Half a month later.
In the Land of Grass, in the battlefield region where Konoha and Iwagakure clashed.
Yubi and Sasori hid behind a mountain hollow.
They watched a relief team made up of Konoha medical and logistics ninja return from the front lines to their base, carrying seven or eight badly wounded comrades on their backs.
"That's..."
Just then, the captain leading the team was scouting ahead.
In the sunlight, he saw several drops of liquid floating in midair, gleaming red.
Was that... blood?
The strange sight made the Konoha squad captain freeze instinctively.
Whoosh!
But the next second... one drop of blood in his field of vision abruptly elongated and shot toward him.
Before he could prepare himself at all, it pierced between his eyebrows and burst out the back of his head.
He died instantly!
"Enemies! We're under attack!"
The Konoha squad, maintaining a vigilant formation, reacted immediately. The man following close behind shouted at once.
He had not even seen... what had killed the captain.
Much less realized that danger lurked nearby...
Whoosh!
Another bead of blood tore through the air, killing the Konoha ninja who had warned his comrades with terrifying speed and penetrating force.
At the same time, the rear of the squad came under attack too.
Nearly ten grotesquely shaped puppets rushed in from every angle, on the ground and overhead. Besides the close-combat puppets, others handled ranged attacks, unleashing large quantities of hidden weapons. Their "firepower" covered an astonishing area, and the bizarre variety of their mechanisms made them difficult to guard against.
Not to mention that the team had many wounded, and the medical and logistics ninja had limited fighting strength themselves. Only a handful... could truly fight.
"A puppeteer! They're from Sunagakure!"
Someone shouted.
His voice was full of shock and uncertainty.
Why would people from Sunagakure come to the Land of Grass to attack them?
And how had their battlefield route been exposed?
A small, agile figure dashed out of the shadows at the foot of the mountain.
Pulling sharp threads with both hands, the boy reached the formation where the remaining Konoha squad members had gathered in an instant. As his arms swung, a silver gleam seemed to weave and flicker through the air... but against the sunlight, it was briefly difficult to make out.
It was hard to track the elusive paths of those threads...
Seeing that the Konoha squad had taken up battle positions with practiced discipline, Yubi first flicked his hand, throwing a large number of throwing knives.
The Konoha ninja at the front knocked the blades down, thinking the hidden weapons had failed.
In an instant, the sharp knives on the ground shot back up.
They struck vital points with precision... severely wounding the ninja.
It caught them completely off guard.
At the other end, Sasori's puppets also tore open the Konoha squad's defensive formation and broke through.
With the two attacking from front and rear, the Konoha team collapsed in an instant, their positions falling into disarray.
Amid the figures, Yubi moved like an agile dancer, twisting and shifting as his throwing knives worked with his threads to swiftly cut down every enemy around him.
Boom!
Fireballs erupted, waves of heat rushing toward him.
He dodged them all.
The enemy's Fire Release failed to work.
As one figure after another fell... Yubi and Sasori worked together to wipe out the Konoha squad with overwhelming force.
"I still killed more. You lost again..."
Only after they had wiped out the enemy did Sasori leap over from a distance, looking rather pleased with himself as he eyed the blood-covered Yubi.
His puppets were art... elegant in combat.
By comparison, Yubi's close-quarters fighting, combining special weapons with ninja arts, was rather brutal and bloody.
Anyone cut by his threads had their flesh severed into several pieces.
"Yes, yes... You really are enthusiastic. You still aren't tired of this..."
Yubi looked at the fiercely competitive Sasori, shrugged, and spoke helplessly.
His ninja arts and methods could also kill without getting blood on him... He was even better at underhanded tactics.
He had simply wanted to finish the fight quickly...
To work with Sasori's Puppet Technique, it was best to have someone holding the enemy at the front, lest any of them escape.
"Someone's coming..."
The two were just about to start their usual bickering when they suddenly heard movement. Their expressions changed, and they immediately retreated, leaving the battlefield.
Their mission this time was still directed against Konoha.
The location was still the Land of Grass.
However, this time they were closer to Konoha's combat zone, and it was more dangerous.
And the battlefield intelligence the village had obtained... actually came from Iwagakure.
When it came to knowing Konoha's battlefield deployments in the Land of Grass, Iwagakure, currently fighting fierce battles against Konoha, certainly knew better. They were willing to share this intelligence simply because they wanted to use Sunagakure to cause trouble for Konoha... Otherwise, Yubi's squad could not have struck their targets so precisely.
Although... Sunagakure and Iwagakure also had their conflicts, the hostility was not nearly as intense as it was with Konoha.
That was how battlefields in the Shinobi World worked.
Sometimes... the enemy of your enemy was your friend.
Sharing this kind of intelligence cost Iwagakure nothing. On the contrary, it benefited them.
Why not?
Besides... they had not taken this mission of their own accord.
The village had assigned it to them.
They would be operating on the battlefields of the Land of Grass for quite some time... Besides targeting Konoha, their squad was also responsible for collecting intelligence here.
Of course, for safety's sake... the battlefield region they operated in was quite far from the Land of Grass's main battlefield, on a separate battlefront.
After all, the one commanding Konoha's forces on the Land of Grass battlefield was Orochimaru, one of the Sannin.
Their squad still had to keep a respectful distance... Otherwise, once they attracted his attention, the consequences would be more than they could bear.
"Well done... Although the target was only a logistics squad with quite a few wounded, I can see that you've already built a foundation of practical combat experience. What pleases me most is that you're working together more and more smoothly."
As Sasori and Yubi raced along, their captain, Arai, caught up from nearby and came alongside them.
He had been watching and protecting them from the shadows the entire time.
Unless something unusual happened... he would not intervene.
His main purpose was to temper the two younger ninja.
Sasori remained unmoved by Arai's praise.
To him, Arai was a Kazekage guard, and, more importantly, a direct subordinate of the Third Kazekage... He was not worthy of trust.
"Lord Kazekage gave instructions. He wants you to first try out your Kekkei Genkai in various combat scenarios, against different situations and opponents, and see where the upper limit of its versatility lies within your capabilities... By versatility, he doesn't mean adding variations through ninja arts, but simply how much you can achieve with blood alone."
Arai looked at Yubi.
"Yes... I understand."
Yubi nodded.
Arai smiled slightly. "Let's go... We'll move to another, smaller battlefront. The Konoha forces here will soon learn of our presence. Continuing to operate here would be dangerous. Our mission this time is actually quite simple: harass Konoha's various minor battlefronts and cause them as much trouble as we can."
Put plainly, they would strike once, then move elsewhere.
That was a little safer.
Although they could not seriously affect Konoha, the different battlefield environments and harassment operations still provided excellent "nourishment" for Yubi and Sasori at their current stage.
The Land of Grass was not large overall, but Konoha and Iwagakure had many battlefields there, both large and small.
Both sides had made their combat deployments in succession over a long period, all for the sake of ultimate victory... The battlefields of today had not formed overnight.
As long as they stayed away from the main battlefield region, there was enough for their squad to farm experience.