Black Ant

"You're right, but this was already his limit. Of course he wanted to defeat Konoha and free the village from being trapped amid the desert's wind and sand."

"Then who should be blamed for the people from the village who died?"

Though he did not say it outright, Shimizu knew that Sasori was asking who should be blamed for his parents' deaths.

Logically speaking, this was not something a mere Genin like him should have known.

Elder Chiyo had also kept the truth of Sasori's parents' deaths from him, telling the young Sasori only that his parents had gone somewhere far away and would not return for a long time.

But as he grew older, such things could no longer be hidden from Sasori, who had been naturally intelligent since childhood.

Shimizu fell silent for a moment, carefully weighing his words to avoid saying anything he should not. In the end, he forced out an answer that was correct, yet said nothing at all.

"Whoever killed them is to blame. If Konoha killed them, then blame Konoha."

"But the one who started the war was the Third Kazekage. If he hadn't started it, people wouldn't have died."

Why was this kid so stubborn!?

"No, they still would have. And even more people would have died."

Sasori tilted his head.

"Because we're poor. The village isn't wealthy, and we're surrounded by vast deserts. More than seventy percent of the Land of Wind is desert and Gobi, and over eighty-five percent of its land cannot be farmed. Yet most resources and wealth are taken by the daimyo and nobles to maintain their extravagant lifestyles. They even cut the village's funding for it."

"Sunagakure receives the least annual funding among the Five Great Nations. Without funding, the village cannot develop—it even declines. Other villages are growing while ours is falling behind. In the end, the village will become a small shinobi village that anyone can bully, leading to its destruction. And once the Land of Wind loses its village, it too will perish."

"At that point, countless people in the Land of Wind will die—more than ten times the number of people you will see in your entire life. So, to prevent that from happening, the Third Kazekage could only lead us out to fight, seize more resources and better land, and feed more people."

Explaining the relationship between war and productivity to a kid—especially one who had received the near-illiterate education of a shinobi—was exhausting. Shimizu could only explain it from an angle that a shinobi's way of thinking could understand.

"Then why not take the resources back from the daimyo and nobles?"

Sasori asked again.

"Because the daimyo and nobles throughout the shinobi world stand together. If we openly turned against the daimyo and killed them, every other daimyo would demand that the shinobi villages in their countries attack Sunagakure. What Sunagakure did would be striking at the foundations of their ruling class. Then we would have to face the entire shinobi world. But if we went to seize the Land of Fire, we would only need to deal with Konoha."

Sasori fell silent. He felt that he needed to sort through his thoughts properly.

For shinobi who had not even spent two years in school—and whose schooling was about how to kill people—this knowledge was completely different from the way they had thought before.

As shinobi, they only needed to learn two things: kill people and complete missions.

After thinking for a few seconds, Sasori decided to put those matters aside and return to the main topic.

"We can talk about that later. Today, I want to spar with you first. That puppet you made, the one that puts a person inside its body, is rather unusual. It's completely different from the village's mainstream puppets. I want to test its power."

Shimizu looked deeply into Sasori's eyes and spoke earnestly.

"Alright. After we're done, I hope you'll go back and think about what I said. If there's anything you can't figure out, you can come find me."

To avoid being turned into a puppet in the future, Shimizu felt it was necessary to guide Sasori's thinking.

At the very least, he needed to teach him a more normal way of thinking, lest this uneducated genius who thought himself clever came up with all kinds of bizarre ways to solve problems.

The two left the room and arrived at the Puppet Force's training ground, where they released their respective puppets.

Chakra Threads shot from Shimizu's hands, linking to the Fatty Puppet and covering his body. He controlled it with his right hand, while the Chakra Threads from his left hand slipped through the gaps around the Fatty Puppet's gloves and connected to Little Boy.

Using Chakra Threads to control puppets did not completely affect one's own body posture.

At thirty-five, Sasori could use Chakra Threads released from a single piece of flesh to control hundreds of puppets at once.

When controlling puppets, the most important thing was control over the Chakra Threads.

Of course, the postures and movements of one's fingers and arms could also improve the Chakra Threads' control over puppets, allowing a single puppet's combat power to be maximized.

Naturally, Shimizu could not do what Sasori could at the height of his Puppet Technique. Ordinary Puppeteers only used their fingers to release Chakra Threads and control puppets.

He did not need anything so complicated. While controlling the Fatty Puppet in battle, he only needed to use the Black Secret Technique's Mind Divided in Two, using the fingers hidden beneath the puppet's gloves to control Little Boy.

In other words, the five Chakra Threads from one hand controlled Little Boy, while the five Chakra Threads from the other controlled Fatty. His body and limbs merely needed to coordinate with them.

Sasori also connected Chakra Threads to Black Ant and Ibuse. One hand controlled Ibuse to protect his body, while the other controlled Black Ant and launched the attack.

"Black Secret Technique: Hand Dance."

It was the same move he had used during their previous mission. Black Ant's six arms instantly extended. Not only were they far longer than Termite's, but the tips and the adjacent two segments had turned into metal, making them look like six spears with foldable shafts.

"Black Secret Technique: Swift Performance Method."

Little Boy also revealed his mechanical claws and spinning serrated blades, beginning an intense battle with Black Ant.

The former was clearly faster than Black Ant, but the latter had more claws and more mechanisms at its disposal.

The two fought to a standstill, evenly matched. Before long, they changed their rhythm—cutting off each other's Chakra Threads to disrupt the other's control over their puppet.

Shimizu raised his brows and gave Sasori a surprised look.

"Black Ant, Ibuse... There should be a Crow in the future as well. And with Sasori's ability, he'll further modify and upgrade his puppets."

In the future, Kankuro used Black Ant and Crow during the Chunin Exams. After becoming a Jonin in Shippuden, he gained Ibuse as well.

The fact that he continued using them even as a Jonin meant that Black Ant and Ibuse would be upgraded to Jonin level in the future. It also showed that both puppets had excellent foundations.

At least by Shimizu's judgment, Black Ant should rank among B-rank puppets.

They were both using the Black Secret Technique. Though Shimizu's Puppet Technique had improved considerably from before, there was still a gap between him and Sasori.