Chapter 23: Lost a Finger
Tsukasa Kaede stood beside Nonō Yakushi, his eyes never once looking at her. He simply reached out his hand immediately, demanding the intel.
Nonō Yakushi didn't hesitate, immediately handing the blood-stained scroll to Tsukasa Kaede.
"You Konoha fellows, hand over the intel!!"
"There's no need to deliberately chase after the intel; just kill all these guys!"
Hidden Sand Village Ninja kept rushing over. Morino Idate and the other two continuously retreated, giving up ground to obstruct the enemy's attack frequency as much as possible, their wounds also gradually increasing.
Frankly speaking, Tsukasa Kaede, as the newly promoted Chunin, was the weakest member of this squad. Everyone else, including the medical ninja Morino Idate, had the skill level of a Special Jonin.
"If you get the intel, you'll become the primary target of all enemies, you know that, right?" Nonō Yakushi subconsciously reached out to place a hand on Tsukasa Kaede to heal him, but immediately stopped—Tsukasa Kaede barely had any injuries.
The weakest person was largely uninjured; in a way, that was a skill in itself.
Tsukasa Kaede summoned three zombie chunin, stuffed the intel into one of their mouths, and made it swallow before quickly saying, "Even if I don't do this, I'm still the enemy's primary target."
There was another thing Tsukasa Kaede left unsaid: after getting the intel, he would also become the primary protection target for Terai and the others, which would actually increase his survival rate.
Never overestimate the moral standards of Root Ninja; they completely lacked such luxuries.
"Retreat."
Terai gave the order, glancing indifferently at Tsukasa Kaede. He showed no emotion, numb like an iceberg, covering Tsukasa Kaede's escape.
A Root Ninja remained behind, throwing a large number of Smoke Bombs in place. These would only be effective for a few seconds in the raging sand, while he himself stayed to fight to the death with the Hidden Sand Village Ninja.
Everyone else began to center around Tsukasa Kaede, covering his escape.
This process was not easy. The Ninja of the Hidden Sand Village unleashed various Ninjutsu, launching fierce attacks even with restricted visibility.
Tsukasa Kaede, in particular, was the absolute priority target. Even though he sent two zombies to launch suicide attacks and self-destruct, in the brief opening created, fearless Hidden Sand Village Ninja still approached, aiming a Kunai directly at Tsukasa Kaede's neck.
"You're not afraid of a corpse's death, but what about yourself? What happens if you turn into a corpse? Or will you use Space-Time Ninjutsu to escape again?"
The Hidden Sand Village Ninja's face was filled with cruelty. He no longer cared about the order to capture Tsukasa Kaede alive; he'd rather kill Tsukasa Kaede and take his corpse back to the Village for the intelligence ninja to study, perhaps gaining some valuable intel!
Anyone could see that Tsukasa Kaede's physical condition was off. His heavy breathing indicated his stamina was depleting rapidly, and he had little Chakra left. Using Space-Time Ninjutsu would undoubtedly be a heavy burden.
"Be careful!"
Nonō Yakushi's expression changed, and she cried out in alarm.
Tsukasa Kaede calmly raised his hand. In that flash of lightning, he had extremely limited options left; he was bound to be attacked, and his comrades wouldn't have time to provide support.
So... let himself be attacked.
*Squelch!*
A good portion of his palm was severed on the spot, flying through the air with inertia, covered in a large amount of sand, and plummeting to the ground with a splash of dazzling blood.
But successfully avoiding the vital point in his neck was enough.
Terai immediately killed the Hidden Sand Village Ninja, covering Tsukasa Kaede's back.
With the help of the zombie that had swallowed the intel scroll, Tsukasa Kaede began to quickly flee.
"Can you still use that movement Jutsu from before to escape? If not, it means your body can't sustain such a prolonged retreat. You'd better give me the intel."
Another Root Ninja, Tora, though already covered in blood, spoke without reservation.
Tsukasa Kaede looked at his left hand, which had lost a good portion and only had three fingers remaining, and said in a deep voice, "You don't need to worry about that. This isn't the first or second time I've used zombies to assist me in a dash. What do you think I was preparing for earlier?"
Tora fell silent. Seeing more enemies catching up, he immediately gripped his Katana and glanced back.
"Tora, stop them."
Terai commanded. His condition was the best; if he didn't get into a death match with Araki of the Sand, his chances of escape were the highest.
Tora didn't hesitate, immediately taking action. Doing something like this, even at the cost of his life, would likely buy more time.
Gusts of sand continued to sweep over them, trying to obstruct their vision and disorient them.
"He's absolutely relentless. We still need to find a way to deal with Araki of the Sand; a Ninja like him, capable of area-of-effect attacks, is too disadvantageous for us," Morino Idate said in a deep voice, clearly anxious.
If another person sacrificed themselves to buy time, Morino Idate felt it would be his turn next.
Until the very last moment, Terai, who possessed the greatest Combat Power, would not allow Tsukasa Kaede, who held the intel, to leave his sight.
Terai glanced at Morino Idate and was about to speak, but Tsukasa Kaede interrupted, "I have a way."
"You have a way?"
"Yes, you don't need to sacrifice yourself, Captain, or stay behind risking your life to stop the enemy. I won't abandon you," Tsukasa Kaede said sternly, being carried on the back of a zombie ninja.
Terai was silent for a moment. He hadn't actually been thinking that; this cunning fellow was deliberately cornering him with such simple words.
Tsukasa Kaede used his right hand to pull open the summoning scroll at his waist. The moment he let go, his right palm had already slapped onto it.
As a puff of white smoke dispersed, the zombies stored within the summoning scroll were depleted, and the scroll itself was abandoned. Several zombies of various forms were now following Tsukasa Kaede.
"You might have forgotten, I'm a medical ninja, a medical ninja who has mastered the Soul Death Technique. Changing the appearance of a corpse, disguising it as a living human to attract enemy attention—that's the original use of the Soul Death Technique."
Tsukasa Kaede said, "We lost two comrades, so the corpses prepared for them won't be needed. For the rest of us, I've prepared appropriately modified corpses."
Morino Idate's face showed an expression of shock; Nonō Yakushi started to speak but then stopped, finally letting out a long sigh.
Terai fell silent once more, remembering the two subordinates he had sent to their deaths, then looking at the vivid other self trailing behind Tsukasa Kaede.
"The sacrifices of Tora and Yang were necessary. Without them to hold off the enemies, we wouldn't have been able to create distance or get out of the enemy's sight to use the Soul Death Technique."
Terai said this, realizing he had made a major mistake—he had completely separated Tsukasa Kaede's Soul Death Technique from the original Soul Death Technique, thus overlooking the escape tactic of using corpses as disguises.
(end of chapter)