Seeing Aoba Mizunotsuki's human puppet knocked outside the distance where he could finely control it with one finger, Sasori of the Red Sand did not hesitate.
He leaped onto the Third Kazekage puppet, had it grow a pair of iron sand wings, and flew into the air with him, swiftly chasing after Shisui Uchiha, who was hiding within the steam.
"Do not think you can escape."
Sasori of the Red Sand's voice was cold and calm, carrying the composure and ease of someone who held the advantage.
Shisui Uchiha had no intention of trading words with Sasori of the Red Sand.
He only swung his wings, and a cluster of black feathers flashing with sharp cold light tore through the rising cloud of steam, shooting directly toward Sasori of the Red Sand.
Clang—
The Third Kazekage puppet opened its mouth and released a large amount of iron sand, forming a giant shield wall in front of it.
It easily blocked all the black feathers that shot over at high speed.
However, what irritated Sasori of the Red Sand was that the black feathers Shisui Uchiha shot out split in two, once again severing the chakra threads between him and Aoba Mizunotsuki's human puppet.
As a result, the human puppet that should have crashed backward into an ice mirror and returned to the battlefield fell straight toward the ground like a kite with its string cut.
"You think that kind of move can work on me twice in a row—"
Sasori of the Red Sand had not finished talking to himself when, just as he was about to reconnect the chakra threads, he saw the black feathers embedded in the iron sand shield wall suddenly turn red.
In the next second, the feathers that had fallen from Shisui Uchiha's wings violently ignited before his eyes.
Fire Release: Flame Burst Feathers.
The chain explosions at close range violently shook the maintenance of the iron sand shield wall, also forcing Sasori of the Red Sand and the Third Kazekage puppet he rode to retreat.
Seizing this opportunity, Shisui Uchiha's figure dove downward, chasing directly after Aoba Mizunotsuki's falling human puppet.
The Uchiha's Sharingan could see through hidden chakra threads, ignore the puppet's cover and misdirection, and directly lock onto the puppet master's true body.
Compared to shinobi from other conventional systems, it possessed an enormous natural advantage when fighting puppet masters.
But that did not mean excellent puppet masters were incapable of countering Uchiha shinobi.
As one of the two most prominent ninja clans of the Warring States Period, methods for dealing with the Uchiha clan's Sharingan had long ago been summarized by their enemies.
That was the so-called "one person restrains from the front, one person circles around to attack from behind."
Through numerical superiority, they erased the Uchiha clan's advantage in quality and ruthlessly targeted the average Uchiha's weakness of being fragile.
And high-end puppet masters were, coincidentally, experts at multi-line operation.
An anomaly like Sasori of the Red Sand, who could even ruthlessly convert his own body fully into a puppet and possessed two high-grade puppets capable of using Kekkei Genkai abilities, was even more troublesome among the troublesome.
"Compared to Magnet Release, Ice Release restricts me far too much. Not only does it suppress the use of Fire Release, it also affects my speed when evading attacks… I'm sorry, Senior Aoba. I probably will not be able to bring your body back to the village intact."
As Shisui Uchiha thought that, the third hand grown through the Cursed Seal of Heaven formed another set of Fire Release seals completely different from the seals made by his two hands.
Then, just as Shisui Uchiha abruptly stopped and turned, spitting a massive fireball toward the Iron Sand Drizzle shooting down from the sky again, his third hand swung violently downward at Aoba Mizunotsuki's human puppet.
Sage Art: Orochi Nagi!
The violent flames first ignited the wings on Shisui Uchiha's body, turning the black wings a vivid crimson.
Then, along with the swing of the third hand, the crimson flames instantly converged and struck out, turning into an unavoidable firestorm that completely swallowed Aoba Mizunotsuki's human puppet in an instant.
Although Sasori of the Red Sand had already done everything possible to reconnect his chakra threads to Aoba Mizunotsuki's human puppet before it was hit, and had opened the hidden Mechanism Light Shield Seal inside the puppet's arm at the final moment in an attempt to block the oncoming flames, what made Sasori's expression change was that the crimson flame, brighter and more vivid than ordinary fire, not only easily destroyed the Mechanism Light Shield Seal on the human puppet and turned it into a blazing fireball, it also followed the chakra threads between himself and the puppet, spreading toward him at astonishing speed.
Snap.
Aoba Mizunotsuki's human puppet fell to the ground.
Under the burning of the crimson flames, the rapidly carbonizing body shattered into pieces from the impact.
Aside from the head, which Shisui Uchiha had deliberately spared, every other part of it turned into ash and melted iron at shocking speed within the crimson flames.
This strike, whose temperature far surpassed ordinary Fire Release, not only made Sasori of the Red Sand frown after severing the chakra threads, it also made Shisui Uchiha himself feel a considerable degree of excitement.
It worked!
According to what the Fourth had said, the trick of fusing a suitable amount of spiritual energy, physical energy, and natural energy in a one-to-one-to-one ratio, then producing enough senjutsu chakra to activate one ninjutsu, really was feasible for him!
Shisui Uchiha clenched his fist excitedly.
He did not notice at all that along with the release of Orochi Nagi, the faint facial markings that had appeared on his face for a time had quietly disappeared again.
The improved version of the Cursed Seal of Heaven was itself a degraded version of Ryuchi Cave Sage Mode.
After activating the second stage, the curse seal would draw in excessive natural energy to transform the user's body structure.
Under such conditions, every shinobi using the second stage of Rei Kaguya's version of the Cursed Seal of Heaven actually possessed the possibility of using sage arts.
However, possibility was one thing.
Actually doing it was another.
Under this degraded Sage Mode known as Cursed Seal State Two, although Rei Kaguya's power served as a foundation and prevented natural energy from rampaging, the chakra constantly surging out from inside the body severely interfered with the balance between the three energies.
Creating enough senjutsu chakra to truly enter Sage Mode was almost impossible.
But if it was only briefly creating a single portion of senjutsu chakra sufficient to activate one ninjutsu, making it on the spot and using it on the spot…
For Shisui Uchiha, who excelled in genjutsu and possessed exceptional talent in delicate chakra control, it was not impossible.
Looking at Aoba Mizunotsuki's human puppet, which had already been burned by crimson flames until only its head remained, and at the Tsuchigumo puppet whose steel threads had not all been withdrawn when it fell, causing it to be ignited and burned away as well, Sasori of the Red Sand's eyes revealed an incomparably grave look for the first time.
He did not know why the crimson Fire Release Shisui Uchiha had unleashed possessed such powerful might.
But he knew very clearly what degree of strength the materials he used to create human puppets possessed.
If even alloys of that strength could be directly melted, then the iron sand controlled by the Third Kazekage puppet would probably likewise be burned away by those crimson flames.
Should he flee?
Sasori of the Red Sand seriously considered this question in his mind.
But very quickly, he shook his head and reached for the final scroll behind him.
If Shisui Uchiha could use that crimson Fire Release proficiently, there was no reason he would have been suppressed by him like that at the beginning.
Nor would he have fired feathers carrying only ordinary Fire Release toward him when he was in a situation where it was difficult to dodge.
But if the other party needed a certain amount of preparation time before he could release that kind of powerful Fire Release once…
Then he would use absolute numbers to suppress him so thoroughly that he would have no chance to use that power.
The scroll marked "Red" unfurled.
Dozens of puppets far exceeding the normal control limit of ordinary puppet masters appeared from within it.
Together with Aogi, Akagi, and Gaju, which were still preserved on the ground, they cast malicious gazes toward Shisui Uchiha without any concealment.
And within Shisui Uchiha's Sharingan vision, all of these fully armed puppets had chakra threads connecting them to Sasori of the Red Sand's true body.
However, they were no longer connected to Sasori's remaining left hand.
Instead, they were connected to the chest of his puppet body.
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