With his strike landing, Sasuke broke free of Orochimaru's grasp and swung his shuriken. "I can feel the difference in our strength. I'm still not strong enough."
After awakening his Sharingan, Sasuke's mind had grown sharper. He could tell that Orochimaru hadn't been holding back just to toy with him; it was as if he were guiding Sasuke toward awakening a new power.
Then Sasuke seized on that opening, cut through the snakes binding Uchiha Mikoto and Izumi Uchiha, and retreated to a safe distance.
"Mom, hang in there." There was nothing Sasuke could do. Words of encouragement couldn't heal Uchiha Mikoto's injuries.
Izumi Uchiha had fallen unconscious from the snake venom.
In the eastern district of the Uchiha residential area, Tobi was confronted by three Uchiha Clan jonin.
"Do you know what the urge to poop is?" Tobi asked, brimming with curiosity. "Huh? None of you know, yet you want to kill me. But if you kill me, I'll never find out what it is, either. So you're the ones who have to die. Do you understand?"
"We'll never let him get away!" The Uchiha Clan jonin charged at him in fury.
Tobi swayed. "Wood Style: Cutting Technique."
Sharp wooden spikes sprouted all over Tobi's body and pierced the Uchiha Clan jonin's flesh. Then countless more spikes burst out from inside their bodies, taking their lives.
No one could stop Tobi.
"Kisame, I want to kill him with my own hands and turn him into my puppet." Sasori had been preparing to make a puppet with a Sharingan when a freakishly strong boy wreathed in green flames dropped from the sky. His kick nearly blew up Hiruko, his Human Puppet. If Kisame hadn't stopped the boy's follow-up attack in time, Sasori would have been forced out of Hiruko.
Sasori was furious that someone had ruined his art.
The freakishly strong boy was Naruto. He had come to bring Shisui some bandages for his eyes.
Naruto and Shisui had been chatting, while Karin was busy cooking in the kitchen, when a violent gust swept through.
Shisui's little house was smashed to pieces, leaving only broken planks scattered in the wind.
Grief showed in Naruto's eyes. "That man you killed greeted me this morning. He said he was going fishing by the river, and if he caught any tasty fish, he'd give me one. You, hiding inside your shell, might not understand my grief. You probably only want to kill me. You have great power, but you use it without restraint. So I'll use even greater power and become your worst nightmare."
Naruto locked onto Sasori and used the Body Flicker Technique.
Kisame moved to help Sasori.
A figure blocked his path. Written in gold paint on the red bandage over his eyes were the words: I'll use both hands to make your dreams come true.
It was sudden, and kind of interesting.
Shisui appeared, bringing his right hand down with a slash. "I'm your opponent."
Kisame shifted aside and threw a powerful punch. "Not everyone is a match for me."
"A clone?" Kisame was visibly taken aback. His fist had met no resistance.
Shisui appeared to Kisame's left. "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu."
A powerful jet of flame shot straight at Kisame.
The flames drove Kisame far away, but he escaped without a mortal injury.
Sasori sent Hiruko's tail whipping toward the approaching Naruto.
Naruto didn't dodge. He judged that it would only graze his skin and wouldn't change the outcome. "Wind Style: Rasenshuriken."
With guidance from Shisui and Itachi, Naruto had finally mastered the shape transformation of Wind Release chakra and created a new jutsu: the Rasenshuriken.
"No matter how hard your shell is, I can break through it."
Naruto slammed the Rasenshuriken into the middle of Hiruko, the Human Puppet.
Sasori reacted in time, launching himself backward from inside Hiruko. "What a sharp jutsu! You actually destroyed my carefully crafted Hiruko. But art is eternal. It will always have a place in my heart. And you've been poisoned by the special toxin I put on my tail. Your death is at hand."
But in the next instant, Sasori stared in shock as Naruto expelled the poison from his body.
Naruto's Super Self-Healing made him immune to every poison. "That was nothing. My next move is for you."
Sasori unrolled a scroll at his waist, formed Hand Seals, then pressed his hands against it. "Did you think this was my only puppet? I'll show you what a truly powerful puppet looks like."
The Hand Seals were complete, and chakra flowed, but the scroll didn't change at all. Sasori was left utterly confused, unable to understand what had happened.
Naruto smiled faintly. So this was the system's unique effect. He could carry his own space, but with this effect, no one else could use other spaces.
To make them easier to carry, shinobi stored their ninja tools in scrolls, which held them in another dimension. When they wanted to use something, they formed Hand Seals and touched the scroll, releasing the items inside.
"I told you—you don't have a chance." Naruto's speed surged. "Fire Release: Great Burst Rasengan."
Without his puppet, Sasori's real body was no match for Naruto with the Eight Inner Gates opened. Despair overwhelmed him. "Kisame, save me!"
Boom.
Sasori's cry for help rang out, but Kisame was being drawn farther and farther away by Body Flicker Shisui, and couldn't break free.
Flames crackled as they burned Sasori.
The steel blades and wires hidden inside Sasori's real body glowed red-hot in the fire.
"I really don't understand why you'd turn even your own body into a puppet." Naruto kept up his overwhelming assault, concentrating all his strength into punches against Sasori's real body and weaving in Rasengan attacks so Sasori had no chance to strike back.
"Ah! Art is eternal!" Sasori shouted his final words.
His real body was shattered, and the gleaming Core went dark. His life as a puppet was finally over.
Then the most absurd thing happened.
Tobi had killed all the Uchiha Clan members in his area and came running over happily, eager to brag about his strength to Kisame and Sasori. Then he saw a child kill Sasori without giving him the slightest chance to fight back.
"Oh my god, Sasori felt the urge to poop. I want to feel it too!" Tobi leaped high into the air. "Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence."
Trees suddenly began growing at an incredible speed beneath Naruto's feet.
The trees moved as one, all closing in to crush Naruto.
"Another one?" Trapped deep in the woods, Naruto kept breaking the trees that attacked him. "I'll cut a path through first."
"Wind Style: Hurricane Rasengan."
Countless trees were swept away by the hurricane, but countless more sprang from the ground and surrounded Naruto again.
"Become fertilizer for the trees!" Tobi seemed to have limitless chakra, maintaining the jutsu without showing any sign of fatigue.
Naruto tried Fire Release, but the trees were wet on the surface, and he couldn't burn them all. Since neither Wind Release nor Fire Release was very effective, Naruto chose to keep running east as fast as he could. Only by getting beyond the jutsu's range and finding Tobi's true location would he have any chance of winning.
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