Tactical Kill

Just as the Puppet Master hiding in the tree remotely controlled his puppets to search for Kyosuke's whereabouts, he suddenly felt waves of heat coming from behind him.

Startled, he immediately turned around.

Several fireballs were already speeding toward him.

Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu.

The one who had cast the Fire Release was none other than Kyosuke himself, who had arrived here at some unknown time.

With his Sharingan, it was easy for him to tell whether the one entering the dense forest was truly the Puppet Master himself.

However, the Puppet Master did not know this, which was why the fight in the woods had happened earlier.

During that time, Kyosuke had also successfully located the Puppet Master himself through his Summoning Animal's search and launched a surprise attack.

This Puppet Master truly deserved to be called a jōnin-level expert. Even when caught off guard by Kyosuke's ambush, he had escaped after suffering only minor injuries.

The one that had helped him escape was another puppet meant for close-range protection.

This was a defensive measure every Puppet Master needed, meant to prevent their "fragile" true body from being ambushed by enemies.

After landing, the Puppet Master became highly vigilant. He had originally been unable to understand why there was a child among the enemy team, but now he understood everything.

This brat was a rare type of ninja with "sensory abilities," which was why he had been able to find his true body.

Having realized this, he secretly controlled his offensive puppets to return and defend while preparing to say something to stall for time.

Although Sensor Ninjas generally were not strong in direct combat, he remained cautious and planned to wait until his strongest puppet returned before launching an attack.

Caution was a combat quality every Puppet Master had to possess.

Just as the Puppet Master was about to say something, he suddenly felt a faint tremor beneath his feet.

A pair of small hands burst from the ground, seized both his feet, and tried to drag him underground.

"You sly little brat." Left with no choice, the Puppet Master abandoned his remote control and instead continued controlling the puppet beside him. At the same time, Chakra erupted from his body as he resisted the pulling force from those hands.

Perhaps because the gap in strength was too great, the hands could not drag him underground immediately. Instead, the two sides fell into a stalemate.

Seeing this, the Puppet Master gave a savage grin and controlled his defensive puppet to launch an attack at the enemy beneath the ground.

A sharp blade suddenly extended from the puppet's mouth and stabbed forcefully into the earth beneath his feet.

However, the spurt of blood the Puppet Master had expected did not appear.

Not only that, but the enemy underground seemed not to have felt the attack at all. The force in those hands did not weaken in the slightest; instead, they gripped even tighter.

"Could it be a clone? No, no matter what kind of clone it is, it couldn't endure such an injury without disappearing." This string of unexpected events had already thrown the Puppet Master into a panic.

Just as he was pondering Kyosuke's intentions, the Kyosuke standing in the distance, who appeared to be a "clone," suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a massive burst of fire.

Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu.

The enormous fireball, carrying surging heat waves, hurtled straight at the stunned Puppet Master.

"Damn it, that one's the real body? Then what is the thing underground?" The Puppet Master felt as if his head were about to explode. At the same time, anger at being toyed with quietly rose in his heart.

But no matter how furious he was, it was already too late for him to dodge this Great Fireball Technique.

Helplessly, he could only curl himself up as much as possible and place the defensive puppet in front of himself, hoping to minimize the damage.

Boom.

The wildly blazing fireball struck the Puppet Master dead-on and exploded violently.

It had to be said that this puppet truly lived up to its name as a defensive puppet. Even a direct hit from the Great Fireball Technique could not completely destroy it.

However, though the puppet could still be used, the Puppet Master himself had been seriously injured.

He staggered out of the still-raging flames, patting away the sparks on his body as he turned his head and searched everywhere for the enemy's whereabouts.

This time, after having suffered once already, he cautiously watched not only to his left and right, but even the sky and the ground beneath him, afraid that the crafty enemy would attack from some absurd direction again.

Clearly, he had been frightened by the beating. Since the battle began, a dignified jōnin had been suppressed from start to finish by a child. Even he felt ashamed.

Yet he still failed to notice Kyosuke's next ambush.

Because Kyosuke did not attack from any of the directions he expected. Instead, he passed through the raging flames and charged directly before him.

The Puppet Master's eyes widened as he stared at the enemy and the clothing on his body that had already caught fire. He could not help but scream inwardly, Are all Konoha brats this vicious?

Then he saw a pair of crimson, eerie eyes.

In an instant, his body froze completely in place. Even the shock on his face became fixed.

Genjutsu: Sharingan.

Having successfully controlled his enemy, Kyosuke had no time to care about the flames burning ever more fiercely on his body. He lowered his head and continued charging at the enemy, waving his hand to throw a barrage of Kunai and Shuriken.

Because he knew that a jōnin could not be controlled by Genjutsu for long, even Genjutsu cast through the Sharingan.

As a Sand Shinobi who had clashed with Konoha for many years, he certainly had special methods to break free from the Sharingan's restraint.

Sure enough, before even one second had passed, the Puppet Master used the power of his puppet to break free from Kyosuke's Genjutsu.

Not only that, he then used the puppet's damaged extended limbs to evade most of Kyosuke's incoming hidden weapons.

But he failed to dodge the most crucial Shuriken.

The Puppet Master lowered his head and glanced at his injured thigh, then looked up with a savage grin. "Since that's the case, let's settle this head-on. Let's see what tricks you have, Konoha brat!"

Kyosuke had already reached him. Using the momentum of his charge, he stomped hard on the ground and threw himself bodily at the Puppet Master.

"You're courting death!" the Puppet Master roared, controlling the defensive puppet to slam directly into Kyosuke.

As he watched several blades extend from the puppet, Kyosuke's Sharingan narrowed slightly.

Then, an extremely bizarre and terrifying sight unfolded before the Puppet Master.

Kyosuke's neck and limbs twisted and stretched at the same time. After successfully evading the blades, his right hand holding a Kunai slashed fiercely across the Puppet Master's throat.

In an instant, blood gushed out like a fountain.

"Urgh..." The Puppet Master clutched his wound, staring in terror at Kyosuke, who was bathed in flames and blood as though he were a demon crawling out of hell.