The Advantage of Numbers?

"He's an elite Sand Village jonin and a puppet master." In the hurried moment, Nara Nagisa could only introduce their enemy this way.

A puppet master? Hanyu silently thought it over. In his memory, there were only three puppet masters from the Sand Village. The first two were a grandfather and grandson, and he couldn't remember the third one's name.

"Have all the young people from Konoha been as composed as you lately? You're not even interested in the bait I threw out... Well, I understand. It might also have something to do with that kid being so stupid." As Monzaemon spoke, he pulled a scroll from inside his robes and unfurled it.

Just as Nara had said, he was a puppet master, and the puppets he used were sealed inside that scroll.

Judging by what Monzaemon said, the Sand Village ninja who had looked rather dim-witted earlier was the bait he'd thrown out. He probably hadn't expected the other man to blunder onto an Explosive Tag.

In other words, Hanyu's judgment had been right. They were lucky they hadn't gone after the bait.

There wasn't much to say about the enemy's casual willingness to abandon his comrades. Not every ninja squad's members helped one another, and not every senior cared for their juniors. People were different. Perhaps, in this man's eyes, a few casualties among his own were worth it if they could kill the enemy.

If one idiot died on their side while four Konoha Ninja died on the other, wasn't that a worthwhile trade?

Chichiwa kept a distance that allowed her to launch an attack, while the other three—Hanyu included—formed a loose encirclement around Monzaemon. But with Nara unusually wary of this enemy, Hanyu didn't rush to attack.

Monzaemon unfurled his scroll, formed Hand Seals, and released the puppets sealed within it.

"Chikamatsu Ten Puppets..." The moment the ten white-clad puppets emerged, Hanyu recognized them. There were a lot of them, and their distinctive style made them unforgettable.

Hanyu might not have known who Monzaemon was, but there was no reason he wouldn't recognize the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets.

There were no puppets more famous than the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets. It was precisely because of their distinctive white outfits that the technique used to control them was called the White Secret Technique.

As Puppet Technique developed from nothing into a mature and flourishing art, two ninjas had played crucial roles: the Second Kazekage, Monsha, and Monzaemon, who now stood before Hanyu... In a sense, Puppet Technique was an original Sand Village creation, and puppet masters were a kind of ninja unique to the Sand Village.

At first, the technique of controlling puppets in battle had been designed to reduce casualties among their own ninjas and make up for the Sand Village's lack of combat strength. A competent puppet master was therefore often expected to control multiple puppets. But a ninja like Monzaemon, who could deftly control ten extraordinarily complex puppets at once, could only be called a once-in-a-generation genius.

Hearing Hanyu's murmur, Nara glanced at his captain in surprise. It was understandable that Hanyu, who had only recently arrived at the front, didn't know much about the Sand Village. But why had he recognized the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets when he didn't know Monzaemon?

"Is that old man still alive?" Hanyu asked again. In his recollection, the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets were weapons used by Chiyo, and their creator should have been someone from a distant age.

It was true that Monzaemon looked very old, but he wasn't dead. After all, this was the distant age people would speak of in the future.

"Do you think we can take him?" Realizing his previous question had been pointless, Hanyu lowered his voice and asked Nara.

Facing a one-to-four disadvantage, Nara wanted to say they could at least try. But amid the distinctive clacking of the puppets all around them, he could only shake his head.

Even against an ordinary jonin, an attempt like this would be worthwhile. But Monzaemon was different. Though old, he remained formidable, with vast combat experience, great strength, and ruthless methods. More importantly, against him, Hanyu's earlier talk of having the "advantage of numbers" was already a joke.

A puppet master might be just one person, but he also had ten puppets.

Seeing Nara's negative response, Hanyu nodded and began signaling to his teammates: "Try to keep him occupied. If you can't, retreat immediately!"

At the same time, Hanyu addressed Monzaemon in a slightly arrogant tone. "I can hardly believe I'd run into a senior of the Shinobi World in a place like this. But for someone like you to sneak around like a rat, hunting down Konoha's younger generation... It really makes you feel the weight of the years."

His accusation made no sense at all. He was just picking a fight, being a complete contrarian... Weren't ninjas supposed to hunt their enemies from the shadows? What did that have to do with age?

"But it doesn't matter. Since you've fallen into our hands, today will be your last. Let me, the Konoha Fire Release prodigy known as the 'Flame of the Abyss,' finish you off. Dying on the battlefield is the fitting end for an old man like you, isn't it?"

Hanyu tried to confuse his opponent with words for as long as possible. He had already used Fire Release, so claiming to be a Fire Release ninja was somewhat believable. But if he wanted to call himself the Flame of the Abyss, he should at least have a ninja sickle in his right hand and a Kunai in his left. Besides... Naraku, oh, Naraku, why did the name sound so sorrowful?

Faced with this performance, Monzaemon gave a hoarse laugh. It didn't matter whether Hanyu's acting was convincing or not. A ninja as old as Monzaemon had been through too many battles to fall for a trick like this. He understood what these young Konoha shinobi were planning. Now that they'd sent out an emergency signal, all they needed to do was stall for time and wait for more Konoha Ninja to gather.

Failing to silently kill them as he had the previous few times had been Monzaemon's mistake.

Hanyu's earlier formation deserved praise. By placing Chichiwa far from the rest of the team, he'd kept the enemy from discovering her, and she'd been able to save Hanyu from the assassination attempt.

But Monzaemon was correcting that mistake now. He brought out the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets for one reason only: to finish the battle quickly and withdraw before Konoha reinforcements arrived.

If a large number of Konoha Ninja surrounded an enemy of Monzaemon's importance, Konoha would spare no effort to kill him there.

But what he hadn't expected was that, as soon as Hanyu finished his last word, the Konoha squad would all attack at once!

Monzaemon hadn't thought they'd have the nerve. Did his reputation not intimidate them at all? And besides...

When had they agreed on the signal!?

There was no need to answer that question. Just as Monzaemon didn't believe Hanyu's performance, Hanyu knew he couldn't stall for time with a few words.

Though he needed to buy time, that didn't mean Hanyu feared a fight.

Against a ninja like Monzaemon, turning around and running would only get him killed faster. Hanyu did the opposite and attacked first... His words weren't meant to stall for ten minutes, but to seize that one second in which he could strike first.