Rooting It Out

Murderous intent ran rampant, and the air reeked of blood.

Hundreds of ninjas controlled by Sasori of the Red Sands clashed at key locations throughout Sunagakure with over a thousand ninjas Rasa had secretly stationed there in advance.

The latter side outnumbered the former nearly four to one, yet once they engaged at close quarters, they failed to display anything like the advantage such a numerical superiority should have given them.

The ninjas Sasori of the Red Sands controlled with the Brainwashing Sand Technique were utterly deranged. They fought without regard for their own lives and had an exceptionally vicious bite.

They were no longer ninjas, but tools through and through.

Ordinary ninjas, no matter how traditional they were or how much they believed themselves to be tools, were still human in the end. They had feelings of their own and independent thoughts.

Even Ximen Chuixue, who practiced the Path of Ruthless Swordplay, still married and had children in the end. He still smiled.

But the ninjas controlled by Sasori of the Red Sands were different. Under Sasori's brainwashing, they had passively abandoned every thought and feeling that made them human, leaving only one goal in their hearts.

Complete the mission Sasori of the Red Sands had given them: poison the village.

What made things even worse for the Sunagakure Ninja was that the "Werewolves" hidden inside the village had not all been rooted out. Among the ninjas Rasa had assigned to guard the wells were some "Werewolves" controlled by Sasori.

There weren't many of them, but they were enough to give the Sunagakure Ninja a headache. A knife in the back was always especially unsettling.

The two sides fought across Sunagakure. Sasori's side attacked, while Sunagakure defended. The latter was stronger overall, but even so, it would be difficult to wipe out the former in a short time.

The spectators seated high in the venue, with a view of all of Sunagakure, had thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle. They cried out that it was thrilling, exhilarating—this time, the fighting had truly turned the place into a river of blood.

Wasn't a grand spectacle like this far more exciting than watching a few young people fight one-on-one in a restricted arena?

Rasa stood atop a cloud, surveying all of Sunagakure. The situation was gradually coming under control, yet Sasori of the Red Sands still hadn't shown himself. Rasa called out again, taunting him.

"Sasori, that's all your tricks amount to? Bring out whatever else you've got!"

"Sasori, I know you're nearby. What happened? You were making such a fuss over half a month ago, but now you don't even dare show your face!?"

To show off Sunagakure's confidence and strength, Rasa stood on his cloud and shamelessly basked in the spotlight. With all eyes on him, when else was he supposed to show off?

Every bit of swagger he displayed now could be converted into the nobles' and wealthy merchants' trust in Sunagakure's capabilities—and into real income.

"Of course I have more tricks. I'm just afraid you might not be able to handle them."

A resonant, magnetic voice reminiscent of Takahiro Sakurai came from one corner of the audience. Rasa, Jiang Feng, and the many ANBU members of Sunagakure all turned toward the voice.

Sasori of the Red Sands, who had been hiding among the crowd, suddenly shed his disguise and revealed his true face. He raised one hand, releasing dozens of Chakra Threads that coiled around the necks of nearby spectators and took control of them.

Puppet Performance: Human Body Manipulation!

A Puppet Master could use Chakra Threads to control not only puppets, but human bodies as well. During the Fourth Ninja World War in the original story, Edo Tensei Sasori had controlled members of the Shinobi Alliance with Chakra Threads.

Could one hand really control dozens of civilians with precision? Could they really be turned into a fighting force?

The answer didn't matter.

Even if Sasori of the Red Sands couldn't control them precisely, even if they couldn't fight, there was one thing he could certainly do: strangle them.

For Sasori, all it took was a twitch of his fingers.

"Sasori!

"Do you have no decency left as a ninja? How dare you target civilians? You're utterly insane! Let them go at once, and I'll let you leave Sunagakure alive!"

Rasa's eyes widened. He had never imagined Sasori would sink so low as to use civilians' lives as leverage.

The ninjas of the Ninja World and the martial artists of the wuxia world occupied somewhat similar roles in their respective societies, and both had certain unwritten rules in common.

For example, ninjas couldn't attack civilians without restraint.

If you did it secretly, no one could stop you. If no one found out, it didn't matter. But the moment you openly oppressed civilians and slaughtered ordinary people, you became an "enemy of the Ninja World," an "evil heretic."

Compared to "chaos," everyone would rather live in an orderly world. The only point on which the great ninja villages disagreed was who should establish that "order."

Now, with tens of thousands of people watching, Sasori was openly using dozens of ordinary people—wealthy merchants and nobles of influence, no less—as hostages. He had incurred the wrath of the crowd, and it was indeed giving Rasa a headache.

"Let me leave Sunagakure alive?

"What do you think I came here for today? Do you think I'll obediently let them go and slink out of Sunagakure just because you offer me a seemingly generous reprieve?"

Where the hell was that supposed to leave my pride?

Sasori of the Red Sands' handsome, refined features twisted into a grimace. He gave a savage grin. "I came to destroy Sunagakure."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Sasori of the Red Sands twitched his fingers and manipulated the Chakra Threads, snapping the necks of several hostages with cold efficiency.

Bloodied heads rolled down the tiered steps, finally coming to rest in the empty center of the arena. Screams rang out throughout the venue.

Fear spread through the crowd.

Jiang Feng suddenly looked up. He used the Heavenly Son's Qi Observation Technique to survey the tens of thousands of spectators in the venue, then frowned. "Rasa and Sunagakure are in trouble. Serious trouble."

The dozens of hostages controlled by Sasori were only the tip of the iceberg compared to the "danger" Jiang Feng saw.

What could it be?

The next moment, Rasa witnessed Sasori of the Red Sands' methods for himself.

Amid the screams echoing throughout the venue, several sharp, agonized cries suddenly rang out.

Scattered throughout the stands were "ordinary people" whom Sasori of the Red Sands had taken control of beforehand and slipped into Sunagakure. They had remained dormant until now. Suddenly, they pulled out sharp objects hidden on their persons—hairpins, daggers, awls—and viciously stabbed the spectators beside them in the neck, biting and slaughtering indiscriminately.

Killing someone was easy. A pencil or a hairpin was all it took.

Jiang Feng pointed a finger. Twenty-Four Solar Terms Shocking Spirit Finger: Rain Water.

His unending streams of finger force split into more than ten strands, each shooting toward one of the "Werewolves" who were trying to keep attacking, precisely striking their acupoints and immobilizing them.

Jiang Feng had incorporated the Joining Finger, which could strike acupoints from a distance, into the Startling God Finger. Combined with the observational prowess of the Heavenly Son's Qi Observation Technique, one finger was more than enough to restrain over a dozen people.

He didn't kill them, but temporarily deprived them of the ability to move. After all, they were victims too—victims controlled by Sasori.

"What an incredible finger technique. Not only is it precise, but it also incorporates the Hyuga Clan's acupoint-striking techniques. A casual point of your finger can restrain over a dozen people."

Sasori of the Red Sands looked toward Jiang Feng on the viewing platform and praised him, then suddenly asked with a grim smile, "But why don't you all guess how many of the tens of thousands of people in this venue I've secretly taken control of?

"When will they strike, and how will they do it?

"Will they suddenly leap up and kill people, or spread poison without warning? Poisoning people doesn't just mean slipping poison into food and water."

This was the greater danger Jiang Feng had glimpsed with the Heavenly Son's Qi Observation Technique.

Rasa, Chiyo, and the others felt as if they had fallen into an icy abyss. Sasori of the Red Sands had gone mad. He really did want to destroy Sunagakure.

Destroying a ninja village didn't require killing every ninja in it. A crisis of trust alone would be enough to make Sunagakure's mission volume plummet and drag it into an economic quagmire.

Economic hardship would, in turn, undermine morale and public support, leaving Sunagakure unable to recover.

In these turbulent times, failing to recover could well mean total annihilation.

That was what Sasori was doing.

He wasn't foolishly trying to fight Sunagakure head-on. Instead, he was trying to create massive unrest within the village.

The more people died, the weaker the foundation of trust between Sunagakure and its "benefactors" became, and the fewer missions Sunagakure would receive in the future...

He was tearing Sunagakure out by the roots.