Sasori's fury was boiling over.
Every word from Kiyosuke seemed to strike at his nerves.
The one thing he could never allow anyone to touch was the memory of his parents. Yet Kiyosuke never failed to bring them up. Sasori knew this was deliberate, a ploy to enrage him, but even so, he couldn't suppress the anger burning inside.
Crack, crack, crack!
The joints of his human puppets creaked and groaned as they moved. Under Sasori's control, one after another flew toward Kiyosuke.
With a casual wave of his hand, Kiyosuke unleashed a surge of flames that devoured the puppets. In an instant, the painstaking work Sasori had poured into them for years turned to ash.
"Sand Iron World Order!"
At Sasori's low roar, countless streams of iron sand sprouted like twisted branches, rapidly growing and piercing through Kiyosuke's body.
But it was meaningless.
Kiyosuke's very nature restrained Sasori's techniques. Even when the iron sand pierced through him, it did nothing. The searing heat stripped the sand of its magnetism, reducing it to nothing more than ordinary metal dust.
"You've lost, Sasori," Kiyosuke said flatly.
The flames spread, using Sasori's puppets as fuel, burning hotter and fiercer. No matter how desperately the puppets struggled under Sasori's control, it was futile. Kiyosuke's fire clung to them like a parasite, an inescapable curse. One spark was enough to engulf them completely until nothing remained but ash.
For the puppets, perhaps this was a release.
Twisted into human puppets by Sasori, they had long since lost their freedom, reduced to mere tools. To be burned away entirely was, in truth, a form of liberation.
Watching as his creations were destroyed one after another, the expressionless mask that was Sasori's face finally twisted with frustration.
"Damn it… damn it, damn it! I will never—"
Boom!
Sasori was sent flying. Kiyosuke now stood where he had just been, shaking his head.
"Honestly, you talk way too much. Are you really Sasori? Since when do you lose so badly you can't accept it?"
Sasori climbed back up, half his face broken, revealing the structure of the puppet within. He felt no pain.
"Your attacks are meaningless against me," he said coldly.
"Yeah? Then I'll just keep hitting you until you get it!"
Kiyosuke's fists and feet crashed down relentlessly.
Crash!Bang!Crack!
The sound of splintering wood and snapping metal echoed as Sasori's puppet body was torn apart. At last, only his torso and head remained intact, still able to speak, while his limbs and weapons were scattered in pieces.
"Alright then," Kiyosuke said lightly. "Let's talk about the story."
"What story? Cut the nonsense—what is it you actually want?" Sasori demanded.
Grinning, Kiyosuke pointed toward Chiyo.
"I'm just preparing a little gift for Chiyo-sama. Letting a grandmother reunite with her grandson."
"You're ridiculous."
Chiyo sighed. Her gaze fell on her grandson, her eyes filled with an indescribable mix of emotions, and she slowly walked over to where Naruto held Gaara.
Gaara's body had already begun to stiffen, cradled in Naruto's trembling arms, wet with tears that refused to stop.
Naruto's grief was raw, his sorrow for a friend he could not save. He had lost someone irreplaceable.
"I'll save him," Chiyo finally said with quiet resolve.
Her hands glowed with a soft, shimmering green light. Though it looked like medical ninjutsu, there was something different about it.
Sasori's voice was cold.
"Grandmother… the One-Tail has already been extracted from Gaara. A jinchūriki who loses his beast is fated to die. Not even the best medical ninjutsu can bring back the dead."
Reviving a dead jinchūriki—it was impossible.
"Shut up," Kiyosuke cut him off sharply.
"Don't use your shallow perspective to judge an elder like Chiyo-sama. She hasn't reached senility yet."
"You—!"
"Heh…"
Chiyo gave a faint chuckle.
"Kiyosuke, you have quite the tongue on you. You've already figured it out, haven't you?"
Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead as vast amounts of chakra flowed from her into Gaara's cold, lifeless body, urging it toward life once more.
Kiyosuke gave a slight nod.
Chiyo smiled sadly.
"My whole life has been filled with mistakes. But at the very end… I want to do something right."
Her fingers moved gently, and the puppets of "Father" and "Mother" appeared at Sasori's side. They embraced him softly, just as they had long ago.
"Grandmother… you're wasting your time," Sasori said flatly.
"He cannot come back to life. Don't you know that?"
"Perhaps," Chiyo whispered.
"But when you get old, you tend to do foolish things. Sasori… this will be my final jutsu."
Her voice softened.
"Seeing you live with nothing but puppets… I could never forgive myself. That's why I created this technique. But once I finished it, I sealed it away, for it is forbidden. Its name is Reanimation Jutsu."
"Reanimation Jutsu?" Sasori repeated, eyes narrowing.
"By using one's entire body of chakra as a medium, you pass on your very life to another. And most importantly… this technique can even give life to a puppet that has none."
Sasori's eyes widened in shock.
"Give… life to puppets…?"
"It seems," Kiyosuke said with a wry smile, "that Chiyo-sama originally wanted to sacrifice herself to return your parents to you. But sadly, you left Sunagakure before she could. If not, perhaps you would've had your father and mother by your side… though at the cost of your grandmother."
Chiyo only chuckled softly.
"Is that so? But Sasori never cared much for me as his grandmother, did he? Exchanging the life of a foolish old woman for the lives of two fallen shinobi… isn't that a fair trade?"
Her breathing grew heavier as her chakra and life force drained rapidly, flowing into Gaara. Bit by bit, color and warmth began to return to his body.
"Sensei!"
"Kiyosuke-sama!"
Hinata and the others came rushing back.
They were wounded, clearly having just endured a fierce battle.
Shino quickly explained.
When they had broken the seal, a secondary defense had activated, forcing them to fight copies of themselves. Defeating those clones had cost time and energy, but they had managed to win in the end.
"Perfect timing," Kiyosuke said.
"Karin, could you let Chiyo-sama take a bite?"
"C-can't we skip that?" Karin backed away nervously. She still carried deep childhood scars from being bitten.
"Fine then. Just join Naruto and Sakura in channeling chakra into Chiyo-sama. That will help speed up Gaara's recovery."
After all, the technique of Reanimation Jutsu relied on Yang Release. Naruto, Karin, and Sakura were all skilled in that domain—and Naruto had more chakra than anyone.
Together, the three of them poured chakra into Chiyo, giving her the strength she needed to complete the jutsu.
"You children…"
Chiyo's lips curved into the faintest smile.
"You'll create a future completely different from ours… I believe in that…"
"So… do your best… I truly wish I could see that future with my own eyes…"
But she would never have that chance.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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