The Trouble Caused by Sasori's Poison

Little Boy had only managed to fight him to a draw because his performance was slightly better, and because he had pursued extreme agility, giving him far too great an advantage in speed.

Was this the true value of the puppeteer talent ranked among the top two in the history of the ninja world—creating a puppet like this at the age of nine?

But if this was all he had, it still wasn't enough.

Shimizu controlled Fatty Puppet as it trudged toward Sasori with heavy steps. At the same time, a row of firing ports popped open on its shoulders, shooting poison needles at Sasori one after another.

Sasori swept his left hand, and Ibuse swiftly moved in front of him, opening its shield.

Shimizu did not mind. Both sides knew that while poison needles and kunai were common long-range attacks for puppeteers, unless one was an Uchiha with the Sharingan who could turn Ninja Tool Throwing into an art form, such weapons could not effectively damage nonliving puppets.

He was merely forcing Sasori to call Ibuse back for defense, preventing him from fully focusing on controlling Black Ant for the time being, allowing Little Boy to use its speed advantage to keep it occupied.

Then...

"Black Secret Technique: Pneumatic Fist!"

The air valve within Fatty Puppeteer's left arm opened, converting the ultrahigh pressure of compressed air into mechanical energy. Empowered by Chakra, it threw a punch.

Black Ant was sent flying in an instant, smashing into the wall and shedding fragments of small parts.

It had tried to meet Pneumatic Fist head-on with its six spiked arms, only to be punched apart into scattered pieces.

Sasori's heart sank.

He had already witnessed the terrifying monstrous strength of Shimizu's puppet before, yet he had still underestimated it.

Even Black Ant, made from entirely new materials, could not contend with it head-on.

Sasori proactively changed tactics. He once again used Chakra Thread to control Black Ant against Little Boy while rapidly retreating, always keeping Ibuse between himself and Fatty Puppet.

So far, Fatty Puppeteer's only weakness was its speed.

Although it was reasonably agile, its speed had inevitably been affected by its enormous weight.

It was still much faster than an ordinary person sprinting at full speed, but compared with ninjas, who treated speed as a basic skill, it was still somewhat lacking.

"I observed you during previous missions. Every time you use that ninjutsu that lets your puppet unleash monstrous strength, there is always an interval before you use it again. It seems this technique consumes quite a bit of Chakra. If I keep dragging this out, do you think you can still win?"

A faint smile appeared on Sasori's delicate face as he looked at Shimizu.

"You can try. Let's see whether my Chakra runs out first, or Black Ant gives out first."

Shimizu's expression remained calm, though inwardly he was delighted that Sasori had guessed wrong.

The greatest cost of activating Pneumatic Fist was using Chakra Thread to operate the air pump and compress air into the cylinder.

Although it did consume a fair amount of Chakra, with a properly designed mechanical structure, the consumption was nowhere near as great as Sasori imagined.

The biggest limitation on Fatty Puppeteer's use of Pneumatic Fist lay in its hardware. Both the air pump's compression speed and the pressure the cylinder could withstand were limited by the materials.

If he used Pneumatic Fist frequently without regard for the consequences, it would damage the air pump and render it unusable. It was essentially trading the puppet's durability for a brief burst of power.

Unless he encountered an extremely dangerous situation, Shimizu would not do such a thing.

"Black Secret Technique: Split Machine Performance."

Fatty Puppet instantly split into more than a dozen components and flew out, rapidly reassembling in front of Shimizu.

Freed of Shimizu's own weight, Fatty Puppeteer's speed rapidly increased as it charged at Sasori like a tank.

"Boom!"

The powerful Pneumatic Fist slammed into the shield on Ibuse's surface, leaving behind a moderately deep crater.

Sasori hurriedly ran back to widen the distance, then twisted sideways to dodge the Senbon fired from Fatty Puppeteer's shoulders.

Worse still, after Black Ant had been severely damaged by Fatty Puppet, its threat to Little Boy had greatly diminished. It was on the verge of being unable to hold on.

Sasori made a swift decision, pulling Black Ant back to his side at the cost of having two of its arms severed.

The sound of machinery twisting rang out. Black Ant voluntarily detached its remaining four limbs, opened its abdominal cavity, and ejected a series of long, thin tubes.

Shimizu, who had vaguely guessed what Sasori was about to do, also began retreating. He stretched out a hand and used Chakra Thread to pull Little Boy back to his side as quickly as possible.

Just as Shimizu had expected, a large cloud of green poisonous smoke drifted from the tubes.

Shimizu used Chakra Thread to activate the switch on Little Boy's mechanical arm, then swiftly released the threads and formed Hand Seals with both hands.

Three long, narrow blades popped out from the mechanical arm and began spinning, generating wind.

Shimizu's ninjutsu was already complete.

"Wind Release: Gale Palm!"

Although it was only a relatively basic C-Rank Wind Release Ninjutsu and not especially powerful, a fierce gust still arose. It not only blew all the poisonous smoke back, but its powerful wind pressure also forced Sasori to hide behind Ibuse to avoid being injured.

But the billowing poisonous smoke was not so easy to evade.

"Cough, cough! Cough, cough, cough!"

Ibuse's limbs suddenly collapsed beneath it, leaving it sprawled on the ground without moving. Sasori lay on the floor, coughing loudly and foaming at the mouth.

"Um... are you okay?"

Shimizu used Wind Release again to disperse the poisonous smoke, then called out to Sasori.

"The antidote... the antidote is in the Ninja Tool Bag..."

Sasori's face had turned bluish-green as he spoke with difficulty.

Shimizu hurried to Sasori's side, found the antidote for him, and poured it down his throat with a water flask.

A few minutes later, once the antidote took effect, Sasori's complexion finally returned to normal.

"I have to say, you're really ruthless. This was only a spar. Did you really need to use that kind of poison?"

Shimizu quietly pocketed an Antidote Pill and complained to Sasori.

"This is merely a Nerve Toxin made from Green Land Poison Cactus juice mixed with a volatile agent. Its only effects are bodily paralysis and muscle spasms."

Sasori wiped the foam from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and spoke indifferently.

"Then... do the others have an antidote?"

Sasori sneered and said:

"I made this poison myself. While it isn't very toxic, I added something to the volatile agent. It won't be easy for ordinary people to cure it..."

"You two little brats! Why are you releasing poison inside the base for no reason?! If you want to test poison, there are designated places for that! If this weren't the Puppet Force, the two of you would be thrown straight into Anbu prison for endangering the village's security and attempting to harm its residents!"

A voice as loud as a gong rang out from the edge of the training ground. Sunakami Sayama, built like a bodybuilder, strode over bare-chested and wearing a gas mask, glaring viciously at them.

"Antidotes!"

A palm the size of a fan stretched out before Shimizu and Sasori.