At the border of the Land of Wind lay a desolate wasteland scorched by yellow sand and the blazing sun.
The air shimmered, not from the heat, but around a vortex that had appeared out of nowhere. Lin Feng stepped out of it and set foot on the scorching gravel. The ancient armor from the Warring States period that he wore looked completely out of place in the surrounding landscape.
He sensed his surroundings briefly. Several familiar Chakras were clashing fiercely not far away. One of them felt cold and eerie, clearly not belonging to any of his "juniors."
"Looks like they've run into trouble."
Lin Feng headed toward the center of the conflict without haste.
The center of the battlefield: Iron Sand Cage
Only after reaching the edge of the battlefield did Lin Feng see the full picture.
Black was the dominant color here.
Under Sasori of the Red Sands' terrifyingly precise control of the Chakra Threads, the Third Kazekage's Magnet Release: Iron Sand had formed a massive cage, dividing the battlefield in two.
Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko were trapped at its center.
"Shinra Tensei!"
Nagato unleashed repulsive force once more. Blood vessels stood out in his purple-black Rinnegan. An invisible spherical field expanded, violently pushing away the Iron Sand prisms closing in on him. With a deafening boom, several prisms snapped and flew apart.
But the next moment, more Iron Sand surged up from underground and poured from the Third Kazekage Puppet's mouth, instantly filling the gaps. The cage began to contract even faster.
"It's no use." Sasori's cold voice came from inside Hiruko. The puppet's amplification device gave it an inhuman, metallic quality. "Magnet Release is about controlling the 'field.' Your repulsive force only acts on 'objects.' I, on the other hand, control the 'rules' of the entire space."
He was right. Cold sweat trickled down Nagato's forehead. Every time he used Shinra Tensei at full power, his Chakra drained like water through a breached dam. Worse still, the Iron Sand itself was magnetic. The repulsive force scattered it, but most of it wasn't destroyed. Under Sasori's control, it reassembled even faster and attacked again.
It was a war of attrition, a precise strike targeting the Rinnegan's strength in explosive power and weakness in endurance.
"Konan!" Yahiko swung his Kunai, trying to cut through a spike of Iron Sand thrusting toward him. It only showered sparks, and the web between his thumb and forefinger split open. "Can Paper Release make a gap?"
"No!" Konan's face was just as pale. The scraps of paper fluttering around her were pulled in by the powerful magnetism as soon as they neared the Iron Sand, then torn to shreds. "Magnetism counters my technique!"
Outside the cage lay another battlefield.
Earth Grudge Fear vs. Shadow of a Hundred Puppets
Kakuzu seemed to be faring slightly better, but in truth he was in grave danger.
He wasn't facing Sasori himself, or even the dreaded Third Kazekage Puppet, but three oddly shaped, dark-red humanoid puppets.
[Red Secret Technique: Three-Machine Dance]
These were transitional creations Sasori had made before developing Performance of a Hundred Puppets, and the main pieces in his "collection" that he actually used for killing. Each Human Puppet had once been a ninja with a unique Kekkei Genkai or secret technique. After Sasori modified them, they retained some of their former abilities and gained a puppet's absolute loyalty and fearlessness in the face of death.
Puppet Number One had rapidly spinning chainsaws for arms. It let out a piercing shriek as it charged. In life, it had been a mechanical ninjutsu expert from the Land of Lightning.
Puppet Number Two could open its chest and spray a viscous acid that covered an area thirty meters wide. In life, it had possessed an acid-based secret technique from Amegakure.
Puppet Number Three could twist its limb joints backward and spring poisoned blades from any angle. In life, it had been an assassination master from Kusagakure.
Three puppets, three distinct methods of killing. Controlled by Sasori's divided Chakra Threads, they worked together seamlessly, like a killing machine with three bodies and a single brain.
For the first time, Kakuzu found himself in a tight spot.
"Earth Style: Earth Spear!" He hardened his right arm and smashed the oncoming chainsaw puppet with one punch. Splintered wood and gears flew everywhere. But a sharp pain immediately flared along his left side. Another puppet's poisoned blade had grazed his skin. It hadn't pierced his Earth Spear-hardened body, but the blade's ghostly blue sheen made his eyelid twitch.
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!" He spat out a high-pressure wind sphere, scattering most of the incoming acid. But a few drops slipped past and landed on his Earth Grudge Fear tendrils, immediately hissing as they corroded them and sent up black smoke.
"Tch." Kakuzu's gaze darkened. At last, he stopped holding back.
[Earth Grudge Fear: Mask Split]
The seams across his back suddenly burst open, and a mass of twisted black tendrils gushed out. Four core nodes quickly gathered, changed shape, and transformed into four grotesque masked creatures representing wind, fire, lightning, and water. They tore free, taking some of the tendrils with them.
"Fire Style: Searing Migraine!"
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!"
A combination technique—Storm of Fire!
The high-pressure gale drove the blazing sea of flames forward, forming a fiery tornado that swept across the battlefield and temporarily swallowed the three approaching puppets. Their shells crackled in the heat, and their movements faltered.
"Did that do it?" Kakuzu had only just formed the thought when—
Szzzt, szzzt, szzzt—!
Several purple-black laser beams suddenly pierced through the wall of flames, shooting straight at his masked creatures! Another puppet had been hiding behind the others. Its shoulder opened, revealing a device resembling a Chakra Cannon.
"Lightning Release: False Darkness!" The Lightning Release masked creature struck back at once. Its massive lightning spear collided with the laser beams, exploding in a dazzling flash.
"It's no use." Sasori's voice came again, this time with a hint of mockery. "All of my collectibles have been specially treated. Ordinary fire and lightning can't easily destroy 'eternal art.'"
Sure enough, the puppets scorched by the flames had only blackened shells and smoking joints. Soon, under the control of the Chakra Threads, they charged again, their movements slightly stiff but still deadly. They felt no pain and feared no damage. As long as their core mechanisms remained intact, they could fight indefinitely.
Kakuzu's heart sank. His five Chakra natures gave him a well-rounded arsenal, but against a group of puppets with varied abilities and no need to conserve their strength, he was like one man facing a well-trained ninja squad whose members covered one another's weaknesses. Most importantly, he couldn't retreat. Behind him stood the steadily shrinking Iron Sand Cage, and inside it—the organization's leader.
"Looks like I'll have to show them what I can really do." Kakuzu's gaze darkened as his Earth Grudge Fear tendrils writhed more violently. "At the very least, I need to hold on until that 'leader' shows us something worth seeing... or until he arrives."
His eyes casually swept toward Nagato's thin back, rising and falling sharply inside the cage.
The Iron Sand Cage had shrunk to less than ten meters in diameter.
Nagato's ragged breaths sounded like a bellows. His Chakra was nearly depleted, and using the Rinnegan took far more of a toll on his mind and body than he had imagined. The sensation of wielding "divine power" had become a heavy burden under the relentless strain.
"Nagato!" Yahiko used his body to deflect a stray fragment of Iron Sand. A gash opened in his arm, deep enough to expose bone, but he didn't notice. He kept his eyes fixed on Nagato. "We can't give up! We promised we'd change this world!"
Konan's paper wings were already in tatters. She turned the last of her Chakra into hardened paper spears and tried to pin the cage's joints in place, but the magnetic force quickly warped and shredded them.
Despair seeped into their hearts bit by bit, like cold Iron Sand.
Just then—
Perhaps it was the sight of Yahiko's blood, or the sound of Konan's wings shattering, or Kakuzu's heavy groan—one puppet's poisoned spike had finally found a sliver of a gap in his hardened Earth Spear and pierced his shoulder. Whatever the reason, a taut string in Nagato's mind snapped.
It wasn't the break of fear, but the shattering of some kind of barrier.
"Raaaah—!"
A low growl, unlike any human voice, tore from him as his frail body trembled violently. It wasn't from exhaustion. Something vast within him, something that filled him with terror, was trying to burst out of his control!
Whooom—
A surge of energy far more obscure, chaotic, and unstable than any before it spread out from him.
This time, it wasn't the deliberately directed force of Shinra Tensei.
The Rinnegan sensed the simultaneous threat to its host's life and mind, and instinctively, brutally, tried to repel everything.
The invisible force field was no longer spherical. It twisted into an irregular shape, like an expanding sea urchin bristling with spikes!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Craaack!
The moment the Iron Sand Cage touched the chaotic force field, a bizarre reaction took place. Some of the prisms were violently flung away, even shooting back toward Sasori's true body. Others twisted and bent under the chaotic force, crashing into one another. Still others were caught by something deeper and more fundamental within the field—the nascent, uncontrolled pull of Banshō Ten'in—and briefly floated around Nagato, forming a twisted, dangerous metal vortex!
"What?!" For the first time, Sasori's voice carried unmistakable shock. He felt his control over some of the Iron Sand falter for an instant. It was like a boulder thrown into still water, its ripples throwing all his precise control into disarray.
But it lasted only an instant.
Pfft!
Nagato suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, and the chaotic force field vanished like a punctured balloon. His eyes rolled back, and he toppled straight backward. Konan caught him with a cry. Forcing out power that exceeded the limits of his control had nearly killed him.
The Iron Sand Cage's contraction paused for a moment—but only for a moment. More Iron Sand surged in, quickly repairing the damage, and the cage began to shrink even faster!
"Too bad." Sasori's voice returned to its usual coldness. "An instinctive struggle is nothing more than a dying beast's last gasp. Well, it's time to end the game."
[Magnet Release: Iron Sand Shower]
The Third Kazekage Puppet clasped its hands together. The Iron Sand no longer held the shape of a cage; instead, it scattered in an instant, transforming into countless Senbon as fine as ox hair yet harder than steel! Like a black downpour, they covered every inch of the cage! This time, it was a killing blow!
Yahiko's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He instinctively tried to shield the unconscious Nagato and Konan with his body.
Kakuzu roared. Ignoring the puppets' attacks, he frantically retracted all his masked creatures and tendrils, trying to form a defensive wall in front of himself, even though he knew it might not stop such a dense barrage of piercing projectiles.
Konan closed her eyes and held Nagato tightly.
Just as the black rain of death was about to engulf everything—
Time seemed to stop, as though an invisible hand had pressed a pause button.
Every speeding Iron Sand Senbon hung strangely in midair, less than three inches from Yahiko's nose, Kakuzu's tendrils, and Konan's hair.
An indescribable, ancient, and heavy presence descended on the battlefield, like a dormant volcano awakening.
A figure had appeared in front of Nagato at some point, his back turned to everyone.
He raised one hand, fingers slightly spread, and aimed it at the black rain of death.
No hand seals. No incantation.
He simply spoke a few words, calmly.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence."
Rumble—!
Beneath the dry, scorching sand, a roar rose like a giant beast awakening. Countless thick, vibrant vines and trunks burst from the ground, forming massive wooden dragons that interwove and coiled together. In an instant, they built a lush, sturdy wooden forest above everyone's heads!
The next second, time resumed.
Crack, crack, crack—!
A barrage of impacts boomed against the wooden canopy! The Iron Sand Senbon, powerful enough to pierce steel, plunged into the living wooden barrier, but it was like a rock sinking into the sea. They penetrated only a few inches before becoming firmly lodged—and then they were wrapped in the wood's fibers and absorbed.
The black rain fell silent before the vast, lush forest.
Dead silence fell across the battlefield.
Only the wooden forest continued to grow, its leaves and branches softly unfolding, while a dim light rippled across the armor of the figure standing before them.
Sasori, inside Hiruko, froze.
Kakuzu's masked creatures stopped snarling.
Yahiko and Konan forgot to breathe.
Lin Feng slowly turned around. His gaze first fell on Nagato's unconscious face, and he shook his head, disappointment plain on his features.
Then he raised his eyes and looked toward the ugly puppet Hiruko in the distance, and the Third Kazekage Human Puppet behind it, radiating powerful Chakra.
His voice was calm, yet it overpowered every lingering sound on the battlefield and reached everyone's ears clearly.
"Sasori of the Red Sands."
"Your eternal art..."
"Is this really all it amounts to?"
Faced with the vast forest formed by Wood Release, and the astonishing changes that had happened in an instant—
For the first time, Sasori of the Red Sands, inside the puppet Hiruko, sounded shocked.
"What's going on?"
Wood Release?!
How was that possible? Wasn't that a technique of the First, Senju Hashirama?!
What shocked him even more came next.
Lin Feng's figure vanished from where he stood, like a phantom. The next second, he had appeared in front of the Third Kazekage Human Puppet.
"Is this what you call your 'eternal art'?"
Lin Feng punched the puppet in the forehead.
"It's nothing but scrap metal."
Crack—!
A sharp snap rang out.
The Third Kazekage Human Puppet, hailed as the strongest Kazekage in Sunagakure's history and wielding the powerful Magnet Release, had an apparently indestructible body. Yet a web of cracks spread from the spot Lin Feng's fist had struck.
The cracks rapidly spread across its entire body.
Boom!!!
With a deafening explosion, the entire Human Puppet, along with its complicated mechanisms and poison systems, burst apart in a shower of fragments.
Sasori grunted. His true body tumbled out of the shattered Hiruko and hit the ground in a heap.
At last, his true appearance was revealed: a handsome red-haired boy with an unusually gloomy gaze.
He stared at Lin Feng, unable to believe what he was seeing.
His finest creation, a "collectible" he had devoted countless hours to—had just been shattered with a single punch?
"Y-You... who are you?!" Sasori's voice trembled slightly.
Lin Feng slowly turned around, finally revealing his impassive face, creased with deep lines around the corners of his mouth, and his beautiful, eerie purple Rinnegan.
He looked down at Sasori, as a god might look upon a mortal.
"Me?"
A trace of contempt curled his lips.
"I'm someone who intends to reshape the Ninja World and bring peace to it."
"As for your art..." Lin Feng glanced at the puppet fragments on the ground and shook his head. "In the face of absolute power, it's as fragile as a sandcastle."
"Now you have two choices."
"First, join us and become a cornerstone of the New World order."
"Second, become part of the sand beneath my feet."
Lin Feng's words held no emotion, yet his oppressive presence left no room for refusal.
Sasori's body stiffened.
From this man, he felt a fear unlike anything he had experienced before. It wasn't fear of a ninjutsu technique, but a shudder from the depths of his soul, as if he had been crushed by a higher form of life.
His pride, his art, the eternity he pursued—all seemed utterly ridiculous at that moment.
After a long while, he finally forced a few words through his teeth.
"I... join."
Lin Feng nodded in satisfaction. He didn't spare Sasori another glance, as if recruiting a powerful man of Sasori's caliber were no more significant than swatting a fly.
He turned to Nagato, his expression stern.
"Nagato, I'm very disappointed in your performance."
"The Rinnegan isn't a tool for defense. It represents the will of a 'god'—the power to create and destroy."
"You couldn't even crush a single puppeteer. How can you make the world feel pain?"
Nagato couldn't bring himself to say a word under the scolding. He simply lowered his head even further.
Lin Feng tossed a Black Red-Cloud Robe in front of Sasori.
"Put it on."
Then he turned to leave, not bothering with anyone else.
"Wait!"
Yahiko, who had remained silent until then, finally couldn't hold back. "What are you trying to do? Can violence and fear like this really bring peace?"
Lin Feng stopped.
He didn't turn around, only leaving behind a meaningful remark.
"Peace is never something you 'beg' for."
"It's something you 'fight' for."
"Throw one punch to keep a hundred more from coming!"
His figure was swallowed by the spatial vortex once more and disappeared.
All that remained was a scene of utter devastation and the silent members of the Akatsuki.
Kakuzu looked at the fragments of puppets on the ground, then at Scorpion, their newest recruit, and finally at Nagato. For the first time, he thought that following this group might really earn him "big money."
Scorpion, who had just yielded, picked up the black cloak from the ground. His eyes flickered uncertainly.
He hadn't joined out of fear. It was because he had seen in that man a kind of... "eternity" beyond his understanding, in another form.
Just then, Black Zetsu emerged from Scorpion's shadow, wearing a mocking smile.
"Congratulations, Scorpion. You made the wise choice."
Black Zetsu turned to everyone and conveyed the last order Lin Feng had left before departing.
"Lord Madara said that since recruiting new members has been so inefficient, we'll change targets now."
"Go somewhere... with more excitement."
Nagato looked up, a hint of confusion flashing in his red Rinnegan. "Where?"
Black Zetsu cackled and uttered a name that made everyone present shudder.
"Kirigakure."
Before you continue