WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 30→2ch | 60→5ch | 100→8ch | 200→15ch | 400→25ch⏰ Resets Monday!
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CLACK!
Sasori tore open the plate on his right chest. A massive surge of chakra poured from his regeneration core, transforming into hundreds of threads that instantly connected to the hundreds of scarlet-robed puppets descending from the sky.
In an instant, the diverse horde of puppets drew their diverse weapons. With the unique click-clack of puppet articulation, they plunged down in a killing rush.
It was like a crimson cloud had descended.
Sasuke's gaze remained ice-cold. "Forget the puppets in the sky. Target the puppeteer himself!"
CLANG!
The Susanoo drew its bow and nocked an arrow. Ignoring the hundred-strong aerial assault, it aimed to kill Sasori, the manipulator, directly.
Having witnessed the arrow's destructive power firsthand, Sasori didn't panic. He calmly raised a finger, hooked the first scroll on his back, and activated it. Black pipes extended from his palms, aimed at the river beneath his feet.
—SCROLL: FLAME PRISON BAPTISM!
FWOOSH! FWOOSH!
Two pillars of fire erupted, instantly boiling the river. A thick curtain of steam billowed out, obscuring Sasori's form.
Sasuke's brow furrowed. He decisively shifted the bow's aim from the vanished target to the oncoming swarm of puppets.
With such a tightly packed formation, even a casual shot should take out a fair number, right?
But the instant the arrow left the string, the puppets in the sky suddenly scattered.
The piercing shot only managed to destroy three.
Against a total of nearly three hundred, that was utterly negligible.
Click-clack-clack…!
The scattered puppets closed in, weaving and flanking.
From within the Susanoo, Sasuke's Sharingan observed intently, a chill running down his spine. He's controlling them all simultaneously, yet each puppet moves as if it has its own consciousness, its own intent. Their coordination is seamless. What kind of insane micro-control is this? It's hard to believe there's only one puppeteer…
The Hundred Puppet Performance encircled the Susanoo. Under Sasori's command, they launched a thousand-cuts assault.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG…!
Fortunately, the dispersed attacks weren't enough to breach the Susanoo's defense. Yet, knowing this, Sasori continued his relentless assault with glee.
He's trying to pressure me, forcing me to maintain the Susanoo to speed up my chakra drain…
Sasuke saw right through the tactic.
He'd used a similar strategy in his past life against Danzō—maintaining crushing pressure to force Danzō to keep Izanagi active, thereby burning through his stock of Sharingan.
Sasuke's perspective was higher now. Looking back, it wasn't a particularly clever tactic. But it was effective. Fine. Let's clash.
The bow vanished. The Susanoo condensed twin swords and met the Hundred Puppet Performance head-on with sweeping, brutal strikes.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Wherever the twin blades passed, puppets shattered without resistance.
Sensing the Susanoo's fierce counter, a smirk touched Sasori's lips. He adjusted his strategy instantly.
The cluster of threads from his right chest twitched. The puppet legion received new orders: avoid direct confrontation. Instead, they began a dizzying dance of feints, probes, and flanking attacks—a battle of extreme attrition.
The Susanoo was strong in offense and defense, but its mobility was lacking. Against this guerrilla-style harassment, it was quickly put on the back foot.
Hidden within the steam, Sasori used sensory means to gauge Sasuke's chakra state.
Even in this war of attrition, his chakra isn't showing clear signs of depletion? It seems Hashirama's power and his Sharingan's ocular prowess synergize well. In that case…
Sasori's smirk widened. "Let's spice things up a bit."
SWISH!
He used a chakra thread from his fingertip to hook a scroll from the second row on his back. Activating it, he aimed his hands through the mist toward the Susanoo.
—SCROLL: CORROSIVE FLOW-D!
High-pressure, razor-sharp water blades shot from the pipes in his hands, cutting through the mist to strike the Susanoo head-on.
Pushed back three steps by the water's force, Sasuke thought, So the real body finally makes a move…
Sasori's voice was calm. "Corrosive Flow-D. A water-style cutting technique of overwhelming power, capable of erasing even clouds from the sky. Your Susanoo is no exception."
CLACK! CLACK! Sasori rotated his hands. The water blades' focus intensified to its absolute limit.
CRACK! CRACK!
The outer armor of the Susanoo's second stage was forcibly carved open.
Sasuke's pupils constricted. I underestimated him… This water style actually has the power to breach the Susanoo?!
"The Susanoo's defense is broken!" Sasori declared.
The scarlet-robed puppets in the sky, having waited for this moment, swarmed in like vultures.
Sasuke reacted with god-like speed. "But that water style just revealed your position!"
SWOOSH! An arrow condensed. The Susanoo fired a rapid shot.
"Damn it!" Sasori sensed the danger. He immediately pointed his hands downward. FWOOSH…! The water blades struck the river's surface. Using the recoil, he propelled himself sideways.
BOOM!!!
The explosive arrow sent massive waves crashing skyward.
Sasori had dodged in the nick of time, but his control over the Hundred Puppet Performance inevitably lapsed for a critical moment.
Ignoring the damaged Susanoo armor, Sasuke tried to condense another arrow to press the attack.
But a sudden, sharp pain lanced through his eyes, making him stumble back several steps.
"Ugh… The White Cursed Seal… it can't completely negate the Mangekyō's side effects?"
The bow vanished. The Susanoo regressed from its second stage. Sasuke lowered the hand covering his eyes. His Mangekyō, now bloodshot, could only maintain the Susanoo in its skeletal ribcage form.
"That was close," Sasori's voice drifted from the settling mist. "But fortunately, your ocular power is clearly diminished. It seems you can't use that troublesome bow anymore, at least. I won't give you a chance to catch your breath."
The water mist cleared. Sasori's Hundred Puppet Performance reformed its ranks.
"…" Sasuke silently stared at the crimson cloud above. Then, he formed a hand seal, interlacing four fingers before his chest.
—Ninjutsu: Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!
POOF! POOF! POOF!
Amid white smoke, Sasuke's shadow clones appeared. Only ten of them.
Watching from the sidelines, Kabuto was puzzled. "Multiple Shadow Clones?! Sasori's clear intent is to drain Sasuke's power, and it's working. Yet Sasuke chooses a technique that splits his chakra so drastically?"
Orochimaru, however, smiled. "Since Sasuke is going against the grain, he must have found a weakness to exploit."
Sasori's voice was cold. "Planning to fight numbers with numbers? Your numbers are pathetic. You're still just a child, after all. The moment the situation turns against you, your judgment fails."
Sasuke offered no retort. His ten shadow clones charged in a suicidal sprint against the puppet legion, which outnumbered them dozens of times over.
It was then that Kabuto, with his Sharingan, noticed a hidden detail.
"Ah… the wire carried by the shadow clones. Could it be…?"
"Wire!" Orochimaru instantly understood Sasuke's plan, his praise genuine. "He knows how to seek the greatest return for the smallest price. Even after obtaining power utterly different from before, he hasn't changed his core nature. Yes, that is Sasuke's true advantage. A quality more precious than Hashirama's power, more valuable than Ōtsutsuki lineage…"
His gaze grew reminiscent. "Back in the Forest of Death during the Chunin Exams, it was this very move—'Sharingan: Manipulating Windmill Triple Blade'—that showed me the potential hidden within his then-immature Sharingan. Now, what can those eyes, tempered by so much hardship, achieve?"
POOF! POOF! POOF!
In less than ten seconds, the shadow clones were wiped out by the hundred puppets.
"It's over…"
But with the calm of certain victory, Sasuke had the Susanoo's skeletal hand rise.
Those ten shadow clones, through their suicidal attacks, had left nearly invisible 'wire' on each and every puppet. The ends of all those wires were gathered in the Susanoo's palm.
—SUSANOO: SHARINGAN — MANIPULATING WINDMILL TRIPLE BLADE!
SCHWIP…!
The Susanoo's hand pulled. The 'crimson cloud' in the sky, formed by the scarlet-robed puppet legion, was bound by the wires and abruptly contracted into a single, tangled mass.
Sasori of the Red Sand was stunned. "What!?"
SWOOSH!
At that moment, Sasuke, encased in the Susanoo, leaped into the air. Blood dripped from his left eye as it focused on the crimson mass.
—AMATERASU!!!
WHOOSH!
Black flames ignited, spreading rapidly. The crimson cloud became a cloud of black fire.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
Amidst explosive pops, the Hundred Puppet Performance was incinerated.
SPLASH.
Sasuke landed on the water's surface as the Susanoo faded. His eyes, deep and penetrating, fixed on a visibly shaken Sasori.
"Sasori. Your strength is more than this, isn't it?"
Yes. That final scroll Orochimaru mentioned—the one Sasori never used in his past life—was his true trump card. The real focal point of this showdown.
Everything Sasuke had done up to this point was to force Sasori to use that scroll, to grant himself a true life-or-death battle and maximize the White Cursed Seal's absorption.
Sasuke's voice was low and intense. "If you have any more hidden power, don't hold back. Use it all."
"Very well. Then… as you wish."
After a long silence, Sasori finally reached back. He took hold of the one scroll he had never used, even unto death—the 'fourth scroll.'
"This is a power I've never shown anyone. The very reason I joined Akatsuki…!"
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