The front of the river valley.
Kitahara Kaede stood on the rocky slope.
Behind him was a line of thirty Konoha Ninja holding the enemy back.
The puppet army across from them had already advanced to within a hundred meters.
Their formation was clearly organized.
The front line consisted entirely of heavily armored melee puppets. Their wooden joints clacked as Chakra Threads pulled them along, and several spikes sprang from their arms.
The puppets in the rear were ranged units.
Their hidden weapon slots were half open, poison needles gleaming darkly. Some puppets even had purple poisonous mist spilling from their mouths.
Here they came.
Kitahara Kaede brought his hands together in a seal.
His Shadow Clones spread out.
Fire Release engulfed the path ahead.
Chidori Sharp Spear precisely dismantled the three melee puppets at the very front.
Before the splintered wood had even hit the ground, the second wave surged forward.
Their numbers were far greater than the intelligence reports had indicated.
Chiyo was escalating things, trying to wear down Konoha's defenses with the expendable melee puppets in front, then use the poison puppets in the rear to finish off whoever was left.
As Kitahara Kaede took apart the puppets, he watched the paths of the Chakra Threads overhead by the light of the flames.
She was moving.
The frontal battle had gone on for nearly twenty minutes.
His Shadow Clones had exploded four times, and Fire Release had scorched the valley black.
Puppet wreckage littered the ground.
Just then, the Chakra Threads connecting to the puppets at the front abruptly snapped.
All the wrecked puppets charging ahead lost control at once and clattered to the ground.
But the rear line didn't move.
A dozen nearly invisible Chakra Threads suddenly went taut, pulling backward.
The ranged puppets, loaded with poison needles and filled with raw poison, were closer to Chiyo. She yanked them directly into the retreat route behind her, where they vanished into the shadows of the trees.
Kitahara Kaede frowned.
She had retreated.
Half an hour later, Hatake Sakumo returned from the ridge.
His face showed no emotion.
But Kitahara Kaede could tell he wasn't pleased.
"The camp was already empty when I arrived," Sakumo said evenly.
"I checked the retreat trail. They'd left less than ten minutes earlier. She slipped away ahead of us."
Kitahara Kaede spoke up beside him.
"Your route was fine, and so was your timing."
"How did she know?"
"Hard to say." Kitahara Kaede thought it over. "Maybe a sensor on her squad warned her in advance. Or maybe the pressure I put on her from the front was too strong to seem like a simple defensive maneuver."
Chiyo had lived through most of her life. No one could match her battlefield instincts.
Sakumo said nothing more.
Failing to catch the enemy commander made the whole trip to the front line a waste.
"What about next time?" Sakumo asked.
"Next time, we'll try a different approach." Kitahara Kaede turned around. "Let's head back and check the casualties first."
Field hospital.
The moment he lifted the tent flap, Kitahara Kaede paused.
Things were worse than yesterday.
Straw mats lined the corridor all the way out of the tent.
The newly arrived wounded couldn't even get a mat. They could only lie scattered across the open ground.
He made his way through the crowd toward the largest tent.
Tsunade stood in front of the medicine cabinet.
A dozen petri dishes sat on the table, their liquids an assortment of murky colors.
Beside them lay a half-stack of notes, their pages covered in frantic scribbles and cross-outs.
She picked up a petri dish and held it up to the oil lamp.
Put it down.
Picked up another.
Put it down again.
"No... This one's wrong too."
Tsunade didn't even look up when Kitahara Kaede approached. She just kept muttering to herself.
Kitahara Kaede stopped beside her.
Without raising her head, Tsunade said, "I was right about the base of the Weathered Scorpion Poison, but Chiyo mixed at least three rare ingredients into it."
"I've just tried eleven different combinations. Every one failed."
Kitahara Kaede glanced at her.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and her lips were cracked and dry.
"What's the holdup?" Kitahara Kaede asked.
"The sample."
Tsunade's slender finger tapped the middle of her notes.
"All I have is the residual poison extracted from the bodies of poisoned ninja. It's already been altered by blood metabolism, and its structure is incomplete."
She planted both hands on the table.
"To figure out the formula, I need a sample of the original toxin."
"The kind Chiyo applied directly to her puppet weapons. Without the original, all I can do is keep trying combinations and hope I get lucky."
As soon as she finished speaking,
the tent flap was lifted, and the Medical Corps carried in another stretcher.
A system notification sounded in Kitahara Kaede's ear.
[Side Quest Triggered: Help Tsunade Identify Chiyo's Poison] [Quest Requirements: Obtain a sample of the original poison on Chiyo's puppet weapons and deliver it to Tsunade for analysis] [Evaluation Criteria: Completion speed, sample integrity, performance] [Reward: Determined by final evaluation]
Kitahara Kaede glanced at the quest panel and dismissed it.
"The original toxin, right?"
"Right."
"Fine. I'll get it."
Tsunade's hand stopped in midair as she sorted through the bottles.
She turned to look at him.
"What did you say?"
"The original poison on Chiyo's puppet weapons. I'll get it."
Tsunade stared at him.
She laughed in disbelief, her voice rising sharply.
"You'll get it? Chiyo is Sunagakure's supreme commander. She has the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets, and her strength is close to Kage Level!"
"I'm not going to raze her camp. I'll grab a sample and leave."
"You think Chiyo's stupid enough to leave a poisoned puppet sitting by the roadside so you can scrape some off? She pulled all her poison puppets back from the battlefield. She didn't leave behind a single drop!"
Kitahara Kaede didn't argue.
Tsunade turned away, picking at a lab report on the table with her fingertip.
"I'll think of another way."
"How long will it take?"
Tsunade froze.
Kitahara Kaede looked toward the outside of the tent.
Another body, covered in a white cloth, had just been wheeled out. A medical ninja was recording the details.
"Every hour, another name gets carved into the Memorial Stone," Kitahara Kaede said calmly.
Tsunade pressed her lips into a thin line.
"You tried eleven combinations and failed. It's not because you're not good enough. It's because you don't have the original sample."
They stood less than a step apart.
The only sound in the tent was the weak, labored breathing of the wounded.
Kitahara Kaede looked into her eyes.
His calm confidence passed straight to her.
The tension in Tsunade's jaw eased little by little.
She turned away, opened the bottom drawer of the medicine cabinet, and began searching through it at speed.
A sealed metal jar about three fingers wide.
A specially made medical scraper.
A pair of long-handled silver tweezers.
She swept them into a waterproof black cloth bag, then returned to Kitahara Kaede and pressed it into his hands.
"I need the coating on the inside of the puppet's core joints."
She spoke quickly, her professional composure as the attending physician restored.
"Don't touch the external weapons. The poison on the inside of the joints has had the least exposure to the air, so it'll be the most intact."
"Use metal instruments the entire time you collect it. Don't let even a drop touch your skin."
Kitahara Kaede wrapped up the bag and tucked it into the innermost part of his ninja pouch.
"Got it."
Tsunade watched him.
"Come back without a single hair missing."
Kitahara Kaede pulled the blue amulet with its crooked stitching from the pocket next to his chest.
He hooked a finger through the cord and swung it in the air.
"With your lucky charm, you can just wait for good news."
The corner of Tsunade's mouth, tense for hours, finally lifted.
"Go and come back quickly."
Kitahara Kaede turned and left.
The tent flap lifted, and the night breeze dispersed some of the medicinal smell inside.
Another group carrying stretchers immediately crowded in through the entrance.
Tsunade turned around, picked up the pen on the table, and opened a fresh, blank page in her notebook.
"Take them to the third clearing."
She gave orders to the Medical Corps as they entered.
"Protect the heart and the main meridians first, and stop the poison from spreading! Get to work now!"
The tent was once again thrown into a bustle of activity.
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