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Chapter 187: A Battle That Never Happened in Canon
The vast desert lay in ruins. Several broken earthen walls still burned, belching thick smoke. The air reeked of charred flesh and blood. Clearly, this place had just witnessed a brief yet intense conflict.
When Shisui's group arrived riding the clay dragon, this was the scene that greeted them.
It seemed someone had already engaged their target—the genius puppet master who'd betrayed Sunagakure years ago, Sasori of the Red Sand.
At this moment, Sasori had already summoned his ace in the hole—the human puppet of the Third Kazekage! That body which once symbolized Sunagakure's greatest combat power now floated beside Sasori like a loyal servant, emanating cold and lifeless chakra fluctuations that formed a bizarre contrast with the fanatical gleam in Sasori's eyes as he gazed upon quality materials.
"Looks like my luck really isn't bad," Sasori's voice carried the pleasure of discovering treasure. "Although I came up empty in that boring village just now and couldn't find suitable 'materials'... who would've thought such superior-quality 'material' would deliver itself to my doorstep?"
His gaze greedily swept over the figure opposite him, as if admiring a work of art about to be completed.
"Be happy. I'll turn you into a precious collection on par with the Third Kazekage. This is an honor countless shinobi could never obtain even if they begged for it."
Standing across from him was a woman with a tall figure and cool temperament. She possessed distinctive short purple hair and indifferent amber eyes. She wore a black robe embroidered with red cloud patterns—this signature attire made her identity self-evident.
A member of the Akatsuki organization. Konan.
Facing Sasori's confident—even arrogant—declaration, Konan's expression didn't waver in the slightest. She simply stated the facts in her calm, emotionless voice.
"No choice then. I'll have to use force to take you away."
However, before her words completely finished, Sasori's attack had already launched! He had no interest in pointless verbal sparring—pursuing efficiency was his style!
The Third Kazekage puppet's arms suddenly triggered their mechanisms, instantly extending two massive blades gleaming with cold light and coated in an eerie purple-tinged poison! The blades sliced through the air with a piercing whistle, sweeping toward Konan's waist at astonishing speed! The deadly poison coating them need only make the slightest contact to instantly end the battle!
Too fast! In a heartbeat, those poisoned blades were about to cleave Konan's body in two!
But at the instant the blades touched Konan's body—the expected scene of flying flesh and blood never materialized.
Under Sasori's slightly bewildered gaze, Konan's "severed" body transformed like a shattered illusion, instantly becoming countless fluttering white papers.
These sheets possessed a life of their own, scattering lightly before rapidly reconvening in the distance, reassembling into Konan's completely unharmed form. Not even the hem of her robe was disturbed.
That swift poisoned blade attack—lethal enough to instantly kill the vast majority of shinobi—had absolutely no effect on this woman.
"Again..." A trace of impatience and curiosity entered Sasori's voice. "What bizarre jutsu is this?"
"Whatever. After I turn you into my most perfect puppet, I'll investigate it thoroughly at my leisure!"
Sasori's ten fingers danced with the precision of a maestro, chakra threads guiding the Third Kazekage human puppet through corresponding movements.
"Iron Sand Drizzle."
At his cold command, the black iron sand hovering around the puppet began to stir! It rapidly condensed, forming countless fine yet solid black iron pellets. In the next instant, these deadly projectiles shot toward Konan like a violent storm, overwhelming and inescapable!
Facing this dense barrage, Konan's body once again dispersed like a phantom, transforming into countless fluttering white papers. These sheets wove nimbly through the gaps in the iron sand storm like a school of fish swimming upstream, not only perfectly avoiding every attack but also coalescing into a surging paper current that swept toward Sasori's main body!
Watching the overwhelming tide of paper rushing toward him, a trace of contempt flickered through Sasori's eyes. This jutsu looked bizarre, but at the end of the day, it was just paper! Paper's weakness couldn't be more obvious—
He manipulated Hiruko, instantly unfurling the red scroll on its back.
"Flame Prison Formation."
In the next moment, special tube-like devices extended from in front of Sasori's palms. Wildly violent flames, compressed to their limit, transformed into two dragon-like massive streams of fire carrying scorching temperatures, boldly meeting that surging paper flood!
The searing flames instantly consumed vast quantities of paper. The sheets ignited on contact, crackling audibly, seemingly about to be incinerated completely.
However, the contemptuous sneer that had just appeared on Sasori's face suddenly froze!
Because he clearly saw that among those papers being devoured by flames, a considerable portion displayed familiar runic markings representing destruction on their surfaces an instant before burning, and they emitted a blinding light!
Explosive tags! He'd been set up?! Sasori instantly understood his predicament!
How could Konan not know that Paper Release's greatest weakness was water and fire? She'd already thoroughly strengthened herself against both vulnerabilities!
Simply by soaking specially prepared paper in fireproof oil, the water weakness was overcome... As for fire? She'd turned it into the most lethal trap—mixing large quantities of explosive tags among ordinary paper sheets! The more violent an opponent's Fire Style, the more terrifying the triggered explosion. That flame would instead become the fuse for the user's own demise!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
In the next moment, deafening chain explosions erupted violently before Sasori! Flames shot skyward as shockwaves mixed with scorching air blasts spread wildly in all directions, instantly sweeping the remaining papers into the chaos and triggering even more violent explosions!
After the series of violent detonations, the papers and smoke swirling through the sky began to gradually reconverge, partially coalescing into Konan's cool form. She had entered her Dance of the Shikigami state, hovering in midair, coldly looking down at the explosion's epicenter.
However, as the explosion's smoke and flames gradually dissipated, not the slightest trace of surprise appeared in Konan's calm amber eyes.
At the explosion's center, an exceptionally thick defensive barrier formed from condensed pitch-black iron sand was slowly dispersing, revealing the scene below—completely unharmed.
The intact Sasori of the Red Sand still stood in place, though his eyes had clearly become extremely focused and vigilant.
He obviously hadn't anticipated his opponent's counterattack would be so vicious and precise, nearly catching him off guard.
No more underestimating her.
Sasori completely abandoned his initial amusement and contempt. His opponent's tactics were bizarre and deadly. The slightest carelessness could cause even him to capsize in the gutter.
He made up his mind to cease pointless probing. His hands manipulating the chakra threads suddenly accelerated dramatically.
The Third Kazekage human puppet floating in the air produced an intense chakra reaction in response. From above its head, massive quantities of pitch-black iron sand surged forth wildly, rapidly condensing and transforming—half forming into enormous triangles with razor-sharp edges, the other half coalescing into heavy, solid rectangular blocks!
These two giant geometric forms constructed from iron sand began accelerating toward each other at astonishing speed under Sasori's exquisite control!
CRASH! BANG!
Each violent collision produced the sound of metal clashing against metal and sprays of sparks! And through these successive brutal impacts, countless wickedly sharp black iron spikes sprouted wildly from the surfaces of both geometric forms like thorns—spreading, extending, lengthening!
In the blink of an eye, a deadly forest formed from countless sharp iron spikes covering an extremely vast area had taken shape. With the momentum to annihilate everything, it pressed indiscriminately toward the airspace where Konan hovered, threatening to engulf her completely!
"Iron Sand World Method."
This was the ultimate technique of using iron sand to create massive-range attacks—impossible to evade!
Konan watched that sky-obscuring iron spike forest containing terrifying piercing power and magnetic force, sealing off virtually all evasion space. Her eyes narrowed slightly. Under such large-scale saturation attacks, simply relying on Dance of the Shikigami's dispersal and reformation to dodge would be extremely difficult—she might even be affected by the magnetic force...
It seemed she needed to end this quickly.
In her Dance of the Shikigami form, Konan raised one hand. Chakra surged like a tide as countless papers circling her body received the command, rapidly converging toward her raised palm!
These papers didn't simply stack—rather, infused with chakra, they rapidly hardened, deformed, and took shape—transforming into countless rock-hard paper spikes and sharp lances!
Simultaneously, even more papers converged madly behind her, extending until they finally formed a pair of pure white, sacred paper wings!
She hovered in the air, paper wings spread behind her, ten thousand arrows ready to launch before her.
"Dance of the Shikigami: Angel's Judgment."
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