"Regroup and attack with wind techniques; Konoha has the most fire-technique users of any country," I heard Malkia say.
Trying to attack by exploiting the elemental disadvantage, it's a shame I'm not a fire user.
I threw an explosive kunai in her direction, only for her to turn around, using a wind technique with her open fan to deflect my attack.
As the kunai fell, the Suna ninja stared at the object.
"Quite cautious," I thought to myself, observing her actions.
The battles around us continued unabated, but where I stood, there was no one else around.
"Show yourself," Malkia declared, looking in my direction.
In my mind, several ways to defeat her ran through my head, but since I'm not using any of my lineage, I think I'll take this opportunity to test my kenjutsu skills.
Making a hand seal, my attempt at a flail with an axe at one end, which I'd requested be made some time ago, appeared in a puff of smoke; it was time to try it out.
I stepped out of hiding to reveal myself to the Suna kunoichi, who glares at me.
"What do you think you are, Konoha ninja, a berserker?" she asked, somewhat offended.
"I didn't know only Suna had permission to use giants and still call herself a ninja," I retorted as I began to rapidly spin the mace.
At my comment, she looked at her giant fan.
"Heh, I think you're right; it was a bit hypocritical of me," I said mockingly, quickly getting into a fighting stance and unleashing a barrage of cutting wind slashes with my weapon.
I swiftly dodged the attack, spun around with my weapon, and, using the end of my axe, hurled my mace at her at full speed. She narrowly dodged it, but the area where the kunoichi stood was completely pulverized.
"Tch," she clicked her tongue at the sight.
I saw her start forming hand seals, but then I noticed something, so I ran toward her.
Seeing me approach, she took several steps back.
"Fire-Wind Combination," she said, but I countered with something faster.
"Kai!" I exclaimed, and the kunai I had thrown, which was just a few steps away from Malkia, exploded.
She reacted immediately upon feeling the explosion, shielding herself with her fan, but the blast threw her against a tree.
Taking advantage of the situation, I hurled my mace at her. With the same speed, she again defended herself with her fan, this time completely closed.
When the mace hit the fan, it opened. The kinetic energy of the fan's impact surged into her chest, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to vomit a little blood and slightly damage the tree.
But this didn't stop the Suna ninja. She immediately got up, her legs trembling, unaware that the fan was about to shatter, and prepared to attack. Unfortunately for her, I was faster.
With a Shunshin, I positioned myself behind her and delivered a chakra-amplified punch, shattering her jaw and sending her flying.
Realizing she was still conscious, as I heard her moaning as loudly as she could—her mouth was broken and blood choked in her throat—I approached and, using the chakra scalpel, severed the tendons in her feet, preventing her escape. Then, with a single stroke, I destroyed her weapon.
"It was faster than I expected; it was an unplanned trap, but it served me well. Now, you're not who I was looking for, but you'll do for now," I said, lifting the Suna ninja by her hair, watching her moan, blood trickling from her mouth and tears streaming from her eyes.
'I should heal her, or she'll bleed to death,' I thought, seeing her in that state.
I quickly applied a chakra suppression seal and began healing her using the Mystic Palm Technique. While I was doing this, I suddenly heard some people appear near us in a tree.
"Mistress Anbu, I would like to request the release of our kunoichi. We don't have as many skilled ninjas left as Konoha, so returning her would be ideal." The voice sounded older, but not very old, around Tenya's age.
I turned around to see a puppeteer standing next to two puppets, holding a jonin from my team hostage.
(Note: Ebizo was never seen fighting or given any indication of his fighting style, but it can be deduced that he was a puppeteer like his sister, though more focused on tactics and strategy, while Chiyo was more into poisons and medical ninjutsu.)
Both puppets were pointing poison-laced weapons at him, but that wasn't what mattered to me; what I noticed was the puppeteer; it was Ebizo, the person I was looking for.
"Bingo," I said, standing up and grabbing my weapon.
"Oh, you'd rather fight me than rescue your partner; I guess Konoha isn't what it used to be, or maybe it's just you," Ebizo said, not very surprised.
"You should already know how political propaganda works; besides, for a captured ninja, it's better to die quickly while destroying their body so as not to give vital information to the enemy." With that, I threw a kunai at the Konoha ninja, who opened his eyes in surprise.
The puppets tried to intercept the kunai, and I just smiled at the sight.
"Kai," I said with a hand seal, and the kunai exploded, killing the Konoha ninja and partially destroying Ebizo's puppets in the process.
I love that seal, the best fūinjutsu I've ever invented.
"A kunai that explodes without an explosive talisman—since when has Konoha advanced so much in its military technology?" he questioned, extremely worried at the sight, as he summoned his puppets to his side.
I just looked at him and launched an attack.
In response, Ebizu pulled out a scroll, and two more puppets emerged from it, quickly moving to intercept me.
I simply twisted my body and, using the chain, sent the mace flying at one of the trucks, which was completely destroyed in one swift motion.
I saw Ebizo grimace at this, but it didn't stop his attack.
From his other puppet, he extended his arms to the side, and two large scrolls appeared, from which thousands of kunai, infused with poison, emerged.
At this, I stood firmly on the ground and, using the chain, began to swing the axe around my body, which blocked and deflected all the kunai.
(Note: Breath of the Rock, Third Form: Fire Reflection)
Once the attack ended, I saw several balls of smoke fall beneath me, and with an explosion, the area where I stood was filled with poison.
I squinted at this; I expected the poison, it's the puppeteers' primary weapon; the puppets themselves would be the second.
A sane person would simply emerge from the poison mist, but I'm not in my right mind.
I opened my mouth and held back a large amount of poisonous smoke without swallowing it, using my chakra and cellular vitality to slow the poison's effects as much as possible. If I wanted, I could try to get rid of it, but I'd be foolish to do so.
Walking around, sensing Ebizo approaching Malkia, I began rapidly spinning the mace.
Ebizo stopped dead in his tracks, having heard the clanking of the chains, but I didn't care.
Using all my strength, I hurled the mace at Ebizo, who had replaced *it* with one of the two destroyed trucks, thus avoiding the attack.
Before emerging from the smoke, I created a shadow clone, which hid underground.
Running, since I had to end this fight quickly, I emerged from the smoke while forming two hand seals to unleash the Earth Release: Earth River Flow.
This destabilized the area where Ebizo was standing, trapping him and his puppets in mud.
Ebizo quickly emerged first and then attacked his puppets. While he was doing this, I summoned Etto and imbued him with Wind Release chakra, changing his composition.
The moment Ebizo pulled the puppets out of the mud, he lay motionless on the ground for a few seconds. He removed something, and my clone used it to grab him by the legs, pinning him to the ground.
"What the...?" he said, looking down, but that was a mistake.
I had been practicing with Etto for some time to create a powerful fire technique, enhanced with wind, and this made me realize that I could perform the following attack using only the wind element of the weapon.
Making a slash through space, I generated a powerful gust of wind infused with my chakra, which traveled directly to Ebizo, striking him squarely and cutting his chest, but not killing him.
My clone emerged from the ground and pointed a kunai at Ebizu's neck as I trotted toward him.
"Surrender, Ebizo; you've lost," the clone said, since I had the poison in my mouth.
Ebizo said nothing, only stared at the ground in defeat while clutching his wound.
Unfortunately for me, a kunai with a talisman landed near my clone, destroying it with its shockwave and freeing Ebizo.
"Konoha ninja, you won't get away with this for harming Elder Ebizo and Miss Malkia," came the distant voice of some Suna ninja.
At this, Ebizo reacted quickly and lunged at Malkia, but I wouldn't allow it. With a swift movement, I severed the arm that was trying to touch my hostage.
"Ahh!!" came his cry of pain, but I couldn't do more, as two Suna ninjas were already upon me.
I quickly formed two hand seals and created several spikes of earth that killed one of the ninja.
The other managed to jump away in time, so I grabbed the chain that was nearby and, spinning it, threw it at the man. He tried to block it with a kunai, but it was destroyed along with half of his torso.
"He's very strong," I heard one of the ninjas say.
I wasn't going to allow it, so I threw the rest of the kunai I had, each with an explosive tag, toward where he was escaping.
They managed to damage some of them, but my prize, Ebizo, managed to escape with only one arm.
The place was left with two enemy ninjas lying on the ground; their comrades had already abandoned them, two more were dead, and a hostage had fainted from the pain in his jaw.
Seeing this, I could only sigh, since I couldn't follow him at that moment.
...
The battle ended with mixed results. You managed to capture one of the heavy hitters, but Ebizo escaped.
We managed to repel Suna's attack, but with several casualties, a bit more than expected, which bothered me somewhat.
Dragging a conscious but badly wounded Malkia, I walked to where they were tending to the injured ninjas.
I had taken off my Anbu uniform and was only wearing chainmail and a bra.
Ignoring the stares of the others, I reached the head of the Medical Division.
She looked at me in surprise; I simply pointed at a pipe extractor she had at her side and then at the main cannon.
She seemed to get the hint, so she took what I pointed at and followed me.
Leaving Malkia in a corner of the place, I took one of the research tubes I had and exhaled the poisonous smoke from my mouth until it was full, and then I sealed it. Then I took another one and did the same.
Finally, using the poison I had stored in my mouth, I filled two test tubes with poison gas and some saliva, but I could easily get that out.
"Commander, is this what it is?" she asked, seeing the test tubes.
"Poison," I said simply. "Go find the head of the intelligence division. I'll need him here when I interrogate this prisoner."
"But we don't have an order for interrogation and torture," she told me, sounding worried.
"Don't worry, I'm more than enough." She paled slightly at that.
"Once I analyze this poison and this one," I said, taking out one of the kunai the puppet had thrown earlier, "I'll send you the data so you can make a cure for the others, since they might have the same or similar poisons."
"Understood," she replied, bowing and running away almost as fast as Minato.
As soon as he left, I could breathe a sigh of relief.
I just kept thinking that if I had the Flying Thunder God Technique, I could have pursued Ebizo and kept Malkia safe.
"I think it's time I learned it," I told myself as I began to devise a strategy to retake the strategic position Suna held, but first, I needed to extract information from this Suna ninja.
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Hi everyone, I wanted to apologize for the delays and long gaps between chapters.
In case I didn't explain or if you forgot, I write the chapter during the day and upload it almost immediately after proofreading and editing it.
But sometimes I can't write during the day, whether it's because I'm sick or I don't have a mouse to edit the chapters, and I know that if I upload a chapter with bad spelling, I'll get crucified, among other things.
These are just excuses, but there's nothing else I can do.
Also, if you want to tell me something, like suggest a change to the story or tell me I'm doing something else, feel free to do so.
If I agree with you, I'll say, "Damn, I messed up," and I'll fix it if I can. Of course, that's only if you want to.
That's all; I hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you later.