The buzzing continued, intrusive and pressing, as if an entire swarm circled right by my ears.
My body grew heavy, my fingers stopped obeying, and the last remnants of sensation slipped away like sand through my hands.
Only about forty percent of my chakra remained — I felt it instinctively, my limit.
I needed to turn the situation in my favor, or I'd die here.
My heart pounded loudly, a dull roar building in my temples.
What do I have? What can I use??? — the thought raced like a beast in a cage.
My hand instinctively reached into the pouch, desperately trying to feel something useful… and touched emptiness. My fingers scraped the fabric, and I realized — there was a hole. All the kunai and shurikens had almost fallen out.
"Perfect…" — I noted grimly, feeling anger boil somewhere in my chest.
And then a word flashed in my mind: Drug.
The chances were small, but if it restored even a little chakra…
Hop — in the next moment, the hail of needles stopped. Not knowing for how long, I decided to act without hesitation. I pulled out a nearly full pill and tossed it into my mouth, swallowing it without water.
I hadn't taken such a large dose before, — raced through my mind, and along with that thought I pulled a smoke bomb from the scroll and threw it with all my strength at my feet.
A dry pop — and thick gray smoke began filling the clearing.
I hoped it would at least partially hide me from his eyes.
Crouching, limping, I moved to another tree. It all took about twenty seconds, but it felt like an eternity.
The pulse from the pill began spreading through my body — hot jolts flowing from my stomach to my limbs. I yanked out the main stingers from my hands and feet that were hindering movement and threw them aside.
Numbness still kept my muscles semi-paralyzed, but the circulating chakra slowly slowed the process.
The buzzing behind the smoke did not die down. It moved, changed intensity, and I realized — he hadn't lost me.
Damn… he navigates not by eyes, but by the bees.
If I just stepped out of the smoke and tried to run — he would track me with those giant bees.
But… — a thought flashed like a spark, and my hand reached for the chest scroll on its own.
Click, unseal — and in my fingers was a small, dense packet of greenish powder. The smell burned my nose even through the smoke — it was a special mixture that turned into a poisonous cloud upon explosion.
In the other hand — an explosive seal, the last one I had stored. And a single kunai.
"Alright…" — I muttered under my breath, as my fingers worked quickly and precisely, assembling everything into one device: the kunai as the base, the packet tied to the handle, the explosive seal fixed on top.
Hop — and it was ready.
In the next moment, I threw it into the center of the clearing, where, by the buzzing, the swarm was densest. The kunai disappeared into the smoke, dissolving in the gray haze.
My fingers formed the seal, and I inhaled sharply.
"Wind Element: Great Gust of Wind!"
A stream of air burst forth, cutting through the smoke and lifting the kunai. I felt it rush forward, crashing into the heart of the enemy swarm, which, caught in the wind technique, was thrown toward the kunai.
The explosion rumbled dully, buried in thick smoke, but its force was enough to tear apart dozens of bees. The packet went off, and along with the shockwave, a greenish mist rose into the air.
The buzzing became intermittent — part of the swarm was thrown off course, some bees began to fall to the ground, twitching their legs.
"Got you…" — I whispered, but the joy was premature.
Through the smoke and poisonous mist came a sharp whistle, and through the gray veil he emerged.
—He wasn't harmed by that attack at all??? Was that a clone?? He held a tanto in his hands, and behind him, like a living cloak, the remaining bees moved.
—Clever… but not enough! — he roared and lunged forward.
I barely had time to raise shurikens, clenching them between my fingers to meet the first strike. The metal clanged, resonating pain in my numb fingers.
He pressed, giving no space. I felt the pill flowing stronger into my blood — my heart pounded in my temples, muscles responded faster, vision sharpened, but fatigue still hung like a heavy weight.
And then — hop — a cry rang out. Not mine. His.
He jerked back, but already I could see a streak of red spreading across his leg.
"What did you do?!" — he shouted, looking at me, then down, where blood slowly trickled along his shin.
"Didit work?.." — flashed through my mind.
My gaze fell on the thin, almost invisible line I still held in my left hand. Along it, a cold whisper of wind chakra moved silently.
I had prepared this even before dispersing the smoke — stretched the line between two trees, just below knee height. But that wouldn't be enough: a normal taut thread, he would feel before even entering the danger zone. So I infused it with wind chakra, turning it into an invisible blade, sharp as a razor.
Through constant contact with my finger connected to the line, I maintained the chakra flow, preventing it from revealing itself through random noise or reflections.
"How annoying you are!" — he shouted, and at that moment his eyes filled with thick blood, as if rage and madness had been poured into them simultaneously.
He straightened sharply, muscles in his arms and shoulders tensed so that it seemed the skin would split. With one swift motion, he cut my line with his kunai, the metal glint disappearing in a blurred trail — he was already lunging at me.
I barely managed to step aside, but the tanto grazed my shoulder, burning through fabric and skin with a hot stripe of pain. Without losing pace, he made a horizontal cut, forcing me into a deep crouch and to deflect the blade upward with a shuriken.
Metal clashed with metal with a dry, furious ring. The vibration of the strike echoed in my numb fingers, but I hooked his blade, twisted my wrist, and tried to pull it aside. He seemed to read the move — intercepted my shuriken, slammed his knee into my torso.
"Move…" — I shouted, forcing my legs to work, though every muscle ached and responded with dull pain from the stings.
I moved aside, but his blade already slid in an arc, forcing me to block with a shuriken. Every metal contact burned my palms, numbed from the stings.
He pressed, closing distance — short thrusts, low kicks, chopping movements with the tanto. I no longer attacked, only defended, sliding to the side, keeping his weapon away from vital points.
A couple of counterattacks succeeded — a light punch to the shoulder, a sharp palm strike to the wrist — but strength drained faster than I could recover. Breathing became heavy, heart thumped irregularly like a cornered beast.
His movements were relentless and pressing. Every time I tried to gain distance, he instantly closed it, forcing me to block again. The tanto flashed centimeters from my face, shoulder, neck.
I tried to break his rhythm: crouched, let the strike pass over, stepped to the side, but he instantly spun and tripped me with his foot. Pain shot through my thigh, and I nearly fell.
Now I held on only by stubbornness. My left hand constantly reached for the nearest tree for support or cover, while my right deflected strikes, preventing him from breaking through.
"Time to finish this with you," — he said, slowly straightening. His eyes shone with cold determination, the tanto in his hand trembling slightly, ready to strike.
I wiped blood from my lips, smirking crookedly.
"Thought so…" — I replied, raising my hand.
He stepped forward — and in that instant, confusion flickered in his pupils. Pain distorted his face, his legs wavered, and he collapsed heavily to his knees. The tanto slipped from his fingers, clanging against the ground, and moments later his entire body hit the wet grass with a dull thud.
"Hop…" — I exhaled, listening as silence slowly swallowed the field…
"One minute exactly…" — I said aloud, so as not to sink into growing weakness, — that's how long you lasted against the poison.
I slid down to the nearest tree, settling onto my knees, leaning my back against the rough trunk. Muscles no longer obeyed, breathing was hoarse.
"Ouch…" — slipped quietly, as the stingers in my back, which he had launched at the start of the fight, seemed to come alive and sink deeper into the skin. Pulsing pain and heat spread along my spine, but I allowed myself a short smile.
"I won…" — I said, feeling my eyelids grow heavy. And maybe I couldn't get up and leave now, but the main thing was done — he would never rise again.