I watched Liedou unfurl his scroll, chakra whipping around him like a desert cyclone.
"So this is the man who'll become the First Kazekage…"
I couldn't help myself. "Might as well see what the future wind emperor can do."
Liedou raised one arm.
"Your Excellency—prepare yourself!"
Chakra burst from beneath his feet, spiraling upward.
A sandstorm surged toward me, swallowing the horizon in yellow fury.
"Wind Style: Dancing Gale."
The desert screamed. Sand scraped sand, sparks of static hissing like snakes as an entire ridge of dunes collapsed and reformed.
I whistled.
"An S-rank on the first move. Not bad, future Kazekage-san."
Susanoo shimmered around me.
My right eye bled purple light—slipping my body into a warped layer of space as the sandstorm tore through empty air.
Liedou's eyes narrowed.
"So the First Hokage truly does command time–space ninjutsu…"
His fingers twitched.
A column of smoke erupted—dozens of puppets exploding outward like metallic locusts.
"Go!"
Blades unfolded from their torsos as they streaked toward me.
"Amaterasu."
Black flame erupted from my eye, leaping from puppet to puppet.
They ignited like dried kindling.
"Flame Control."
The formless flames twisted into serpents—
slithering along Chakra threads toward Liedou.
His eyes widened.
"It can burn chakra?!"
He severed the threads instantly and snapped another scroll open.
Nine new puppets emerged—sleek, refined, deadly—more like weapons of war than tools.
They fanned out and collapsed on my position.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"
The flames washed over them—
"Boom!"
—and their bodies exploded.
But that wasn't the attack.
Purple-tinged needles burst from the puppet debris, forming a lethal storm.
"Oh. Actually clever."
Anyone else—even a veteran Jōnin—would have died ten times over.
"But unfortunately for you…"
I phased out, slipping deeper into the dimensional veil.
The storm passed through me without resistance.
Liedou cursed under his breath.
He'd planned carefully.
Sacrificed puppets.
Timed the needles.
Calculated the angles.
And it still didn't matter.
"Don't hold back on me. If this is all you've got… the fight ends here."
He didn't flinch.
Instead—
He swung his hand.
The sky went dark.
"Secret Technique: Hundred Swordsman Puppet!"
Hundreds of puppets filled the sky, shoulder to shoulder—an army in midair.
Even I had to blink.
"…Controlling hundreds at once. No wonder Wind Country puppeteers are nightmares in later wars."
"Master Hokage—brace yourself!"
The puppets dove.
Their abdomens opened, launching a storm of needles—so dense they blurred into sheets of steel.
Even the Fourth Raikage would lose to something like this on reaction time alone.
I smiled.
"But still useless."
The storm passed straight through me again.
Liedou's face twisted—not anger, but calculation.
He'd figured something out.
"When he attacks… he has to reappear," Liedou muttered.
"If I keep the pressure—force him to materialize—then…"
Hundreds of puppets shifted position, accelerating overhead.
Troublesome.
If I were a normal shinobi, this would be hell.
But I wasn't.
"Susanoo."
Chakra roared upward.
The ribcage began to form—
"It's now!"
"Secret Technique: Puppet Breaks the Heavens!"
The puppets dropped like arrows—
each transforming into a flying blade as they crashed down on the half-formed Susanoo.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Each impact cracked the skeletal armor—
fractures spiderwebbing across the ribcage.
Sand ninjas gasped.
Even the air shook.
I raised one eyebrow.
"Not bad."
Then I lifted my hand.
A pulse exploded outward.
A wave of pure repulsive force tore across the desert—
blasting sand, puppets, and even Liedou himself backward like leaves in a gale.
...
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