Chapter 38.5- One Thousand Hands

XXXXX- SHIKAHIME NARA

She almost could not believe her eyes. Hundreds of chunin approached Shori and he was somehow holding them off for the time being. She had no idea how long that would last for, but he was doing his part so she would do hers. She turned to Choni and Inoken, her genin teammates, her friends and only her eyes were enough to convey her intentions. The link that Inoken had formed between them when they became chunin - when they got the earrings that they now proudly wore - allowed them to convey much more than words in much less time and with much more efficiency.

Uzume and the others were doing their role in destroying the reserve camps and routing those out so it would just be the three of them for this. Just the three of them were enough. She grabbed a hold of their shoulders and moulded into the shadows, making her way across the route to the Commander’s office that she had memorized. She would never tell him this, but Shori’s idea to begin capturing and interrogating the Jounin hadn’t been something she’d thought about. She’d completely forgotten to consider it.

They emerged from the shadows right outside the Commander’s tent. Just as Inoken had sensed, he was alone in the tent. The Jounin was arming some sort of weapon that he clearly intended to bring to bear against Natsu. “Fucking Konoha Senju scum” They could hear his voice from outside and Shika could see both Choni and Inoken burying the urge to chuckle. She was much the same.

She sent her chakra inside he tent, running it on the ground, and under the tent’s flap. She felt it connect with her target and smiled. “Shadow possession: Complete” She said out loud and both her teammates burst into the tent at that. Of course, that was when she felt something off with the body she was holding on to. She couldn’t put it into words, but something told her something was wrong, so her shadow tendrils grabbed onto both her teammates and tossed them outside just a second before the tent exploded in green gas. She held her breath quickly and backpedalled.

The thing her shadow had caught collapsed into pieces. Some form of puppet. That Jounin Shori has captured had revealed information about a puppetry jutsu, but it had been Toshiro and Shori who spent their time grilling Inoken on specifics of the jutsu. Still, she had her teammate here so they weren’t going in blind.