The mecha fired a barrage of iron senbon at Kizaru, but he had no intention of taking them head-on. It wasn't because they could hurt him. He was simply worried that his already tattered clothes wouldn't survive another attack.
With a light push off the ground, Kizaru sprang to the right and easily avoided the incoming senbon.
The moment he moved, the scorpion mecha's tail suddenly extended. Its sharp stinger shot toward Kizaru just as he landed.
At the same time, the senbon he had dodged changed direction in midair and flew toward his back.
Without even turning around, Kizaru sensed them with his Observation Haki.
Caught between attacks from the front and rear, Kizaru remained perfectly calm. He stepped forward, rose into the air, and lightly planted his right foot against the approaching scorpion tail.
Using it as a foothold, Kizaru propelled himself even higher. His body twisted halfway around in midair before his right leg swept outward, unleashing a sharp air blade that struck the pursuing senbon and shattered every last one.
"Ooh... that was close~. You've built something pretty scary, Sasori."
Kizaru remained suspended in the air with Geppo, a relaxed smile still spread across his face.
"Damn it!" Shukaku growled from inside the scorpion mecha after watching Kizaru effortlessly neutralize every attack they had launched.
"Shukaku, prepare the Flame Dragon!" Sasori warned when he saw Kizaru approaching through the air.
Sasori raised the mecha's humanoid arms and spread both palms toward Kizaru.
At the same time, Shukaku took control of the mecha's lower half. Its massive pincers rose and extended until they were nearly level with the hands of the humanoid upper body.
"Fire!"
At Sasori's command, metal barrels emerged from the mecha's palms and released torrents of scorching flames.
The scorpion pincers opened simultaneously. Additional metal barrels extended from their joints, releasing powerful streams of wind created with Wind Release chakra.
The flames surged with the wind, while the wind strengthened the flames. The separate streams rapidly merged into a single blazing dragon that seemed capable of melting everything in its path before charging straight toward Kizaru.
"Ooh! How frightening!"
Kizaru's body transformed into light. A golden flash streaked past the roaring inferno, and he reappeared directly above the mecha.
His words weren't meant as mockery. Kizaru was genuinely impressed. He hadn't expected Sasori to create a flamethrower with such terrifying power.
Even if none of its other functions were considered, the scorpion mecha had more than enough destructive power to become a deadly weapon on the battlefield.
"Shukaku, take us up!"
"Hah! Leave it to me!"
Using his Magnet Release, Shukaku lifted the entire mecha into the sky. Its hands and pincers immediately adjusted their aim, sending the blazing streams sweeping after Kizaru.
The sudden change genuinely surprised him.
They had used Magnet Release to grant the enormous mecha unrestricted flight, compensating for its lack of mobility. It was an ingenious solution.
The only drawback was that this method required Sasori and Shukaku to work together.
Even if someone managed to recreate Sasori's mecha, they wouldn't have a tailed beast skilled in both Magnet Release and Wind Release cooperating with them.
Kizaru transformed into light once again and evaded the pursuing flames. Now that he had seen several of the mecha's functions, he had no intention of remaining on the defensive.
Well, then... it was time for their big brother to test how much punishment this mecha could take.
Kizaru appeared behind it in a flash of golden light. Dropping from above, he brought his right foot down upon the joint connecting the scorpion-shaped lower body to its tail.
Kizaru used only around thirty percent of his strength, but the armored joint still crumpled the instant his foot struck it.
BOOM!
The airborne mecha plummeted to the ground beneath Kizaru's foot, smashing into the earth and leaving behind a medium-sized crater.
"Sasori, my tail is broken! I can't control it anymore!" Shukaku hurriedly reported after the unexpected attack.
"Yeah..."
Sasori's head was still spinning from the violent impact. Pain spread throughout his body, leaving him without the energy to say anything else.
All he could think about was how much strength Kizaru had used in that stomp.
Considering Kizaru's downward acceleration and the force generated when the mecha struck the ground, Sasori estimated that Kizaru-nii must have used at least seventy or eighty percent of his strength—perhaps even all of it.
Sure enough, just as Matou had said, Kizaru-nii was far too powerful. An ordinary mecha wouldn't help him in battle. It would only restrict what he could already do on his own.
"Sasori~... do you still want to continue?"
After stomping the mecha out of the sky, Kizaru didn't remain on top of it. His body transformed into light, and he reappeared directly in front of the fallen machine.
"Keep going, Sasori!" Shukaku shouted, unwilling to admit defeat. "We still haven't used the Skyfire Bomb or the Tailed Beast Bomb! We have plenty of Iron Sand left too!"
"Kizaru-nii, how much strength did you use in that last attack?" Sasori asked.
He hadn't forgotten the true purpose of this test: collecting data on Kizaru's strength.
"Hmm... let me think~."
Kizaru scratched his head before answering with a relaxed smile.
"About fifty or sixty percent, I suppose~."
He deliberately raised the number, not wanting to damage Sasori's confidence too badly.
"This mecha of yours is very well made. An ordinary shinobi would have a hard time breaking it~."
Fifty or sixty percent?
Was this the strength of the most powerful man in the shinobi world?
Despite Kizaru's attempt to encourage him, Sasori still felt deeply discouraged. He had believed that the mecha he and Shukaku created together would rank among the strongest weapons in the shinobi world, especially with Shukaku supplying its chakra and assisting with its movements.
Yet Kizaru-nii had supposedly used only half of his strength to damage it this badly.
If this had been an actual battle, Sasori doubted the mecha would have lasted even ten exchanges against him.
"The idea behind your mecha is good~," Kizaru continued. "The real weakness lies in its materials."
"That's enough. I understand the problem now," Sasori replied.
He had already realized what prevented the mecha from becoming even stronger. The durability of its materials determined the upper limit of its performance.
Understanding the problem was one thing. Solving it would be far more difficult.
Developing an entirely new material was completely different from constructing a mecha. Sasori had been able to rely on the puppet-technique scrolls left behind by his parents and Granny Chiyo, as well as Shukaku's assistance. He had built his creation upon the knowledge and help provided by others.
When it came to materials research, however, Sasori possessed almost no foundation. He would have to begin from nothing and slowly explore the field himself.
Although the unfamiliar field left him feeling somewhat lost, the difficulty of improving the mecha also gave him a new sense of motivation.
He would continue working until he developed a material strong enough to withstand Kizaru-nii's attacks.
After setting that goal for himself, Sasori opened the mecha's hatch, gripped the handrail, and carefully climbed out.
Compared to the Sasori from the original timeline, he had already ventured much further down the path of puppetry and become far more powerful. However, his physical condition and personal combat ability were both inferior to those of his original counterpart.
His obsession with research and constructing mechas had turned him into something closer to a scientist or mechanical engineer, leaving him with less time to train as a shinobi.
Kizaru noticed the problem as soon as Sasori emerged from the mecha. Looking at the boy's thin frame and the faint dark circles beneath his eyes, he couldn't help feeling slightly concerned.
At this rate, the kid might ruin his health by becoming too absorbed in his research.
He would have to remind Yusa and Murasaki tonight. At Sasori's age, growing up healthy was more important than anything else.
•••
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