On the Verge of Fury!

Yet now, those puppets had become ruins scattered across the ground, as if silently mocking his incompetence.

"You... you don't understand at all!"

Zheng's voice suddenly rose, tinged with hysteria. "Do you think puppetry is just simple control? Do you think I didn't want them to be perfect? All these years, I..."

His voice cut off abruptly, as though he had choked on his own emotions.

He lowered his head and looked at his hands, his eyes filled with deep confusion.

Aoba watched him quietly. There was neither pity nor mockery in his eyes, only profound calm.

He slowly took several steps forward and stopped before Zheng. In a low voice, he said, "Zheng, I know about your past.

"Your puppetry once shocked all of Sunagakure. Even Sasori of the Red Sands regarded you differently.

"But that was in the past.

"Now, you can't even manage the most basic chakra control. What right do you have to talk about puppetry?"

Zheng's body trembled violently, as if Aoba's words had struck his most vulnerable spot.

Pain flashed through his eyes before being replaced by rage.

"Don't mention that name!"

He growled, his voice trembling slightly. "Sasori of the Red Sands... he betrayed Sunagakure long ago! And I... I'm still fighting for the village!"

"Fighting?"

Aoba's tone carried a hint of cold amusement. "You call this fighting? Your puppets can't even perform the most basic movements. Your chakra threads keep breaking, and even an ordinary Wind Release from me can scatter them with ease.

"Tell me, is this what you call fighting?"

Zheng's breathing quickened, his chest heaving violently as if he were trying to suppress the fury inside him.

Aoba was right. His puppetry truly was nowhere near what it had once been.

The failure of the Chakra Core, the exhaustion