pjbooks Chapter 187: A Battle Not Found in the Original Work
Chapter 187: A Battle Not Found in the Original Work
Across the vast, boundless desert, devastation lay. Several crumbling earthen walls still burned, billowing thick smoke, and the air was thick with the acrid smell of burning and blood. Clearly, a brief but intense conflict had just taken place here.
This is what the scene looked like when Shisui and his group arrived riding their clay dragon.
It seems someone has beaten them to the punch in their target mission—the genius puppeteer Sasori, who has been a traitor to Sunagakure for many years.
At this moment, Sasori had already summoned his trump card—the Third Kazekage's human puppet! That body, which once symbolized the highest fighting force of Sunagakure, now floated beside Sasori like the most loyal servant, radiating a cold and lifeless chakra fluctuation, forming an eerie contrast with the fanatical light in Sasori's eyes when he saw high-quality materials.
"Looks like I'm really lucky," Scorpion's voice carried the joy of discovering a treasure. "Although I came up empty-handed in that boring village and couldn't find any suitable 'materials'... I never expected that such high-quality 'materials' would come to me on their own."
His gaze swept greedily over the figure opposite him, as if admiring a work of art that was about to be completed.
"Cheer up, I'll make you a precious collectible on par with the Third Kazekage. That's an honor that countless ninjas would kill for."
Standing opposite him, across the distance, was a tall woman with a cool and aloof demeanor. She had distinctive short purple hair, indifferent amber eyes, and wore a black robe embroidered with red auspicious cloud patterns—this distinctive attire made her identity self-evident.
Xiao Nan, a member of the Akatsuki organization.
Faced with Sasori's confident, even arrogant, declaration, Konan's expression remained unchanged; she simply stated it in her calm, unwavering voice.
"There's no other way; it seems we'll have to use force to take you away by force."
However, before she could finish speaking, Scorpion had already launched his attack! He was too lazy to engage in pointless verbal sparring; efficiency was his style!
Suddenly, the mechanisms on the arms of the Third Kazekage puppet snapped open, instantly extending two enormous blades, gleaming with a chilling, eerie purple light! The blades whistled through the air with astonishing speed, slashing horizontally towards Konan at the waist! The deadly poison on the blades would be enough to end a battle in an instant with just a slight touch!
It was too fast! The poisoned giant blade was about to sever Xiao Nan's body in two!
But just as the blade touched Konan's body—the expected scene of blood and flesh flying everywhere did not occur.
To Scorpion's slightly astonished gaze, Konan's two "severed" body parts instantly transformed into countless fluttering white sheets of paper, like shattered phantoms.
These papers, as if they possessed a life of their own, scattered lightly in all directions, then quickly gathered and reassembled not far away, once again forming Xiao Nan's perfectly intact figure, not even the hem of her clothes was disheveled.
The swift poison blade attack, which would have killed most ninjas instantly, had no effect on this woman.
"Here we go again..." Sasori's voice carried a hint of impatience and inquiry. "What kind of bizarre ninjutsu is this?"
"Fine, I'll investigate you thoroughly after I've made you my perfect puppet!"
Sasori's ten fingers moved with the precision of a musical instrument, and the chakra threads guided the Third Kazekage puppet to perform corresponding actions.
"Iron sand rain".
As the cold words fell, the black iron sand floating around the puppet began to stir! It quickly condensed and transformed into countless fine and hard black iron beads. In the next instant, these deadly iron beads shot towards Xiao Nan like a storm!
Faced with this dense, rain-like onslaught, Konan's body once again vanished like a phantom, transforming into countless white, fluttering pieces of paper! These pieces of paper nimbly and skillfully weaved through the gaps in the sandstorm, like a school of fish swimming upstream. They not only perfectly avoided all attacks but also converged into a surging torrent of paper, sweeping towards Scorpion's main body!
Sasori glanced at the overwhelming flood of paper, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes. This ninjutsu seemed bizarre, but in the end, it was nothing more than paper! The weakness of paper couldn't be more obvious—
He manipulated Hiruko, instantly unfurling the red scroll behind him.
"Infernal Prison Formation".
The next moment, a special pipe device suddenly extended from the front of Scorpion's palm. The extremely violent flames, after being compressed to the extreme, transformed into two huge jets of fire like fire dragons, carrying scorching heat, and fiercely met the surging torrent of paper!
The blazing flames instantly engulfed a large amount of paper. The paper ignited upon contact with the fire, crackling and popping, and was on the verge of being completely burned.
However, the disdainful sneer on Scorpion's face had just appeared when it suddenly froze!
Because he clearly saw that among the papers that were engulfed by flames, a considerable number of them had familiar runes representing destruction that instantly appeared on their surfaces before they burned, and they emitted a dazzling light!
It's an explosive tag! He'd been tricked?! Scorpion instantly realized his predicament!
How could Konan not know that the biggest weakness of Paper Release is water and fire? She had already thoroughly strengthened herself to address these two weaknesses!
By soaking specially made paper in oil, the weakness of water is overcome... As for fire? She has turned it into the deadliest trap—mixing a large number of explosive tags into ordinary paper-based techniques! The more intense the fire technique used by the opponent, the more terrifying the explosion will be, and the flames will become the fuse that buries the user!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The next moment, a deafening series of explosions erupted violently in front of Scorpion! Flames shot into the sky, and shockwaves mixed with scorching air currents spread wildly in all directions, instantly engulfing the remaining papers and triggering an even more violent explosion!
After a series of violent explosions, the flying papers and dust began to gather again, gradually solidifying into Xiao Nan's aloof figure. She entered the form of the Paper Dance, hovering in mid-air, coldly looking down at the center of the explosion.
However, as the smoke and flames from the explosion gradually dissipated, Xiao Nan's calm amber eyes did not reveal the slightest surprise.
At the epicenter of the explosion, an incredibly thick defensive shield made of black iron sand was slowly dispersing, revealing the unharmed scene below.
Sasori of the Red Sand, still standing intact, had clearly become incredibly solemn and vigilant in his eyes.
He clearly hadn't expected the opponent's counterattack to be so ruthless and precise, almost causing him to suffer a great loss.
It seems we can't underestimate our opponent.
Scorpion completely abandoned his initial playfulness and contempt. The opponent's tactics were unpredictable and deadly; a slight misstep could even lead to his downfall.
He made up his mind to stop making pointless attempts and suddenly increased the speed at which he manipulated the chakra threads with both hands.
The Third Kazekage puppet, suspended in mid-air, immediately exhibited a violent chakra reaction. Above its head, a massive amount of jet-black iron sand surged forth, rapidly condensing and deforming. One half transformed into an enormous, sharply edged triangle, while the other half coalesced into a heavy, solid cuboid!
Under Scorpion's skillful manipulation, these two enormous geometric shapes made of iron sand began to accelerate and collide with each other at an astonishing speed!
Boom! Bang!
Each violent collision produced the sound of metal clashing and sparks flying everywhere! In these repeated violent impacts, countless extremely sharp black iron spikes, like thorns, sprouted, spread, and grew wildly from the surfaces of the two geometric shapes!
In the blink of an eye, a death jungle, composed of countless sharp iron spikes and covering an extremely large area, had taken shape. With the momentum of destroying everything, it indiscriminately crushed and enveloped the airspace where Xiao Nan was located!
"Sand and Iron Boundary Method".
This is the secret to creating a massive area of attack using iron sand, which is unavoidable!
Xiao Nan's eyes narrowed slightly as she gazed at the dense forest of iron spikes that blotted out the sky, possessing terrifying piercing and magnetic force, and virtually sealing off all escape routes. Under such a large-scale, saturation attack, simply relying on the dispersion and recombination of the Paper Dance to dodge would likely be extremely difficult, and she might even be affected by the magnetic force…
It seems we must act quickly.
In her Paper Dance form, Konan raised one hand. Chakra surged like a tide, and the countless pieces of paper surrounding her received the command, rapidly converging towards her raised palm!
These papers were not simply stacked up, but were rapidly hardened, deformed, and shaped under the infusion of chakra—transforming into countless incredibly hard paper spikes and sharp spears!
At the same time, more paper gathered and spread wildly behind her, eventually forming a pair of pure white and sacred paper wings!
She floated in the air, paper wings unfurled behind her, and thousands of arrows were ready to be fired in front of her.
"The Dance of Shikigami: Angelic Judgment".
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(Thanks to the owner of Kono Dior for the amazing gift!)
(Thanks to the boss, the author will probably have to keep updating until Boruto, who has Uchiha blood, is born.)
(I'll probably finish writing the remaining two chapters around midnight, so please read them tomorrow morning.)