After scraping together resources with near-painful effort, the chronically impoverished Hidden Sand Village finally completed Sasori's material list. Elder Chiyo wasted no time. Escorting several Anbu squads, she set out at full speed for the Land of Whirlpools.
Caution slowed them more than expected. By the time they arrived, supplies from other villages had already reached the camp.
Rasa tried—briefly—to hint that materials from Hidden Cloud and Iwagakure might come with strings attached. Sasori ignored him entirely. He dragged everything straight into his room, dismantling crates with a speed bordering on mania.
In fact, before Chiyo even stepped into the camp, Sasori had already produced a result.
A strip of chakra paper—half a meter long, narrow, and dense—lay on his workbench. Strange, interlocking patterns crawled across its surface, warped yet orderly. At the center, a single fiery symbol burned faintly, as if breathing.
Sasori fixed the talisman onto a puppet's torso.
Chakra surged.
A thin flame seeped from the puppet's mouth, then violently expanded, roaring forward with startling power—
And detonated.
The explosion consumed the puppet in an instant. Wood, metal, and seals were reduced to ash.
Silence followed.
Every ninja present understood what they had just witnessed.
Fixing a complete Ninjutsu structure onto chakra paper meant something terrifying: even a Genin could wield an attack capable of threatening a Jonin.
Orochimaru's eyes gleamed.
"Impressive," he said, rare praise slipping out unguarded.
He hadn't expected this taciturn Sunagakure boy to reach such a stage in mere days. True, engraving directly onto puppets was still far away—but sealing Ninjutsu into chakra paper alone was already a watershed breakthrough.
Li Rong glanced sideways. "Your progress?"
"Failed," Orochimaru replied evenly. "Hemostatic grass and coagulating grass are too hot in nature. Firefly grass can't neutralize them. I tried replacing it with ice crystal grass—"
He shook his head. "The liquids refused to merge. They carbonized inside the Creation Furnace."
"You found the reason?"
"Yes. Ice crystal grass can suppress cold, but it can't counter dryness. I need a separate agent to neutralize that property."
"…So you're balancing extremes by layering corrections," Li Rong said dryly. "Sounds like adding water to flour, then flour to water."
Orochimaru frowned. "What flour?"
"Nothing," Li Rong waved it off. "Good luck."
Unlike the others, Sasori showed no joy.
He stormed up to Li Rong, agitation plain. "My structure was flawless. Why did the Ninjutsu lose control and backfire?"
"Do you really want the answer from me?" Li Rong asked calmly.
Sasori remembered the earlier conditions and snorted. "No need. I'll figure it out myself."
Li Rong smiled. "I hope you do."
Sasori turned away immediately. "Rasa. Materials. I'm out of chakra metal—and everything else. I dismantled my puppets already."
"Elder Chiyo left three days ago," Rasa said carefully. "She should arrive today."
"Notify me the moment she does."
And with that, Sasori vanished back into his room, leaving his captain standing there, unheard.
Chiyo entered the camp shortly after.
What she saw gave her pause.
Minato, Tsunade, Rasa, Pakura—elite figures from multiple villages—were hauling materials like laborers. Nearby, younger ninja sparred and argued with the shop's clerks. Order existed, but hierarchy had softened.
Boss Li was nowhere to be seen.
Chiyo ignored it all. "Where is Sasori?"
"In his room," Rasa answered. "I'll inform him."
Sasori emerged only after unloading seven spatial scrolls into his workspace. On his way back out, he tossed two crude talismans toward Chiyo.
"Old woman. Look."
Chiyo didn't touch the patterns at first.
She fixed one talisman to a kunai, connected a chakra thread, and threw it.
Flames erupted—clean, stable.
Next, she triggered a standard explosive tag.
Then she gestured for Pakura to release Fire Style: Great Fireball.
Only after observing all three did Chiyo speak.
Sasori stared at the results, pupils contracting.
"…Mental energy," he breathed.
"A ninja's chakra is physical energy fused with mental intent. Ninjutsu isn't just power—it's guidance." His voice rose. "My talismans contain energy only. Without mental direction, the release destabilizes and rebounds!"
He spun and ran.
The basic runes Boss Li had provided—mental guidance structures—were already etched into his memory.
"If I integrate them…" His eyes burned. "It'll work."
Chiyo watched him go, relief flickering across her face. Since his parents' deaths, she hadn't seen that spark in him.
She carefully stored the remaining talisman. This one would go back to the Third Kazekage.
"Where is Boss Li?" she asked Rasa.
"I wish to thank him personally."
The next experiment failed.
Sasori stared at ruined chakra paper, jaw clenched.
Engraving two rune systems onto a single medium caused interference. Engrave sequentially, and overlap destroyed structure. Engrave simultaneously, and the chakra control required exceeded his limits.
Worse—chakra flow choked at fault lines. Activation failures were inevitable.
He tried expanding the mental rune, embedding the fire rune within it.
It worked.
But the talisman unfurled into a meter-long banner, glowing like a beacon.
Activation cost skyrocketed. Charge time was laughable. In combat, it would get him killed.
"This is cheating," Sasori muttered. "Not engineering."
Frustration followed him even to meals. Taste dulled. Thoughts spiraled.
Chiyo had already departed with Li Rong's approval, promising more materials soon.
Orochimaru, observing quietly, finally said, "Why not engrave the reverse side?"
Sasori restrained his temper. "Activation lag. Mental guidance won't synchronize. Same failure."
"And chakra paper can't handle double-sided stress," he continued sharply. "This one barely survives single-layer high-grade runes."
Orochimaru smiled faintly. "You're trapped by a flat mindset."
Sasori frowned.
"You don't want the runes on paper," Orochimaru continued. "You want them on the puppet."
He traced an invisible path. "Activate mental guidance first—rear structure—let it propagate. Then trigger the fire array."
Sasori froze.
Then slapped himself hard.
The sound echoed.
"…Three-dimensional vessels," he hissed. "Puppets."
His resistance toward Orochimaru visibly softened. "I owe you one."
Orochimaru chuckled. "I look forward to seeing the finished result."
"It worked!"
Sasori's shout tore through the camp.
Two talismans—mental and fire—were fixed to separate arms of the puppet.
Chakra flowed.
Mental guidance flared first.
Fire ignited second.
The blast struck the target thirty meters away, vaporizing the wooden stake without backlash, distortion, or leakage.
Sasori trembled as he held the puppet, eyes alight with obsession.
"Next," he whispered, "I engrave you directly."
[am writing a marvel gacha novel on my patreon please support]
_____________________
https://[email protected]/mrSOMEONE01234? [replace @ with a]
>>>>>I'm a student, and I'll try my best to keep uploading chapters regularly <<<<<
thanks for your support
[[READER TIER 1: translates stories {15$} ]] { RECOMENDED }
[[READER TIER 2: translated & original stories {20$} ]]
[[[[Please at least visit my patreon so I can have some traffic]]]]]
Also try
[[[Restaurant in Douluo Dalu (530+ch)]]] {6$}