37 Sasori
Lightning shrieked as Naruto vanished again.
Not a blur this time. A rupture.
The cave floor cracked under his feet as he surged forward, the Ninth Cutter screaming with compressed lightning and wind fighting for dominance along its edge. The air smelled sharp, metallic, alive.
Sasori reacted instantly. Black sand surged up, folding inward, reshaping into layered plates around the Third Kazekage puppet. Spears formed. Blades rotated. The defense thickened.
Too late.
Naruto cut through the first layer.
Lightning Style. Lightning Slash.
The strike landed with a sound like a thunderclap trapped inside stone. The blade punched into the sand shield, lightning flooding through the conductive iron grains. For the first time, Sasori's control stuttered.
The sand screamed.
A violent feedback rippled through the puppet. Cracks spiderwebbed across its torso. Naruto twisted his wrist and yanked the blade free, ripping a molten gash straight through the Kazekage puppet's chest.
Sasori staggered back half a step.
His voice sharpened. "So you figured it out. Lightning interferes with my control."
Naruto didn't answer. He was already moving again.
He slammed his palm onto the ground.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Smoke erupted. Five clones burst forward at once, each one cloaked in crackling chakra. Two went high. Two flanked. One charged straight through the center, reckless and fast.
Black sand lashed out like a storm.
One clone was skewered instantly, dissolving into smoke. Another was crushed midair. The remaining three pressed in, blades flashing, lightning tearing through the sand in jagged arcs.
Sasori clicked his tongue.
The Third Kazekage puppet collapsed inward as he abandoned it, black sand ripping free and forming a dense sphere around his core body instead. From his back, dozens of puppet cables snapped outward, slamming into the walls, anchoring him.
"Poison," Sasori said flatly. "Blades, needles, gas. Even if you touch me, you die."
Naruto skidded to a halt just outside the sand sphere.
Red chakra flared hotter.
"You keep forgetting," Naruto said, voice low, steady. "I'm not built like normal people."
The chakra cloak surged, bubbling and tearing at the edges as it burned away toxins on contact. The sand that touched it hissed and fell dead to the floor.
Naruto drew a breath.
Lightning coiled tighter around the Ninth Cutter, compressed until the blade was almost invisible inside the glare.
"This one's not fancy," he said. "Just overwhelming."
He leaned forward.
And vanished.
The world snapped.
Naruto reappeared inside the sand sphere in a violent burst of speed, lightning detonating outward like a star going supernova. The blade tore through puppets, threads, armor, everything in its path.
Sasori's eyes widened for the first time.
Impossible—
The Ninth Cutter pierced straight through his chest.
Naruto twisted the blade.
Lightning flooded Sasori's core, scrambling chakra pathways, locking joints, freezing puppet strings mid-motion. The entire construct seized, then went limp.
Naruto yanked the sword free and flipped back, landing in a crouch as Sasori collapsed to the floor in a clatter of wood and metal.
Silence swallowed the cave.
The red chakra cloak faded, leaving Naruto standing there, breathing slow, blade humming softly in his hand.
He looked at the fallen puppeteer.
"Fight's over," Naruto said. "You lost the moment you thought defense alone was enough."
Across the cavern, explosions echoed as Kakashi pressed Deidara hard, lightning neutralizing clay mid-flight.
Naruto turned his gaze back toward Gaara.
One down.
And he wasn't done yet.
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