Chapter 110 – Devouring the Red Sand, Sasori
Nan closed the distance in an instant. Sasori had no time to dodge. With a thunderous impact, Nan's fist smashed him off the back of the Third Kazekage puppet.
As his body plummeted, Sasori's mind reeled in shock.
"What kind of terrifying teleportation is this? Could it be… another ability of the Mangekyō Sharingan?!"
At this time, Namikaze Minato's name had yet to spread across the shinobi world. The Flying Thunder God Technique was not widely known. Sasori naturally mistook it for a Mangekyō ability.
With a heavy crash, Sasori slammed into the earth, carving a crater into the ground.
Nan followed with precision—hurling a shuriken that pinned Sasori's arm, the blade marked with his Flying Thunder God seal. In the blink of an eye, Nan warped back to the ground beside him.
Though Susanoo could fly, it required the perfect form—something only Eternal Mangekyō could sustain. And a colossal airborne Susanoo would draw too much attention, an obvious beacon. Far safer to rely on the Flying Thunder God, hidden in the guise of ordinary shuriken throws. No one would suspect Uchiha Han wielded such a technique.
Groaning, Sasori pushed himself upright with his uninjured hand. His body was broken in several places, every breath a ragged gasp.
Another thud—the uncontrolled Kazekage puppet plummeted, slamming into the earth.
"You… what ninjutsu was that? I've never seen such speed. Is it truly another power of your Mangekyō Sharingan?" Sasori's voice was weak, trembling with disbelief.
Nan raised a brow, hand tightening around another shuriken. "Think whatever you like. You won't be alive long enough for it to matter."
He aimed the weapon at Sasori's throat, prepared to end it.
But in that final instant, Sasori summoned one last reserve of strength. His remaining arm twisted open, revealing a hidden mechanism—a black barrel jutting out like the muzzle of a gun.
"Fire Release: Hell Inferno Barrage!"
A torrent of searing flames erupted from his arm, surging toward Nan.
But Nan had already anticipated it. His eyes flared with lightning—white arcs dancing across his vision—as Susanoo surged forth once more, shielding him.
Even so, the flames' heat was brutal, the very air around him boiling. Nan's expression hardened.
So it's true… he's already begun to turn himself into a puppet.
He recalled the words of the older Sasori: "It's been nearly twenty years since I used the full measure of my puppet body." Yet other records placed his transformation around ten years earlier. That meant the man before him was only partially altered, pieces of his human body already replaced, but not yet fully reborn as a puppet.
That was exactly what Nan had wanted to confirm. His feigned killing strike had forced Sasori to reveal his final card.
Clapping lightly, Nan's voice carried a trace of genuine admiration.
"Impressive. To not only craft puppets but to remake your own body… You truly live up to the title of the Sand's greatest puppet master. Boldness like yours is rare. Half a madman, half a true artist."
Even though Nan had long known Sasori would one day turn himself entirely into a puppet, seeing it here—real, tangible—was still shocking.
But Sasori's counterattack had failed. His eyes dimmed with despair, his voice tinged with regret.
"The human body… is too fragile. My injuries slowed me—that's why you escaped. If I had remade myself fully into a puppet, the outcome might have been different."
Nan's face betrayed no pity. He gestured, summoning the two clones he had prepared earlier—one of Yin, one of Yang.
The Yin clone drifted forward, slipping unnoticed into Sasori's broken body.
The puppet master's gaze went glassy, his limbs falling limp. His mind and body were no longer his own.
That was the true terror of his Mangekyō's Yin-Yang Release: Phantom Body Technique specifically the Tin Clone here. Against a weakened opponent like Sasori, it was child's play to seize control.
Once Nan confirmed Sasori was fully under his thrall, he prepared to begin the absorption. But first, there was one more step—he needed to assess exactly how much of Sasori's body had already been modified.
Chakra resided in every living cell. The more of Sasori's human body that had been replaced, the less chakra would remain to harvest. The Formless Reincarnation might deem puppet parts as worthless husks and discard them. That could impact the results of absorption.
Drawing upon his extensive medical ninjutsu expertise, Nan carefully examined Sasori's altered form. After a meticulous inspection, he finally let out a quiet breath of relief.
Fortunately, Sasori's modifications were still limited—only his arms had been converted into flamethrowers. A few non-essential organs and sections of his intestines had been removed, replaced with poisoned steel wires and hidden spiral blades.
Those weapons were meaningless against Nan's Susanoo, and Sasori hadn't even had the chance to use them.
With calm precision, Nan applied hemostatic techniques while removing every last piece of weaponry embedded in Sasori's body. What remained was a corpse riddled with holes, a shell barely holding together.
Now came the most crucial step.
Nan summoned the power of his Yang Phantom Clone—the ability to restore any injury, even regenerate missing organs and limbs. If he could reconstruct Sasori's body to wholeness, the upcoming absorption would yield the best possible results.
Of course, regenerating so much tissue at once would accelerate Sasori's cellular division. That meant his body would effectively "age" in an instant. But Sasori was still young—barely eighteen or nineteen. Even if the regeneration cost him six or seven years of life, his body would only advance to the prime state of a twenty-five-year-old. Strong, balanced, and perfectly suitable for Nan's purposes.
This would not diminish the quality of what Nan intended to absorb.
For the first time, Nan tested this advanced function of the Yang Phantom. He directed the clone forward. Unlike the Yin Phantom, which fused silently into the target's mind, the Yang Phantom enveloped Sasori's ruined body.
Brilliant white light burst forth, expanding into the outline of a complete human form. Flesh and bone regenerated rapidly, knitting together along the path of that light.
The process was agonizing. Even under the Yin Phantom's control, Sasori's expression twisted with pain, his face contorting as if he might break free of hypnosis.
Nan immediately surged more Mangekyō power into his eyes, reinforcing the illusion and forcing Sasori back into submission.
The regeneration was swift. Within moments, the light dimmed, and Sasori lay before him whole again—his body flawless, as if newly forged.
At the same time, Nan felt a shift within his Mangekyō Sharingan. A current of chakra returned to him—the exhausted Yang Phantom dissipating, its essence sealed back into his eye. To summon it again would demand a significant expenditure of chakra.
Still, the results exceeded his expectations. Sasori's vitality was restored, his chakra stabilized, his body seemingly in peak condition.
Nan's eyes narrowed, Mangekyō spinning as he shifted to its true pattern.
"Formless Reincarnation: Absorption."
The familiar vortex unfurled, swirling into existence. Slowly, inexorably, Sasori's body began to disintegrate, his form unraveling into fragments of light and chakra. Bit by bit, he was drawn into the spiral—devoured by Nan's power.
The Red Sand would become his strength.