Chapter 5 — The Cheat First Battle
"Bang! Bang!"
Gunshots shattered the stillness of the nighttime forest, echoing through the trees. Muzzle flashes burst from the dim, dense canopy, and the two jōnin who had shot toward the treetop had their heads blown apart like watermelons.
"Damn it! He's already discovered us! He's not a genin—kill him!"
A low roar sounded from behind a nearby tree as Arano stepped out, his hands already forming seals.
'Wind Release: Gale Palm.'
Before the two jōnin's corpses had even hit the ground, a massive, nearly transparent wind blade sliced at high speed toward Tsukigami Han in the canopy. Gale Palm unleashed a several-meter-long, razor-sharp wind blade from the user's hand—extremely fast, devastatingly sharp.
'Wind Release: Beast Wave Palm.'
The surrounding Sand ninja revealed themselves from behind trees and bushes. Dozens of kunai and multiple one-foot-long miniature wind blades shot from all directions toward the canopy where Tsukigami Han hid, sealing off every possible escape route. Their coordination was flawless. Beast Wave Palm created several small wind blades in the user's hand and fired them to injure the enemy.
Facing Wind Release attacks from every direction, Tsukigami Han did not dodge. Gale Palm was too fast to evade; the Beast Wave Palm blades and the incoming kunai were too dense to avoid completely. So he simply chose not to dodge.
"Crash—!"
The canopy was shredded by the wind blades. Branches snapped, leaves rained down in sheets. Within moments, the once-dense treetop was stripped bare.
Within the canopy, Tsukigami Han's chest was cleaved open by the massive wind blade, carving a horrifying wound as though he were about to be bisected at the waist. The several-meter-long blade hurled him backward before he crashed heavily onto the ground several meters from the tree, smashing out a shallow human-shaped crater.
His body was riddled with smaller cuts from the wind blades—each wound so deep that bone was visible. Kunai were embedded throughout his body. From a distance, he looked unquestionably dead.
In the eyes of the Sand ninja, Tsukigami Han hadn't even had time to use the Substitution Technique before being overwhelmed by their attacks. None of them believed anyone could survive such concentrated ninjutsu. Only two chūnin approached his fallen body. Four others moved toward the two headless Sand jōnin beneath the tree, preparing to seal their corpses into scrolls for retrieval.
"Damn bastard!"
Captain Arano gritted his teeth. Despite their caution, they had still lost two jōnin. This was no fleeing genin—this was a sentry, likely a jōnin, perhaps even an elite jōnin. The gunshots earlier had been loud; other Konoha ninja might already have been alerted.
None of the Sand ninja noticed that the body they believed dead was rapidly regenerating. The bone-deep wounds were already nearly restored.
'The T-800 endoskeleton is incredibly durable… no wonder it was built for modern warfare. I might as well go all out now.'
Lying in the crater, Tsukigami Han's thoughts were calm. His hands had already transformed into two M249 light machine guns, rounds chambered automatically upon manifestation.
"Da-da-da-da-da-da—!"
Sudden, violent gunfire erupted.
While the Sand ninja simmered in anger, Tsukigami Han—whom they believed thoroughly dead—abruptly sat up. His hands had become bizarre weapons aimed directly at them, their muzzles flashing repeatedly as sharp, rapid bursts rang out.
"Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff—!"
Almost instantly, the two Sand ninja approaching him erupted in sprays of blood, as if something with tremendous penetrating force had torn through their bodies. They collapsed stiffly to the ground.
The four ninja collecting the jōnin corpses suffered the same fate. Even the tree trunks beside them splintered violently, bark and wood fragments flying from the density of the barrage.
"How is this possible?!"
The surviving Sand ninja stared in disbelief at the enemy who had returned from certain death, killing six more comrades in the blink of an eye. Some quickly dove behind trees or vanished deeper into the darkness.
"Die!"
Others, closer in distance, roared in fury—charging with kunai drawn or rapidly forming hand seals for ninjutsu.
"You don't have the chance."
Tsukigami Han's voice was icy. His twin machine guns spewing fire swung toward the two ninja forming seals.
A stream of crimson bullets swept across them in an instant.
"Puff puff puff—"
They did not even finish forming their hand seals before the bullets pierced through them, leaving multiple bloody holes in their bodies.
"Bastard!"
Hidden again in the shadows, Captain Arano froze mid-seal, fists clenched tight. It was too fast—less than a second. Even as an elite jōnin, he had no time to cast a defensive technique to save them.
"Damn it! Die!"
The three Sand ninja charging Tsukigami Han finally reached him. Their poisoned kunai and swords, glowing faint purple, slashed viciously into his body.
"Clang—!"
The blades easily cut through skin and muscle. But when they struck bone and attempted to pierce deeper, a metallic clang rang out. The weapons could not advance even a fraction further.
"How can this be?"
The Sand ninja stared in disbelief at their weapons embedded in flesh yet unable to penetrate further. It felt as though they had stabbed into a rigid puppet wrapped in human skin.
"Surprised? Too bad—you're about to die."
His voice cold, Tsukigami Han's hands shifted—transforming into shotguns pressed against the abdomens of two of the Sand ninja.
"Run!"
The instant they felt the barrels against their stomachs and heard his words, cold sweat poured down their backs. A suffocating sense of death enveloped them. Instinctively, they leapt backward, trying to escape.
"Too late."
"Bang! Bang!"
With two muffled blasts, the declaration of death was sealed. The tremendous force of the shotgun blasts hurled the two ninja backward. Their abdomens were reduced to mangled flesh, blood and viscera scattering through the air.
"Damn it!"
Watching his comrades blown apart, the remaining Sand ninja was stricken with terror. He leapt backward with all his strength, hands rising to form defensive seals.
"Forming seals in front of me? Do you think you're fast enough?"
The icy voice sounded again.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Eight crisp gunshots echoed through the night, muzzle flashes flaring repeatedly.
Still midair, his hands barely raised to chest height, the ninja was engulfed by hundreds of steel pellets. He was blasted even farther away. When he hit the ground, the front half of his body was a mass of shredded flesh.
"Bastard!"
Seeing yet another comrade slaughtered, Arano roared. Once again he had tried to intervene, yet still couldn't complete his seals in time. Of the twenty elite Sand ninja he had led, only seven remained.
"Die!"
Arano bellowed, his hand seal speed surpassing his previous limits.
'Wind Release: Pressure Damage!'
(PS: Single quotation marks indicate thoughts or ninjutsu, not spoken dialogue.)