The Third Kazekage Human Puppet

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"Sasori of the Red Sand?!"

Looking at the red-haired man in front of them, Mitsui and Naoki cried out at almost the same time.

Neither of them was unfamiliar with his identity. They had both only recently lived through the war.

Sasori of the Red Sand was a genius puppet master, one of the strongest shinobi in the Hidden Sand. He had disappeared around the same time as the Third Kazekage and was eventually classified as an S-rank missing-nin.

He had appeared on the battlefield multiple times to collect shinobi corpses and had several recorded kills against elite jonin. His strength was so troublesome that Sunagakure had once nearly given up pursuing him. Even the Five Great Shinobi Villages were reluctant to provoke him.

Sasori rested one hand on his hip and laughed softly. "You recognized me? Fine. Since I've run into Konoha shinobi, you can help me test this newly finished work of art."

With that, he took out a scroll marked with the character for "three."

Poof.

After a burst of white smoke, a human puppet appeared in front of Mitsui and Naoki.

Mitsui stared at the black Iron Sand floating around the puppet, stunned and trembling. "Is that Magnet Release? The... Third Kazekage?!"

Naoki was surprised as well, but not because of the Third Kazekage human puppet. What surprised him was running into an enemy on Sasori's level in a place like this.

Naoki could not accurately judge Sasori's current strength, but it was at least above elite jonin. He was an enemy Naoki had no way to deal with right now. The instant Naoki saw him, only one thought remained in his mind: how to stay alive.

Controlling the Third Kazekage human puppet as it slowly rose into the air, Sasori smiled. "This is my finest work so far. Konoha shinobi, enjoy my art."

The moment he finished speaking, the Iron Sand floating around the Third Kazekage human puppet transformed into countless fine needles and shot toward Mitsui and Naoki like rain.

Mitsui retreated at high speed while throwing six kunai, three from each hand, each one tagged with an explosive tag.

Naoki, who was slightly behind him, took the opportunity to hide behind Mitsui as he also retreated.

Boom, boom, boom.

The six explosive tags detonated across the rocky desert, kicking up a thick cloud of smoke.

Seeing that the thrown explosive tags had barely blocked the iron needles, Mitsui gave Naoki a cold glance. Then, without saying a word, he fled in the direction of the outpost.

He ran on his own without even warning him.

Clearly, Mitsui had torn off the mask and no longer bothered hiding his malice toward Naoki.

Naoki had no reason to hold back either. He fled in another direction.

Watching the two of them resist for only a moment before scattering, Sasori laughed softly and jumped onto the back of the Third Kazekage human puppet. The puppet used Magnet Release to turn the Iron Sand into two enormous wings and flew after Mitsui. Clearly, the captain was the puppet master's first target.

'He can fly?'

Naoki's heart sank as he caught a glimpse of him flying with the help of the Third Kazekage human puppet.

In the shinobi world, the ability to fly was an enormous advantage. On the battlefield, encountering a shinobi who could fly often meant being forced into a deeply passive position.

In the current situation, Naoki running on the ground was certainly slower than Sasori flying through the sky.

He forced down his tangled thoughts, calmly tracked Sasori's movement, and analyzed his own position.

'I saw the Third Kazekage human puppet. Sasori won't let me go.'

The fact that Sasori had turned the Third Kazekage into a human puppet should still be a secret. To avoid trouble, the puppet master would never spare anyone who knew it.

In other words, the moment Sasori revealed the Third Kazekage human puppet, both Mitsui and Naoki had been added to his kill list.

'The nearest outpost is almost two and a half hours away. Even if I reach it, the stationed shinobi there won't be able to stop an enemy on Sasori's level.'

'I can't think only about running. I need a way to drive Sasori back.'

While Naoki weighed his options, he suddenly saw Mitsui, who had also been fleeing at high speed, pitch forward and collapse to the ground.

'What happened?' After a brief pause, Naoki immediately understood. 'The iron needles were poisoned!'

Mitsui's explosive tags had indeed blocked most of the iron needles, but one or two still slipped through the blast and cut his arm.

Because the wound had not struck a vital point, neither Mitsui nor Naoki had paid much attention to it.

Now that Mitsui had suddenly fallen, Naoki reacted at once. Based on his memories from his previous life, Sasori was indeed a master of poison.

With Mitsui no longer drawing attention, continuing to flee would only waste stamina and make Naoki look more pathetic. He stopped decisively.

After stepping forward and finishing off Mitsui, who had lost the ability to move from the poison, Sasori leisurely arrived in front of Naoki and smiled in amusement. "What? Giving up on escape?"

Naoki watched him. "I've always wondered why you defected. With your strength and position, even becoming Kazekage wasn't completely out of reach, was it?"

Surprised by Naoki's calm, the puppet master looked him up and down, then smiled. "Don't bother stalling. No one is coming to save you."

Naoki walked toward Sasori and continued as if speaking to himself. "Fair enough. If you dared to ambush even the Third Kazekage, the man praised as the strongest Kazekage, why would you care about a mere Hidden Sand Village?"

Sasori did not answer. His eyes narrowed slightly, amusement filling his gaze. He was genuinely curious what Naoki intended to do by slowly approaching him.

'Nineteen meters...'

'Seventeen meters...'

'Fourteen meters...'

Naoki looked calm on the surface, but inside, he was anything but. He silently calculated the distance between himself and Sasori.

His only chance was to catch Sasori by surprise with Revolving Will, pull Sasori's real body toward him, then use Gentle Fist to seal his tenketsu and take control of him.

Revolving Will's effective range was only about fifteen meters, so Naoki had to get as close as possible.

When Naoki closed to roughly eleven meters, Sasori slowly raised both hands.

The Third Kazekage human puppet, connected to him by chakra strings shimmering with pale blue light, rose quickly into the air. The Iron Sand around it turned into spear after spear.

Knowing he had reached his limit, Naoki stopped hesitating. He thrust out both hands and activated Revolving Will with everything he had.

The moment Naoki raised his hands, the veteran puppet master tilted the corner of his mouth into a mocking smile. He controlled the Third Kazekage human puppet to shield his front while he retreated.

As he saw it, Naoki was merely trying to launch some suicidal ninjutsu. He had encountered that kind of thing many times before. It was nothing worth worrying about.

As the puppet's creator, he knew the Third Kazekage human puppet's defensive ability better than anyone. Even A-rank ninjutsu would struggle to break through the Iron Sand defense of Magnet Release. The shinobi who tried to take him down with them had all become nothing more than entries in his record.

"What...?!"

In an instant, Sasori's half-formed grin froze.

With a tremendous howl, the Third Kazekage human puppet that had been shielding him was pulled away by a powerful force of attraction. The pull was so strong that it instantly snapped the chakra strings connecting Sasori's hands to the puppet.

And when Naoki saw that the target pulled in by Revolving Will was not Sasori, but the Third Kazekage human puppet, he froze too.

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