Amid the Wind Traces, Baiyu grasped the true essence of the Wind Taming Sword Technique.
With Sweeping Blade, he rode the wind, using it as his own power. He followed the wind's path—the Wind Trace—and continuously darted along each trace.
Without using any extra abilities, chakra, or Breathing Style, he reached the speed of the wind. In a fleeting instant, he drifted close to his enemy.
Moving with the wind's rhythm, he created a pocket of empty air. The moment he controlled his enemy, he could follow the wind's path and dart away.
Sasori's Magnet Release was clearly half a beat too slow. Baiyu's figure appeared without a sound, and his wooden sword swept out, slipping into the puppet along the wind's path.
Three or five slashes fell!
There was not the slightest resistance.
At that moment, the wooden sword seemed like a divine weapon. The puppet instantly shattered into several pieces and fell to the ground.
Sasori stared blankly at what was happening above him. He hadn't sensed Uchiha Shiraha's movements at all.
It was as if a gust of wind had passed by, and then Baiyu had appeared beside the puppet.
"What happened? He can use Wind Release without hand seals... and that wall that appeared just now actually deflected the Iron Sand... This definitely isn't an ordinary ninjutsu!"
Sasori was a Kage Level expert with considerable strength and insight. He also liked studying the human body, so he understood a person's limits better than most.
Ninjutsu without hand seals was rare, and techniques with special offensive power were even rarer.
Yet this child, who was only about ten years old, had used a Ninjutsu without hand seals unlike anything he'd ever seen!
"Frozen in place?"
Baiyu had first destroyed the Third Kazekage Puppet, then immediately launched a counterattack.
He'd been getting beaten down the whole time, and his anger had been building up inside him.
Now that he had a chance to fight back, he certainly wasn't going to let it pass.
"Sweeping Blade!"
Baiyu abandoned the Thunder Breathing Method and entered the Wind Track in his ordinary state. As he raced along the Wind Traces, he needed no chakra, and his speed was incredible.
Where the wind went, he went.
In the space of a breath, Baiyu appeared beside Hiruko again. This time, he drew the Reverse-Blade Sword, and its blade plunged straight into Hiruko.
The resistance he'd felt before didn't appear. This attack went exceptionally smoothly. Hiruko's shell couldn't stop the long blade while he was in the Wind Track state.
An ordinary Ninja Blade had instantly become a divine weapon like the Kusanagi Sword.
"Bang!"
Hiruko exploded, and a red-haired young man of fifteen or sixteen leaped out from inside.
He wore the Akatsuki uniform, a black outfit with red clouds. His somewhat pale red hair fluttered in the wind, and his thin, leaf-shaped red eyebrows furrowed slightly.
This was the first time he'd come out like this since building Hiruko.
No one had ever forced him out of Hiruko—not even Zero.
After all, when he'd met Zero, he hadn't finished building Hiruko yet.
"The air outside is still as irritating as ever. When will I be able to stop breathing and attain eternity?"
Sasori murmured.
Art was eternal and imperishable.
Only eternity was true art.
"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"
He took a scroll from his body, and more than two hundred Human Puppets burst out of it.
Sasori controlled every puppet. With the Eternal Heart installed, he would never run out of chakra.
One man was an entire army.
"Sweeping Blade!"
Baiyu didn't care in the slightest. He simply slashed at one of the puppets.
He crossed a Wind Trace, swung with Sweeping Blade, and blew a puppet apart.
"What Hundred Puppets Performance? They're just walking experience points!"
After cutting down the Third Kazekage, Baiyu had discovered that his Battojutsu count had gone up again. Apparently, puppets could count as enemies, too. The Third Kazekage had given him a full hundred thousand draws. After all this time, his total was about to break two hundred thousand—enough for two ten-pulls.
"Keep going!"
Baiyu realized that every puppet increased his Iaijutsu count.
Now, every one of these puppets looked like an experience point to him.
After cutting down Hiruko, he went on to cut down several more puppets, each adding around three thousand draws.
At last, he reached two hundred thousand.
He was still eight hundred thousand short of a million!
But he was one step closer.
Baiyu swung at the puppets with ever-increasing enthusiasm.
"Iron Sand Secret Technique: Iron Sand Unseal!"
While Baiyu was busy cutting down puppets, the Third Kazekage, who had been smashed into seven or eight pieces, was hastily repaired by Sasori and restored to fighting strength.
He couldn't release techniques as freely as before, though.
But he could control the puppets and use Magnet Release!
Whir!
Baiyu felt the Reverse-Blade Sword in his hand jerk, then fly out of his grasp.
"Magnet Release... It's gotten stronger. Looks like he's figured out its patterns?"
Baiyu sighed and caught the Reverse-Blade Sword as quickly as he could.
His hands never stopped moving as he continued cutting down puppets.
After the Third Kazekage Puppet was disabled, Baiyu no longer worried about Sasori's attacks.
Sasori's skills weren't limited to puppets. He also had one other trick—poison-making.
Other than that, he had no other abilities.
Most of the ninjas who died at his hands were killed by his poison.
Studying Puppet Technique, especially Human Puppet, generally required an intact body.
Compared with corpses missing limbs, a body killed by poison was much more suitable.
Although Baiyu was skilled with poison himself, he was still careful not to let Sasori's weapons graze him.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Gathering Assault!"
An enormous mass of chakra appeared above Sasori's head. The black Iron Sand formed into one weapon after another.
"Stop!"
Just as Sasori was about to make his move, Orochimaru suddenly appeared and spoke to him.
Seeing Sasori like this for the first time, Orochimaru looked him over in surprise.
"If we keep fighting, the commotion will be too great,"
Orochimaru said. They still had a mission from Zero, and their encounter with Baiyu this time had been an accident.
Uchiha Shiraha wasn't his target.
Baiyu had too little talent.
Orochimaru liked geniuses, not ordinary people who worked hard.
After seeing Uchiha Itachi earlier, he'd taken a liking to that body.
He'd only just changed bodies, though, so it would be another two or three years before he could take it.
At Orochimaru's words, Sasori suddenly recalled Zero's instructions.
He shot Baiyu a fierce glare, then put away the damaged Third Kazekage and all the other puppets.
Orochimaru turned to Baiyu and said with a smile, "Take good care of that body for me. Let's make a deal: give me the antidote, and I'll trade you the secret technique for controlling the Kusanagi Sword."
A summoner could pinpoint the Kusanagi Sword's location, so Orochimaru had left it behind for the time being, just in case.
Now that he saw Baiyu hadn't brought the Kusanagi Sword with him, he figured it was useless.
In Orochimaru's eyes, one Kusanagi Sword wasn't important.
He didn't use swordsmanship much himself, so he didn't mind giving Baiyu the sword's secret technique. At first, Orochimaru hadn't summoned the Kusanagi Sword because he only wanted to use it as a tracker.
The Kusanagi Sword!
Orochimaru had plenty of them...
Baiyu considered what Orochimaru was thinking.
That body...
Uchiha Itachi?
Just you wait until he grows up. You might not be able to handle him.
Baiyu mocked him silently. Orochimaru was very strong now, and he was getting older, but his strength wasn't keeping pace.
"No problem. Show me the secret technique first!"
Baiyu answered directly. Orochimaru and Sasori of the Red Sands were standing together. Baiyu wasn't stupid; he wouldn't start a fight between them.
"Here!"
Orochimaru pulled a damp scroll from his mouth and tossed it to Baiyu.
Baiyu looked at the scroll in front of him with distaste. But when he opened it, he found that it really did record all kinds of secret techniques for controlling a Kusanagi Sword.
It was his own sword.
"Summoning Technique: Kusanagi Sword!"
Baiyu read the words from the scroll aloud.
He tried performing the technique, and a treasured sword suddenly appeared in front of him.
It was the Kusanagi Sword!
This scroll... really did contain the secret technique.
The deal was done.
Baiyu handed the antidote to Orochimaru, then watched the two of them leave.
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