Fire Dance Whirlwind

This guy... Was he a monster...

The more Orochimaru fought, the more shaken he became.

As everyone knew, battles between ninjas were often decided in an instant.

A fight that lasted half an hour already counted as an unusually prolonged battle.

Those fighters at the Valley of the End arena who battled for several days were not the norm in the Shinobi World.

Usually, a few minutes spent learning about an opponent and devising a countermeasure were enough to end a fight quickly.

There was no need to say anything about Orochimaru's combat experience. During their clash, he had already pieced together most of Sakazuki's abilities.

First, there was his inhuman strength.

This man's strength exceeded even Tsunade's!

Then there was his extraordinary sensory ability.

Fighting him was like fighting a ninja with a dōjutsu Kekkei Genkai. It seemed as though he could predict your next move and position.

Most importantly...

After painstakingly creating an opening, he had used Sora's Tachi to cut off the man's arm... only to discover...

This guy could turn his body into magma. Physical attacks were completely useless!!

He could accept all of that...

But why was your stamina still exactly the same as when the fight began, after all this time!!

In Orochimaru's perception, Akainu's life energy was being depleted more slowly than he could recover it...

A body like a monster's, with seemingly endless energy...

Greed and wariness showed in Orochimaru's eyes.

He badly wanted to study this life-form from another dimension, but he also understood that he probably couldn't capture the man. He hadn't even seen a chance to win.

Let's try...

I'll find a way to take a piece of this guy's body, then have a giant snake from Ryūchi Cave summon me away immediately!

Akainu was getting a little annoyed too.

Orochimaru's abilities were more complicated than any Devil Fruit user's he'd ever known. It was as if he could use all kinds of elemental powers.

After he was killed once, another body would emerge from the corpse.

Even if he was burned to ashes, he might crawl out of the mouth of some random snake nearby.

Through their mental connection, the red-eyed brat who had summoned him didn't know how to kill this snake either. He only knew that Sealing Jutsu and Mangekyō genjutsu were particularly effective against him.

Akainu had never even heard of those two things.

He glanced at the battle taking place elsewhere.

The Chakra Threads extending from Sasori of the Red Sands' chest controlled an army of hundreds of Human Puppets, making Akainu grit his teeth in fury.

That guy was unimaginably evil too!!

That brat who summoned me...

I'm obviously better suited to fight that puppeteer. Why did you...

Akainu could tell that Uchiha Sora and Shisui weren't exactly good people either. They were young, but their fighting styles made it clear they'd killed plenty of people.

Still, compared to Orochimaru and Sasori, the two red-eyed brats were almost tolerable.

From what he'd seen, Akainu felt that twisted malice might have the upper hand in this world.

Aside from him, there wasn't a single normal person here.

All five people present were thinking the same thing.

--

The Third Kazekage was an important part of Sasori's combat strength, but not his best weapon.

The best Human Puppet was Sasori himself!

Uchiha Sora, fighting against the Performance of a Hundred Puppets, had confirmed one thing.

In the original timeline, Sasori had absolutely held back during the battle that led to his death.

Sasori, who could control hundreds of puppets at once, was undoubtedly the greatest puppeteer in history! Even if Chiyo's puppets were of better quality, there was no way she and Haruno Sakura could have beaten Sasori together.

The strength he was displaying now had already surpassed anything Uchiha Sora knew about him!

You brat...

Only the embrace of Father and Mother would make you willing to die, huh?

Uchiha Sora knew all about Sasori's tragic past. Like him, Sasori had lost both parents to war.

Understanding? Sympathizing with a kindred spirit?

He didn't feel that way.

People couldn't even empathize with who they'd been three minutes ago. How could they empathize with an opponent?

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

An endless rain of poisoned hidden weapons fell.

Uchiha Sora had no antidote, but the Sharingan's keen insight let him dodge these attacks with ease.

That was one of the reasons he had wanted to destroy the Third Kazekage Human Puppet first.

Once that puppet laid down Iron Sand World Method, dodging the poison wouldn't be so easy.

With his hidden weapons ineffective, Sasori controlled his puppets to attack the two in close combat.

Shisui represented traditional Uchiha swordsmanship, renowned for its elegance.

Now that he'd grown used to coating his blade with Fire Style chakra, he combined it with his superb Body Flicker Technique. Like a butterfly flitting among flowers, he flashed through the puppet horde, each stroke taking out a Human Puppet.

Compared to Shisui, Uchiha Sora was a pragmatist.

Every movement was clean and efficient—slashes, horizontal cuts, thrusts. Not a single one was wasted.

The Human Puppets weren't sturdy enough. If he kept sending them in one at a time, they'd eventually be wiped out.

Sasori tugged on his threads and pulled ten puppets before him. After a series of mechanical clicks, they combined into three larger puppets.

The three large puppets formed a triangular formation, and the mechanisms on their bodies opened.

Whoosh!!

As Sasori poured in his chakra, a powerful whirlwind formed at the center of the formation. Its tremendous suction pulled at Uchiha Sora, first sweeping up the battered puppets beside him and crushing them!

Puppet Technique: Three Treasures Suction Crush!

Sasori had learned Puppet Technique from Chiyo.

He was the most talented puppeteer in history. Anything Chiyo knew, Sasori knew too... well, except for the forbidden technique, One's Own Life Reincarnation.

Chiyo had developed that ninjutsu to bring Sasori's parents back to life. It could give life to puppets and could also be used to revive the dead.

Unfortunately, Sasori had defected before she could complete the technique.

Shhk!

Uchiha Sora drove Ryuzuki diagonally into the sand, which had been baked at high temperatures until it turned to glass, using it to resist the suction.

The gale tore away the ribbon tying back his hair. His unruly black hair whipped wildly in the wind, sweeping over his sharply defined brow.

Watching the ribbon fly away at high speed, Uchiha Sora's eyes turned cold. He actually gave up resisting and surged forward, tightly catching the ribbon, which bore faint spots of dark brown blood.

Noticing Uchiha Sora's uncharacteristic move, Sasori realized what it meant.

That was...

A keepsake from someone important to you?

"Sora!!"

Shisui cried out as he watched Uchiha Sora about to be sucked into the center of the triangular formation. He rushed forward at full speed.

Crack—

Sasori increased his chakra output, intensifying the suction.

Clinging to something so meaningless would be your downfall, Uchiha Sora!

Just before he was sucked into the center of the Three Treasures Crushing Formation, Uchiha Sora thrust Ryuzuki forward and let a faint smile touch his lips.

His body spun with the whirlwind, faster and faster.

A searing torrent of flames burst from him and rushed into the gale, quickly kindling a massive blaze.

The flames spun at tremendous speed, as though they would sweep everything in the world into their terrifying embrace.

The faint outline of a colossal dragon roared within the fiery tornado.

Kanzaki Kaori: Modified

Fire Dance Whirlwind!

Boom, boom, boom!!!!

The Three Treasures Crushing Formation, which should have sucked in and ground up everything, was pierced through and shattered by an enormous pillar of orange-red fire!!

The fire dragon's force remained undiminished. After smashing through the three large puppets, it charged straight toward Sasori of the Red Sands!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The Spiral Slash at Sasori's lower back spun at tremendous speed, cutting through the fire dragon layer by layer, but it still couldn't stop it in time.

Boom!!!!

The tremendous impact sent him flying. A steel cable shot out and struck a puppet, finally stopping his body.

His expression dark, he looked up at the youth on the sand dune.

The clothes on half of Uchiha Sora's body had been burned away, revealing a body covered in countless scars.

He drew a deep breath, steadying his rapid breathing.

He tied his tousled black hair back with the ribbon again, then looked down at Sasori of the Red Sands.

He smiled as he spoke.

"Wind Release is the best at boosting Fire Style's power. We work pretty well together. Not bad, the power of our combined ninjutsu, right?"

Crack, crack...

Sasori lowered his head and glanced at his shattered breastplate, then replied calmly.

"Yeah... not bad."

Whoosh!!

A steel cable shot out, a flash of cold light glinting from it.

Uchiha Sora charged forward with his blade in hand. His gaze was sharp as a tempered blade, and his clothes snapped in the wind, radiating a fierce intensity.