Chapter 37: The Scorpion's Dance
"You there! Identify yourself!" the lead kunoichi from Kumo barked, her body tensed and ready for a fight.
She had light blonde hair cut short and tanned skin. Her outfit—a fishnet undershirt beneath a short, sleeveless top and a matching skirt—accentuated a powerfully built figure.
"Heh, why don't you take a guess?" a youthful voice called down from the branches above the Scarlet Sand Scorpion.
The kunoichi's eyes snapped upward, her vigilance intensifying. She saw a young man with dark grey hair and piercingly bright eyes looking down at them with a playful, almost mocking, expression.
"Stay alert! He has an accomplice!" she shouted to her two teammates, her hand flying to the long sword strapped to her back. Arcs of electricity immediately crackled along the blade. "Omoi, Karui! Signal for backup! These two are not to be underestimated!"
"I'll hold off the older one!" she commanded. "You two pressure the younger one! Do not engage alone, is that clear?"
With that, a brilliant, piercing light erupted from her body. "Lightning Style: Flash Pillar!"
The intense radiance forced Uchiha Naoki to raise a hand against the glare, his vision severely compromised. Hiruko, the puppet, seemed to squint its wooden face in response, its sensors similarly affected.
The attack came in that moment of distraction.
"Cloud Style: Severing Slash!"
The blonde kunoichi blurred forward, appearing before the Scarlet Sand Scorpion in an instant. The blade in her hand, sheathed in a sharp, chakra-forged edge, tore through the air toward Hiruko. It was a simple, upward swing, but amplified by a explosive burst of chakra, its power was formidable. This was the essence of true swordsmanship.
"A direct hit!"
Seeing her attack connect before the Scorpion could even react, the kunoichi felt a surge of triumph.
But that triumph froze on her face in the very next second.
CLANG!
A tail sting shot out from Hiruko's back, blocking the sword strike with a shower of sparks. Then, the puppet's mask snapped open.
"Virulent Mist Blast!"
A cloud of sickly-sweet, purple poison sprayed forth. The kunoichi, with no time to react, inhaled a mouthful. The scent was cloying, but the effect was instantaneous dizziness. She retreated at top speed, but when she landed, she staggered, unsteady on her feet.
"Captain Yugito!" the two other Cloud ninjas cried out in unison—the dark-skinned Omoi and the fair, tall Karui. They had just sent the distress signal, and now their captain was already compromised? In less than twenty seconds? The speed of her defeat was terrifying, sending a wave of panic through them.
"Don't panic! I'm fine!" Yugito waved them off, her voice strained. A bright green glow enveloped her right hand, and she made a grasping motion over her own chest, pulling out a small, condensed ball of blackened, poisoned blood. As the toxin was expelled, her posture visibly stabilized, color returning to her face.
"A Medical Ninja?!" Uchiha Naoki couldn't hide his surprise. It was rare to find a medical-nin with such formidable combat prowess. To purge a toxin that quickly spoke volumes about her skill. A talent like that would be rare even in Konoha, let alone Kumo.
Witnessing this, even the Scarlet Sand Scorpion within Hiruko offered a raspy compliment. "As expected of a shinobi from Kumogakure. You are the first to dispel my poison so swiftly."
Yugito merely snorted in response to the praise, her eyes locked on Hiruko. "I must be both lucky and unlucky to meet the legendary Scarlet Sand Scorpion here. It sends a chill down my spine, enough to make one despair."
She had recognized him. It made sense—the distinct puppet body, combined with the known roster of elite puppet masters in the world, made identifying this particular enemy straightforward.
"Interesting," Sasori's deep voice echoed from within Hiruko. "In that case, I have no choice but to make an excellent specimen like you into a puppet. Naoki, these three are mine. Do not interfere."
The tail sting on Hiruko's back lashed out like a whip, shooting straight for Yugito's face with blinding speed.
"So fast!" Yugito gasped. Lightning flickered around her body as she flickered backward, barely avoiding the impalement.
As she retreated, her teammates, Omoi and Karui, who had split to either flank, began weaving hand signs in perfect sync.
"Lightning Style..." they chanted in unison. "Triple Pronged Lightning!"
Twin orbs of crackling electricity formed in their hands, unleashing terrifying, forked bolts of lightning that tore through the space where the Scarlet Sand Scorpion stood, threatening to shred Hiruko to splinters.
The sheer tearing force of the attack showed both had mastered the nature transformation of Lightning Release to a high degree. The pincer movement, combined with the innate speed of lightning, made its lethality superior to Hiruko's tail sting.
"And obviously..." Uchiha Naoki noted, his eyes tracking Yugito, who had vanished from view, "...even if Hiruko dodges that, Yugito will be waiting to deliver a finishing blow. Brother Sasori won't have a moment to breathe."
It was a classic Kumogakure team assault.
SWOOSH!
Faced with the wild lightning assault, Hiruko suddenly leaped vertically to evade.
But just as Naoki predicted:
"Just waiting for that!" Yugito materialized directly above the airborne puppet, gripping her sword with both hands. "Cloud Style: Solar Slash!" Her strike became as domineering and fierce as the sun, the blade's edge instantly far more dangerous.
SHINK!
Caught mid-air with no means of defense, Hiruko was cleanly sliced in two.
"Did we get him...?" Yugito was a veteran, however. Seeing the legendary genius puppet master fall so easily, she didn't let her guard down for a second.
She was right.
The two halves of the bisected Hiruko dissolved into a shower of sand.
A Sand Clone!
She realized it instantly. "He's still alive! Surround him!" she yelled to Omoi and Karui, who had thought their sneak attack successful.
Omoi and Karui, heeding their captain's warning, reacted instantly. Karui's hands flew into another set of seals—she was a sensor type!
"Found him! To our right!" Karui shouted, already drawing her sword. "Omoi, now!"
Lightning flickered around them both as they shot forward, blades swinging in a coordinated pincer attack.
The next moment, as Hiruko reappeared from its camouflage, it was met by their twin assault.
"Hmph." Hiruko showed no panic. Its tail sting shot out again, but this time not to attack. Instead, it whirled around the puppet's body, creating a formidable, spinning barrier of sharpened chakra metal for defense.