Daytime Tiger Unleashed! Shattering the Hundred Puppet Performance!

The outer shell of Hiruko shattered completely.

The person who came out of there was not an old man.

He was a teenager.

Short red hair.

Her face is exquisite.

He was wearing a black robe with red clouds from the Akatsuki, but the chest, abdomen, joints, etc. exposed beneath the robe were all mechanical structures.

A wooden ball joint.

The core container is made of metal.

On the left side of the chest, a cylindrical container engraved with the character "scorpion" emitted a faint, dark red light.

That was the only part of him that was alive.

Sasori of the Red Sands.

Ontology.

A monster that has transformed itself into a puppet, forever frozen in the form of a boy.

"Hidden Leaf brat."

Scorpion's voice was no longer hoarse.

The boy's clean, emotionless voice was even more chilling than when he was hidden inside Hiruko.

Don't get too cocky.

His ten fingers were slightly spread apart.

From the wide sleeves of his robe, extremely fine Chakra Threads shot out and connected to his back.

A huge scroll.

"Let me see it."

Scorpion tore open the scroll's seal with one hand.

"The power to conquer a country."

"Red Secret Technique-- "

"Hundred Puppet Performance."

The smoke exploded.

Not ten.

Not twenty.

Hundreds of them.

The red-clad puppets poured out of the scroll like an overturned anthill.

Each one was draped in a dark red cloak, and held either a knife, a gun, or a tube-shaped poison sprayer.

A purplish-black liquid seeped from their joints—a potent poison that covered every inch of their wooden surface.

One hundred puppets took off simultaneously.

It blotted out the sky and blocked out the sun.

Literally, meaning to cover the sky and block out the sun.

The rising sun was completely blocked.

A shadow fell over the entire Gobi Desert.

One hundred Chakra Threads extended from Sasori's ten fingers, splitting into even more branches, precisely controlling every joint of each puppet.

This is the name of Sasori of the Red Sands.

These hundred puppets were once used to breach the defenses of a country.

Scorpion lowered his eyes, looking down at the blond boy standing on the ground.

"Run away."

He said, "I'll give you three seconds."

Naruto stood still.

He looked up at the countless red puppets in the sky.

A shadow fell on his face.

There was a two-second silence.

Then--

"Puff."

He smiled.

This is not sarcasm.

It wasn't a sneer.

It's the kind of genuine, uncontrollable laughter that comes from seeing something funny.

"No matter how much scrap metal there is..."

He lowered his head.

I twisted my neck.

"Click."

A crisp cracking sound came from the cervical spine.

"It's just a pile of garbage."

Scorpion's gaze remained unchanged.

The puppet body no longer possesses the ability to generate emotional fluctuations.

But his fingers moved.

One hundred puppets pressed down simultaneously.

"Then--"

"Try."

Naruto didn't look up at the sky.

He closed his eyes.

Arms hanging down at the sides.

Relax your shoulders.

His entire posture resembled a final warm-up before a match.

Then--

"Eight Gates"

The sound was very soft.

Scorpion's fingers paused for a moment.

"The Seventh Gate."

The air has changed.

It's not Chakra fluctuation.

It wasn't a release of murderous intent.

It is a more primal, more fundamental change—a change at the physical level.

Ring-shaped cracks began to spread outwards from the sand beneath Naruto's feet.

"The Gate of Wonder-- "

His skin changed color.

It's not green.

Not red

It's deep blue.

The extremely accelerated blood flow inside the Sage Body dyed the surface of his skin an almost indigo color.

All the pores are open.

What's spraying from every pore isn't sweat.

It's blue steam.

High-temperature, high-pressure Chakra vapor.

"--open!"

Boom----!

Blue steam burst forth from Naruto's body, forming a continuously expanding spherical airwave centered on him.

The ground is sunken.

The shrapnel flew in all directions.

The air itself emitted a piercing shriek—the mournful cry of atmospheric molecules being torn apart by extreme pressure.

The light is distorted.

The space within thirty meters of Naruto seemed to be crumpled by an invisible hand.

All visual information is distorted.

Heat wave.

Refraction of light.

There was also the terrifying body temperature emanating from him, enough to ignite the air.

The scorpion's pupil—no, it was the optical sensor on the puppet's body responsible for visual input—captured a piece of data.

Danger.

The ultimate, unquantifiable, and beyond all database records—danger.

He did not hesitate.

One hundred puppets all swooped down.

It poured down from the sky like a dark red rainstorm.

The glint of a blade.

Gunfire.

Poisonous fog.

In all directions.

Complete coverage.

It moved so fast that the average person could only see a blurry red blur.

Naruto opened his eyes.

Blue -- no.

His eyes changed at that moment.

The pupil disappeared.

The entire eyeball emitted a transparent, ice-blue light.

They resemble two burning blue stars.

He slowly raised his hands.

Palms facing each other.

Interlocking fingers.

Blue steam surged wildly between his hands.

The air is compressed.

Compress it again.

Compress it again.

Compressed to the extreme--

Until the air trapped between his palms became so dense that it began to refract white light.

The puppet swarm was still thirty meters away from Naruto.

Twenty meters.

Ten meters.

Five--

"Monster Strength-- "

Naruto thrust his hands forcefully into the sky.

"Daytime Tiger!!"

A burst of white light.

It's not an energy wave.

It wasn't Chakra impact.

It's air.

Pure air, compressed to its limit and then released in an instant.

The moment it shot out from between Naruto's palms, it left an imprint on everyone's retinas.

Tiger.

A colossal white tiger, so large it seemed to swallow the entire sky, unleashed a torrent of high-pressure air capable of tearing apart anything, its jaws wide open—

Roar.

There was no sound.

Or to put it another way—sound travels slower than light.

The moment the white tiger's jaws swallowed the first red-clad puppet, that intricately crafted puppet, which had existed for decades, did not shatter.

There was no explosion.

It was simply flattened by air pressure.

The sawdust hadn't even been produced yet.

The metal parts didn't even have time to scatter.

Disintegration at the molecular level.

The second one.

The third one.

The tenth body.

The thirtieth body.

The fiftieth.

The white giant tiger did not shrink in size.

It is still expanding.

It's still devouring.

Still roaring.

The scorpion's ten fingers hung in mid-air.

One by one, the Chakra Threads broke.

It wasn't cut off.

The other end of the connection no longer exists.

Seventy bodies.

Eighty pieces.

Ninety bodies.

One hundred.

A white tiger silhouette pierced the sky, sweeping across the Gobi Desert with indescribable shockwaves, carving a furrow hundreds of meters long into the ground.

The distant sand dunes collapsed one after another like dominoes.

Then—silence returned.

Sky.

It's empty.

The morning sun shone down again.

Golden light shone unhindered across the Gobi Desert.

One hundred puppets.

Not a single one remained.

Not even a fragment remained.

The scorpion stood still.

His hands remained in the controlling posture.

Spread your ten fingers.

The remaining ends of the Chakra Threads trembled slightly at his fingertips.

He looked down at his empty hands.

I looked up again at the empty sky.

"..."

Naruto withdrew his hands.

Blue steam was still emanating from him, but it was slowly dissipating.

The dark blue skin is gradually returning to its normal color.

He turned his head and looked at Scorpion.

That look in her eyes.

Lazy.

Scattered.

With a sense of "Oh, you're done playing?"

Casual.

You said—your art is eternal?

Naruto grinned.

"It didn't even last a second."

The scorpion remained silent.

He looked down at the core container on his chest, which was engraved with the character "scorpion".

The dark red light inside flickered slightly.

That was his last and only weakness.

"... interesting."

Scorpion's voice was very soft.

There was no fear.

There was no anger.

There was not even despair.

There was only a strange... calm.

Your body.

He looked up at Naruto, "More perfect than any material I've ever seen."

Naruto's smile remained unchanged.

But he did not continue the attack.

Because his senses detected a signal.

Behind me.

On that sandy area thirty meters away.

Inside Gaara's unconscious body, the One-Tail Chakra was visibly draining away.

Like an hourglass.

One by one... they disappeared.

Naruto's smile vanished.

He turned around, took a few steps to Gaara's side, knelt on one knee, and placed his palm on Gaara's chest.

The Sage Body's senses instantly deepened.

Meridians.

Chakra circuits.

Seal.

Everything is falling apart.

"... Hold."

Naruto frowned.

The One-Tail Chakra did not dissipate naturally.

It was extracted remotely using some kind of technique.

Someone elsewhere is using Sealing Jutsu to continuously absorb One-Tail Chakra of Shukaku.

If he finishes drawing Gaara will die.

Naruto looked up.

Their gaze drifted further northwest.

"... It's too late."

He stood up, his voice lowering.

Behind him, Scorpion spoke softly.

"You want to save him?"

Naruto didn't turn around.

"Then you'd better hurry."

Sasori's voice carried a certain profound calmness, "Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals —after extracting the Tailed Beast Chakra, there are approximately... forty minutes left."