"Eh? Kakashi, those glasses… not bad. Where'd you get them?"
Might Guy had been quietly talking with Tenzo, but when he turned around and got a good look, he was almost scared silly.
Good grief.
The forehead protector that was usually slanted over Kakashi's eye was now pushed up, and on his face sat a pair of dark sunglasses.
From a distance, he actually looked a bit like—
"You know…" Guy stared at the mask, then at the hair, hesitating. "If you took off the mask and did something with your hair, you'd probably look more like Ebisu."
"??"
Kakashi tilted his head, baffled.
"What does wearing glasses have to do with Ebisu?"
Why would I cosplay him?
He was speechless.
These glasses weren't for fashion or disguise.
They were for suppressing his Sharingan, preventing it from automatically absorbing too much visual information and draining chakra.
At the same time, the lenses worked as a medium for his Telescope Technique.
One tool, two functions.
Kakashi's gaze swept to the side and caught Tenzo's expression too—just as weird.
"These glasses were designed and made by Tenten and Souma," Kakashi explained.
Guy coughed lightly, a little embarrassed.
That… was awkward.
Kakashi didn't care about their expressions. He formed a series of hand seals, his face turning serious—
In his field of view, Souma's team had already entered the second test area, sprinting in one direction.
That direction was—
"Souma-kun, which team are we chasing?"
Tenten asked as they ran.
"The one with the black-robed puppet user."
Souma answered while moving, eyes half-closed in concentration.
He'd expanded his sensory range and was communicating with the insects along the way.
He already knew exactly which team was ahead.
"That one dressed like a weirdo?"
Weirdo?
Even Souma froze for a beat before realizing she meant Kankurō.
"Yeah. The one with the cloak and the two 'ears' on the hood. No idea what he's thinking. Trying to cosplay a cat?"
Moonlight Kazusa muttered under her breath.
Tenten blinked.
Cat ears?
Now that she thought about it, she had seen something like that.
"His outfit… is a little weird," she admitted.
"That's a cat-ear cloak. It's traditional attire for Sunagakure puppeteers."
Souma had to correct them.
The two girls hurriedly apologized.
Souma waved it off.
He wasn't a puppeteer—no need to apologize to him. He just didn't want them saying that in front of an actual Suna shinobi and making fools of themselves.
Of course…
When they actually met Kankurō, he fully intended to "polish" that line and use it as a taunt.
Should be very effective.
Perfect.
He silently gave himself a thumbs up.
The desert stretched endlessly around them, dotted here and there with broken ruins and collapsed stonework.
Souma continuously releases natural energy, using it to communicate with insects and have them track their prey.
Before long, the sand started to bulge and tremble—
Something massive was being drawn in.
Tenten felt the disturbance immediately.
"Souma… something feels off. These insects…"
"This place is called the Demon Desert. Strange things are normal here."
Souma wasn't surprised at all.
He already knew there were giant ants beneath this desert.
In fact, one of his goals today was to capture some and bring them back.
The Aburame clan would lose their minds with joy.
He finished his natural-energy communication and was about to withdraw, when he noticed—
His natural energy was being eaten.
Hm?
His eyes narrowed slightly. He condensed a bit of senjutsu chakra and fed it to the source.
The three "small sand dunes" quickly circled in.
A moment later—
Whoosh!
Three sets of giant ant antennae burst out of the sand, followed closely by massive heads and bodies forcing their way to the surface.
They tapped their antennae repeatedly against Souma's foot.
Souma understood instantly.
"Let me guess— they went that way?"
The antennae moved again.
"How about this: you lead the way, and I'll give you something good in return."
The antennae whipped around like wagging dog tails.
Souma nodded in satisfaction.
He wasn't afraid they wanted something—
He was only afraid they didn't.
Tenten and Kazusa, meanwhile, were completely frozen.
What… was happening?
Souma could even understand what ANTS were saying?
How "knowledgeable" was this guy supposed to be!?
Right then, Souma hopped onto the back of one of the giant ants and waved.
"Hop on."
"Us?"
Tenten pointed at herself.
"Yeah. Come on. If we're late, they'll get away."
Souma urged.
They swallowed their fear and slowly approached the giant insects. Once they realized the ants held no hostility, their shoulders loosened a little.
Souma smiled.
It was perfectly normal to be afraid of ants the size of horses.
What mattered was that they could push past it.
The only thing that would've annoyed him was if they refused to get on at all.
Once they were seated and braced—
"If there are underground ruins or tunnels on the way, take us through those too,"
Souma instructed.
The ants flicked their antennae eagerly in response.
Moments later, three dark shapes raced across the desert—carried on the backs of giant ants.
Ahead of them, a swarm of ants scurried ahead to clear the way, rolling aside chunks of stone and opening up a hidden underground passage.
Watching through the Telescope Technique—
Kakashi's expression could only be described as: subway old man staring at phone.
You're sure this ant army wasn't something the Aburame clan planted here in advance?
"What is it?" Tenzo asked.
"Nothing. Just… Souma and his team are living up to expectations."
Kakashi replied mildly.
Aside from him, almost no one else could see what was happening at this level of detail.
Even the ANBU monitors didn't know where Souma's team had gone.
If ANBU didn't know, then Kankurō definitely didn't.
Not only that, but he had also very unluckily run into the team from Amegakure.
"That's the Rain technique, Like Falling Rain of a Thousand Needles, right?"
Tenten asked quietly.
"Mm."
Souma nodded.
"You can borrow the idea for your own weapon throwing, but don't copy them by tossing blades blindly in all directions. You need to control the trajectory with intent."
"Consciously control the direction…?"
Tenten might not fully grasp some kinds of ninjutsu,
But when it came to weapon throwing, she was an expert.
Just that one hint, and she understood what Souma meant.
Using a spinning umbrella to add force and spread projectiles had its merits,
But the spread was so wide that it was hard for the senbon to focus on a single target.
Single-target lethality became very average.
"I heard Suna has a kekkei genkai called Magnet Release. If you learned that, it'd be perfect."
Souma sighed.
Magnet Release combined with rich-girl-level weapon stock and space–time ninjutsu…
Basically unbeatable.
Tenten rolled her eyes at him, then focused on the battlefield ahead.
Three umbrellas spun as one, scattering a rain of senbon.
With that kind of coverage, even Suna shinobi would have a hard time walking away unscathed.
But—
They were puppet users.
And for puppet users, the ones doing the "fighting" were the puppets.
What looked like injuries…
Creaaaak, clank, clack—
The sound of wood and metal moving echoed across the sand.
Three "corpses" suddenly sprang to life, transforming into bizarre puppets that opened their mouths and spat volleys of poisoned needles.
Within moments, all three Rain ninja lay dead.
"Fools."
Kankurō sneered as he crawled out of the sand.
"In the desert, this is our puppeteers' home ground."
In the shadows—
Even though Tenten and Kazusa had seen death before, the scene still made their skin crawl.
But when they glanced sideways—
"Mm. Got it," Souma said.
"…You 'got it' again?" Tenten whispered.
"Yeah. Puppet control is actually pretty simple. The hard part is just making the puppets."
Souma nodded.
Kankurō frowned.
Someone was there.
More people?
He twitched his fingers. One puppet silently slipped back under the sand, while he himself knelt down, pretending to casually check the scrolls on the "corpses."
The other two puppet users did the same.
Puppets.
Poison.
Traps.
A classic combo that had never failed them.
Right then—
Swish!
A faint sound.
Two figures sprang from hiding—
One leaping high, flinging a spread of shuriken, the other—
Charging in, blade flashing out of its sheath.
"Heh… you fell right into it."
Seeing them step into range, Kankurō's lips curled as his ten fingers danced.
Black Secret Technique— Mech—
??
He was just about to pull the net tight when he realized—
The enemy's speed suddenly doubled, almost in an instant.
"Hel—"
One of the puppet users only had time to force out half a word before his throat exploded with pain.
He died.
The puppet he'd been controlling collapsed like a pile of scrap.
"Your actual body is way too fragile."
Souma judged calmly in his heart.
Kankurō and the remaining puppet user dodged the shuriken and counterattacked, driving three puppets toward Souma—
The enemy's figure flickered and darted between them.
Seeing him being forced into the puppets' midst, Kankurō relaxed a little.
That burst of speed just now had to be some secret technique.
He definitely couldn't keep that up.
In that case—
Wait.
Where's the other one?
Every nerve in his body tightened.
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
patreon.com/pikachu614