On a dark, windy night in the desert, several figures could be seen surrounding one man, all of them armed with various weapons.
In front of the man stood a middle aged woman that unraveled a large scroll, her cold gaze locked on the former.
"Sent me after you? Ah, you don't even know. Well, let me enlighten you, young one. In your hubris, you killed my son and my daughter-in-law. You caused this upon yourself."
Running her fingers along the scroll, the woman quietly muttered, "White Secret Technique: The Chikamatsu Collection Of Ten Puppets."
WHOOSH!
Ten puppets of varying forms wearing white robes appeared out of the scroll, surrounding the woman in a formation as they locked on to her enemy.
The man in question was of course, Zero. He squinted his eyes as he looked at the overwhelming force in front of him, trying his best to remember when he could have killed her son and daughter-in-law.
But in truth, he knew that it didn't matter. He only tried to remember because he had inwardly hoped that it would somehow cause her to not fight if he apologized, but he knew that it was impossible.
It was like asking him to not destroy the Order after they took his family away from him.
"This is war, Lady Chiyo. Families live and die everyday. But, your anger is understandable. I just hope you surrender before-"
WHOOSH!
One of the puppets attacked Zero in a flash, causing a scratch to appear on his cheek as he barely managed to move his head to the side.
"Your arrogance knows no bounds, 'Dragon'."
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The rest of the shinobi surrounding Zero took this as the cue to begin their attack, with most of them rushing to take him down while some played it more cautiously.
Squatting down even lower, Zero applied all of his power to his legs as he closed his eyes, his hand wrapping itself around the hilt of his new blade.
'10..25...no, 34. Combined with Chiyo and her puppets, that makes 45. Hm. Easy enough.'
Time seemed to slow down as Zero slowly opened his eyes, his gaze not even fazed by the swords and kunai that were mere inches away from piercing his body.
Anyone who looked at Zero at this moment could swear that they saw him move, but he was back in the same spot in no time.
All they saw was him holding his blade in front of his body, slowly sheathing it as if he wasn't worried about losing his life from the surrounding enemies.
The minute the guard of the blade made contact with the sheath...everything went quiet.
All that could be heard was the sound of blood spilling and body parts falling.
"Severing Dragon."
This technique was one of Takemura's favorites, so by default, Zero learnt it well.
None of the Suna shinobi could resist. They were destroyed in moments before they could even realize that they were dead. In moments, the sand turned red from the blood of the slain.
The only one who survived was Chiyo. She had seen a shadow of Zero moving and she quickly managed to avoid his attack, but she lost one puppet in the process.
As she held her arms in a X-shaped position across her face, she took a deep breath and refocused her gaze, taking the fight more seriously.
'I thought this kid was just lucky against Sakumo. But it seems that I was wrong. His skills are the real deal. If this kid becomes Hanzo's replacement and Amegakure becomes stronger...the results of that will change this world as we know it.'
Zero wasted no time as he rushed Chiyo down, causing her to make space between them once more by sending her puppets at him in a formation.
'This boy must be stopped here at all costs!'
Using their special abilities one by one, Chiyo held Zero off with incredible skill, controlling the battlefield as if it was in the palm of her hands.
Several minutes passed and the only damage Chiyo could land were several minor scratches across Zero's body. Zero on the other hand, landed no attacks.
In fact, he didn't even draw his sword once after using Severing Dragon.
If anyone else was still alive to watch this battle, they would ask why he did this.
The answer was simple.
'I feel like I'm being hunted. The poison should have slowed him down by now...but, nothings happening. He's acting as if it doesn't matter. This is getting dangerous...'
Chiyo decided to up the ante.
Gaining more distance between her and Zero, Chiyo made some strange movements with her hands, causing three puppets to make a triangular formation.
Each puppet also made a sign, causing her to mutter, "Three Jewels Suction Crushing."
WHOOSH!
An terrifying tornado broke out and started pulling everything in its radius into the center of the formation, including Zero.
'Tch.'
Unable to anchor himself with his sword because of the sand, Zero decided to take a risk.
Zero coated his blade in chakra, compressing it along the edge as much as he could.
Of course, the result wasn't anything very impressive as it just looked like flowing purple chakra covered it.
But the volume of the chakra was immense.
So immense that it was visible to the naked eye.
Raising the blade up with both hands, Zero brung it down with one powerful vertical slash.
One slash to rend the very air itself.
"Heaven Piercer."
BOOM!
All Lady Chiyo saw was a purple light flaring through the tornado and in the next moment, nothing.
She was thrown back with all her puppets, complete the bits and pieces of the three puppets that formed the jutsu.
'Ugh, where is he?!'
Just as she tried to get back on her feet Zero suddenly appeared behind her.
She immediately sensed his movement, but it was too late.
SLASH!
"Urgh!"
Zero took off one of her arms and pressed the blade against her neck in one motion, standing tall as he calmly said, "Surrender. You have already lost. As much as you miss your son, I'm sure you don't want to meet him again so soon."
Chiyo gritted her teeth as she stared at Zero with hatred, clutching the stump where her arm once was while falling to her knees.
"Just kill me! I don't need mercy from you! Don't tell you suddenly grew a conscience after killing so many people? What's one more?"
Zero, still deliberating on how he should go about being "better" considering his track record, just sheathed his blade, taking a deep breath as he did so.
"You're right. I'm still figuring things out, though. Just be glad that you're the 'one more', Chiyo. Next time we meet, you might not be so lucky."