no.'
Sōshi didn't pose. He just flicked two fingers.
*HISSSSS.*
His giant wooden snake puppet rose behind him like a living tower—twenty meters long, thick as a house, mouth full of spinning blades. Two mid-sized snakes—five meters each, slithered out from its shadow. They raced across the ground, mouths opened.
*SHHHK! SHHHK! SHHHK!*
Hundreds of poison senbon shot out like black rain towards Kurogiri.
Kurogiri grinned. He pressed his feet into the dirt. Two explosions under his sandals went off—*pop pop!*—just enough to launch him ten meters into the air. The senbon storm passed under him, sticking into the ground like porcupine quills.
Mid-air, he stretched both hands forward. "Boom."
*KA-BOOOOOM!*
Two massive explosions bloomed from his palms. Fire and shrapnel swallowed both mid-sized snake puppets. Wood shattered. Poison vials inside burst into green mist.
The puppets fell apart in burning chunks, crashing to the ground like broken toys.
But the giant snake was already moving.
It whipped around in a blur, tail rising high. Kurogiri landed just in time to see it coming down like a falling tree.
He smirked, hands forward again. "Boom—"
Nothing happened.
No spark. No chakra. No explosion.
His eyes went wide.
*SMACK!*
The snake's tail hit him like a battering ram. Kurogiri flew thirty meters, spinning through the air. He crashed into the dirt, rolled, and came up coughing blood. His lip was split. One tooth was loose.
'What the hell?!'
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, smearing red across his knuckles.
The giant snake reared back for another strike.
Kurogiri didn't wait. He punched the ground—*CRACK!*—and sank into the earth like water. A second later, he popped up twenty meters away, safe behind a wall of his own men.
He spat blood. "What just happened…?"
Sōshi didn't give him time to think.
The giant snake charged again. Sōshi ran forward, puppet strings flashing in the firelight. The two commanders clashed in the center of the battlefield, puppet fangs vs. exploding fists.
Meanwhile, the smaller fights went everywhere.
Shota stood calm, feet planted at once place, eyes moving like a hawk.
An Iwa chūnin saw a Suna puppet spitting fire. He body-flickered to dodge or tried to. His chakra vanished mid-step. He didn't blur. He didn't vanish. He just ran normal speed, like a trained civilian. The fireball hit him square in the chest. *WHOOSH!* His vest burned. His scream cut short as the flames cooked him from the inside.
Another Iwa chūnin faced a rain of senbon from a spider puppet. He slammed his hands together for an Earth Style: Mud Wall jutsu but nothing rose.
The senbon punched through his arms, chest, neck. He looked down, confused, as blood poured from a dozen holes. Then he fell, a human pincushion, twitching once before going still.
Across the field, an Iwa explosive expert threw six clay shuriken. They spun through the air, glowing, ready to detonate on command.
A Suna chūnin flicked a kunai—clang clang clang and knocked them all aside. They hit the ground and… just lay there. No boom. No fire. The Iwa shinobi stared, mouth open. He shouted Katsu Katsu Katsu multiple times like an idiot but nothing happened.
"Why didn't they—?!"
A wind jutsu from a Suna jōnin answered him. A giant fan unfolded.
WHOOM!
And a wall of flame from the forest fire roared forward, guided like a living thing by the wind and the fan. It swallowed the Iwa chūnin whole. He screamed as his skin melted.
One Iwa jōnin was smarter. He saw the fire coming. He tried to raise an earth dome—nothing. No chakra. But he'd been in a hundred battles. He rolled left, dropped flat, and let the fire pass over him. His cloak burned, but he lived. He came up coughing, half his face red and blistered.
Kurogiri saw it all.
He blocked a strike from Sōshi's snake tail with an exploding clay shield—BOOM!—and jumped back. His eyes darted across the field.
His men were losing. Badly.
A chūnin tried to make a clay bird explode but failed. He got stabbed instead.
Another tried to blow up a puppet, nothing.
One of his best bombers threw a massive clay grenade. It rolled, sparked… and died. A Suna wire wrapped his throat. *Snap.*
Kurogiri's mind raced. 'My men are not this incompetent and this isn't lack of skill. This isn't bad luck. Something's wrong. My jutsu failed too.'
Then he saw it.
The boy.
Shota. Still standing twenty meters behind Sōshi. Not moving. Not fighting. Just watching. His eyes flicked from one Iwa shinobi to the next, calm and cold.
Every time Shota looked at someone, their jutsu failed.
Kurogiri's blood turned to ice.
He remembered the rumors when Iwa and Suna fought on more fronts during the current third great shinobi wat.
A Suna kid. A dōjutsu. No name. No clan. Just a stare that killed chakra.
He had laughed at the report.
Now three of his men were dead because they couldn't explode.
Now his own hands had betrayed him.
Kurogiri gritted his teeth so hard his jaw creaked.
"So that's how it is."
--------Author Notes---------
For every 250 power stones. I would be posting and additional chapter. So gimme those power stones!!!
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