Battle Sasori of the Red Sand?

"You might not believe me, Teacher, but if I were to use that technique to escape, I could run all the way back to Konoha. But why do you ask, Teacher Shinku? You aren't planning to emulate the Second Hokage and sacrifice your life to cover your student's retreat, are you? If so, that is entirely unnecessary."

As his voice trailed off, Kawaki Aoba flipped his hands, and two bottles of blue liquid—one large, one medium—appeared in his grasp.

That's right, what Kawaki Aoba had produced this time were bottled, not those stingy-looking test tubes.

The Medium Blue Potion restored an average of 500 mana points every five seconds for three minutes. If 500 mana points were converted into chakra, it would be roughly one-third of a Kakashi.

The Large Blue Potion, however, was formidable: it restored an average of 4500 mana points every three seconds for ten minutes. Converted to chakra, that was equivalent to one Kakashi per second. This large bottle contained a total of 600 Kakashis—try not to be intimidated by that.

Incidentally, the small, test-tube-sized Blue Potions that Kawaki Aoba frequently drank had a recovery cap of two-thirds of a Kakashi and lacked any continuous recovery effect.

Handing the large bottle to Yuhi Shinku, Kawaki Aoba, fearing the man might do something reckless, couldn't help but urge, "Don't worry, Teacher Shinku, it hasn't come to that yet. Your student still has plenty of trump cards left to play."

"Honestly, Aoba, sometimes I really wish you weren't such a genius. But since you've said as much, I shall wait and see." Taking the large bottle, Yuhi Shinku didn't hesitate for a second and tilted his head back to drink it.

As the blue liquid slid down his throat, the effects took hold instantly. Yuhi Shinku's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared, shocked, at Kawaki Aoba.

As the boy's jonin squad leader, he had long known that the "military ration pill solution" the kid concocted was strange, but this was far beyond strange.

What did it feel like to have one's body filled with chakra? Yuhi Shinku could now say he had experienced it. It wasn't just filled; it was overflowing. His state was better than it had ever been.

"Holy crap." With an exclamation, Kawaki Aoba stumbled backward in fright.

This was his first time using the Large Blue Potion, and he was stunned by the sheer magnitude of the effect.

At this moment, Yuhi Shinku was enveloped in surging, erupting chakra, looking exactly like a Tailed Beast Cloak, yet this was his own chakra.

You really do get what you pay for; the small blue bottles had no such effect, simply fading away once the body's chakra was replenished.

Kawaki Aoba gripped the Medium Blue Potion in his hand tighter, then downed it without a moment's hesitation. If the large bottle had such an effect, what about the medium one in his hand?

"As expected, it overflows as well. Teacher Shinku, let's go! Please remember, from the moment the potion is consumed, it only lasts for ten minutes." As he spoke, Kawaki Aoba chugged a bottle of Medium Red Potion.

"Ten minutes in this state? That is truly exaggerated." Feeling the chakra leaking and dissipating from his body, Yuhi Shinku felt a pang of heartache. That was all chakra! He had never wasted so much in his entire life.

Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!

Kawaki Aoba's figure blurred into an afterimage. He watched the fire dragon erupt from Yuhi Shinku's mouth with immense surprise. Since when could Teacher Shinku use Fire Release? He had never seen him use it before.

Fortunately, Kawaki Aoba only thought this to himself; otherwise, he would surely have been sprayed in the face with Yuhi Shinku's spit later.

A jonin who excelled in genjutsu was not a jonin who only knew genjutsu. If he were only strong in genjutsu and lacked proficiency in other ninjutsu, he would be a Special Jonin, not a full Jonin.

"Hmph, you actually have some strength. It seems you aren't entirely useless, but that makes this even better." Sasori's fingers twitched, manipulating the Third Kazekage Human Puppet to create a wall of iron sand, completely blocking the fire dragon's attack.

Following this, more iron sand surged forth, manipulated into long needles in mid-air.

Magnet Release: Iron Sand Shower.

A dense barrage of fine needles descended like a curtain of fire. Seeing this, Yuhi Shinku's expression darkened, and he turned to run.

The unprecedented volume of chakra had almost tricked him. That was the Third Kazekage! Even as a human puppet, he was not an opponent he could defeat; he had actually harbored the delusion that he could win.

On the other side, Kawaki Aoba, who was constantly monitoring the situation with his Observation Haki, couldn't help but twitch his mouth. Teacher Shinku was truly too weak.

Fine, he had misunderstood. Chakra volume did not equate to combat prowess, especially for a ninja like Teacher Shinku who specialized in genjutsu. Even with a boost, he was struggling too much against a puppeteer.

Moreover, no matter how much chakra one possessed, the upper limit of ordinary ninjutsu remained fixed.

"Watching" Yuhi Shinku dodge clumsily under the Magnet Release, Kawaki Aoba felt that this match might once again require him to "cheat" to survive.

His hand sank as he pulled out a pack of explosives. He had only possessed one grenade obtained by sacrificing an Explosive Tag, and that had already been used. What remained were mostly various types of explosives.

He lit them and threw them toward Sasori of the Red Sand, then used Shave to instantly vacate his position. The movements were fluid and practiced. As for what to do next? Naturally, he followed the rhythm—left hand, right hand, slow motion—and threw more.

There were still plenty of explosives in the Altar Space, but Kawaki Aoba wasn't trying to bury Sasori of the Red Sand with the "art of explosion." He was trying to buy time to give them a chance to escape.

Magnet Release: Iron Sand Giant Needle.

Sasori of the Red Sand was still manipulating the Third Kazekage Human Puppet to attack the frantically dodging Yuhi Shinku.

However, rather than a battle, this looked more like a routine practice session.

Yes, it was practice. Sasori of the Red Sand was using Yuhi Shinku to brush up on his proficiency in controlling the Third Kazekage puppet.

In ninja combat, such behavior only occurred when one side completely disregarded the other. Once such a situation formed, it proved that the gap in strength between the two sides was simply too vast.

That was the current situation. Even though Yuhi Shinku had activated his ten-minute "infinite mana" cheat, he still lacked the strength to contend with Sasori of the Red Sand, remaining on the defensive and serving as a training dummy for the puppet master.

Even he himself began to doubt his life, feeling that he had wasted the precious medicine Aoba had given him.

As for Kawaki Aoba's explosive attacks, apologies—the ones he threw first had long fuses, and not a single one had detonated yet, so they posed no threat to Sasori.

However, Sasori wasn't foolish enough to treat those items as harmless decorations.

Whenever an explosive was thrown near him or his puppet, Sasori would choose to manipulate his other puppets to clear them away in advance.