Watching En Oyashiro disperse the red-haired boy's Sand Clone with his Water Style: Water Hail, and seeing that finely crafted flintlock pistol clatter to the ground, Ren Uchiha trotted forward. He reached out, intent on picking up the exquisite weapon.
However, at that moment, the feedback from his [Mind's Eye] caused him to pause slightly.
The fellow who had just ambushed En Oyashiro was currently using Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole to sneakily creep up behind Ren. To anyone watching, it was clear this newcomer wasn't exactly a "straight shooter."
Ren merely curled his lips into a smirk, choosing to ignore the lurker entirely. He continued to reach down into the pile of sand and lift the elegant pistol. He marveled at the object in his hands, running his fingers over it—after all, it was a gun!
How rare was that?
In his past life, Ren had only seen these things in movies and TV shows. This was the first time he'd ever actually touched one, and of all places, it was in the shinobi world! He was as excited as a child, examining the intricate components: the sandalwood grip, the steel trigger, the flint cock, the frizzen, the dark barrel—he could even smell the lingering scent of sulfur from the shot fired moments ago.
He couldn't have been more thrilled!
Suddenly—
Swoosh!
The ground beside him split open! Sasori leaped out, only to find Ren holding the very pistol he had crafted, stroking it and marveling at it as if it were a priceless treasure.
For a split second, Sasori experienced a hallucination. In this blind, cloth-wrapped boy, he saw a shadow of his childhood playmate, Komushi—the boy who had once looked at his puppet arms with that same expression of awe.
Sasori's gaze darkened as unpleasant memories resurfaced.
Komushi had been Sasori's best friend. He had idolized Sasori as a village genius, following him everywhere and obsessed with the puppet limbs Sasori created. But Sasori's "sincerity" toward his friend was chilling. Through a staged accident, Sasori caused Komushi to lose an arm, only to replace it with the puppet limb the boy loved so much.
Later, when Komushi fell ill due to an infection from overusing the limb, Sasori performed "surgery" on him. To keep his friend forever—and to perfect his craft—Sasori got his wish.
He turned him into a Human Puppet.
To this day, the envy he'd felt as a child toward Komushi's healthy parents (after his own had died) had led to a demonic step. It achieved art, but it cost him his only friend. The solitary Sasori didn't feel regret, exactly, but he did feel a lingering sense of desolation.
Now, those surging emotions met reality. This brat was marveling at his creation just like Komushi once had. But Sasori was no longer that helpless child. He had long since realized the path of Eternity; he was accompanied by an art that would never die!
He didn't need such weak emotions!
Pulling out his twin pistols, his eyes filled with absolute coldness. He aimed them directly at the boy's head.
Then—Sasori twisted his lips into a smirk.
"Brat, times have changed!"
It was a line spoken to Ren, to the boy from his past, and perhaps a final note to his own wavering heart.
BANG! BANG!
Two violent gunshots exploded! These bullets were specialized armor-piercing rounds infused with Wind and Earth Style chakra. Within seven paces, they were unimaginably fast. Upon impact, they were designed to erupt into earth spikes from the inside out, turning the target into a human pincushion.
The boy's head should have been pierced by a wind blade first, then shattered like a dropped watermelon as the earth core exploded within.
However...
CLANG! CLANG!
White smoke billowed from the barrels, obscuring everything, but the sound that rang out was like metal striking steel! The two chakra bullets struck something in the white mist, sending a spray of sparks flying.
Then—
Whiz! Whiz!
The solidified earth spikes grazed Sasori's cheek, flying off into the distance in a parabolic arc.
Sasori froze. Suddenly, a brilliant light flared before him! It was a color like the sun, huge streaks of blazing fire coiling upward.
WHOOSH—!!
A violent storm of high-temperature heat rushed at him. The smoke from the gun barrels was compressed, shoved aside, and sucked away! A massive skeletal hand made of flowing fire bones burst through the mist, moving with a speed that broke the sound barrier.
It snatched Sasori in a crushing grip!
Sasori's pupils shrank. He saw it now—a massive, burning skeletal structure made of what looked like human ribs, surrounding the blind brat. His two bullets had hit the flaming bone cage right in front of the kid's forehead, leaving nothing but a tiny, shallow dent.
And that dent was already repairing itself at a visible speed!
Staring at this monstrous thing, Sasori murmured in a daze, "What... what is this...?"
Ren, still holding the pistol and completely unharmed within his Susanoo, turned around. He raised the gun, pointing the dark muzzle directly at the ambusher's forehead.
Observing the attacker through his [Mind's Eye], Ren noted the red hair and the looks that were only slightly inferior to his own. He immediately recognized the man—the one who killed the Third Kazekage, the legendary Sasori of the Red Sand!
He couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yo~ if it isn't Master Sasori?"
Hearing this, and seeing the boy pointing his own crafted weapon at his head, Sasori's world flipped upside down. In an instant, he had gone from predator to prisoner.
For some reason, as he snapped out of his daze, he glared at Ren with a sense of "breaking defense." He felt a stinging pain in his face, as if his own art had just slapped him across the mouth!
"You..."
"Take your filthy hands off my AR—!!"
Ren let out a laugh at Sasori's exasperated outburst.
BANG!
A shot rang out! Ren pulled the trigger without a moment's hesitation. Sasori, who had been about to curse, swallowed hard and instinctively cut his gaze toward the smoking barrel next to his ear.
Ren looked at the pistol excitedly, then glanced back at Sasori, who had suddenly become very quiet, suppressing his urge to swear.
"Yep, this thing really is useful!" Ren grinned. "However, I don't need a puppet master to make toys right now. I just need a submissive guide."
Beneath the black cloth, Ren's lids flickered. He suddenly snapped open his eyes—a pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan with a black cross-shaped cross!
Even through the cloth, he made "eye contact" with the trembling Sasori.
Genjutsu: Sharingan!
The technique launched instantly.
"Huh? Genjutsu! Where—"
Sasori's expression changed, but before he could understand what was happening, his mind felt as if it had been struck by a heavy club. His head lolled to the side as he lost consciousness.
Ren turned his head toward En Oyashiro, who was still fuming and grumbling about "despicable tactics" nearby.
"Old man," Ren laughed. "Look at that. A ready-made guide—didn't he just walk right up to us?"
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