HGBW: Ch. 140

The human puppets emerged fully from the ground. Tanaka immediately recognized them, not random Suna corpses, but the same tunneling force he had eliminated minutes ago.

One puppet's face drew his attention, a young Suna ninja, his features frozen in the horrified expression of his final moments as the poison had filled his lungs.

"She's incorporated them into her arsenal already," he said. "The poison preserved the bodies while killing the hosts."

Hizashi noticed the slight tremor in Tanaka's hands, which was a clear sign of fatigue that the boy was trying desperately to hide.

Behind her creations stood Chiyo, her fingers twitching as chakra strings extended from her fingertips to the corpses. The defeat of her poison strategy had pushed her to reveal this technique sooner than planned.

"She must have prepared this technique in advance." Hizashi observed.

---

From her position, Chiyo surveyed the battlefield. The Corpse Puppetry Technique was consuming her chakra faster than anticipated. She knew the puppets wouldn't last more than an hour before tissue breakdown made them useless, but she needed only minutes to turn the tide.

Even in Suna, where puppet techniques originated, there were boundaries that weren't crossed. Using the recently dead as puppets violated even their loose ethical standards.

She pushed the thought aside. Her hatred of Konoha had pushed her past such concerns.

"Their deaths won't be meaningless," she muttered to herself as she positioned the puppets in a formation that would maximize their remaining chakra networks. "They'll serve Suna one last time. This time better than when they were alive."

Ebizō looked at his sister with poorly concealed discomfort but said nothing. They had crossed a line, but in war, lines were often redrawn.

"Are you certain about this?" he finally asked.

"We're fighting for survival now." she replied, not taking her eyes off the battlefield.

---

Hizashi's Byakugan revealed the truth of the human puppets.

"Their chakra networks are still active," he said quietly to Tanaka. "She's using their residual chakra to power techniques they knew in life."

Tanaka's own Byakugan caught something else. The chakra threads connecting Chiyo to the puppets were thicker than normal.

"You're seeing something," Hizashi said, recognizing the intensity in Tanaka's gaze.

"She's feeding them her own chakra to maintain the techniques. It's draining her rapidly. She's essentially turned them into chakra batteries, burning through what's left of their life force."

Before Hizashi could respond, the human puppets attacked with shocking speed, using the very Earth Release techniques they had employed for tunneling. They burst from the ground at multiple points, creating chaos among the Konoha forces.

One puppet erupted directly beneath a Konoha medic, a blade extending from its arm to impale the unsuspecting ninja through the abdomen. The medic coughed blood, still alive but mortally wounded as the puppet withdrew its blade and targeted another victim.

Another puppet's mouth opened unnaturally wide, releasing a stored poison gas attack that caught several Yamanaka clan members off guard. They collapsed, clutching their throats as the concentrated toxin overwhelmed their systems.

"They retain muscle memory and jutsu knowledge," Hizashi called out. "Don't engage them like normal puppets!"

The Hyūga formed defensive circles, using Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven to repel the puppets that emerged near them. The blue chakra domes threw the corpse-puppets backward, but they simply rose again.

Tanaka spotted a puppet lunging toward a young Hyūga medical-nin who was focused on healing a wounded comrade. He moved to intercept, but his body responded slower than his mind intended. The strain of the previous techniques had taken its toll.

He managed to position himself between the puppet and its target, striking with a Gentle Fist attack to the heart. His palm connected solidly, shutting down the chakra point, but the puppet merely stumbled before continuing its attack.

"Gentle Fist won't stop them the normal way."

He quickly gathered several Hyūga, including Hizashi, while continuing to evade the persistent puppet.

"We need to adjust our approach," Hizashi said. "Target the joinery points."

To demonstrate, he struck a puppet at its shoulder where his Byakugan revealed a wooden joint mechanism beneath the skin. The arm separated cleanly, revealing Chiyo's rushed modification work.

The other Hyūga members understood immediately. "The Byakugan can see where the corpse has been modified. Target the mechanical elements, not the biological ones."

The Hyūga spread this information quickly, adapting their precise strikes to target the artificial components Chiyo had implanted. Puppets began to fall apart under the precise assault, limbs separating and heads detaching as the clan members targeted the weak points.

---

Meanwhile, Tsunade continued pressuring Chiyo directly, forcing the puppet master to divide her already strained attention.

Chiyo, seeing the Hyūga adapting to her puppets with alarming speed, felt a flash of grudging admiration. Their visual prowess made them dangerous opponents for any puppet user.

They figured it out too quickly.

She brought her fingers together in an unusual seal, and suddenly the human puppets began to move differently.

"Time for the second phase," she said to Ebizō. "I'll handle this."

Ebizō nodded and began forming seals for a massive Wind Release technique that would scatter the Konoha forces.

One of the human puppets, suddenly lurched forward with impossible speed, heading directly for Tanaka. Chiyo focused most of her remaining chakra on this single puppet, sacrificing control of several others to give it the speed and precision needed for its mission.

Tanaka's Byakugan caught the movement. He shifted into a defensive stance, but as the puppet approached, it did something unexpected.

It reached into its own chest cavity, tearing through flesh and bone to pull out a metal sphere.

It was an explosive tag container, powerful enough to take out everyone within twenty meters. His Byakugan could see the tags already activating inside the sealed container.

He considered using ROOM to teleport the explosive away, but immediately dismissed the idea. The Op-Op Fruit powers drew heavily on stamina. It might technically be sufficient, but the strain on his already depleted stamina would be too great.

Hizashi moved to intercept but was engaged with two other puppets. He wouldn't reach Tanaka in time.

In a split-second decision, Tanaka switched tactics entirely. While both ROOM and the Rokushiki drew on stamina, the latter required far less.

He quickly used Geppo to launch himself into the air with a powerful kick against nothing but air itself.

As he passed over the puppet, he executed a perfect Rankyaku, sending a blade of compressed air that severed the puppet's arm holding the explosive. The container tumbled away from both forces, rolling toward the no-man's-land between the two armies.

Tanaka landed roughly, his young body clearly struggling with physical exhaustion.

The explosive container detonated between the two forces with a deafening roar, creating a massive crater and sending shockwaves across the battlefield.

He collapsed to one knee.

Hizashi dispatched his opponents with quick strikes to their mechanical joints, then moved to support Tanaka.

"I'm fine," Tanaka said, breathing heavily. "Just need a moment."

"You're pushing beyond your limits."

"War doesn't care about limits."

Tanaka forced himself to stand, refusing his teacher's offered hand. His pride wouldn't allow him to show weakness, even to him.

---

Across the battlefield, Chiyo saw Tanaka's moment of weakness through the settling dust of the explosion. Despite her own exhaustion, she recognized this might be her only opportunity to eliminate the boy.

She abandoned control of most human puppets, letting them collapse like marionettes with cut strings, and focused all her remaining chakra on just three. Their bodies were more intact than the others, their chakra networks still viable enough for what she planned.

These three puppets suddenly began performing coordinated hand seals. As they completed the sequence, she channeled her own chakra through them, amplifying the technique.

The ground beneath the Konoha forces began to soften and shift like quicksand, while a powerful wind vortex formed above them.

Hizaashi watched his comrades beginning to sink, some already knee-deep in the suddenly liquefied soil.

Tanaka closed his eyes briefly, focusing inward, searching for something beyond chakra.

When his eyes opened, a wave of invisible force emanated from him.

The wave rippled outward across the battlefield like an invisible tsunami. The nearest Konoha ninjas staggered as though struck, several dropping to their knees with expressions of confusion. The weaker ones collapsed entirely, eyes rolling back as consciousness fled them.

"What's happening?" a Hyūga clansman gasped, fighting to remain standing under the pressure that seemed to press down from all directions. Hizashi had remained standing, though even he had staggered under the pressure.

The three puppets performing the technique shuddered violently as Chiyo's control was disrupted. Even at this distance, the invisible wave affected her chakra strings.

Several Suna ninjas who had been providing support to her collapsed without warning, foam appearing at the corners of their mouths. Those who remained conscious looked around in terror, unable to see the force that had struck their comrades down.

Chiyo felt the backlash through her chakra strings, her eyes widening in shock as an unfamiliar sensation traveled up the connections to her fingertips.

"What is this?" she gasped. "WHAT IS THIS!!"

The momentary disruption gave Tanaka the opening he needed. He quickly formed a small, focused ROOM around just the three puppets performing the forbidden technique.

"Shambles," he said.

Instead of teleporting the puppets, he swapped the positions of their internal organs, hearts exchanged with lungs, stomachs with kidneys. The disruption to their already fragile chakra networks immediately caused the technique to collapse.

The wind vortex dissipated like smoke in a strong breeze, and the ground began to solidify again, returning to its normal consistency.

He swayed dangerously, having pushed far beyond safe limits. This time, Hizashi steadied him without asking, gripping his shoulder firmly to keep him upright.

"Enough," Hizashi said quietly.

For once, Tanaka didn't argue.

Around him, the battlefield was in disarray. Several Konoha ninjas were slowly regaining consciousness, helped to their feet by comrades who had withstood the invisible wave.

"Get up! You can sleep when you are dead!" a jonin shouted, trying to restore order among those still dazed.

---

Tsunade, seeing Chiyo's shocked reaction to her puppets being disrupted, recognized the critical moment had arrived. She channeled chakra to her feet for an explosive burst of speed, covering the distance between them in the blink of an eye.

Chiyo attempted to defend with her remaining puppets, but they were too slow.

Tsunade's fist connected with Chiyo's chest, sending her flying backward, blood erupting from her mouth as ribs shattered.

She crashed through several of her own human puppets before hitting the ground, completely motionless. The chakra strings connecting her to the puppets snapped one by one.

Across the battlefield, the human puppets collapsed like discarded toys.

Ebizō, seeing Chiyo's defeat, made an immediate decision. He threw down a smoke bomb and rushed to her side, vanishing into the thick cloud.

When the smoke cleared enough for visibility, Tanaka could see him carrying Chiyo's broken body toward the Suna lines.

"Sound the retreat," Ebizō ordered the nearest Suna jonin. "We've lost this battle."

The Suna forces began a coordinated withdrawal, using smoke bombs and their remaining puppets as cover.

A Konoha jonin approached Tsunade. "Should we pursue?" He was young, eager, bloodlust still evident in his eyes.

Tsunade looked at the devastated battlefield, taking in the numerous casualties on both sides—the broken bodies, the poisoned ground, the massive crater from the explosion, and the human puppets returning to being simply dead comrades.

"No," she said firmly. "Let them go."

---

The rain resumed, falling harder now, washing blood into the muddy ground. The Konoha ninjas moved among the dead, separating their comrades from enemies.

The human puppets lay scattered and broken. Medical-nin covered their faces with cloths, giving them their basic dignity that had been denied in their final service.

Tanaka sat on a rock, exhausted beyond measure. A Medical-nin checked him for injuries, noting with concern the boy's unusually rapid heartbeat and shallow breathing.

"You should rest for at least twenty-four hours," the medical-nin advised. "Your chakra pathways show signs of acute strain."

Tanaka nodded without really listening.

Hizashi approached after the medical-nin left, his uniform torn and blood-spattered. "That technique you used earlier. It wasn't chakra-based."

"No. It wasn't."

Hizashi waited for an explanation, but Tanaka remained silent. After a moment, the older Hyūga nodded slightly.

Their conversation was interrupted as a messenger approached. "Lady Tsunade is gathering a war council. Your presence is requested, Hizashi-sama." The messenger hesitated, looking at Tanaka. "Both of you."

---

As night fell, makeshift tents were established away from the poisoned battlefield. In the largest one, Tsunade had gathered the clan heads and key jonin around a field table.

"We've won this engagement," Tsunade began, "but the war continues. Iwa and Kumo are still advancing on our borders."

She outlined the current situation—they had repelled Suna, but at significant cost. Nearly forty Konoha ninjas had died, with twice that number injured.

"We should press our advantage," a jonin urged. "Pursue Suna while they're weakened."

"Crush them before they can regroup," an Inuzuka clan member agreed. "Their puppet corps is decimated."

Tanaka, who had been silent until now, spoke up. "That's exactly what Iwa wants. To divide our forces further."

All eyes turned to him. Some held respect, others skepticism at taking strategic advice from a child, regardless of his battlefield prowess.

He moved to the map spread on the field table, and traced potential movement patterns with his finger.

"Suna is retreating, yes, but they're not broken. Pursuing them would stretch our forces across terrain they know better than we do." His finger moved from the current battlefield toward the border with the Land of Earth. "Meanwhile, Iwa and Kumo would have fewer forces to contend with here and here."

Tsunade studied him intently. "What do you suggest?"

"Fortify this position. Send scouts. And prepare for Iwa's main assault, which will come within three days, most likely through the northern valley where our sensor network is weakest."

The Uchiha clan member scoffed. "And how could you possibly know that?"

Tanaka's face remained impassive as he looked up from the map. "Because it's what I would do if I were them."

---

Night had fully fallen, the rain finally stopped. Tanaka stood alone at the edge of the camp, looking toward the horizon where Suna's forces had retreated. His Byakugan was active, scanning at maximum range despite the medic's warnings about chakra strain.

Hizashi approached quietly, stopping beside him. For a while, they stood in silence.

"You should be resting," Hizashi finally said.

"Soon."

After another moment of silence, Tanaka added, "They'll be back, you know. They won't forget this defeat."

"No," Hizashi agreed, "I don't imagine they will."

Tanaka deactivated his Byakugan, revealing the strain in his eyes—bloodshot and weary, yet still alert.

"Today we saw what desperation looks like," he said quietly. "Turning your own dead against their former comrades."

"War brings out the worst in people."

Tanaka nodded and looked up at him. "And tomorrow will be worse."

In the distance, lightning flashed from the direction of Kumo.