"Eight people?
Did they send another ninja squad as reinforcements at the last minute?"
It wasn't wartime, and military facilities like outposts generally weren't attacked without provocation.
Pakura and her team's mission was only to check on the outpost.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a mere C-rank mission.
What Pakura hadn't expected was that the unremarkable Mukai also had sensory abilities.
Though she still didn't know whether those abilities were reliable.
Pakura sent an orange-red Extremely Steaming Murder fireball into the sky.
As the fireball exploded over the valley,
she announced her arrival with her signature Ninjutsu.
Just then, a short, stout Sand Ninja appeared at the distant outpost high above the valley and waved toward Pakura.
Only when Pakura saw the short, stout Sand Ninja did she relax. She said to Mukai and Sasori, who had recovered some Chakra:
"Sure enough, there's nothing wrong with the outpost. That short, stout Sand Ninja is from the Haibara clan.
He specializes in Earth Release and Wind Release.
He's highly skilled in the Great Wind Sand Technique.
Come on, let's go rest inside the outpost."
Mukai and Sasori exchanged a glance, then followed Pakura toward the outpost on the heights ahead of them in the canyon.
The canyon was close to the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain.
An underground river flowed through it, making the environment much better than elsewhere in the Land of Wind.
When the three were a little over thirty meters from the outpost, Sasori lowered his voice and said:
"Jonin Pakura, there's something wrong with that ninja at the outpost.
His movements are stiff, and his expression and complexion aren't right either.
He looks... he looks like a crudely made Human Puppet."
Mukai stopped Pakura as well. At this distance, he could clearly sense the locations of the bioelectric fields.
He pointed at the fat Sand Ninja who was still waving from the outpost.
"Teacher Pakura, Sasori's right. The one up there isn't alive.
The other eight are still inside the outpost.
I'm afraid this is a trap!"
Only after hearing the two of them did Pakura stop.
She thought for a moment, then said with a smile:
"Chunin Haibara, how is your son doing at the Ninja Academy?"
The short, stout ninja at the outpost lowered his arm and replied:
"Jonin Pakura, are you remembering wrong?
I only have one adorable three-year-old daughter!"
Pakura formed an orange-yellow fireball in each hand and said coldly:
"Where are you ninja from?
How dare you attack a Sunagakure outpost!"
As she spoke, the Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder fireballs in her hands flew straight at the outpost.
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!"
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
"Earth Release: Cracking Rock Collapse!"
Several figures flashed out of the outpost,
and three Ninjutsu were unleashed at once.
The two Water Release techniques blocked Extremely Steaming Murder, while a fissure shook loose rocks from the cliff behind the three.
The falling rocks blocked the road through the valley.
The Water Dragon Bullet, drawn from the underground river, slammed into Pakura's Extremely Steaming Murder.
Most of the water dragon, which was as thick as a waist, was evaporated by Extremely Steaming Murder before it dispersed into white mist.
"Pakura of the Scorch Release, this is where you die!"
The short, stout ninja crumpled to the ground as though his bones had been pulled out, while the ninja who had leaped from the outpost took positions on either side.
The four ninja on the right wore straw raincoats and conical hats, making them immediately recognizable as Amegakure ninja.
The four on the left wore dark, tight-fitting clothes,
with gray armored vests over them and tattoos on their exposed arms.
They wore different cat masks to conceal their identities.
The ninja who had spoken to Pakura wore a brown, sleeveless, front-opening garment beneath a short-sleeved outer coat with a short hem.
He wore black gloves and black trousers, with a tachi strapped to his back.
As he spoke, he grabbed the Haibara ninja's limp corpse and flung it at Pakura.
Pakura was about to move to catch the Haibara ninja's corpse when a figure suddenly stepped in front of her:
"Teacher Pakura, watch out!
That man is Yamanaka Fū of Konoha's Root!
Don't let it touch anyone's body!
This technique is activated by controlling a puppet!"
The one standing in front of Pakura was none other than Mukai.
"Wind Release: Wind Blade Slash!"
Mukai rapidly formed Hand Seals with the hand speed of a man who had been single for twenty years, then blew an adjusted blade of wind from his mouth.
He had changed the wind blade from an extremely compressed cutting attack into a directed jet confined to the thickness of an arm.
He used the current of air to knock the incoming puppet straight to the ground.
As fairly well-known characters in the anime,
Yamanaka Fū and Aburame Torune, Danzo's two loyal followers, were naturally familiar to him.
When he stepped in front of Pakura, Sasori had already sent out Crow, a puppet he had made in the past,
to guard against further attacks.
The disguise on the outside of the fallen puppet broke apart.
Sure enough, it wasn't a living person, but a puppet made from the Haibara ninja's corpse!
It was indeed Yamanaka Fū's signature Ninjutsu, the Mind Transfer Puppet Cursed Seal Technique!
The sudden turn of events took the supremely confident Yamanaka Fū by surprise.
Behind his mask, he stared in disbelief at the boy standing in front of Pakura.
Who was he? How did he know so much about him?
Having done plenty of dirty work for Root, he instinctively glanced at the Rain Ninja beside him.
The Rain Ninja were led by a Jonin skilled in poisoned blades and needles,
and they too were a team of one Jonin and three Chunin.
On his side, he was leading three Root ninja skilled in assassination on this secret operation.
Aburame Torune was carrying out another mission, and this assassination attempt against Pakura had help from an insider in Sunagakure!
Hanzō had sent a Jonin skilled in Water Release and poisons,
while Danzo had sent him, a specialist in the Mind Body Switch Technique, to work with the other ninja. With eight ninja whose attributes countered hers,
killing Pakura, who specialized in Scorch Release, should have been easy!
As for the Chunin brat skilled in puppetry and the Sunagakure Genin who only knew elemental Ninjutsu,
Yamanaka Fū wasn't even interested in learning their names.
Two or more assassination ninja skilled with blades were a natural counter to a puppet master!
As for Sunagakure's so-called puppet genius, he could only scoff.
Only a genius who survived deserved to be called a genius!
Today, they would all die here alongside Pakura!
But the plan had gone wrong from the very beginning.
First, their opponents, who clearly had no reconnaissance or sensory ninja, hadn't fallen for the trick at all and had attacked outside the outpost.
Yamanaka Fū could never have imagined
that the boy would expose who he was the moment they met!
He had even begun to suspect that this was a trap set by the Sand and Rain Ninja working together against him!
Fortunately, Amegakure's Jonin Mugy, standing beside him, made his position clear through his actions:
"What are you standing around for?
We Amegakure ninja will hold off the troublesome Pakura!
Hurry up and kill those two brats, then come help me!"
As he spoke, he drew a Ninja Blade coated with Ibuse's poison and led the other three Rain Ninja down the cliff beside the outpost.
Yamanaka Fū put aside his worries and shouted an order:
"Use Explosive Tags to divide the battlefield!
Kill those two brats quickly, and leave the elemental Ninjutsu Genin's head intact for me!"