The Third Kazekage's Disappearance

Inside an unnamed mountain cave, at the critical moment when the Third Kazekage and Sasori of the Red Sands were locked in fierce battle, the Third Kazekage suddenly coughed up blood. He could no longer even maintain his Iron Sand defense, and his entire body went weak as he dropped to one knee.

Seeing his reaction, Hiruko, hanging upside down from the ceiling, revealed a sinister smile. "It's finally taken effect?" Under Sasori's control, the dozen or so puppets that had been launching a relentless assault stopped attacking, causing no harm whatsoever to the Third Kazekage's body. After all, this body was one of Sasori's most prized potential additions to his collection. Naturally, he would not destroy it so easily.

The Third Kazekage looked down and found that the blood on the ground was black and foul-smelling. He had clearly been poisoned!

"Wh... when?" Enduring the increasingly intense pain in his chest and abdomen, the Third Kazekage forced himself to stay alert and looked up at Hiruko on the cave ceiling in shock. "When did you poison me? There should have been no flaw in my defenses from beginning to end!"

"Thud..."

Hiruko leaped down from the ceiling and slowly walked over to the Third Kazekage.

"Of course, from the moment you entered the cave." Sasori understood the potency of his specially formulated poison very well. Once it took effect, it would only grow more severe, so he did not mind answering the man's question. "There are more ways to poison someone than just hidden weapons.

The human body is so fragile. Blood, breathing, the digestive system—every one of them is a path for poison to invade.

I had long since filled this cave with a specially made, colorless and odorless poisonous gas. After it is inhaled, there will be