Temporary Retreat

Sasori stood frozen behind his puppet, shock written across his face. He made no move, and his remaining three puppets' attacks ground to a halt.

In all his life, he had never seen shadowy beings appear out of nowhere and move in formation.

"Tsukimi's here!"

Kakashi and Obito exchanged delighted looks and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Even with Obito's Sharingan awakened, the situation was still perilous. Kakashi was nearing his limit, and Rin lay unconscious from poison. Against an opponent like Sasori, the two of them might not gain the upper hand.

If nothing else, Rin was as good as dead!

Thank goodness Tsukimi and the others had arrived in time.

At that moment, the shadows beside Rin stirred again, and two slender Shadow Ninja emerged.

One bent down and picked up the short blade the miniature puppet had knocked away. With a sharp flick of the wrist, the Shadow Ninja sent it slicing through the air to land squarely in front of Kakashi.

The other crouched, lifted the unconscious Rin, and swiftly carried her out of the heart of the battle to a safer spot at the edge of the woods.

After gently setting Rin on the ground, the Shadow Ninja reached into her Ninja Tool Pouch, searched through the tools inside, and pulled out a standard-issue Konoha antidote. The Shadow Ninja opened it and slowly fed it to her.

The standard-issue antidote could not fully counter the custom poison Sasori had so carefully prepared. It could only slow the poison's spread for a while.

The Shadow Ninja then took out bandages and quickly dressed Rin's wound, barely stabilizing her condition and keeping it from worsening.

With that done, the two Shadow Ninja stood guard on either side of Rin and made no further moves.

Once Kakashi