Riiip.
The sound of tearing fabric cut through the tent.
Zora's head snapped up instantly. His body jerked backward as chakra threads erupted from his fingertips, reaching for the two puppets stationed beside his desk. He had milliseconds to react, to bring his defenses online before something cold pressed against the back of his neck.
Instinct overrode training. He threw himself forward, abandoning the puppet threads. A kunai whistled past his back, so close it carved a shallow line across his uniform before embedding itself in the wooden desk. Splinters exploded from the impact point.
His hands hit the ground. He opened his mouth to shout for help... Pain.
His throat felt wrong. He tried to speak but nothing came out except a gurgling sound. His vision tilted as his body pitched forward. The ground rushed up to meet him.
Before his head could hit the floor, something grabbed his hair and yanked upward, forcing his head up at an unnatural angle.
That's when he saw it.
His own body. Lying on the ground in front of him. Blood pumping from the neck stump, pooling across the tent floor.
Oh.
Understanding flickered across his eyes for just a moment. Then darkness swallowed everything.
---
The Swift Release puppet stood over the corpse, holding the severed head by the hair. Blood dripped from its blade arm. A click echoed in the tent as the puppet's jaw unhinged, revealing a hidden compartment. A tightly rolled storage scroll slid out.
The puppet manipulated the scroll with its free hand, unrolling it across the ground. Hand seals formed rapidly. The head vanished as the sealing technique activated. The scroll rerolled itself and disappeared back into the puppet's mouth compartment with another click.
Across the tent, the Transparent Release puppet had already gone to work. The kunai launcher built into its palm folded shut. Its own jaw opened, producing another storage scroll.
The puppet moved through the tent, gathering anything of value. Puppet schematics spread across the desk got rolled up. Technical scrolls, design documents, tactical maps, everything went into a neat pile. The puppet searched Zora's body next, removing his tool pouch, his identification papers, anything that might contain useful intelligence.
Hand seals flowed, and the sealing technique activated again. Everything vanished into the scroll, which disappeared back into the puppet's mouth.
The entire operation took forty-seven seconds from first strike to completion.
All that remained was blood, a headless corpse, and the two puppets Zora never got a chance to use.
Kenji processed the scene through his puppets' senses. The sound of tearing fabric and the kunai impact might draw attention, but the fight had ended too quickly for anyone to respond. Still, the smell of fresh blood would spread fast in the enclosed space.
Time to leave.
Both puppets formed identical hand seals simultaneously.
Two bursts of white smoke filled the tent. When the smoke cleared, both puppets were gone.
Kenji stood in his hiding spot as identical smoke plumes erupted in front of him. The puppets materialized at his feet.
Before the mission, he'd anticipated that having the puppets flee on foot would be too risky. They'd be tracked, intercepted, or possibly captured. So instead, he'd left both puppets at his current position and used a summoning technique to send them directly to Suna's camp for the assassination. When the job was done, he simply released the summoning.
It solved multiple problems at once. The Transparent Release puppet's slower speed became irrelevant. The risk of being chased during escape disappeared completely. And if something had gone wrong, he could've detonated the explosive tags packed inside both puppets and destroyed any evidence.
He released the Mind Clone Switch Technique, feeling his spiritual energy snap back into his body like a rubber band. The slight drain on his mental reserves was negligible. He pulled out a storage scroll, unsealed it, and quickly sealed both puppets inside.
No time to rest.
He stood and immediately took off through the forest at full speed, heading back toward Konoha's camp. Whatever chaos erupted in Suna's camp when they found Zora's body was someone else's problem now.
---
Dawn hadn't broken yet when Kenji slipped back into Konoha's forward base. The guards at the perimeter checked his identification and waved him through without comment.
He went straight to his tent, but instead of sleeping, he lit an oil lamp and started writing his mission report. The details were still fresh. Better to document everything now while his memory was clear.
By the time he finished, pale light was just starting to touch the eastern horizon. He gathered the completed report and both storage scrolls, then headed for the mission office.
The administrative tent was quiet at this hour. A chunin clerk sat behind the desk, looking half-asleep until he approached.
"S-rank mission, assassination of Suna jonin Zora, completed."
Kenji placed two scrolls on the counter. "This scroll contains the target's head for verification. The other is my full mission report with operational details."
The clerk's drowsiness vanished instantly. He picked up the scrolls, eyes widening as he processed what he was hearing.
"You finished already? This was an S-rank assassination. Those usually take days of surveillance and planning. You completed it in less than twenty-four hours?"
He unrolled the mission report, scanning rapidly. Halfway down the page, he stopped and looked up sharply.
"Your report mentions detecting a high-level meeting in Suna's main command tent last night. Can you elaborate on that? Intelligence Division needs to know. This could affect our deployment strategy."
Kenji nodded, pulling up the memory. "I couldn't determine the specific content of the meeting. There were multiple strong chakra signatures inside the tent. At least five or six jonin-level presences, maybe more. I didn't risk getting close enough for details. There were too many powerful ninjas in the area. Getting detected would've compromised the entire operation."
"Understood. That's still valuable intel."
The clerk made quick notes, then grabbed the storage scroll containing Zora's head. "Wait here. I need to get someone from Intelligence to verify the kill. It won't take long."
He disappeared into the back of the tent.
Kenji waited.
The clerk returned a few minutes later with an Intelligence Division operative following behind. The ninja examined the scroll, performed a quick verification technique, then nodded.
"Confirmed. That's Zora's head. Dental records and chakra signature match."
What?! Where did they get it? How the fuck could they get an enemy's dental records? Kenji thought.
The intelligence operative left without another word. The clerk resumed filling out paperwork, his pen scratching across forms.
"For S-rank mission completion, you can take your payment in cash or bank it toward the mission credit system. If you accumulate enough credits, you can exchange them for high-level jutsu from the village archives. Some jonin even get access to restricted techniques. What's your preference?"
"Bank it," Kenji said immediately.
Money was useful, sure. But advanced techniques were worth far more, especially sealing jutsu or anything that could improve his puppet designs. The technical knowledge he could gain access to through mission credits would pay dividends for years.
"Noted. Your credits have been updated. Is there anything else?"
"No. We're done here."
Kenji left the administrative tent and trudged back to his quarters. His body was starting to remind him that he'd been awake for over thirty hours. Days of constant combat was all catching up to him at once.
He collapsed onto his cot without bothering to remove his gear. Sleep claimed him instantly.
It didn't last.
Weeoooo... weeoooo... weeoooo...
Kenji's eyes snapped open. Muscle memory took over before his brain fully processed what was happening. He grabbed his tool pouch and burst out of the tent.
Ninjas were sprinting toward the assembly grounds from every direction. Squad leaders shouted orders. The entire camp was mobilizing for combat deployment.
He joined the flow of bodies, falling in with the other jonin as they formed up near the training grounds. Hundreds of ninjas assembled in loose formations.
Orochimaru stood at the front of the assembled forces. His eyes swept across the crowd before he spoke, "Urgent intelligence from the front lines. Suna has mobilized their main force for a full-scale assault on our defensive positions. We're moving out immediately to reinforce. Hit the logistics station, restock your gear. Ten minutes. Everyone assembles at the main gate for departure."
With Tsunade still broken from Dan's death and Jiraiya holding the front line, he had taken command of the camp. His authority was absolute right now.
Kenji moved with the other jonin toward the supply depot. The logistics staff were already distributing equipment as fast as they could manage. He grabbed fresh kunai, explosive tags, soldier pills, the standard consumables that got burned through quickly in extended combat.
Around him, ninjas were checking their gear, tightening straps, mentally preparing for what was coming. Everyone knew what this meant.
Final battle. Do or die.
"Move out!"
Orochimaru's command echoed across the camp. Except for a skeleton crew of medical personnel, supply staff, and perimeter guards, every combat-capable ninja surged toward the main gate.
Kenji ran with the jonin formation.
Just got off the front lines two days ago, he thought bitterly. Back to the meat grinder already.
He'd spent weeks in the grinding war of attrition against Suna, finally rotated back to camp for rest, immediately took an S-rank assassination mission that kept him up all night, managed maybe two hours of sleep, and now he was heading straight back into large-scale combat.
Chakra let ninjas push their bodies beyond normal human limits, going days without rest when missions demanded it. But that didn't make it any less miserable.
Still, he forced himself to focus.
If the timeline held true, Dan's death meant the war was nearly over. Konoha would win. Suna's sudden full-scale assault meant this was their desperate final gamble, throwing everything they had left at Konoha's defenses in one last push.
Hold the line here, and the war might actually end.