A thousand puppets—some made purely of mechanical parts, others constructed from human corpses—had just appeared, and they immediately targeted only the flak-jacketed Cloud ninja.
Some transformed their arms into blades, while others raised a hand to condense golden energy bullets, launching them with a whooshing sound.
Ninja are known for their remarkable discipline and swift execution of orders. Despite the devastating sonic blasts from before, the barrier and medical teams still gritted their teeth through the pain, helping direct and evacuate the civilians.
The puppet army wasn't interested in them anyway, so the villagers' evacuation went rather smoothly. Meanwhile, the other ninja confronted the puppet forces head-on.
"Cloud-Style: Rising Dragon!"
A blond woman—tall, curvy, with a build that might even surpass Tsunade's—held a short blade in a reverse grip. Lightning flashed around it under the night sky as she shattered one of the puppets in a single strike.
Eyeing its remains (which had only used physical weapons and energy bullets), Samui also glanced at other puppets fighting nearby, some displaying mastery over every elemental nature with only one or two hand seals. Their masks indicated they were "human puppets." Samui furrowed her brow and called out loudly:
"Watch out for the ones using ninjutsu—they're corpse-based puppets that might have kept their powers from life, including Kekkei Genkai!"
"Look, these guys are wearing Konoha headbands!"
"We've got Suna's headbands over here."
"And Hidden Sound headbands—these are rogue-nin headbands."
"I recall that a few months ago, Orochimaru and Sunagakure plus the Akatsuki unleashed the 'Konoha Crush Plan' on Konoha. The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Konoha elder Danzo Shimura plus his entire Root faction were wiped out. The bodies from all three villages were taken away by Sasori of the Akatsuki, and now turned into puppets!"
"Damn Konoha and Suna—can't they stop causing us trouble even after they die?!"
"…"
Other Cloud ninja soon noticed something strange about these puppets, and they shouted warnings, sharing intelligence.
Each Cloud squad swiftly picked up on the enemy's features and adapted their own tactics. Little did they know those headbands were mere diversions, meant to mislead them.
Each "human puppet" was actually Izayoi in disguise, fighting until the chakra in its core ran out. If, in its previous life, a puppet's host had possessed some Kekkei Genkai or hidden jutsu, the puppet could now use abilities that even Izayoi himself hadn't learned.
For the foes who recognized the puppet's identity and tried to counter its known ninjutsu, the puppet might suddenly unleash a technique that its original self never had—giving it a decisive informational edge, maybe killing in a single blow.
Indeed, Izayoi's plan proved effective.
Aburame Torune released a swarm of venomous insects, which merely brushed by two flak-jacketed Cloud ninja. They instantly collapsed, screaming in agony. Nearby allies shouted:
"It's the Aburame clan from Konoha—and he's using poisonous insects! Don't let them touch you!"
One Cloud ninja leaped up, brandishing a sword cloaked in shape-transformed Lightning Release chakra, lunging at Torune. But a moment later, the man froze in shock—Torune had just finished weaving hand seals and was spitting out a huge wave of flames.
Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!
The Cloud ninja was swallowed up, screaming as flames consumed him. Elsewhere, each human puppet used similar feints or surprise abilities to wound or kill Cloud ninja.
Meanwhile, "pure puppets" that lacked advanced jutsu acted in support: some stayed at range, firing energy bullets to harass; others snuck around collecting fallen Cloud corpses—already dead—and retrieving those buried under rubble. With Ranmaru's red-eye technique assisting, they quickly turned invisible and retreated.
As Cloud casualties increased, Izayoi alone could see beams of light streaming from the bodies, each one flying off into the distance—harvested "loot," so to speak.
But the human puppets' advantage only lasted a short while. Soon, the experienced special jōnin and jōnin commanding the Cloud forces figured things out. Ninja specializing in taijutsu (who had to engage at close range for best results) now focused their attacks on the simpler, "pure" puppets, while the mid-to-long-range fighters switched to bombardment tactics against the human puppets—covering them with elemental blasts, forcing them to defend, and gathering data on their weaknesses.
Shortly, a sensor-nin captured key intel and shouted:
"These puppets have limited chakra reserves! They can't extract chakra while they fight, nor can they recover with soldier pills!"
Hearing this, many Cloud ninja brightened; some special jōnin signaled to employ "dragging out the clock" tactics. Immediately, the human puppet army lost their biggest advantage—information superiority.
"Storm Release: Laser Circus!"
Unlike the puppets and the main Cloud forces who fought with massed numbers and firepower, Darui singled out Aburame Torune—who was part of the puppet army's "ace," controlling venomous insects—and pelted him with beams of destructive light, blasting away his bugs and tying him down.
C, another of Kumogakure's top fighters, targeted Yamanaka Kaze—the puppet controlling the "Mind-Puppet Cursing Seal"—leaving both major puppet generals locked in combat.
With Nii Yugito absent and Killer Bee not yet arrived, and the Fourth Raikage still not even joining the fray, the puppet army was forced into a defensive state. A Wood Clone guarding Ranmaru sighed:
"Formidable indeed… Expecting to crush the strongest hidden village with just a few hundred human puppets was never realistic."
But no sooner had it spoken than its face shifted. Quickly it used Ranmaru's red-eye genjutsu to hide both itself and all other Wood Clones. Izayoi's Tenseigan had spotted a third party: White Zetsu clones, who had stealthily infiltrated Kumogakure by disguising themselves as villagers, employing the Hōzuki technique ("mayfly technique") to search for whoever led the puppets.
Several White Zetsu clones peeked up from the rubble, concealing their presence with mayfly technique, quietly observing the fight between the puppet army and the Cloud ninja. Likely, Black and White Zetsu were already aware of the situation. Perhaps Uchiha Obito was, too, and might be on his way.
"We need to wrap this up. Come on out…my trump card!"
Izayoi relayed his next orders to the Wood Clone that directed the puppet army.
Whoosh—
In no time, a single kunai blended with the darkness above the Cloud nin who were exchanging long-range attacks with the puppet troops. Abruptly, around that kunai appeared a haze of flickering shadows—instantly forming countless real kunai, raining down like a torrential downpour.
"Watch above! Scatter!"
The sensor-nin first to sense the chakra overhead gave a loud warning.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
One multi-nature jōnin promptly wove signs and spat forth a fierce gust of wind toward the sky.
Pop, pop, pop…
A chain of balloon-popping sounds rang out, dense white smoke appearing overhead. Even so, a small portion of kunai reached the Cloud formation, though their high-speed movement jutsu let them dodge most of it. Next second…
A shadow, so dark it nearly merged with the night, flickered among the Cloud ranks—a cold glint slicing across the throats of those nearest the kunai's impact site.
Slash, slash, slash—
A series of cloth-tearing, flesh-rending sounds overlapped.
"S-so fast!"
A veteran jōnin, who hadn't even glimpsed the enemy's form, could only utter that shocked line before going limp, life extinguished.
Swish—
Having instantly killed those near the kunai, that dark flash revealed itself—Lord Danzo, clad in the Akatsuki cloak, wielding a ninja sword, face cold and expressionless.
The three-tomoe Sharingan in his right eye spun, warping into a pinwheel shape that glowed red even in the night. A split second later, one unfortunate Cloud ninja gazed into it by mistake; his expression went blank.
Danzo flickered beside him, striking him with a palm. As the man was sent flying, Danzo affixed a Flying Thunder God formula to him.
Unaware, two Cloud ninja instinctively reached to catch their airborne comrade. But then a black blur flashed in their vision. A chilling blade, wreathed in some kind of lightning- or wind-type chakra, slashed across their throats in an instant. Their flak jackets tore with a ripping noise, but the fountain of blood had barely started spraying before Danzo vanished again. Neither of them even managed to scream.
Slash, slash, slash…
With each tear of cloth, Danzo's right eye spun. He alternated lightning and wind chakra for maximum speed, weaving through the Cloud nin as though no one else existed.
In the face of a top-level Mangekyō Sharingan user and breakneck agility, even Kumo's famed swift fighters felt like standing targets. Swords coated in wind chakra for extra cutting or lightning chakra for deeper penetration, each strike took a life or inflicted a grievous wound.
If someone was agile enough to respond, Danzo simply froze them with Mangekyō genjutsu and cleaved them with a follow-up slash, cunningly marking them with a Flying Thunder God formula and sending them tumbling into allied arms.
In half a minute, he'd harvested a hundred lives. Finally, the stunned Kumo shinobi recognized their attacker:
"It's Danzo Shimura of Konoha!"
"Spread out! Watch out for the Flying Thunder God Technique!"
"Don't pick up your comrades or go near those kunai—that's the Second and Fourth Hokage's jutsu!"
Their frantic shouts caused the formation to break; indeed, now rather than massing for covering fire, they scattered in panic.
The puppet army seized the moment, hurling wide-area or high-intensity elemental ninjutsu at the scattered Cloud ninja. More beams of light shot skyward as they inflicted a fresh wave of carnage.
Meanwhile, the near-depleted puppets and those with almost-empty chakra cores stopped focusing on the still-breathing but incapacitated Cloud nin, instead gathering up the bodies of the dead and vanishing into red-eye invisibility.
Yet this advantage soon vanished again.
"Guillotine Drop!"
While Danzo chopped through Cloud nin like weeds, the Fourth Raikage—who had merely watched from behind—lost patience at last.
Covered in a mantle of blue lightning, he appeared midair above Danzo, raising his leg like a battle-axe. He slammed down with a roar. Danzo didn't even look up. In a black blur, he vanished.
Boom—
The instant Danzo disappeared, a deafening boom rattled the area, the earth fragmenting to form a huge crater while shockwaves howled.
"It's Lord Raikage!"
All the Cloud nin, paralyzed by the terror of Flying Thunder God, found new confidence in their leader.
"Scatter and stay alive!" the Raikage ordered in a loud voice. "The village doesn't matter. We can rebuild anytime. Your lives matter most."
"Yes, Lord Raikage!" the Cloud shinobi answered in unison, morale skyrocketing. Under the jōnin's commands, they formed new squads from the scattered ranks—not to hunt more puppets but to guard themselves while launching the occasional ranged jutsu, supporting Lord Raikage in fighting off the human puppets.
"That settles it."
"No wonder Kumogakure has so few defectors—what unity," murmured a few White Zetsu clones using mayfly technique. They concluded that the outcome was now certain.
One White Zetsu in particular said with anticipation, "So that mysterious man is going to appear at last, right?"
Witnessing their fleeting edge vanish, the puppet army—most of them draining chakra rapidly—didn't bother pressing the fight for "just one more synergy drop."
They launched a wave of monstrous fire from the outskirts, blanketing the area in flames. When the blaze subsided, a few hundred puppets had vanished.
Without a sensing barrier, even skilled sensors couldn't track them. The illusions produced by Ranmaru's red-eye could hide them from Byakugan, let alone standard techniques.
At once, the battlefield felt far emptier, leaving only the MVP who'd wrought so much damage with a bloody sword in hand: Lord Danzo.
~~~
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