Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru had both suffered severe injuries and lay on the ground, groaning in pain.
With only half his body remaining, Sakon watched it all mockingly.
He kept taunting and cursing them.
Yet neither Kiba Inuzuka nor Akamaru responded at all.
One could imagine the pain they were enduring.
Once Sakon had had his fill of taunting, he raised the single hand on his remaining half-body.
He rapidly formed a complex series of one-handed seals.
The other half of Sakon's body rapidly formed like foam and took shape.
Half a terrifying demonic face and half a body with skin as white as plaster fused with his other half, the division between them starkly clear.
The arm on the pale side was extraordinarily thick, and its hand had turned directly into a massive claw.
A chilling light flashed in Sakon's lone eye.
He roared:
"Die!"
Raising his massive claw, he lunged at Kiba Inuzuka, who could no longer resist.
The enormous claw traced a deathly white "crescent."
Thump!
The massive claw slammed down, but it did not strike Kiba Inuzuka himself.
A raggedly dressed puppet appeared directly above Kiba Inuzuka's head.
Using only its "arms," the puppet actually caught Sakon's claw strike.
Its torso, floating in midair, merely swayed a few times without being knocked away.
"Who?"
Sakon looked warily toward one side of the battlefield.
A mysterious ninja wearing a hood, with strange markings on his face and an enormous scroll on his back, had quietly appeared at the edge of the battlefield.
His five fingers moved in succession, and the puppet floating in midair spread its "arms" and reached to embrace Sakon.
"Kankuro of Sunagakure."
The mysterious ninja introduced himself.
His hands kept moving, making the puppet floating in midair exceptionally nimble.
Sakon paid no attention whatsoever