WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 30→2ch | 60→5ch | 100→8ch | 200→15ch | 400→25ch⏰ Resets Monday!
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BOOM!
The White Kirin collided with the Black Sand Spear. The spear shattered, detonating the Tailed Beast Bomb it carried.
The white lightning surged forward, plunging into the fiery explosion, blasting through the sand defenses behind it, and finally, with thunderous momentum, pierced the hard armor of the Shukaku puppet.
"AAAAAGH…!!"
Sasuke roared. CRACK! The arm of his Tengu Susano'o drove deep into the puppet's interior. The condensed Chidori sphere that was the White Kirin detonated. Inside the Shukaku puppet, a lightning storm raged, annihilating its intricate inner workings.
KABOOOM…!
With a deafening roar, the Tailed Beast Weapon: Sand-Shukaku shattered into countless fragments.
Sasori's core flashed from the rain of debris. There was no time for the shock and frustration of losing his ultimate weapon.
He wasn't defeated yet!!!
The Susano'o vanished. Sasuke ignored the searing pain in his eyes and lunged after him.
He hadn't won yet!!!
Cornered, Sasori fought back.
— Scroll: Fire Prison Flare!
Flames hot enough to vaporize rock and steel in an instant erupted toward him.
Heat washed over Sasuke's face. The blood vessels in his left eye, still patterned with its six-pointed star, ruptured.
— Amaterasu!!
WHOOSH! Black flames ignited in the air, swallowing Sasori's proud inferno whole.
Sizzle.
The Mangekyō in his left eye faded—not even the three-tomoe could be sustained.
CRACKLE! Sasuke adjusted mid-stride. Lightning shrieked in his right hand. With his right eye's MangekyĹŤ barely holding on, he launched his final Chidori thrust.
Sasori of the Red Sand would not just wait for death.
— Scroll: Virulent Flow Slash!
SHIIING! A high-pressure water blade, sharp enough to sever the clouds above, sliced through the air toward Sasuke.
SWOOSH! Sasuke twisted at the peak of his speed, evading by a hair's breadth.
SHHHHK!
The water blade cleaved the river where the Heaven and Earth Bridge once stood, bisected the cliff where Orochimaru and Kabuto had been watching, and finally erased the bloody twilight from the sky.
In the moment Sasori's attack swept past empty air, Sasuke closed the final gap.
This distance… Now!!!
The twin spinning blades on Sasori's back whirred. Steel cables from his abdomen coiled around his core defensively.
— Chidori Sharp Spear!
SHK!
The next instant, Sasori's expression froze.
His widened puppet eyes stared blankly at Sasuke, who had halted five meters away… and at the spear of lightning extending from his palm.
The tip of that spear had already pierced the vital, fleshy core in his left chest.
"That Lightning Style… it can take this form too…?"
"Guh… Gah!"
Blood welled from the puppet's mouth.
ZAP.
The lightning spear retracted. The MangekyĹŤ in Sasuke's right eye faded.
Sasori of the Red Sand was undoubtedly a powerful fighter. But Sasuke knew he didn't have Naruto's gift for turning enemies into allies.
So, his way was to cut the threat down. Permanently.
Sasori collapsed onto the water's surface, his voice a hymn to the death rushing toward him.
"This feeling… of life slipping away. It's euphoric. Am I finally approaching true 'eternity'? The eternity called 'stillness'."
As a worthy opponent in a life-or-death battle, Sasuke granted him the proper respect.
"Sasori of the Red Sand. Do you have any final words?"
Sasori rasped, "Bring Orochimaru out. I have a question for him."
Sasuke glanced back.
WHOOSH. From a swirling black vortex, Orochimaru arrived, accompanied by Kabuto Yakushi.
"Sasori. You've surprised me, reaching this point."
Sasori: "Heh. You were here all along. Luring me out here… If you wanted me dead, you could have attacked alongside Sasuke. I realized your purpose mid-fight. You wanted to use me as a whetstone for Sasuke Uchiha, didn't you?"
Orochimaru: "Correct."
Sasori: "What are you trying to forge him into? And what is your goal?"
Orochimaru: "An existence capable of opposing a 'god'. As for my goal… 'protection', perhaps?"
Sasori sneered: "Protection? A creature like you, who toys with lives so freely… has something to protect?"
Orochimaru smiled faintly. "Perhaps… I do, surprisingly."
Sasori: "Heh. The joke of the century."
Driven by his obsession with eternity, Sasori had hated Orochimaru, the seeker of immortality. But in his final moments, he desperately needed an answer. An answer only Orochimaru could possibly give.
With unprecedented gravity, Sasori asked, "Orochimaru. Answer me one question. What is eternity?"
Orochimaru contemplated for a long moment before speaking, his voice low. "In the past, I saw 'indestructibility' as eternity. I sought eternal life, using soul transmigration to replace flesh."
"You are the opposite. You saw 'non-living' as eternity. You destroyed your flesh, turned yourself into a dead thing, seeking to endure."
"But both these forms of eternity are incomplete. Imperfect. That is why we both reached failed ends."
Sasori: "Then what is true eternity?"
Orochimaru: "Neither born nor destroyed. That is true eternity."
Sasori: "Neither… born nor destroyed?"
Orochimaru: "'Not born' does not mean never existed. It means never ceased. 'Not destroyed' does not mean never decayed. It means decayed… but not ruined."
Sasori: "Does such a thing… truly exist?"
Orochimaru: "It exists. And there is only one answer. The 'heart'."
Sasori: "Heart?"
Orochimaru: "Sasori. Did you erase your heart?"
Sasori: "Heart… I have no heart."
Orochimaru: "Then, having no heart… is your heart."
Sasori: "Word games…"
Orochimaru: "Perhaps. But think. To erase your heart, you turned your very self into a 'puppet'. Yet, the irony is, you can act as a puppet precisely because your powerful will—your heart—clings to that puppet. Your regenerative core is the source of your life, but not the vessel of your 'heart'. So… where does your heart reside? The answer… only you can know."
"…" Sasori closed his eyes. In his mind, a childhood memory surfaced. It stopped at the image of his father's and mother's embrace.
How irritating. The one who understands me best… is the one I hated, the one I wanted so desperately to kill.
He opened his eyes, a self-mocking sigh escaping him. "Orochimaru. I truly cannot exist in the same era as you. Will you do one last thing for me?"
Orochimaru: "Speak."
Sasori: "Tell Granny Chiyo of Sunagakure… before she dies… to pass on the puppets 'Father' and 'Mother'…"
Orochimaru nodded. "It would be my pleasure."
In the very last moment, having found his answer to true, eternal art, Sasori of the Red Sand closed his eyes peacefully, as if returning to his parents' embrace.
Kabuto Yakushi stepped forward. "You don't intend to use him for the Impure World Reincarnation?"
Orochimaru shook his head. "No need. A soul that has found peace in life cannot be bound by Edo Tensei."
He bent down and picked up the final scroll Sasori had left behind, glancing at Sasuke. "This scroll seems to contain blueprints for the other Tailed Beast Weapons. Sasuke-kun. Interested?"
Sasuke pondered. "I know nothing of puppet techniques. Even with blueprints, I likely couldn't recreate Sasori's vision. However… if I ever awaken the Rinnegan again, with the powers of the Asura Path… that would be another story."
"My thoughts exactly…"
Orochimaru smiled. He tilted his head back, opened his mouth, and swallowed the scroll whole. He wiped a trail of saliva from his lips.
"Now then… Let's depart before those people arrive to confirm Sasori's demise…"
WHOOSH!
Within the swirling vortex, Sasuke, Orochimaru, and Kabuto vanished, their mission complete.
The first great clash had come to a close.
In the deserts of the Land of Wind, at the rendezvous point after the 'destroy-the-nation' mission, Deidara waited and waited for Sasori's return. When he never came, he frantically contacted the leader of the Akatsuki.
WHOOSH.
On the ruins of the Heaven and Earth Bridge, a murky black vortex swirled. A masked man descended into the night.
His Sharingan scanned the devastated battlefield, its gaze finally settling on Sasori's lifeless remains. He stood there for a long time, shrouded in silence.
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