You're a medical ninja, aren't you?"
"Yes..."
"Come with me."
"Yes..."
Shiraishi turned around and saw that the puppet was being controlled by a beautiful woman with long, brown hair, who looked to be no older than thirty. He recognized her as one of the two puppet masters in the Hidden Sand Village.
However, she had lost an arm, and the wound was bandaged, affecting her overall appearance.
But for a puppet master of her caliber, even losing an arm wouldn't significantly reduce her strength.
After all, a puppet master's power lies in their puppets.
The opponent led the way without any guard, seemingly having no defenses against Shiraishi. If one ignored the kunai held by the puppet, which was constantly pressed against Shiraishi's neck, this seemed to be true.
Given her current predicament, her caution was entirely expected.
It was a thick tree that would take about ten people to encircle, and even then, they might not be able to surround it. However, the bottom was hollow, revealing a dark hole with a little light shining in.
Shiraishi was forced inside, and with the light from outside, he could see some of the conditions inside.
A red-haired man lay on the ground, extremely weak, with a shocking gash across his chest. Although it was hastily bandaged, the bandages were stained with blood, and this kind of hemostasis could only last for a while.
In a little while, she would have to abandon him and escape alone.
However, Shiraishi knew from intelligence that these two puppet masters, a man and a woman, were the son and daughter-in-law of a high-ranking official in the Hidden Sand Village, a deeply loving ninja couple. Instead of leaving her husband to die here, she might have even considered a suicide pact.
This possibility also existed.
Ninjas are also human; no matter how much they suppress their emotions, it only makes them stronger.
If only calculating gains and losses, every human would be a wise person who could foresee everything.
But in reality, there are often not so many wise people who can foresee everything.
Compared to gains and losses, humans are emotional beings more easily swayed by feelings.
The best choice for this woman would be to kill her husband, dispose of his body to prevent information leakage, and then leave as soon as possible alone.
But she didn't do so, which precisely proved this point.
"Heal him, and don't play any tricks."
The woman's words were short, and Shiraishi understood her meaning perfectly.
"Understood. If I heal him, will you be merciful enough to spare my life?"
The woman didn't speak.
The kunai held by the puppet against Shiraishi's neck was almost cutting it off.
Shiraishi shrugged helplessly.
A faint green light appeared on his right hand. He squatted down and slowly removed the bandages from the male puppet master's body with his left hand. The man groaned unconsciously in his coma. Then, Shiraishi enveloped the male puppet master's wound with the green light, quickly healing it.
"This is an injury caused by Wind Release chakra... I need ten minutes to heal the wound."
"As his students, don't you know the secret of White Fang's sword techniques?"
The female puppet master frowned.
Shiraishi shook his head.
He only knew that Sakumo's sword techniques were very powerful, but he didn't know much about their secrets.
Perhaps the enemies knew, but all the enemies who knew the secrets of White Fang's sword techniques might already be dead.
How many people in Konoha knew, and they might also be keeping it a secret.
After all, casually exploring a ninja's secrets is not a wise move and can easily cause discord among comrades.
Especially for a powerful jōnin like Sakumo, the secrets of his sword techniques might only be known in detail by high-ranking officials like the Hokage.
Time passed by minute by minute, and the male puppet master's complexion improved significantly, and his breathing gradually stabilized.
The female puppet master looked at Shiraishi with a slight surprise and said, "Your medical ninjutsu is excellent. No wonder you were assigned to be by Konoha's White Fang."
She knew how serious her husband's injury was, and she didn't expect Shiraishi to handle it in ten minutes, and without even performing surgery.
Then, thinking that Shiraishi's squad leader was Sakumo, she felt relieved.
A medical ninja following Konoha's White Fang might not be outstanding in strength, but their medical ninjutsu must be exceptional.
Even most of the medical ninjas in their Hidden Sand Village, including those with excellent medical abilities, might not have Shiraishi's outstanding medical ninjutsu level.
Only then would a genin of average strength be qualified to follow Konoha's White Fang.
Konoha truly lives up to its reputation as a cradle of geniuses.
"The wound has healed, but there are still very serious internal injuries. If I want to completely heal him, I need an operating room and some herbs."
Shiraishi retreated to the side, standing honestly and dutifully.
"No need, just leave it like this for now."
A hint of relief appeared on the female puppet master's face.
Just as a string in her heart slowly relaxed, the male puppet master lying on the ground suddenly screamed, his lips began to turn dark red, and he coughed violently, spitting out strange dark red blood from his mouth.
Poison!
The female puppet master's face instantly changed in shock. As this terrifying thought flashed through her mind, the five fingers of her remaining arm began to twitch, and a terrifying killing intent appeared in her eyes, preparing to control the puppet to kill.
Her movements were not slow; to some extent, her finger dexterity was even superior to Shiraishi's, but Shiraishi had already planned ahead.
Using the male puppet master's scream as a signal, blue chakra condensed in his hand, forming a blade-like shape.
He turned and swung.
Just as the puppet was about to move, it was shattered by the hand-blade Shiraishi swung, and with a crack, a large amount of wooden splinters scattered in front of Shiraishi.
"You!"
This kind of reaction and speed was not something a genin could achieve.
The female puppet master finally realized the seriousness of the situation.
All of her strength was concentrated on her puppets.
Her previous puppet had already been shattered by Sakumo's White Fang short sword, and now the puppet she was controlling, her husband's puppet, was also damaged.
Even if she wanted to take out a new spare puppet, it would take time.
However, Shiraishi's speed and reaction surprised her greatly. Without thinking much, as Shiraishi turned and shattered the puppet, she hugged her poisoned and spitting blood husband and rushed out of the tree hole.
All she could do at this moment was to escape for her life.
As soon as she ran outside, before she had run a few steps, a small figure suddenly descended in front of her.
In her scarlet eyes, the tomoe rotated.
"Ugh..."
The female puppet master's body stiffened, and she stood rooted to the spot, unable to move.
Her husband tumbled to the ground, coughing painfully, his lips completely black.
Pfft!
A blade pierced through the female puppet master's back all the way to her chest, also piercing her heart.
The female puppet master fell straight forward, dying with an unwilling look in her eyes.
Shiraishi held the blood-stained ninja blade, his expression indifferent as he glanced at the female puppet master's corpse. Then he walked to the side of the poisoned and unconscious male puppet master, unhesitatingly slashed him in the chest, ending his remaining life.
"It was much easier than planned."
Ruri smiled.
"Of course, the puppet master's most important combat power is in their puppets. When there's no way to target the puppet master themselves, finding an opening in the enemy's defenses and destroying the puppet is also a viable method."
If he had Sakumo's strength, he would directly look for an opportunity to attack the puppet master themselves, and there would be no need to put on such a crude play and waste time.
"It seems we got lucky here. The credit for these two guys goes to you."
Shiraishi generously pushed the credit onto Ruri, while he only needed to continue hiding behind the scenes.
Ruri nodded, accepting the credit calmly.
"Oh, I forgot to mention, the Yamanaka clan is good at extracting information from corpses, provided that the brain is intact. Remember to do it cleanly and leave no traces."
Ruri suddenly remembered something and said.
"Got it. What a hassle, I have to waste my medicine again, making it seem like I'm doing something bad."
Shiraishi complained casually, rummaging through his ninja tool pouch for two syringes filled with light purple liquid, and walked towards the two corpses on the ground.
"Don't complain. We caught such a big fish this time; the village will definitely have generous rewards."
Ruri took a syringe from Shiraishi's hand and injected it into the female puppet master's corpse's neck, delivering the liquid.
Immediately after, she saw the superficial veins on the female puppet master's corpse bulging, as if they were about to burst through the skin.
This grotesque phenomenon lasted for less than three seconds, and then the corpse returned to its previous normal appearance, looking as if nothing had happened.
"I heard that Lord Hokage has a Scroll of Seals that records various powerful secret techniques and forbidden jutsu..."
"Don't even think about that kind of thing. The Senju clan wouldn't be so generous to unrelated people. If it were during the First Hokage's reign, there might still be a possibility."
Ruri's ability to pour cold water was still impressive.
After cleaning up the traces, Shiraishi and Ruri returned to the outpost with the two corpses.