Naruto: The White Spider of the Leaf

Minato didn't hesitate or converse any further, he just went straight after Chiyo, vanishing in a flicker of speed. 

Chiyo weaved between tree branches, her movements quick but controlled. She wasn't running—she was maneuvering, waiting for an opportunity to turn the tables. But Minato wasn't giving her one. Every time she tried to reposition, another kunai forced her back, keeping her constantly on the defensive.

That left me and Yukino with the three puppets that had nearly taken me down a moment ago.

"Yukino!" I called, already moving.

She was there in an instant, her Byakugan active, scanning their movements before they even attacked. The puppets came at us from different angles, blades flashing in the moonlight.

I took a deep breath, forcing more power through my body as I opened the inner gates, reaching up to the fourth! My body surged with energy. The ground cracked beneath my feet as I rushed forward. The puppet in front of me swung a scythe-like arm, but I was faster this time. I ducked under the blade and drove my fist into its torso, cracking its frame. The impact sent it flying back and tumbling through the dirt.

"What the–" I looked at it, shocked. "What the hell are these things made of?!"

I hit it with all I had and it barely left a dent?

I used Tsunade's explosive fist technique and the 4th gate for that attack. My punch could probably shatter the leaf village gates, you know?

Yukino moved with precise efficiency. The moment my attack landed, she turned to intercept the second puppet. Her fingers blurred as she struck its joints in rapid succession. Her chakra-laced strikes finally found the weak points in its limbs, disrupting its movements before it could land a hit.

The third puppet adjusted, its hands shifting into a series of hidden weapons—kunai launchers, serrated claws, poison-tipped needles. It was about to unleash them all at once.

"Not happening!" I twisted and launched myself at it before it could fire, slamming my foot into its head. The force shattered part of its mask and knocked it off balance.

Yukino followed up immediately, her palm thrusting forward. A burst of chakra sent the puppet skidding back as I went after the earlier puppet she stun locked, hitting it away and into the trees with a leaf hurricane. 

We didn't destroy them, the damn things were as tough as diamonds for some reason, but we bought ourselves space.

I turned toward Minato, who was still pressing Chiyo hard. She had stopped moving away and was now countering, her fingers twitching in rapid sequences.

That was when Fugaku stepped in.

His Sharingan burned red in the dim light, tracking every movement. He darted forward with a burst of insane speed.

Chiyo's hand flicked. A puppet snapped into position between them. Fugaku didn't hesitate—his kunai blazed with fire as he slashed clean through its arm, but another puppet intercepted before he could press forward.

"Shirokumo, with us!" Fugaku shouted.

I understood immediately. It was time to go after her together.

I took off, pushing my speed to the limit. Minato closed in from one side, Fugaku from the other. The three of us attacked at once.

Minato threw another kunai past Chiyo's shoulder and flickered toward it, his blade flashing. She barely twisted out of the way, her foot pressing off the branch to reposition.

Fugaku was already waiting, a stream of fire roaring toward her path.

She countered instantly. Her fingers snapped, and the puppet that Fugaku had just damaged spun in front of her, absorbing the flames with a steel shield.

I rushed in from below, driving my fist toward her. She flipped backward, her hand still steady, still completely in control.

Then she did something I didn't expect.

She pulled her fingers back.

The remaining puppets disengaged from the others and snapped back toward her position, forming a tight formation around her.

A chill ran down my spine.

We had forced her to stop running, but now all ten of her puppets were together, fully under her command.

Chiyo exhaled slowly, rolling her shoulders as her fingers flexed.

"You brats are good," she said, eyes sharp. "But let's see how you handle this."

The ten puppets moved as one, rushing at us and spinning in a spiral with their weapons drawn like some sort of cylinder of wood, steel and poison.

Fugaku and Minato barely had time to react before the first wave struck. Swords, chains, claws, hidden weapons—everything at once. I pushed forward, blocking one attack with my kunai while kicking another puppet away, but there were too many.

Minato flickered between positions, dodging just in time to avoid a spinning blade. Fugaku countered with fire, but the puppets were moving too fast, cutting through the flames before they could fully form.

I clenched my fists.

We had pushed her to take this seriously.

Now we had to survive it.

"Tsk! To Minato!" Fukagu shouted as we struggled to resist the onslaught of puppets.

Both Fugaku and I moved as quickly as possible towards Minato, who ran to us as well. Once we reached him, he teleported us back to the rest of our group. Back to that same kunai in the tree from earlier. We had a moment to breathe, but it wouldn't be long before Chiyo's 10 puppets rushed at us all again.

Fugaku exhaled sharply. His Sharingan spun. "This isn't working. She has the advantage in the woods. We have to change the fight."

I felt my pulse hammer in my ears. "And how the hell do we do that?!"

Chiyo's puppets swayed in eerie unison in the distance—preparing to strike again as they closed in—and fast!

And this time… I had the sinking feeling she was completely done toying with us.

The puppets came again, their movements like a tide shifting with Chiyo's will. No wasted energy, no gaps in their assault. We had no choice but to move.

"Fall back! We need space!" Fugaku barked. "Fire Formation!"

The trio of Uchiha once again performed the Great Fire Ball Jutsu to push back the puppets, buying us some time to run back. Nawaki was the last to run as he waited for Fugaku and the others to run past him before he conjured a giant wall of trees.

Every second counted.

We broke apart, scattering as Chiyo's creations surged forward past the flames and around the tree walls. The storm made everything worse—mud sucking at our feet, rain blurring the edges of sight. But there was no time to hesitate. 

"What do we do now, leader?" I asked through ragged breaths.

Fugaku grimaced. "She's a bloody monster! Those puppets of hers keep weaving through the forest and they're hard to pin down… If we can get into a clearing, maybe we can find an opening to use our ninjutsu and finally bring some of them down! If that doesn't work, we need to look for a way out."

"Is it wrong that I'm already voting for the latter?"

Fugaku smiled through his growing grimace. "No, I understand you."

We ran and ran, as fast as we could, but she–she was so fast! Chiyo's puppets reached us again way too soon! We had to fight as we went, forcing them back just enough to move. The battle stretched toward a clearing like we wanted, the edge of a cliff side visible through the haze. I could hear the rushing tides of a river below it. 

But Chiyo's control tightened. She wasn't letting us regroup, as if she knew what we wanted to do. Instead, her puppets cut between us, forcing us into separate battles. It was almost as if she were puppeteering us, too.

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio struggled to maintain formation. Choza's expanded arms kept the puppet at bay, but Shikaku and Inoichi were being hounded, their teamwork shattered by the relentless assault of one of the puppets. Their usual style of fighting just couldn't work on an animatronic and they didn't have the chance to go after Chiyo herself with their restraining jutsu.

A little further off, Fugaku and Mikoto stood back to back, Sharingan eyes flashing crimson in the gloom. Their blades clashed against three puppets' worth of metal limbs as they tried to push them back to no avail. The moment one of them got an upper hand on one of the puppets, the othes attacked them togethe to push them backwards. No one could move forward from all the poison-laden attacks.

Minato and Nawaki were pushed further to the left, near a break in the trees. Minato flickered in and out of sight, his kunai cutting clean lines through the storm, while Nawaki's wood style jutsu wove defenses where needed. But they couldn't break through either—the three puppets on their side never relented just like those on Fugaku's side.

And then there was us.

Yukino, Shinichi, and I found ourselves near the cliff's edge, the ground beneath us slippery with wet leaves and treacherous mud. Two puppets advanced like hunters circling prey, their bladed limbs gleaming even in the darkness.

Chiyo stood untouched, high on a rooted outcrop, fingers never ceasing their deadly dance.

"You think you can outlast me, kiddos?" she called over the storm. "Your teamwork is strong, but it's not enough. My Ten Puppet Collection is an extension of myself. You're not fighting tools—you're fighting me."

I gritted my teeth as I slammed my chakra-filled fist into the same puppet whose torso I'd cracked earlier. Its frame buckled under the force, and I exhaled sharply as it crumpled before shooting forward from the force, but—

Wait—!

A compartment in its shattered chest snapped open. A split second later, a barrage of metal projectiles shot toward me—hidden blades, kunai, shuriken—they all fired from point-blank range.

They're wired to just burst like that?!

I barely had time to cross my arms over my chest before the first of them slammed into me.

Pain erupted. The force knocked me back a step, steel cutting into my arms, my shoulders, my ribs. I staggered, breath hitching as warmth spread beneath my torn uniform. My limbs felt heavier now—was it just the wounds, or was the exhaustion from the Gates setting in too?

I clenched my teeth, forcing myself to stay upright.

"Good job, kid. You broke one of them." Chiyo chuckled, grinning at me mockingly. "I have more at home."

"Yeah?! I'm breaking your head next!" I shouted through ragged breaths as I pulled the ninja tools out of my flesh and threw them aside, my back to the open air beyond the cliff. I kept one shuriken in my hands as I started performing the hand seals for my Shuriken Rail Gun jutsu. I wasn't gonna just let her gloat from a distance at all times!

But Chiyo simply smiled—calm, unshaken by the loss of her puppet. "You can try."

Then Yukino's voice rang out whilst she and Shinichi were pushing back the other puppet, sharp with urgency. "Shiro! Below you!"

I barely had time to process it.

The ground erupted.

A puppet, sleek and needle-thin, burst from the mud beneath me. Its blade, coated in something dark and deadly, shot toward my ribs.

The 10th puppet—!

I twisted, but I was too slow. It was going to—

Yukino moved.

She was fast. Her Byakugan had seen it coming underground, her chakra flaring with lightning at her feet as she intercepted it. "Eight Trigrams—Revolving Heaven!"

The world spun in a whirlwind of chakra and rain. She forced herself between me and the puppet, her technique erupting into a protective dome—

But not in time.

The puppet's blade slashed.

A sharp gasp.

The dome faltered for half a second, long enough for me to see the cut along her side, deep and bleeding, the tainted blade retreating like a snake returning to its den.

Yukino swayed. Her knees buckled as I reached for her, but the ground—it gave away.

We tumbled backward over the edge of the cliff. I tried to hold on, to find a foothold, but the pain and exhaustion prevented me from doing so. 

I hugged Yukino as the wind roared in my ears. The world turned into a blur of dark sky and jagged rock that I hit over and over, each impact ripping a fresh burst of pain through my body. I could feel the sharp pain of my bones breaking with each edge that my body struck. 

But I didn't let her go. I kept her close so that no further harm could reach her body.

Above, I heard Shinichi's shout, raw and panicked. "YUKINO!"

He jumped after us, vanishing into the abyss as we three fell into the rushing river.

Darkness swirled at the edges of my vision.

And then—cold.

Water crashed over me, dragging us below the surface.