Ryou's massive Chakra poured into the earth, and tree roots burst from the ground, rapidly intertwining and condensing into a giant Wood Dragon with a long hooked nose and a body covered in thorns, its size far exceeding that of a Tailed Beast.
Sasori's eyes widened. "Wood Release? How is that possible? How can you use the First Hokage's Wood Release?"
The Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan had a blood feud spanning generations; how could the power of the Senju Clan's First Hokage be obtained by a member of the Uchiha Clan?
The Sharingan and Wood Release! Is he even human?
Ryou stood atop the Wood Dragon, and the long iron sand spikes released by the Third Kazekage couldn't break through the Wood Dragon's defense at all.
The Wood Dragon's defense wasn't actually that strong; if it were extremely small-diameter iron sand needles, they could penetrate it.
But the Wood Dragon's strength lay in its endless vitality; the moment you damaged its body, it would be restored in an instant.
The Wood Dragon flew into the sky, and with a few sweeps of its tail, it destroyed the Third Kazekage's iron sand barrier.
The Wood Dragon was comparable to Susanoo, and its easiest targets were Tailed Beasts carrying massive amounts of Chakra.
"Wood Release!!"
Nekomata's eyes widened, followed by wild joy. "We've hit the jackpot, we've really hit the jackpot this time."
With the Sharingan paired with Wood Release, could anyone still be Ryou's opponent?
Nekomata had thought that Ryou going to Sunagakure alone this time was a suicide mission; after all, even if Sunagakure was the weakest, it was still one of the Five Great Ninja Villages.
But if he had Wood Release, that was a different story.
Moreover, looking at Ryou's Wood Release, it seemed very close to that of the First Hokage.
Humph! Konoha's Uchiha Clan, you've definitely lost!
The Wood Dragon whipped its tail at the Third Kazekage, sending him flying far away.
Because the distance was too great, Sasori's Chakra threads couldn't reach that far, and he immediately lost control of the Third Kazekage.
Sasori fell from the sky, his eyes filled with irritation. "Damn it!"
A technique like Wood Release was completely unreasonable; Sasori didn't know what kind of technique could defeat Wood Release.
Unless his puppet was a Gundam!
Sasori's situation was dire; without the Third Kazekage, he was basically half-crippled.
He himself was also a human puppet, and his body had undergone many modifications, but no matter how it was modified, it couldn't be stronger than the Third Kazekage's Magnet Release.
Even so, Sasori did not beg Ryou for mercy; he was an extremely proud person and had never begged anyone for mercy.
If this was his fate, then Sasori accepted it.
At least by falling to Wood Release and the Sharingan, Sasori felt he hadn't been slighted.
Sasori took out one of his scrolls labeled 'Hundred'.
He shouted, "Uchiha Ryou, I admit you are strong, but I will never acknowledge your art."
"I shall defend the honor of a Puppeteer!"
"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"
Sasori opened the scroll, and hundreds of puppets wearing red robes appeared out of thin air; suddenly, the entire sky was filled with Sasori's troops.
Sasori's regeneration core released Chakra threads connecting to these red-robed puppets. Each puppet used a different weapon, and their actions were all controlled by the Chakra threads emitted from the regeneration core.
In the original work, Sasori relied on this technique to easily destroy a small country.
The will of the puppets was dominated by the regeneration core; Sasori didn't need to use his hands to control them, and a hundred puppets could be controlled as freely as his own limbs.
This was something a human body could not achieve.
Sasori's Performance of a Hundred Puppets had overturned the limitations of traditional Puppeteers; he could be called the strongest Puppeteer in the history of the Ninja World.
Ryou stood atop the Wood Dragon and, imitating Madara, gave Sasori a thumbs up. "Sasori, among those I've fought in the field of puppetry, no one is more excellent than you."
"I, Uchiha Ryou, am willing to call you the strongest!"
Ryou had never actually fought a Puppeteer; when the war between Konoha and Sunagakure broke out, he was hiding in the logistics medical team looking at ultrasounds.
As soon as the fighting reached the logistics, he would immediately play dead.
Sasori could be said to be the first Puppeteer Ryou had encountered!
But could there be a stronger Puppeteer in the Ninja World than Sasori?
Nagato's Six Paths of Pain—sorry, that was a Rinnegan ocular technique and had nothing to do with puppetry.
Nagato was a controller of corpses, not a traditional puppet user.
The automatic puppets of the Ōtsutsuki Clan on the moon were AI, automatic robots.
In the puppet school, Sasori was the contemporary top fighter!
Kankuro, the Ninja who represented the puppet school in the original work—his Crow and Black Ant were all puppet toys Sasori made as a child.
In the later stages, Sasori's own puppet body and 'Father' and 'Mother' were also picked up by Kankuro to be used as trump cards.
It was truly a case of Sasori of the Red Sand falling so Kankuro could eat his fill!
"Thank you!"
Sasori sincerely thanked Ryou; nothing was more worth being proud of than the recognition of an opponent.
But the fight still had to go on.
Sasori manipulated the hundreds of red-robed puppets to attack Ryou.
Ryou controlled the Wood Dragon to swing its tail in attack.
But Sasori also employed tactics, keeping the puppets from clustering together and having them fly all around.
Puppets with long-range attacks greeted Ryou with arrows, poison needles, and Kunai.
These attacks couldn't do anything to the Wood Dragon.
But with them all greeting Ryou at once, even with his Asura Sage Body, it wasn't pleasant.
He condensed a Wood Locking Wall atop the Wood Dragon to block the long-range attacks of Sasori's puppets.
There were too many puppets, they were fast, and because they were puppets, the Wood Dragon couldn't absorb their Chakra.
For a moment, Ryou really couldn't do anything to Sasori.
He got angry!
"Sasori, since you're using your strongest technique to entertain me, then I'll respond with my strongest technique!"
"Wood Style: Wood Golem Technique!"
Ryou transferred Chakra into the Wood Dragon, and instantly a giant wood golem rose from the earth, its entire body composed of dark green, rough-textured, hard wood.
The texture was heavy, covered in knots and cracks.
Its face was a majestic demon mask, with deep-set eyes glowing with green light.
The Wood Dragon that Sasori previously couldn't defeat suddenly became like a pet on the arm of the Wood Golem.
The Wood Golem was a hundred meters tall, looking like a Buddha stepped out of Buddhist mythology.
"..."
At this moment, the whole world went silent.
Sasori, along with his red-robed puppets, all came to a standstill.
Sasori really wanted to say: where are your manners?
Did you really need to use this kind of technique to deal with him?
"What... what is that?"
In the distance, the town that had been attacked by Sasori earlier saw the god-like wood golem. Having just escaped the threat of death, the townspeople felt as if they were seeing a deity.
"It's a god, a god has come to us."
"Quickly, kneel down, do not be disrespectful to the god."
"Yes, yes, yes, do not be disrespectful to the Great Deity."
Even with such a vast disparity, Sasori was like a moth flying into a flame; all the red-robed puppets attacked the wood golem together.
The wood golem smashed down a fist, and instantly all of Sasori's puppets were crushed.
Sasori was back to square one in an instant!
Even his own body was smashed, leaving only the regeneration core that symbolized his heart.
Ryou sank the wood golem back into the earth, then picked up Sasori's regeneration core and sealed it with Wood Release.
Snowy and Nekomata approached.
Candy turned on auto-loot and retrieved the Third Kazekage puppet that had been knocked away by Ryou.
While picking things up, it scouted the surroundings and sensed the Chakra of some Ninjas coming toward this place.
Candy reminded Ryou, "Ryou, Ninjas are coming this way!"
Ryou nodded and jumped onto Nekomata's back. "Let's get out of here!"
The place where Ryou was located was the territory of a noble lord, and the battle that occurred here had already attracted the attention of the Ninjas in this area.
Ryou's trip was a secret mission to capture Shukaku, and he didn't want to make it known to everyone.