The Poisonous Flower of Kumo – Chapter 3


The Last Stand


I woke up with a start an hour later, the same medic as always treating me.

He smiled gently.

"Oh, aren't you one resilient Kunoichi…You'll be fine in the long run, you were lucky. Just don't jump or use your right arm too much for the next few days…If you can. You surprised me, you shouldn't have been able to walk with all of your injuries, but here you are. I hope to see you again tomorrow."

I grunted, my whole body was hurting. And I was hungry, I felt I could eat a whole pig alone.

"You know," he continued, smiling sadly now, "You gave quite the scare when you came back covered in blood and guts, I thought you were dead. But it seems you beat death once again…"

I opened my eyes and was greeted by the worried face of the medic-nin.

He looked bad, he had an ear missing and was almost entirely covered in bloodied bandages. The day had not been easy for him.

It assessed my situation, I had a few bandages here and there, but otherwise, I looked fine. Except for all the dried blood, but it mostly was not mine. I'd be able to survive tomorrow with a bit of luck, but it seems I was quite lucky so far, seeing as we were even less than yesterday.

Today had been another bad day, seven had died, including one of our sensors. We were down to sixteen ninjas and only one sensor. If he died it'd be the end for us. But since there were so few of us remaining, we had more supplies, so I was given a few Blood Increasing Pills and explosive tags.

And we were only halfway done. There was four days remaining of this hell.

The rest of the troop were all in a similar state to me, covered in blood and bandages, some of them had missing limbs, but all of us had circles under our eyes and looked as if we had just come back from hell.

Which wasn't far from the truth, this war was hell.

Could we survive another four days in hell?

I hope.

We had too.


Day 5

I came back to my senses feeling groggy and sorer than the previous days. I did not feel rested at all... As always, it'd have to do.

The clouds and fog were back today, it was the morning but the sun was invisible, obscured by the dark clouds.

It would rain today. And fighting in the rain was not a pleasant experience.

After my morning routine, I did the same as I always did, preparing myself for another exhausting day. I had trouble concentrating myself, though, I felt as if I was affected by one of my sense-dulling poison, but I knew it was only my exhaustion getting back to me.


On the good side, it was not an exhausting day, it was the calmest so far, in fact. Nobody really wanted to fight in the rain, so it was mostly small skirmishes and ambushes, there were few big fights, which was very good for us.

And nothing had really happened for me, I had a few fights with Genin, but it was nothing serious and they ended in a draw, I tried to slow them and they tried to put enough pressure to make me retreat.

Also, the rain made it so that the enemy did not take too much ground today, which was another welcome news.

The evening came and I returned to our camp feeling tired, yes, but way better than the other days before.

Apparently, not everyone had as good a day as I, there had been another six casualties today, mostly those who were seriously injured. We were only ten remaining. Two Genin, four Chunin and four Jonin.

We needed to slow them down for three more days.

The exact number of our enemies was not exactly known by us, but we estimated that there were between thirty and fifty of them remaining. We had done a very good job at killing them.

But it was not enough.


Day 6

I woke up shivering, but feeling rested for the first time in a while. It was cold, I could feel us getting closer to the land of Frost. It was also quite dark, the fog still omnipresent.

This was good, I'd need to be refreshed today, because I'm pretty sure they would try to gain the territory they hadn't been able to yesterday. The fog would be annoying, though.

The situation looked bad, we were too few to afford to team up, because if we did, some shinobi would be able to slip between us. To make things worse, everyone else was dead tired, though that included the Konoha-nin.


The fog helped me, in the end, it allowed me to get another kill, I had hanged a Genin with wire strings. He was too tired to react, so when he had seen me, it was already too late. Not my cleanest kill, but I did what it had to do. Still, I did not look into his eyes. I couldn't allow myself to be kind, it was kill or be killed.

I had also crossed paths with a Chunin, and only my good instincts, trained by days of borderline paranoia, had allowed me to get out of the exchange relatively unharmed. I had managed to lose him after a wild chase through a part of the forest.

Later that day, I returned to our resting spot, not feeling that bad, I wasn't very injured, it had been another a calm day for me.

That could not be said for everyone, though, the same medic-nin that had healed me, and the last one, he wouldn't last the night and everyone knew it. He was already injured yesterday, but today was worse, he was full of severe, life-threatening wounds, from head to toe. I wondered how he was even alive.

So he taught me, the last Genin, a couple of healing jutsus he knew, he did not want me to die. All he asked in return was for me to survive and to deliver a letter he had written to his wife, soon-to-be widow, and his kids. I accepted, of course, I quite liked him.

I was taught the Chakra Scalpel, the Mystical Palm Technique and another technique to neutralize poisons, though I couldn't use those very well yet. Still, I'd have a lot of targets to practise on and those techniques used a very small amount of Chakra, which meant I could use them quite a lot. My chakra reserves grown a lot in the last days, ever since I had started fighting.

Also, our last sensor had lost a leg. He also wouldn't last long. It was bad, without sensors, nobody'd be to tell where the enemies were. And I we couldn't locate the enemy, how would we fight in this huge forest? We'd die.

Two had died, including the other Genin. I was the last Genin our of the thirty that were here originally.

War was hell.

I was starting to lose hope.


Day 7

I regained consciousness shivering, it was colder than yesterday, but it was sunny. I looked around and realized the medic-nin was dead, he was as pale as a sheet and did not breathe or move anymore. He had passed away in his sleep. At least it was peaceful. That couldn't be said for a lot of shinobi.

I was sad, but I weirdly felt nothing. Everything was even duller than before.

Only seven of us were still alive now, three Jonin, three Chunin and myself.

Against God knows how many opposing shinobi. We needed to last for two days.


I had talked a bit with my last teammates and we had agreed on a strategy, if you could call it that.

I would take care of all the Genin, while they would try to get some kills on the rest of the shinobi.

With a bit of luck, we'd manage to survive today and tomorrow.


I survived.

Not everyone did.

Three died, including our last sensor, which meant we didn't have a way to know where they were anymore, how many they were and if they did something during the night.

Things were looking dire, and I was being optimistic, we were four, one Genin, one Chunin and two Jonin against dozens of opponents.

I had killed three today, but it simply was not enough.

I was better now, though, my senses and stealth were impressive and my chakra control had improved. The ninjutsu ninja, who had also survived up to now, had taught me the body flicker technique and a couple of other jutsu that would help me survive.

But it was not enough.

Still, it'd have to do.

Because we, the last three ninjas, needed to survive the last twenty-four hours.

Even if we all died after that, our objective would be accomplished. The mission would be a success.

But I didn't intend to die.

I'd live, no matter the cost.


Day 8

We did not get to sleep today. Instead, we stayed in the forest the whole night, ready to fight at any given moment. I was taught how to suppress my chakra so that I wouldn't be found by sensors. I had learnt fast, my life depended on it. The enemy had advanced slower than anticipated, so they would probably try to cancel their lateness during the night. It was their last chance after all, reinforcement would arrive tonight.

I took position on a tree, as I always did, and extended my senses, which were now extremely sharp, way better than your average Genin, better than your average Chunin even.

A week of constant vigilance in a thick forest did that do you, you learnt to notice even the smallest thing. Because not noticing was fatal.

And I noticed the smallest thing, a few leaves moved far away on my right.

I immediately launched a senbon, not a poisoned one, those were precious, using a new trick I had been taught by a Chunin, I channelled chakra in my arm to make my throw way stronger.

I aimed for where the neck would be and it hit something, but I did not care, I needed to move.

I climbed the tree like a monkey, hoping from branch to branch very skillfully and equally stealthily.

I heard a thud, this was a body that had just hit the ground. I guess my throw hit its target, but I looked to be sure. Yes, my target had a senbon skewering him, through his eye, not his neck, though. Still worked.

Three ninjas emerged from the hiding spot and checked on their fallen comrade, obviously alerted. They knew someone was here, but the thick foliage would hide me.

At least I thought.

One of them seemingly concentrated for a few seconds that I used to move closer to them, before fixing his gaze to exactly where I was, throwing a handful of kunai at my direction.

Shit, he's a sensor.

I had not bothered to hide my chakra, as I was now in a fight. It was still hard for me, I wasn't that proficient in it yet.

I should've had.

I dropped to a lower tree branch, dodging his weapons, but now, they all knew where I was.

The sensor and a Kunoichi sprinted toward me, so I dropped two smoke bombs and minimally suppressed my chakra, the sensor was not a particularly good one, so it'd be enough.

I hope.

The last enemy shinobi started the hand seals for a jutsu, I did not know what it was, and I didn't want to know, so I made a clone, then flickered above him, a kunai aiming for his throat.

He sensed me, raised his head, and opened his mouth, having finished his jutsu, and aiming it at me.

"Fire release: Dragon's Breath"

Shit.

I saw the flame going out of his throat and did the only thing I could think of, I replaced myself with a big rock nearby. His eyes opened wide, and he tried to cancel his jutsu, but it was too late, the rock was just in front of his mouth. With an anguished scream, his head exploded, his jutsu having been turned against himself.

The other two Genin turned toward me, looked at their fallen teammate, then at me again, but I was already climbing a tree.

They charged toward me, so, using move I had practised a lot the last few days, I threw six senbon at the same time, three aimed at each of the two, again channelling chakra through my arm again to make my throw faster. Those were poisoned senbon, so I didn't target vital points, but places where it would be hard to dodge. There were hit by two each but didn't slow down…yet.

I placed an explosive tag on a branch, then detonated it, using it to launch me into the air and to make the branch fall on them. It worked, they both dodged by replacing themselves, but it bought me time, which was what I needed. We played a game where they would chase me and I would escape for a bit, even if they had sensors, I was fast. The poison was finally taking effect, it would make them confused and weak.

Deciding that it was time to end this, I used the transformation jutsu to transform myself into the Kunoichi and dropped near them, between the sensor and the Kunoichi herself.

She saw me and immediately tried to stab me while the sensor was simply surprised and confused, it took him too long to realize that there was a fake in the two versions of the Kunoichi. The stab aiming at me simply passed through me since she had aimed for the throat, which was higher than my real head (I was a small kid, smaller than most people thought) and instead hit the sensor in the ribcage though it was not a serious injury.

Still, the moment of utter confusion following this was all the I needed, the Kunoichi had not expected to stab her teammate, so I took advantage of their lack of experience to stab the sensor with a kunai attached to three explosion tags.

I flickered away at the same time that the sensor exploded in a shower of guts and blood and the Kunoichi was blown away.

Before she could get up, she had half a dozen kunai littering her body. She died.

The adrenaline in my blood gradually died down as I took all of their stuff and I was hit by a sharp pain in the back, there was a shuriken that had it me, I don't know when, but it was only now that I noticed it. I removed it, bandaged myself and took a blood increasing pill, ready to hunt my next victims.


I was hunted instead.

Before I could move away and rest a bit from the last fight, a shower of senbon came for me.

I did the only thing I could think of at the moment and used the body of the first one I had killed as a shield. It worked surprisingly well, I was not injured, only poked a bit, but that was fine.

I decided the approximate position of my opponent from the direction the senbon had been thrown from and dashed behind a tree that would give me cover, climbing it to try and get a view of my opponent.

I saw her and, good news, she was injured, one of her arms was useless and she was limping, but, bad news, she was a Chunin.

She immediately found me and, using an unknown jutsu, fired a small, but fast fireball that annihilated the tree I was hiding behind. I was launched away but managed to recover by landing on another tree, in an impressive show of dexterity.

I analyzed my situation, what do I do? I had no choice, really, I needed to fight, I needed to win. I put my chances of survival at…too low.

So I made a tactical retreat. I ran away.

At least, that's what she thought.

While I looked like I was just running away randomly, dodging her fire-release technique, in fact, I was creating a complicated web of wire strings, it was a trick a Jonin had shown me if I ever found myself in this situation.

It bet all on the fact the Chunin would underestimate me or be too exhausted to notice. Both were true.


At one point, I decided it was ready, it was now or never, I couldn't be more prepared than this, so I climbed up a tree, that I had subtly marked before and waited.

The instant she was at the position I wanted her to be, I yanked on one of the strings. A kunai appeared from seemingly nowhere, going fast toward the Kunoichi.

She reacted fast, dodging it and throwing a kunai back, but there was no one and I had already yanked on three more strings and more weapons were launched.

I had also launched senbon while also moving myself, another wire string in hand, circling her.

She continued to dodge, but I didn't intend to strike, only to distract her.

Finally, she grew bored with this charade and started to do a jutsu.

"Fire Release: Fire pulse"

A pulse of fire appeared from her, getting progressively bigger and farther it got away from her, burning everything in its path and setting it on fire.

It was what I had been waiting for.

All of my wire strings caught fire, and I broke what was holding them back, as they were all tense, like a stretched out rubber band, so, as soon as I let them free, they all converged on her, burning, and coming from all directions, deadly whips of fire. It also caused all of the explosive tags scattered across the nearby trees to all simultaneously detonate, causing a myriad of explosions and destroying those trees, sending debris everywhere.

I took my three senbon coated in my most powerful poison, and threw them and the only place she could dodge or replace herself, a big rock, as everything else was on fire or had just been destroyed.

She did as I predicted and flickered on the rock. As soon as she had appeared there, the senbon where here for her, but she was a ninja, she had unreal reflexes, so she managed to prevent getting hit in the eyes by blocking them with her uninjured arm. Which was now injured, her two arms were useless.

The poison would work anyways.

In one minute.

Like a hawk, her eyes zeroed on me immediately after she was hit, it wasn't hard to guess where I was, seeing as everything else was destroyed, we were now in a small clearing. She flickered above me faster than I could blink and I hastily raised my arms to block her kick.

I was still thrown back, I didn't seem like anything had broken. Before I could react, she was on me again, I threw myself backward on pure instinct, narrowly dodging a kick which would've probably taken my head off.

Anticipating her next move, I replaced myself with a log, farther away, and detonated an explosive tag right at the moment she flickered above me again. It had used the last of my chakra, so it needed to work.

It worked, she wasn't fast enough to dodge and was thrown away, and I knew the poison had started to take effect.

Why?

Because she couldn't dodge what a normal Chunin should've been able to. The poison I had coated the senbon with was a vicious one; it caused a delay between the vision and the rest of the sense of someone while causing intense nausea and a loss of balance at the same time. The medic-nin had given it to me before he died. He would not need it anymore.

The Kunoichi I was fighting got up with difficulties this time, shouting "KAI", trying to dispel a genjutsu. It was useless. She seemed to also realize this as well, that she had been poisoned.

Coughing a bit of blood, she spoke.

"You're a smart lad, aren't you….Well, if I'm going down, you going down with me. Good luck with that one."

"Fire Release: Blazing Sea"

As soon as she had started to speak, I had started to move away, expecting a desperate attack, but I wasn't ready for the monstrosity of a Jutsu she had used. An explosion of liquid fire ravaged the area, turning everything that it merely grazed to ashes. I didn't know the rank of the technique, but it was easily the most destructive one I had ever seen. The liquid fire started to flow like waves of water, and it kept getting closer to me. It was useless the try and climb to trees, the fire would simply eat them, so I could only run, farther and farther away.

I wasn't fast enough and did not have an ounce of chakra remaining, another jutsu would kill me faster than the sea of fire that was after me.

I was hit by a splash of fire, burning my right arm. My side exploded in pain, it did not even compare to anything I had ever felt before, I felt myself start to melt.

And…at the moment I thought it was the end…it stopped.

I had outrun the jutsu.

I was safe.

I was alive.

But I was not unharmed.

I verified the extent of the damage, and it wasn't as bad as the pain had suggested. Only my right arm was seriously injured, but it didn't look like it'd need an amputation. Otherwise, it was non-threatening, but painful burns. And my Genin uniform was ruined.

I went back to where the Chunin was, intent on killing her. This Konoha bitch. She'd pay for this.

She wasn't there anymore, I looked around, where was she? She couldn't have gotten far, she had two useless arms and a useless leg.

I sensed something, above me, and rolled away, a kunai in hand. It was her, she was also burned and looked worse for the wear than me, which was an achievement in itself.

Without waiting more, I stabbed her in the gut.

She finally stopped moving.

I had done it.

I had won.

I had killed the Chunin.

But I still wasn't out of hot water yet.

As I always did, I took her forehead protector and anything equipment she had, even if it was bloody or used. I didn't have the luxury of something new and unused.

I also retrieved all the weapons I had used, I'd need those.


The next few hours passed in a daze, I slaughtered a couple more Genin I had found, even in my weakened state, as most of the time, they did not see me at all.

At some point, I had been impaled in the thigh by a sword, after bandaging up and healing it as best as I could, I continued my task.

But I was once again so exhausted, I had been on the brink of chakra exhaustion multiple times on top of regular exhaustion. I could not wait for it to end. It had been more than thirty hours since the last time I had slept, I was running on soldier pills alone.

Unfortunately, it was barely midday, I still had a long time to go. I did not know exactly when the reinforcement would arrive, or if they would arrive at all, but we had expected them when the sun would set.

I was scared, I did not know how long I could last, but I knew I would hit my limit soon.

I did not want to die, not yet.


I did not even know if I still had any teammate alive, but that did not stop me. I hunted Genin, had a few clashes with Chunin, nothing serious, and always avoided Jonin at all cost, they could probably kill me before I could blink, I did not want to die.

I fought, and fought, and chased, and fled, and killed, for felt like hours without end, never seeing a friendly face.

I was at the point where I'm pretty sure parts of my brain had been shut down to save energy.

Two shuriken had impacted my shoulder at one point, did not notice.

The sun set.

I continued to fight, still no signs of any allies.

At some point, I had killed another Chunin, who was injured and exhausted. It was mostly a lucky shot, but who cared. He was dead, I was alive, that's what mattered.

I received many more injuries, which I proceeded to ignore. I could not afford to care, it would change nothing, my chakra was too precious to use on medical jutsu right now.

Midnight arrived, I was a walking dead. It had been more than forty hours of non-stop fighting.

I knew I would soon simply drop dead if nothing happened.


Then, when we needed them the most, our saviours finally arrived.

The last thing I saw before falling of exhaustion was a familiar grey and black flak jacket.