The Enemy Is Defeated

Whoosh!

The Gold Sand burst out as if from a vat of mixed dyes, turning into a riot of colors.

The multicolored liquid dripping onto the ground hissed, clearly showing that the Gold Sand had entered an "enchanted" state.

Clang!

Juzō Biwa's eyes filled with alarm. He swung Kubikiribōchō hard, knocking Sasori's puppet back, then leaped backward, escaping the Gold Sand's coils.

But the earthen wall's area was limited, and the ground was already covered with poisonous liquid. He couldn't leave the wall, either.

So his backward leap only carried him a short distance. While moving his fingers to control the puppet, Sasori even formed Hand Seals with both hands.

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"

Boom!

It was like a high-explosive bomb had been hurled through the air. The space in front of Sasori erupted violently, spewing out a mass of compressed, high-density wind that surged forward with a howling gale.

As it neared Juzō Biwa, the churning mass of wind exploded again, forming a spherical cluster of storm blades.

The thick earthen wall caught in the blast was instantly blown apart and torn to shreds. The water beneath it churned violently as if a hurricane had swept through, sending ripples across its surface.

When the wind died down, a large section of the long, wide wall had vanished, as if some giant beast had bitten off a chunk.

Souya looked closely and saw that Juzō Biwa hadn't died. He was stuck in a hollow in the wall, battered and disheveled, and even Kubikiribōchō had been broken.

The blue Chakra rippling across Kubikiribōchō's surface showed that he had wrapped it in Chakra to enhance its power, forcibly cutting himself a way out.

Souya gathered his Chakra and slapped the wall. The section opposite Juzō Biwa suddenly seemed to come alive.

It condensed into a mass of bright yellow sand. In his haste, Souya hadn't had time to refine it into Gold Sand, so he had to make do.

The flying sand brushed against the "poison" on the ground, completing its "enchantment." The colored sand then swept toward Juzō Biwa.

Juzō Biwa struggled to his feet and gripped Kubikiribōchō tightly with both hands. The blue Chakra flowing across its surface suddenly sped up.

Clearly, surrender wasn't a word in his vocabulary.

Clang!

Just as Juzō Biwa tried to leap onto the high wall, Sasori's puppet came down on him with a slash. Taking advantage of the opening, Souya's Colored Sand wrapped around his feet.

"Argh!"

Juzō Biwa let out a piercing scream as smoke rose from his feet. Souya pressed his advantage, controlling the Colored Sand to engulf Juzō Biwa completely, then abruptly tightening its grip.

A muffled scream could just barely be heard before it faded away.

A moment later, Souya waved his hand, dispersing the hourglass-shaped Colored Sand.

Clack...

Something hard hit the ground. Inside, all that remained were hard bones and the undissolved, mushy organs within them, red, green, and white all mixed together in a sticky mass like half-melted ice cream.

"That should do it. Sasori, the guy up there should be dead, right?" Souya wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Yeah." Sasori nodded.

"But why did you turn his body into this...?"

"How else could we make sure the enemy was eliminated? It's your fault for making such a vicious poison." Souya pursed his lips.

"When you were making the poison, you kept saying it was too merciful, that its effects were too simple and easy to counter, and that we should aim for a poison that left people either dead or paralyzed." Sasori shifted his body, his expression unchanged.

"Heh... I was just thinking about our safety, wasn't I?" Souya laughed awkwardly. Seeing how relaxed Sasori looked, he cautiously asked, "Sasori... how much Chakra do you have left?"

"Hmm... more than half, I guess." Sasori tilted his head and answered casually.

"..." Souya was utterly speechless. He and Sasori were about the same age. Souya had kept up his physical training since childhood, and as he grew older, he steadily increased the amount of exercise he did.

Sasori, on the other hand, spent his free time tinkering with crafts. Never mind physical training; he even spent far less time refining Chakra each day than Souya did.

Yet Sasori always had more Chakra than Souya, and the gap kept growing.

Souya looked at Sasori's vivid red hair. The more he learned about him, the more he suspected the guy was a member of the Uzumaki Clan, with their enormous reserves of "Chakra."

Red hair, strong vitality, vast Chakra reserves, and a talent for Sealing Technique...

Sasori seemed to fit the bill perfectly... Souya had discussed Sealing Technique with Sasori while studying it, and the guy's talent was extraordinary.

At the very least, Sasori's skill at making and using Sealing Scrolls was now not far behind Souya's.

Unfortunately, Sasori didn't know his own family's origins, so this was nothing more than a guess.

Souya looked over the long earthen wall, which resembled a low mountain. A huge gap gaped on its right side, as if it had been hit by a storm cannon.

The terrain had been completely transformed. A toxic stream flowed beneath the wall, and the trees had been corroded into withered sticks, swaying on the water's surface.

Sasori had used who knew how many powerful Ninjutsu earlier, yet he hadn't even spent much Chakra...

Souya felt another surge of unbridled jealousy...

In this world of shinobi, where bloodlines mattered so much, relying on talent alone put you at a huge disadvantage...

Souya's country, the Land of Wind, ranked at the bottom of the Five Great Nations in terms of strength. Aside from Magnet Release, it didn't have many powerful Ninjutsu worth mentioning.

It was nothing like Konoha, which had the Second Hokage, whose entire repertoire besides "Sea Style" consisted of Forbidden Jutsu. That was one reason Konoha produced so many geniuses. After all, even a genius couldn't master everything; only by finding Ninjutsu suited to them could they make the most of their talent!

Take the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique, for example. Souya coveted it badly...

But getting his hands on that technique would be... no different from razing Konoha to the ground...

Souya wiped the sweat from his brow. A strange sensation began to stir in his abdomen, pulling him back from his wandering thoughts.

The side effects of the Military Ration Pill were starting to kick in, but with only one pill, they were bearable.

"Could you use this thing to make a puppet?" Souya and Sasori stood side by side, watching Samehada bounce around and make gurgling sounds. Samehada wanted to get away from this place, but the multicolored liquid below made it very uncomfortable. It didn't want to get soaked in it again.

"I'll give it a try." Sasori looked thoughtful.

After all, he had seen for himself the power of Suikazan Fuguki and Samehada when they merged. If Suikazan Fuguki hadn't been so inexperienced, leaving a flaw in their merged state, Sasori wouldn't have had such an easy time dealing with them.

But if he used Suikazan Fuguki's corpse and Samehada to craft a puppet, could he solve that problem?

Sasori's eyes suddenly lit up. Only a challenging puppet-making process like this could stir the longing of an artist within him.

After all, neither Souya nor Sasori had high-purity Water Release Chakra, so neither of them was compatible with Samehada. They would have to find a way to make the most of it.