Sunagakure had fewer story characters than Konoha, and the ones Yubi could currently come into contact with were also very limited.
Some of Sunagakure's story characters had not even been born yet... He had never expected that treating story characters would grant bonus experience.
If treating them gives bonus positive experience, does that mean killing story characters can also earn me large amounts of negative experience? A thought arose in Yubi's mind.
However, he did not dwell on it, because other wounded people were still waiting for his treatment.
Sasori's injury had given him a further understanding of the system's capabilities.
Time ticked by.
Soon, the unconscious Sasori woke up.
He glanced at his bandaged wound, then looked toward Yubi, who was walking over.
Suddenly, he said, "The human body really is fragile..."
Those words made Yubi's heart skip a beat.
It was no wonder Sasori would say something like that. They were in the midst of the Second Shinobi World War, and the confrontations between the major hidden villages were rapidly depleting their ranks of shinobi. Those on the battlefield, in particular, could witness one comrade after another dying with their own eyes.
Sasori turned his own body into a puppet later on... Perhaps this was part of what influenced him, but more than anything, it was probably because of his parents.
Yubi thought this to himself, but smiled as he said, "You've only exhausted your chakra. Your injuries aren't serious. Get some proper rest... You're our village's genius. If anything happened to you, I wouldn't be able to answer to Granny Chiyo."
"Are we about to lose this position?"
Sasori changed the subject.
By then, it was already well past midnight on the second day.
Apart from the Sunagakure shinobi whose injuries were too severe for them to move, there were... very few people left in the underground chamber.
"We can hold out for another two hours at most. If reinforcements still haven't arrived by then, we'll have to find a way to relocate." Yubi's expression also grew somewhat grave.
Among the Sunagakure forces fighting in the canyon now, almost everyone was fighting wounded. They could not hold out much longer.
And Yubi and the others sheltering in the stronghold faced another difficult problem.
If the intelligence personnel came back and told them to retreat...
With so many patients in the chamber, the few of them probably would not be able to take everyone away.
That meant they would have to abandon some of their comrades.
Such was the cruelty of war, chilling people to the bone.
"What are you doing?"
Sasori slowly stood up, putting on his forehead protector as he did.
Yubi's expression shifted slightly, and he immediately stepped in front of him.
He could see that Sasori wanted to join the fighting again.
"Move."
Sasori stared at Yubi indifferently.
"You're my patient right now. As your doctor, it's only natural that I take responsibility for your condition... I'm sorry, but you need to rest now. You can't just move around as you please," Yubi said.
Whoosh.
Sasori moved his arm, and a puppet scroll was already clenched in his palm.
"After all this fighting, you should have very few puppets left..." Yubi glanced at the scroll and smiled. "Even if you joined the battlefield, you wouldn't change the current situation at all... You'd just be going to your death."
"Puppets aren't the only things my Puppet Technique can control."
Sasori said softly, "If I wanted, you could become my toy too."
"You like me that much?"
As though he had not noticed the hostility in Sasori's cold expression, Yubi curled his lips, revealing a row of small white teeth.
He knew Sasori was not lying. Sunagakure had many puppeteers, but Sasori was the only one who could truly create Human Puppets... His Puppet Technique could control corpses, and he could also create a Chakra Core, allowing Human Puppets to cast some of the ninjutsu they had used in life.
Although Sasori's mastery of Human Puppets had not yet reached such heights, the first signs were already there.
Over these two days of fighting, Yubi had also noticed that Sasori had begun deliberately gathering and studying certain "collectibles."
Yubi's shameless words made Sasori frown slightly.
For the first time, he realized just how thick-skinned this fellow was.
"I'll say it one more time. Move."
Sasori spoke.
"No."
Yubi smiled.
Bang!
A cloud of white smoke erupted from the scroll, and a snake puppet landed silently on the ground.
At the same time, Sasori's fingers began to move.
He was clearly about to attack Yubi.
Whoosh!
Under Sasori's control, the snake puppet streaked through the air like a ribbon, lunging at Yubi with its jaws.
But Yubi reacted remarkably quickly as well. Not only did he bend down to dodge it, he took advantage of the moment when the puppet was airborne to dart forward, rushing up to Sasori in an attempt to attack at close range.
Most puppeteers shared the weakness of being vulnerable at close range.
Sasori clearly did not fall into that category.
Faced with Yubi's approach, Sasori remained expressionless. The snake puppet in midair suddenly split into two sections.
In the blink of an eye, the puppet's lower half transformed and reassembled into a neck shackle, flying behind Yubi's head and locking precisely around his neck.
As the shackle tightened, Yubi immediately felt himself unable to breathe.
The pulling force of the Chakra Threads also hurled him several meters away.
Clearly, Sasori did not intend to kill Yubi. He only wanted to teach him a lesson.
But just as Sasori took a step, preparing to leave...
His eyelid suddenly twitched.
He raised his hand and saw that the Chakra Threads at his fingertips had been severed. The other half of his puppet had also fallen to the ground.
At the same time, Yubi, a short distance away, reached up and seized the shackle around his neck. With a forceful tug, he pulled the restraint off and tossed it to the ground.
It was only a feint... His real aim was to cut my Chakra Threads.
Sasori narrowed his eyes, staring at Yubi, who had countered his move.
"Chakra Scalpel..."
Sasori recognized the chakra dissipating from Yubi's hands.
He actually knows that ninjutsu?!
"Puppeteers are Sunagakure's proudest fighting force... Outsiders aside, as someone from the village, of course I know a lot about puppeteers. Besides... I've spent plenty of time watching you these past two days, just as you've been secretly watching me."
"Of course, if you were in good shape, I certainly wouldn't be a match for you. But right now... things are different."
Yubi rolled his neck, still smiling as he looked at the silent Sasori. "Your wound is on the left side of your abdomen, and it affected the nerves along your ribs. The pain there is far from ordinary. Those nerves will throw off any movement of your arm. You've been keeping it under control, but you can't hide it from my eyes."
"Just like you, I haven't rested at all. Honestly, I'm in terrible shape myself... But even so, you can't even handle me like this, and you still want to go out there and die?"
"If that's how it is, do as you please."
"All I can do is express my regret to Granny Chiyo."
"And my... deep disappointment in you."
When he said that last sentence, Yubi's smile vanished, his gaze calm.
Seeing this, everyone else in the chamber remained silent as well.
The two boys before them were both young and looked like little kids... But Yubi had already established his "standing" within the stronghold as the medical team's captain.
As for Sasori, that went without saying. Not only was he a genius in whom the village placed great hopes, he was also a member of Chiyo's family... As long as the conflict between these two did not deteriorate too seriously, it was difficult for anyone else to intervene.
After they stared at one another for a while, just as the atmosphere grew somewhat oppressive, Sasori turned away on his own and sat back down where he had been.