Kakashi didn't expect that his "Earth Splitting Palm" would deal any significant damage to Sasori. As previously mentioned, this move is most effective when facing large groups of enemies. Against a single target, the best outcome Kakashi could hope for was to create some disruption and hinder the opponent.

That was exactly Kakashi's goal—changing the terrain to restrict Sasori's movements and buy time for Itachi and Kimimaro to escape.

However—

"Your resolve is admirable, but you made the wrong choice."

Sasori's voice reached Kakashi's ears.

The ground beneath them had been distorted by Kakashi's attack, resembling the upheaval of a land dragon. Small hills collapsed, deep cracks appeared in the earth, and there were jagged stones and sunken pits everywhere.

Sasori stood atop one of the protruding rocks, seemingly unaffected. His puppets floated in mid-air, controlled by chakra strings. Aside from a bit of dust on the hem of his dark red robe, Sasori was completely untouched!

In contrast, even though Itachi and Kimimaro had been warned by Kakashi, they couldn't fly like the puppets, so they were more impacted by the terrain shift. Though they weren't injured, they couldn't find an opportunity to escape. Their efforts had been in vain.

"You're right; I made a mistake. But…luck is on our side."

Kakashi reached up to pet Pakkun, who had just jumped onto his shoulder.

When the battle began, Pakkun had cleverly hidden, and Sasori hadn't paid much attention to the seemingly non-threatening dog. While Pakkun wasn't much of a fighter, he had an excellent nose.

He had sniffed out the scent of victory.

And told Kakashi about it.

"Luck?"

Sasori repeated the word, feeling a hint of annoyance and vigilance.

Then—

With a slight twitch of his fingers, the puppets in the air dove down to attack.

Sasori, who sought eternity, despised the uncertainty of luck. The unsettling feeling Kakashi's words gave him, along with his intuitive sense of danger, made him decide to end the battle quickly. He didn't care if some damage was done to his puppets—as long as their bodies remained at least 70% intact, it would be fine.

Whether Kakashi was bluffing or something unknown had indeed occurred, Sasori's goal remained the same.

Finish collecting materials as soon as possible. That was all.

Under Sasori's control, seven puppets simultaneously launched their attack at the trio. Uchiha Itachi furrowed his brow and tightened his grip on his short sword, preparing to defend. Kimimaro, breathing heavily, extended his hand, producing bone-white spikes. In stark contrast, Kakashi remained completely unguarded.

Kakashi's lack of defense puzzled Itachi deeply.

In that brief moment of hesitation, he wondered whether he should go assist Kakashi, who was acting so strangely. But just then, a flash of realization struck Itachi. Could it be related to the clan…?

Almost simultaneously, a calm voice confirmed his guess.

"Kakashi, Itachi, Kimimaro—you've worked hard."

A skeletal hand, wrapped in deep crimson flames, swept across the battlefield from a distance. The puppets were swatted away like mere feathers, utterly powerless against the overwhelming force. Four of the seven puppets shattered into pieces, scattering across the ground, while the remaining three looked as though they would break with a single touch.

In the blink of an eye, everyone turned to see that Sougen had appeared in their midst.

"Lord Hokage's assistant!"

"Clan leader!"

Kakashi and Itachi stepped forward to greet him.

Kimimaro stood silently behind Itachi, glancing at Sougen with a stern expression.

"You've done well."

Sougen praised them sincerely.

To think they had actually tracked down Sasori—this was an unexpected stroke of luck, well worth his decision to sneak out.

"You're too kind. If it weren't for you stepping in, Lord Assistant, who knows how badly we would've been beaten," Kakashi sighed in relief, grateful to have been saved. The Red Sand Scorpion's prowess had far exceeded their expectations, forcing them into a tough, unplanned battle.

"Don't belittle yourselves. You still have plenty of room for growth. Just because you aren't a match for him now doesn't mean that'll be the case in the future."

Sougen looked at the three before him.

There was no need to say much about Uchiha Itachi. The gap in strength between an Uchiha before and after unlocking the Mangekyo Sharingan was significant. While Itachi was already quite powerful now, it wasn't until he awakened the Mangekyo that he would truly step onto the world's top battlefield.

The only issue was that with Shisui still alive and well, who knew when Itachi would awaken the Mangekyo.

As for Kimimaro, even less needed to be said. He was barely ten years old. Expecting him to hold his own against someone like Sasori at this point was simply unfair.

Even Kakashi was still five years younger than Sasori and hadn't yet reached his full potential.

On the other hand, Sasori, though he had yet to achieve the feat of taking down a small nation by himself, had already transformed the Third Kazekage into a human puppet and turned his own body into a puppet as well. By this point, Sasori had nearly reached the peak of his strength.

It was no wonder that Kakashi and the others weren't a match for him.

"Hokage's assistant, the head of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Sougen?" Sasori stood atop the boulder, looking down at Sougen, Kakashi, and the others. "I never expected someone as important as you to personally get involved. I'm truly honored!"

Despite his words, Sasori's tone was dripping with sarcasm.

His right hand had already pulled out a scroll.

The moment Sougen appeared, he felt an indescribable yet undeniably real pressure weighing on his shoulders. A monster! That was his immediate thought.

It was as if he was back in his childhood, witnessing the massive sandstorm that swept across most of the Land of Wind for the first time. This man, wearing a dark blue robe, didn't look like he was prepared for battle at all, but in his eyes, the danger was overwhelming. It was like facing a natural disaster in human form!

Facing such a monster, he dared not make even the slightest mistake. Without a second thought, he pulled out one of his strongest trump cards. As the scroll slowly unfurled, it revealed a symbol encircled by strange tadpole-like markings—the number "three."

"Is that so? Well, don't be too excited just yet. The real show... is only beginning! You had the nerve to sneak into my army and steal something, so I assume you've already prepared yourself to pay the price. Let's skip the talk. Let's see who's stronger!"

Sougen smiled as he spoke.

He waved his hand, signaling Kakashi and the others to step back. He wanted to have a good fight with Sasori.

Although his goal wasn't to kill Sasori but to capture and control him to work for him, Sougen knew how ninjas are. Unless you beat them into submission, they won't listen to reason. And unless you used a genjutsu as powerful as Kotoamatsukami, trying to control someone like Sasori by force wouldn't work.

Standard genjutsu might control him, but it wouldn't make Sasori work to his full potential! And you can't do scientific research with a muddled brain! Of course, Sougen wasn't expecting to subdue Sasori in just a few moves. His plan was to show Sasori the clear difference in their power, then try to talk and see if they could reach an agreement without needing Kotoamatsukami.

At this point, Sasori's mood had grown heavy. Sougen's uncompromising stance made it clear that negotiations were pointless. Sasori's plan to bargain with the corpses of over a hundred Konoha ninjas had completely collapsed. Now, there was only one path left.

Fight.

As a genius puppet master of Sunagakure, Sasori had fought countless battles, crawling out from piles of dead bodies. Even after years of being an S-rank rogue ninja, constantly on the move, his combat instincts hadn't dulled. Realizing that there was no room for negotiation, he immediately summoned one of his strongest weapons: the human puppet of the Third Kazekage.

The puppet had dark yellow eyes, sharp yet rigid features, and was draped in a black robe.

The Third Kazekage, once hailed as the strongest Kazekage, was now nothing more than an unfeeling puppet.

"So, this is the Third Kazekage? How pitiful!" Sougen sighed.

Not only did he die, but even in death, he found no peace. His body was turned into a puppet to continue fighting in the ninja world. Worse, in the original timeline, he couldn't even rest in peace, as Orochimaru later summoned him to fight again!

Thinking about it, it seemed like none of the past Kage had peaceful deaths—grave robbing had almost become an accepted practice in the afterlife!

"Pitiful? You can say that after you've experienced the Third's abilities!" Sasori wasn't wasting any time. Without hesitation, the puppet of the Third Kazekage opened its mouth, and pitch-black iron sand poured out, floating in the air like clouds of dark mist.

"It's the Iron Sand technique of the Third Kazekage!" Kakashi, standing ten meters behind Sougen, blurted out.

The title of the "strongest Kazekage" wasn't like the "strongest Hokage" title given to Sarutobi Hiruzen; the Third Kazekage had truly earned his title. The First Kazekage was known for his mastery of Wind Release, and the Second Kazekage was a research fanatic, similar to the Second Hokage. While the Second Kazekage did have the Magnet Release, his most powerful technique, like the First's, was still Wind Release.

By the time the Third Kazekage came along, the research on the Sand techniques that the Second Kazekage had been developing finally reached its peak. The Third Kazekage was the perfect culmination of that research. His Iron Sand technique, which could be used for both offense and defense, made him nearly unbeatable. It was this ability that earned him the title of the strongest Kazekage.

Kakashi remembered his father mentioning in his notes how terrifyingly strong the Third Kazekage's Iron Sand technique was. His father had even tried to figure out a way to counter it, but the notes never mentioned a solution—because the White Fang of Konoha had failed!

He couldn't find any weaknesses in the Iron Sand technique.

"Interesting!" Sougen's eyes gleamed with excitement as he looked at the black clouds of Iron Sand. He drew the long blade hanging at his waist. Ever since obtaining the Uchiha fan and the Bashōsen, it had been a long time since he fought with a regular weapon.

Today, he felt like making an exception.

"Go!"

Sasori, unaware of Sougen's thoughts, focused on controlling the Third Kazekage's puppet, launching the first attack.

Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle

The iron sand spread out like waves in the ocean, with thousands of tiny grains shooting out like bullets. The attack's wide coverage left no room to dodge, like a torrential rain falling from the sky—impossible to evade.

But Sougen didn't plan on dodging.

Under normal circumstances, the best move would be to use the Uchiha fan to protect himself. After all, the Uchiha fan was strong enough to deflect even a Tailed Beast Bomb, so the Iron Sand certainly wouldn't stand a chance. Alternatively, using Susanoo would be a good option too. Susanoo's defensive capabilities could be adjusted at will, so he wouldn't need to worry about the iron sand breaking through.

But Sougen chose neither.

He used Earth Release.

Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall

Without forming any seals, he summoned a stone wall, just one person high, in front of him. The thick wall absorbed the barrage of iron sand, but even the one-meter-thick stone wall was shaved down to half its original thickness.

If the amount of iron sand hadn't been limited, it would've been completely worn away.

"It's not over yet!"

Sasori sneered.

The scattered iron sand, still under the Third Kazekage puppet's control, gathered back together in the air, forming a large, spinning triangular drill. It whirled rapidly, like a giant black top.

This technique was known as Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drilling Cone.

The range wasn't as wide as the previous attack, but its destructive power was far greater. Even a fortress made of steel would struggle to withstand it, and its speed was terrifying.

Just one second after the Iron Sand Drizzle ended, the Iron Sand Drilling Cone came hurtling toward Sougen.

"As expected, what an impressive ability!" Sougen watched as the spinning Iron Sand Cone came at him, narrowing his eyes. He raised the blade in his right hand and gently swung it. In response, the ground beneath him surged like waves, and massive walls of stone rose up, crashing into the descending Iron Sand Cone head-on!

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