Shadows On The Leaf

The interior of the facility vibrated with a tension that seemed to permeate the metal walls and narrow corridors. Tatsuma and Kabuto moved calmly, their senses honed to the max. The guards' footsteps echoed in the distance, each echo a reminder that the slightest mistake could give away their presence. 

Tatsuma led the charge, with an almost imperceptible gesture, releasing a small cloud of kikaichū that dispersed into the air, spreading like an invisible mist in search of chakra signals. Kabuto, behind him, adjusted his left glove.

As they turned a corner, they came upon a group of three guards patrolling in tight formation. Before they could react, Tatsuma's kikaichū pounced on them in a swift attack. The insects drained their chakra, leaving them weakened. 

But one of the guards, an experienced ninja, managed to release a chakra blast that dispersed some of the insects and then helped the other two.

The fight broke out in an instant. 

Tatsuma manipulated his insects to attack again, concentrating them this time on a single enemy.

Meanwhile, Kabuto moved at high speed, dodging the attacks of a sword-wielding guard. With a swift movement, Kabuto activated his chakra scalpel and severed the tendons on the guard's arm, rendering him useless to fight.

Without hesitation, Kabuto made a clean cut across the defenseless guard's neck.

"Quick and clean," Kabuto muttered.

The remaining guard formed seals at top speed, summoning a wall of earth that temporarily blocked the path. But Tatsuma calmly ordered his kikaichū to penetrate the cracks in the wall. Within seconds, the insects swarmed the guard, forcing him to retreat as he tried in vain to defend himself. 

Kabuto appeared behind him and finished him off with a stab to the back, which pierced his heart, his hand wrapped in the chakra scalpel protruding from the guard's chest.

He then dropped the body as he wiped the blood off his hands. "Not as clean as before, but effective," he commented quietly, casting a glance at Tatsuma.

"Faster next time," Tatsuma replied, neutral as ever. 

They continued forward, but the confrontation had disturbed the calm surroundings. The alarms had not yet been activated, but the guards were clearly more alert. As they approached the main area of ​​the laboratory, they found a checkpoint with four more guards.

Tatsuma paused, taking stock of the situation. "Too many for a frontal attack without setting off the alarms," he muttered, sending out a small swarm of kikaichū to assess the defenses. 

Kabuto looked around, his mind working fast. "I could draw their attention to me while you surround them. But if there are more nearby, it will be risky." 

Before they could decide, one of the guards noticed something out of place: a kikaichū landed on a wall. "Intruders!" he shouted, launching a flurry of kunai towards the place where they were hiding. 

"Change of plan," Tatsuma said, releasing a wave of insects that darkened the hallway like a living cloud. The guards responded with wind jutsus, dispelling some of the swarm, but Tatsuma was already moving, using the confusion to approach from the flank. 

Kabuto launched himself into combat against the first guard, dodging the attacks and counterattacking with slashes that disabled the ninja, who in the end could not move his hands or feet, and could only receive the chakra scalpel in his chest. The other guard attacked Kabuto from behind, throwing a series of Kunais, but Kabuto used his own Kunai to deflect them, then again using the Chakra scalpel he slowly weakened the ninja until he was able to finish him off.

Meanwhile, Tatsuma took advantage of the distraction to send his kikaichū towards the two remaining guards. The insects infiltrated their clothes, paralyzing them, absorbing their chakra at such a speed that the guards thought they were going to die from just their chakra absorbed, while Tatsuma calmly advanced, a quick movement of his kunai and the guards fell. 

Clearing the checkpoint, Tatsuma and Kabuto finally reached the door to the laboratory. The light emanating from within partially illuminated the hallway, and the muffled voices of the scientists could be heard. But in front of the door, two more guards, with firm postures and sharp eyes, blocked the entrance, having been alerted by the noise of the battle.

Kabuto took a step forward, but the guards had already spotted them. One grabbed his Katana, while the other reached for a communicator. 

It all happened in an instant. Before the guard could raise the alarm, his partner ran him through with a katana, the blade sinking deep into his torso. 

The slain guard fell to the ground, his eyes wide in shock. The swordsman calmly withdrew his weapon, wiping it on the dead man's robes before turning to Tatsuma and Kabuto. 

"Jūro," he said in a calm voice. "Danzō-sama's spy. I've been waiting."

Tatsuma kept his expression neutral, though his swarm of insects remained alert around his body. "Code." 

"Root 0-12: The fox runs through the shadows and carries only one eye," Jūro replied calmly.

Kabuto nodded after hearing the code, though his expression remained distrustful. "Efficient entry into the scene." 

Jūro ignored the comment. "I'll open the door."

Tatsuma nodded slightly, but his eyes didn't leave Jūro for even a second. "Make it quick."

Jūro knelt in front of the lock and began to manipulate it.

The lock clicked, and Jūro stood up, turning to them with an impassive expression. "Let's go."

The door swung open with a metallic creak, revealing the interior of the laboratory. The light from the lamps shone brightly on the cluttered work tables, laden with tools and metal parts.

In the center of the room, two puppet masters were already unleashing their puppets, while the sensor ninja glared at Jūro, the traitor. In the background, several scientists were trying to flee through different corridors. 

"Come in," Tatsuma ordered coldly, as he released a cloud of kikaichū that scattered in all directions. Jūro unsheathed his katana and Kabuto activated his chakra scalpel, preparing for chaos. 

One of the puppeteers launched his puppet at them: a monstrous arachnid armed with blades and a poisoned stinger that hissed as it moved. Tatsuma faced it head on, his swarm of kikaichū crashing into the puppet in a cloud of insects and poison. The bugs began to take apart the puppet's structure piece by piece, but the second puppeteer joined the attack, sending two armored humanoid puppets toward Tatsuma. 

"You think you can handle both?" Kabuto muttered before lunging towards the sensor. 

"Focus on not dying," Tatsuma replied calmly, deflecting one of the attacks with a quick flick of his kunai. 

//////

Kabuto moved with agility, dodging the kunai marked with explosive seals that flew towards him, upon impacting with the ground behind Kabuto, they exploded, throwing debris in all directions.

The sensor looked at him, "I already knew you were coming, although I didn't count on the betrayal of our guard, but I had already prepared some traps" He said, activating a seal that was hidden beneath the place where Kabuto was standing, a seal matrix spread across the ground, from it several chains came out around Kabuto that began to bind him.

Kabuto staggered for a moment before using his chakra scalpel to cut through the chains trapping him. "Ingenious," he muttered, launching himself towards the sensor with dizzying speed. 

The sensor reacted by activating a weight-increasing seal on the ground in front of Kabuto. As he stepped on it, the ground sank under his sudden weight, forcing him to stop. The sensor approached Kabuto with the intention of placing a chakra restrictive seal on him, when the ninja was about to place the paper with the seal, Kabuto used the substitution technique to escape.

'I shouldn't let him put one of those on me,' Kabuto thought, keeping himself in constant motion as he watched the Sensor drop the seal. He lunged at the Sensor again, this time throwing a volley of kunai to distract him. He took advantage of the confusion to get close enough to slash the Sensor's arm, momentarily disabling him.

The sensor, with a cruel smile, activated a seal on his body, releasing a burst of chakra that forced Kabuto to retreat. "It won't be that easy," the ninja said, forming more seals. 

//////

Meanwhile, Tatsuma was dealing with three puppets at once. The first, still covered by his kikaichū, was moving with difficulty, its gears being eaten away from within. The other two attacked as a team, one throwing poisoned blades while the other tried to trap Tatsuma with steel cables. 

Tatsuma moved quickly, dodging the blades and cutting the wires with his kunai. "Is that all you have?" he said quietly, sending a new wave of kikaichū towards the puppeteers. 

One of the puppeteers reacted quickly, deploying a curtain of poisoned smoke from his puppet, but Tatsuma barely flinched. The kikaichū absorbed the poison as they advanced towards their target. The puppeteer barely had time to scream before he was covered by the insects, which drained his chakra in seconds. 

The second puppeteer attempted to retreat, throwing his puppet as a last resort. Tatsuma caught the puppet in a kikaichū net, stopping it in mid-air before advancing with a kunai in hand. With a swift movement, he plunged the blade into the puppeteer's heart, dropping him to the ground. 

/////

While Tatsuma and Kabuto fought, Jūro took care of the scientists trying to escape. His katana moved with brutal efficiency, cutting down anyone who got in his way. One scientist tried to activate an explosive seal on the wall, which could have brought the whole place down, but Jūro stopped him by throwing a kunai at him that pierced his throat.

"I don't want to die in such a foolish way," Jūro muttered, wiping the blood off his blade as he moved towards another group of scientists.

//////

The sensor fell to the ground, his expression of surprise frozen on his face. 

Behind him, another Kabuto was holding a bloody Kunai.

The Kabuto in front of the sensor ninja exploded in a cloud of smoke.

"I created a shadow clone to entertain you, while I used one of your chakra restrictive seals to restrict my chakra, this way I was able to sneak up on you." Kabuto explained to the dying ninja. "Although, a better sensor would have noticed… your skills are relatively poor."

Tatsuma finished eliminating the last puppets, his swarm of kikaichū returning to him like a living cloak. 

"Well done," Tatsuma said, looking at Kabuto and Jūro.

Kabuto breathed heavily, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "It took longer than I thought, now I need Kinoe to help me break the chakra restriction seal," he admitted.

Tatsuma, Kabuto, and Jūro moved toward the center of the room, where a huge work table was surrounded by scrolls, mechanical parts, and jars filled with unknown liquids. 

Kabuto leaned over one of the tables, quickly scanning through the scattered documents. "Blueprints… technical notes… This level of detail is impressive." He pointed to a scroll that showed an intricate design of a humanoid puppet with hidden compartments and built-in weapons. "If this is ever completed, it would be a lethal piece of work." 

Tatsuma didn't say anything. Instead, his attention was on a glowing crystal resting on a pedestal in the corner of the lab, protected by a faintly flickering chakra field. It was a deep purple rock, pulsing with energy, emanating a soft, mesmerizing glow. 

"What is that?" Jūro asked, approaching cautiously, although he was a spy and knew about the project, guards had never been allowed into the lab.

Kabuto looked at it for a moment before turning his attention back to the papers. "I don't know, but it emits more chakra than anything natural I've ever seen, it seems important."

Tatsuma approached the pedestal, inspecting the seal protecting the rock. It was complex, with multiple layers of chakra barriers superimposed on each other. With a silent gesture, he released a small cloud of kikaichū, which began to absorb the seal's chakra. 

"Careful," Kabuto warned, still scanning the tables. "We don't know if that Chakra could backfire on your Kikaichū."

"Don't worry about me," Tatsuma replied as his insects dismantled the seal. Finally, the barrier vanished with a soft hum, and Tatsuma picked up the rock, carefully wrapping it in a sealing scroll he had prepared.

I notice that some of the Kikaichū that tried to absorb the rock's chakra immediately exploded.

"This will be useful to Danzō-sama," he said as he stored the scroll into his equipment. 

Meanwhile, Kabuto had found a series of detailed scrolls on the inner workings of puppets. "Those puppet masters were building something big," he said, pointing to a blueprint that showed a massive structure. "This was no ordinary puppet, it was apparently automated, using the chakra provided by that rock as a core, it would also have several cannons powered by this chakra, according to the tests they had conducted, the destructive force of this cannon was similar to a Tailed Beast Bomb from a Jinchuriki using the chakra of his Biju Version Two."

Jūro, who had been guarding the corridors where the scientists had fled, returned. "So what do we do with this? What was Danzo-sama's order?"

"Everything," Tatsuma replied without hesitation. "We're taking it all." 

Kabuto nodded and began storing the scrolls and smaller components into sealing scrolls. Tatsuma did the same, making sure there was nothing left that the enemies could use to rebuild the project. 

Finally, they took the humanoid puppet and sealed it as well.

Tatsuma and the others moved forward through the corridors. "Let's eliminate any traces." 

Reaching the exit, Tatsuma activated an explosive seal he had prepared on the entrance path. A series of explosions rumbled behind them, causing the walls of the laboratory to tremble and begin to crumble. 

Once they were outside, under the moonlight, Tatsuma looked at his companions. "We have what we came for. We're heading back now." 

Kabuto nodded, though he still looked curiously at the scroll where Tatsuma had sealed the rock. "It will be interesting to see what Danzō-sama plans to do with it."

"That's none of our business," Tatsuma replied coldly, turning his gaze back to the road. "We accomplished the mission."