Not a Single Hair Lost, Yet Half a Life Gone

The next day.

The pace of the Sunagakure offensive accelerated abruptly.

Hatake Sakumo pushed aside the command tent flap, his body covered in the smoke of battle.

"Chiyo has shown herself again."

Sakumo headed straight for the sand table, his finger pointing toward the southwest.

"C4 Highland. She used a group of mechanical puppets to suppress two of our squads. The distance is too great; I couldn't get close to her main body."

Kitahara Kaede stared at the contour lines on the sand table, his gaze sliding from the C4 Highland toward the rear.

The area around the highland was entirely open ground.

No matter how strong Chiyo's battlefield control was, she would have to retreat to her base camp before her chakra ran dry.

A narrow, deep-gray marking caught his eye.

"Broken Cloud Gorge." Kitahara Kaede tapped heavily on that narrow slit on the map.

This was the only straight shortcut from the highland back to the Sunagakure camp.

Going around it would mean an extra half-hour through a minefield.

Chiyo was a commander who prioritized absolute efficiency; she would never waste time taking the long way around.

Furthermore, she would never imagine that someone would be bold enough to ambush her in the rear.

Kitahara Kaede turned and left.

Night fell.

Inside Broken Cloud Gorge, a narrow path was wedged between two sheer cliffs, blocking out the moonlight.

The wind whistled incessantly as it cut through the rock crevices.

Kitahara Kaede suppressed his presence entirely, pressing himself against the shadowed side of the cliff wall, thirty meters above the ground.

Rustle— A faint sound of footsteps crushed the wind.

A person walked from the other end of the gorge.

Her gray-white hair was combed back meticulously.

She wore a dark brown vest, and a massive scroll was strapped to her back.

Chiyo.

Alone.

Without any guards.

For a puppeteer of her caliber, bringing cannon fodder was merely a burden.

Once she deployed the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets, wherever she walked became an army.

As the footsteps reached directly below him, and after confirming that no one was following her, Kitahara Kaede raised his right hand. Lightning gathered silently in his palm.

Chidori Sharp Spear!

There was no unnecessary probing. The blinding lightning tore through the darkness in an instant, plunging straight down from thirty meters above, aiming directly for Chiyo's heart!

The rock on the ground was blasted into a deep crater, sending stone fragments flying.

The moment the lightning made contact, a wooden puppet appeared out of nowhere to intercept it, its entire right arm melted away by the lightning release.

Chiyo retreated ten meters back.

She looked up, her gaze locking onto Kitahara Kaede on the cliff wall.

"Lightning release with shape transformation." Chiyo's ten fingers spread slightly, her chakra threads glowing with a faint blue light. "The Konoha brat who dismantled a dozen of my puppets on the front lines yesterday."

"Coming to block me alone? Tired of living?"

Kitahara Kaede leaped down from the cliff, landing without a sound.

He didn't waste words.

Villains died from talking too much, though he wasn't a villain.

He formed hand seals rapidly, his chest swelling.

Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!

A sea of fire, vast and overwhelming, instantly filled the bottom of the gorge, surging wildly toward Chiyo.

This was an oppressive atmosphere he had deliberately created.

He had used his full strength from the start to give Chiyo the illusion that he was desperate to kill her quickly.

He was forcing her to reveal her trump card for defense.

"Is that all you've got?" Contempt flickered in Chiyo's eyes.

Her ten fingers flicked, and the scroll snapped open.

Two puppets of different forms swept to the front instantly.

The one on the left crossed its arms, raising a blue chakra shield to withstand the sea of fire.

The one on the right opened its mechanical ports, and its mouth spewed a massive cloud of purple poison mist, counterattacking against the flames.

Now.

Kitahara Kaede had never expected the fire release to hurt her.

What he wanted was for Chiyo to bring out this poison-spewing puppet!

The corners of Kitahara Kaede's mouth curled upward uncontrollably.

Amidst the firelight, Chiyo caught this fleeting expression.

Her heart skipped a beat.

Damn it!

But it was too late to retreat.

Kitahara Kaede lowered his center of gravity, his speed soaring to its limit.

He crashed directly into the edge of the lingering poison mist.

A dozen poison-tipped short blades met him head-on.

Kitahara Kaede leaned back, sliding past the poisoned blades. His right hand formed a blade with his fingers, wreathed in lightning, and he precisely severed the main chakra thread Chiyo used to control that puppet!

Snap!

With a swift motion, he chopped off the limbs of the poison-spewing puppet with his bare hands.

Wood chips splattered, and the puppet's torso, having lost its limb support, slammed heavily onto the ground.

Kitahara Kaede stomped on its abdominal panel, shattering it.

Inside the core mechanism, a complete, pristine poison storage sac that had never touched the air was embedded quietly in a wooden slot.

He had it.

He snatched the storage sac and stuffed it into the waterproof bag at his waist.

He kicked off the cliff wall with his right foot, using the momentum to retreat wildly toward the exit on the other side of the gorge.

Chiyo finally understood.

This brat had risked his life to charge in, not to kill her, but to steal the poison sac!

"Leave your life behind!" Chiyo was furious.

Her ten fingers pulled back sharply, and the chakra threads went taut.

The remaining puppet disintegrated in mid-air, and hundreds of poisoned hidden weapons exploded like a rainstorm, completely sealing off all of Kitahara Kaede's escape routes.

Poison needles above, a poison net below.

Kitahara Kaede's left hand erupted with Chidori, forcibly tearing through the net of hidden weapons ahead.

His body twisted to its limit in mid-air, and he forced his way through the narrow gap.

Ssh.

A pitch-black kunai grazed his right arm.

There was no bleeding, only a layer of skin scraped off.

Kitahara Kaede didn't even pause when he landed; he plunged into the forest without looking back.

Chiyo's figure surged forward, chasing him relentlessly along the path of the broken tree branches.

Two shadows chased each other at high speed through the forest outside the gorge.

After pursuing for two kilometers, dots of light gradually appeared in the darkness ahead.

Those were the torches of the patrol team on the perimeter of the Konoha camp.

Chiyo stopped abruptly.

The area ahead was already under Konoha's control.

She stared at the back disappearing into the night, snorted coldly, and turned back into the darkness from which she came.

Once infected by that toxin, the faster he ran, the sooner he would die.

The wind whipped past his ears.

Kitahara Kaede sprinted desperately through the treetops.

He was still 1.5 kilometers from the rear camp of Konoha.

To shake off Chiyo, his chakra had been operating in an overloaded state.

His blood flow had increased exponentially.

The toxin used this rapid blood circulation to spread geometrically throughout his body.

Three seconds later, his right arm began to go numb.

Ten seconds later, his entire right arm had swollen, becoming too heavy to lift.

One minute later, terrifying black-purple veins crawled up his veins, crossing his shoulder and spreading directly onto his neck.

Kitahara Kaede's vision began to blur, and the flow of his chakra was completely disrupted.

His feet hit empty air.

He fell straight from the tree trunk, crashing heavily into the mud.

Mud mixed with the smell of blood choked his windpipe.

"Cough, cough..."

He vomited a mouthful of black-purple, filthy blood.

His vision was losing focus, and the excruciating pain, accompanied by the paralysis of his respiratory nerves, pulled him toward the abyss inch by inch.

I can't die here.

Kitahara Kaede bit his tongue hard.

The sharp pain bought him two seconds of clarity.

He used his left hand to press firmly on the major acupuncture points around his right shoulder, forcibly sealing his meridians to slow the speed of the poisoned blood flowing toward his heart.

The blue amulet with crooked stitches pressed against his chest through his ninja tool pouch.

Kitahara Kaede climbed up like a dying beast, holding onto his last breath, and stumbled toward the camp.

The field hospital was brightly lit.

Tsunade had just severed the necrotic nerves of a severely poisoned casualty.

She straightened up, her vision darkening for a moment, and her body swayed.

"Lady Tsunade, please take a ten-minute break. Your chakra—"

"Get out." Tsunade pushed the medical chunin's hand away and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

She looked toward the tent entrance.

Kitahara Kaede had been gone for a day and a night.

There had been no news until now.

"Bring the person from bed nineteen over; I'll try another protocol..."

A loud noise interrupted everyone's movements.

The curtain of the main tent was ripped open violently.

A figure tumbled in, rolling two or three meters across the floor.

"Enemy attack!" The duty staff reflexively drew their kunai.

Tsunade whipped her head around. The moment she saw the figure on the ground, her pupils contracted violently.

"Kaede?!"

She knelt down immediately.

Kitahara Kaede lay on his side.

His right sleeve was shredded into rags, and his entire arm was swollen to a purple-black color.

His breathing was only inhalation, with no exhalation.

"I got it," Kitahara Kaede said weakly.

His left hand trembled as he pulled the wrapped poison sac from his waist and pushed it gently toward Tsunade.

As the last syllable escaped his lips, his eyes closed.

"Kaede!"

Her shrill cry changed pitch.

Tsunade ripped open Kitahara Kaede's jacket.

The black lines of the toxin had spread to his sternum, only two inches away from his heart.

"Emergency cart! Bring three vials of high-concentration antitoxin serum!"

Tsunade looked up abruptly, her eyes bloodshot, and roared at the stunned medical team around her, "Move!!!"

Two medical chunin scrambled to push the equipment over.

Tsunade's hands were instantly covered in high-density green chakra.

Mystical Palm Technique at full power.

She pressed both palms against Kitahara Kaede's heart, attempting to use her chakra to forcibly halt the toxin.

The moment he infused chakra, the toxins were stimulated and began to lash back violently.

Kitahara Kaede convulsed, and a mouthful of pitch-black blood surged from between his lips.

The rise and fall of his chest stopped completely.

The medical chunin held the serum syringe, staring at the monitor's needle with a deathly pale face.

"Tsunade... Lady Tsunade..."

"The poison is acting too fast. His heart has stopped, he..."

The tent was deathly silent, save for the sound of the wind flapping against the canvas outside.

Tsunade maintained her pressing posture, staring fixedly at that chest which no longer showed any movement.

Her eyes were bloodshot, rimmed with a deep, scarlet crimson.

Not a single hair was out of place, yet his life was slipping away.

"Shut up." Tsunade's voice was cold enough to shatter.

She shoved the obstructive medical equipment aside and poured out her remaining chakra without reservation.