"Looks like I won." Sasori smiled as he struggled to raise his right hand. His chakra threads twitched lightly as he tried to manipulate the puppet and deliver the final blow to White Fang.
Suddenly, his smile froze on his face. The puppet did not move.
"It seems things cannot go as you wish." White Fang gave a soft laugh and barely forced himself to his feet amid the scorching yellow sand. Blood seeped from his wounds, only to evaporate the moment it dripped onto the sand.
White Fang let out a long breath, recovering a little strength as he explained, "From the very start of the battle, I was watching for your weaknesses. I knew that after such a long fight, the chakra I had left probably would not be enough to defeat you. Especially that puppet of yours—neither ninjutsu nor taijutsu could damage it.
"But I firmly believe that nothing in this world is perfect. Every form of ninjutsu has a flaw. So I used the Substitution Technique to hide and observed that after you used the puppet to perform ninjutsu, your breathing became noticeably more hurried. It seemed that using this puppet to cast ninjutsu consumed a great deal of chakra.
"I have fought high-ranking puppet masters from Sunagakure before. I know that the ninjutsu they use through puppets is generally designed into the puppets beforehand, so it does not consume much of their own chakra. Only yours seems somewhat special.
"Therefore, throughout the rest of the battle, I did my best to stall for time. Based on your age, I estimated the amount of chakra you had and, when the time was right, lured you into using high-intensity ninjutsu. Now, it appears your chakra has been exhausted."
A faint smile rose at the corner of White