Chapter 304: The Puppet Master's Battle; Tsunade's Competitive Streak [HN]

Hundreds upon hundreds of puppets surged toward Kakashi’s seven man team from all directions like locusts that had smelled blood, their bodies producing a chilling chorus of clicking sounds.

Poisoned blades shot out from their arms, while lethal senbon and poisonous mist sprayed from their mouths. Their movements were swift and perfectly coordinated, as though they were a killing machine with hundreds of limbs.

“Fall back! Form a defensive circle!”

A layer of cold sweat appeared on Kakashi’s forehead as his short blade swept through the air in a flash of lightning, instantly knocking away three puppets charging at the front.

But even more puppets immediately filled the gap.

“Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!”

Obito spat out another fireball, engulfing a small group of puppets in flames.

But before the flames had even died down, the puppets behind them were already stepping over the wreckage of their comrades and charging forward.

“Leaf Great Whirlwind!”

Guy roared as his legs swept across like battle axes.

His kick caved in the chests of several puppets, but their blades remained completely unaffected and continued stabbing toward his vital points, forcing him to retreat again and again.

“Earth Style: Earth Wall!”

“Water Style: Water Wall!”

Rin and Yamashiro Aoba desperately maintained their defensive ninjutsu.

But the puppets attacked like an endless tide, and the earth walls and water barriers continuously cracked and weakened beneath their relentless assault.

Raido and Genma stood back to back, their kunai and blades moving in a seamless defensive dance as they blocked attacks coming from all kinds of tricky angles, sparks flying everywhere with every clash.

“There are too many! We can’t kill them all!”

Genma clenched the senbon between his teeth, his voice filled with anxiety.

“And they aren’t afraid of dying!”

Raido deflected a poisoned blade, but another puppet’s senbon grazed his arm, and a wave of numbness immediately spread through it.

Sasori stood behind the puppet army.

Countless chakra threads in the core area trembled with elegant precision, as though he were conducting a symphony of death.

He coldly watched the Konoha shinobi struggling within the sea of puppets, without the slightest change in his expression.

“Struggle. Scream. Then become part of my collection.”

“Kakashi! Your eyes!”

Kakashi shouted during a brief opening.

“Can you find the control core or any weakness in his main body?”

Obito’s three tomoe Sharingan spun rapidly as he tried to find a pattern among the countless chakra threads and the movements of hundreds of puppets.

“The chakra threads are too dense! And we can’t even get close to his main body!”

“We have to find a way to get close to him or interrupt his control!”

Kakashi gritted his teeth and knocked two more puppets away with his short blade.

“I’ll open a path!”

Guy roared and charged toward Sasori at incredible speed.

“Oh? A taijutsu user? Interesting.”

A mocking smile appeared at the corner of Sasori’s mouth.

With a movement of his fingers, more than a dozen especially sturdy puppets carrying enormous shields instantly appeared in front of Guy and formed a wall of steel.

Guy gathered all his strength into one punch.

“Boom!”

The shield puppets were blasted apart, but Guy’s momentum was forcibly stopped.

More puppets immediately swarmed around him like persistent parasites.

“Guy!”

Rin cried out and tried to move forward to support him, but several puppets specializing in speed and poisonous mist blocked her path.

“No! The difference in numbers is too great! Our chakra won’t last much longer!”

Yamashiro Aoba’s expression became grim, and his sunglasses were already covered in splattered poison.

Obito looked at his struggling comrades.

He saw Rin surrounded by danger.

He saw Kakashi and Guy fighting desperately to break open the situation.

The anxiety and anger inside him accumulated like a volcano ready to erupt.

The pattern of his right eye’s Mangekyō Sharingan began to rotate slowly, completely beyond his control.

‘I can’t use it… Chiya sensei warned me…’

Obito desperately suppressed the urge to use his ocular technique and continued blocking with his kunai.

Just then, a puppet suddenly emerged from underground.

Its blade stabbed straight toward Rin’s back.

“Rin!”

Obito’s pupils contracted, and he almost charged forward without regard for anything else.

“Lightning Release: Lightning Tiger Kill!”

Kakashi arrived just in time and used a Lightning Shadow Clone to draw the attack away.

However, his real body was grazed by a puppet’s poisoned needle, causing his movements to falter.

“Kakashi!”

Rin hurriedly used medical chakra to treat him, but the poison spread rapidly, and half of Kakashi’s body began to go numb.

The situation suddenly took a turn for the worse.

Kakashi, their core combat force, was injured.

Guy was heavily surrounded.

Everyone else’s chakra was nearly depleted.

Their defensive formation was on the verge of collapsing completely.

“We can’t wait any longer…”

Obito looked at Kakashi’s pale face, Rin’s anxious expression, and his comrades fighting desperately through blood and wounds.

His determination to protect his comrades finally overwhelmed his fear of the price he would have to pay.

He suddenly raised his head.

The Mangekyō Sharingan pattern in his eye spun and twisted violently before finally settling into place.

A vast and strange power gathered within his eye.

“Sasori!”

Obito roared and locked his gaze onto Sasori’s main body in the distance.

Sasori was preparing to control the puppets and deliver a fatal blow to Kakashi.

Suddenly, he sensed an incomprehensible and irresistible distortion of space around the core device in his chest.

“What?!”

The indifference on Sasori’s face instantly turned into shock.

He tried to move, only to discover that the power was not acting on the surface.

It was directly affecting the space surrounding his core.

“Crack… sizzle…”

The painful sound of metal twisting rang out as the casing around Sasori’s incredibly sturdy regeneration core visibly warped and caved inward.

The connected pipes groaned under the pressure, and sparks flew everywhere.

“Ugh!”

Sasori let out a muffled cry of pain.

Although the core was not completely destroyed, the sudden spatial distortion severely disrupted his precise chakra control and even damaged part of the core’s functions.

His previously flawless control suddenly became sluggish.

And in that brief instant, the hundreds of puppets that had moved as naturally as his own limbs became chaotic all at once.

They briefly lost control.

“Now!”

Kakashi endured the numbness and a cold light flashed through his eye.

“Guy!”

“Got it!”

Feeling the pressure suddenly ease, Guy immediately unleashed his strength once more and shattered the puppet barrier in front of him.

He opened a path for Kakashi.

“Lightning Cutter: Twin Piercing Light!”

Kakashi poured all his remaining chakra into both hands and transformed them into two crossing streaks of lightning.

Following the path Guy had opened, he charged straight toward the momentarily immobilized Sasori.

“Thud!”

Sasori barely managed to move his body at the last moment.

Kakashi’s hands pierced straight through both of his arms, and Lightning Release chakra surged violently into his body, destroying the mechanisms within.

“Damn it!”

Sasori had never expected that the young Sharingan user would possess such a strange and terrifying ability.

With his core damaged, both arms destroyed, and the puppet army temporarily out of control, Sasori’s core automatically detached from his body and rapidly entered an ordinary puppet.

The moment the core entered it, the puppet immediately fell apart.

A miniature puppet emerged, concealed beneath Sasori’s previous clothing.

It silently burrowed underground.

The figure called “Sasori” slowly collapsed.

The battle came to an abrupt end.

The entrance of the valley fell completely silent.

Only the heavy breathing of the exhausted shinobi and the mournful sound of the wind remained.

“Is… is it over?”

Genma stared at the empty space ahead in disbelief.

“Cough…”

Kakashi’s body swayed, and Rin hurried over to support him.

“Kakashi, how are you?”

Rin quickly examined his injuries and began treating the poison.

“I’m… I’m fine.”

Kakashi looked toward Obito, who was kneeling on the ground and covering his eye while breathing painfully.

Concern and lingering fear filled his eyes.

“Obito, your eye…”

“I’m… I’m fine…”

Obito’s voice was weak, and blood seeped through the gaps between his fingers.

“I’m just… a little tired…”

Guy’s entire body was sore, but he still grinned tiredly.

“We won! We actually defeated that monster!”

Yamashiro Aoba and Raido supported each other as they walked over, relief filling their faces after surviving the ordeal.

Looking at his exhausted and wounded comrades, their eyes still filled with determination, Kakashi took a deep breath.

“Mission… complete. The enemy’s identity is confirmed. Sasori of the Red Sand.

“Clean up the battlefield.

“…We’re going home.”

The setting sun cast its glow over the withered grass, stretching the seven figures supporting one another into long shadows.

After they left, a delicate miniature puppet emerged from underground.

It immediately disappeared without a trace.

…

Konoha.

The door to the Hokage’s office was pushed open rather roughly.

Tsunade walked in with an annoyed expression, her blonde ponytail swinging with every step and an unmistakable suppressed anger in her eyes.

She did not even look at Chiya.

She walked straight to the sofa, sat down heavily, and folded her arms.

The movement made her chest rise and fall with her emotions.

Chiya was reviewing documents when he looked up and saw her expression.

He put down his pen, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

“Who went and upset our Princess Tsunade this time?”

He spoke casually as he stood up and sat down beside her.

“Who else could it be?”

Tsunade gave him an annoyed glance, but the frustration in her eyes was clearly not directed at him.

“That damn Yin Seal, Hundred Healings Technique, and Creation Rebirth! I know these two techniques have enormous potential, and once they are properly developed, they could completely change the battlefield. But… the requirements are too high! Forget ordinary medical ninja. Even Shizune, after studying under me for so long, can barely form the beginnings of the Yin Seal without struggling. How are we supposed to spread these techniques? Are they destined to remain the privilege of only a tiny number of people?”

The more she spoke, the angrier she became.

She slammed her fist against the armrest.

Fortunately, she controlled her strength, so it only produced a dull thud.

“Whenever I think about all those medical ninja who died on the front lines because they lacked effective means of protecting themselves, I just…”

Chiya quietly listened without interrupting.

He knew that Tsunade was not frustrated merely because the techniques were difficult.

She was anxious because she could not turn them into practical combat power quickly enough to save more lives.

That compassion of a doctor was one of her most precious qualities.

Once her emotions had settled somewhat, Chiya reached out and gently held the fist she had placed on the armrest.

His palm was warm and steady, carrying a reassuring strength.

“So you came here to take your frustration out on me?”

His voice carried a hint of teasing as his fingers gently rubbed the back of her hand.

Tsunade froze at the intimate gesture.

A trace of awkwardness flashed across her face, and she tried to pull her hand back, only for him to hold it more firmly.

She glared at him, but there was more coquettishness than anger in her eyes.

“What’s wrong with that? The Hokage is busy every day. Can’t you even listen to me complain for a few minutes?”

“Of course I can.”

Chiya chuckled and leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice beside her ear.

“But you could complain in another way… one that I might like even more.”

His warm breath brushed against her ear, carrying his familiar clean scent.

Tsunade’s cheeks instantly turned red, and her heartbeat accelerated despite herself.

She gave him a symbolic push, but the force was so light that it felt more like a playful touch.

“Cut it out! I’m talking about something serious!”

Her voice had unconsciously softened, carrying a faintly spoiled tone that even she did not notice.

Chiya stopped while he was ahead.

Knowing that Tsunade was easily embarrassed, he no longer teased her, although he continued holding her hand.

His smile faded, and his expression became serious.

“All right, enough teasing. I understand your concern.”

He thought for a moment before speaking slowly.

“Have you ever considered that we don’t necessarily need to pursue a perfect and sustainable version of the Hundred Healings Technique and Creation Rebirth?”

Tsunade looked at him in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…”

Chiya paused, his gaze deep.

“Why not try developing a one time or simplified version of them?”

“A simplified version?”

Tsunade frowned.

“Exactly.”

Chiya nodded.

“The complete Hundred Healings Technique requires years of storing chakra and an extremely precise level of control. That is indeed too difficult. But what if we lower the requirements? For example, what if we develop an ‘Instant Yin Seal’?”

“Instant?”

Tsunade seemed to grasp the idea.

“Yes.”

Chiya nodded.

“It would not require long term storage. Before battle, the medical ninja themselves, or even a teammate, could help compress a large amount of chakra refined over a short period and forcefully seal it inside a simpler temporary node in the body.

“The seal structure could be very simple, even unstable. Its purpose would not be long term storage. It would exist to release that chakra instantly at a critical moment, such as when the user suffers a fatal injury.”

Tsunade’s eyes gradually brightened as she began to understand Chiya’s idea.

Chiya continued.

“Imagine a medical ninja entering a dangerous area. Before the mission, a Jonin teammate could help her spend a few minutes injecting part of their combined chakra into a temporary seal on her chest.

“When she suffers an unavoidable attack, she could trigger the seal either consciously or automatically.

“The chakra released in that instant might not be enough to sustain a complete Creation Rebirth.

“But it could greatly increase her cellular activity, speed, and strength for a short period. It could even create a powerful chakra shield capable of blocking a single fatal attack.

“That could give her enough time to use ordinary medical ninjutsu to save herself or wait for reinforcements.”

Tsunade’s breathing quickened slightly as her mind raced.

“In theory… it could work! The energy efficiency would be low, the waste would be considerable, the duration would be extremely short, and the side effects might be serious, but… this really could greatly increase the survival rate!”

“As for Creation Rebirth…”

Chiya smiled.

“We could develop an ‘Extreme Stimulation Therapy’ to correspond with it. We would use that instant burst of chakra not to precisely control cellular division and regeneration, but to stimulate the body’s potential in a crude way, forcibly keep the person alive, and suppress the worsening of their injuries while buying time for professional treatment.

“It would be like a powerful medical adrenaline shot!”

Tsunade suddenly stood up and began pacing around the room.

Her previous frustration had completely disappeared.

In its place was the excitement and concentration of a researcher who had finally found a direction.

“Exactly! Simplify the structure, lower the precision requirements, sacrifice duration and perfect results, and exchange them for instant explosive power and extreme life saving ability! This approach is completely viable!”

She suddenly turned around, her eyes shining as she looked at Chiya.

“Chiya, you’re a genius!”

Chiya smiled, lifted his teacup, and took a sip.

“I’m only providing an idea. The actual construction of the sealing formula, chakra injection and activation mechanism, and evaluation and prevention of side effects will still depend on you, the expert.”

“Leave it to me!”

Tsunade was filled with confidence.

She walked over to Chiya and leaned down in front of him, placing both hands against the sofa armrests and effectively trapping him between them.

Her face carried a bright and confident smile, mixed with a hint of challenge and temptation.

“Looks like coming to you to complain really was the right choice. Tell me, how should I ‘thank’ you?”

She was very close.

Her warm breath carried a faint scent of alcohol and her natural fragrance, creating an intoxicating atmosphere.

Her ample chest was almost touching Chiya’s.

Chiya looked up and met her bright brown eyes, which were shining with excitement.

A playful curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“What do you think?”

The blush on Tsunade’s face deepened, but she did not retreat.

Instead, she leaned closer and quickly pressed a kiss to his lips, light as a dragonfly touching water.

“Consider that a little interest.”

She straightened up and returned to her usual commanding presence, although the springlike warmth in the corners of her eyes could not be concealed.

“Once I finish developing the simplified version of the technique, I’ll properly ‘reward’ you!”

“After all, I want to be ahead of Mikoto…”

With that, she did not linger.

She turned around and strode out of the office with great determination, as though she could already see countless medical ninja being saved by her new techniques.

Chiya watched her leave.

He touched his lips, which still seemed to retain the soft sensation of her kiss, and smiled helplessly.

“That competitive streak…”

He returned to his desk and looked out the window.

If Tsunade’s new research succeeded, Konoha’s medical system would gain a tremendous increase in its ability to keep its personnel alive.

However, developing it would require a great deal of time.

He wondered how Kakashi and the others were doing on their investigation…