"It's finally out."
Ryoma looked at the red-haired boy before him—the crimson cocoon from earlier had merely been Sasori's preferred hiding shell.
But the red-haired youth standing there wasn't Sasori's true body.
Ryoma knew well: years ago, Sasori had transformed himself into a living puppet. His real essence—the only remaining piece of flesh—was the Regeneration Core, the container of his life and soul.
As long as the Regeneration Core remained intact, Sasori could resurrect through any puppet. Only its destruction meant true death.
"Hmph. Anyone who sees my true form… cannot be allowed to live."
Sasori still didn't know that Ryoma had already seen through him. His body released a faint white mist as a thick metal cable shot out from his abdomen, stabbing into the ground and suspending him mid-air. A fan-shaped apparatus unfolded at his back—steel wings, blades glinting with a cold, murderous light.
With weapons coated in deadly poisons, Sasori moved like a spider, lurching toward Ryoma at blinding speed.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sharp sound of metal rang repeatedly, but Sasori's blades couldn't so much as graze Ryoma.
He instantly sensed something wrong—Ryoma wasn't even trying. He merely stood there, relaxed, casually parrying everything with a black chakra rod that had appeared in his hand.
"Bang!"
A single tap from Ryoma shattered Sasori's bladed limbs.
"Tch."
Realizing the danger, Sasori jumped back several meters, raising his palms.
"Scroll Release — Hellfire Shower!"
"Scroll Release — Extreme Erosion Flow!"
The fire scroll unleashed flames hot enough to melt steel into liquid. The water scroll followed with ultra-high-pressure jets of poisoned water and razor-thin water blades.
But to Ryoma, such ninjutsu were meaningless.
A sealing formula flickered across his body.
All flames and water instantly collapsed into pure chakra and were absorbed into him.
"W–What!?"
Sasori's eyes widened in disbelief. The power Ryoma displayed was far beyond anything he could have imagined.
But he didn't hesitate. With a flick of his fingers, he activated his space-time scroll to summon a new puppet.
A tall figure appeared—draped in black robes, jet-black hair flowing unnaturally, and ominous wings flapping behind him.
The Third Kazekage.
Years ago, Sasori had assassinated the strongest Kazekage in Sunagakure history and converted him into a Human Puppet—a puppet capable of using all his original chakra and kekkei genkai.
As the most gifted puppet master in history, Sasori could craft any puppet he desired—but a human puppet was on a different level entirely. By retaining the original chakra pathways, the puppet could use all ninjutsu the person possessed in life.
Thus, the reappearance of the Third Kazekage meant Sasori now wielded the most feared technique in the history of the Sand Village.
"Hah!"
Chakra threads burst from Sasori's fingertips as he manipulated the puppet.
Iron sand surged from the earth, dragged together by intense magnetic force, forming a massive spearhead like a blackened iron lance.
"Iron Sand Spear!"
The spear rocketed toward Ryoma like a falling meteor.
The Third Kazekage's kekkei genkai—Magnet Release—condensed chakra into magnetic fields to manipulate Iron Sand at will. Once iron sand invaded the human body, it could completely paralyze the target.
But Ryoma merely extended a single finger.
The massive spear froze in mid-air—motionless, as if time itself had halted.
Countless cracks spread across its surface, and a second later—
Boom.
It shattered into a cloud of iron dust.
"This game ends here."
Ryoma's eyes shifted—the Rinnegan activating.
A mysterious wave of chakra radiated outward, bending space around him.
Sasori's expression finally changed. As a puppet master, his chakra perception was exceptionally deep. The chakra now emanating from Ryoma wasn't large in quantity—but its nature was divine, overwhelming, suffocating.
His heart tightened.
"Limbo: Border Jail."
The shockwave surged outward in all directions. Sasori immediately sensed an invisible force closing in on him.
"Not good!"
His years of battle experience kicked in. Sasori kicked off the ground, leaping seven or eight meters into the air.
But the moment he thought he had evaded danger—
That same crushing sense of crisis returned.
And airborne, he had no way to dodge. He couldn't even block it.
First, he couldn't see the source of the attack.
Second, the attack was far too fast.
Acting on instinct, Sasori dumped chakra into his threads, dragging the Third Kazekage's puppet in front of him at a speed no human body should have been able to match.
"Boom!"
The unseen blows of Limbo: Border Jail pierced straight through the Kazekage puppet as though it were paper.
The puppet detonated instantly—fragments vaporizing into nothing. The residual shockwave slammed into Sasori, sending him hurtling across the battlefield.
The earth was gouged open for hundreds of meters, a vast trench carved as debris and dust erupted skyward.
From within the smoke, a poisoned blade whistled through the air.
Ryoma flicked it aside casually, shattering it with a single tap.
"Still not dead."
Turning his head, he saw Sasori—this time completely unharmed.
Sasori had used some method to evade the fatal blow.
As the white smoke dispersed, the truth became clear.
Suspended behind Sasori were rows upon rows of puppets—dense, towering, countless.
Nearly three hundred puppets, each different in shape, weaponry, and structure—but united by the red robes draped over them and their chilling visages.
From the dark compartment on Sasori's right chest, hundreds of thin chakra threads extended into the air.
Each thread linked to a puppet clad in a black trench coat.
Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets.
This ultimate technique allowed Sasori to command an army of puppets at once—and more importantly, to transfer his Regeneration Core, preserving his life by moving it between puppets.
Fear flickered across Sasori's gaze.
If he hadn't transferred his core the moment before—he would be dead.
For Sasori, his true life existed solely within the Regeneration Core that generated his chakra. As long as the core survived, he could swap bodies endlessly.
But that was also his weakness—if the core was hit, it meant instant death.
Now, with all three hundred puppets summoned and connected to his core, he no longer needed to use his fingers. His will flowed directly into each puppet.
Three hundred bodies, acting with the precision of his own hands and feet.
This was the pinnacle of puppetry.
"Three hundred puppets… even if I exhaust my life's arsenal today, I will kill you."
Sasori's eyes were cold. The army of puppets above him surged like a crimson tide toward Ryoma.
Ryoma did not retreat.
"Shinra Tensei."
A single command.
An invisible force erupted outward.
The three hundred puppets were crushed instantly—splintering into fragments under the overwhelming repulsive power.
Countless explosions echoed across the battlefield.
After enduring Shinra Tensei, Sasori's consciousness blurred. In that moment, Ryoma's voice sounded beside him.
"So you were hiding here."
Ryoma's fingers closed around Sasori's Regeneration Core.
He did not destroy it.
He had two reasons:
First, Sasori held information Ryoma needed.
Second—and perhaps more importantly—Sasori's technique was worth studying.
To condense one's life and soul into a single core, bypassing the limits of flesh and entering a form of pseudo-immortality…
That level of puppetry was nothing short of genius.