"What are you looking at?" Sasori asked.
Ino replied very directly: "I'm looking to see if you're a man or a woman, but unfortunately, you don't have anything there."
Ino felt that using "it" to refer to Sasori was more appropriate. This spirit of dedicating oneself to art was truly terrifying; she couldn't afford to provoke it!
Actually, she really wanted to ask Sasori if he had put his spongy body into the regenerative core on his chest, which had the character "Scorpion" written on it.
The Chakra capacity of a Human Puppet body is ultimately limited, and Sasori can use Puppet Mastery, meaning his Chakra volume is far greater than that of an ordinary Ninja. If he didn't have the ability to expand and contract, how could such a small flesh-and-blood regenerative core accommodate most of the Chakra pathways?
However, it was inappropriate for a beautiful woman like her to ask such a question, so she held back.
Sasori wasn't angry at all, his tone was flat: "Narrow-minded. I'm only going to keep your body; your head has no collection value."
"Aren't you afraid of the wind flashing your tongue? Oh, right, you don't have a tongue anymore, do you? Are you speaking through a loudspeaker now?"
Sasori was readapting to his main body, and Ino was using the opportunity to recover her Chakra. Both were making preparations while exchanging barbs.
Ino's expression was serious. She quickly formed hand signs, and a Wood Dragon soared into the sky, charging towards Sasori and his "people."
Wood Golem for defense, Wood Dragon for offense, plus the surrounding Descent of the Tree World—she planned to crush them in a straightforward manner!
Let's see whose Chakra is greater! Her 10 points of "Essence" surely wouldn't be inferior to a regenerative core made from a spongy body, right?
Sasori controlled two Human Puppets with both hands, sending them to meet the Wood Dragon head-on.
Even when controlled personally by a genius Puppet Master like him, Orochimaru's Human Puppets performed rather ordinarily. The Human Puppets' elbows rotated in the opposite direction, and their original arm bones transformed into two sharp long blades, like lumberjacks, rapidly cutting at the branches on the Wood Dragon's surface.
The Third Kazekage's abilities were much stronger.
Sasori's five fingers moved up and down like playing a piano. The mechanism in the Human Puppet's mouth opened, and light blue Chakra manipulated the surrounding metal according to magnetic field lines. Soon, a dense Sand Iron barrier, like countless long spears, descended from the sky. The dense spears pierced into the Wood Dragon's body.
"Magnet Release: Sand Iron World Method!"
The Sand Iron was incredibly sharp. In the blink of an eye, it pierced hundreds of holes in the Wood Dragon's surface, and then, relying on the weight of the metal, it attempted to suppress the Wood Dragon.
"You wish!" Ino held her hands out, as if supporting something. Competing in strength? Wood Release is the epitome of brute force!
The Wood Dragon shook its head, its tail smashing a nearby stone house, causing the ground to shake. The tightly packed and solid Sand Iron had its Chakra absorbed, breaking into pieces and turning into powder.
Ino's peripheral vision caught a black flash. She quickly manipulated the Wood Golem, striking fiercely to the side with its right hand.
The Orochimaru Human Puppet, holding a jet-black blade and preparing to ambush, was shattered on the spot.
Ino didn't have Sasori's level of "micro-control." She had to control both the Wood Dragon and the Wood Golem, both of which were major Chakra consumers, making her a bit flustered. Sasori seized an opportunity.
While the Sand Iron World Method hadn't completely shattered, he used the Third Kazekage's Chakra to create a giant Sand Iron cylinder. This object was extremely dense and incredibly heavy. With a flick of his Chakra threads, he controlled the cylinder to smash towards the Wood Golem.
Ino's Wood Golem's right hand had just shattered the Orochimaru Human Puppet when the giant cylinder came crashing down. She could only use the Wood Golem's left hand to grab it, while simultaneously increasing Chakra output to allow the Wood Dragon to completely break free from the Sand Iron World Method's Shu Fu.
With the Orochimaru Human Puppet destroyed, Sasori's left hand stopped controlling it. With a series of soft mechanical clicks, one of the four scrolls on his back was quickly activated.
A metal pipe emerged from the palm of his left hand, and as scorching flames spewed out, a line of fire began to rage through the forest.
His flames had an extremely high temperature, and after being regulated by the Human Puppet's body, they also possessed some oily characteristics.
A single burn would cover a large area.
"It's just Fire Release. You seem to have forgotten that I am one of the world's top Water Release Ninja!" Ino stood atop the Wood Golem's head, quickly forming hand signs.
"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
She took a deep breath, gathering Water Release Chakra in her chest, then forcefully exhaled it.
She had never put points into Water Release; instead, she had trained it up purely through her own abilities.
She had full confidence in her Water Release.
Even in an extremely dry desert environment, she could still produce a large amount of clear water.
The overwhelming clear water, like an ocean, carried immense power and crashed into the forest.
Sasori's expression remained unchanged. It was just Water Release; he had seen it before.
He controlled the Third Kazekage, using Magnet Release to firmly entangle the Wood Dragon, then raised his left hand, and the metal pipe in his palm spewed out even more furious flames.
The flames collided with the clear water, and a large amount of steam shot straight up into the sky like a pillar of gas. Neither side retreated.
The water flowed down in wave after wave, and Sasori's flames continuously scorched the clear water without stopping.
After a five or six-second stalemate, Sasori's Fire Release Chakra stored in the scroll, the Ninjutsu he named "Inferno Reckless Scorch," was suppressed by the Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave.
He had never expected to encounter such a powerful Water Release Ninja. This was no longer inferior to Kisame. Water Release counters Fire Release, and even though he had sealed a lot of Fire Release Chakra, it was heavily countered at this moment.
The overwhelming water, after all, still crashed down.
The trees were bent over, but more trees gained vitality and grew again. Sasori's flames were completely extinguished, and the water flow was endless. He simply couldn't withstand the impact of the surging water.
The Wood Dragon roared, coordinating with the Water Release, and opened its large mouth, intending to bite Sasori and the Third Kazekage to pieces.
Sasori's situation was extremely critical.
At the crucial moment, Yura jumped out.
This high-ranking Hidden Sand Village member consecutively used two Wind Release Ninjutsu against Ino.
She didn't even look. Under the combination of the Wood Golem and Wood Dragon, a Jonin of this level was simply a freebie.
She couldn't be bothered with Yura, merely having the Wood Golem raise one hand, blocking the Wind Release like an insurmountable chasm.
"Master, I'm here!" Yura shouted, then suddenly turned while running, like being fed a snack, and voluntarily jumped into the Wood Dragon's mouth.
What did this guy mean?
Before Ino could think, she heard a loud explosion from inside the Wood Dragon's body.
The explosion caused the Wood Dragon to suffer its first major damage, with a large amount of wood splinters making up its body falling off. Ino quickly formed hand signs, only then managing to maintain the Wood Dragon's body.
She glanced at it from afar and quickly made a judgment: these were Exploding Tags.
Yura had hundreds of Exploding Tags tied to his body, severely damaging the Wood Dragon from within.
The killing blow created by the Water Release and Wood Dragon was thwarted by Yura. By the time the Wood Dragon recovered its body and attacked Sasori again, it was one step too late.
The Third Kazekage's Human Puppet, at the cost of having one arm bitten off, created a disk for Sasori to fly on, allowing them to narrowly escape the flood's impact and fly into the sky at the last moment.
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