Chapter 11: Puppet Substitution
Swish, swish, swish…
The rustle of branches and leaves suddenly broke the forest's quiet. Three figures leaped through the treetops, moving with desperate speed.
Tekudō's eyes lit up, the corners of his mouth curling into a grin. He was just about to form the Tiger seal to detonate the trap when Sasuke's hand shot out and gripped his wrist.
"Look at their foreheads," Sasuke commanded.
The figures now caught in the trap's perimeter were not Sand ninja. They were wearing animal masks and the standard dark green flak jackets of Konoha's own intelligence operatives.
"They're ours?!"
Tekudō's hands, still holding the half-formed Tiger seal, trembled. The shock almost sent his chakra spiraling out of control, which would have prematurely triggered the trap. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. If the captain hadn't stopped him, he would have just killed their own allies.
He looked closer. Their attire wasn't standard ANBU, nor was it from the patrol division. Could they be...? His eyes widened as he realized their identity: the Konoha Intelligence Division.
For Suna ninja to be pursuing them this deep into Konoha territory meant the intelligence they carried was immensely valuable. This ambush, then, wasn't just less risky—it was a potential goldmine. An A-rank mission, at least. Maybe even S-rank. The thought of it made Tekudō's head swim. He could almost see his chūnin promotion papers.
Wait a minute, he thought, the gears in his head finally turning. How did the captain know they were from the intel division beforehand? He recalled Sasuke's uncharacteristically aggressive push to provide support, and his specific order to mark the trap with Konoha's emergency evacuation signal.
But before he could ponder it further, the three fleeing Konoha ninja passed the center of the trap. Their eyes caught the three kunai arranged in a triangle on the tree bark—the emergency signal. The two ninja in the rear, wearing hawk and cat masks, barely broke their stride, their gazes flickering with vigilance before they continued on.
The lead ninja, however, the one in the monkey mask, was the last to spot the signal. He was so startled that his breathing hitched, and his entire running rhythm faltered.
Dammit! Aren't intel ops supposed to be the elite of the elite? Sasuke cursed internally. Any battlefield veteran could have seen the flaw in the monkey-masked ninja's reaction. I ought to pin that fake chūnin down and beat him until he admits he's a spy from Iwa!
The one link in the chain that should have been foolproof was the one that failed. The Suna pursuers, each a cunning and experienced elite, immediately noticed the anomaly. Just as they were about to enter the trap's kill zone, their captain made a decisive hand signal. The six Sand ninja instantly halted their pursuit and began to fall back.
The ambush had failed.
Plan A is dead, Sasuke thought. Time to implement Plan B. He raised two fingers.
"Explode!"
Tekudō immediately activated his chakra, slamming his hands together to complete the Tiger seal.
In an instant—BOOM!
The world erupted in fire. Seventy-two exploding tags roared to life. Tongues of flame, like crimson pythons, shot up from the forest floor. The scorching shockwave twisted the air for a hundred meters, and the trees in the blast zone were instantly carbonized.
The Suna ninja, on the periphery of the trap, avoided the direct blast but were still hit by the searing heatwave. Their hair and beards were singed, their skin blistered as if hit by a massive fireball.
"That was too close. We almost got wiped out."
"To set so many exploding tags! In the entire ninja world, only Konoha ninja can be so arrogant!"
The Sand ninja felt a chill run down their spines. If they hadn't spotted the flaw, they would have been caught in the core of that blast. Few, if any, would have survived.
Sasuke, observing through his sonar, nodded in satisfaction. Though the ambush hadn't delivered a fatal blow, it had achieved its tactical objective. The Suna formation was now scattered like ants.
He unsealed a scroll from Tekudō's waist. With a tacit understanding, Tekudō grabbed the other end. With a puff of smoke, two enormous, custom-made Fūma shuriken appeared in their hands. They were taller than the men holding them, easily two meters across and weighing at least a hundred kilograms.
While the Suna ninja were still in disarray, Sasuke and Tekudō spun and hurled the giant weapons. The massive shuriken tore through the air like buzzsaws, their whistling shriek drowning out the roar of the fire. They sliced through the burning birch trees in their path and carved a deadly arc towards the scattered Sand ninja.
The strain of throwing such a massive weapon showed on Tekudō's face, the veins on his neck bulging. Sasuke, however, remained calm and composed, as if he hadn't even exerted his full strength. The benefits of his superior chakra control were immediately apparent.
Through the fire and smoke, his sonar painted a clear picture. The two giant pinwheels of death sliced through the burning trees and descended upon the two Suna squad captains with perfect accuracy. Tekudō's shuriken flew towards the puppet master. Just as it was about to hit, the special jōnin completed a three-seal sequence.
"Puppet Substitution Technique!"
CRACK!
The Fūma shuriken passed through him, and a wooden puppet exploded into splinters. The real body had already leaped five meters away. As expected of a special jōnin puppeteer, Sasuke thought. But for a puppeteer, losing a puppet was like losing an arm. His combat power would be severely diminished.