The top-tier fighters from both sides had already joined the battle.
Among them, Chiyo was the most tormented. If there had been any other option, she wouldn't have chosen this path.
"Konoha truly is a village of geniuses. Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara left behind too many assets for them," Ebizō sighed.
They couldn't outlast them—no matter how hard they tried. Even with Chiyo's potent poisons causing heavy casualties, they still couldn't win through attrition.
As for a decisive battle? Sunagakure had no confidence in an outright victory. Their only tactic was to launch repeated large-scale assaults, hoping to catch Konoha off guard.
But Hatake Sakumo was simply too powerful—his ability to decimate puppet users was unmatched, leaving Chiyo's puppet army helpless.
"Stop admiring them! You're boosting the enemy's morale! No matter how strong Konoha is, they're still our sworn enemies!" Chiyo shouted in frustration, leading a group of puppet users into battle, swiftly harvesting Konoha ninja lives.
It was a hit-and-run tactic—sudden appearances, a wave of slaughter, then rapid retreat—to continuously weaken Konoha.
But with someone like the White Fang around, these tactics wouldn't work for long. Worse yet, Sakumo could use the same method against the Sand shinobi.
No matter how they fought, Konoha could respond in kind. Even if they suffered more casualties and lost more resources, Sunagakure would always be the one that ran out of steam first. This made Chiyo seethe with frustration.
"So what if Konoha has so many geniuses? Whether it's the White Fang, the Sannin, Dan Katō, or even that Minato kid—once they're dead, that's it! If only my son and daughter-in-law were still alive… Sunagakure has its own talents! Once my grandson grows up, he'll be stronger than any of them!"
Before Hatake Sakumo could reach her, Chiyo quickly unfurled a summoning scroll, calling out a group of puppets that charged into the ranks of Konoha's forces.
The Third Kazekage had taken the One-Tails jinchūriki, Bunpuku, to fight against Iwagakure, leaving Chiyo and her brother Ebizō to fend off Konoha's attack. Fortunately, her specially cultivated poison had given them an edge—without it, the situation would have been even more dire.
Meanwhile, Kazama Tsukasa was mixed in with the crowd, visibly distressed.
"Too many people... and I can't freely use the corpses of Konoha ninjas lying around—that limits me even more. I'm nearly out of chakra too."
Tsukasa realized he worked best in small squad tactics—especially when he didn't have to worry about teammates. That's when his full strength could shine.
More importantly, he needed to develop new Corpse-Style jutsu. His arsenal had to expand.
Reusing the same predictable moves was dangerous. The more battles he fought, the more intel got leaked, and the more likely enemies could develop countermeasures. His position would become increasingly precarious.
He had to improve constantly—keep his jutsu library fresh and evolving. Only then could he stay ahead of enemy intel and feel safe.
"If I want a life-saving technique that doesn't burn through chakra, it has to be that special Substitution Jutsu I've been designing in my head. Simulating the training process mentally is fine, but now it's time to put it into real practice."
His thoughts were cut short by a wave of gasps and screams ahead. Then came chaos—people and limbs flying through the air.
Looking up, Tsukasa saw a puppet dressed in white charging at him, swinging a huge axe straight down!
Chiyo stared at the young Konoha ninja, growing angrier by the second—if she could, she'd kill them all.
Since that was impossible, she chose to target the most promising ones instead.
Just like Konoha, Sunagakure had its own battlefield observers—recording both achievements and key enemy intel.
Chiyo already had a mental list of Konoha's notable rising stars.
She couldn't get to Minato, but she could certainly deal with the small fry.
She opened with a trump card:
"White Secret Technique: Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu!"
Ten puppets in white surged in all directions, cutting down countless Konoha ninja like wheat.
More puppet users followed suit, sending their puppets into battle.
"If Sasori could see this, he might feel comforted… But this place is too dangerous. Until I kill the White Fang, I can't let him be exposed."
Chiyo's rage eased slightly as she thought of her 6-year-old genius grandson.
Six was still young to be in a war—but not by much.
After all, Senju Nawaki died at 12, and Minato was already killing jōnin at 13.
Still, Chiyo couldn't risk her grandson dying at the White Fang's hands. She decided to go after Konoha's promising youth first.
And so, Kazama Tsukasa became the unlucky target. He watched helplessly as a white puppet charged in, followed by several more—instantly cutting down the ninja in front and carving a path.
"Medical ninja, fall back! Leave this to us!!"
"Damn it, why is the enemy leader here?!"
"That's the White Secret Technique—Sunagakure's pinnacle puppet art! Everyone attack together—don't get isolated!"
Seven or eight Konoha ninja rushed over. The first two were instantly shredded by hidden weapons launched from a Chikamatsu puppet. Another was poisoned—death was inevitable.
Three more tried to engage—only to be sliced in half by a blur of white.
All of this was done with a single finger—Chiyo's long-distance puppet control. The other nine puppets were slaughtering just as efficiently in different directions.
Shhk shhk shhk!
A storm of poisoned tools flew from each puppet, catching many Konoha ninja off guard. With no antidotes ready, they were routed.
"So, I—a mere genin—got targeted by Chiyo? What an honor."
Tsukasa took a deep breath—one misstep and he'd die. He immediately pulled out a scroll, summoning two figures in a puff of smoke.
Clang!
A metallic clash rang out as a zombie of a former Amegakure jōnin blocked the puppet's attack with a scythe.
It didn't end there—Tsukasa brought his fingers together in a hand sign, and the puppeteer zombie jōnin extended ten chakra threads, connecting to the first zombie.
The battle that followed was dazzling—zombie and puppet clashing at breakneck speed, their movements too fast for even seasoned chūnin to track. Only the clashing of metal was audible.
"This should buy me some time." Tsukasa backed off, maintaining his hand seal as if still controlling the zombies.
But it was a ruse.
Unless he needed them to perform complex or unnatural moves (like jutsu they didn't know in life), the zombies acted on instinct, requiring minimal direction—"Use this jutsu", "Target that enemy", and so on.
That was the benefit of zombies—they weren't true puppets and retained their former abilities.
Relieved to have saved his life, Tsukasa noticed the shock on everyone else's faces.
"Did that medical ninja just summon two corpses that can fight a Chikamatsu puppet?!"
"Everyone else died in seconds—how is he still alive?!"
"That's Corpse Soul Technique? It can control bodies like this? Even use chakra threads to manipulate another body??"
"One of those corpses even fights like a puppeteer… it's exactly like Sunagakure's puppet art!"
Those with combat experience against puppet users were utterly shaken—the chakra threads, the movements, the implications—it shattered their worldview.
Zombies—used like this?
Could Corpse Soul Technique really go that far?
No one cared where he got the bodies—as long as they weren't fallen allies. And if they could hold off Chiyo's puppet, that meant more lives saved.
Chiyo noticed as well, visibly stunned.
Several Sunagakure puppet users tried to destroy the zombies, but nearby Konoha ninja rushed to intercept, throwing the battle into chaos.
More and more Konoha ninja joined the fray, elite jōnin facing off against the Chikamatsu puppets—but nothing matched the visual impact of Tsukasa's maneuver.
All of it had happened in just seconds.
"That little brat is using our own village's corpses against us—how vile!" Chiyo's face twisted with rage. Her hatred of Konoha burned fiercely—she would crush anything that shone bright within it.
But… that corpse-manipulating jutsu—it was eerily similar to Sunagakure's most forbidden technique:
Human Puppetry.
Chiyo didn't believe for a second that a mere kid from Konoha had any true puppet training. Konoha didn't specialize in that at all.
"This boy must be captured alive. I need to know how that jutsu works!"
Her eyes flashed viciously. The rest of the Chikamatsu puppets began to move rapidly, their attacks intensified by puppet-launching ninja tools to disrupt Konoha's forces.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!"
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"Their weapons are poisoned—use ninjutsu, avoid direct hits!"
More chaos erupted.
Top puppet users always carried special launcher puppets, flooding the field with relentless barrages.
Tsukasa popped a soldier pill, enduring the burning pain through his veins to recover some chakra.
His gaze fell on the corpses littering the field—some with terror, some with resolve in their final expressions—eerily mirroring his zombies. Maybe in the graveyard of war, the line between living and dead was always blurred.
If he had a choice, he wouldn't become a corpse.
"Die, brat! All of Konoha deserves to die!"
A Chikamatsu puppet pierced a zombie through the chest, then rammed it into another—skewering both.
But that couldn't kill the zombies. Even poison was a joke—unless the brain was destroyed, the undead wouldn't fall.
Still, after sustained combat and chakra drain, the two zombies were overwhelmed and ripped apart.
The stench of rotting flesh filled the air—but they had bought two precious seconds.
Tsukasa retreated again and summoned another zombie, which promptly self-destructed as a Chikamatsu puppet closed in.
This sudden move caught even Chiyo off guard. That brief hesitation bought Tsukasa a crucial moment—
Swish!
A flash of a blade cleaved the puppet clean in two.
"You did well."
Hatake Sakumo stepped in front of Tsukasa, voice unusually gentle. "That old woman always uses such despicable tactics. You did great—you've changed my view of the Corpse Soul Technique. Leave the rest to me."
(To Be Continued)