The kind of opponent that could force Guy to open the Sixth Gate just to gain the upper hand was rare anywhere in the shinobi world.
After the brief exchange, everyone's attention shifted back to the massive boulder sealing the cave entrance.
Akira's eyes sharpened at once, his voice calm but certain. "Those rats are hiding behind this."
A complicated look passed across Chiyo's wrinkled face, and a trace of urgency flickered in her clouded old eyes.
The greatest knot in her heart had always been Sasori, the grandson she had watched grow up with her own eyes.
In order to let Sasori feel the warmth of family again, she had even gone so far as to create a forbidden technique that traded one life for another: One's Own Life Reincarnation.
But fate had been cruel. Before the technique was ever completed, Sasori had already chosen to abandon the village.
This time, she had come prepared to die. Even if it ended in mutual destruction, she had to see that child one last time.
And beyond that, there was one question buried deep in her heart that she had to have answered.
All the clues pointed toward one brutal truth: the Third Kazekage had most likely died by Sasori's hand.
The timing of Sasori's defection lined up far too neatly with the Third Kazekage's mysterious disappearance. The coincidence was enough to chill the blood.
Back then, Sasori may not have been able to overpower the Third Kazekage head-on.
But puppet masters excelled at exactly the sort of thing that made open strength irrelevant: poison.
The Third Kazekage wielded Magnet Style, famed as the strongest offensive power Sunagakure had ever produced, but when it came to toxicology, he was no expert.
With enough preparation, Sasori had absolutely possessed the ability to carry out such an assassination in silence.
At the time, Rasa had taken the position in haste to stabilize the village, and Chiyo's prestige had been so overwhelming that everyone chose to look the other way instead of digging too deeply.
But among Sunagakure's leadership, the truth had long hung in the air.
If anyone could have carried that stain, it was Sasori.
He had been a once-in-a-century puppet genius. Even Chiyo herself had been forced to admit that in terms of raw talent for puppet techniques, she had never matched her grandson.
By the time he defected, Sasori had already reached elite jonin, perhaps even the threshold of Kage level.
With that kind of strength, plus his methodical mind and lethal poisons, assassinating the Third Kazekage was no fantasy.
After all these years, not even a fragment of the Third Kazekage's remains had ever been found.
That alone was the biggest crack in the story.
This time, even if it cost her life, Chiyo intended to ask the question herself.
That had been the Third Kazekage, the man she had placed so much hope in, the one who should have led Sunagakure into glory. How could he have died in such an unclear, humiliating way?
Standing before the cave mouth, the giant stone blocked the way like a cliff face. But in front of a group of top-tier shinobi like this, it was still nothing more than a larger-than-usual obstacle.
Kakashi glanced at the pink-haired girl beside him. "Haruno Sakura, let's see what you can do."
Sakura nodded confidently, her eyes firm. "Leave it to me."
As she spoke, she clenched her fist hard enough that her knuckles cracked.
Then she backed up several steps, planted herself, and shot forward like a pink cannonball, roaring out her signature battle cry:
"You stupid hunk of junk, break already!"
That phrase seemed to power up her monstrous strength all on its own.
The dozens of meters between her and the boulder vanished in an instant. She leaped high, gathered all her chakra into one blow, and smashed her fist straight into the rock.
The impact thundered through the valley hard enough to make everyone's ears ring.
And then, awkwardly, all that noise produced almost nothing.
The giant stone shook twice.
That was it.
Not a single crack appeared.
Sakura stared at the perfectly intact rock face, brows drawing together. "What kind of ridiculous rock is this? It's harder than iron!"
Akira wasn't looking at the stone at all. His gaze had locked onto a plain, easily overlooked paper seal stuck to the surface.
"There's a Five-Seal Barrier on it. You won't break this by brute force alone."
Of course, if Akira chose to step in, even the barrier would have gone down under one punch.
But he clearly had no intention of wasting energy on that.
After briefly explaining how the barrier worked, Akira turned to Neji Hyuga, whose vision could pierce through almost anything.
"Neji, use your Byakugan. There should be four more identical seals within a five-hundred-meter radius."
"The chakra flow inside each one has a distinctive pattern. You shouldn't have trouble finding them."
Neji nodded. "Understood."
In the next instant, the veins at the corners of his eyes bulged as the Byakugan opened, his vision cutting through layers of terrain in every direction.
Only a few seconds passed before his gaze fixed on four separate points.
"Found them. I have the locations."
Once Neji reported the exact coordinates, Akira immediately made the tactical call.
"Guy-sensei, breaking this barrier requires five people tearing off the seals at the same time. Please take your team and head for the other four points. Kakashi-sensei and I will handle this one here."
Might Guy flashed a thumbs-up and, without another word, led his team sprinting off in four different directions.
Akira then turned to Sakura, who was still gathering herself for another strike.
"The second those seals come off, you move. Smash this rock the moment I give the word."