The moment Sasori of the Red Sand shed his black cloak embroidered with red clouds, Haruto, Yamato, and Temari all froze in place.
Aside from his face, every part of Sasori's body had been remade into a puppet. The sight carried a grotesque, indescribable eeriness.
"You… you turned yourself into a puppet?" Temari gasped, a chill running down her spine. Just seeing Sasori's human puppets had been enough to terrify her—but the fact that he would go so far as to mutilate himself surpassed anything she could have imagined.
"This," Sasori said, spreading his arms as if presenting a work of art, "is eternal art."
He basked in the horror painted across their faces, as though their fear validated his masterpiece. His obsession and genius for puppetry were unmatched, both in madness and brilliance.
Yet Sasori wasn't about to fight Haruto in this body. Their earlier exchange had made him realize something: despite being just a genin from Konoha, Senju Haruto's strength was on par with, if not greater than, most members of the Akatsuki.
Especially that jutsu he had unleashed—the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken. Even Sasori, who had scoured the world in search of rare materials for his puppets, had never witnessed a Wind Style of such destructive magnitude. If drawn into its range, no puppet, no matter how durable, could withstand it.
But rather than fear, this discovery excited him.
If he could one day extract the Nine-Tails from Haruto and turn him into a human puppet, the value would surpass any creation he had crafted before. A human puppet's greatest advantage lay in retaining all the ninjutsu the person had mastered in life, combined with unlimited chakra reserves.
And Haruto—Haruto was no ordinary shinobi.
With a flick of his finger, Sasori sent a chakra thread behind his back, yanking a scroll embedded within a mechanism on his spine. He pulled it free with a sharp tug and caught it in his hand.
"I once used this secret technique… to wipe an entire nation off the map!"
With a guttural shout, Sasori hurled the scroll overhead. In an instant, countless black shadows shot forth, blotting out the sky. Within mere breaths, puppets of every form and design—each hand-crafted by Sasori—hovered in midair, surrounding the battlefield.
He then split open the mechanism in his chest. From it erupted a storm of chakra threads, dozens upon dozens, snaking outward and latching onto every puppet at once.
Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!
"This… this can't be…" Temari's eyes bulged wide, and she fell to her knees in disbelief.
"What is it?" Yamato asked, though even he was shaken by the sight.
"I heard it from Kankurō once," Temari whispered, her voice trembling. "A puppeteer's strength is measured by how many puppets they can control. For Kankurō, two puppets at once is his limit. Even the Second Kazekage—who invented puppet techniques—could only manage ten at the peak of his power. But Sasori of the Red Sand… he's casually controlling over a hundred!"
She swallowed hard, the weight of the revelation crushing her. "This isn't even on the same level…"
"Don't blame me for relying on numbers," Sasori sneered, his expression twisted with dark pride. "After all, I am a puppeteer."
"I see," Haruto said with a nod, his tone calm, unfazed. He didn't treat Sasori's Performance of a Hundred Puppets as an insurmountable threat.
"So this… is your ultimate technique?" he asked casually, as though evaluating a mere demonstration.
To Haruto, Sasori's power wasn't nearly as overwhelming as it seemed. The supposed advantages of human puppets—unlimited chakra and access to all jutsu their former selves wielded—meant little against him. At the end of the day, Sasori's strength depended entirely on the puppets' capabilities. Even turning himself into a puppet hadn't given him any true leap in power.
And there was another problem: dividing his focus. To simultaneously command over a hundred puppets, Sasori couldn't possibly concentrate on each one with precision. Which meant he likely couldn't have them all perform jutsu at once.
More importantly…
"Third—and most critical," Haruto said evenly, his gaze unwavering, "because they're puppets, they lack self-awareness. They'll charge forward recklessly under your command. But without instincts to adapt and defend, they're fragile—easily destroyed."
Even as Sasori unveiled his grand secret art, Haruto remained calm, analyzing his opponent's weaknesses aloud.
Yamato found himself nodding, suddenly seeing Sasori as less intimidating than moments before.
"Even so…" Temari muttered, forcing herself to look up at Haruto. "Fighting against over a hundred puppets at once isn't something anyone can just handle…" She stared at him in awe. "Is this really the same boy who only recently stood beside me in the Chūnin Exams? Even when faced with this terrifying technique, he's… unshaken."
"Temari is right," Yamato agreed. "Finding the enemy's weakness is one thing. Exploiting it to secure victory—that's another matter entirely."
"Yeah."
Haruto clenched his right fist, raising his eyes to the army of puppets swarming above. "Now I understand why Yufan-aniki sent me to rescue Gaara. Sasori of the Red Sand… the weakness of your technique… is me."
He mimicked Yufan's voice with a grin, then slammed his hands together into a seal.
"What did you just say?" Sasori froze, unsettled by Haruto's absolute confidence.
But the next instant made his eyes widen in genuine shock.
The jutsu Haruto performed wasn't some hidden ace or advanced technique. No, it was the very first jutsu he had ever mastered—his specialty from the beginning.
Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the blink of an eye, thousands of Haruto clones burst into existence, carpeting the battlefield.
"My shadow clones seem to outnumber your puppets quite a bit," Haruto remarked with a relaxed smile. For him, two thousand physical clones were hardly a strain anymore—especially when each could draw upon a portion of the Nine-Tails' chakra.
"Unlike your puppets, which lack independent thought, each of my clones can strategize, adapt, and discover the most effective attack in battle."
He tilted his head, smirking. "But then again… you are an S-rank missing-nin, a member of the Akatsuki, and the man who killed the strongest Kazekage."
Without giving Sasori the chance to respond, Haruto gave a sharp hand signal. His clones surged forward as one, their chakra swelling in unison.
And then—
Every single clone formed a Rasengan. Not the standard size, but massive, devastating orbs.
Super Giant Rasengan Barrage!
Sasori's scalp prickled with dread as the wave of colossal, spinning spheres descended upon him.
This brat from Konoha… this so-called "genin"… was nothing short of terrifying.
...
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