Sasori narrowed his eyes. He had come to a bitter realization—defeating Inoiki with conventional means was no longer an option. If he wanted to win, he would need to unleash his ultimate technique.
Reaching behind him, Sasori activated a mechanism embedded in his back, ejecting a scroll with practiced precision. As the scroll unfurled, glowing seals activated, and in the blink of an eye, hundreds of puppets materialized before him in a massive cloud of smoke.
Then, he opened a hidden panel on the right side of his chest. From it, a swarm of chakra threads burst forth, shooting toward the puppets like strands of spider silk. As the threads connected, the lifeless wooden figures jerked to motion—twitching, twitching… and then fully animated, as though possessed by souls.
Sasori grinned. "A puppet master's true strength is measured by the number of puppets they can control."
He glanced at Chiyo, his voice carrying both pride and a tinge of bitterness. "Grandmother… With your 'White Secret Technique: The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets,' you became the most revered puppet master of Sunagakure. You could control ten puppets simultaneously—and with them, you once brought down an entire fortress."
His grin widened with menace.
"But look at me now," he said, lifting his arms as the sea of puppets moved in perfect unison. "Behold the technique that can destroy an entire nation—Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets."
The puppets shifted behind him like a tidal wave ready to crash.
"For a moment, I felt embarrassed—fighting just an old woman and a young girl, and not only that, but also getting held back. But now…" His eyes turned to Inoiki, burning with excitement. "Now that I have an opponent worth my full strength—I feel no shame. I feel exhilarated."
Inoiki stepped forward, his eyes calmly fixed on the swarm of puppets behind Sasori. Then, with a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips, he spoke.
"So, you've decided to use your ultimate technique to try and defeat me," he said, voice calm and composed. "Impressive… but I won't be using mine."
Sasori narrowed his eyes, immediately taking the words as an insult—but Inoiki wasn't finished.
"If I used my full strength, this would be over far too quickly. And where's the fun in that?" he continued. "Over the past few months, I've been developing a new sword style—something different from my usual remote control techniques. You know I can manipulate things with my mind, but sometimes… there's a certain thrill in holding a blade yourself."
He raised one hand and unsealed a scroll with a single flick. A sword burst forth in a flash of chakra, spinning midair before landing solidly in Inoiki's grip. It wasn't an ordinary weapon. This was a chakra sword—confiscated from rogue Ninja of the Land of Iron after Inoiki had defeated them and dismantled their black market.
"I think your hundred puppets will make the perfect sparring partners," Inoiki said, leveling the blade. "This is the greatest respect I can show you—as a warrior."
For a moment, Sasori's expression darkened. He had assumed Inoiki was mocking him. But now he could see the truth in the man's eyes—Inoiki didn't look down on him. He simply didn't need to go all out.
And that truth stung more than any insult.
Sasori's eyes narrowed as he sneered, "You'll regret holding back. I promise you that."
Inoiki offered a calm, unbothered smirk. "We'll see."
Without wasting another moment, Inoiki raised his sword, gripping it tightly with one hand. A faint hum began to fill the air as he channeled his psychokinetic energy directly into the blade. The metal shimmered with a sky-blue glow, the light intensifying until it radiated like a beacon. Even those watching from a distance could feel the power building within it.
Sasori's hundred puppets surged forward like a tidal wave, each one armed with a different weapon—swords, sickles, spears, and claws. The air became thick with killing intent as the deadly wooden army bore down on him.
But Inoiki stood his ground.
With a single, fluid motion, he swung his sword horizontally. "Psionic Shockwave."
A brilliant arc of sky-blue energy blasted forth from the blade, tearing through the air like a force of nature. The shockwave collided with the advancing puppets, exploding on impact. The front lines were obliterated—wood splintered, metal cracked, and limbs scattered across the battlefield. Twenty puppets were instantly reduced to shards, while the rest were forced to halt and regroup under the sheer force of the blast.
Chiyo's eyes widened in astonishment. "That… that was the move he said he recently developed?" she breathed. "And that's not even his strongest attack?"
She glanced at Inoiki, stunned by the scale of his power—and deeply grateful that he was their ally.
Though twenty of Sasori's puppets had been completely annihilated, few of them—though damaged—were still operational. Without hesitation, Sasori reanimated them with a surge of chakra threads, their movements twitchy but determined as they launched another coordinated assault toward Inoiki.
Inoiki didn't flinch. Instead, he calmly raised his chakra sword once again. This time, he focused even deeper, channelling his psychokinetic energy not just into the weapon, but into its very structure.
"I've never tried this with a chakra blade," he thought, narrowing his eyes, "but theoretically… if I compress the molecular bonds just right…"
His energy surged, rippling in sky-blue waves across the blade's surface as he manipulated it on a microscopic level. Molecules shifted, tightened, condensed—until the sword began to gleam with a dangerous, unnatural sharpness. It looked almost ethereal, vibrating faintly with power, as if it could cut through reality itself. Of course it was just a feeling not literally.
"If this doesn't work," he mused with a flicker of amusement, "it'll be a little embarrassing."
But he had no time to second-guess. The puppets were closing in.
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