Chapter 33: It's normal

After releasing a relieved sigh, Tekku turned his gaze towards the tree where he punched the last Iwa Chunin moments ago. Only to realize that he wasn't lying there anymore, only a few drops of blood remained on the ground, signifying that someone was there before.

Instantly, Tekku went into combat mode, raising his guard that he had dropped for a moment, taking control of his Sword Puppet and moving it beside him. "Shit, where is he?" he cursed while focusing his sensory technique to search his surroundings for any sign of the Chunin. Unable to find him, he extended his reach by using his Throbbing Pulse of the World technique, sending his Sensory Chakra into the surrounding area.

But no matter how far he searched, he couldn't find any sign of that Chunin. "Damn, he must have fled while I was distracted. What a coward," he cursed under his breath, well aware that this was the smart choice in the Chunin's situation. There was nothing he could do in that regard as the Chunin must have fled without pausing. Meanwhile, he could feel that Kurenai was still fighting with that Jonin a bit to the west.

First, he searched through the two dead enemies' belongings, but besides a bit of cash and some standard weaponry, they didn't have anything noteworthy. It wasn't like Shinobi would carry scrolls with Jutsus on them. The ones who did usually had safety measures on them, preventing them from being stolen after their death. He grabbed the two bodies and stored them in his Corpse Storage Seals that he always carried with him. There was no way he would waste samples of a Kekkei Genkai user like one of the Explosion release. He also sealed his Sword Puppet away as it no longer had any charges in its Chakra blades left. He would have to reapply the seals first.

Having collected everything of use, he rushed toward the area where Kurenai was still fighting with the Iwa Jonin. Once he was close enough but far enough away so a non-Sensor Jonin wouldn't notice him, still having more than three-quarters of his Chakra left as he mostly used already beforehand stored Chakra in his Puppets, he once again moved underground, approaching the area where the two of them were fighting from below the ground.

The Jonin seemed experienced enough in fighting Genjutsu users, always not directly looking at any triggers for such techniques while still pressuring Kurenai, even with such limited vision. After all, Genjutsu needed a trigger affecting one of the five senses to make the technique work. An experienced enough Jonin could always spot them and avoid them.

Vision and sound are the most common ones as they can be applied from a distance. But most combat-oriented sound-based Genjutsu needed a medium like smell and taste-based techniques, and these mediums were easy to avoid if you knew what you were looking for. A touch-based Genjutsu was probably the strongest one a non-Kekkei Genkai user could do but the hardest to apply as one needed to get close to apply the technique and have enough focus while doing so, which could be fatal in a high-level fight.

Vision-based Genjutsu was the easiest to apply and at the same time the easiest to break out from. Only a true master could apply a vision-based Genjutsu strong enough that you would need a teammate to break out. And with enough experience, you could fight an opponent without directly looking at any visual triggers. And that was exactly what this Iwa Jonin was doing.

Tekku was intently watching the fight. He was aware that Kurenai was also an average Sensor, good enough to feel his arrival on the battlefield from what he could tell, as she was guiding her opponent into his direction. Seeing that his chance was there as the Iwa Jonin was just landing directly above him as he dodged another attempt of Kurenai to put him under Genjutsu.

Just as he wanted to counterattack with a heavy steel club that he was using in the fight, as he thought that Kurenai was too hasty and gave him an opening, the ground below him split open, and a pair of hands appeared from the earth, reaching for his ankles.

But he wasn't just a Jonin for show; he was an experienced elite member of Iwagakure, having lived through the Third Great Shinobi War. His survival instinct kicked in, and he instantly dodged the hands trying to trap him. But this moment of distraction was enough for Kurenai to directly touch him and flood his system with her Chakra, trapping him in a powerful illusion.

With the Jonin neutralized, Tekku burrowed from the ground, appearing on the surface, letting Kurenai have a look of utter relief. "Tekku-kun, you are alive. What about your three opponents?" she asked, still not letting her guard down, expecting an enemy to appear at any moment.

"Two of them are dead, the third injured but managed to escape while I was occupied with the Explosion Release user, who was a Tokubetsu Jonin," explained Tekku without hesitation.

"A Tokubetsu Jonin and two Chunin? How did you survive?" she asked in disbelief.

"They underestimated me and didn't expect me to be a Puppet User, which probably won't happen again if that Chunin returns to Iwa," sighed Tekku, a bit disappointed that his trump cards and tricks would be public knowledge soon, thanks to Bingo Books. Next time it would be much harder to survive such dangerous situations.

Pointing at the neutralized Jonin on the floor, he asked, "Should we kill him or capture him?"

"Let's take him back. T&I should be able to gather some useful information from him about what Iwa was planning, and especially how they managed to sneak in," she said as she began to pull some Ninja Wire out of her backpack.

Tekku nodded and pulled out his brush and ink, and began to paint an arrangement of Seals on the body of the incapacitated Jonin. Paralysis Seals, Shock Seals, remote trigger Poison Seals, and some Chakra suppression Seals. If he was able to compress all of that into one Seal Array, this could be considered a Curse Mark. But he was still a bit away from that level of being able to create fully functional Curse Marks.

Before he activated his Seals, Kurenai bound his limbs with the Ninja Wire, making sure he was incapacitated since his Chakra suppression Seals would disrupt the flow of his Chakra and release him from the Genjutsu temporarily.

Once they had the Iwa Jonin completely bound and ready for transport, Tekku carried him while Kurenai took the lead back to the tower, as she was the stronger one of the two and would be able to handle a combat situation better. But they didn't have to worry for long as shortly after they began their journey back, they met up with the elite team from their outpost that rushed her as reinforcement, having heard from Hana that they were under attack.

With the reinforcement, the transport of the prisoner and the journey back was much easier and safer as the company of two Jonin and two Tokubetsu Jonin made it much easier. Back at the tower, after reporting to the Commander, he was for now relieved from his duty as he had just lost his teammate until more orders from Konoha returned. As soon as an Anbu team would arrive to get the Iwa Jonin to T&I.

Now alone in his room, Haruto being the first casualty he was somewhat close to, he fell into his bed and let his feelings overcome him. But this time, there were no breathing problems, no tears, or anything. The logical part of his mind became much stronger in the last few months. It just told him, 'You survived. That's what matters. Death is normal in this world.'

- Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi - Shinobi -

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