In the vast desert, finding a specific person was extremely difficult.
Leaf Monkey released an ANBU hawk. The bird soared into the sky, searching for Konoha's spies.
The hawk circled through the desert. Whenever it passed places where Sand shinobi were heavily stationed—such as border fortresses of the Land of Wind or large towns—it would trace a special flight pattern across the sky.
A vigilant spy would notice the signal.
That night, one such spy quietly slipped out of a town. Standing alone in the desert, he raised his arm, allowing the hawk to land on it.
Seeing the tiny scroll tied to the hawk's leg, the spy understood immediately.
The village wanted intelligence on Sasori of the Sand.
The spy returned to the town and began contacting his network—both superiors and subordinates.
While waiting for the intelligence to return, Yako and the Leaf Monkey squad waited patiently.
Unless absolutely necessary, Yako had no intention of infiltrating Sunagakure to deal with Sasori.
At this time, Sunagakure still had several powerful shinobi. It was nothing like the weakened era when Gaara later became Kazekage. Acting recklessly would be unwise.
Four or five days later, the information finally arrived.
The ANBU hawk returned carrying valuable intelligence.
The young jonin Sasori had recently been searching in the southwestern region of the Land of Wind for hardened meteorite iron to use as puppet material.
Their luck was good.
Sasori was traveling outside Sunagakure.
A puppet master's growth required massive resources. Most talented puppet masters had to gather their own materials.
Wind and sand howled endlessly.
The Leaf Monkey squad dispersed ahead, disguising themselves as travelers. They searched for traces of Sasori in a nearby oasis town.
Because his parents had died in battle, Sasori had graduated early from the Ninja Academy after the shock. He was only ten years old.
A lone Sand shinobi of that age was extremely noticeable.
Many people had indeed seen him.
Leaf Monkey quickly discovered that Sasori had already obtained the materials he wanted and was currently returning to Sunagakure.
Yako's group accelerated their pursuit.
In the desert, a lone boy walked steadily.
Bandages wrapped a human-sized puppet strapped to his back.
Behind him crawled another puppet—Salamander.
The Salamander puppet crawled across the sand like a crocodile, carrying a heavy chunk of meteorite iron on its back.
The metal was extremely heavy.
Perfect puppet material.
Sasori walked with lifeless eyes, already thinking about how to process the meteorite iron.
Suddenly, the wind shifted direction.
A figure dropped from the sky and landed roughly a dozen meters in front of him.
Sasori looked up and saw an ANBU shinobi wearing a fox mask.
His heart tightened. His distracted expression instantly sharpened into focus and tension.
Fox?
The most famous fox-masked ANBU in the shinobi world was Konoha's Bronze Fox.
Could this be Konoha's ANBU?
Yako glanced at the Salamander puppet behind Sasori.
In the future, this puppet would become one of Kankuro's arsenal.
But the true creator of the Salamander was the boy standing before him.
"Sasori," Yako said calmly, "according to Konoha's intelligence, you stole weapons from Advisor Homura's armory."
"Hand over the weapons."
Sasori remembered the moment he obtained those weapons.
Uchiha Madara's subordinate, Spiral Zetsu, had fought a massive battle against Homura.
The river's terrain had been completely altered.
An enormous lake had been blasted into existence.
Sasori knew his limits.
He could never defeat Homura or Spiral Zetsu.
But the ANBU shinobi in front of him?
Why was this person acting so arrogantly?
Sasori shrugged his shoulders.
The puppet wrapped in bandages dropped heavily onto the sand.
"Copper Fox!"
"I've read the reports from the Second Shinobi War!"
"Konoha's White Fang killed my father!"
"And you… you killed my mother!"
The bandages unraveled.
Two puppets sprang to life, their joints clacking as they lunged toward Konoha's Copper Fox from opposite directions.
Yako had almost forgotten.
He and Sasori also shared the hatred of a slain mother.
Yako calmly allowed the two puppets to approach.
Then he raised his hand.
His palm became a blade.
The copper-colored chop split one puppet clean in half.
Its internal mechanisms exploded across the sand.
Springs.
Gears.
Steel wires.
Intricate devices—yet completely meaningless before Yako.
The second puppet seized the opportunity.
A poisoned blade stabbed toward Yako's lower back.
But Yako simply raised his other hand.
He caught the poisoned blade barehanded.
With a slight squeeze—
Crack.
The blade shattered.
A single punch destroyed the second puppet.
Yako tossed aside the broken fragments.
Looking at Sasori, he thought silently:
This kid would eventually grow into a Kage-level shinobi.
Killing him now would be a waste.
Better to wait until he grew stronger… and harvest his chakra later.
"I don't like waiting," Yako said.
"If you won't hand over Homura's Five Ninja Blades… then I'll have to take them."
Sasori stared at the broken puppet fragments on the sand.
Unease and helplessness welled up inside him.
The puppets he had painstakingly crafted…
couldn't even scratch Copper Fox's skin.
"Sasori," Yako continued, "I hear you're called a genius."
"But even a genius can't sculpt art from rotten mud."
"Puppet techniques are garbage."
"In the Second Shinobi War, your parents died on the battlefield because they practiced that garbage."
"And you… remember this."
"You're garbage too."
Yako slipped fully into Uchiha Madara's mocking style, unleashing relentless taunts.
If Sasori felt enough pressure, he would grow faster.
And once Sasori reached Kage-level…
Yako could harvest even more chakra.
Enraged by the humiliation, Sasori pulled out another scroll.
"I will never allow you to insult my parents—or the puppet art they devoted their lives to!"
"You and Konoha's White Fang will both die by my hands!"
White smoke erupted.
Four brand-new puppets appeared.
One puppet stood tall and powerful, wielding the Senju Greatsword.
One puppet was completely black, holding the Black Assassination Blade.
One puppet bristled with tubes capable of firing thousands of steel senbon and carried a giant Fuma Shuriken.
The last puppet wielded a chakra metal ninja blade.
Yako smiled faintly.
Perfect.
All of them were here.
No need to search.
"Garbage is still garbage," he said.
"It doesn't change just because your parents died."
"The greatest fear for a shinobi is walking the wrong path… and sinking deeper into despair the farther you go."
"If you don't believe me…"
"I'll demonstrate."
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
In the distance, members of the Leaf Monkey squad looked confused.
Against a single jonin—albeit a genius disciple of the Third Kazekage—was Wood Release really necessary?
Sasori panicked.
The desert around him had suddenly transformed into a maple forest.
Massive tree trunks blocked his vision.
He could even smell the scent of fresh leaves.
Suddenly he remembered something his teacher had once told him.
Wood Release wasn't just powerful.
It was cunning.
The toxins produced by Wood Release shinobi could rival Sand shinobi poisons.
Sasori didn't even dare breathe deeply.
Those scents suddenly felt dangerous.
He waved both hands.
Four puppets surged through the forest toward Copper Fox.
The puppet carrying the giant Fuma Shuriken unleashed a storm of poison needles.
But a massive tree suddenly grew in front of Copper Fox.
Every needle was effortlessly blocked.
"Those soft little needles," Yako said mockingly.
"What are you? A acupuncturist?"
Sasori's anger exploded.
His fingers moved faster.
Suddenly, wooden vines descended from the maple trees.
There were too many.
They formed a massive web.
The vines wrapped tightly around the four puppets.
The puppets tried cutting the vines with hidden weapons and mechanisms.
But the vines were unbelievably tough.
They wouldn't break.
Worse still—
they absorbed chakra.
The chakra threads controlling the puppets were rapidly drained.
Tree trunks surged forward.
Within moments, the four puppets were crushed.
Sasori stood frozen.
Despair filled his gaze.
Why had he been defeated so quickly?
The puppet shells—made from hardened yellow wood—crumbled into splinters.
The iron mechanisms inside clattered helplessly.
These four elite puppets…
built with his grandmother Chiyo's full support…
had been destroyed so easily?
Was puppet art truly worthless?
Should he abandon it and train Wind Release instead?
No.
Sasori shook his head.
He had seen Elder Ebizo's Wind Release techniques.
Even Wind Release would be powerless here.
If Copper Fox was this strong…
how terrifying must Konoha's White Fang be?
His parents had died at the hands of those two.
It must have been painful.
Just like how he now faced Copper Fox.
Four ironwood vines delivered the four weapons before Yako.
"Why is one missing?"
"Why are there only four?"
"Where's the nine-section blade?"
"Sasori… did you hide Homura's weapon?"
Sasori said nothing.
He pulled out another puppet scroll.
Yako shook his head.
"Foolish Sasori."
"Homura's Five Ninja Blades aren't meant to be used like that."
"I'll show you what true Senju weapon mastery looks like."
Four ironwood vines wrapped the weapons like flexible tentacles.
They whipped through the air, accelerating the weapons with terrifying momentum.
The Senju Greatsword carved an enormous arc through the air and roared toward Sasori.
According to legend, the Senju Greatsword had been the First Hokage's favorite weapon.
It was said to be indestructible.
Sasori hurriedly ordered the Salamander puppet to drop the meteorite iron and shield him.
In the original history, Sasori had to use his scorpion tail to find Salamander's weakness.
Yako didn't need that.
The Senju Greatsword slammed directly into the raised shield.
Crack!
Sasori stared in disbelief.
The shield—reinforced to maximum defensive strength by his grandmother Chiyo—
split cleanly in two.
The plate was nearly ten centimeters thick.
Yet the greatsword sliced through it effortlessly.
The blade continued forward.
The Salamander's entire head exploded into pieces.
Sasori stared in horror at Copper Fox standing atop a maple-tree arch bridge in the distance.
Was this the difference?
Was puppet art truly so fragile before true strength?
Just then—
A black blade suddenly burst from the ground and stabbed toward Sasori's heart.
Sasori's adrenaline exploded.
His mind screamed to dodge—
but the attack was too fast.
The angle too vicious.
His body couldn't respond.
The assassination blade had been hidden underground by the vines.
Clang!
A sudden burst of iron sand knocked the blade away.
Sasori's eyes widened.
He recognized the black iron sand immediately.
It was his teacher's secret Magnetic Release technique.
The Third Kazekage had arrived outside the maple forest.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand World Method!"
Iron sand formed massive spikes in the air, creating a deadly piercing barrier.
The dense iron spikes tore through every maple tree and ironwood vine.
The forest fell silent.
Nothing moved anymore.
Yako turned his head.
He had noticed the arrival long ago.
The Third Kazekage.
Said to be the strongest Kazekage in Sunagakure's history.
…Troublesome.
How had this guy been drawn out of Sunagakure?
Yako sighed inwardly.
I haven't finished my trash talk yet.
I kind of miss Uchiha Madara.
Next time we meet, I should really study his art of insults.