Chapter 257: The Masterpiece and The God
Following Sasori's cold and ruthless command, the remnants of his puppet army—the Chikamatsu Collection and his self-made horrors—moved in unison.
Click! Click! Click!
The dense, grating sound of hundreds of mechanisms turning, joints articulating, and chakra threads singing in the air became a continuous, mechanical roar.
Hundreds of puppets, like a black, unstoppable tide of twisted wood and hardened metal, surged towards Tsunade in the center of the crater from all directions!
Tsunade, standing defiant amidst the wreckage of her own making, showed not a hint of fear. Instead, a look of fierce contempt settled on her face.
"Hundred Puppets Performance?"
She spat the words, her voice amplified by the Byakugō chakra. "You think you can kill me with these dusty scraps of metal?"
"Naive! You understand nothing of true power!"
The moment her words fell, Tsunade crouched low, her powerful legs coiled like springs!
Boom!
The sand and fractured stone beneath her feet exploded outwards. She launched herself forward, actively charging into the flood of puppets, meeting the tide head-on!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Dozens of puppets in the front row simultaneously opened concealed compartments, firing a dense barrage of poisoned, metallic needles!
"Get out of my way!"
Tsunade roared, her charge showing no signs of slowing!
Just as the sky-high rain of needles was about to engulf her, Tsunade's figure suddenly swayed violently during her high-speed charge!
Using a burst of immense speed and almost miraculous, precise chakra control, Tsunade swiftly weaved through the gaps in the needle rain, dodging every single poisoned projectile by mere millimeters!
Immediately after, a dozen more puppets—specializing in elemental defense—opened their mouths, spewing out large amounts of purple poisonous smoke and raging streams of flame!
Tsunade pushed off the ground, her body rising sharply in a perfect arc. With a fierce, twisting spin, she flipped effortlessly over the licking flames and the choking poisonous mist!
"Shatter!"
Tsunade roared. Her fist, imbued with terrifying, explosive power, slammed heavily into the chest of the nearest puppet emerging from the smoke!
Bang!!!
The puppet suffered a direct, heavy, fatal blow. It instantly exploded, not just breaking, but disintegrating into a localized shower of flying metallic and wooden parts!
One punch!
Another punch!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Tsunade rampaged, an unstoppable human beast fueled by the Creation Rebirth technique, tearing through the puppet army!
Any puppet that dared to stand in Tsunade's path met only one fate: utter, immediate destruction!
A puppet wielding a highly poisoned long blade attacked from the side, its blade aimed directly at Tsunade's exposed flank!
Tsunade spun, her leg snapping out like a whip!
Crack!
The puppet's entire upper body—head, shoulders, and mechanism—was pulverized by this furious, precise strike!
The battle had completely entered a heated, frenzied phase!
Every punch Tsunade threw invariably resulted in the destruction of a puppet. Before long, over thirty precious puppets had been reduced to scrap under the unyielding power of the Sannin!
But Sasori's puppet army continued to relentlessly charge at Tsunade. They were fearless. They were endless.
Destroy one, and two would immediately fill its place.
Sasori, standing behind the shield of the Hundred Puppets army, his ten fingers moved rapidly, weaving intricate, complex patterns in the air.
He controlled the entire, vast battlefield, constantly changing the puppet formations, using the smallest cost possible to exhaust and deplete Tsunade's stamina and immense chakra reserves.
[As long as I drag this out,] Sasori calculated coldly, [her continuous regeneration is demanding. The Byakugō cannot last forever. The scales of victory will eventually tip in my favor!]
Both sides entered a temporary, bloody stalemate...
Meanwhile, in the distance.
The other battlefield was already decided.
"You... you bastard..."
Deidara, his long golden hair hanging in his face, his body broken and utterly demoralized, tried to raise his head.
"What exactly did you do to my C2 Dragon?! What did you do to me?!"
"Answer me, hm!"
Uchiha Akira, floating calmly in the air above the large, smoldering crater that was once Deidara's magnificent clay construct, ignored the artist's hysterical clamoring.
Akira slowly raised his right hand, his palm facing the utterly defeated Deidara, who lay injured on the sand.
"Shinra Tensei."
[Inorin's Note: Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God) is a gravitational technique of the Rinnegan. Here, Akira is likely demonstrating the repulsive aspect.]
FWOOM!
The next second.
An irresistible, incomprehensible, terrifying repulsive force instantly slammed into Deidara!
"What?!"
Deidara, who had just managed to sit up, was instantly thrown back. The force was so immense, so absolute, it felt like running into an invisible wall that stretched across the sky.
He smashed hard into the ground fifty meters away, coughing blood.
Akira then lowered his hand, his eyes calm.
Genjutsu.
He looked at the wreckage of the giant clay bird, the ruined landscape. He knew Deidara's mind was now primed for psychological attack.
Buzz—
The world before Deidara's eyes suddenly went dark. All light, all sensation, all sound were completely stripped away in that instant.
The world transformed into an endless, suffocating, silent nothingness.
The look of physical pain and terror on Deidara's face instantly froze.
The next second, all the light, all the wild fire, in Deidara's eyes faded. They became hollow and dull, staring sightlessly at the sky.
His entire being, like a puppet that had suddenly lost its soul and its strings, softly let his limbs droop, no longer struggling. Trapped, utterly defeated, in an absolute, unbreakable Genjutsu.
Uchiha Akira casually let the unconscious, paralyzed Deidara lie on the sand. He was no longer a threat.
He then looked past the vast yellow sand, towards the still noisy, clanging battlefield in the distance.
Tsunade, under the massive power of the Byakugō Seal, was practically a human beast of destruction. Every punch could—and did—smash a hardened puppet into a pile of smoking junk.
But Sasori's "Secret Red Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets" excelled in numbers. Endless. Fearless of death.
Although Tsunade was fiercely effective, her chakra consumption—maintaining the seal and using such massive strength—was equally intense.
Uchiha Akira no longer lingered. He was needed.
In a few quick, silent bursts of Shunshin, he crossed the several kilometers of desert and ruined village, appearing suddenly on the edge of the chaotic battlefield where Tsunade and Sasori were locked in their deadly, consuming duel.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Sasori's ten fingers danced frantically, his chakra threads stretched taut to their breaking point.
His focus was absolute, his dry voice filled with a cold, manic certainty.
"I still have nearly two hundred spare puppets in my storage scrolls! Let's see how many more this woman can smash before she collapses!"
Sasori had made up his mind. Today, he would definitely pile up and kill Tsunade, one of the Sannin, right here! Then, he would turn her into one of his most perfect, eternal collections! A fitting rival for the Third Kazekage!
Just then.
Sasori's heart—the small, beating organ encased in his puppet body—suddenly pounded.
An inexplicable, ice-cold chill shot through him! It was a sensation he had not felt since the days of his grandmother, Chiyo. A sense of being utterly outclassed.
He suddenly noticed.
Not far away, on the edge of the crater, an extra person had appeared at some unknown point.
And the incessant, chaotic explosions and booming impacts that had marked the duel just moments ago had suddenly, completely, vanished.
Sasori's concentration broke. His heart sank, cold and heavy.
[The noise stopped! Deidara's explosions... they're gone!]
"Could it be that Deidara... is in trouble!" Sasori shrieked internally.
Sasori had already seen Uchiha Akira's intelligence profile. He recognized the newcomer's identity at a glance.
Uchiha Akira! The Fifth Hokage of Konoha! The man of impossible power!
[If Deidara is already defeated... then I alone... I alone probably won't be a match for these two together. Not now. I need to escape!]
He had to protect his masterpiece, the Third Kazekage puppet, and survive.
"Stop them for me, you metallic bastards!!!" Sasori let out a hysterical roar, his voice raw with sudden, urgent fear!
He suddenly pulled out another scroll—a massive one—and slammed it onto the ground!
"Secret Technique: Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!" (赤秘技・百機の術, Akahigi: Hyakki no Sōen)
[Inorin's Note: The Akahigi: Hyakki no Sōen is Sasori's most powerful conventional jutsu, summoning the entire collection of his human-based puppets, easily exceeding a hundred in number.]
"COME OUT!"
Sasori injected a massive surge of his remaining chakra into the scroll!
Bang---!!!
A huge cloud of white smoke exploded!
From within the smoke, a large number of brand new, grotesque puppets—human forms encased in armor, each armed with a deadly array of poisons and weapons—rushed out! They instantly filled all the gaps that Tsunade had just destroyed, surrounding her completely!
The puppet army once again returned to its peak, overwhelming number of a hundred!
Sasori, now operating on pure, desperate adrenaline, violently waved his arms!
"STOP THEM FOR ME! HOLD THE LINE!"
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