Chapter 197: Art is an Explosion! Katsu!!

Chapter 197: Art is an Explosion! Katsu!!

Looking at the red-haired, delicate-featured youth who exuded an icy aura like a dead person,

"You are..."

The face of Shisui, covered in bizarre cracks, couldn't hide its surprise.

"If I'm not mistaken, could you be Sasori of the Red Sand, who mysteriously disappeared along with the Third Kazekage several years ago?"

Sasori's silent reaction verified his guess.

Shisui then shifted his gaze to the bizarre puppet behind him.

"Ha... hahaha! No wonder it looked so familiar!"

He chuckled and shook his head, his tone somewhat helpless and mocking: "Sunagakure's genius puppet master killed Sunagakure's Third Kazekage, and even made his corpse into a lifeless human puppet after death?"

The Third Shinobi World War, that incomparably tragic war, was initiated by Sunagakure. The fuse was the disappearance of Sunagakure's Third Kazekage.

At the time, this news had left the entire village of Sunagakure feeling heavy and lost.

That was the Kage of a village, who controlled the incomparably terrifying Iron Sand secret technique, one of the strongest of the Five Kage at the time.

He could even suppress a monster like the One-Tails with his Magnet Release secret technique.

Yet, without any warning, he just mysteriously disappeared from the village.

Silently bypassing Sunagakure's defensive lines, then silently ending the battle with the Third Kazekage, and finally, silently leaving Sunagakure.

In the ninja world, could there be such a terrifying ninja?

At that time, the strongest assassination-type ninja in the ninja world was undoubtedly Konoha's White Fang, Hatake Sakumo.

And because Konoha's White Fang committed suicide and the Third Kazekage disappeared, these two events occurred almost simultaneously before the Third Shinobi World War.

So Sunagakure directly placed this great blame on Konoha's head.

The cruel Third Shinobi World War began.

But the truth now...

"Ironic! Hahaha! Too ironic!"

A Shinobi World War... this was a Shinobi World War! A war in which countless people would die!!

Shisui once again realized the absurdity and ridiculousness of the ninja world's wars.

"...Bastard, what are you laughing at?"

Looking at Amaterasu no Mikoto, who was clutching his stomach and laughing, Sasori's expression remained like a dead man's, but his eyes grew darker.

From this fellow's laughter, he sensed a deep malice.

"Please don't misunderstand, I am not targeting you."

Looking at the annoyed Sasori, Shisui shook his head and smiled: "I just feel that everyone is the same."

All like selfish little children, always expecting everything to go as they wish, shamelessly pretending to be innocent, wielding the great club called war.

Just as Lord Master said,

whether such a world is wrong is unknown, but it is definitely not the right way.

"You inexplicable fellow, you think you're very strong?"

Sasori's gaze grew sharper upon hearing this: "A perfect immortal body absolutely cannot exist in this world. I'd like to see what other tricks you have!"

Without hesitation, Sasori's fingers pulled quickly, and a red scroll was taken out from behind him by chakra threads.

With a soft cry from Sasori, the scroll was thrown open, and a puff of white smoke exploded.

One after another, figures flew out from the scroll, floating around Sasori.

These puppets wore tattered, dark red cloaks, but if one looked closely, one would see that the color was just from being soaked in blood.

Looking around, there were at least several dozen of them. Each puppet had a different shape and used a different weapon; some held sabers, some held swords, and some carried giant shuriken on their backs.

"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"

These puppets were all connected to the "Regeneration Core" in Sasori's chest, controlled by the chakra threads it emitted.

Because it was connected to the core within his body, there was no time lag between the puppet master's will and the puppets' movements. It could perfectly reflect the puppet master's will in the puppets' actions. He could control nearly a hundred puppets as if they were his own hands and feet, killing in the time it takes for a thought to form, through mastery of various puppet tactics.

The puppets' combat power was extremely strong; Sasori had destroyed a country with this move.

Sasori of the Red Sand's hands moved quickly, pulling and tugging. With just ten fingers, he could perfectly control nearly a hundred puppets, and even had some spare capacity to have the puppets form perfect combinations.

Crack crack crack!!

Amidst the bizarre rattling of the puppets, dozens of red-robed puppets pounced towards Shisui.

It wasn't that Shisui hadn't fought puppet masters before, but compared to the genius puppet master Sasori, he felt the puppet masters he had fought in the past were like a group of children playing house.

Compared to most ninja who focused on developing their own ninjutsu, most of a puppet master's strength was only reflected in the puppets they made.

But this didn't mean the puppet master themselves would be weak.

The profession of a puppet master inherently required sufficiently flexible eyesight, reaction speed, and mental strength, only then could one master more powerful puppets.

A puppet master's strength is measured by the number and quality of the puppets they can control, but the number of fingers is only ten, which was already their limit.

But Sasori of the Red Sand's Red Secret Technique: Puppet Jutsu had already subverted traditional puppet techniques; Sasori could control hundreds of puppets at once.

Manipulating the puppets was like flowing water, reaching the pinnacle of skill, completely lacking the sluggishness of ordinary puppet masters' manipulation.

Shisui understood that this puppet master before him, known as Sasori of the Red Sand, was probably already the ceiling for puppet masters in the ninja world.

But while Shisui was surprised by Sasori's puppet technique, Sasori was equally surprised by Shisui's strangeness.

"...Too fast."

Sasori quietly watched the scene of the figure flying about. The scarlet light of reflected blood flashed in his eyes, which were as placid as a mirror lake. His eyeballs moved rapidly, following Shisui's figure.

Bang bang bang!!

Shisui's three-tomoe Sharingan darted back and forth. Under the enhancement of this powerful dynamic vision,

a series of poison-laced long needles spewed from a puppet's mouth, but they were all dodged and stuck into the ground.

A puppet with blades extending from its torso had just approached when it was cut on the chest by Shisui's light slash, breaking apart with a crack.

A tall and sturdy puppet rapidly closed in, but its posture was broken by one or two slashes, and its neck was kicked into a seven-hundred-and-twenty-degree spin with a few easy blows.

The deep pit was filled with constant roaring, all gullies left behind by the fierce battle.

Although Sasori's attacks, like an endless storm, continuously assailed Shisui, giving him the upper hand, it was very clear that Sasori still lacked an effective means to restrain Shisui.

Because, Edo Tensei users are immortal, and their chakra is infinite.

Shisui had a far greater margin for error in battle than a living person.

"This feeling is simply too awful!"

Seeing his puppets dwindling, Sasori's mood grew darker.

He had collected over two hundred human puppets in total.

And these dozens had consumed countless efforts; they were already some of the more satisfactory works in his entire collection.

Amaterasu no Mikoto's casual slash could easily destroy a puppet; this was simply a desecration of his puppets.

This bizarre fellow before him... made him feel as if he weren't fighting a human.

But rather, fighting a phantom that appeared and disappeared mysteriously, an immortal, tireless shadow and vengeful spirit!

Shadow technique, Sharingan, an immortal body, plus a forbidden explosive tag jutsu...

"Is this guy a malevolent spirit that crawled out of hell? Or is he an immortal monster created by some madman?!"

Sasori felt even his "Regeneration Core" tremble.

He, Sasori of the Red Sand, possessed power sufficient to destroy a small country, yet he had never been forced into such a predicament.

Forced into a corner by a dead man.

"However, it ends here!"

Feeling the Performance of a Hundred Puppets had reached its limit, Sasori's eyes flashed. Without hesitation, he pulled his fingers, and the Kazekage puppet above his head clasped its hands together.

Instantly, iron sand like a sea wave gathered, forming countless fine needles that filled the sky.

Pfft pfft pfft!!!

Countless poison-laced iron needles, emitting a terrifying sonic boom, flew towards Shisui at a speed difficult for the naked eye to discern.

Although he could vaguely see the movement of the iron needles, faced with such a dense attack, Shisui also had no time to completely dodge.

BOOM!!!

The sharp, dense iron needles swept over with a roar.

But Shisui just dodged casually with a Body Flicker. Even if he was hit by some of the iron needles, he didn't care.

After all, with an immortal body, it didn't matter much if he got a little injured.

But very quickly,

the iron sand spikes that had flown past him suddenly disintegrated into individual grains of black iron sand.

Swish!

"Damn it!" Shisui's face suddenly changed.

"Magnet Release: Iron Sand Binding Prison!"

Following a low shout from Sasori, the black sand combined tightly.

A huge black iron sphere formed around Shisui, trapping his body within it.

Sasori's tone was icy as he sneered: "Heh, I'd like to see if this immortal body of yours can escape my iron sand seal!"

Since he couldn't kill this guy, he would just seal him away.

As long as his movements were restricted, everything could end.

But the next second,

BOOM!!!

A muffled explosion suddenly came from the black iron sphere. Sparks and iron sand were blasted everywhere by this explosion.

Instantly, one iron sand wall after another rose from the ground, building a protective wall around Sasori, barely blocking the fierce explosion.

When the explosion completely ceased, Shisui leisurely walked out from the destroyed black sphere.

"You bastard!! Why can't you just die obediently?!!"

Sasori's face also became grim and angry: "Can I only use sealing jutsu? Damn it, I'm not good at this at all..."

This guy was like a dog-skin plaster that couldn't be shaken off!

Shisui, seeing this, also shrugged helplessly.

Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique.

By attaching a single explosive tag to the enemy's vital point, it can continuously summon explosive tags and trigger a series of concentrated, targeted explosions.

As long as it touches the target, it will detonate ceaselessly until the target is blown to ashes.

This was a jutsu developed by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama. Its training difficulty was A-rank, and its basic principle was the Summoning Technique and Reverse Summoning Technique.

The first thing to learn was the Summoning Technique, the other was short-term forward and reverse summoning.

The principle was simple.

But if one wanted to learn it, one must possess excellent talent in space-time ninjutsu.

In addition, because this technique has a very large attack range and long duration, if activated without any preparation, the caster themselves might also be caught in it.

Therefore, this was a forbidden jutsu worthy of being included in the Scroll of Seals, only to be used for mutual destruction.

However...

"I heard this is a forbidden jutsu the Second Hokage invented to guard against the Uchiha clan, a ninjutsu Senju Tobirama developed to be used in conjunction with the Edo Tensei technique."

Shisui complained to himself: "I have to admit, Senju Tobirama was truly a genius, and he went to great lengths to guard against the Uchiha."

However, although the Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags seemed unbeatable, it was not a technique that the living could use.

The usage of this forbidden jutsu was to cover the body of a reanimated dead person with explosive tags, making them attack the opponent like a human bomb.

This was a forbidden jutsu he had obtained from Lord Master.

Learning the Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique wasn't difficult; it just took a little time to modify the formula.

The risk level of this thing varied greatly, completely depending on the stock of explosive tags.

So even he wasn't too sure of its power and specific effects. This was his first time experimenting with it in battle. The coordination between the Edo Tensei body and the Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique indeed still had some problems.

The farther the explosive tag was from him, the higher the summoning delay.

Even if the delay difference wasn't large, a slight delay was enough for the target to react.

But there is no perfect technique in the world; this couldn't be helped.

"Give up. Wouldn't it be better to just obediently stay here?"

Shisui scratched his head in frustration, persuading him earnestly: "Don't even think about using some low-class sealing jutsu against me. You can't do it."

But just then,

a slight sound of tearing wind came from above his head.

Shisui subconsciously retreated backwards, then looked up towards the sky.

He saw a white clay doll, shaped somewhat like a roly-poly toy and the size of a palm, falling towards him in freefall.

Shisui was stunned for a moment: "What is this..."

Before he could react,

Bang!

The originally palm-sized clay doll instantly swelled to the size of a house.

The terrifying chakra fluctuation contained within it instantly made Shisui's pupils contract sharply.

"Art is an explosion!"

A slightly mischievous voice also suddenly came from the sky.

"KATSU!!"

The instant the voice fell,

a terrifying, oppressive aura immediately spread across the sky.

Shisui's body stiffened.

A powerful intuition was frantically warning him.

If he was directly hit by this move, even with an immortal body, it would take a long time to recover.

He was afraid things would become very troublesome.

Thus, looking at the clay doll emitting a terrifying aura, the three tomoe in Shisui's eyes began to spin frantically, gradually fusing into the shape of a shuriken.

A green, tangible chakra began to dissipate from his body, and a phantom resembling a samurai gradually condensed on his body.

But the next second,

BOOM!!!!

Accompanied by a roaring explosion, an endless blast and flames swallowed and swept over Shisui.

It formed an incomparably terrifying tide of fire in the entire sky, and the temperature in the air also instantly rose by an unknown number of degrees.

The shockwave from the explosion created a pitch-black, deep, giant crater on the endless ground.

High in the sky, Deidara and Rōshi stood on the back of a giant clay bird, their gazes fixed deadly on the center of the explosion.

"Is it over? Hmm."

(End of Chapter)

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