"Get out of the way!"
Seeing the rapidly approaching, chilling light, Sakura tried to push Gyōja and Ying behind her, but to her shock, she pushed nothing but empty air.
She stumbled and lost her balance, unable to dodge the steel tail thrusting toward her. A gash instantly opened on her left waist, purple venom mixing with the gushing blood.
"Grandpa? The others... are gone!?"
Sakura's pale face twisted in confusion as she looked behind her. Gyōja and Ying, who should have been right there, had vanished without a trace.
"You!" She glared at the dust cloud ahead.
At the same time, a tingling weakness spread from the wound throughout her entire body.
"That tail is poisoned!"
As she shouted, green chakra from her Mystical Palm Technique flared to life on her hand, which she pressed against her side.
Whoosh!
The giant clay bird's flapping wings scattered the surrounding dust, revealing Deidara and Sasori—one tall, one short.
"What a loyal, righteous kid," a hoarse voice rasped from inside Hiruko's puppet mouth.
"It's a pity they were just bait to lure the prey. Now that the prey is here, the bait gets discarded."
"Bait?" Sakura's eyes widened. She quickly pieced it together. "Those black cloaks with red clouds... You're Akatsuki! The Tailed Beast hunters!"
"So your target was the Nine-Tails inside Naruto Uzumaki all along!"
Jiraiya had been closely monitoring Akatsuki intel since becoming Hokage. Even if he couldn't act personally, he'd dispatched countless Konoha shinobi to investigate. The intel was limited, but they knew Akatsuki was active and Jinchuriki were vanishing.
Jiraiya's trip to Sunagakure wasn't just for a ceremony. He intended to discuss the Tailed Beast hunt with acting Kazekage Chiyo.
"The Nine-Tails?" Sasori shook his head. "No, no, no. I have no interest in dying."
"Our target is just you, kid."
"Me?" Sakura's face filled with disbelief. As a civilian with no bloodline or grudges, how could she be the target of Akatsuki?
Seeing Sasori still chatting, Deidara impatiently cut in. "Lord Sasori, didn't you just tell me to finish this quickly? Why are you talking nonsense?"
"Fine. Let me show you my exquisite art."
As he spoke, two clay centipedes, several meters long, crawled from the mouths on Deidara's palms. In the blink of an eye, they coiled around Sakura.
She tried to pull away and run for Kakashi, but while Sasori was talking, the poison had already permeated her system. She was powerless, unable even to move her little finger.
"Idiot, I wasn't talking nonsense. I was stalling," Hiruko's puppet body shook its head. "Letting the poison spread means less noise when we take her. The others who left won't notice."
"You should learn to fight with your brain, Deidara."
Then it extended its steel tail to bind Sakura.
"Hmph! My explosive art can take everyone out instantly! No need for all this trouble, Sasori!"
The young Deidara defiantly made an explosion gesture, ignoring the old puppet's words.
But just as Hiruko's tail was about to wrap around Sakura, Yamato's voice rang out.
"Wood Release!"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several tree stumps burst through the soil, blocking the steel tail. Simultaneously, Kakashi appeared beside Sakura. With a swing of his kunai, the clay centipedes binding her shattered into pieces.
Deidara, momentarily stunned, reacted quickly. He formed an explosive seal. "Hah!"
The clay fragments on the ground glowed white and exploded.
BOOM!
The blast carved a massive crater into the earth, snapping a nearby tree stump in half. Kakashi, shielding the poisoned Sakura, took the brunt of it, half his body drenched in blood.
"Kakashi-sensei!"
"Yamato-senpai!"
Two shouts rang out. Yamato stepped in front of Kakashi, kunai drawn.
"I'm fine. Just a bit slow," Kakashi waved her off, eyes fixed on Sasori and Deidara. "We thought your target was Naruto Uzumaki, so we played along, letting him walk ahead. We followed him until you showed."
"But we didn't expect the target to be Sakura. Care to explain why?"
Kakashi had only gone along with the plan, walking a bit further with Yamato before slipping back using Earth Release. He tailed the tricked Naruto Uzumaki, thinking he was the target. Only a slight tremor in the ground alerted him that something was wrong.
He never expected the enemy's target to be Sakura, who wasn't even a shinobi.
Sasori ignored the question. He tossed aside his outer cloak and stepped out from behind Hiruko through a hatch. "Copy Ninja Kakashi. A Wood Release user."
"I wonder if your Wood Release is stronger than that Impure World Reincarnation puppet's. Let's see if you can destroy my new 100-puppet army!"
With that, Sasori slammed his hand onto the ground.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
In an instant, countless coffins erupted from the earth around them. The lids flew open, and one Impure World Reincarnation puppet after another emerged.
Sasori opened the right side of his own puppet chest. Countless chakra threads extended out, connecting to nearly one hundred of the undead puppets.
"Impure World Reincarnation!"
Kakashi and Yamato stared in disbelief.
A forced smile twisted Sasori's puppet face. This was a flawed version of Impure World Reincarnation provided by Menma—nothing like Orochimaru's perfected version. After a year of research, Sasori had developed his own method.
Orochimaru required a living sacrifice. Sasori's version used puppets as sacrifices.
Orochimaru used a cursed seal to suppress and control the mind of the impure subject. Sasori, on the other hand, needed to connect directly to the target with his own chakra threads, manipulating the undead like puppets.
"It seems you know these faces," Sasori said coldly. "Then come witness my eternal art... the immortal puppet!"
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