Orochimaru was acting rather impatient now, it was strange.
Oh, he did have his moments of impatience, he hadn't quite quashed that aspect of humanity from himself yet, but this was difference. Where usually his displeasure was voiced by reading one of the many scrolls he had on some obscure jutsu he hoped to take advantage of some day, now he seemed to be hovering around Kabuto, hissing in his ear, asking why things were going so long, and… Other questions. Strange, personal questions. Questions he had once asked a long time ago.
It was, Kabuto was fine to admit to himself, somewhat disturbing, and it had all started when they had to double back for a component in a later plan.
Kabuto found himself mimicking his lord's actions, although in his case he was reading some old notes on experimentation while he waited for results. Aahh yes, Kaguya, he remembered that bloodline well. A pity his subject had been the last of them, it was preferable to have more expendable subjects. As it was, the little experiments he did to improve or transfer the bloodline had ended up with corpses and a deathly ill subject.
He turned the page. Aahh yes, Strin. Orochimaru had thought they were onto something with him, but it never came to fruition.
That being said, the tests on him did at least lead to an interesting theory.
And, of course, Jugo-
'Kabuto.' Strange, he did not hear Orochimaru come in. 'Any news on our little stalker friends?'
'They found the seal that we left in our previous hideout to detect them, unfortunately. Most likely they have someone with them who can trace the link, even after I severed the connection. I estimate they shall be here in a day or so, enough time to pack up most of our belongings and leave.'
'No, no, that shall not be necessary. A day should be long enough, should it not?'
Kabuto pursed his lips. 'Technically yes, but that will leave some of it to chance.'
'Hardly, I am certain it will all go well, and even if it does not, I have contingencies in place. You should prepare a little more for our guests.'
A beat, Kabuto smirked. 'You're right as always, Lord Orochimaru.' He snapped the scroll shut.
The strategy against puppeteers was usually simple enough. Find and take out the puppeteer, while keeping the puppets at bay, or if there was the perfect chance, take out the puppets themselves before moving in on the puppeteer.
Option B was difficult; the bird puppet was surprisingly resilient considering it had to be light enough to fly, unless the puppeteer had a massive reserve of chakra to support it. A few kunai and shuriken's from Tenten had merely glanced off. One of Tenten's larger projectiles could probably take it down. But it was wisely keeping its distance. Too far to be hit easily, but close enough to pepper them with attacks, it was a nuisance, a potentially lethal distraction.
But it wasn't the only puppet. If it were, the flying puppet would be more aggressive. The question was, where was the second puppet going to stri-
It appeared surprisingly close, whatever it was made of blended into the environment, a small humanoid puppet with blades jutting out of its fingers and chest. She leapt away, narrowly dodging the lunge, and as the puppet turned its face towards her, it was crushed as Chouji's enlarged fist struck from behind.
Tenten opened another scroll; a large metal ball was thrown out at an angle towards Chouji to block the retaliatory fire from the flying puppet. Shw quickly glanced at what was left of the puppet Chouji had destroyed; the threads were either concealed in some manner or had faded when the puppet had been destroyed.
This was going to be harder then she thought, they should have brought Hinata with them.
A cry, Tenten looked over at Chouji. She could faintly make out a chain of some sort right next to his head. Following it lead her to another puppet a fair distance away.
Chouji grabbed the chain and yanked it The puppet went soaring towards him. Once again, Chouji enlarged his fist. The puppet's arm pointed out at a nearby tree, and the hand launched itself, connected to a chain.
Oh, so that's where the last chain had come from.
The hand attached itself to the tree and began to retract. Undeterred. Chouji pulled harder with the expanded arm.
The hand tore a chunk of bark with it as once again the puppet was dragged towards Chouji, and with a punch shattered, and…
What the, liquid exploded out of the puppet as well. Chouji's fist was covered and droplets splashed onto his head and clothes.
What was the stuff? Flammable? Poison? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good news.
To make matters worse, she could already see two more puppets advancing, one humanoid and one four-legged puppet shaped like a canine.
She swiftly advanced towards them, not to confront, but the strings, where were the strings!?
The dog-shaped one lunged towards her while the other continued advancing on Chouji, who seemed to be waiting for it to come to him.
She dodged the dog narrowly, strings, she could see them, rather dull compared to the ones used by Kankuro. They were long, very long, she could trace them twining around a tree and going up
And then she had to turn away to block the puppet's mouth from attaching itself to flesh with her nunchucks. It was clear the teeth were poisoned, they were dripping with a clear liquid.
Swinging around the other nunchuck, she struck the puppet. No use, whatever it was made of was tough enough to resist it.
She turned as the dog's claws raked at where she had been, letting go of the nunchucks so the puppet passed her. Taking advantage of the distraction, she dashed towards the tree where she had seen the strings heading towards. She glanced back to see the dog in hot pursuit. She glanced back to the target. The strings went up the tree, up, up, up
Above the tree? Oh, that BASTARD.
She glanced to the flying puppet, it seemed to be distracted with Chouji right now, from this distance it was hard to tell, but was Chouji bleeding?
The dog was hot on her heals, she threw a few kunai that deflected off it's hide. It lunged once more as she drew another scroll, a staff was quickly summoned that she used to bat the dog puppet away. It fell, hopefully giving her the few seconds she needed. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, it was already digging claws into bark, lunging and…
A burst of razor-sharp wind sliced mere inches from where Tenten was, the puppet dog was not so lucky, nor was another puppet with similar, if more powerful, stealth capabilities to the last one that had apparently been preparing to strike her from an angle. Both were shredded, and as she gave a swift glance it became apparent it had also taken a swath of the forest with it. The clear line of sight made it clear that the perpetrator was a fair distance away, no sign of them from here however.
She looked to the target, the real one. Even as she dodged sections of hurtling tree trunk, she carefully selected her final scroll, she managed to get to the top of the tree and leap. She unwound the scroll and summoned it.
A massive spiked ball materialized, connected to strings she quickly took hold of, she let out a call, praying that Chouji knew what she was planning and that he had the strength to follow through. Otherwise, this was going to end poorly,
She saw Chouji, bloody, battered, but alive. He performed a full expansion jutsu, the branch snapped under the weight and the puppet he had been fighting fell. He reached out, grabbed the strings with one hand and a tight grip on the tree with the other, swung around ball in hand, and hurled it at the flying puppet.
She didn't see what happened, but there was a burst of shrapnel and blood as the ball hit its target.
Celebration would have to wait; however, as she swooped in to catch Chouji, thankfully his expansion jutsu had worn off automatically as it seemed he had used the last of his strength. 'Poison?'
'Sure feels that way.' Chouji groaned. 'Must be capable of getting through skin.'
Not good, not good at all. Still, she tried to keep a cheerful face. 'Nice catch, by the way, sorry for not giving much of a heads-up.'
He laughed, although a jolt of pain cut it short. 'Good job F-figuring out he was in the flying puppet.'
'I just wish I had figured it out sooner. Pity the puppet's in pieces, I'm no expert but I'd like to know a little about how it worked.' She talked a little too fast for the nonchalant nature of her voice to be genuine.
'Y-yeah. You should probably go help the others.'
'What, and leave you behind? Someone's gotta take care of you.'
'You any good at getting rid of poisons?'
Tenten bit her upper lip. 'Well, no, but-'
'Sooner we get rid of these guys the better.'
She wasn't abandoning him, not really, but she was certainly risking his life. Still, the greater risk was clear. Tenten sighed. 'Alright Chouji, but you better be here when I get back!' As he turned around and jumped away she turned back to shout 'I'll bring you back something to eat!'
Chouji chuckled as he lay on the branch, glancing over the shredded trees before turning back to the sky with a sigh. 'I know she was kidding, but I do hope she finds some food.'
His stomach growled, while he hadn't taken the pills in that fight, he had still burned up a large amount of calories. It was never a pleasant sensation. Unfortunately, he had lost the bag of chips somewhere in the fight, an all too close strike.
That's what he got for being careless, he supposed.
