The three genin stopped abruptly as their teacher came to a sudden halt. Before one could even ask why, the ground beneath their feet surged upward!
"Lizard puppets!" one gasped, looking down. Their teacher's defensive puppets had deployed instantly.
Fierce whistling sounds filled the air as jagged spears of earth tore through the sand, thrusting toward the group. The lizard puppets extended side-shields, successfully sheltering the genin, though the sheer force of the Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears completely skewered the wooden frames. The three students were nicked and bruised, but alive.
Tade leaped high, Narrowly dodging the primary spike. His heart hammered. 'Who has Earth Style this potent? A Stone ninja?'
Mid-air, he unrolled a scroll. Three distinct puppets materialized: a rotund "Fatty" holding a heavy shield, a "Skinny" with high-speed buzzsaw blades for hands, and a "Twin-Head" with four arms.
A shadow blurred across the dunes. In the open desert, there was nowhere to hide, but the figure—Fox—didn't seem to care. He charged head-on.
*Clang!*
The buzzsaw struck Fox squarely in the throat. Tade's heart leaped with joy—but only for a second. The high-speed saw blade shattered against Fox's skin. Under the moonlight, a dull, reddish-copper sheen pulsed at the point of impact.
"Copper Fox!" Tade hissed, his face pale.
During the Second Great Ninja War, puppet masters had two primary nightmares. The first was the White Fang, whose blade could shred any puppet. The second was the ANBU's Copper Fox. If physical attacks were useless, puppets became little more than expensive kindling.
Tade retreated with his melee puppets and sent the Twin-Head forward. Both heads exhaled clouds of red and purple toxic gas.
'If I can't break your skin, I'll rot your lungs,' Tade thought. But the Fox simply dove into the earth.
*CRACK.*
Fox re-emerged beneath the Fatty puppet, his copper-toned hand smashing through the iron shield as if it were parchment. He lunged into the puppet's chest. Poisoned needles and kunai fired from the puppet's hidden compartments, but they only shredded Fox's clothes, sliding harmlessly off his skin.
Tade watched in horror as Fox literally tore the Fatty puppet in half with his bare hands. Parts scattered across the sand. The Skinny puppet lunged to assist, but Fox caught the spinning saw with one hand, ripped off the puppet's arm, and kicked it away like a toy.
He was in front of Tade in an instant. Fox's fist buried itself in Tade's chest.
Yagami's eyes shifted. 'This feeling...'
Tade's chest shattered, but there was no blood—only gears and springs. A hidden steel cable shot from the cavity, lashing around Yagami's arms and shoulders, binding him tight.
Tade had a heart, but his lungs and liver were gone, replaced by machinery. He had modified his own body. The Twin-Head puppet appeared behind Yagami, its heads pressing against his shoulders as it released a double dose of concentrated toxin.
Tade stared as Fox inhaled a massive lungful of the gas. 'Is he dead? Just like that?'
[Detection: Host has died. Arc of Moon System initializing...]
...
Yagami's vision blurred and reset. He was back at the last full moon.
The "test run" was a success. Tade was indeed an elite Jonin; a normal ninja would have been ground down by his relentless mechanical tricks. This time, there would be no mistakes.
[ Arc of Moon Activated!]
[Reward: One gacha draw...]
Yagami chose *Elite Jonin-level Chakra Reserves. His total capacity surged to 3.4 times that of an elite Jonin. The sensation of his chakra pathways expanding was intoxicating.
The timeline repeated. Yagami and Umeka arrived outside the capital.
"I'll set the ambush," Yagami said. "Stay back."
Umeka watched him vanish into the sand. He remained there, motionless, for hours. She was struck by his discipline; the wind blew sand over his position until it was indistinguishable from the rest of the desert.
Tade emerged with his students. "When traveling the desert at night, use the stars to orient yourselves," he lectured, pointing at the sky.
Suddenly, a Earth Style: Mud Wall ten meters high and thirty meters long erupted from the sand, bisecting the group and isolating Tade from his genin.
Yagami burst from the earth, slamming a Self-Exerting Binding Seal onto the ground. The ink raced up Tade's legs.
Tade panicked, but before his hands were locked, his fingers twitched. He wasn't worried; only his head and heart were vulnerable. He activated the cable trap in his chest.
But as he fired the steel wires, his eyes widened in shock. The enemy ducked and pivoted with eerie familiarity, as if he knew exactly where the cables would fire.
Yagami's kunai drove straight through Tade's heart.
'How... how does he know all my secrets?' Tade's eyes went dark. It was Yagami's second time fighting him; every trick was already documented.
Once the body went cold, Yagami hoisted it onto his shoulder and bolted north. Umeka scrambled to keep up.
"Should we kill the witnesses?" she asked, glancing at the three genin.
"No," Yagami replied. "I only used one Earth Style wall and a kunai thrust. Who would link that to the Leaf's Copper Fox? Leave them alive, but lure them toward the Land of Earth. Let them think a Stone ninja did it. If we want to avoid retaliation against the Leaf, those three are more useful alive."
Umeka's eyes flickered with realization. 'Copper Fox doesn't spare genin out of mercy—he spares them for the sake of the play.'