Once I emerged from the tunnel, I ran to what should have been my demolition zone. Only to find there were more ninjas than I expected.
I quickly formed hand seals and created dozens of explosive clones, each of which I equipped with my own explosive tags. I had other things to do.
Kunai in hand, I approached a ninja who was standing alone, silently covering his mouth and slitting his throat.
Watching him die without being able to say a word, I felt a knot in my stomach. It wasn't the first time I'd killed or seen someone die, but it was the first time I'd seen myself kill someone.
I didn't vomit, but I felt bile rise slightly in my throat, causing me considerable discomfort.
Not far away, two Earth ninjas were talking, looking out towards the exits. I approached slowly, my kunai and thunder sword ready to be activated; I overheard them discussing the previous attack and whether the others needed help.
Their conversation wouldn't last long, because, just like with the other one, I would cover his mouth and cut his throat.
The moment he hit the ground, I heard the other make a sound of confusion, only to see his companion fall to the ground. Before he could even realize what was happening, I activated my sword and slashed his throat, taking away his ability to speak or scream. I watched as he began to choke on his own blood, and just as I was about to finish him off, I heard an explosion.
"ENEMY ATTACK," I heard from an enemy ninja not far from where I was, only to hear another explosion.
I leaped away, vanishing from where I was, just in case.
Even with my invisibility, I saw the chaos unfolding around him.
I saw two of my comrades carrying another trying to escape, only for him to be swiftly killed by a jonin.
The man standing there was Tetsuo Inoue, an elite jonin from Iwa with a 10,000,000 ryo bounty.
He had his back to me, so without thinking, I slowly approached him. Just as I was about to plunge the kunai into his neck, he took a step to the right, dodging the attack, only to deliver a powerful kick that sent me flying.
"Damn, a sensor," I cursed, examining my wounds. Luckily, I managed to protect myself, but it still hurt. After all, this guy is known for his Earth Spear jutsu and taijutsu.
"Well, well, a tree hugger who knows how to act," he said, walking toward me with his hands in his pockets.
I quickly tended to my wounds and cleaned off the dirt.
"What do you expect, that I'd act like a brainless ape?" I retorted, looking him straight in the eye.
"Actually, yes, that's what I expected you to do; after all, that's how the jonin who was on your team acted; he didn't last long," he said mockingly.
I just narrowed my eyes.
The difference between a jonin and an elite jonin varies greatly. The difference in power between an elite jonin and a kage isn't that different; it can vary greatly depending on who it is.
"Sadly, I'm just a medical ninja," I said, shrugging.
"Does that mean you're going to surrender?" he asked with a smile.
"No, I just wanted to add that I'm also an expert in fuinjutsu," I added to my story.
"So what?" He played along, since I was a genin and he was an elite jōnin; there was no way he could lose.
"I'm the one who created all those explosive tags throughout your base," I said, only for two explosive blasts to erupt from one side of him to the other. The guy's smile vanished as he realized what was about to happen, but it was too late. "Katsu," I said as I formed the Ram hand seals.
A large part of the base lit up, including the two clones I had next to the enemy.
Before everything exploded, I created a shadow clone, which created a shadow wall, but since I hadn't used all the hand seals due to time constraints, the defense wasn't very effective. When everything exploded, the wall detonated shortly after, damaging me in the process but mitigating most of the initial damage.
The entire enemy base was engulfed in an explosion, or at least 90% of it, leaving some areas that weren't as directly affected but were still destroyed by collateral damage.
I was left with several burns on my body, but nothing I couldn't heal. While I was in the process of healing, the ground in front of me shifted, and with a loud thud, someone's hand emerged, followed shortly by Tetsuo Inoue's body, much of his clothing torn, bearing several wounds, and his body completely blackened by the Earth Spear technique.
"I underestimated you, brat; luckily I was quick enough to activate my jutsu, or I would have been dead or seriously injured," he said as he returned to normal.
Without wasting a moment, I launched three smoke bombs at my enemy, which exploded near him since he didn't dodge them—his mistake.
"Damn," the guy said, but it was too late. The smoke balls weren't smoke balls at all; they were poison balls that had been stolen by some ninja from Ame and that I had taken to make this.
I had made them look very much like normal smoke balls. It wasn't a very potent poison, but it did what was necessary, which was to disrupt the enemy's chakra, making it difficult to use.
I quickly launched myself at him to engage him in a taijutsu duel.
Since I couldn't use the jutsu without hand seals and didn't have time to prepare them, he responded by using a kunai in return.
There was no one around, and if there were anyone alive, they wouldn't be able to move, as they would be severely injured or on the verge of death.
During the fight, I realized that I was slowly losing ground; although I have a lot of talent and a large amount of chakra, which wasn't much at the moment, the experience and skill of an elite jonin were on another level.
The poison I used was fast-acting, but it wore off just as quickly, so I had to act fast. Ideally, it's meant to eliminate annoying enemies quickly, but unfortunately for me, my opponent was a taijutsu specialist.
Creating a shadow clone, I made it grab me and throw me violently backward, creating a space between my enemy and me.
Tetsuo easily destroyed my clone and lunged at me. I saw his body turn to stone, showing that his chakra control was slowly returning.
With two hand seals, I struck the ground with my palms, creating a wall of earth beneath Tetsuo, hitting him and sending him flying two meters further away from me, but without causing any damage. But what I wanted was to create distance, so it was fine.
Taking out three smoke bombs, I threw them toward my position, creating a screen where he couldn't see what I was doing. I didn't have time, so I acted.
I took a Soldier Pill, performed the Multiple Shadow Clone Seal, creating six of them, and with a wound I had from the taijutsu fight, I placed blood on my palm and made the hand seals.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu," I said. From a puff of smoke, which dissipated the bomb's smoke, Katsuyu appeared.
"Miyu-hime, what a surprise that you summoned me. Do you need my help?" the giant slug asked.
"Tsuyu, I need you to disperse them and see if there are any Leaf ninja left alive; there are six in total around here," my clone said.
I was pretending to be a clone, leaving a fake one behind to deceive my enemy.
"That summoning... does it have any connection to the Slug Sannin? Now that I think about it, there's information that she had a daughter a while back," the Iwa ninja said, implying that he knew my identity, as he walked into position.
Katsuyu wasted no time and split into several smaller slugs. Each slug scattered throughout the area, while seven of them went after me and my clones.
Five of my clones went to attack Tetsuo, while I and one clone stayed behind.
My clones used distance and their limited jutsu to slowly harass Tetsuo, though it wasn't very effective.
Using hand seals, my clone and I hid underground. The idea was for my clone to attack him while I slipped away, making him think I could launch a surprise attack.
Moving a little further from the fight, I spoke to Katsuyu.
"Tsuyu, I'm the original. Have you found the ninjas?" I asked.
"I've found 5 out of 6," she replied.
Knowing this, I used my senses, trying to find something. I sensed that Tetsuo had already destroyed 3 of my 6 clones.
As I continued searching, I sensed 5 chakra signatures near the rubble.
I quickly went there. Moving the rubble, I saw 5 ninjas with serious injuries and unconscious. 4 were Iwa ninjas, and one was from the Leaf Village.
Drawing a kunai, I slashed the throats of the enemy ninjas and grabbed my comrade, carrying him on my back.
I was already feeling quite exhausted, and the mission was to destroy this place, not fight an elite jonin, so I didn't care if that guy survived; I couldn't kill him yet, so I opted for the best option: escape.
Using the last of my chakra, I created another tunnel and left with the wounded man; I would check on his injuries later, if I had any energy left.
Once I reached a safe, distant place, I spoke to Katsuyu.
"That's all, Tsuyu; you can go back now. Thanks for your assistance." Thanks to her healing abilities, she was able to see the wounded ninja as she traveled quickly, healing his most serious injuries and, incidentally, my own.
"Understood, Miyu-hime, I'll be there; I hope you'll call me again," she said, then vanished.
*With the Shadow Clone.*
The clone was already exhausted, almost out of chakra, with barely enough to sustain itself and avoid disappearing.
Tetsuo had already destroyed the other clones, but he remained vigilant, as one still remained for him.
"I see you're almost out of chakra, so capturing you right now won't be too difficult; you have no idea how much credit I'll receive from the Tsuchigate for capturing a Senju, especially the daughter of the Sannin Tsunade," he said with a predatory smile.
At that moment, Tsuyu spoke to the clone.
"My job is done; I'm leaving," and with that, she vanished.
The clone watched this and smiled.
"I guess that didn't work, you fool, since I'm not the real one," she said to the Iwa jonin with a smile that disoriented him.
The clone picked up a kunai from the ground and plunged it into her neck, turning into smoke.
Tetsuo realized what had happened. He quickly used his sensory abilities, only to find himself alone in a completely destroyed base, with all his comrades dead.
Faced with this, he didn't know what to do, so he just stood there staring into space, hoping for a glimmer of hope and that his superiors wouldn't punish him severely for this.
*With the original*
I slowly made my way back to our base. The ninja on my back had stabilized, so I could move him, albeit slowly; I didn't have enough energy to run anyway.
As I approached the base, two ninjas appeared near me. One was the mission leader, and the other was a chūnin. The jōnin had his entire arm bandaged, while the chūnin had one eye bandaged.
The Uchiha looked at me with a complicated expression.
"Mission report," he said simply.
"Mission accomplished, 5 casualties, including the jonin in charge, one out of danger, and me almost out of chakra," I said, throwing the wounded man to the ground, showing that I didn't care what happened to him, before collapsing into an inevitable sleep.
The amount of chakra I had used was absurd: first for training, then for creating thousands of explosive tags with shadow clones, and then for the confrontation with the Iwa ninja. My reserves may be large, but they aren't infinite; I ended up using more chakra than I could replenish. So it wasn't unusual to fall unconscious.
"I'll leave the rest of my problems to tomorrow's Miyu," I thought before drifting into a deep sleep.