"It's not over yet."
Kiyohara formed seals with both hands.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Bind!"
The black iron sand that he had already seized control of suddenly morphed, transforming into dozens of black iron-sand chains that shot out from all directions, wrapping toward the Third Kazekage puppet!
Sasori hurriedly manipulated the Third Kazekage human puppet to evade, but there were simply too many chains, and they were far too fast.
In the end, three chains successfully coiled around the puppet's legs and its left arm!
"Got you."
Kiyohara yanked hard.
The Third Kazekage puppet was forcibly dragged out of the air and slammed heavily onto the ground.
Between a puppeteer and their puppet, the only connection was the chakra threads.
Under Kiyohara's brute strength, those threads formed purely from chakra were naturally unable to withstand such force.
Immediately afterward—
Even more iron-sand chains wrapped around, pinning the puppet firmly to the ground.
Sasori's expression finally changed.
He tried to free the puppet, but the iron sand controlled by Kiyohara and the puppet's own Magnet Release were of the same origin, canceling each other out. For a moment, it was completely unable to break free.
He quickly reached behind himself and pulled out a scroll.
Crack!
As the scroll unfurled, a conduit opened in the center of Sasori's palm.
Hands were among the body parts most commonly modified by puppeteers and Sasori was no exception.
A deep rumbling suddenly came from the black conduit.
A violent torrent of highly corrosive, extremely poisonous liquid blasted out!
The jet shot toward Kiyohara like a water cannon!
Scroll Technique: Violent Corrosive Stream!
"Die for me!"
Sasori glared at Kiyohara.
As Sunagakure's genius puppeteer and Chiyo's especially favored disciple and beloved grandson, he had always possessed a pride far beyond that of ordinary people.
Yet from the moment Kiyohara appeared, he had been pressed into a one-sided beating.
This was nothing short of an assault on his pride as a puppeteer!
Facing the rapidly approaching, intensely corrosive poison, Kiyohara chose to use the body of the Third Kazekage puppet as a shield.
Hiss—!
Thick white smoke billowed from the puppet as its back was corroded, exposing some of the internal mechanical components.
As for the remaining spray, Kiyohara dodged it at extreme speed.
Both Steel Release and Earth Release: Earth Spear leaned toward hardening and metalizing the body.
But he had no idea what kind of poison Sasori was using—better to be cautious.
"Hmph!"
Sasori clenched his teeth, fingers moving rapidly.
Though parts of the Third Kazekage puppet had been corroded, that very damage allowed it to break free from one of the iron-sand chains.
That single opening was already enough to launch an attack.
The puppet's chest suddenly opened, revealing densely packed poison-needle launch ports inside.
"Thousand Arms Manipulation!"
The puppet's left arm fully unfolded. Mechanisms within the arm activated summoning-style formulas, actually calling forth hundreds of phantom wooden arms!
Each arm gripped a poison-coated kunai, stabbing toward Kiyohara like a Thousand-Armed attack!
"Kurenai, all of you, fall back!"
Kiyohara shouted, his hand seals already complete.
He took a deep breath, his chest swelling, and then—
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A standard C-rank Fire Release, yet in Kiyohara's hands it displayed a completely different level of power.
Not because he had modified the technique, but because of one thing—
chakra quantity.
The size of a Great Fireball depended on the caster's chakra output.
Or rather, the power of any ninjutsu depended on chakra output.
Even a beginner, if they possessed enough chakra, could still produce terrifying results!
In other words, when chakra reserves were vast enough, a "fireball" ceased to be a ball—
and became a sea of fire!
A gigantic fireball over ten meters in diameter erupted from Kiyohara's mouth, surging forward like a blazing torrent.
The intense heat distorted the air ahead; trees ignited instantly, and the grass on the ground carbonized in an instant.
Sasori's Thousand Arms Manipulation was as fragile as paper before the flames.
The wooden arms burned, and the poison needles melted in the extreme heat.
"This is called the Great Fireball Technique?"
Kurenai stood there, dumbfounded.
It wasn't like she'd never seen the technique before.
Uchiha shinobi of her generation, like Uchiha Obito or Uchiha Tekka, could all use it.
But she had never seen anyone's "ball" this big!
When the flames finally dissipated, the ground around the Third Kazekage puppet had turned into scorched earth.
The puppet itself, made of heat-resistant iron sand, wasn't severely damaged but Sasori's expression was extremely ugly.
"Well now… what a surprise."
Sasori's voice turned cold.
"The stronger you are, the more I desire to obtain you."
Suddenly, he laughed—a chilling, spine-tingling smile.
"But do you really think these are all my methods?"
Sasori lightly hooked his finger.
Though the Third Kazekage puppet was still bound, its mouth suddenly opened, spewing out a cloud of purple mist.
The mist spread rapidly. Wherever it passed, grass withered and rocks were corroded with pitted holes.
"This is my specially crafted poison fog,"
Sasori said smugly.
Though things weren't going entirely smoothly, everything was still within his control.
He hadn't revealed all his trump cards yet.
"Poison fog…"
Kiyohara's expression didn't change. He formed seals and unleashed Wind Release: Gale Palm.
The fierce wind from his palm blew both the Third Kazekage puppet and the purple poison cloud off to the side.
So what if you're an Uchiha?
"Hahahaha… it's useless. As long as you make even the slightest contact, you'll be poisoned."
Sasori looked at Kiyohara.
"Inhale just a little and your entire body will become paralyzed, rot away, and die of organ failure before long. There is no antidote because only I know the formula."
So what if you have the Sharingan?
So what if you can use Magnet Release?
Big talk.
All you can do is watch your own death.
Unless Kiyohara could analyze and decipher the toxin in advance, everything would be futile.
This was the poison crafted by the genius puppeteer Sasori!
"Is that so."
Kiyohara's expression remained calm.
He took out a tube from his leather pouch and drank all of the liquid inside.
"Your poison is indeed impressive."
Kiyohara nodded.
In the original story, Sasori's poison pushed Kankurō to the brink of death, and it took Sakura three full days to formulate an antidote.
The current Sasori was still more than ten years away from that level of development.
His poisons now were neither as complex nor as powerful.
With Yakushi Nono around, this was more than enough.
Kiyohara had anticipated this long ago.
"What?!"
Sasori's eyes widened.
"That's impossible—my poison…"
His toxin required a specific formula to counteract. How could Kiyohara have prepared an antidote in advance?
Had the poison on his subordinates' weapons been exposed?
No—impossible.
Even if it had been exposed, there wouldn't have been enough time.
Sasori frowned deeply.
He had investigated Kiyohara and his teammates. Aside from Kiyohara knowing a bit of medical ninjutsu, none of them should have been capable of countering his poison.
And that orphanage headmistress, she was just an ordinary medical shinobi.
Could there have been errors in the intelligence he gathered?
Then Sasori saw Yakushi Nono take out the same medicine and give it to Kurenai and Kabuto.
She took it herself as well.
It was her!
After years of experience in the shinobi world, Sasori had learned many things.
Shinobi were the best at disguise.
"It seems you're not an ordinary medical shinobi. Your intelligence must have been secretly altered."
Sasori looked at Yakushi Nono.
"An exquisite formula,"
Yakushi Nono nodded.
"It's a mixture of more than a dozen neurotoxins, three corrosive components, and two catalytic enzymes. Unfortunately for you, I've studied poisons a little."
She took several more small vials from her robe.
"Hemolytic toxin, muscle-dissolving agent, neural inhibitors, your poisons all have antidotes right here."
What she had given Kiyohara earlier were general-purpose medicines—
drugs suitable for most situations. The ones in her hands now were more specialized antidotes.
Sasori's expression sank completely.
He stared at Yakushi Nono as if trying to see through the seemingly ordinary orphanage director.
"Who are you, really? Antidotes of this level… are you Konoha's ANBU?"
"I'm just a woman who wants to protect the children."
Yakushi Nono said calmly.
"And your poison would hurt them."
Sasori fell silent.
He looked at the two people before him.
Both of them possessed strength that far exceeded his initial impressions.
As for Kurenai, Sasori had already confirmed that only her strength truly matched what her outward appearance suggested.
But he himself was a once-in-a-century puppet genius of Sunagakure!
"Very well"
Sasori slowly raised his hand.
"Then let me see how long you can hold o—"
Kiyohara charged forward directly, cutting him off.
Sasori's pupils shrank. He hadn't expected Kiyohara to ignore all conventions and give him no chance to finish speaking.
He dodged repeatedly, barely managing to find an opening to release his ninjutsu.
More chakra threads shot out from his fingertips. This time, they were not only connected to the Third Kazekage puppet, but also to three scrolls that flew out from his chest.
The scrolls unfurled midair, and amid white smoke, three human puppets of distinct designs appeared.
One was a taijutsu-specialized shinobi puppet, its muscles modified and reinforced. Another was a Mist shinobi puppet capable of using Water Release. The last was a Sand shinobi puppet proficient in Wind Release.
The battle escalated once more.
Kurenai used genjutsu to disrupt the Water Release puppet's hand seals, while simultaneously restraining it with shuriken and steel wire.
Yakushi Nono, though not skilled in combat, provided support with her medical ninjutsu, while also using precise medical needles to strike the points where chakra threads connected to the other two puppets.
As for Kiyohara, his opponents were still Sasori himself and the Third Kazekage puppet.
He continued to press closer to Sasori, preventing him from deploying even more human puppets.
"The game is over," Sasori said coldly.
"I won't give you any more chances."
The Third Kazekage puppet, which had just been blown away by Kiyohara, suddenly erupted with even stronger chakra.
Behind it, a pair of black iron-sand wings gradually took shape, resembling a gigantic bird spreading its wings.
Magnet Release: Iron Sand Wings!
In the next instant, the densely compressed iron sand on its shoulders fired countless iron-sand feathers from the center of the wings in a long-range assault.
Chi chi chi chi chi!
These iron-sand feathers swept out like bullets from a machine gun.
BOOM!
In the blink of an eye, the ground was blasted into clouds of dust.
The iron-sand feathers were so fast that they were nearly impossible to track with the naked eye, and each one carried homing capabilities.
"Magnet Release: Iron Sand World Order!"
Finally, Sasori stopped directing the Third Kazekage's iron sand to attack Kiyohara directly, instead recalling the iron-sand feathers from the dust cloud.
Immediately afterward, the iron sand interwove and assembled in midair, forming a massive three-dimensional cage!
The cage rapidly contracted, attempting to trap Kiyohara inside. At the same time, countless spikes formed from iron sand within the cage, stabbing toward Kiyohara from every direction.
No matter which way he moved, he would collide with iron-sand spikes.
Yet Kiyohara's expression remained calm.
His clothes were torn in several places, revealing skin beneath that gleamed with a pitch-black metallic sheen.
"Future me, lend me your power," Kiyohara said.
These iron-sand feathers were extremely fast, one could only say that the Third Kazekage truly lived up to his reputation.
Although he was dead and had been turned into a puppet, much of his instinct still remained.
"You want my Sharingan?"
Uchiha Kiyohara's spirit floated out, looking at Kiyohara.
His scarlet three-tomoe Sharingan slowly rotated.
"That's right," Kiyohara nodded.
A single-tomoe Sharingan really was pushing things.
But during possession, it was possible to briefly borrow this ocular power.
Of course, the price was that Uchiha Kiyohara's spirit would dissipate faster.
"So it's Sasori," Uchiha Kiyohara said as he looked at Sasori's figure.
At this point, Sasori had yet to join the Akatsuki, he was merely a missing-nin wandering the world.
"Let me handle this," Uchiha Kiyohara said.
It had been quite a while since he last fought.
Kiyohara paused for a moment, then nodded.
He had not yet fully mastered the Uchiha-style Flowing Body Technique.
Some things could not be truly used just by learning the motions.
The number of techniques in the Uchiha Flowing Body style was limited; what mattered more was judging when and how to use each taijutsu move.
Moments later, Kiyohara relinquished control of his body.
Uchiha Kiyohara formally possessed him.
Their exchange occurred entirely within consciousness; in the outside world, it took less than a second.
Uchiha Kiyohara controlled Kiyohara's body, moving swiftly.
Each time an iron-sand spike pierced inward, the body dodged in perfect synchrony.
Because he was possessing Kiyohara, Uchiha Kiyohara could also use Steel Release and Magnet Release.
However, he was unfamiliar with these two kekkei genkai, so he used neither.
Watching his own body move, Kiyohara felt a strange sensation.
He quickly memorized these smooth evasive movements, integrating them into his own skill set.
"This guy…"
Sasori stared at Kiyohara.
For a moment, he felt that something about his opponent had changed.
The Sharingan in those eyes darted rapidly up, down, left, and right, like streaks of red lines shifting through darkness.
Moreover, the original single tomoe seemed to overlap with a phantom image.
At first, that phantom image also had a single tomoe, but it quickly began to rotate and deform, eventually forming a pattern of three connected tomoe.
Sasori blinked and Kiyohara's eyes appeared normal again.
Still just a single tomoe.
As if everything he had just seen were an illusion.
"Genjutsu…? When did it happen?"
Sasori frowned and immediately heightened his guard.
But it was useless.
Thanks to the shared vision, Kiyohara could see the world differently now.
The colors of chakra flow were more vivid and distinct.
Every subtle movement Sasori made slowed down.
It was as if someone had suddenly pressed a slow-motion button, granting far more time to observe each frame.
'So this is… the world of the three-tomoe,' Kiyohara thought.
He now possessed the same vision as Uchiha Kiyohara.
The Sharingan was a weapon, but also an organ.
And that meant it was inseparable from the user's physical qualities.
In the anime, the progenitor of the Uchiha clan, Indra, possessed Mangekyō Sharingan like Sasuke.
However, it was never clearly stated whether it was an Eternal Mangekyō or a normal Mangekyō.
In the manga, Indra's performance was even more outrageous.
At the level of a three-tomoe Sharingan, he could already activate a Complete Susanoo!
His opponent was Asura, who inherited the Sage of Six Paths' chakra and also wielded the Nine-Tails' chakra.
It was precisely because of such imbalance that the Sage of Six Paths ultimately decided to divide his power equally between Naruto and Sasuke, letting their choices determine the outcome.
What Kiyohara was thinking now, however, was whether his three-tomoe perception was the same as that of an ordinary three-tomoe Sharingan.
After all, his spiritual energy had been layered and amplified…
"Burn to death!"
Sasori roared.
His modified palms and arms connected to the scrolls hanging behind his waist.
In an instant, a long tongue of flame with terrifying melting power and heat erupted from the conduit in his palm.
Scroll Technique: Inferno Suppression Formation!
Not only that—Sasori also commanded the other puppets to abandon their fight with Kurenai and Yakushi Nono, charging straight toward Kiyohara instead.
Together with the Third Kazekage puppet, they attacked him all at once!
"Humans rely on their perception and cognition to understand the world, yet are also bound by them. But perception and cognition themselves are ambiguous things, reality may be nothing more than a mirage…"
Although Kiyohara's voice retained the same tone, after Uchiha Kiyohara's possession, there was a subtle difference in inflection.
"Hate the fate that denied you a Sharingan."
Uchiha Kiyohara murmured internally as he unleashed a Sharingan genjutsu.
This technique was called Demonic Illusion: Mirror Flower Technique.
By using mist or flowing water as a medium, it employed Sharingan ocular power to confuse the enemy and drag them into an illusion.
In that instant, Sasori lowered his head and noticed streams of water spreading across the ground.
Had Kiyohara used a Water Release technique?
Just as he prepared to move away from these strange streams, he realized that the water seemed to be constantly swirling.
As if… as if it were refracting something.
At the center of the refraction were countless vortices!
Within those vortices, Sasori saw scarlet eyes.
Then, the world changed.
Sasori found himself standing in an empty white space.
Before him stood a gigantic mirror, but the reflection was not his current self—it was his childhood self.
The version of him who had not yet transformed himself into a half-puppet, who was still a being of pure flesh and blood.
The child Sasori in the mirror smiled and extended a hand.
"Come back… return to your complete self."
"Genjutsu?!"
Sasori immediately realized it—but it was already too late.
"I have already seen the reality of your failure," Kiyohara's voice echoed through the white space.
Then Sasori felt the agony of countless shuriken piercing his heart all at once.
The illusionary world began to collapse.
Sasori's spirit struggled violently. Though Sharingan genjutsu was powerful, his will was equally unyielding.
After all, he was a madman who had already modified more than half of his body, his mental structure was long since abnormal.
In the real world, less than two seconds had passed.
But those two seconds were enough.
Kiyohara's Sharingan saw through the weak points in the cage's structure, tearing open a gap at minimal cost.
He appeared right in front of Sasori, the kunai in his hand flashing with a cold glint.
Sasori had just broken free from the genjutsu when he saw the blade already at his neck.
He hurriedly leaned back while controlling the nearest Third Kazekage puppet to block in front of him.
But Kiyohara's true target had never been his neck.
The kunai changed direction mid-thrust, stabbing straight toward Sasori's chest!
That was the location of his heart, the last part of him that remained human, not yet fully mechanized!
Sasori's pupils contracted.
He commanded the Third Kazekage puppet's arm to block his chest, but Kiyohara's Sharingan had already predicted that movement.
The kunai slipped through the gap between the puppet's arm joints.
Puchi.
Blood sprayed.
Sasori lowered his head. At the brink of death, he unleashed unprecedented potential.
Even so, he was still struck.
He barely avoided the heart, but his lung was pierced through.
"Hh… hh…"
The sound of labored breathing echoed like a broken bellows.
His unmodified lung was instantly flooded with blood, bringing a searing pain like being burned alive.
Pain.
How long had it been since he last felt something like this?
Yet now, the stabbing agony in his chest was so real, and warm blood soaked into his brown shinobi armor.
"Damn…"
Sasori's voice was hoarse.
Kiyohara did not stop.
He swung his shinobi blade and thrust again, this time aiming for Sasori's neck, intending to sever his head!
Sasori finally exploded with rage.
"I almost got killed by you."
Half of his modified body could no longer be considered mere flesh.
Sasori could overclock his chakra pathways.
He immediately ordered all puppets except the Third Kazekage to self-destruct!
The multiple explosive tags hidden within their bodies were triggered.
BOOM!
The explosion kicked up thick smoke.
Sasori did not seek to kill Kiyohara, only to temporarily block his vision.
But Kiyohara still slashed out swiftly.
Puchi.
One of Sasori's arms was severed, frozen in the motion of reaching into his shinobi tool pouch.
The pouch fell to the ground along with it.
Sasori dared not pause for even an instant, fleeing outward at full speed.
"I'll remember you, Kiyohara. Next time we meet, I will get you… I swear."
When the smoke dispersed, Sasori was gone.
Only a severed arm and a shinobi tool pouch remained.
Uchiha Kiyohara released the possession.
Kiyohara watched the direction Sasori fled but did not pursue.
Sasori surely had some kind of base nearby. Chasing him recklessly and falling into a trap would be troublesome.
For a puppeteer, setting traps was as easy as eating or drinking.
But there was another reason Kiyohara didn't give chase.
He looked at the shinobi tool pouch on the ground.
Covering his palm with Steel Release to avoid poisoning, he carefully inspected it. After confirming there were no hidden toxins or mechanisms, he picked it up and found a scroll about half the size of a wrist inside.
Judging by its appearance, Kiyohara recalled Sasori taking it out during the battle.
After using Scroll Technique: Violent Corrosive Stream, he had spewed corrosive poison.
Besides this, there were several smaller sealing scrolls.
After checking them, Kiyohara discovered records detailing how to modify living people into human puppets, how to preserve kekkei genkai, how to implant mechanisms…
This was part of Sasori's research notes.
They also included his methods of poisoning and detoxification, as well as techniques for keeping toxins on weapons longer without dispersing odor, and much more.
There were also extensive notes on puppet maintenance and repair.
It seemed that in his haste to escape, Sasori had abandoned everything.
"Quite a few puppets, huh."
Kiyohara opened one of the scrolls and saw many circular summoning-technique patterns arranged around it.
At the center were characters that read: "Ten."
Puff.
(End of Chapter)