Chapter 114: The Puppet Named Sasori
Although Nan intended to make the puppet look "beautiful," he didn't restore the Third Kazekage to his former appearance.
Instead, he remade the puppet into Sasori's likeness.
For one, Nan had never truly known what the Third Kazekage looked like in life—he couldn't guarantee an accurate restoration. But Sasori's face, he had seen with his own eyes, and with his Mangekyō Sharingan he could even transform into him perfectly.
So, standing before a mirror, Nan carefully reshaped the Kazekage puppet until it looked identical to Sasori.
There was another reason. One day, Nan might need to act under the guise of Sasori. Having a puppet double would save him the trouble of splitting his forces or exposing himself when Sasori and "Nan" needed to appear in different places at the same time.
After slotting the Regeneration Core into the puppet's chest, chakra threads sprouted from it—some entwined around the puppet's original chakra core, ensuring that the Kazekage's techniques could still be accessed, while others stretched across the puppet's body to reanimate its long-dead sensory organs and motor functions.
The puppet's dull, lifeless eyes suddenly flickered to life. They still carried a cold, assassin's emptiness, but there was now a faint glimmer—something closer to the eyes of the living.
Without external control, the puppet rose to its feet.
It now stood like Sasori, only taller—since the Kazekage's body had been larger. But this wasn't an issue. After Nan's Yang Illusion had healed Sasori's true body, even his stature had grown, making Nan's own transformations into Sasori match this puppet's proportions.
In the original timeline, Sasori had foolishly left his most vital Regeneration Core partially exposed outside his body—likely to simplify controlling vast numbers of puppets at once, but leaving himself with a glaring weakness.
Nan had no such flaw. His Regeneration Core was buried deep inside the Kazekage puppet, reinforced with layers of hardened shell.
The core was large—much larger than Sasori's—so Nan had installed it vertically, rearranging even the original chakra core's position to make room. This made external access impractical, but that was precisely the point.
More importantly, Nan realized something Sasori never had: he didn't need chakra threads at all.
Why rely on fragile strings when he had the Magnet Release?
Perhaps no Suna shinobi had ever considered it—Magnet Release was rare, and puppeteers were rarer still. But Nan remembered Shinki, Gaara's adoptive son in Boruto's era, who controlled puppets with magnetic power.
Now, Nan possessed both Sasori's puppet expertise and the Kazekage's Magnet Release. It was time to innovate.
He finished modifying the Kazekage puppet and could barely wait to test it. Using Flying Thunder God, he transported himself and the puppet to the barren cliffs of Kikyo Mountain—one of the battlefields where he had previously marked several seals.
The war had long since ended, and the area had been cleared. It was remote, deserted, and perfect for experimentation.
Controlling the puppet through the Regeneration Core felt similar to how Sasori had operated Hiruko. With Sasori's memories as guidance, Nan had no trouble adjusting. He even unsealed a smaller puppet from a scroll, practicing with it.
When Sasori had fought him, the Kazekage puppet's supply of iron sand had nearly been exhausted. After Sasori's defeat, the rest had scattered uselessly across the battlefield, and Nan hadn't recovered it. Fresh supplies of iron sand were scarce and difficult to acquire.
Fortunately, a small reserve still lingered inside the puppet—enough for testing.
Nan infused chakra into the iron sand and directed it to coat the puppet's joints and mechanisms. Slowly, under the pull of magnetic force, the puppet began to move.
Its gait was stiff, jerky—his first time blending Magnet Release with puppet control. But it worked.
The Kazekage's Magnet Release could indeed control a puppet.
Sasori had never attempted it, perhaps because his ten fingers were already occupied with traditional chakra threads, leaving him unable to apply the finesse Magnet Release required. At best, he had relied on broad commands—channeling the Kazekage puppet's chakra to reproduce certain jutsu.
But Nan's approach was different. With magnetic precision, he could potentially surpass Sasori himself.
Perhaps Sasori had never even considered using Magnet Release to control his puppets.
But Nan had—thanks to his knowledge of Boruto, where he had seen this possibility realized.
And unlike Sasori, Nan could also use the dense web of chakra threads from his Regeneration Core to link more intimately with the puppet's chakra core, giving it far finer control—almost restoring the fluidity of its living state.
At first, the movements were stiff. But as Nan adjusted, Sasori's vast reservoir of combat experience in his mind guided him. The puppet grew more natural with every motion.
Soon, Nan began testing the hidden mechanisms built into the body—poisoned blades, projectile traps, seals. With each attempt, his control smoothed out.
Once confident, he expanded the scope.
One puppet. Two. Three. Ten.
In no time, he matched Sasori's peak—ten puppets moving at once. And unlike Sasori, Nan felt he still had more room to push.
The only limitation wasn't his control, but the lack of reference experience. Sasori himself had never controlled more than ten puppets simultaneously with true precision. Without that precedent, Nan's execution began to falter when he went further. The more puppets he added, the less refined each one became.
But he knew this was a temporary ceiling. Sasori had been limited by his ten fingers. Nan had no such restriction. With practice, he was certain he could break past Sasori's limit—and perhaps even reach the legendary Hundred Puppet Performance in far less time than Sasori had ever dreamed.
After a while, however, Nan noticed a problem. The iron sand he controlled began to fluctuate. The puppets staggered, one by one collapsing.
Checking the Regeneration Core, he quickly realized the issue: its chakra production couldn't keep up. Even a brief exercise with ten puppets—not even a real battle—had already drained it.
This wasn't unexpected. He had known from the start that a core made from a portion of his tree clone would lack stamina.
Nan thought for a moment, then tried something new: channeling his own chakra into the Regeneration Core's Yin Seal.
To his surprise, it worked instantly. The sealing formula inscribed on the Regeneration Core accepted his chakra as though it were its own.
Normally, this would have been impossible. A ninja's chakra was unique, and forcing another's chakra into the body disrupted its natural flow—rejected like an immune system casting out a foreign substance.
But the Regeneration Core wasn't "other." It was made from a piece of Nan's tree clone—part of himself. It already carried his will, and the resonance between them allowed his chakra to flow in seamlessly.
Nan poured in half his reserves before stopping. Then, releasing the Yin Seal, he felt his chakra saturate the Regeneration Core, flooding into the puppet's chakra core.
Magnetic force surged.
The iron sand responded with vigor.
The fallen puppets rose again, sharper and faster than before. Their movements now carried the raw acceleration of Magnet Release fully powered, far smoother than when Sasori had commanded them with mere threads.
Nan watched them dance across the battlefield of Kikyo Mountain and nodded in satisfaction.
The endurance flaw of the Puppet Sasori had been solved.
Whenever the core ran low, he could simply summon it back and "recharge" it with his own chakra, vastly extending its operational capacity.
The Puppet Sasori was no longer just a tool—it was an extension of Nan himself.