Naruto: Zombie Release

Chiyo stared at the young Konoha shinobi, growing more furious by the second, wishing she could slaughter them all. But that wasn't realistic.

So she chose the next best thing, kill the most talented among them.

Just like Konoha, Sunagakure had its own battlefield observers. While documenting feats of valor, they also compiled detailed intelligence on notable enemy shinobi.

Chiyo had already memorized the names of Konoha's more impressive individuals.

She hadn't had a chance to kill Minato, but surely these third-rate pests were within reach.

She started with her strongest move.

"Secret White Move: Chikamatsu's 10 Puppets!"

Ten white-robed puppets shot out in all directions. Wherever they passed, Konoha shinobi fell like wheat before a scythe.

Other puppet masters soon followed, manipulating their own puppets as they joined the chaos.

'If Sasori were here to see this, perhaps he'd feel some comfort... But this battlefield is far too dangerous. Until White Fang is dead, I can't allow him to come into his line of sight.'

The hatred boiling inside Chiyo eased a little as she thought of her genius grandson, only six years old.

Six might still be a little early for war... but not by much. After all, Senju Nawaki died at twelve, and Minato Namikaze was killing elite Iwa Jonin at thirteen.

But Chiyo feared her grandson would end up dead at the hands of White Fang. 

She would rather play it safe, taking this opportunity to ambush and eliminate Konoha's rising stars in advance.

Which meant Arata was out of luck.

He could only watch as one of the white-robed puppets barreled toward him, trailed by several more controlled by puppet masters. 

In an instant, the front line was torn open, Konoha shinobi killed on the spot.

"Healers, fall back! Let us handle this!"

"Damn it! Why is the enemy commander here?!"

"That's the White Secret Technique, Sunagakure's pinnacle puppet jutsu! Everyone, don't break formation!"

Seven or eight Konoha shinobi rushed in to reinforce. But the first two were instantly pierced through by a storm of deadly tools launched by one of the Chikamatsu puppets. 

Another was poisoned from a grazing cut, his death was only a matter of time.

The next three barely got close before a white blur sliced through them at the waist. All of this destruction came from just one puppet, remotely controlled by Chiyo with a single finger.

And the other nine? They were wreaking just as much havoc in every other direction.

Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!

Waves of poisoned weapons flew from the puppets, catching the Konoha shinobi completely off guard. Without a supply of potent antidotes, their formation began to collapse.

"A genin like me... got targeted by Chiyo? What an honor."

Arata drew a deep breath. A single misstep would cost him his life. He unfurled a scroll, and with a burst of white smoke and a flash of lightning, two figures appeared before him.

Clang!

A metal clash rang out as a zombified Ame Jonin blocked the puppet's strike with a scythe.

But that wasn't all. With Arata's index and middle fingers held together in a subtle gesture, the zombified puppet master Jonin suddenly spread his arms, releasing ten chakra threads that attached to the zombified Amegakure shinobi.

In the next second, the zombie and the white puppet clashed mid-air in a furious exchange of blows. 

The speed of their movements overwhelmed even well-trained Chunin, who could only catch afterimages and the shriek of clashing metal.

'Now I have at least a sliver of protection.' Arata quickly retreated, maintaining the hand seal as if he were directly controlling them.

In truth, it was a bluff.

Unless he was forcing the zombies to perform complex techniques, especially ones they hadn't mastered in life, which required intense chakra expenditure on his part, he didn't need to micromanage them at all. 

The zombies would simply act on instinct, attacking whatever enemy was in front of them.

That was the beauty of zombies. They had autonomous combat ability. They weren't mindless puppets and could still use the jutsu they'd known in life.

Arata let out a quiet breath of relief. He'd scraped by with his life. But the surrounding shinobi were stunned, barely able to believe what they were seeing.

"Wait... that medic summoned two people, and they're holding their own against one of the Chikamatsu puppets?!"

"So many comrades died in just seconds! But he can fight one of those puppets?!"

"The Dead Soul Technique? That's really it? Does it have this much potential? He's using one corpse... to manipulate another with chakra threads???"

"Where did he get these corpses? One of them clearly was a puppet master! 

That level of chakra thread control, it's indistinguishable from a Sunagakure puppet master! So the Dead Soul Technique can actually make corpses fight like they did in life?!"

Those who had ever fought against Suna's puppet masters were shocked by what they saw, the chakra threads extending from the zombie puppet master shattered their understanding of the world.

Corpses... could be used like this? Has the Dead Soul Technique reached such a level?

Was this really just a summoning jutsu?

As for where the corpses came from... as long as they weren't using comrades, nobody cared. If they could block Chiyo's puppet, that meant more survivors. That was all that mattered.

Even Chiyo noticed, her eyes widening with shock.

Several Suna puppet masters sent their puppets to destroy the zombies, but the surrounding Konoha shinobi weren't about to let that happen. 

They charged in to intercept, and the battle descended into chaotic melee.

More and more Konoha shinobi caught on, and even Jonin joined the effort against the Chikamatsu puppets. 

But none of it matched the sheer visual shock of what was happening around Arata.

And all of this unfolded in a matter of seconds.

"That little brat over there... he's using our village's corpses against us? How vile!"

Chiyo's face twisted with rage. She hated everything impressive about Konoha. The more she hated, the more she wanted to destroy.

But this method of manipulating corpses to unleash fragments of their former strength... it was disturbingly similar to a forbidden puppet technique of Sunagakure's puppet master lineage, Human Puppetry.

Chiyo refused to believe that some snot-nosed brat from Konoha could have achieved such mastery of puppet arts. Konoha wasn't known for puppet users.

"That one must be captured, alive if possible! I'll make him tell me everything about this technique!"

Her eyes flashed with killing intent as the other Chikamatsu puppets began to move again, their attacks dazzling to watch. More puppet masters hurled weaponry to disrupt the Konoha shinobi.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!"

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

"The weapons are poisoned, use jutsu to block! Don't get scratched!"

Another wave of chaos exploded across the field.

A skilled puppet master always prepared a dedicated puppet just for launching ninja tools, and their firepower and frequency were often overwhelming.

Arata popped a soldier pill, forcing his body to ignite with stinging heat as chakra surged back into his veins.

His gaze swept over the countless corpses littering the ground, their dead, terrified eyes eerily mirrored the clouded eyes of the zombies. 

In this giant pit of death that was war, the line between the living and the dead blurred beyond recognition.

If given the choice, he had no intention of becoming a corpse.

"Die, brat! All of Konoha should burn!"

One of the Chikamatsu puppets skewered a zombie through the chest, then used that momentum to impale the second one behind it, two in one strike.

But of course, that couldn't truly kill a zombie. The poison was laughable. At most, it damaged some neural pathways. Unless their brain was destroyed, the dead couldn't be killed twice.

Even so, the two zombies couldn't hold on. The intense chakra drain, the deteriorating bodies, surrounded by puppets, they were eventually torn apart.

The stench of rot filled the air, but they'd bought two seconds. Two seconds was enough to run.

Yoshida Arata kept retreating. He summoned another zombie, and just as the Chikamatsu puppet reached him, 

Boom!

The zombie self-destructed.

It all happened so fast, even Chiyo couldn't anticipate it. That slight delay gave Arata the window he needed.

Shing!

A blade flashed, cutting the Chikamatsu puppet clean in half.

"You've done enough."

Standing before Arata was the unmistakable figure of Sakumo Hatake, his voice carrying an uncharacteristic gentleness. 

"That old hag always resorts to underhanded tricks like these. You've done exceptionally well. You've changed the way I view the Dead Soul Technique. Leave the rest to me."