The door burst open, upon Hebi's three strikes. Each made the steel bend to his will and shout in pain, easily alerting the murderers inside. "Why couldn't we do stealth? Don began to panic. Today he would be thrown into an extremely deadly situation. These men have killed Jounin's and here was a Jounin himself and a lowly Genin approaching them. No element of surprise and the enemy had home court advantage. Don's stomach dropped and his body began jittering involuntarily.

He decided to ditch his previous ploy and dismount Orochi V2 at the door. His fingers maneuvered as if he were mimicking a spider crawling, but with a 360 degree sweep. Orochi V2 coiled its body loosely around Don, shielding his body from all directions excluding his eyes and fingers. His digits still sending the blue ray's called chakra strings to his puppets barely peered out. But it was still enough to do what was needed. He was about to attack, but it seemed Hebi had handled the first two grunts in a blur of speed. But in that blur so much had happened. Explosions, kunai flinging, faces gushing, it was truly a battlefield. Don couldn't be made a fool of though. He couldn't let Hebi report back to the Tsuchikage, saying that he had did all the work. Don's eyes squinted and he switched into battle mode. Genin or not, he was still a ninja.

Moving his fingers inward then up forming a triangle, Orochi V2 flew upward, revealing Don's presence. Using the bit of remaining smoke from the explosive tag, Tamekaze would proceed forward at a Taijutsu masters speed to catch up to Hebi. It was too late. Don didn't notice it either, but Hebi activated a trip wire and a kunai was dug into his leg."Aww crap this is bad . . ." Three more of the thugs emerged. The muscular bandaged one and the two robed ones."I got you!" Don's right hand which was controlling Tamekaze clinched into a fist and mimicked a right hook. In turn Tamekaze copied, sending a right hand forward, but with an open palm. A slot opened and a single kunai was projected forward. Whisping through the air, in no time it dug itself into the neck if the hulking muscular man. Tamekaze's tiny frame had hidden its assault, but now out in the open outnumbered wasn't looking too good.

Don expected the kunai to at least halter the mans advance, but the miscreant seemed accustomed to pain. One downward diagonal swipe with his left and one pull back with his right. Don pulled Tamekaze in front of Hebi, allowing his chakra strings to settle near Hebi's person. Meanwhile the downward diagonal movement sent Orochi V2 at the muscular thug, who was currently distracted by Tamekaze's kunai. Perfect set up. Head first the dragon slammed its titanium coated body onto him. Its metallic fangs digging into his neck, causing him to spurt blood. A plume of dust filled a 5m area around the muscular thug, due to the impact. Without hesistation, the two other robed ninja took the opportunity to attack. One came head on towards Hebi and Tamekaze, the other airborne forming handseals. At this range and with the dust slowly spreading, Dn couldn't see the airborne ninja, was aiming at him "Finish this guy while I got him . . ." Don fired in his brain.

Fangs still pitted into its opponents neck, Orochi V2 added its claws into the equation. The arms weren't long enough to connect around the thugs frame, but the claws could dig at least an two inches deep, damaging muscle tissue. But that wasn't needed. With a wrist twist as if spinning a top, a thin titanium blade emerged from Orochi V2's neck and made a circle. The cut was ugly and far from clean, severing the man at his shoulders, but the deed was done and that target was down.

Don could feel the resistance in his chakra strings, then the tension ease up. That signaled him the cut had made its way through. He winced feeling the pain surge through the strings along with the resistance. His first real deed as a Shinobi. No time to think though. That task was executed almost perfectly in under ten seconds. So much yet so little. No matter how much you crammed in those ten seconds, all that mattered was who was alive in the end.

Whilst in that ten second squabble with the muscular character, Don would also have Tamekaze start engaging the robed figure who was still on the ground. The space between them was closing in at a moderate pace, but the digging in the robe made things Don uneasy. "Kunai Launcher already used and predictable . . . Flames could help, but who knows what's in here . . . He was out of ideas and decided defense was best after all. Hebi could still fight, not at 100% of course, but he was far from useless. Now with Tamekaze's four feet of mass in front of Hebi, Don waited for events to play out a bit more before acting. Sadly he was still unaware the airborne target was targeting him, he lacked the battle experience to pay attention to so much. He already had two puppets in play and miraculously took down the hulking beast.

Word Count: 892

Finishing things up

The Genin's puppets gave him just enough time to pull the poison out of himself. The poison dripped down onto the ground and his inyuu shometsu took care of the rest, the wound steaming as it closed. He put weight back on the leg. It was better already. That was what being a medical shinobi did for you. When you took damage, you could simply heal yourself and keep going. The taijutsu and ijutsu combination is what made Hebi such a tank and a brutal force in combat. This was why he was the one sent in. He could take a beating and come out without a scratch.

As he had removed the poison, he saw that the puppets had chosen to engage on the muscled man. He watched as the man was finished off by the hidden blade. He had underestimated the Genin's puppets. Hebi had expected something with them was different, but never would he have thought that the buy had such an underhanded, yet ingenious trick. He couldn't admire for long as he had seen the one jump up through the small burst of dust and he in turn grabbed Queso and jumped forward with him as the murderer released a massive torrent of flame to where they had been standing still. He had been sure not to jump to the point in which the puppets were pulled out of position, and upon landing them to safety he took of into the air meeting the other shinobi just before he hit the ground.

The second cloaked murderer hadn't been noticed by Hebi as he was concerned with the one in front of him. They were both trading blows back and forth. The man finally threw a spin kick that Hebi was able to catch and in turn lift the cloaked individual and turn quickly slamming him into the floor, the floor beneath gave way slightly. Meanwhile, the first two Shinobi had recovered, but were both met with a kunai to the gut.

Hebi had turned to notice the second Shinobi, but he had already completed his hand seals. He quickly took a light stance on his feet so he could move if necessary, but instead the shinobi turned to target the genin. Hebi moved to stand between the two, though he would barely make it in time and probably take the hit of whatever was coming next. He prepared his chakra to once again use his inyuu shometsu if such was necessary. The other had been capable of at least C-Rank fire ninjutsu. What would this one be able to utilize?

Not only did they now have to worry about this murderer, but it seemed another had come forth and threw three kunai toward Hebi in the genin, all three wrapped in explosive notes this time. He wouldn't be able to avoid everything, but he had to wait and see what this murderer was about to utilize in order to move and act accordingly. These two seemed to be the last of all the murderers they would have to deal with, and the one he had slammed into the floor appeared to merely be unconscious. That seemed to be the one they would have to take home.

Word Count: 540

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