Sasori snorted coldly and swung his left hand. A sharp chakra thread slashed toward the Rasengan, trying to sever it. "You overestimate yourself!"
Bang!
The Rasengan collided with the chakra thread in a massive explosion. The powerful shockwave blew away the surrounding sand and dust. Naruto was sent staggering back several steps, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.
"Naruto!"
Hinata's face instantly turned pale when she saw Naruto injured. She immediately gave up restraining the puppet and rushed to his side, supporting him. "How are you? Are you hurt?"
Naruto shook his head and wiped the blood from his mouth, his gaze as resolute as ever. "I'm fine, Hinata. That attack didn't hurt him, but I could feel it—his Chakra Core is in his chest. As long as I hit him a little harder, I can definitely beat him!"
"But he's too strong. We're no match for him at all."
Concern tinged Hinata's voice. "How about we retreat for now? Once we find Sister Temari and the others, we can come back and deal with him together?"
"No!"
Naruto shook his head, his tone firm. "We can't retreat. If we run away now, he'll hurt even more people in the future, and we'd be letting down all those he's already hurt! Besides, I'm going to become Hokage. How can I back down just because I ran into a little difficulty?"
Sasori stood where he was, watching Naruto and Hinata coldly, impatience flickering in his eyes. "Enough. This farce should be over.
"You two brats have wasted too much of my time. Now, I'll send you on your way."
With that, Sasori's fingers moved rapidly. The massive puppet sprang into motion again and charged fiercely at Naruto and Hinata. At the same time, several chakra threads