"So the Izuno clan's secret technique is a Beast Imitation Jutsu. Probably not as good as the Inuzuka clan's, though—he even needs a scroll to transform…"
Tōji didn't have time to dwell on it—he had to watch Natchi's performance!
Natchi's movements had become incredibly agile and swift. He leaped as if his body weighed almost nothing, pouncing straight at the puppeteer.
"Hmph!" The puppeteer, who'd been silent until now, let out his first grunt of contempt. One of the severed puppet arms—the one Raicho had sliced off earlier—shot through the air straight at the mid-air Natchi!
"Danger!"
Tōji's foot instinctively took a step back. He was sure Natchi was done for.
"Nice try!" In mid-air, Natchi twisted his body forcibly to evade—and his glowing green "cat claws" swung violently, still half a meter from the puppeteer…
The claws released a short-range air blade that sliced straight into the puppeteer! "Die!"
Shrrrk! The air blade tore through flesh, making a sickening sound that made Tōji's hair stand on end.
"Argh!" The puppeteer's cry could have been pain or rage—a diagonal gash ran from his shoulder down to his abdomen, flesh split open. It hadn't cut him clean through, but it was still a bloody, gruesome mess…
As he yelled, the other three severed puppet limbs shot toward Natchi from different angles. Natchi, impossibly nimble, backflipped out of the way…
The situation now was that the puppeteer was essentially controlling four mid-to-long-range weapons at once—and all of them laced with poison…
Natchi's cat-form didn't seem to have any ranged attacks. From what Tōji could see, his only option was to rely on his agility and force a close-quarters engagement.
Meanwhile, Raicho had held on for about ten seconds—and with a final thump, he collapsed. He'd probably lost consciousness long before that anyway!
Tōji glanced at Akane, who still hadn't moved at all. Her limbs were turning purple too… "Even Tsunade couldn't save her now!"
"Ugh… can't we just do a tactical retreat? It's not like this puppeteer can chase us…" Tōji felt helpless. The village's training was just plain stupid sometimes…
But clearly, Natchi was locked in a stalemate with the puppeteer and showed no signs of retreating.
"Fine, I'll just fire a signal flare and call for backup!"
Raicho had gone down so fast that Tōji, on his first mission, hadn't even remembered they could call for help.
Pop! A red flare—like a small firework—burst high above the treetops.
"Since I'm dying anyway, might as well take a couple of you with me!" The Suna puppeteer finally spoke a full sentence… Tōji didn't really like what he had to say.
Hearing the enemy still had a mutual-destruction trump card, Tōji didn't dare keep standing there applying "tactical psychological pressure."
"Who knows if the Konoha guys are reliable. They're all on missions nearby, sure—but if it takes them even a few minutes, I might be dead too."
To be fair, other squads of one jōnin and three genin wouldn't arrive fast—that would be completely realistic.
"Time to save myself!"
【Earth Release: Decapitation Technique】! Tōji really didn't have many low-rank offensive jutsu suitable for this kind of fight.
"First time I've ever seen an idiot use the Decapitation Technique right in front of the enemy!" The puppeteer wasn't the only one mocking—even Natchi frowned…
Natchi was probably thinking: this guy's way better at small talk than me, but in combat, he's a complete liability!
Because the Decapitation Technique's underground phase was very short, Natchi had no choice but to go all in.
To keep his deadweight teammate from getting killed too, Natchi decisively played along.
Crouched like a cat, Natchi hurled several shuriken in an instant, then used them as cover to rapidly close in on the puppeteer.
The puppeteer quickly maneuvered the puppet limbs to block the shuriken—but his eyes never left Natchi.
"Ha!" Natchi had successfully closed the distance and swung a heavy claw strike. The puppet limbs were too late to return in time!