"Shut your mouth! The weak have no right to speak in my presence!"
Sasuke pulled his sword out with a violent jerk, letting the blood spray through the air. A look of absolute coldness settled on his handsome features.
After all, in his daily life, he was constantly tormented by Karin and her monstrous strength. He had been beaten to the point of nearly developing a psychological complex, often doubting whether the growth in strength he felt was merely an illusion.
But now, after effortlessly dealing with the One-Tails Jinchūriki, who had left such a deep impression on him during the Chūnin Exams, he could finally confirm that he had indeed become stronger. Not just stronger, but exceptionally powerful.
It was simply that a certain girl's raw power and fighting style were too monstrous and perfectly countered him, which was why he had never been able to defeat her.
"You bastard!"
The searing pain from the wound caused Gaara's expression to instantly turn hideous and contorted.
Because the Chūnin Exams and the "Konoha Crush" plan had veered toward a different extreme under Allen's intervention, Naruto never had the chance to use his "Talk no Jutsu" on this bloodthirsty, cruel, and unstable Jinchūriki. Consequently, while Gaara had been somewhat restrained under Chiyo's intensive training, the madness and paranoia in his bones had never truly vanished.
In a matter of seconds, a massive amount of sand surged from all directions like a tidal wave, cocooning him from head to toe.
A chakra unique to the Tailed Beasts began to permeate the air!
"Not good! The One-Tails is losing control! Quick! Evacuate the civilians immediately!"
Seeing this, Chiyo didn't hesitate to bark orders to the Sand shinobi nearby.
The shinobi acted swiftly, and before long, the surrounding area was completely cleared. Having a Jinchūriki who went berserk every other day meant the Hidden Sand Village had long ago established a comprehensive response mechanism; they were simply activating it now.
Just as the old woman had predicted, Gaara, feeling his life threatened, didn't hesitate for a moment. He released the One-Tails, Shukaku, entirely.
Accompanied by an exaggerated, manic laughter, the tanuki emerged. It immediately began using its terrifying chakra to recklessly pour out Wind Release: Sand Buckshot upon the surroundings.
Faced with such unreasonable, large-scale saturation bombing, even the current Sasuke had no immediate solution. He could only dodge continuously, trying to find a weakness in the colossal behemoth made of sand.
Seeing her rival in such a pathetic state, Karin burst into a fit of malicious laughter. "Hahaha! What an idiot! He didn't even know that when dealing with a Jinchūriki, you should knock them unconscious immediately. Now he's in big trouble."
"More importantly, I'm concerned about whether it's really okay for Gaara to release a Tailed Beast directly inside his own village," Neji remarked, his brow furrowing instinctively.
As the two spoke, every building within a thousand-meter radius had already been reduced to ruins under the assault of the Sand Bullets. Although there were no casualties yet, if this continued, the entire Hidden Sand Village would soon be preparing for post-disaster reconstruction.
"That depends on the choices of the Sand's high command. It has nothing to do with us anyway," Allen said with a nonchalant shrug, tilting his head to look at several familiar figures atop a distant building.
Through Track Humanoids, he had long ago detected the presence of Chiyo, Ebizō, and Jiraiya. And, of course, the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki, Naruto Uzumaki, who had accompanied Jiraiya.
"He's spotted us!" Jiraiya warned in a heavy voice.
"Prepare to move! It seems this battle is unavoidable."
Without another word, Chiyo released her puppets and leaped from the rooftop, launching a direct assault on the leader of the squad, Allen.
Regrettably, before the two puppets could even fire their poison-coated blades, Karin intercepted them in mid-air. She shattered them both with a single punch each.
BANG! BANG!
Accompanied by deafening crashes, even the Chakra Shield proved utterly useless. The two meticulously crafted puppets were reduced to a spray of splinters.
"Monster Strength?!" Chiyo was stunned.
She had faced Tsunade on the battlefield countless times and was intimately familiar with this brand of Nintaijutsu, which used explosive chakra bursts to cause staggering destruction. She never expected to see this ability manifest in a young red-haired girl.
"Sorry, old hag. If you want to lay a hand on Master, you'll have to get through me first."
Karin cracked her knuckles, showing zero respect for the world-renowned puppet master.
"Red hair, incredible chakra reserves... a descendant of the Uzumaki Clan? This is going to be troublesome. Secret White Technique: Chikamatsu's Ten Puppets!"
Upon confirming the girl's identity, Chiyo immediately released her strongest puppets. She understood that if she couldn't resolve this fight with the girl quickly, she had no hope of saving the One-Tails or the village.
Unfortunately, while the intent was noble, the reality was grim.
Once the fighting commenced, Chiyo realized that this young girl was the ultimate nemesis for a puppet master. Not only did she possess unbelievable offensive power, often destroying precision puppets with a single blow, but her defenses were also top-tier.
The majority of projectiles and hidden weapons couldn't even penetrate the layer of energy, Ken, surrounding her body. This meant that the poisons Chiyo took such pride in were completely useless here.
In a short time, the legendary elder was forced into a desperate retreat. Before long, nearly half of the Chikamatsu Ten were completely scrapped.
Looking at the mangled wreckage of the puppets on the ground, Karin couldn't help but comment, "This is the legendary Puppet Jutsu of the Sand? It's way too weak!"
"What did you expect? Puppet Jutsu was originally designed to deal with ordinary ninja who have almost no defensive capabilities. Thus, most of it focuses on bizarre mechanisms, hidden weapons, and poisons. Even the slightly more advanced versions are just using corpses to create puppets that can use their former Ninjutsu. Compared to the Second Hokage's Reanimation Jutsu, Puppet Jutsu is practically amateur hour; its ceiling was set in stone from the very beginning," Allen explained with a light chuckle.
In his eyes, the puppet masters of the Sand were largely overrated. Whether it was the so-called genius Sasori or Chiyo herself, they would invariably be outclassed the moment they encountered someone proficient in defensive techniques. Even a puppet made from the "Strongest Kazekage in History" was only so powerful and could never truly replicate the prowess of the living original.
At times, Allen truly felt that the Hidden Sand's survival through several Great Shinobi World Wars wasn't due to their strength, but because the Land of Wind was a barren desert with absolutely zero value for occupation.
From start to finish, this place had never produced a powerhouse truly worth noting. At the very least, compared to the other four Great Hidden Villages, the Sand was undeniably at the bottom of the barrel in both high-end combat power and sheer numbers.