When, under the cover of the poisonous mist, one of the puppets darted too close to him, Nara rolled away and brushed his palm against its wooden surface.
"Cleave."
Hundreds of tiny cuts pierced the marionette in a single second, chopping it into small, perfectly even cubes. When Toshida felt the loss of connection to the puppet, he quickly used the bird to disperse the smoke and saw what had happened.
"What did you do?! That was one of my finest works! How dare you, insignificant child?! I've been killing shinobi with my beautiful creations for thirty years! And you dare destroy them—this is no longer just a fight, this is an execution!"
Kuro only laughed at those words and formed a hand seal.
"We'll see."
The shadow beneath him trembled and began to take on a strange shape. Moments later, with a thunderous roar, a silhouette burst from it, tearing through the air.
Nue.
A gigantic owl with a skull instead of a head, orange feathers, and wings crackling with lightning soared into the sky. The creature's appearance was so sudden that even the experienced Toshida panicked for the first time during the battle.
"What is that?!"
"A shadow," Kuro slowly straightened, his eyes burning with anticipation. "You know, it seemed unfair to me that you're the only one who can fly. How about we even the odds?"
The next second, the bird let out a deafening screech. A wave of raging lightning tore from its wings and, in an instant, rushed through the air, smashing into the enemy with ferocious force. The chakra threads attached to the puppet began to tremble. The marionette tried to reorient itself mid-flight, but Nara had already leapt upward and, concentrating chakra in his fist, shattered the puppet with a single blow.
Having lost two of his weapons in such a short time, the Sunagakure shinobi was angrier—and more frightened—than ever. He quickly dropped to the ground, trembling with rage.
"Looks like you're about to lose," the young man said mockingly.
Nue dove straight down, aiming directly for the puppeteer. Unable to evade, he shielded himself with the demonic marionette, placing it in the path of the strike. Kuro didn't hesitate—simultaneously with the shikigami's attack, he used the Flame Cannon, destroying the third puppet.
"How is this possible?! You should've been dead already!"
"Hm? You didn't even touch me."
"I didn't need to, considering how long you've been breathing that poisonous gas!"
"Oh, that's what you mean."
I really should've felt the poison affecting my body by now, but it doesn't affect me at all. Maybe it has something to do with Sukuna. He was called not only the King of Curses, but also the King of Poisons… though he never demonstrated anything like that. Complicated. Whatever—deal with it as it comes.
"You know, it seems your poison was just too weak. My condolences."
"You bastard!" Toshida roared and charged forward.
Kuro knew—the duel was nearing its conclusion.
The massive spider marionette rushed in from the left, while Toshida himself came from the right, snarling, holding a kunai in one hand and controlling the puppet with the other. It would have ended in a simultaneous strike from both sides—if Kuro were an ordinary genin.
But he was far from that.
The shadow beneath his feet moved once more. From it burst a massive, scaly maw at lightning speed. It was the Great Serpent—its eyes gleamed yellow, and its jaws snapped shut around the spider marionette, crushing its body in a single deadly bite.
"What?!" Toshida gasped, seeing his weapon disappear into the beast's mouth at the last moment. But it was already too late.
Nara lunged forward, vanishing in shunshin. He appeared directly in front of the puppeteer and slammed a full-powered strike into his chest. The enemy tried to jump back, but he was too slow. Kuro instantly closed the distance, delivering a flurry of blows—to the torso, the leg, the shoulder, an elbow to the jaw. Each strike was fast, precise, and lethal.
"You relied too much on your puppets," he said, evading a weak counterattack.
Toshida tried to draw his kunai, but Kuro intercepted his hand, twisting his wrist, and in the next instant ripped the weapon straight from his fingers.
"You lost."
One second—and the enemy kunai plunged into the puppeteer's heart. As if unable to believe what was happening, Toshida lowered his head to look at the wound. At that moment, his life ended.
The Sand shinobi's body buckled, and he slowly collapsed to the ground, sprawled across grass soaked with lingering poison and ash.
The young man stepped back and straightened up, the wind tousling his short dark hair. The two summoned shikigami gradually turned into shadows and returned. Looking around, Nara realized that during the fight they had moved slightly away from the original camp. The rest of his team was fighting nearby against other enemies—and it was time to help them.
On the other end of the battlefield, the air already trembled with intensity. Orochimaru stood with his head slightly tilted, as if contemplating exactly how he would dispose of his opponents. Before him stood two Sand jonin, both of whom looked quite dangerous.
Izuo—a tall, wiry shinobi with an angular face and tanned skin—wore a uniform taken from a Leaf shinobi, his forehead protector tied around his neck. Beside him stood Saido, nearly his complete opposite: short but broad-shouldered, with pale skin and sharp features. His left eye was hidden beneath a half-lowered metal forehead protector, and on his hands were elongated chakra blades, somewhat resembling knuckle-dusters, yet sharp like the fangs of a wild beast.
"So the Hokage's student himself followed us," Saido said, tilting his head slightly. "You even dragged along some brats—won't you regret it?"
"You?" Orochimaru replied in a mocking yet threatening tone. "Don't worry. With them or without them, you're corpses all the same."
"He's overconfident," Izuo muttered, already unsealing his puppets.
Silhouettes began to emerge from the smoke—one, two… five… ten. Ten diverse marionettes surrounded the puppeteer like a personal army. All were humanoid, equipped with armor, swords, nunchaku, and other weapons. Some wore masks covered in various symbols.
Seeing this, Orochimaru didn't move an inch. His eyes carefully followed every movement of his opponents.
"So that makes twelve against one. Quite an uneven fight, wouldn't you say?"
The first to strike was the puppet in a red cloak. A hail of tiny needles coated in some mixture burst from its hands. At the same time, the mask of another puppet opened, releasing a stream of searing flames. In response, Orochimaru slightly crouched and used a technique:
"Thousand Snakes Formation."
The Sannin's mouth opened wide, and an enormous number of snakes poured out, forming a wall that absorbed the entire attack. Orochimaru himself leapt back, bit his finger, and began forming seals, then summoned three enormous snakes. They slammed onto the battlefield with a crash and immediately attacked Izuo, forcing him to defend with his puppets.
"Die!" Saido shouted, instantly leaping from behind the Sannin and slicing him in half.
But instead of blood, Orochimaru's body simply broke apart into hundreds of small snakes. In the same instant, the real Orochimaru appeared behind him, the Kusanagi blade sliding from his mouth and piercing the Sand shinobi.
But Saido had been ready for this—he was a master of covert combat for a reason.
"Explosion!"
It was a clone packed with explosive tags. A shockwave rolled across the battlefield, kicking up a sea of dust. Soon, a figure leapt out of it, completely wrapped in white snakes. His skin was visibly damaged and charred, but when the snakes scattered, it became clear—the Sannin himself hadn't suffered a single scratch.
Just as he was about to land, he sensed danger. Saido was approaching from behind under a camouflage technique—an A-rank ninjutsu that allowed the user to adapt to the surroundings and become nearly invisible to the enemy. If not for the small snakes scattered around, Orochimaru might not have reacted so quickly.
Saido struck upward, his chakra blades moving at astonishing speed. The attack was dangerous, but the Sannin deflected it with a single swing of Kusanagi.
"You move quite fast. But…"
His words were cut short as two puppets flew in from behind, attempting to pierce Orochimaru from the back. For a moment it seemed they had succeeded—but Orochimaru's body instantly turned into mud, trapping the marionettes' blades and preventing them from escaping. The original appeared to the side, using:
"Serpent Flame Technique."
Fire erupted in an instant and crashed down upon the enemies, engulfing both puppets. Saido managed to escape, but unlike at the start of the battle, his face now showed clear fear.
"He's a damn monster," he breathed.
"You only just realized?" his companion snapped irritably. "We need to kill him as quickly as possible."
But the next second, a massive tail of one of the summoned giant snakes slammed down where they had been standing. Over the course of the battle between reptiles and puppets, only one snake remained—and only three marionettes were left as well. Izuo and Saido leapt aside, and the latter vanished again, activating his camouflage.
"You don't really think you can use the same technique against me twice, do you?" the Sannin asked with a smirk, rapidly forming hand seals.
"Dragon Fire Technique."
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."
After the successful combination, the already massive torrent of fire, taking the shape of a dragon, swelled even further under the force of a powerful wind, turning the battlefield into a true, blazing hell.