The Puppeteer

"Click-clack..."

The grating sound of puppet joints was piercing to the ears.

A Six-Legged Pincer Bug puppet blocked his path ahead.

The other puppet chasing him arrived right on his heels—a Blade-Shield Puppet.

The two puppets, one in front and one behind, sealed off Mo Jingxian's route.

In his perception, there was no sign of the Sand Ninja puppeteers.

Truly cunning; both of them were hiding over fifty meters away, causing his decapitation plan to fall through.

They didn't give him much time to think.

Once the puppet behind him caught up, the two puppets coordinated their attack against him.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

The Pincer Bug puppet opened its maw wide, and a volley of senbon shot toward his face.

Mo Jingxian leaped to dodge, using the terrain to circle behind the puppet, and slashed his short blade hard at a joint gap.

"Clang!"

The Blade-Shield Puppet appeared suddenly, its arm-shield blocking the attack, causing Mo Jingxian to stumble back a few steps, nearly falling from the tree.

The two puppets' coordination was exquisite.

The moment the Blade-Shield Puppet took his attack, the Pincer Bug puppet seized the fleeting opening to spew a mouthful of toxic smoke.

The toxic smoke spread rapidly; the leaves within its range were instantly dyed black, then withered and peeled away bit by bit.

The massive tree beneath his feet withered visibly to the naked eye, and a scent of decay began to drift through the air.

Mo Jingxian reappeared ten meters away, a flash of gravity in his eyes as he looked at the scene before him.

This was the first time he had encountered such troublesome and lethal opponents, and he immediately began analyzing the enemy's intel.

The puppets were faster than him; he could only resolve this through close-quarters combat.

The two worked in perfect sync, their puppet bodies were durable, and they hid poison needles and toxic mist—they were quite thorny to deal with.

The puppeteers were hiding in the shadows, beyond his sensory range.

Their weakness was attack lag and insufficient agility; perhaps he could exploit that.

The thoughts flashed through his mind in a mere instant; as he dodged, the two puppets swarmed him again.

Mo Jingxian utilized the precognitive advantage of the Mist of Vitality to entangle himself in the fray.

He used the flow of battle several times to cleverly approach the puppeteers, but they always maintained a sufficiently safe distance from him.

Indeed, there were no amateurs among those who could survive on the battlefield.

From the direction of the convoy, chaotic sounds drifted over from afar—the clashing of weapons, the release of ninjutsu, all sorts of noises mixed together.

The battle had been carved into several segments, cutting off contact between them; no one knew where the incident would head next.

Mo Jingxian lunged in for a close-range attack again, feinting past the Blade-Shield Puppet to slash his short blade at the Pincer Bug puppet.

The next second, The Pincer Bug scattered in place, its eight legs flying into the air, their connection points gleaming with a cold, metallic luster.

Mo Jingxian missed his mark and was restrained by the Pincer Bug puppet's body, the eight bladed legs snapping back like arrows.

"Puff, puff, puff..."

The hits landed in succession, and the Blade-Shield Puppet's long blade followed immediately after.

Caught in a pincer attack, Mo Jingxian's body dispersed, turning into a flow of water that followed the chakra threads all the way to the enemy's hiding spot.

The blade of his short sword danced with wind-style chakra—it was the Wind Release: Vacuum Blade he had just mastered.

A blade-ring echoed through the forest, the wooden stake was split in two, and the enemy had used a Substitution Technique to escape disaster.

His teammate would arrive soon; as long as he survived this attack, the two of them could join forces to fight again.

The survivor, having escaped death, was just about to recall his puppets when he suddenly felt his body tighten.

A water dragon coiled around him; the enemy hadn't noticed when the ninjutsu had been initiated at all.

The thought of terror had barely surfaced when his vision went black.

Before he died, he seemed to see the world spinning rapidly, and a headless body slowly collapsing to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, one of the two attackers was gone, and the remaining one suddenly stopped, hesitating to advance.

In the distance, the convoy direction had gone quiet, and a bird's cry echoed through the desolate, deep forest.

Hearing the retreat signal, the enemy cast a deep look at Mo Jingxian and used his puppets as cover to withdraw from the battlefield.

"Hoo—"

He let out a long breath, wiping the cold sweat seeping from his forehead.

The pressure the enemies had just placed on him was truly significant; after clashing with them, he could be certain that both possessed the strength of Chunin.

However, his opponents were not comparable to the Chunin raised in greenhouses.

Experienced and ruthless, they caused him no small amount of trouble in a short span of time.

Sealing the spoils of war into a scroll, he immediately returned to the caravan.

When he appeared, he was still startled by the scene before him.

The bombed-out carriages were torn to pieces, with many fragments still embedded in the surrounding tree trunks.

Several civilians lay on the ground, their corpses mangled and incomplete.

One-third of the caravan had been destroyed; it could be said that this mission was practically a failure.

Seeing Mo Jingxian return safely, Captain Yamashiro nodded at him and then began to reorganize the caravan.

He went to the base of a tree and leaned against the trunk to rest for a moment, beginning to examine the panel he hadn't paid much attention to earlier.

In a short time, two enemies had provided him with 60 points of Reputation.

The enemy who escaped contributed 10 points, while the one he killed had instantly granted him 50 points of Reputation.

Sure enough, hatred was easier to obtain than love.

The battle damage statistics were tallied: five wagons of supplies destroyed, and of the four Genin, only he had returned alive.

Yamashiro Baiyun's expression was not good; almost everyone who survived was injured.

After resting for a while, the caravan set off once again.

Mo Jingxian remained silent the entire way, constantly reviewing the recent battle in his mind.

Puppet Masters, especially before one reaches the combat strength of an Elite Jonin, are truly difficult to deal with.

Just as Mo Jingxian was secretly summarizing his thoughts, not far from the caravan, two people were engaged in a chase.

Nishikawa Jiken felt that he might not have a chance to return to the Sand Ninja, and he hoped his mother could forgive him.

The body of Tono Kojiro, who was in hot pursuit, had also reached its limit.

After a night of fighting and chasing, both were wounded, relying solely on a shred of conviction to make it this far.

A clearing appeared ahead, and a transport team happened to be stopped there for a rest.

"Quick, catch him! He's a Sand Ninja spy!"

In truth, Yamashiro Baiyun had long since spotted the two; ever since the caravan was attacked, he had become like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow, reacting instantly to any movement.

The only reason he hadn't acted yet was that he couldn't immediately confirm their identities.

Both men wore traditional ninja vests and Konoha headbands; it was a miracle they had managed to escape this far.

Yamashiro Baiyun certainly wouldn't easily believe one side of the story, and he easily brought both men under control.

Unexpectedly, before an interrogation could even begin, a sudden attack caught everyone off guard.

"Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!"

Mo Jingxian moved to defend himself instantly, and the next moment, a massive volume of wind blades swept across the camp.

Towering trees toppled over, and the ninjutsu plowed through the caravan, carving a large clearing out of the forest.

"Leave no one alive."

Rasa spoke coldly.

"Understood!"

Two subordinates immediately began to clear the scene.

For this deep infiltration behind enemy lines, Rasa had brought only two trusted Elite Jonin: Karura and Dafangang Qihu.

Sometimes, troops are valued for their quality rather than their quantity; a squad of three Elite Jonin possessed much greater mobility.

"Bang! Bang!"

Two figures burst out from under the rubble; they were Yamashiro Baiyun and Mo Jingxian.

The two fled in different directions, having no intention of staying to fight to the death.

From the technique just used, one could tell that the attackers belonged to the top tier of ninjas, not to mention that there were three of them.

"Hmph! A deathbed struggle."

Rasa and Dafangang Qihu headed straight for Yamashiro Baiyun.

Karura tapped the tree trunk beneath her feet and appeared over ten meters away, closing the distance to the youth in a few strides.

"Sand Binding Coffin!"

Strands of sand rope suddenly erupted beneath Mo Jingxian's feet, binding him tightly in the blink of an eye.

Water splashed in all directions; the youth had already run far away, having used a Water Replacement to escape.

Karura's mood suddenly turned sour; as an Elite Jonin of the Sand, she had been played by a Konoha youth.

Although the boy's use of the technique was exquisite—so much so that even she hadn't seen through it—she could not swallow this insult.

"Kid, you've successfully piqued my interest."

Karura pressed both palms against the ground, and with a poof, she summoned a Sand Scorpion.

"Find the boy who used that technique."

The Sand Scorpion lowered its head to lick the traces left by the Water Clone, the scent of Mo Jingxian's chakra exciting it.

With two sharp chirps, the Sand Scorpion sank into the earth, tracking the scent of his chakra as it gave chase.

"Hmph! Let's see how you escape this time."

Following the direction indicated by the Sand Scorpion, Karura pursued at high speed.

[Reputation points from Karura +10]

Mo Jingxian's eyelids twitched wildly; that was already 10 reputation points?

Oh, so just because I wouldn't let you kill me, you're holding a grudge? Do people in the Ninja World have any sense of reason at all?

He didn't know why his luck was so rotten; it had only been a few days, and he was being hunted by an elite jonin again.

What was even more depressing was that this time, he had no reputation points to turn the tables.

Mo Jingxian thought as he fled; based on his current position, he should be nearing the Land of Rivers.

If he remembered correctly, there was a river in the south of the Land of Rivers that flowed directly into the sea.

The memory was a bit hazy due to the passage of time, but he vaguely recalled such a river existing.

He knew who Karura was; as the mother of the Fifth Kazekage, she was undeniably a master of Kekkei Genkai.

Being targeted by someone like her meant he would lose a layer of skin even if he didn't die.

Do or die!

Only by reaching that place would he have a chance to escape.

The two chased and fled, covering an unknown distance, until Mo Jingxian was cornered by Karura for the third time.

"I'm telling you, Karura, you don't have to keep chasing me like this."

He leaned against a large tree, venting his frustration between ragged breaths.

Karura remained unmoved; even though he called her by name, her strikes remained ruthless.

This brat was incredibly cunning; the previous two times, he had exploited her curiosity to seize an opportunity and slip away.

She had originally thought that dealing with a brat who wasn't even a chunin would be a simple task.

Unexpectedly, Mo Jingxian had managed to flee all the way here, so no matter what he said, Karura ignored him.

She focused only on delivering a lethal blow.

"Sand Style: Sand Lightning Needle!"

This was a wide-range ninjutsu, covering an area of over a hundred meters.

The sand needles fell like rain, shoo-shoo sounds filling the air.

She gave Mo Jingxian no room to maneuver.

Even a Water Clone wouldn't work; the area covered by the sand needles was too vast, completely sealing off his retreat.

There was no other way; he had to take it head-on.

"Water Dragon Technique (Seal)."

A massive water dragon poked its head out from beneath his feet, and Mo Jingxian stood right inside the giant beast's mouth.

The water dragon seemed to have been buried deep underground, suddenly emerging to swallow him whole.

Dragon scales manifested, embedded with golden runes, and the sand needles that landed upon them were deflected in an instant.

The surrounding ground was soon densely packed with sand needles.

Just as the Sand Lightning Needle technique was about to end, a bolt of lightning was drawn down from the clouds.

In a single instant, The sand needles absorbed the power of the lightning, transforming into streaks of Lightning Style that struck at Mo Jingxian, who was trapped in the center.

"I'm dead!"