The Battle Ends

Tsukimi stopped in the shadows. Through the Shadowkhan's shared vision, he fixed his gaze on the Sunagakure Ninja.

The ninja had suppressed his Chakra signature to almost nothing, evading Kurenai's Sensory Ninjutsu. If not for the unusual nature of Tsukimi's Shadowkhan, no one in the valley would have noticed the observer concealed in the dense woods.

Tsukimi watched for a moment. Even as the six Sand Ninja in the valley fell one after another, the one in hiding showed no intention of helping. He remained on one knee with his palm pressed to the ground, maintaining his Sensory Ninjutsu and silently recording the entire battle.

Was he posing as a Sand Ninja?

A thoughtful look crossed Tsukimi's eyes. The man seemed to have been hiding there all along, so a disguise hardly seemed necessary.

Internal factional strife, then? If so, someone had set up the squad sent to investigate the toxin. Whoever was behind it was probably inside Sunagakure, and those six had become casualties of a power struggle.

Damn, people who played politics were fucking ruthless.

Once he had worked it out, Tsukimi stopped hesitating. Further probing served no purpose. What mattered now was ending the fight quickly and taking someone alive for questioning.

Shadow Energy gathered beneath his feet. In the next instant, the Mantis Squad's Flash Step erupted, and Tsukimi became a blur racing toward the Sand Jonin leading the group.

All four remaining Sand Ninja were focused on Orochimaru. They threw everything they had at him—Wind Release, Puppet Technique, and Swordsmanship in succession—trying to keep him occupied. Their backs were completely exposed.

Only when the sharp killing intent closed in did the lead Jonin sense the deadly threat behind him, thanks to instincts honed over years of battle.

"Not good!"

A bone-deep chill made every hair on his body stand on end. He forced himself to turn, desperately trying to marshal all his Chakra for defense.

But Tsukimi's attack was too fast. The lead Jonin was a step too slow. Cold light flashed, and a long blade formed entirely from shadow came slashing down.

Slash!

The crack of breaking bone rang out. With the last of his strength, the lead Jonin barely avoided a fatal blow through the chest, but the blade still severed his entire right arm.

Blood sprayed and the severed arm flew into the air. Agony swept through him as the lead Jonin staggered backward. His Chakra fell into complete disarray, and most of his fighting strength vanished with it.

No wonder everyone loved a sneak attack. It worked like a charm!

The sudden attack from behind left the three remaining Sand Ninja chilled to the bone. Orochimaru, who had been toying with them, lost his amused smile. Cold killing intent took its place.

There was no need to drag this out.

"It's over!"

Orochimaru's raspy voice drifted on the wind. He stopped holding back and rapidly formed hand seals. Dense swarms of snakes burst from the ground and entangled the Chunin puppeteer, who failed to dodge in time. Hidden Shadow Snake Hands shot forward, pierced the defenses of the Chunin swordsman, and killed him instantly. The remaining Jonin puppeteer fled in panic, but he could not escape the snakes swarming from every direction. With every route blocked, a giant snake slowly tightened around him and crushed him to death.

In moments, all three elite Sand Ninja were dead. Silence returned to the noisy battlefield, leaving only bloodstains and puppet fragments scattered across the ground.

The one-armed lead Jonin lay in the valley, his face twisted with pain and despair. As he looked at his comrades' bodies, the light went out of his eyes. He knew that if he was captured, he would be interrogated and forced to reveal his village's secrets.

As a Sand Jonin, he refused to become a prisoner under interrogation. Resolve flashed in his eyes. He clenched his jaw, trying to bite through the poison capsule in his mouth and kill himself.

But Tsukimi would not give him the chance this time. Shadows surged up from the ground, and several dark chains shot out to bind his limbs tight. Even thinner chains branched off to restrain his neck and pry his jaws apart, cutting off any chance of suicide.

"That again?"

Tsukimi stepped out of the shadows. That Chunin Death Soldier had caught him off guard last time, but this time he had come prepared.

You people in the Shinobi World really loved pulling that trick.

Despite his severe injuries, the lead Jonin struggled violently, his eyes bloodshot and his heart full of frustration. The chains did not budge. Tsukimi had added the Blade Squad's Shadow Shaping to the Nara clan's traditional Shadow Imitation Technique, raising its binding power to another level. The harder the lead Jonin struggled, the tighter they held him.

The battle was over. Asuma and Kurenai hurried over to Tsukimi's side and eyed the bound Sand Jonin warily.

A smile rose on Orochimaru's face. He walked slowly up to the prisoner and looked down at him, curiosity glinting in his golden, slit-pupiled eyes. He licked his lips.

"Clues planted a little too deliberately to frame someone, followed by a Sand squad arriving to carry out a mission."

Amusement colored Orochimaru's voice. Even he was interested in the force behind it now.

"What exactly do you know? This trouble in the Land of Rivers is far more interesting than I expected."

Orochimaru then began forming hand seals, preparing to use Genjutsu.

"Let me see who's really behind this farce."

Many people thought Orochimaru was poor at Genjutsu, but that was a misconception. Orochimaru was a versatile genius. In the official guidebook, the Book of the Ninja, his Genjutsu rating was a perfect ten. Even though he had not yet reached his peak, his Genjutsu was still formidable.

People had that impression because Weasel had defeated Orochimaru with Genjutsu in a single move. That did not mean Orochimaru was weak at Genjutsu. It meant Weasel was overwhelmingly strong at it.

As the saying went, Orochimaru's Genjutsu rating was ten because that was as high as he could reach. Weasel's was ten because the scale went no higher.

The lead Sand Ninja was a Jonin, after all, with a strong will. Even injured as he was, Genin-level Kurenai could not extract anything useful from him.

Orochimaru knew that too, so he wasted no more time and took matters into his own hands.

In the dense woods outside the valley, the Sunagakure Ninja remained silent, quietly watching everything that happened below.