The Puppeteer's Art, Red and White Secret Techniques

A crisp cracking sound rang out as a fissure rapidly spread from a single point, shattering Hiruko, the shell Sasori had used to conceal his true appearance.

Sasori burst out of Hiruko, evading the combined attack of several puppets. He looked at the short puppet burrowing through the ground like a pangolin, then turned his gaze toward Chikamatsu Ten Guards. Sure enough, there were not ten, but eleven.

"Granny, your tricks are truly filthy. You actually disguised an ordinary puppet as one of the Chikamatsu Ten Guards just to fool my eyes."

"You... Sasori, your body... How is this possible? You turned yourself into a Human Puppet!!!"

Looking at the red-haired youth who appeared to be fifteen or sixteen, Chiyo felt as though she had returned to the past—to the time when she had watched her son become a ninja and fight for the village. Yet he had died on the battlefield. Back then, her son had been just as handsome.

Sasori said calmly, "I merely pursued my art. Unfortunately, you could never understand it."

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

Sasori opened the mechanism in his chest, revealing his core. Then, he connected the hundred red-clad puppets he had summoned from a scroll with chakra threads, allowing him to control all one hundred puppets at once.

Unlike ordinary puppeteers, Sasori used his Human Puppet core to control his puppets. With merely a thought, he could make them perform any movement or attack he desired.

"White Secret Manual! Puppet Technique: Binding!"

Chiyo immediately launched her attack. She controlled one puppet with a blue mask, opened its mechanism, and drew out two thick iron chains, swinging them toward the hundred puppets charging in.

But one puppet alone could never defeat a hundred puppets, so all eleven puppets moved in