What emerged from Sasori's hidden third scroll was not just Hiruko, the living puppet under his control.
Appearing behind a "terrified-looking" Hiruko were eleven other Sand shinobi, all displaying clear signs of life. Judging by their chakra fluctuations, every single one of them was a powerful ninja at the Special Jonin level or higher.
At this moment, including Hiruko, the twelve figures stood in a wild goose formation. Through some specialized method, their chakras seemed to link together as one, exuding an exceptionally dangerous and formidable aura!
In the next instant, Sasori raised both hands, his fingertips blurring into afterimages as they sliced through the air. Under his precise manipulation, the twelve figures immediately scattered, taking flight to shift their formation and completely surround Hyuga Yu.
Then, the eleven figures—excluding Hiruko—pulled a variety of mechanical weapons from beneath their grayish-brown robes. Giant cleavers, massive axes, greatswords, iron flails, iron whips, and heavy shields were all seamlessly attached to their blood-soaked arms!
Seeing this, Yu's eyes flickered slightly. Standing relaxed and composed in the center of the ring, he evaluated the display with great interest. "This is... a puppet army modeled after the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets? However, you've increased the number to eleven. In terms of pure manipulation technique, you have already surpassed Granny Chiyo of the Sand... Unfortunately, they are still no match for the real Chikamatsu Collection."
From the looks of it, what Sasori was currently deploying was an early prototype of his future masterpiece, the Secret Red Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets. Because he had not yet engineered the core that provided an infinite, clean source of chakra, Sasori was still walking down the traditional path of a Sand Village puppeteer. To reach the absolute pinnacle of puppetry, he resorted to the Human Puppet Technique—a forbidden jutsu that turned living people into puppets. By controlling these living bodies, he could preserve their original abilities, using them to fill the tactical niche of the Chikamatsu Collection.
However, even though Sasori's puppet-controlling techniques surpassed all previous puppeteers in the Sand Village, including the Second Kazekage, Shamon, there remained a massive quality gap. These living puppets simply lacked the specialized, unique mechanisms of the genuine Chikamatsu Collection.
Consequently, Yu quickly shifted his gaze to Hiruko, who was standing right in front of him. Having clearly overheard Yu's earlier pitch while sealed inside the scroll, Hiruko was currently sweating bullets. He kept casting frantic glances at Yu that practically screamed, "Boss, I'm putting in my resume! I surrender! Let me join!"
The core threat of Sasori's flawed ultimate technique still heavily relied on Hiruko.
In a split second, Yu analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of this formation. But what truly caught his attention was something else entirely—his gaze dropped to the scroll beneath Sasori's feet, which bore the kanji for "Living."
Whether a puppet was living or dead made little difference to Yu. However, even with his exceptionally critical standards regarding the ninja world's current storage and transport technologies, he found the scroll Sasori used to preserve living puppets to be utterly breathtaking.
There was no doubt about it—the Hiruko standing before him right now was alive!
And what Sasori had just done was mind-boggling: he had literally sealed a living Hiruko inside a storage scroll and pulled him right back out!
Yu immediately recognized the revolutionary potential of this technology!
Sealing scrolls were typically only capable of storing inanimate objects, such as ninja tools, medicine, and provisions. When dealing with living creatures, ninjas usually relied on Summoning Jutsu formulas to transport a contracted beast from one location to another.
Yet, Sasori's scroll was not a summoning scroll. It was a storage scroll that simultaneously possessed the ability to compress, preserve, and contain living organisms!
For the field of bio-preservation technology, this was a game-changer capable of completely disrupting the entire industry!
Yu's mind raced. If this technology could be extracted and applied to the manufacturing of large-scale weapons of war, it could preserve the biological neural activity within giant mechanical constructs, establishing a sensory-neural link system...
Combined with a chakra core for power, the Human Puppet Technique to interface with a human brain, and the Memory-Concealing Sand Technique...
Damn... isn't this just the neural-handshake Jaeger technology from Pacific Rim?!
Yet to Sasori, this seemed to be nothing more than a trivial, throwaway technique he developed just to make carrying his living puppets more convenient. He was actually wasting this paradigm-shifting technology on the most stagnant, dead-end branch of ninjutsu: puppetry!
This was the equivalent of taking the high-tech, carbon-fiber arresting cable technology from an aircraft carrier and using it to manufacture a common fishing rod!
What an absolute maniac! What a monster!
This is a textbook definition of throwing pearls before swine!
In an instant, Yu's Byakugan flared with intense light. Completely ignoring the flashy array of living puppets surrounding him, his sharp, calculating gaze darted back and forth between Sasori's third scroll and Sasori himself.
His piercing stare felt as though it were peeling away the standard Sand Village leather armor Sasori wore, sweeping across his bare skin, boring straight through his youthful visage to peer directly into the rebellious heart beneath. He wanted to capture the true thoughts buried deep inside the boy.
"Wait... could this also be part of your plan?"
"Sasori of the Red Sand, are you using this method to showcase your technical achievements to me?"
"You've actually... already thought of using this method to conduct a reverse-interview of your prospective employer?!"
At this realization, the look Yu directed at Sasori became increasingly fervent!
At this moment, the sheer potential displayed by this future employee completely eclipsed Hiruko in his eyes!
Meanwhile, Sasori felt a sudden, violent chill crawl up his spine. Under Yu's gaze—which had turned sharply intense, greedy, sinister, and thoroughly unsettling—the pressure weighing on Sasori's chest skyrocketed!
He stared warily at Yu, who still had the leisure to stand calmly and lecture him even when surrounded by such a deadly force. Sasori dared not let his guard down. Tapping his toes against the ground, he leapt backward more than twenty meters. Only after putting enough distance between them to react to any sudden taijutsu assault did he speak coldly.
"The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets... Hah, nothing more than a crude stacking of the forbidden Human Puppet Technique. It's a legacy of an outdated era."
"As long as I continue to collect powerful living puppets, I will soon surpass the Second Kazekage and become a puppeteer far greater than he ever was!"
Sasori's eyes shifted from his puppets back to Yu. The corners of his mouth curled into a cold sneer. "For example... you!"
The moment the words fell, Sasori raised his ten fingers, his hands dancing in a rapid blur!
Nearly invisible chakra threads shot from his fingertips, embedding themselves into the bodies of the living puppets. The eyes of the puppets flashed to life simultaneously, and they all snapped their heads over to glare coldly at Yu in the center of the battlefield!
The iron sand floating in the air also began to sink slowly into the ground under the control of the Third Kazekage puppet. At the same time, Hiruko, who had relinquished his bodily control to Sasori, stepped forward to face Yu directly. He slowly raised his palm, unraveling the bandages to reveal the uniquely designed mark of his Dark Release: Inhaling Mouth!
The atmosphere instantly grew suffocatingly tense!
Time itself seemed to freeze at this moment. Between the opposing forces, the silence was so profound that one could hear a pin drop.
Right up until the very last grain of iron sand sank beneath the surface!
Sasori abruptly raised both hands, clapping his palms together to form the Snake seal as he shouted coldly, "Magnet Release: Iron Sand Gathering Assault!"
In the next fraction of a second—
Boom!!!!
The silent battlefield shattered from absolute stillness into violent motion. With the Third Kazekage puppet in front of Sasori acting as the epicenter, countless spikes formed of iron sand instantly erupted through the earth, piercing toward the heavens!
The endless iron sand spikes grew from the ground like jagged tree branches, interlocking and spreading maniacally toward Yu in the center of the battlefield, forming a massive, cold, and razor-sharp cage of iron sand!
"Trying to trap me?"
Seeing this, Yu's eyes shifted slightly. He casually raised a hand and spread his five fingers wide.
"Wind Release: Almighty Push!"
A pale green barrier spanning three meters around him rose once more from the surface of his body, instantly expanding outward with devastating force—
BOOM!
A terrifying tempest erupted around Yu. An endless river of wind blades, driven by the repulsive force, roared violently!
In a single breath, the cage of iron sand spikes was blasted apart, reduced to countless fine particles of iron dust that scattered helplessly into the howling wind.
"Now!"
Sasori's eyes turned icy. He spread his fingers, manipulating his threads with blinding speed!
The Third Kazekage puppet bolted forward, slashing with two heavy blades extending from its arms. A pair of Magnet Release wings unfolded from its back, turning it into a black streak of lightning as it rocketed straight toward Yu!
Simultaneously, ten of the eleven living puppets blurred into afterimages, swinging their weapons from all directions in a synchronized execution strike aimed right at Yu's vital points!
Meanwhile, Hiruko, who was standing directly in front of Yu, activated his Swift Release, vanishing from Yu's sight in an instant!
Swish!Swish!Swish!
More than a dozen gleaming blade lights cut through the air, perfectly timed to exploit the exact moment the iron sand cage shattered!
Yu immediately prepared to thrust his palm out again to unleash another Wind Release: Almighty Push to blow them all away. However, right at that moment, he noticed something amiss—
The surrounding air had suddenly become incredibly heavy. The amount of chakra required to manipulate atmospheric pressure via his Wind Release: Chakra Scalpels had suddenly spiked!
Furthermore, the sheer volume of his Wind Release: Chakra Scalpels permeating the air was... plummeting drastically!
Yu's brow furrowed slightly. Without pausing to overthink it, he snapped his eyes open wide.
"Byakugan, activate!"
As the veins around his temples bulged, a grayish-white, top-down perspective spanning fifty meters around him instantly expanded!
Having entered the Tenseigan Chakra Mode for the first time and developed entirely new neural pathways in his brain, Yu's information-processing capabilities were completely on another level compared to the past. Under this god-like perspective, which allowed him to grasp and instantaneously process all data within his range, his taijutsu prowess reached an unfathomable height.
Yu tilted his head slightly, effortlessly dodging the slashes of the two heavy blades. Stepping to the side, he reached out with a lightning-fast palm strike, seizing a giant-axe-wielding living puppet by the throat just as its heavy downward swing missed its mark!
He applied a fraction of pressure. Crack!
The living puppet instantly went limp, reverting to a lifeless Sand ninja corpse as its connection to Sasori's control network severed. Yu swung the corpse around his body, using it as a shield to block several oncoming slashes that rained down a second later.
As he tossed the corpse aside, Yu caught the massive axe falling from its grip. He casually spun the weapon in his palm before delivering a fierce upward swing!
Clang!
Axe met blade, sending a shower of sparks exploding into the air!
Yu lifted his head slightly. His pristine, clear, and utterly indifferent eyes locked onto the dull, lifeless yellow eyes of the Third Kazekage puppet that had flown in to strike him. However, Yu did not waste his actual attention on a dead object. By utilizing the microscopic zooming capabilities of his Byakugan, he quickly discovered the root cause of his issue.
It was the very iron sand dust he had just blasted apart. The fine particles had intermingled with his Wind Release: Chakra Scalpels, jamming their operation. Meanwhile, a blur moving at speeds virtually imperceptible to the naked eye was circling Yu in a frantic orbit, keeping him as the exact center of its path. It was none other than Hiruko, actively deploying his Dark Release!
Using Swift Release to accelerate himself to a speed matching the Wind Release: Chakra Scalpels to achieve a state of relative stillness, and then using Dark Release to absorb my chakra scalpels?
An innovative concept.
Compared to an chaotic, erratic technique like the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, Yu's microscopic control over atmospheric pressure was highly ordered. This ordered nature gave Hiruko, under Sasori's control, a mathematical possibility of dismantling it through Dark Release. If Yu wanted to counter this defense, it would actually be incredibly simple: he just needed to gift him a standard Wind Release: Rasengan.
However, Yu was in no hurry to break the technique. After all... these were his future employees. In the original timeline, Hiruko had been obliterated after taking a single Wind Release: Rasenshuriken to the face. Although Yu wasn't planning to use a Rasenshuriken, a standard Wind Release: Rasengan infused with Tenseigan chakra would likely pack a punch no less devastating than that technique...
If he accidentally killed Hiruko, where on earth was he going to find another exceptional employee who knew the Chimera Technique?
Given the vast disparity in their actual strength, Sasori's desperate resistance looked less like a threat and more like a kitten frantically meowing for food in Yu's eyes. This battle, which Sasori viewed as a life-or-death crisis, was nothing more than a uniquely theatrical corporate recruitment fair for Yu.
And at this point, the meaning of this recruitment fair had undergone a subtle, nuanced shift. It was no longer just Yu interviewing Sasori!
Now that Sasori had made his stance clear, demonstrated his high-level techniques, and revealed his hidden trump cards, it felt more like the employee testing the boss to see if the employer possessed the absolute strength required to earn his respect!
After all, in a ninja world where might makes right, if a boss cannot easily suppress his own subordinates, how can he expect them to willingly lay down their lives for his company?
The corners of Yu's mouth curled into a highly amused smile. He calmly looked down from his omniscient perspective, taking in the full scope of Sasori's tactical layout.
As Hiruko completely devoured the remaining Wind Release: Chakra Scalpels around Yu, a specialized zone manifested. It was a Dark Release: Chakra Vacuum Cage. Within this domain, any standard ninjutsu driven by Wind Release chakra—whether macro or micro—would be instantaneously disassembled and absorbed by Hiruko the moment it appeared.
Meanwhile, the iron sand that had been scattered earlier was now gathering once more under Sasori's commands. It pooled directly into the ground beneath Yu's feet, serving the dual purpose of cutting off any underground escape route while prepping for another follow-up strike.
Simultaneously, Sasori maneuvered several living puppets to close the distance, popping open their right mechanical arms to reveal launchers primed to unleash his custom-made neurotoxins.
But he wasn't done yet!
Hiruko, who was still sprinting in a frantic circle around Yu, suddenly raised his other hand, swiftly weaving a single-handed hand seal for Storm Release!
At the edge of the battlefield, seeing that the fruits of his labor had finally ripened, a flash of chilling brilliance erupted in Sasori's eyes. Smack!
He dropped into a half-squat, slamming his palms together as he roared, "Combined Ninja Art: Dark Magnet Storm Toxic Execution Array!"
"Tennin, become my puppet!!"
At the same time, Yu looked at the elaborate trap Sasori had set up, and a genuinely serious, appreciative expression finally surfaced on his face. "Tsk..."
"A composite ninja art combining Magnet Release, Dark Release, Storm Release, and neurotoxins? For a puppeteer, the fact that you can achieve this level of coordination is truly remarkable!"
"Excellent! I have felt the depth of your sincerity. If I don't face your ultimate technique head-on, it would make me look terribly stingy as an employer."
Yu's gaze cut through the layers of surrounding puppets, locking onto Sasori at the edge of the field as he declared in a resonant voice, "Sasori of the Red Sand, allow me to show you the true power of a Grand Captain of Root!"
The moment his voice fell, Yu took a deep breath. In the face of the oncoming onslaught of lethal attacks, he didn't take a single step to dodge. He stood firmly in place, appearing fully intent on tanking the entirety of Sasori's combined assault using nothing but his bare body!
And as he did, the Byakugan eyes Yu used to stare down Sasori grew brighter and brighter, radiating a blinding luminosity!
It was as if golden flames had suddenly begun to burn furiously within those pristine white pupils!
An aura of supreme nobility, absolute grandeur, and divine majesty—resembling that of a god descending to the mortal realm—suddenly erupted from Yu as his eyes blazed with golden fire!
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