Chapter 97: Explosion

"Alright, let's end this!" In the forest, Chiya, who was fleeing, suddenly heard this sentence. His expression changed abruptly, and he stopped, staring intently at the figure that suddenly appeared in front of him. This person was none other than Seimei. "It's you! You discovered me long ago?" Looking at the familiar face and those familiar eyes, Chiya gritted his teeth. "Hehe~" Seimei chuckled softly and said, "If I couldn't even discover your traces like this, then these eyes of mine would be useless." Hiding in place to conceal one's whereabouts and moving without being detected were two entirely different concepts. Seimei had only chased for a short while before discovering the traces left by Chiya's main body through the Sharingan's powerful perception. He hadn't stopped him immediately only to ensure the battlefield was as far away from the previous location as possible. Now... It was about time! Any further delay, and the other teams might encircle them. He had to finish the battle quickly. Moreover, there was another reason for choosing this location as the battlefield: there was a hidden spot nearby suitable for confinement. It was an underground space, seemingly created by someone using Earth Style ninjutsu during the last Great Ninja War. Seimei had accidentally discovered it while patrolling two days ago. He hadn't paid much attention to it at the time, but now it could be used to imprison this puppeteer. However, before that, he still had to capture the opponent first. With this thought, Seimei abruptly threw several shuriken. "Hmph!" Seeing this, Chiya didn't dodge or evade. He snorted coldly, and with a slight flick of his fingers, two dark shadows darted out from the forest behind him, directly blocking his front. These shadows were none other than the spider puppet, missing three legs, and the humanoid puppet, left with only its head, torso, and one leg. Thump, thump, thump~ The shuriken hit the puppets, producing a series of dull sounds, failing to cause any damage to them. Immediately afterward, Chiya's counterattack came. His ten fingers moved rapidly, controlling the spider puppet to release a large number of hidden weapons while also manipulating the humanoid puppet to engage in close combat with Seimei, attempting to disrupt his movements. But Seimei wasn't easily disturbed. He dodged the incoming hidden weapons while wielding his short sword, blocking the attacks from the humanoid puppet. Then, he even took advantage of a gap in the spider puppet's attack to rush towards Chiya. Yes, Seimei had only been targeting the puppets before, but that was because he hadn't discovered Chiya's main body! Now that the opponent had appeared before him, he naturally wouldn't stubbornly fight the puppets. Instead, like others, he chose to attack the puppeteer himself. Unfortunately, although Chiya lacked combat experience, he had received formal puppeteer training and knew that he himself was the biggest weakness, so he had always been on guard. Therefore, Seimei's assault was unsuccessful, and his sword strike was blocked by the spider puppet. Not only that, but two tubes extended from the spider puppet's abdomen, spraying two streams of yellow-green poisonous mist towards Seimei. Fortunately, Seimei possessed the Sharingan and had already retreated vigilantly the moment those tubes appeared. Before the poisonous mist could spread, Seimei, relying on his memory, threw three kunai towards where Chiya was standing. The kunai pierced through the poisonous mist and attacked Chiya, but once again, they were blocked by the spider puppet. However, before Chiya could breathe a sigh of relief, a "sizzling" sound suddenly came. He looked closely and saw three explosive tags fiercely burning behind the three deflected kunai. "Not good!" Chiya was terrified. He retreated while controlling the spider puppet to shield him. Boom~ Boom~ Boom~ A blinding flash of light appeared, followed by deafening explosions. Three crimson fireballs rose, instantly engulfing the spider puppet. However, to Seimei's surprise, even after being hit by three explosive tags, the spider puppet didn't seem to have any major problems. "As expected, there's something special about it!" Mumbling to himself, Seimei leaped forward again, charging towards Chiya. Seeing this, Chiya immediately controlled the two puppets to intercept him. Seimei used the same tactic, once again starting to dismantle the two puppets. In just a moment, the severely damaged humanoid puppet was disassembled into parts, completely immobilized. Additionally, the spider puppet had another leg removed by Seimei. During this time, Chiya naturally tried to resist, but it was futile. Even when hiding in the shadows earlier, he couldn't stop Seimei from dismantling the puppets. Now, with his main body exposed and such a big weakness, he naturally couldn't stop him even more. Seeing that the spider puppet, in order to protect him, was already in tatters. Finally, Chiya, in desperation, resorted to his last resort. The spider puppet, which was grappling with Seimei, suddenly froze. Then, accompanied by a "click, clack, clack" sound, it abruptly scattered into parts all over the ground. Wait! They weren't parts, but rather spider puppets of varying sizes. Chiya's ten fingers moved slightly, and the chakra threads he shot out split into two, then four, then eight... In an instant, they connected to all the puppets. If Seimei couldn't observe the chakra threads before because they were too thin, now he could faintly see them even without activating his Sharingan. But... 'So many chakra threads, can he, a mere Chunin, really control them all?' One had to know that Chiyo was already hailed as a top-notch puppeteer for controlling one puppet with a single finger. This... Seimei roughly counted the number of spider puppets. There were at least a hundred of them. Controlling such a scale of puppets in battle, perhaps only Sasori, after transforming himself into a human puppet, could achieve that. Seimei didn't believe this "unknown person" could do it. 'There must be something fishy going on here.' Seimei pondered inwardly, unconsciously taking half a step back. However, as soon as he retreated, it was like poking a hornet's nest. The spider puppets on the ground jumped up one after another, pouncing towards him. With a flash of cold light, Seimei swung his short sword, instantly splitting the spider puppet at the forefront in half. However, at that moment, alarm bells rang in his heart. His Sharingan spun rapidly, and everything in front of him seemed to slow down. Finally, within the spider puppet that had been split in two, he saw a familiar piece of paper. It was undoubtedly an explosive tag, and it was still burning. "Damn it!" Seimei cursed, his figure abruptly retreating. If it were just one explosive tag, it wouldn't be a big deal. But he was afraid that all those spider puppets contained explosive tags. Once surrounded by them, with hundreds of explosive tags detonating simultaneously, Seimei didn't know how to defend against that without Susanoo. So, to be safe, it was better to retreat first. Facts proved that his decision was correct. As soon as he left, two spider puppets jumped to the spot where he had just stood. Then, along with the spider puppet he had split, three explosions sounded almost simultaneously. Raging flames instantly engulfed an area of several meters around them. (End of Chapter)