Sasori's Death! Performance of a Hundred Puppets? Crushing Soulless Fakes!

At the border of the Land of Wind, the endless, desolate desert had been baked by the blazing sun until it was like a giant furnace.

The air warped and twisted in the heat.

Only two days had passed since he had taken out the immortal duo. Yuan had not stopped for even a moment. He had crossed half the ninja world, following the last lead provided by the dark web, and arrived here.

"Click, click..."

An extremely faint sound of wooden joints rubbing together came from behind the sand dune ahead.

Yuan stopped. Amid the yellow sand filling the sky ahead, a short figure in a black cloak patterned with red clouds slowly walked out. His back was slightly hunched, half his face hidden behind a mask, and those lifeless, dead-fish eyes were staring coldly at Yuan.

It was the genius puppet designer—Sasori of the Red Sand.

"Kakuzu and Hidan's chakra signatures have completely vanished." Sasori's voice was low and hoarse, without a trace of human emotion. "Looks like Zetsu was right. The Uchiha clan has produced a mad dog that bites on sight. Did you run all the way to this desert because you thought my puppets were short one good material?"

"Material?" Yuan gave a scornful laugh and casually patted the sand from his windbreaker. "I'm here to tear this pile of junk apart and use it as firewood."

Sasori's eyes chilled. "You'll pay the price for that arrogance."

He abruptly unzipped his cloak and tore off the disguise shell known as Hiruko, revealing the true body inside: a delicate-looking young man with short red hair.

Beside the young man, a puppet wearing a black cloak and emitting terrifying fluctuations of Magnet Release chakra rose silently into the air.

It was the Third Kazekage Human Puppet, hailed as the strongest Kazekage in history.

"Iron Sand World Method!"

Sasori made no probing move and directly unleashed his strongest killing technique. The Third Kazekage puppet's hands suddenly spread wide, and overwhelming black iron sand surged out from its body, instantly condensing in midair into countless sharp black spears that poured down madly at Yuan like a torrential rain!

Yuan neither dodged nor evaded. The red ribs of Susanoo instantly condensed over his body, blocking the first dense wave of piercing attacks.

"Clang, clang, clang!" Sparks from colliding metal flashed wildly across the desert.

But soon, Yuan sensed something was wrong. The iron sand that struck Susanoo was not knocked away like ordinary hidden weapons. Instead, it turned into extremely fine black powder and seeped in bit by bit through the tiny gaps in the flow of Susanoo's chakra, as if it were alive!

"Your iron sand... can penetrate my Susanoo?" Yuan frowned slightly, looking at the few wisps of black sand drifting before his eyes.

Sasori stood in the distance, chakra threads connected to his ten fingers, his tone filled with absolute coldness and pride. "My puppetry has long surpassed ordinary understanding. This iron sand is mixed with my specially made poison. Before my art, there's no such thing as your defense having no weakness!"

"No weakness?"

As if he had heard an utterly hilarious joke, Yuan suddenly lowered his head and laughed. His laughter grew louder and louder, finally turning into unrestrained, wild laughter.

"That's because you've never met me in your life!"

Yuan abruptly raised his head, and the Mangekyo Sharingan in his left eye erupted with an extreme radiance. "Extinguish!"

There was no need to defend against the iron sand at all. The instant his ocular jutsu activated, the Iron Sand World Method that had already seeped into Susanoo's interior, and was even spreading through the surrounding air, was forcibly erased on a conceptual level! The black iron sand was like snowflakes meeting high heat, vanishing into thin air without a trace.

"What?!" Shock finally appeared in Sasori's unchanging dead-fish eyes. The chakra threads he used for sensing had actually all been severed in an instant!

"Stop embarrassing yourself with scrap metal!"

Yuan roared, and Susanoo instantly swelled from its ribcage form into a semi-complete body. The red war god drew the giant chakra sword at its waist, carrying a storm that could destroy everything, and with one slash, it chopped the Third Kazekage puppet in midair into wooden splinters that filled the sky!

The Third Kazekage was done for.

Sasori's expression finally changed. He retreated two steps and tore open the clothes over his chest. It was a hollow cavity with no flesh or blood at all, only a core of flesh carved with the character "Sasori" beating inside.

He suddenly pulled a scroll from behind his back and slammed it hard onto the sand.

"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"

"Bang, bang, bang, bang—!"

Over a hundred clouds of white smoke exploded across the desert at the same time. One hundred elite puppets wearing red cloaks and wielding all kinds of poison-tempered weapons densely covered the entire dune. The chakra threads from Sasori's chest instantly split into over a hundred strands, connecting to every puppet.

This was a terrifying ultimate technique powerful enough to bring down a small nation.

"No matter how many there are, they're still just a bunch of soulless fakes!"

Yuan did not care about this Performance of a Hundred Puppets at all. Standing inside Susanoo's crystal, he suddenly brought his hands together.

"Flame-Lightning Chidori: Raging Sea of Fire!"

Black thunderstorms mixed with flames over a thousand degrees hot, spreading from Susanoo as the center and surging madly in all directions like a tsunami. The one hundred puppets had only charged halfway before they were instantly swallowed by this unreasonable, wide-range destructive strike!

The flames burned through the chakra threads, and the black lightning shattered the wooden joints. In the blink of an eye, the Performance of a Hundred Puppets had become a field of burning charcoal.

Within this sea of flames, Yuan's figure pierced through the thick smoke like a ghost and appeared directly before Sasori's true body. His right fist carried an airflow that tore through the air, smashing Sasori's hard puppet body without any suspense.

"Bang!"

Sasori's body flew apart in pieces. Only the core of flesh carved with the character "Sasori" remained, rolling down to the feet of a badly damaged female puppet and male puppet. They were the "father" and "mother" he had made when he was young.

Yuan withdrew his fist and looked at the still faintly beating core on the ground. The killing intent in his Mangekyo paused slightly. "You even turned your own body into a puppet... You really are a complete madman."

Sasori's core trembled faintly on the sand. Though his puppet eyes had shattered, in these final moments, the images flashing before his eyes were exceptionally clear.

He remembered when he was young, sitting at the entrance of the Hidden Sand Village every day, waiting for parents who would never return. He remembered the nights when, in search of warmth, he had made those two cold puppets and had them hold him. He pursued eternal art only because he was too afraid of losing.

"Father... Mother..." An extremely faint wave of consciousness came from Sasori's core. "I can finally... go find you. I don't have to... wait anymore..."

"Crack."

The core finally shattered completely, and its light dimmed.

Yuan fell silent in the wind and sand for a second, his windbreaker snapping behind him. He did not step forward to crush the two ruined parent puppets. He only said in a low voice, "You were... more human than I imagined."

[Ding! Killed S-rank rogue ninja, Sasori of the Red Sand! Obtained orange fragments ×50!]

[Unlocked enemy abilities: max-level mastery of puppetry, Magnet Release: Iron Sand!]

Yuan turned and did not look at the wreckage on the ground again.

However, just as he was about to leave, a sharp eagle cry suddenly came from high above. A giant white bird made of explosive clay was circling several hundred meters in the air. Standing on the bird's back, Deidara looked at the battlefield below, which had been burned into bare white ground, his golden hair whipping wildly in the wind, his eyes filled with disbelief and fury.

"Master Sasori was actually defeated? Damn Uchiha... You actually dare profane my art!" Deidara frantically shoved his hands into his clay bags to chew. "I'll show you what the ultimate art of an instant really is!"

And in the space behind the white bird, a pair of cold Rinnegan eyes were secretly watching Yuan's every move.