The clamor of the battle between Takeshi and the forces of Iwa echoed deep into the forest. A chorus of blows, cries, and unleashed chakra. Amid the chaos, Anko had slipped into the shadows, weaving her way out of the battlefield. Discreet. Calculated. A silhouette swallowed by the mist.
But she wasn't alone.
Karui ran silently along the branches, her steps light as the wind. The mist muffled the sounds, but not enough to hide Anko's traces from her trained eyes. Every rustle of leaves, every faint imprint on bark or wet grass, every shift in the air—she read it all. And she was determined to make those who had infiltrated Kumo and killed her comrades pay.
Despite all her efforts to remain hidden, she couldn't match the instincts forged through years in intelligence. Anko had noticed her.
"Tch…"
Sweeping her gaze across her surroundings, Anko couldn't help but think about slitting the throat of the little bastard who had dragged her into this mess.
She'd been on missions in far more dangerous places—in the mountains and border zones. She had learned to sense fear in movement, to tell a diversion from a real escape, and above all, to know when she was being followed.
Few were capable of hiding their presence from her, and Karui was not one of them.
And Anko wasn't fleeing. She was repositioning.
Karui slowed at a natural dip in the terrain. A whisper of chakra. Her eyes sharpened.
Seals…
Anko, kneeling about twenty meters away, was placing paper tags on tree trunks. Her fingers danced with precision.
"You were unlucky to come after me…"
A crawling aura seeped from the seals. Karui felt her stomach twist as the trees shivered and several snakes slithered out from the roots, their scales barely gleaming in the diffused light.
Spies. Crawling scouts.
"She knows I'm here," she thought, biting her lower lip. "No matter—it doesn't change her fate…"
She had originally planned to catch her off guard and eliminate her before she even realized what was happening, then return to deal with Takeshi. But clearly, the plan had failed.
Karui's pupils narrowed. Her body moved before she even thought about it.
"Lightning Style: Sensory Pulse."
Her electric chakra surged through the ground and air, spreading in rapid waves. She felt everything—the trees, the snakes, the slightest movement in the mist. Anko's heartbeat. The faintest vibrations in the branches. She was surrounded, but not blind.
"That bitch…!"
Anko wasn't prepared for that. Apparently, her escape wouldn't go as smoothly as planned.
Without hesitation, Karui leapt, her blade charged with lightning chakra. In one fluid motion, she cut down the trees around her, felling half a dozen trunks with a dull crash. A brutal clearing opened in the forest.
The snakes recoiled, hissing.
A shadow darted from the left with a hiss. Karui pivoted to strike, but the creature dissolved into a flurry of scales—a snake clone.
A diversion.
"Tch," Karui muttered, instinctively stepping back.
But it was too late.
Anko lunged from the canopy, a black kunai in hand, coated in a poison she had brewed herself. Silent. Deadly.
Karui saw the blade glint. She raised her sword at the last moment, deflecting the attack downward—but not fully. The kunai grazed her side.
Anko didn't stop. A second arm movement, a swift strike toward the throat.
Karui countered.
Her free hand struck Anko's wrist hard. Lightning burst from her blade, arcing down her arm, and cut deep. Blood sprayed into the air.
"Shit…!"
Anko screamed, pulling back, her forearm partially severed, her sleeve scorched.
But Karui wasn't unscathed. The poison. Even the slightest contact was enough. She suddenly felt a burning sensation at her side, a cold tingling creeping slowly up toward her ribs.
"Poison…" she thought, her face darkening. There was no turning back. Shrouded in vengeance, Karui resolved to eliminate her enemy by any means—if it meant dying afterward, so be it. After all, a ninja does not fear death…
The two kunoichi faced each other from three meters apart. Panting. One bleeding from the arm, the other with a hand over her numbed side.
The wind rose, blowing the mist between them. Silence fell.
A heavy silence.
Karui tightened her grip on her blade, chakra crackling once more. Her eyes locked on Anko, who was already bandaging her arm with a black cloth pulled from her belt.
"You're faster than I expected…" Anko murmured, her brown eyes gleaming with tension.
"And you're more vicious than I imagined," Karui replied.
A storm formed between their gazes.
No escape.
The real fight was about to begin.