The entire Ryūchi cave was blown sky-high. Amid the rain of shattered rock, Uchiha Rokuro, Sasuke, and Neji retreated at full speed. Naruto, however, was too close to the blast and was instantly caught in the explosion's shockwave.
"Where's that puppet master? Where is he hiding?"
Sasuke activated his Sharingan, scanning through the thick smoke. At that moment, Neji spoke up.
"There's another puppet inside that outer shell. Its chest contains an extremely concentrated chakra reaction—but I don't see a human body."
"What? Even you can't find him?" Sasuke frowned. "Don't tell me he can control puppets from dozens of kilometers away? Or is it possible that so-called human puppets are meant to be remotely operated?"
Sasuke turned to look at Rokuro.
Rokuro, of course, knew the truth—the real Sasori was the chakra core embedded in the puppet's chest.
That was the secret to Sasori's immortality—and also his greatest weakness.
Once this weakness was exposed, the three could defeat him with ease.
But doing so would not achieve the outcome Rokuro wanted.
"The puppet master's situation is something you'll have to uncover yourselves," Rokuro said calmly. "I'll handle the bomber."
Just then, a massive clay bird burst out of the smoke. Deidara stood atop it, looking down at them from above.
Sasuke and Neji instantly understood—against an enemy with aerial mobility, only Rokuro could fight effectively. If they engaged, they would be at a severe disadvantage.
"ROAR!"
A furious howl erupted from the smoke.
Naruto, in his Four-Tails state, burst out. He wasn't injured—but his rage was overwhelming.
"You damn monster! I'll kill you!"
"Naruto, leave him to Sensei!" Sasuke shouted. "We'll handle the puppet master!"
Neji rushed forward, but a chakra tail suddenly lashed out at him. He narrowly avoided being struck.
"What's wrong with him? Is he losing consciousness?" Neji frowned. "Sensei—"
He was about to call for help when his Byakugan showed Rokuro already summoning Complete Susanoo, chasing Deidara far into the distance.
"Naruto's being overtaken by the Nine-Tails," Sasuke said grimly. "Leave him to me. I'll suppress it with the Sharingan. You deal with the puppet master. I'll support you once I'm done!"
Though usually aloof and prideful, Sasuke was always reliable in battle. Neji nodded once and immediately charged toward Sasori.
Protected by Hiruko, Sasori hadn't been harmed by Gaara's human bomb. Seeing Neji rush in, Hiruko's mouth opened wide—
A barrage of senbon needles fired out in rapid succession, like a Gatling gun.
Neji activated the Gentle Fist, concentrating high-density chakra in both palms. Facing the incoming storm of needles, he deflected them in a dazzling blur.
Clang—clang—clang—clang
Dozens of senbon were knocked away in rapid succession. Hiruko's assault couldn't break through Neji's defense at all.
As the needles scattered, Neji's Byakugan caught sight of something troubling—every single senbon was coated in purple liquid. With so many launched at once, even the air carried a faint, irritating stench.
"Poison," Neji muttered. "As expected of a Sand Village puppet master. If Sensei were here, it wouldn't matter—but if I get hit now, it'll be troublesome."
Without turning his head, Neji could see Sasuke already clashing with Naruto in the distance.
"The Nine-Tails is trying to seize Naruto's body while Sensei is away… really knows how to pick its moment."
Neji was the oldest of the three and usually acted as their leader. With Rokuro gone, he naturally took command.
"Sasuke—be careful of his ninja tools. They're all coated in deadly poison. Don't let yourself get scratched."
"Understood!"
Sasuke's reply came instantly. At the same time, his three-tomoe Sharingan flared to life, its ocular power pressing down on Naruto.
To maximize its effectiveness, Sasuke took the risk of closing in, enduring Naruto's relentless, storm-like assault while struggling to awaken his consciousness. The fight was grueling.
On Sasori's side, seeing that this boy was suppressing him, his competitive spirit flared. Hiruko's arms detached, splitting midair into countless cylindrical launchers packed with poisoned senbon.
Once released, they detonated in midair—
Poisoned needles scattered chaotically in every direction, with no discernible pattern.
In an instant, hundreds—no, thousands—of senbon rained down, sealing off every possible escape route.
In the original story, Sasori had held back when facing Chiyo and Sakura.
But against Neji, he had no reason to restrain himself.
This was a killing move.
With all evasion paths sealed and the density of the attack overwhelming, Neji abandoned the Gentle Fist stance.
"Rotation!"
Thread-like chakra erupted from every tenketsu point in Neji's body. As he spun at high speed, a roaring chakra vortex formed, blasting every poisoned senbon away.
The moment Rotation ended, Neji seamlessly followed up with a palm strike.
"Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm!"
A compressed blast of chakra shot out, crossing dozens of meters in an instant and slamming into Hiruko.
CRACK
Hiruko—renowned for its defense—was shattered by a single strike.
At only ten years old, Neji's strength already surpassed even his original Fourth Great Ninja War self—the version of him just before his death.
In the original timeline, Neji was a genius trapped by the Caged Bird Seal, his potential wasted. Unable to learn the Hyūga main family's highest techniques, he remained an ordinary jōnin until death.
But now
The seal was broken from childhood.
His father was the clan head.
All secret techniques were open to him.
And most importantly—Uchiha Rokuro had "cheated" the system for him.
The difference was night and day.
Amid the shattering debris, Sasori's true puppet body burst out. Before it even hit the ground, he summoned the Third Kazekage puppet from a sealing scroll.
"Trying to escape? Not a chance!"
Neji unleashed a rapid series of palm strikes. Dozens of Vacuum Palms fired in succession—the technique's execution eerily similar to Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, differing only in raw power.
If Sasori still had a human face, it would have been filled with shock.
At the critical moment, Magnet Release activated. Iron sand rapidly gathered, forming a massive shield in front of Sasori.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—
The Vacuum Palms smashed into the shield, pulverizing it in seconds. Sasori, an extremely experienced fighter, knew it wouldn't hold the moment the first strike landed—and had already dodged away.
Nearly half a meter thick, the iron sand shield was completely destroyed.
Sasori leapt onto the Third Kazekage's back and took flight, narrowly avoiding the remaining attacks.
"Another one who can fly… how annoying," Neji muttered.
Bringing out the Third Kazekage puppet meant Sasori was finally getting serious.
Meanwhile, on the other battlefield—
Even with flight, Deidara was having a miserable time against Uchiha Rokuro.
"Explode for me!"
Dozens of clay birds swooped toward Susanoo's head, aiming to detonate at close range. But after a chain of explosions, Susanoo's forehead remained completely unscathed—not even a crack.
"Are you stupid?" Rokuro mocked coldly. "That's the hardest part of Susanoo. And you thought you could blow it apart?"
As his voice fell, Susanoo swung its massive blade at Deidara. Deidara tried to command the birds to evade—
But a violent gust erupted.
The clay birds lost control instantly and were shredded by the blade's wind pressure.
"Damn it! Then taste my real killing move!"
Deidara grabbed a lump of clay and bit into it.
His body began to swell rapidly, transforming into a giant Deidara tens of meters tall.
But in front of Complete Susanoo, he looked like nothing more than a child.
One slash.
The giant Deidara was cleaved in half.
But then
The bisected body began to disintegrate, crumbling like weathered stone into countless fragments that dispersed into the air.
That was what ordinary people would see.
But in Rokuro's eyes—
The disintegrating giant transformed into countless dust-sized clay spiders, drifting invisibly toward him.
Even Susanoo couldn't block them.
The spiders slipped inside, crawling upward, aiming straight for Rokuro.
"So C4 Garuda has reached the molecular level," Rokuro murmured. "Even Susanoo can't block it."
He understood immediately.
Susanoo might boast absolute defense—but it wasn't airtight.
The user could breathe inside it.
Which meant gas—and particles—could enter.
Garuda's clay was fine as smoke.
Naturally, it couldn't be stopped.
"This technique is indeed terrifying," Rokuro admitted calmly.
"If used in an ambush, even I might be killed."
A cold smile followed.
"…And I have complete intelligence on you—so from the very beginning, this battle was never fair."
The Lightning Release Chakra Mode, long unused, enveloped Uchiha Rokuro's entire body.
Every C4 Garuda clay construct that flew toward him was instantly shattered by lightning chakra that perfectly countered its nature.
After dealing with Garuda, the Susanoo's greatsword transformed into a bow and arrow. Rokuro drew the string—
An Indra's Arrow roared downward toward the earth.
BOOM
The ground was pierced straight through. A blast even more powerful than a Tailed Beast Bomb erupted directly above Deidara's head.
In the instant before death, Deidara stared into the oncoming explosion and burst into manic laughter.
"This—this is ultimate art!
To die by this move… it was worth it!"
In the blinding inferno, Deidara got exactly what he wished for.
He was obliterated completely—without even having the chance to trigger his own self-destruction.
At the point of impact, a colossal crater spanning several kilometers formed. Thousands of tons of shattered rock and dust were hurled skyward, rising into a towering mushroom cloud.
Just as Deidara had claimed—
This kind of explosion was art at its extreme.
The Susanoo hovered beside the mushroom cloud, quietly appreciating the aesthetic of destruction.
"With damage at this level… even Edo Tensei probably wouldn't work," Rokuro mused.
"Come to think of it, with my interference, the Reanimation Army likely won't appear at all."
His thoughts drifted—briefly—to the Edo Tensei legions, and to the so-called Number One Dream-Enabler of the Ninja World, Kabuto Yakushi.
"Forget it. With my current strength, even if Kabuto and Orochimaru pull something again, I can deal with it."
He shifted his gaze toward the battlefield.
"Now it depends on Sasori of the Red Sand.
You'd better perform well—force out the power of Asura and Indra. Otherwise, I'll have to think of another solution myself."
Just as Rokuro was about to dismiss Susanoo and quietly return to spectate, he sensed someone approaching—
Chiyo.
Rokuro drew his Dimensional Blade, made a casual slash, and opened a spatial gate. In the next instant, he appeared directly behind her. Naturally, Susanoo dissipated.
"You… you're Uchiha Rokuro?!"
Chiyo was shocked. Almost reflexively, she summoned two puppets—
Sasori's parents.
Rokuro looked at the human puppets with a strange expression.
"So these are human puppets?
Out of curiosity—are they modified from entire corpses, or is only part of the body used as a core, with the rest being standard puppet components?"
"This is the highest secret of Sunagakure," Chiyo said coldly.
"It's not something we disclose to Konoha."
Ten chakra threads shot from her fingers as she took control of her son and daughter-in-law.
Rokuro chuckled softly, withdrawing his gaze from the puppets and turning back to Chiyo.
"It's just puppet technique. I'm not that interested.
But Granny Chiyo—where exactly are you headed? Going to help your precious grandson?"
"…So it really is Sasori?"
Relief, shock, and turmoil flashed across Chiyo's face.
"That's right," Rokuro said calmly.
"The one fighting my three disciples is Sasori of the Red Sand. And there's something else you should know."
"The human puppet he's using right now—
is the Third Kazekage."
Chiyo's expression changed completely.
She shot forward toward the battlefield without hesitation. Rokuro followed at an unhurried pace. When they were still several kilometers away, the battle ahead was already clearly visible.
At this moment, Sasori had unleashed Performance of a Hundred Puppets.
His own human puppet stood atop the Third Kazekage, using both trump cards simultaneously—a combination that had never appeared in the original story.
This alone proved one thing:
The pressure Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji were putting on Sasori far exceeded what Chiyo and Sakura had once managed.
Indeed
Thanks to Sasuke's efforts, Naruto had finally broken free of the Nine-Tails' influence and regained control of his body.
Now, the three fought together, locked in a brutal stalemate against Sasori's Hundred Puppets.
"It really is the Third Kazekage…" Chiyo murmured in shock.
"Then does that mean… Sasori was behind what happened back then?"
Rokuro, by contrast, looked relaxed—almost leisurely—as he observed the massive puppet battle.
"Performance of a Hundred Puppets… truly an impressive technique," he said lightly.
"But it's flashy and inefficient. Great for bullying the weak, sure—but against real power, it's better to reduce the number and improve control."
He glanced at Chiyo.
"Wouldn't you agree, Granny Chiyo?
I hear your true specialty is the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets—one finger per puppet. That kind of precision actually makes sense."
Chiyo turned to look at him, deep wariness filling her eyes.
"To think Konoha never stopped collecting intelligence on me all these years…"
"Our villages are still allies, aren't they?"
"Heh," Rokuro laughed softly.
"Don't misunderstand. Allies we remain.
But intelligence gathering is intelligence gathering."
Chiyo snorted coldly and stepped forward—only to have Rokuro move first, blocking her path.
"Granny Chiyo," he said calmly,
"you can't go over there right now."
END OF CHAPTER
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