Zombie Sage in Naruto

Chapter 23 Lost a Finger

Kaede Tsukasa stood beside Yakushi Nonou, never once looking at her, but immediately reaching out his hand to ask for information.

Without hesitation, Yakushi Nonou immediately handed the blood-stained scroll to Kaedeji Tsukasa.

"You guys from Konoha, hand over the intelligence!!"

"No need to deliberately pursue intelligence, just kill all these guys!"

As Sand Village ninja continued to rush forward, Morino Isuke and the other two retreated, making room to slow down the enemy's attacks as much as possible, while their wounds gradually increased.

To put it bluntly, the weakest member of this team is Kaede Tsukasa, the newly promoted Chunin. The others, including the medical ninja Morino Isuke, are all at the level of Special Jonin.

“You’ve obtained the intelligence, and you’ll become the primary target of all enemies, you know that, right?” Yakushi Nonou subconsciously reached out to place a hand on Kaede Tsukasa’s body to heal him, but immediately stopped—Kaede Tsukasa had almost no injuries.

The weakest person was not injured much, which is also a kind of ability in a way.

Kaede Tsukasa summoned three Chunin zombies, stuffed the information into one of the zombies' mouths and made it swallow it, before quickly saying, "Even if I didn't do this, I would still be the enemy's primary target."

There's one more thing Kaedeji didn't say: once he gets the information, he'll also become Terai and the others' primary target for protection, which will actually increase their chances of survival.

Never overestimate the moral standards of Root ninjas; they have absolutely no such luxuries.

"retreat."

Terai gave the order, glanced coldly at Kaedeji, showing no emotion whatsoever, numb like an iceberg, and covered Kaedeji's escape.

One Root ninja stayed behind and threw a large number of smoke bombs, which would only be effective for a few seconds in the sandstorm, while he himself stayed behind to fight the Sand Village ninja to the death.

Everyone else began to focus on Kaedeji, covering his escape.

This process was not easy. The ninjas of Sunagakure used all kinds of ninjutsu and launched a strong attack even with limited vision.

Kaede Tsukasa was the most targeted by the attack. Even though he sent out two zombies to carry out a suicide attack and explode, in the gaps created by the explosions, some fearless Sand Village ninjas approached and struck Kaede Tsukasa's neck with a kunai.

"You're not afraid of the death of a corpse, but what about yourself? What will happen if you become a corpse? Or will you use space-time ninjutsu to escape again?"

The Sand Village ninja's face was full of cruelty. He no longer cared about the order to capture Kaedeji alive. He would rather kill Kaedeji and take the body back to the village's intelligence ninja for research. Maybe they could obtain some valuable information!

Anyone could see that Kaede Tsukasa's physical condition was not right. His heavy breathing indicated that his stamina was declining rapidly and he didn't have much chakra left. Using space-time ninjutsu would be a heavy burden.

"careful!"

Yakushi Nonou's expression changed, and she exclaimed in surprise.

Kaede calmly raised his hand. In that split second, there was very little he could do. He was bound to be attacked, and his companions wouldn't have time to provide support.

So... let them attack.

Pfft!

Half of his hand was severed on the spot, and as it moved through the air with its momentum, it fell to the ground covered in sand and glistening with blood.

But having successfully avoided the vital area around the neck, that was enough. Terai immediately killed the Sand Village ninja and secured Kaedeji's back.

With the help of the zombie that had devoured the intelligence scroll, Kaede Tsukasa began to flee quickly.

"Can you still use that movement technique to escape? If not, it means your body isn't strong enough to support such a long retreat. Why don't you give me the information?"

Another Root ninja, "Tiger," despite being covered in blood, spoke without any politeness.

Kaede looked at his left hand, which was almost entirely gone except for three fingers, and said in a deep voice, "You don't need to worry about that. I've used zombies to help me with my raids more than once or twice. What do you think I was preparing for by doing that before?"

Tiger fell silent. Seeing that another enemy was chasing after him, he immediately turned around and glanced back with his katana.

"Tiger, stop them."

Terai commanded, "He's in top condition. If we don't have a life-or-death battle with Sandstorm Araki, his chances of escaping are the best."

Tiger did not hesitate and acted immediately, risking his life to do this, hoping to buy more time.

The constant sandstorms swept in, trying to obstruct their vision and disrupt their sense of direction.

"He's like a persistent ghost. We still need to find a way to deal with Sandstorm Araki. A ninja like him who can create area-of-effect attacks is too disadvantageous for us," Morino Isuke said in a deep voice, feeling somewhat anxious.

If another person had to sacrifice themselves to buy time, Morino Isuke felt it would be his turn soon.

Until the very last moment, Terai, the strongest fighter, would not let Kaedeji, who had the intelligence, escape his sight.

Terai glanced at Morino Isuke and was about to speak when Kaedeji interrupted, "I have a way."

"Do you have any idea?"

“Yes, Captain, you don’t need to sacrifice yourself and stay behind to risk your life to hold off the enemy. I won’t abandon you.” Kaede Tsukasa, being carried on the back of a zombie ninja, spoke solemnly.

Terai paused for a moment. That wasn't what he actually thought. This cunning guy was deliberately using such simple words to shut him up.

Kaedeji used his right hand to pull open the scroll at his waist, and the instant he released it, his right palm had already slapped it down.

A puff of white smoke dissipated, the zombies stored in the spirit scroll were exhausted, and the scroll itself was abandoned. Several zombies of various shapes and sizes were already following behind Kaede Tsukasa.

"You may have forgotten that I am a medical ninja, a medical ninja who has mastered the Soul Reaper Technique. Changing the appearance of corpses and disguising them as living people to attract the enemy's attention is the original use of the Soul Reaper Technique."

Kaede Tsukasa said, "We've lost two of our comrades, so the bodies we prepared for them are no longer needed. For the rest of us, I've prepared modified bodies accordingly."

Morino Isuke's face showed surprise; Yakushi Nonou hesitated for a moment, then finally let out a long sigh.

Terai fell silent again, thinking of the two subordinates he had sent to their deaths, and then looking at another version of himself, vividly following behind Kaedeji.

"The sacrifice of Tiger and Sheep was necessary. Without them blocking the enemy, we would not have been able to distance ourselves from them and thus would not have been able to use the Death Soul Technique without their sight."

Terai said something that made him realize he had made a major mistake—he had completely separated Kaedeji's Soul Reaper Technique from the original Soul Reaper Technique, thus overlooking the escape tactic of using corpses as disguise.

(End of this chapter)