Chapter 28: First Fight

The forest opened into a wide, shadowed clearing just as the last of the daylight began to bleed out of the sky. We barely had time to register the change before the ground itself seemed to move.

Human-sized snakes poured from the undergrowth and the low branches—dozens of them, thick-bodied, scales the color of wet stone, eyes glowing a dull yellow. Each one was long enough to coil around a grown man and strong enough to crush bone in a single constriction. Their hissing rose in a layered chorus that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

There was no time for a plan.

Sasuke was the first to move. Chidori crackled to life in his hand, the sharp blue light cutting through the gathering dusk. He drove it straight through the nearest snake’s skull; the creature spasmed once and went limp. Two more lunged at him from opposite sides. He blurred between them, kunai flashing, leaving both bodies twitching on the leaves.

Sakura met a third head-on. Her fist glowed with chakra as she drove it into the snake’s open mouth. The impact snapped its jaw sideways with a wet crack. She spun, already targeting the next one, medical precision turned into pure force.

Samui’s movements were economical and sharp. She weaved between two snakes, striking vital points with short, brutal punches and kicks that left them thrashing. Karui fought with raw aggression, swinging a heavy kunai in wide arcs, shouting curses every time one of the creatures got too close. Omoi stayed near her, intercepting anything that tried to flank, his own kunai work tight and defensive. Mabui kept to the edges, using precise shuriken throws to pin snakes in place long enough for someone else to finish them.

It was my first time seeing something like this with my own eyes. But my body felt like it moved on its own without a single speck of fear as if fighting is natural for this body.

I drew my own blade and met the first snake that came for me. Its mouth opened wide enough to swallow my head. I sidestepped, drove the kunai up under its jaw, and twisted. Hot blood sprayed across my forearm. Another one dropped from a branch above; I rolled, felt the impact shake the ground where I had just been, and came up already stabbing into its eye.

The clearing became a chaos of thrashing bodies and wet sounds. Scales scraped against armor. Hisses mixed with the sharp crack of broken bones and the occasional grunt of effort. Every time we cut one down, two more seemed to take its place. I lost count of how many I killed—five, six, maybe more—each one requiring full attention. One managed to coil around my left leg and squeeze hard enough to make the bone creak. I drove my kunai into the thickest part of its body again and again until the pressure finally loosened.

We were winning, but only barely. The ground was littered with twitching corpses, the air thick with the copper smell of blood and the colder scent of snake musk. My arms burned. Sweat ran into my eyes.

Then the forest shook.

Something massive tore through the trees at the far edge of the clearing, moving far too fast for its size. The big snake—the beast itself—burst into view, body thicker than a carriage, scales the color of old iron. Its head alone was large enough to swallow a man whole. It didn’t slow down.

Its tail came first.

The massive appendage whipped through the air with a sound like a falling tree. Samui was the closest. She tried to leap aside, but the tail caught her square in the chest with a sickening, heavy thud. The force lifted her off her feet and hurled her backward through the air. She crashed through a stand of younger trees and disappeared into the darker woods beyond.

"Samui!" Karui’s shout cut through the noise.

Sasuke’s voice followed immediately, sharp and commanding.

"Everyone disperse! Different directions—now!"

We all understood at the same moment. The minions were still pouring in. The big snake was too strong, too fast, and night was falling fast. Staying together would only get us all killed.

The group scattered.

I was already moving toward the direction Samui had been thrown. A pair of minions tried to cut me off; I cut the first one’s throat and kicked the second hard enough to send it tumbling. Then I ran.

I found her thirty meters into the trees, half-buried in broken branches and soft earth. She was conscious but barely, breathing in short, pained gasps. Blood darkened the front of her flak jacket. I slid an arm under her knees and another behind her back, then shifted her onto my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. She was heavier than she looked, but adrenaline made the weight manageable.

The forest around us was already filling with the dry rustle of more snakes. I didn’t look back. I just ran, weaving between trunks, climbing whenever the ground grew too open. Somewhere ahead the land rose into a low mountain ridge. I followed the slope until I spotted a dark opening half-hidden by hanging vines and loose rock.

A cave.

I pushed inside, the temperature dropping the moment the last of the daylight vanished behind us. I set Samui down as carefully as I could against the cool stone wall. Her eyes fluttered open for a second. She looked at me, lips moving.

"Thank you..."

Then her body went slack. I caught her before her head could hit the ground and eased her the rest of the way down. Her breathing was shallow but steady. The impact had done real damage—cracked ribs at least, maybe worse. Without Sakura’s medical ninjutsu there was nothing I could do beyond keeping her still and warm.

I moved to the mouth of the cave and looked out.

The trees below were alive with movement. Dozens of the human-sized snakes had followed the scent of blood and were already coiling at the base of the slope, hissing, testing the rock for ways up. More shapes shifted farther back in the dark. We were surrounded.

I stepped deeper into the cave, gathered what dry wood I could find near the entrance, and sparked a small fire with a bit of flint and steel from my pouch. The flames caught slowly, throwing unsteady light across the rough walls and across Samui’s still face.

Outside, the snakes waited.

Night had fully fallen.

We weren’t leaving anytime soon.

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Give me power!!!