Zombie Sage in Naruto

Chapter 21 Flying Thunder God?!

Yakushi Nono's headband was already soaked in blood.

She struggled forward against the wind and sand, three shuriken deeply embedded in her left shoulder, while pursuers from Sunagakure relentlessly chased after her.

"I was almost there. My conversation with Sasori of the Red Sand took up extra of my time."

Yakushi Nonou felt like she was about to die, but she wasn't panicked at all. This was the most basic quality of a top spy: "As long as I can bring this intelligence back to the front-line troops, the war with Sunagakure will probably end sooner."

Even if it were done a day earlier, it could have prevented many deaths, and that would have been enough.

Suddenly, a large amount of sand and dust surged up out of nowhere, causing a small sandstorm. Countless grains of sand and dust bombarded Yakushi Nonou like a torrential downpour, further obscuring her vision.

Two puppets silently attacked from the swirling yellow sand, their mouths spewing acidic mist in an attempt to melt Yakushi Nono into a honeycomb.

Yakushi Nonou could barely open her eyes. As she instinctively rolled to dodge, a tail-like puppet part pierced through the sand beneath her feet, striking her side and worsening her already dire condition.

"An exposed spy wouldn't really think he could escape, would he?"

The captain of the Sand Village pursuit force stood on the rock wall with a cold smile. His hands were still in a hand seal position. This sudden local sandstorm was clearly his doing.

"Hand over the information you took from the village, and I'll leave you with a whole corpse. That's the greatest favor I can do for you. Who told you to be so audacious as to approach Sasori of the Red Sand? He's a genius ninja from our village."

"We won't give it to you."

Yakushi Nonou looked up at the dozen or so people surrounding her, and finally focused her gaze on the pursuit captain who was controlling the sandstorm.

She recalled the information about this dangerous guy—Sandstorm Araki, a man skilled at creating sandstorms, who possessed unparalleled combat abilities in a place like the Land of Wind.

"Many talented people have emerged from Sunagakure and have mastered special ninjutsu."

As Yakushi Nonou pondered silently, she suddenly crushed the glass bottle in her sleeve, simultaneously covering her mouth and nose and retreating rapidly. Purple smoke exploded out, spreading quickly through the dust storm.

Sandstorm Araki coldly replied, "You think I'm unprepared? You're a medical ninja too, right? I've already analyzed the intelligence on you Konoha medical ninjas!"

He immediately formed another hand seal, causing the direction of the sandstorm to suddenly change, sweeping the purple poisonous mist in one direction.

"This is the poison from the salamander that I obtained in the Land of Rain. Although it did not come from the salamander controlled by Hanzo, it can still have an unexpected effect on you."

Yakushi Nonou held her breath to reduce the amount of salamander poison her body ingested—even her pores would absorb the poison: "I didn't release the poison mist to deal with you, but to wait for reinforcements. The people who assigned me won't let me down until I'm no longer of use."

Swish!
Three zombies rushed forward at high speed, and with each sprint, a large amount of flesh and blood tore off their bodies, clearly pushing their physical capabilities to the limit.

Upon seeing the zombies, the Sand Village ninjas quickly made a judgment, and excited expressions appeared on their faces.

"That's right, this is the Death Soul Technique of that Konoha ninja!"

"Hmph, I originally planned to use this Konoha spy to see if I could lure some Konoha ninja over, but I didn't expect such a pleasant surprise."

Araki was pleasantly surprised. Who didn't know that Chiyo valued Kaede Tsukasa highly? As a veteran elite Jonin of Sunagakure, he was practically a high-ranking member of the village. He knew a lot of the village's secrets and had also vaguely sensed some signs of the human puppet experiments.

With just a little more thought, Araki Sandstorm understood the necessity of acquiring the Soul-Seizing Technique.

"Move! Destroy these three corpses remotely first! There's a high chance they have explosive tags attached to them!"

"Sandstorm Araki!" Araki shouted, his hand suddenly changing direction: "Magnetic Release: Sandstorm Rain!"

A large amount of sand gathered into sharp blades, piercing the three zombies and turning them into sieves in an instant.

"As expected, destroying the head can truly destroy the vitality of the corpse."

Sandstorm Araki took the opportunity to experiment, and in the end, only the zombie with a large hole in its waist and a broken spine could still maintain some mobility, but it could only wave its hands in place. The other two zombies remained motionless.

However, what puzzled him was that none of the three zombies had explosive tags on them, so they weren't meant for self-destruction?

"That Kaedeji seems to have grown up too, and knows how to adjust his usual tactics, although it's not very useful." Sandstorm Araki snorted coldly and commanded his troops to launch an attack on Kaedeji and his group.

Two puppets led the way, making a series of clattering sounds, and quickly pounced on Kaedeji and the others.

"The good news is that our comrades who were supposed to be there to meet us are still alive. The bad news is that the enemy has more troops than us." Kaede Tsukasa opened his eyes. The failure of the three zombies was not worth his attention.

He also carried a spirit scroll with him, which allowed him to summon new zombies at any time. He also specifically ordered two zombies to burrow into the sand and lie dead at two different locations, 50 meters and 150 meters away.

Terai took in all of Kaedeji's abilities: "It seems your Soul Reaper Technique also grants you some sensory abilities? You've mastered a ninjutsu with great tactical value, which is why you deserve such a grand welcome from Sunagakure."

Under Terai's command, the Konoha ninjas moved quickly, their sole objective being to rendezvous with Yakushi Nonou and obtain information from her.

Terai, as an elite Jonin, was the strongest member of the support team, and naturally took the lead in facing off against Sandstorm Araki.

Kaede Tsukasa unfurled the scroll, summoning two zombies to join his teammates in action. He followed closely behind the zombies, always under the cover of his teammates.

From a tactical standpoint, there's nothing wrong with this. Medical ninjas and sensory ninjas should receive the highest priority protection from their teammates. However, unfortunately, the enemy will also launch the highest priority attack on Kaede Tsukasa.

Various ninjutsu techniques began to clash from a distance, flames clashed with lightning, and storms and sandstorms roared.

Taking advantage of the moment when the enemy's puppeteer was entangled by Morino Isuke and others, Kaedeji sent zombies close to the enemy and then suddenly detonated them. He was no longer as short of money as before. He had earned merits and been promoted to Chunin, and his authority had also increased. He could more easily obtain ninja tools such as explosive tags from the camp. He wished he could stick explosive tags on every bone inside every zombie.

Boom!

The explosion, several times larger than previous ones, briefly created a silent vacuum in the dusty environment, blasting a Sand Villager to pieces. A large amount of blood and flesh were scattered everywhere, staining both the enemy and our own bodies.

No one cared about such details. Both sides were bloodthirsty and wanted to kill each other, so why would they care if they were stained with a bit of blood and flesh?
"Watch out, the enemy's main target isn't me, it's you!" Yakushi Nonou shouted.

Kaedeji's expression remained unchanged; he had already anticipated this outcome.

Several Sand Village ninja rushed over.

Sandstorm Araki fully utilized the terrain advantage, sparing no expense in consuming a large amount of chakra, and used a large amount of thick sand to disturb Terai.

To be honest, Terai and Hatake Sakumo are similar in that they are both lone wolves. They are more than capable of protecting themselves against enemies who frequently launch large-scale attacks, but they are not quite good at completely restricting the enemy throughout the entire battle.

Almost instantly, Kaede Tsukasa found himself in a desperate predicament, with no way of escaping—his position was also somewhat forward, and if he had taken two steps back, he would have had more room to maneuver.

"Hmph, got it."

Araki manipulated sandstorms to interfere with Terai, while simultaneously creating small sandstorm vortexes to trap Kaedeji, thus creating an opportunity for the other Sand Village ninjas.

But there was no panic on Kaede Tsukasa's face. Instead, he calmly formed hand seals and disappeared from the spot before the many enemies could subdue him with physical techniques.

Swish!
Replacing him in his original position was the zombie with a broken spine, who had lost the ability to move his legs—this zombie was also forming hand seals.

Kaede Tsukasa himself instantly appeared at the zombie's original location, about ten meters away from the sandstorm wielder, where the two could see each other's eyes.

"...Flying Thunder God?!"

Sandstorm and wildwood were horrified, their faces filled with disbelief.

(End of this chapter)