Chapter 243: Sasori's Human Puppet Technique
"A turn of fate, another surprise… Life is full of delightful twists."
"Puppet Talisman—how interesting!"
After reviewing the memories of the Third Kazekage, Li Yao's Wind Release clone was genuinely thrilled.
While the puppet body of the Third Kazekage wasn't particularly impressive to Li Yao himself, the core of the human puppet—the Puppet Talisman, which could deconstruct chakra into spiritual and physical energy—was the true prize.
With the Puppet Talisman, Li Yao could finally perfect his Perfect Transformation Technique.
"With the Puppet Talisman, Sasori… hmm, he'll be useful."
Thinking it over, Li Yao's clone decided to spare Sasori.
After all, research talents were rare in the shinobi world, and Sasori, a genius puppeteer, could develop even more puppet-based techniques that Li Yao could benefit from.
And since he was planning to become Kazekage and take control of Sunagakure, having Sasori around would be convenient.
Li Yao then absorbed the Third Kazekage's soul and descended with his corpse.
Sasori was still there, watching intently. He was curious about what Li Yao would do with the Kazekage's body—and whether he might be allowed to have it.
Thud!
Li Yao tossed the corpse in front of Sasori and said,
"Go ahead. Let me see how your human puppet technique works."
"You know about human puppets?" Sasori's eyes narrowed.
He had developed the technique in secret. No one was supposed to know. That someone like Kazekaze, always out on missions, would know—it was alarming.
"...Makes sense. You've probably planned to kill the Third for a long time."
A moment later, Sasori calmed himself. It made sense—if Kazekaze had premeditated the assassination, he must have investigated the Kazekage deeply, including his past involvement in human puppet research.
So guessing that Sasori would inherit that technique wasn't a stretch.
No need to overthink. What mattered was that his first true human puppet was finally here.
Sasori pulled out a sealing scroll, unsealed it, and summoned a large humanoid puppet modeled after the Third Kazekage.
Clearly, he had long been prepared to turn the Kazekage into a human puppet after poisoning him.
Li Yao observed the puppet carefully, particularly the sealing arrays etched into its interior.
They resembled the Third Kazekage's Puppet Talisman but had evolved significantly.
Sasori had built upon the foundation laid by the Kazekage and other predecessors to forge a technique of his own.
"I wonder how it compares to the Third's version…" Li Yao mused.
Clack clack... Sasori's fingers twitched, sending chakra threads into the puppet. It wobbled to life and walked toward the Kazekage's corpse. Its torso, chest, and head opened up, enclosing the corpse within.
Click click... Metal pins inside the puppet pierced the body, locking it in place.
Then the puppet stood upright.
Sasori sat cross-legged, made a peculiar hand seal, and shot ten chakra threads from his fingertips, attaching them to various points on the puppet.
His chakra began to flow into the puppet. The sealing arrays channeled that energy through the internal needles into the corpse.
"This will take a while. Want to watch, or should I just hand over the technique?"
Sasori looked at Li Yao's clone as he asked.
"Heh… You're not afraid I'll kill you?" Li Yao asked with a smirk.
"If you were going to, I wouldn't be able to resist anyway."
Li Yao just chuckled and said nothing more. He continued sensing the changes occurring within the puppet.
Seeing this, Sasori understood that Li Yao wasn't all that interested in stealing his technique. So he focused entirely on refining the puppet.
Time passed.
An hour later—
Li Yao's Wind Clone suddenly sensed a change.
"It's gone… no—absorbed."
Inside the puppet, the Third Kazekage's corpse was being decomposed and absorbed via the flow of chakra through the Puppet Talisman.
Residual chakra was being broken down into spiritual and physical energy and drawn into the seal.
Even the flesh itself was being slowly dissolved and reconstituted into pure physical energy.
Gradually, the Kazekage's corpse crumbled into nothing but a pile of black dust.
"So the core of the Puppet Talisman is exactly that—the ability to deconstruct chakra into its fundamental energies."
At that moment, Li Yao fully understood the true function of both versions of the Puppet Talisman.
But while the fundamental ability was the same, Sasori and the Third had taken opposite approaches.
The Third had used the talisman to turn living people into soulless puppets. Then, by infusing his own chakra over time, he nurtured the puppet until it developed a soul—effectively becoming his own clone with equal power and memory.
Sasori, on the other hand, used the talisman on freshly dead corpses—extracting residual chakra, converting it, and injecting it into the puppet.
This created a puppet that could wield the deceased's chakra techniques via spiritual energy, which also preserved jutsu memory.
Each method had its strengths.
The Third's puppet clone was essentially a second life—complete in body, memory, and strength.
Its weakness? Time. It took ten years to develop a soul.
If anything went wrong, like now, it could fail. The one still hidden in Sunagakure hadn't yet developed a soul. With the Kazekage's death, it too was finished.
Sasori's puppets couldn't serve as a second life.
But they took far less time to create—and could be made in multiples.
Their flaw was chakra limitation. The puppets used his chakra, not their own.
So even though Sasori now had a Kazekage puppet, he couldn't use massive-scale techniques like Iron Sand Sea.
Three hours later—
"It's done," Sasori said joyfully, flicking his fingers.
Clack! The puppet opened. The body inside was gone. Only a pile of black ash and some clothing remained.
"Try it out," Li Yao's clone said with a smile.
Sasori nodded, made another seal, and whispered,
"Magnet Release – Iron Sand Control."
Inside the puppet, the Puppet Talisman activated. Magnet Release chakra flared outward, and black iron sand nearby began to swirl.
"Iron Sand Drizzle!"
"Iron Sand World Assault!"
Sasori tested each jutsu one by one. The puppet performed them fluidly.
Though the amount of sand controlled was far less than what the Third Kazekage could handle, it was still impressive.
After all, this was just a puppet—and it worked.
"Don't leave the Land of Wind yet. I'll soon become Kazekage. Once I do, return to the village. I'll fully support your puppet research."
As soon as Sasori finished testing, Li Yao's clone extended the invitation.
(END CHAPTER)
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