"For the tenth match, Kankuro of Hidden Sand and Kurotsuchi of Iwagakure, please take the stage!"
Kankuro, carrying his puppet on his back, and Kurotsuchi then made their way to the center of the arena.
The moment Kurotsuchi appeared, Ōnoki cast an expectant look at his granddaughter from inside the private box.
"My precious eldest granddaughter, you're the only one from Iwagakure who made it through."
"Give it your all. No matter what, you have to make it to the semifinals. Otherwise, Iwagakure will really lose face."
Meanwhile, in another private box, Rasa no longer held out any hopes as he watched his son Kankuro in the arena.
Of all things, Kankuro had to learn Puppet Technique. What was so fascinating about those lousy puppets? He had spent nearly ten million ryo on the three lousy puppets Kankuro carried around.
He also could not understand what was so special about puppets. Generally speaking, puppets were meant for ninjas with little talent, those who were not skilled in ninjutsu or Genjutsu. To this day, Hidden Sand had produced only three ninjas proficient in Puppet Technique.
Second Kazekage Shamon, Grandmother Chiyo, and that missing genius puppeteer, Sasori of the Red Sands.
Not only was this profession expensive, it also came with a whole pile of flaws.
There was nothing he could do about it. When Kankuro was young, Rasa had been busy searching for gold in the desert every day. At the time, Grandmother Chiyo's grandson Sasori had disappeared, so he had asked her to look after Kankuro for a while.
And that was how things had turned out. Kankuro had become a shut-in ninja obsessed with puppets.
Thinking about it now, among his three children, only Gaara had inherited his ability to control sand...
Sigh... How tragic. How lamentable...
With a