Reika exhaled softly, voice flat. "Now he's dangerous."
Emi's Byakugan pulsed, veins straining as she scanned. Her voice was tense. "His chakra output… It's four times higher now. His body is screaming, but he doesn't care. He, he's faster than before, sharper."
Akane smiled coldly, flames dancing at her lips, lightning crackling in her palm. "Good. Then it won't be boring."
Saya's scythe spun, droplets of blood flicking off into shuriken mid-air, her laughter sharp as a blade. "Bleed harder for me, old man."
Kimimaro's thoughts were calm, dissecting.
'So he's finally playing his full hand. His clarity returns for now, but every second it erodes. His body is a borrowed flame. We'll smother it soon enough.'
He raised his voice, sharp, decisive. "Stay coordinated. Don't split. Let him lunge first. The harder he presses, the deeper he sinks."
Tenzo crouched, the storm of grass around him swaying, his sickle thrumming with lethal wind. His eyes glowed with manic focus, muscles twitching with unnatural strength.
Then he vanished.
The grass surged like a living tide, the crocodiles lunged in perfect sync, and the mercenary's sickle whistled out of the mist with the speed of a hurricane.
The grass roared up like a tidal wave, a green storm that swallowed the clearing whole.
Blades as tall as trees slammed together, tangling and twisting, trapping air and sight alike.
The crocodiles burst through with snapping maws, chakra scales clanging like steel.
Tenzo's sickle-carved arcs through the chaos, wind chakra whistling so sharp it left scars in the stone walls behind them.
His body moved with frightening precision, none of the sluggish haze that Saya had been grinding into him earlier; his pill-boosted clarity cut through, at least for the moment.
But Kimimaro's side didn't break.
Reika was the first to move.
She thrust both palms forward, her breath misting as chakra burst from her skin.
"Ice Release: Frozen Expanse!"
A torrent of frost exploded outward, slamming against the rising wall of grass.
Green and white collided in a screech, freezing whole patches into brittle crystal, crocodiles' limbs catching mid-lunge.
One toppled, tail thrashing, as frost raced up its body.
Akane leapt past her, Sharingan spinning three tomoe deep, fire surging in her lungs. "Fire Release: Grand Fireball!"
A sphere of flame the size of a small house roared from her mouth, rolling across the frozen grass like a second sun.
The flames devoured what Reika's frost weakened, turning a wide swath of Tenzo's cover into a choking inferno.
"Che—" Tenzo clicked his tongue, twisting aside, his sickle carving the fireball apart as wind split the blaze.
The sheer pressure of his swing blew sparks everywhere, lighting stray grass like kindling.
But Kimimaro was already there, stepping calmly through the mist.
The whip of bone lashed out from his hand, spinning in wide arcs.
The jointed segments rattled like chains, slamming through the flames and frost, reaching for Tenzo's leg.
Tenzo reacted instantly, chakra flooding into his sickle, wind edge slicing the whip into pieces, only for each shattered segment to spear forward, fragments bursting like shrapnel.
He grunted, twisting his torso to avoid a shard that carved a bloody line across his ribs.
Saya moved in next, blood dripping from her forearm, her grin sharp. "Blood Art: Crimson Mist."
A fine haze of red drifted into the air, carried by the heat of Akane's flames, spreading fast.
The grass quivered under Tenzo's command, but inside the mist, his vision wavered.
His breath caught, lungs overworked, air thick with iron tang.
'Too many layers. Frost, flame, blood haze—every element cut against mine.'
His eyes narrowed, teeth grinding. 'But I won't be crushed by children.'
He slammed his foot into the ground, chakra flooding downward.
The earth trembled, then erupted.
From the cracked soil, roots surged upward like skeletal arms, thick and snarled, breaking through fire and ice alike.
The grass thickened anew, fresh and wild, forcing Saya's mist to disperse.
From above, one of his crocodiles crashed down, jaws wide.
But Emi's voice rang sharp. "On your left!"
Her Byakugan pulsed, pointing out the blind spot.
Reika twisted without hesitation, ice lances bursting from her palm, skewering the crocodile's head mid-leap
. It collapsed with a crash, shattering into frozen shards.
Kimimaro's eyes flicked toward Emi briefly, catching her pale, focused face behind the translucent barrier seal he'd prepared for her.
She was safe, exactly as intended.
Kimimaro's voice cut through the chaos, calm but commanding. "Keep pressure. Don't give him a clean breath."
Akane's Sharingan gleamed. "I'll take his openings."
Saya's scythe spun, dripping blood. "I'll give them to you."
And with that, they surged forward together, their coordination sharp as blades, while Tenzo's pill-fueled storm raged louder, his body caught between power and ruin.
Tenzo's sickle blurred, carving arcs so wide it was like fighting against the sweep of a windmill made of steel.
Each strike bent the air, grass whipping toward him as if the field itself had turned into his ally. His body swelled unnaturally, muscles strained from the pill and that brutal lung acupuncture technique, faster, sharper, but twitching with instability.
Yet Saya didn't flinch. She pressed forward, her Ketsuryūgan glowing bright crimson through the haze. With a mere flicker of her gaze, threads of his chakra flow twisted.
Tenzo's arm stuttered mid-swing, just for a heartbeat.
"Blood Shuriken!" Saya's hand snapped forward, crimson discs cutting through the gap.
Tenzo forced his body past the genjutsu's tug, his willpower honed by years of mercenary survival.
His sickle split the discs, spraying droplets that hissed across his skin.
But some of that blood seeped in through the shallow cut at his ribs, riding his own wound like a parasite.
Saya's grin widened. "Got you."
The Ketsuryūgan flared again, this time through the blood inside him.
The genjutsu didn't need his eyes now; her crimson threads hooked directly into his bloodstream.
Tenzo staggered.
His vision fractured, one crocodile seeming to lunge where there was none, his own sickle feeling heavier in his grip.
He blinked rapidly, trying to clear it, but the haze stuck.
Akane was already there, Sharingan blazing, exploiting the crack.
Fire and lightning surged together in her hands, raw chakra shaping into a spear of burning light.
"Piercing Flame Fang!" she shouted, thrusting it straight at his midsection.
Tenzo barely managed to slam his sickle down, earth release flooding into it, making it heavy enough to intercept.
The clash blew sparks and dirt across the clearing, the shockwave shaking the nearby grass into ash.
But Kimimaro moved through that blast, his whip of bones snaking low, wrapping around Tenzo's ankle before he could reset.
The whip tightened, mini-bone joints bursting outward like needles, locking his leg in place.
Tenzo roared, muscles bulging as he tore against it, sickle swinging wildly. "Damn pests!"
Saya's genjutsu twisted deeper through his blood, his limbs jerking half a second out of sync.
Akane's Sharingan tracked every delay, every twitch, her prediction ability turning him into a puppet fighting itself.
And from the edge of the battlefield, Reika's second dragon roared into existence, crashing down on the remaining crocodiles, freezing the flailing beasts into icy statues before they could lunge at Emi's barrier.
Tenzo sucked in air like a drowning man, veins bulging against his skin, the pill and his lung strike barely keeping his body upright.
He knew it now; he wasn't facing frightened children, but predators. Coordinated, relentless, and each with abilities he'd never accounted for.
Kimimaro's drill-arm pressed forward, the point aimed for his chest.
Tenzo grit his teeth, forcing his head down to avoid Saya's gaze, even as her blood clawed at his insides.
"I won't… fall to brats!" he snarled, earth chakra flooding into the ground beneath him.
The terrain erupted, jagged walls splitting the battlefield, grass surging again to give him breathing space.