"Konoha ninja, what do you want with us?"
"Who sent you?"
Sasori, while furiously controlling his puppets to attack Hyūga Shinichi, did not forget to try to affect him with words.
Although he asked, Sasori didn't expect an answer from Shinichi. Moreover, after realizing Shinichi was a ninja from Konoha's Hyūga clan, his focus wasn't entirely on Shinichi. He split his attention to monitor the surroundings.
As a former Suna ninja, he knew Konoha's tactics well. In his experience, Konoha ninja—especially those from the Hyūga—would not operate alone. It was highly likely that others were hiding nearby, waiting for an opportunity for a decisive strike.
He had already experienced Hyūga Shinichi's immense power. If the enemy team included another powerhouse of the same caliber, Sasori planned to disengage quickly and escape the area.
After all, they were deep within the Land of Fire and not far from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. If they were surrounded by Konoha ninja, even the two of them might not be able to get away smoothly.
In the battlefield, Hyūga Shinichi's figure danced amidst the blades of the puppets. Under the amplification of the Sixth Gate, his fists were practically indestructible; not a single puppet could withstand even one blow. Every punch shattered a puppet, completely incapacitating the human puppet.
Shinichi's movement speed was extremely fast. Sasori's dynamic vision could barely lock onto him, and the puppets he controlled struggled to keep up with Shinichi's pace. As a result, his puppet army's numbers continuously dwindled under Shinichi's fists, while the puppets' weapons couldn't even graze him.
Fast, powerful, and combined with the Byakugan's omnidirectional sight, Hyūga Shinichi was maneuvering effortlessly through Sasori's Secret Red Move: Performance of a Hundred Puppets.
Even though the puppet army occasionally received jutsu support from Kakuzu's Jiongu monsters, the Jiongu monsters' wide-area jutsu not only failed to touch Shinichi but also frequently caught the puppets, causing significant damage to the army.
Shinichi, surrounded, was in no rush. While the Sixth Gate placed a considerable burden on his body, it was only one of his many resources. Even under intense physical stress, as long as he had chakra to spare, his fighting strength would not diminish.
And in terms of chakra reserves, even Sasori and Kakuzu combined were nowhere near Hyūga Shinichi's level.
If this was all the two of them had, then the ultimate victor could only be Hyūga Shinichi!
During the encirclement, both Sasori and Kakuzu unknowingly moved into the area where Hyūga Shinichi had previously set up his Flying Thunder God Technique markers.
After opening the Sixth Gate, Shinichi had stopped using the Flying Thunder God in combat, instead relying on raw physical power to weave through the puppet army.
Completely focused on locking onto and attacking Shinichi's figure, Sasori and Kakuzu seemed to have overlooked how Shinichi had suddenly appeared next to them during their initial encounter.
They seemed to believe that Shinichi's sudden appearances were merely due to an outstanding Body Flicker Technique (Shunshin).
Shinichi's reason for not using the Flying Thunder God again was to prevent them from understanding the secret of his technique. Frequent use might not guarantee success and would allow them to adapt to his teleportation slowly. The battle between Minato and Killer B/A was proof of this; with a unilateral intelligence leak, even the master of the Flying Thunder God Technique found combat difficult.
Shinichi deeply understood the importance of protecting his own intelligence. Therefore, to maximize the effectiveness of the Flying Thunder God Technique, he was willing to spend effort on concealment.
Reducing the use of the technique and hiding the Flying Thunder God kunai served the same purpose.
Once Kakuzu and Sasori slowly adapted to Shinichi's fighting style in the Sixth Gate state, it would be the perfect time for Shinichi to launch a surprise attack using the Flying Thunder God Technique. The sudden change in combat style would likely leave them little time to react.
As the puppet army suffered heavy losses, Sasori's manipulation of the remaining puppets became increasingly precise. After observing for a long time in the Third Kazekage puppet, Sasori gradually grasped some of Shinichi's combat habits. He raised both hands to the sky, and iron sand floated up, condensing into countless iron needles in the air.
Taking advantage of the brief moment Shinichi paused after attacking a puppet, Sasori launched his attack.
"Shu shu shu—"
A piercing sound came from above Shinichi. Sasori knew Shinichi was fast, so his countermeasure was to expand his attack range. While the ordinary human puppets had a limited range, the Third Kazekage puppet could cover a large portion of the battlefield with its attacks.
Hearing the commotion, Shinichi looked up and forcefully suppressed the urge to use the Flying Thunder God to escape. Since mastering the technique, he often instinctively wanted to use it to avoid attacks, sometimes falling into a dependency on it.
This was not a good habit, and Shinichi was using live combat to correct it.
Chakra erupted from the tenketsu across his body. As he spun, the Rotation chakra shield firmly enclosed him.
The iron needles rained down, all deflected by the force of the Rotation. Even some nearby puppets were heavily damaged and sent flying away.
The defensive power of Hyūga Shinichi's Rotation was, naturally, beyond doubt. However, the "stiffness" at the end of the jutsu was something even Shinichi could not completely avoid.
His spinning body could not stop instantly. And it was this small delay that Kakuzu and Sasori successfully seized.
The descending iron sand swiftly gathered and enveloped Shinichi, seemingly trying to restrain him firmly. At the same time, Kakuzu's hands suddenly and without warning shot out from the ground beneath Shinichi, grabbing for his ankles.
Having only witnessed Shinichi use Rotation, the intelligent Kakuzu immediately deduced that the area beneath the feet was the critical weakness of the technique. While Shinichi was deflecting the iron needles, Kakuzu's hands had already burrowed underground, preparing to breach his "invincible defense" from below.
Iron sand rapidly envelops him, and hands suddenly emerging from the ground grab for his ankles.
If Shinichi were just an ordinary Konoha Jōnin, their coordinated attack would have worked.
Unfortunately, Shinichi's abilities far exceeded their expectations.
"Against these eyes, a sneak attack is meaningless."
Without even lowering his head, Hyūga Shinichi violently unleashed a pair of palms toward the ground behind him. The Eight Trigrams Empty Palm (Hakke Kūshō) directly struck Kakuzu's hands. In an instant, the black threads connecting the arms were severed. Blood flowed continuously from the severed black thread ends, and the hands attempting to grasp Shinichi's ankles fell weakly into the pooling blood.
A short distance away, Kakuzu frowned. The severed black threads caused him slight pain. Just as he was about to regrow the black threads to reconnect the hands, Hyūga Shinichi suddenly vanished from within the iron sand's embrace.
"!!!"
"What was that?!"
While fighting in the Sixth Gate state, they couldn't lock onto the fast-moving Shinichi, but his body, enveloped in green chakra, still left a clear visible trail.
However, in the moment Shinichi's figure disappeared, neither Kakuzu nor Sasori saw any movement trajectory.
Hyūga Shinichi had genuinely vanished!
"Where is he!"
Kakuzu didn't have time to reconnect his hands. He quickly scanned his surroundings, desperately searching for Shinichi's whereabouts. At the same time, he dared not remain in place, fearing he would be the target of an attack, and began to move rapidly, running and searching for Shinichi's location.
But... Kakuzu was not Hyūga Shinichi's target.
"What are you looking for?"
Sasori, concentrating on manipulating the iron sand, never expected Shinichi to suddenly disappear. Just as he was about to search for Shinichi's figure, a sharp pain, accompanied by a low whisper, entered his consciousness.
Hyūga Shinichi made a sword-sign with his right hand, covering it with Lightning Release chakra. The moment he reappeared, his hand had already pierced Sasori's heart.
At the moment Sasori's heart was pierced, the remaining dozens of puppets froze in place, utterly motionless. Sasori, despite being a puppet body, coughed up blood, his expression blank as he strained to look back, seemingly wanting to confirm whether it was truly Hyūga Shinichi who had attacked him.
"How is this... possible..."
"How did... You do that?"
With his heart pierced, Sasori's life force was rapidly fading. In his final moments, this single question filled his mind.
But Shinichi had no intention of answering, even for a dying man...
Swiftly withdrawing his blood-stained hand, Shinichi looked indifferent. He ignored the slowly collapsing Sasori and turned his gaze to Kakuzu in the distance, who was frantically recalling his Jiongu monsters.
The decision to target Sasori over Kakuzu was based on two considerations: first, Sasori's weakness was more "singular," attacking him the most profitable compared to Kakuzu's dispersed hearts.
Second, Shinichi was curious about what was in Sasori's third scroll. As an enemy, Shinichi had no interest in personally experiencing the jutsu contained within that third scroll. His goal was to prevent Sasori from unleashing all his trump cards.
By killing Sasori, Shinichi eliminated the threat of Magnetic Release and poison, allowing him to fight much more calmly.
Kakuzu's Jiongu was powerful and bizarre, but its threat level was lower than Sasori's. The jutsu unleashed by the Jiongu monsters were powerful, but in Shinichi's view, their attack patterns were somewhat "straightforward." The fact that they were traceable and uniform in form was a fatal weakness.
In contrast, Magnetic Release and poison were things Shinichi couldn't afford to be careless about. Facing a ninja like Sasori, even a minor scratch could potentially lead to defeat.
The human puppets collapsed as Sasori's life force extinguished. The puppets in the sky fell like withered leaves, making a "huala-la" sound.
Hyūga Shinichi stood behind Sasori's body, his gaze deep as he watched the distant Kakuzu, who had urgently recalled his Jiongu monsters.
"That Sasori guy..."
Kakuzu watched the scattered puppets falling from the sky. He knew instantly that Sasori had been killed by Hyūga Shinichi. Noticing Shinichi's bloody hand, Kakuzu's heart sank, and he immediately considered retreating.
This enemy was incredibly strong. Moreover, as a Konoha ninja, there might be backup. Without Sasori, facing such a powerful enemy alone was too difficult.
Kakuzu's survival from the Warring States Era until now depended not only on secret techniques like Jiongu but also on his strong ability to assess the situation.
Kakuzu held no "veteran ninja's" pride. A strong opponent was a strong opponent, and he would never push himself when he was clearly outmatched.
Crucially, Kakuzu had yet to find a way to defeat Shinichi. His jutsu and attacks seemed transparent to the opponent's eyes. Furthermore, from the start of the battle until now, the opponent showed no signs of fatigue and bore no injuries.
Kakuzu saw the enormous disparity and did not believe he could find a way to break through and defeat the opponent in a short time.
He reached into his sleeve, pulled out several smoke bombs, and slammed them to the ground without hesitation.
"Bang, bang!!"
Purple and pink smoke instantly enveloped him and the Jiongu monsters. The smoke not only obscured vision but also suppressed their scent, preventing tracking—an essential "cover-up" tactic during an escape.
Except...
"Does even a guy like Kakuzu suffer from path dependency?"
Hyūga Shinichi murmured, pulled out a few kunai, and seemingly casually shot them into the smoke screen.
Kakuzu's vision was also obscured by the smoke, but his hearing was intact, and he clearly heard the sounds of air being torn behind him.
Just as he was meticulously using sound to locate the position of the incoming objects, the sounds of air breaking suddenly disappeared, replaced by a few metallic clashes.
For some unknown reason, the kunai Shinichi had fired collided mid-air, changing their angles and trajectories.
Kakuzu's attempt to use sound to locate the attack was disrupted. Just as he thought the opponent had made a mistake, he noticed that the three Jiongu monsters protecting his retreat had inexplicably stopped moving.
Hoping to check what was happening, he saw deep cracks, cut by Lightning Release, across the masks of the monsters.
Shinichi's kunai had not missed. After colliding, they not only disrupted Kakuzu's hearing but also corrected their angle, hitting all of Kakuzu's Jiongu monsters.
This terrifying sight filled Kakuzu's eyes. Ignoring his "hearts," Kakuzu ran headlong, quickly disappearing into the dense forest.
Shinichi was tempted to pursue, but at that moment, several white spores suddenly inflated on Sasori's corpse. In just a few breaths, they took on human form and rushed directly toward Hyūga Shinichi.
"Hmm?!!"
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