"Heh, so this is what the Akatsuki is made of? Not much to brag about."
Just as Kankuro was gloating, a great mass of sand suddenly poured out of the Black Ant puppet's blood drain.
The sight of the sand immediately made Kankuro realize something was wrong.
"What?!"
Kankuro opened the Black Ant puppet at once.
What he saw next shocked him. Sasori, who had been trapped inside the puppet and stabbed multiple times, had turned into yellow sand.
"This is a Sand Clone!"
Although Sand Clone was a widely known ninjutsu in Sunagakure, that knowledge was confined to the village. How did this Akatsuki member know it?!
Considering that most members of the Akatsuki were rogue ninja, Kankuro already had a pretty good idea of the answer.
The man before him was most likely a rogue ninja from Sunagakure.
"Have you had enough fun? It's time to put an end to this childish game of make-believe."
Sasori silently appeared behind Kankuro and flicked his tail, stabbing straight toward his heart.
"Ibuse!"
Kankuro flicked the Chakra Threads in his hands, and the Ibuse puppet, which had remained at his side, immediately deployed his defenses.
Clang!
Sasori's tail struck the shield Ibuse had raised and instantly bounced off.
"Hahaha! Didn't see that coming, did you? Ibuse's defenses are invincible. Even a collision with a boulder weighing over ten tons wouldn't be a problem."
"Are you sure about that?"
Before Kankuro could laugh for long, Sasori's tail attacked again.
Whoosh!
Crack!
A shield flew high into the air. It was the Ibuse puppet's shield.
"No matter how sturdy a puppet is, the defenses around its moving joints are bound to be weaker than elsewhere. And that is its weakness."
By now, Kankuro's forehead was drenched in sweat.
"Boring. Let's end this here.