Getting Ready to Fight

A breeze stirred the branches on the mountainside, raising a soft rustle. Mount Tenmoku seemed as peaceful as ever, but inside the mountain, the experiment had reached its final stage.

Orochimaru stood quietly to one side, his golden slit-pupiled eyes scanning the surrounding forest. He kept his Chakra ready, silently standing guard.

Tsukimi sat cross-legged beneath a tree and took a deep breath. His hands flew through a series of seals, and the shadows at his feet began to flow together. Four pitch-black Ninja figures slowly emerged.

"Split up."

With a thought, Tsukimi issued precise orders.

"One of you, take the lead. Find the archives and search for every scroll, record, and report related to the Living Puppet experiment. The other three, spread out and scout the base. Record its passageways, Rasa's troop positions, and its guard posts."

The four Shadow Ninjas vanished, dissolving back into shadows. They slipped into the dark cracks along the mountainside and moved through them, evading several Sand Ninja patrols before entering Mount Tenmoku Base without a sound.

Inside, the base was still bustling. Everyone had orders to evacuate as soon as the experiment ended, so most of the Sand Ninjas were focused on moving sealed supplies. No one noticed the uninvited guests in the shadows.

Tsukimi wasn't worried about getting in. No one in the Shinobi World could detect the Shadowkhan. His main concern was Rasa. There was no telling what tricks that schemer had up his sleeve.

Once inside, the four Shadow Ninjas followed their assignments. One broke away and headed down a deeper passage to find the archives. The other three spread out through the laboratories, warehouses, and corridors, recording the layout and personnel positions.

Before long, the Shadow Ninja assigned to the archives found his destination.

A heavy stone door stood shut, with two Sand Ninjas on guard outside. Though both looked tense, their attention was mostly on the teams moving supplies. Neither noticed the shadow in the corridor.

The Shadow Ninja dissolved into darkness and slipped along the shadows at the base of the wall, then through the gap beneath the door and into the archives.

Rows of metal shelves filled the vast room, all packed with carefully sealed scrolls. Every core secret of the Living Puppet experiment was stored here.

Tsukimi perked up and immediately took over the Shadow Ninja's vision. He moved closer, scanning the category labels for the crucial files.

The instant the Shadow Ninja's fingers touched a shelf, a sensor mounted on it triggered!

BZZZ!!!

Tsukimi's heart sank. Damn it. He hadn't expected Rasa to be waiting for him here! The outer guards and the barrier around the mountain weren't enough—Rasa had even rigged the archive shelves with alarms.

The next moment, a red alert erupted throughout the base. Harsh crimson lights flashed wildly, and urgent sirens echoed through the caverns. The orderly bustle turned to chaos.

"The internal barrier detected an anomaly! The alarm was triggered in the archives!"

The shouted report spread. Soon, hurried footsteps sounded from a distant passage, accompanied by the sharp ring of weapons being drawn. Through the Shadow Ninja's eyes, Tsukimi clearly saw a large force of Sand Ninjas rushing toward the archives.

The Shadow Ninja had been exposed, leaving no chance to act for now. But Tsukimi wasn't giving up.

He didn't dismiss the Shadow Ninja. Instead, he immediately ordered him to dissolve back into shadow and remain in the archives.

He then shifted all his attention to the other three Shadow Ninjas. They were still concealed in the base's shadows, untouched by the commotion, and continued to relay a live view of the interior.

The alarm changed the order of things inside the base. At Rasa's command, the Ninjas who had been packing and moving supplies dropped everything. They moved swiftly into assigned positions, setting up defenses and closing in.

Through the three Shadow Ninjas' eyes, Tsukimi watched Rasa's deployment. Guard the laboratory's core, search the archives, and seal off the mountain. The orders were carried out smoothly on all three fronts. Sand Hidden was one of the five great nations, after all. Its elite Ninjas showed their caliber.

The Shadowkhan's limitation became clear at that moment. Tsukimi used his own Chakra to activate the Tara Mask, which then used Shadow Energy to summon the Shadowkhan. That meant the Shadowkhan were not made of Chakra.

The advantage was that conventional Sensory Ninjutsu couldn't detect them. The Ninja Tribe had no Chakra, which was why they had infiltrated the base so easily.

By the same token, the Shadowkhan couldn't sense Chakra either. They had to rely on what they could see. They could count enemies and track their positions and movements, but they couldn't gauge the strength of their Chakra or tell how powerful they were.

For now, Tsukimi could only study the Sand Ninjas' positions and behavior through the shared vision, then piece together a rough estimate of their combat strength.

"Looks like three Jonin leading the force at the archives, two at the laboratory, and the rest following Rasa outside..."

He quickly sorted through the intelligence, committing the enemy deployments, defensive priorities, and routes of encirclement to memory.

Once he had gathered all the crucial information, Tsukimi cut off the shared vision and left all four Shadow Ninjas hidden, waiting for an opportunity.

Only then did he slowly open his eyes. The laziness in them was gone, replaced by a fierce readiness for battle.

The alarm carried faintly through the thick rock to the cliff where they stood. Orochimaru, who had watched the whole time, smiled and spoke in his raspy voice.

"Triggered the alarm, did you? It seems Rasa is more cautious than we thought."

Tsukimi rose and stretched, smiling too.

"A touch alarm built into the archive shelves. There was no way around it. Our presence has been exposed, and Rasa's just deployed his forces: search the interior, hold the core, and seal off the mountain from outside."

"All of Mount Tenmoku is locked down now."

He turned to Orochimaru beside him, his tone casual. "The infiltration plan failed. We'll have to fight them head-on."

Orochimaru rubbed the cuff of his sleeve with his right hand, excitement glinting in his golden slit-pupiled eyes.

He had lain low for so long, and his desire to see Rasa's Living Puppet experiment had grown impossible to suppress. He was desperate to see it for himself. A direct fight suited him just fine.

"No matter." Orochimaru stepped forward, Chakra stirring faintly within him. "This is a good chance to test the strength of our prospective Kazekage."

"Don't die here, Tsukimi!"

"Don't worry, Orochimaru-sensei."

I've got a surprise waiting for Rasa inside Mount Tenmoku Base. I hope he likes my gift when the time comes.