Shota lay on his back and stared at his left side. The skin was red, black like overcooked meat. His leg hurt the most. It had taken the most from the explosion.
Shota knew that he had become little cocky in the fight. He had completely forgotten that the Iwa jonin was a part of explosion corps, someone who used explosions.
And he had paid price for it. He had completely forgotten about looking out for bombs. And now every heartbeat felt like someone was stabbing it with a hot poker. He knew that he could get cocky. But anyone would get cocky if they had the ability to erase chakra of any shinobi.
He poked the burn with one finger.
"Ow. Yup. Third-degree. Great."
His back had smaller burns from the first kunai blast. And that knee to the ribs? It had efinitely cracked something. His breathing hurt and laughing at his situation would probably kill him.
"Yeah, this is such a drag," he mumbled.
"If I get out of this mission alive, I'm booking a three-month hospital vacation. There would be soft beds, warm soup and nurses bringing me books to read. There would be no running, no fighting and no explosions.
Just me, a pillow, and sweet, sweet sleep.
I'll tell the doctors I have 'chronic laziness syndrome.' They'll understand and let me sleep for at least 18 hours."
He grinned at his own joke, then winced as the grinning pulled the burned skin. It was a bad idea.
"Agh. These dreams are far away," he groaned. "For now, I have to get back to the fight."
He tried to stand. But his left leg said nope.
He fell back with a thud.
"Okay, okay. Improvise time." Shota lifted his good hand. Thin chakra threads, almost invisible grew from his fingertips.
He looped them around his burned leg, tight but gentle, making a sling. The threads pulled the leg straight so it didn't flop.
'This is better. This jutsu is really handy for even non puppeteers. Heck, it is just telekinesis but using strings to move things instead of mind. No wonder, Suna genin are a little better than the Konoha shinobi. They were taught chakra threads, no matter what their specialisation were. And learning chakra threads meant very good chakra control too.' Shota thought
Next, Shota looked around. A tree branch lay nearby. It was half-burned but strong.
He sent a chakra thread, wrapped it, and yanked. The branch flew to his hand like a loyal dog.
"Stick, you're my new best friend." He used it as a crutch and used it to drag him forward while hopping with one good leg.
Thump. Drag. Thump. Drag.
Each step sent fire up his leg, but he kept moving.
The main battlefield was far. Smoke still rose in the distance. There were occasional flashes and sound of explosions.
Shota limped through ash and craters with sweat mixed with blood on his face. His hospital dream kept him going.
'Soft pillow. Soft pillow. Soft pillow.'
Finally, he reached a high rock, a good vantage point. He climbed slow, using his stick and good arm and sat at the top. He his himself behind a charred stump.
Now he could see everything.
And it was bad.
On the Suna side, One of the three jōnin aside from Sõshi laid dead with a big hole in his chest. Another four chūnin were down with limbs missing and burns all over their body. That meant only 7 Suna shinobi remained alive including Shota.
On the Iwa side, 5 of the Explosion Corps were still fighting. They were all injured but alive. Kurogiri was in the center, laughing and throwing explosions like candy.
Sōshi was still in the fight. His giant snake puppet slithered and looked in agood enough condition. But the same could not be said about Sōshi himself who looked rough with clothes torn, arms burned, blood on his face.
Kurogiri's explosions had done damage to him.
The ground was a mess. There were craters everywhere. Some deep enough to bury a man. Bits of used clay was scattered everywhere.
One Suna chūnin saw clay spiders coming his way. He pulled his own kunai with an explosion tag attached to it and threw it at the spider intercepting it mid way.
*BOOM!*
The blast blew up the spiders nearby which created a bigger blast that sent dirt and fire everywhere.
Shota nodded at the smart move. But he knew that currently Suna was losing.
'I can't fight up close,' Shota thought.
'Not like this with one of my legs left mangled and rib's cracked. I won't be able to to dodge or run away from attacks. But I can still help from here when I am far away from the battlefield.'
He decided to stay low behind the rock.
Out of sight.
Out of range.
'If only I had an elemental clone,' he thought.
'It could fight for me. Or carry me. Or distract people. But sadly my main chakra affinities are fire and wind which are not known for their elemental clones. It would have been better if I could create Earth clones. Even better,Shadow Clones. I wonder would my clone have Erasure too? Could it stare and kill chakra? That would be broken.'
He shook his head. 'Stop dreaming, lazy brain. Focus.'
Wind and Fire didn't make good clones.
Wind clones? No one has heard of them.
Fire clones? Only the Third Hokage used them. And he made the jutsu himself.
He sighed, 'No clones for me. I have to use use what I have available with me which is Long-range sight, Erasure and a brain. Kurogiri is still going to be troublesome to deal with.'
Kurogiri was the big problem. Even with Erasure, beating him was hard. He was one of the strongest shinobi of Iwa.
One second of chakra back, and *boom*, Shota would be red mist.
'He'd feel it,' Shota thought.
'The second his chakra returns, he'll look for me. And since I can't move, I would be a sitting target for him. I need a plan.'
Shota thought for a few seconds before coming with a simple plan,' First, I will help the others first excluding Sõshi and help take out the 4 Iwa grunts. Then outnumber Kurogiri and with my Erasure to stop his explosion release, the fight would be lot easier.'
As soon as the plan was made, Shota acted upon it as he leaned forward and waited for his opportunity.
-------Author Notes---------
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