In the face of Sasori, who had unleashed his full power to prove himself, the super pursuit squad composed of six Jonin suddenly appeared fragile and unstable.
The man hailed as the strongest Third Kazekage now stood on the opposing side, launching a frantic bombardment against them using his signature Magnet Style—the very power that symbolized the Hidden Sand Village's ultimate strength.
This time, Sasori ceased his cautious probing. He began by wildly hurling various high-powered Magnet Style ninjutsu at them.
"Magnet Style: Iron Sand Waves!"
"Magnet Style: Iron Sand Cube!"
"Magnet Style: Iron Sand World Method!"
The black iron sand continuously shifted into various forms to assault the Sand ninjas. One moment it was a towering tidal wave, the next a heavy cube, and then it transformed into countless long needles. Its movements were truly unpredictable.
Under such a terrifying offensive, even though the opposing side possessed the combat power of six Jonin-level fighters, they were powerless to turn the tide. After all, their attacks were utterly insignificant against the hardened iron sand.
Conversely, an attack formed by the gathered iron sand required only a single hit to end their lives. This was because Sasori had coated every attack with a potent poison sufficient to paralyze their entire bodies.
The Hidden Sand pursuit squad lasted only seven minutes before they were completely defeated by Sasori's all-out effort. The once yellow desert was now covered in iron sand, looking like a strange stain on the landscape from above.
Sasori chose not to kill everyone. Instead, he kept the six Jonin whose strength was decent. These were high-quality materials for him to use in manufacturing Human Puppets.
However, Hidan was quite dissatisfied with this.
"You actually sacrificed those stinking scraps to Jashin-sama while hogging these wonderful sacrifices for yourself? You god-defier!"
Hidan shouted abuse at Sasori. Ultimately, it was Simu who restrained him.
"That's enough, Hidan. Sasori is doing this to strengthen our Jashin Religion. Only when our strength grows can we obtain better sacrifices for Jashin-sama in the future, right?"
Despite hearing Simu's words, Hidan remained unsatisfied and grew even angrier.
"Bastard Simu! You're actually taking the side of this newly initiated red-haired brat! I'll kill you!"
With that, he truly shouldered his Three-bladed blood scythe and swung at Simu. However, he had just reached Simu when his head was cut off.
Simu practicedly stuffed Hidan's mouth as he prepared to scream more abuse, then naturally picked up his head.
Noticing Sasori's surprised expression, Simu offered a brief explanation: "This is our normal way of interacting. You'll get used to it slowly."
Sasori's mouth twitched, and he forced a slight smile. "The daily interactions of you two seniors are truly... unique."
To be honest, Sasori had expected that daily life in the Jashin Religion might not be normal, but he hadn't expected it to be this abnormal! Nevertheless, it was fine. He had long since grown tired of a normal life. Occasionally experiencing the sensation of beheading or being beheaded seemed like it might be interesting.
Seeing that Sasori seemed to accept this setup quickly, Simu lightly pushed his glasses. "Sasori, I'll leave Gaara to you."
"I understand."
Sasori shot out trails of chakra threads from his fingertips, connecting Gaara and his puppet materials on the ground. Immediately after, Simu pressed a palm against the earth.
"Summoning Jutsu."
The space-time formula used for summoning instantly released from Simu's palm. A puff of smoke appeared, and a massive black Raven abruptly emerged.
This was a giant version of a Raven that Simu had obtained by modifying Raven genes. This technology was something Simu had mastered quite maturely by now.
"As expected of Senior Simu."
Sasori could sense that this Raven was no ordinary summoned beast, but a... puppet whose body and soul were both dominated by Simu. It was truly a beautiful piece of art.
"You flatter me," Simu replied with his usual humility. He then boarded the giant Raven's back, carrying Hidan's head in one hand and his body in the other. Sasori quickly jumped up with Gaara and the six materials.
By the time the large force of Hidden Sand reinforcements arrived, the scene held nothing but a ground full of corpses and some black iron sand that there hadn't been time to collect.
"Report the situation to the Kazekage-sama immediately!"
On the other side, after a full day of flying, Simu and the others finally left the enemies far behind. They arrived at the most important stronghold Simu had deployed in the desert.
Specifically, it was the place he had previously used to research Tailed Beast chakra. This stronghold featured a Blood Pool.
The reason he didn't bring Gaara directly into the Land of Rain was that Simu didn't want to hand over the first Tailed Beast he captured so easily just yet. He was very interested in Tailed Beasts—creatures that existed in the form of energy. How could he bear to hand it over without studying it properly?
As for Sasori, he was already deeply attracted by the various biological weapons displayed in Simu's base. He crouched in front of a Broodmother Nest that Simu had just produced and asked with a hint of excitement:
"Senior Simu, would it be convenient for you to tell me what the function of this beautiful creature is?"
Simu did not speak. Instead, he gave an order to the Broodmother Nest, answering Sasori's question through action.
Receiving Simu's command, the newborn spherical Broodmother Nest—resembling a massive fleshy worm—began to wriggle slowly. It then squeezed out a dense cluster of white insect eggs from its tail end.
Once these eggs were produced, they began to hatch rapidly. Ghost-Faced Wind Scorpions crawled out one by one, prostrating themselves on the ground toward the Blood Pool to show their submission to Simu.
"This is the biological weapon I created. It can continuously produce Ghost-Faced Wind Scorpions, Poison-Bladed Centipedes, and Desert Dragonflies."
"The Ghost-Faced Wind Scorpions are my army, the Poison-Bladed Centipedes are my assassins, and as for the Desert Dragonflies... they are my eyes."
At this point, a trace of a mysterious smile appeared in Simu's eyes.
"Of course, they will also soon become an important power within the Hidden Sand Village."
Hearing Simu's words, Sasori instantly recalled the Scorpion Jade that the ninjas in the Hidden Sand Village had been discussing so hotly lately. Furthermore, the very popular Equinox Flower Chamber of Commerce was also an asset of the Jashin Religion...
So everything in the Hidden Sand Village is under Senior Simu's control?
Realizing this, Sasori's face turned slightly red. He took an excited breath and, although he tried actively to hide it, he couldn't help but reveal a look of intoxication.
"Senior Simu, this is true art!"
Simu looked at the red-haired youth's somewhat frenzied expression and lightly rubbed the space between his eyebrows. He had originally thought he had finally recruited a relatively calm member, but he hadn't expected that beneath Sasori's cold exterior hid a heart of extreme madness.
Then again, a normal person wouldn't think of choosing to join the Jashin Religion in the first place.