Sasori of the Red Sands was a genius.
No one denied that.
But...
In front of the Uchiha, any genius was just an ordinary person!
Ordinary people measured their growth in years.
The very best geniuses could make people see them in a new light in just a few days.
But those present could see Uchiha Sora evolving at incredible speed in the middle of battle, with every second bringing him further along.
His chakra dwindled with every passing moment, yet his swings grew faster and more powerful.
The flames curling around him deepened in color, like Purgatory Flame.
His scarlet gaze and splattering blood, together with the ever-widening curve of his lips, made him look almost like a madman.
In the midst of battle, his Fire Style Chakra Mode was complete.
As Uchiha Sora continued to demonstrate it, Shisui finally understood what was happening.
Both Fire Style and Lightning Release were chakra natures focused on offense.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode increased speed by boosting the body's activity, while Fire Style...
Burned.
Fire Style was the least stable chakra nature. Its techniques focused on explosive bursts of power.
If the Fourth Raikage's Lightning Release Chakra Mode was like a battery steadily releasing electrical current, then Fire Style chakra was like a piece of kindling.
As everyone knew,
kindling didn't burn hot when it was first lit. The flames were small.
But as it continued to burn, the fire grew more and more intense, until it reached its peak!
Whether from the chill in his heart or the heat around him, sweat soaked through Shisui's clothes.
"What kind of madman... would develop a jutsu like this?"
Admittedly, kindling burned hottest at its peak.
But what came after that...
Burn Up, leaving nothing but ashes.
Fire Style Chakra Mode... was a jutsu that would kill its user if they kept using it!
There was no doubt. This was a forbidden jutsu that ought to be sealed away!
Sora, what were you thinking to make you do this? How could you even do it?!
As the temperature of the blood in his body began to rise, wisps of blood seeped through his pores. The flames vaporized them, turning them into strands of red mist.
At that moment, Uchiha Sora was a truly hot-blooded youth.
Shisui thought it was impossible...
The principle was actually very simple.
Everyone had Eight Gates that suppressed their chakra. As long as they trained until their bodies could bear the strain of opening the gates, anyone could open them.
The state in which all Eight Gates were open was known as the Formation of the Eight Inner Gates. It could draw out dozens of times a person's original strength.
In simple terms, it removed the body's limiters.
Uchiha Sora had awakened his Sharingan at a very young age. Back then, desperate for power, the first thing he thought of was the Formation of the Eight Inner Gates.
He'd imagined that if he could just learn that secret technique, he'd gain tremendous strength in an instant!
He didn't even need to befriend Might Guy. He could just watch him train and use the Sharingan to see how his chakra flowed, then learn the Eight Gates by copying him.
Then he understood:
Might Guy was the strong one, not the Formation of the Eight Inner Gates.
The technique was even simpler and cruder than he'd imagined. The key lay in training beyond the norm, pushing himself past his limits.
Everyone had a training method suited to them. Might Guy's specialized Taijutsu regimen wasn't right for him.
But Guy's discipline and attitude toward training were worth learning from.
After breaking through his limits once, Sora's body became far stronger than those of his peers.
But that wasn't nearly enough to open the Formation of the Eight Inner Gates. He could only open the Gate of Opening and the Gate of Healing, both located in his head.
But that was enough.
The Gate of Opening removed the brain's restrictions.
The Gate of Healing removed the body's limit on fatigue.
With those prerequisites, he could defy his body's protective mechanisms, ignite his own chakra, and continuously increase his abilities in every way.
He also needed an exceptional understanding of his own chakra. The Three Tomoe Sharingan was another requirement.
That was the true nature of Fire Style chakra. As Shisui had suspected, it was a suicidal forbidden jutsu.
The closer he got to his strongest state, the closer he got to death.
Snap!
Sasori stretched out all ten fingers, his Chakra Threads wrapping around Uchiha Sora.
Even at this close range, Sasori could see what was happening, despite not having a Sharingan.
"Kid, how much longer can you keep this up?"
Uchiha Sora wasn't alarmed at being bound. He smiled faintly. "Long enough to kill you, I think."
Whoosh!
The flames flared, melting through the Chakra Threads. Uchiha Sora swung his blade down.
Sasori seemed not to have expected this. His expression was blank, and he made no attempt to resist as the Blade of Flowing Flame cut him in two.
Uchiha Sora looked at the chest of Sasori's ruined body. As expected, there was no core inside.
He knew Sasori could transfer his core into another puppet. During their fight, he had already burned and destroyed the puppets nearby.
Without the slightest hesitation, Uchiha Sora shouted,
"Shisui!"
If Sasori wasn't near him, he had to be near Shisui.
Swish—
Shisui jerked his head aside. A gleaming blade passed close to his cheek, slicing off a few strands of hair.
As if he'd been ready for it, he turned and grabbed the arm of the puppet that had swung at him.
With his other hand, he thrust a short blade straight at the black core!
Crack!
The puppet severed its own arm to escape, retreating as its cloak flipped up at one corner. It was Sasori of the Red Sands.
Sasori casually picked up a puppet arm and attached it. The puppet's face showed no expression, but from his tone, he was clearly in a foul mood.
"I'm certain I transferred my core outside your line of sight..."
"What are you, exactly? How do you know so much about me?"
Uchiha Sora didn't answer directly. The flames around him slowly died away.
He calmed the restless heat in his blood, walked over to Shisui, and faced Sasori with him.
Seeing the two of them relax as if the fight were already over, Sasori was instantly enraged.
"Do you think I'm a joke? So what if you know I can transfer my core? There are still over a hundred puppets here. The fight isn't over yet!"
"No. It's already over."
It was Shisui who spoke.
"Genjutsu is a type of ninjutsu that uses chakra to disrupt an opponent's five senses."
"Of course, your unusual body can resist most genjutsu, especially the visual genjutsu of the Sharingan."
"But no matter how unusual you are, the core that produces your chakra must still contain flesh and blood."
"You only thought you were immune to genjutsu because you hadn't met me before."
Shisui's usual gentleness gave way to an air of cold arrogance.
As a member of the Uchiha, even someone as kind-hearted as him knew how to taunt an opponent after a fight.
"While you were fighting Sora, did you think I was just standing there watching?"
Shisui took a glass tube full of tiny needles from his sleeve and said slowly, "I disrupted your senses. While you couldn't detect it, I placed a Poison Sting in the hollow of every puppet."
!!
Sasori sensed the location of his core.
Indeed... a tiny needle had pierced it.
Why hadn't I sensed it before?!
Soon, Sasori's perception of the outside world began to fade, as if all his sensory nerves had withdrawn into his core.
No!
My art is perfect. How could it end for such a ridiculous reason?!
"This chakra poison takes only three seconds to work. It shuts down all five of your senses."
"If you don't believe me, you can try."
"Sasori of the Red Sands, understand now?"
"This is the Uchiha—"
—
"Enough with the post-battle summary. What is this, a thesis defense?"
Uchiha Sora cut Shisui off and strode forward.
Sasori tried desperately to make the puppet attack, but it only creaked and groaned, unable to move an inch.
Thwack!
As Uchiha Sora pulled out the core, the puppet's eyes went completely dark.
Sasori of the Red Sands, capture complete.
Before you continue