"Who?"
Nara Shikashin was sleeping, but the moment he sensed someone enter, he woke up instantly.
"Senior, it's me. Orochimaru and the others fell into an ambush by Iwagakure. They've suffered heavy losses. Currently, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Sakumo Hatake are being pursued and are in poor condition. I need to go assist them."
"Wait—"
Before his raised hand even completed the gesture, Takashi's figure had already disappeared from the command tent.
A still-drowsy Nara Shikashin wanted to ask, How do you know they were ambushed and are being chased?
How did he know?
Say something before running off!
---
Having finally managed to establish contact with the camp and realizing reinforcements were possible, Jiraiya grinned, his spirits lifting.
"So, we're not going to die? But wait, Takashi is just a medical-nin; how is he going to rescue us?"
"Idiot."
Orochimaru didn't bother explaining, nor did he want to engage with Jiraiya at all.
Seeing this, Sakumo Hatake could only chuckle and say, "Orochimaru, honestly, I'm curious too. Care to share?"
Since they had nothing better to do while hiding, they might as well chat.
Orochimaru opened his mouth but ultimately decided to give Sakumo a little face.
"Takashi isn't just a simple medical-nin. He's very strong; my intuition isn't wrong. Plus, he has created a large number of puppets. At least five hundred of them are at jonin-level strength, with over a thousand in total."
For the sake of the mission, Orochimaru had helped Takashi gather a significant amount of materials, hunting down creatures on par with jonin-level strength.
He firmly believed Takashi could turn these bodies into powerful puppets.
"Hissss..."
Hearing that Takashi had over a thousand puppets, at least five hundred of which were jonin-level, Sakumo couldn't help but draw a deep breath. He suddenly felt a sense of helplessness—was there even a point in fighting this war?
With Takashi on the battlefield, controlling thousands of puppets charging all at once, wouldn't that be an unstoppable force?
And yet, someone like Takashi, holding such astonishing power, was just sitting back in the camp as a medical ninja. That was bizarre.
If Sakumo had such strength, he'd have been flying high a long time ago.
Jonin-level strength for at least five hundred out of a thousand puppets—Jiraiya spent a moment trying to calculate this absurdity with his fingers.
"Ahhh! They should have sent him to the battlefield sooner."
If Takashi had been deployed immediately, would they have found themselves in such a dire situation?
If the puppet army were unleashed, they could smash the enemy until they didn't even recognize their own parents.
Even though this was just Orochimaru's claim, everyone who knew him understood that he didn't joke around—especially not about serious matters.
Right now, they were being pursued. If Takashi couldn't come to their aid, there was a high chance that the three of them wouldn't make it out alive.
"Surround them! Keep searching!"
Around the cave where Orochimaru and his team were hiding, a large group of Iwagakure shinobi were scouring the area, determined to drag the escapees out.
The commander, Kitsuchi, was also among them.
Iwagakure had decided to take the offensive against Konoha silently but decisively. Their goal was clear: eliminate the emerging powerhouse shinobi of Konoha.
Sakumo Hatake, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya were rising stars of Konoha. If they could be eliminated, it would extinguish the bright future of Konoha in its cradle.
This kind of assassination tactic was typical among the Five Great Nations.
With Konoha caught up in its fight against Sunagakure, it gave Iwagakure the perfect opportunity.
Given the pace at which Iwagakure's shinobi were searching, it wouldn't take long for them to locate Orochimaru's group, who were already exhausted and hiding. While Orochimaru might still have a bit of fight left in him, Sakumo and Jiraiya were out of commission.
Sakumo Hatake's luck seemed terrible lately—first getting severely injured in an encounter with Hanzo of the Salamander, and just after recovering and re-entering the battlefield, he got caught in Iwagakure's ambush.
In the pouring rain, a massive eagle puppet approached swiftly from the sky.
Takashi relied on the puppets' location to pinpoint where Orochimaru's group was hiding.
Looking at the dense number of enemies on the ground, Takashi couldn't help but smile. "Iwagakure really doesn't pull punches—when they act, they go for a full sweep."
It was obvious that they intended to wipe out Konoha's rising stars in one fell swoop.
It seemed like in the original story, Tsunade and her companions also faced a similar ambush. If Konoha's rescue army hadn't arrived in time, there would be no legendary Sannin today.
It was no surprise that even with Tsunade stationed in the village, with Sakumo replacing her, Orochimaru's group still faced an ambush.
"Tsk, sometimes being too famous isn't a good thing."
After locking onto the target location, Takashi piloted the puppet to rapidly descend.
"Kitsuchi-sama, something is coming from the sky!"
The giant eagle's descent quickly attracted the enemy's attention, and all the Iwagakure shinobi ceased their search, focusing their eyes on the sky.
"I'm here. Come on out."
In the cave, the crow puppet's eyes suddenly lit up again.
Orochimaru let out a sigh of relief. Help had arrived—and it was surprisingly fast.
He helped Sakumo Hatake to his feet, and slung Jiraiya, who was lying there like a dead pig, over his shoulder. Orochimaru then quickly made his way to the blocked cave entrance.
"Prepare for combat!"
Kitsuchi frowned as he looked up at the sky. No surprise, whoever was approaching was probably an enemy, possibly coming to save the three they were hunting down.
It was raining heavily, and Takashi wasn't in the mood to waste time arguing with the enemy. He immediately threw down a scroll, guiding the giant eagle towards Orochimaru's group's location.
"Watch out!"
Ninja had sharp eyesight. As they saw the scroll descending, the Iwagakure shinobi remained on guard.
The scroll swayed and trembled as it approached the ground, and then suddenly burst open.
In an instant, dozens of figures appeared on the battlefield, each pair of eyes glowing a blue hue—highly visible in the dark night.
What on earth were these?
Konoha shinobi?
It didn't look like it—these figures had come out of a sealing scroll. Which ninja could just pop out of a sealing scroll?
Puppets?
Wait a second, those outfits—weren't they the uniforms of Iwagakure shinobi?
"Bastard!!"
Kitsuchi stared intently, realizing that several of these figures were wearing Iwagakure uniforms, and he instantly understood—these weren't human, but rather puppets.
Iwagakure shinobi had fallen in battle, and Konoha had seized their bodies to make puppets.
If he saw this at Sunagakure's side, Kitsuchi wouldn't have found it strange, because that was just how Sunagakure operated—turning ninja corpses into puppets was their specialty. But puppets were extremely rare among Konoha—almost like national treasures.
If Kitsuchi could see it, others could too.
A few Iwagakure shinobi stared in shock.
"Isn't that Oyashiro? I thought he died?"
"And I just saw Jiro!"
"Shut up!"
Kitsuchi shouted furiously, "These are not our comrades anymore. The enemy has turned their bodies into puppets!"
The moment those words left his mouth, chaos erupted among the Iwagakure shinobi.