=Ashira's POV=
Hovering directly above the battlefield, I closed my eyes and reached inward, focusing on the bond I shared with my enhanced Nue. The world around me faded into the background as my consciousness slipped into its senses—bird's-eye view, sharper than any Byakugan, sweeping across the chaos below.
"There are five major pockets of fighting Nue can currently see. I—"
"Which one is our sensei in?" Raizen interrupted sharply. His expression was tense as he explained. "Sensei's the only elite jōnin in our company. If he's freed, he can turn the tide."
I nodded—hard to argue with that logic, even if it was tinged with quite a bit of personal bias. I pointed to the southwest, where the fighting was thickest.
"There. He's in the largest group to our nine o'clock. He's locked in battle with a Suna puppeteer who is using some kind of wagon-sized black centipede."
Right beside me, Shinku spoke up, voice grim. "That's Kuroshiki, The Black Centipede. An A-rank jōnin from the Sand. He specializes in poison, hidden weapons, and that puppet of his—Mukade. Rumor has it that it's almost made entirely out of chakra steel."
"Pretty sure that rumor is right then…" I muttered, swallowing hard. Through Nue's eyes, I watched the puppet clash with our sensei. I watched how its armored body absorbed hit after hit of Torifu gigantized fist that could punch through Hashirama food with nary an effort.
A wide clearing had formed on the battlefield around the two. Each collision between Torifu-sensei's chakra-enhanced gigantized fist and the puppet's plated armor rang out like cannon fire, sending shockwaves through the ground, gouging trenches in the soil and shaking the trees.
But despite the force behind every blow, the puppet remained mostly unharmed beside some dents here, and a few scratches there. Torifu, on the other hand, looked worn thin. His right knuckles bled heavily, his breath came in ragged bursts, and the massive shield strapped to his left arm was now dented and warped. The man seemed weaker than usual.
The Indomitable Iron Wall of Konoha was cracking slowly.
"I have a plan," I said, the words escaping before I could second-guess them. "A pretty stupid plan... but it's a plan."
"You're smiling, Ashira," Kaito said, eyes wide, a little bit unnerved at me.
I touched my face and felt it—my lips curved into a crescent. "Heh. I am."
"Ashira," Raizen's voice sliced through the moment, drawing my attention to his gaze. The young Sarutobi held my eyes for a heartbeat before nodding. "What's the plan?"
My grin widened.
Kaito groaned. "Crazy bastard…"
=Torifu's POV=
Torifu was having a very bad day.
Then again, he'd been having bad days for the past five years ever since the war began. Constant battles, zero rest, tasteless protein bars for every miserable meal. He missed food. Real food. Not powdered, chalky cubes that tasted like ash.
It wasn't the dying that bothered him—he'd accepted that a long time ago. It was dying hungry both for him, and for his men. Seriously, the least Hiruzen could have done before sending men to their death was giving them something more edible than these protein bar shit.
"At least those brats are safe," he muttered, voice barely audible as his massive fist slammed into the metal hide of the puppet, sending the centipede skidding back and carving a thirteen-foot trench into the ground.
"Are you praying before your death now, Akimichi?" Kuroshiki sneered from across the clearing while tucking himself behind his puppet. His eyes gleamed with cruel amusement.
Torifu grunted. He didn't bother replying.
All he wanted was to drive his fist into that smug bastard face.
"Put the puppet down and fight me like a man," he said, tossing aside his shield with a heavy clang. His limbs trembled as his body sagged under its own weight from that damnable poison. Torifu reached for his pouch, but stopped from hesitation.
Sighing instead, he enlarged his left hand with a pulse of chakra.
"You Akimichi really are something else," Kuroshiki whistled. "That dose was enough to kill ten horses."
Then the centipede struck at the command of its master, lunging like a spear.
Torifu planted his feet and raised his arm. His good hand met the puppet's metal skull mid-charge, barely deflecting the blow. Jagged edges and horns scraped along his ribs, tearing open shallow cuts.
Still, he didn't stop. He ran alongside the puppet, one step after the other, eyes locked on his target.
Kuroshiki.
But something was wrong.
Kuroshiki hadn't moved. His face was calm. Too calm.
Then Torifu saw it.
The puppet's rounded end opened like a blooming flower. From within, a cruel spike snapped out—long, gleaming, and coated in purple venom. It coiled forward and struck.
A wet squelch of metal piercing flesh rang out, as drops of blood splashed against the dirt ground.
"Hoh," Kuroshiki said, raising an eyebrow. "And here I thought Akimichi men were slow.
Torifu let a low, shaky laugh escape him. The spike had stopped mere inches away from his temple as it impaled his left hand.
Blood poured down his arm, but he held the tail, locking it in place with brute force. His other hand dropped low, fumbling at his side, reaching for the pouch he had earlier hesitated to open.
His fingers wrapped around a tiny, round pill—white, with a yellow spiral across the surface. Barely the size of a coin.
The key to his victory… and the weapon that would kill him.
He was ready.
"Oh fuck no," Kuroshiki spat as he saw the pill. He wasn't going to let this happen. Torifu barely had time to brace before the centipede's head reared back and aimed for his exposed back like a striking serpent.
Resigned, Torifu opened his mouth. He was ready to swallow the pill. But then—something caught his eye.
Something just at the edge of his vision.
And he froze.
=Ashira's POV=
Diving into Raizen's shadow from atop Nue, I emerged behind Kuroshiki—just in time to see the centipede puppet lunging for my sensei's unguarded back.
I made no sound, released no killing intent, leaked not a drop of chakra. The angle was precise, the strike silent. My kunai was already raised, aimed straight for the base of Kuroshiki's neck.
But the annoying bastard turned.
In a blink of an eye, the Suna jōnin twisted around, catching my arm mid-strike. His other hand clamped around my neck with crushing force, lifting me clean off the ground like I weighed nothing.
The centipede stopped mid-attack, its momentum halted by its controller's divided attention.
"Shadow teleportation?" Kuroshiki asked, as if we were having a casual conversation. "You're that Nara brat with the new kekkei genkai."
Yup. It failed. Just like I feared.
This was the problem with elite jōnin. They were too goddamn aware of their surrounding. Ambushing one without distracting them first was like trying to stab water. I figured since he was a puppeteer, maybe his reaction time would be slower than a taijutsu-focused type.
Turns out I was wrong. Very wrong. The guy was inhumanly fast.
"Why are you smiling, brat?" Kuroshiki asked, eyes narrowing.
Then he followed my gaze—toward Torifu-sensei, still frozen in shock.
"Run, Ashira! You're no match for him alone!" Torifu yelled, his voice strained and hoarse, his blood trailing down his side.
Rude.
Also—who said I was alone?
My free hand snapped into the only one-handed seal I could manage. But that was all I needed.
A ripple of darkness surged up from Kuroshiki's shadow—and then Ruyi burst forth.
The shadow serpent, easily the width of a small car, launched out with a hiss and swallowed Kuroshiki whole.
Or at least she tried to before Kuroshiki let me go instantly, arms and legs curling inward before he thrust them outward, bracing against her jaws to stop the bite.
'Weird, he didn't even attempt to make a handsign for the substitution jutsu. Not even by reflex.'
Didn't matter, I got him now.
Ruyi didn't need to chew. With a violent heave, she launched Kuroshiki high into the air, and dissolved back into liquid shadow before the marionettist body even began to fall.
The sky cracked open with three water dragons parting the cloud from above, before merging into a single massive serpent mid-descent—bearing down on the airborne Suna jōnin.
Then came the thunder.
A blinding spear of lightning shot from the clouds, crackling as it superheated the air, making popping sounds everywhere it went. The bolt proceeded to struck the tail of the water dragon, traveling along its body in a single, searing pulse.
Kuroshiki vanished then, his body incinerated in an instant.
The combined jutsu didn't stop there though, It continued hurtling downward, slamming into the enemy's backline. A thunderous explosion followed, before the lightning dragon carved out a 50 feet trenches, and reduced over four dozen Suna-nin to ash.
The battlefield seemed to quieten down as in the span of seconds, the enemy's advantage of two-to-one odds with two hundred strong was shattered. A fourth of their force, gone. Their commander, dead.
But that silence didn't last.
Click-clack... scree-chk.
The centipede puppet's gears whirred again—its mouthpiece snapping open as it lurched forward.
CRUNCH.
Torifu-sensei's neck disappeared in a burst of blood and broken flesh, as the monstrosity gouged a portion of his neck open.
The puppet flung his limp, bleeding body toward me like a ragdoll, its segmented tail coiling intimidatingly.
Above, Raizen's voice cracked through the air. Desperate. Raw.
"SENSEI!"
Me on the other hand, dropped low, and shifted into my taijutsu stance, before ordering my Nue to descend lower to the ground.
AN: A bit shorter than usual, will have to slow update down to one chap per week since I want to stock up chap for patreon.