Any ninja who made it to Jonin rank knows a thing or two about battle. Even Konoha, an allied village, didn't seek help from Suna when falling into danger. This abnormal situation meant either Mizuki was an idiot, or there was a far greater danger threatening Sunagakure.
"Logically speaking, we should've been the main target! So why haven't we been attacked at all?" Kurotsuchi was extremely puzzled by the current situation. "If it's about capturing tailed beasts, that might make sense on Suna's side. But why is Konoha being targeted? Could they also be carrying something extremely valuable? Why do we know absolutely nothing about this?"
Not only had no such information come up during intelligence exchanges before the joint operation, but after several days of contact, nothing worth coveting had appeared in Konoha's possession. Attempting such a large-scale move didn't seem worth the effort considering the low probability of success and the imbalance between potential gains and cost. This made things even more confusing.
"Let's not waste time guessing—Konoha can deal with their own problems. Actually, it's normal for Konoha to have more secrets than other villages. There were countless ninja clans throughout history; it's no surprise some valuable techniques were passed down. Just look at that Mizuki Jonin's combat style—he's using something rarely seen outside his village. Aside from its difficult activation process and high chakra consumption, I haven't noticed any serious issues yet."
"Alright then, if that's the case, are we going over there to support Konoha?"
"Moderate support—we mainly need to protect Deidara. Besides, I estimate they won't remain in trouble for long. No matter how strong a Puppet Master may be, their fragile original body will always remain a weakness. Once that location is discovered, there's nothing left to worry about." Then Akatsuchi added carefully, "Just offer a little help—enough to show good will."
...
There's truth in the saying: The spectator sees most clearly. Sure enough, Mizuki soon identified the root of the problem.
『Such a glaring blind spot! How could I have been so dumb? Focusing on power and forgetting the mind that controls it...』
Undeniably, Mizuki's [Sage Mode] carried significant [lingering damage]. Though he had cobbled together this [Sage Mode] himself, apart from the unknown long-term consequences involving natural energy, the immediate problems were already quite obvious—the foreign energies inside his body were extremely troublesome, yet all were essential.
The tailed beast chakra was essential for him to sense natural energy—could be weakened, but never fully removed. And the challenges involved in building this connection from nothing were far greater than the fluctuations caused merely by increasing or decreasing existing tailed beast chakra levels. It consumed enormous amounts of energy.
Even worse was the spiritual entity formed from a collective human will—modeled after a jellyfish. This was an even greater problem than the tailed beast chakra. Not only did it require immense effort to maintain balance between spiritual energy, physical energy, and natural energy, but he also had to endure constant [corrosive effects] from this foreign spirit upon his original body.
The preliminary version of the Genjutsu Magical Formation had already been tested on Hayate Gekko, putting him under intense mental strain. Even though Mizuki had made major adjustments to suit his own use, the core principles remained largely unchanged—the same issues still arose. Mizuki didn't want to risk shattering his inner consciousness over something as simple as activating Sage Mode. This kind of control—needing both usage and restraint—had once given him one hell of a headache. Without extended practice, it would have been extremely difficult to manage.
In this situation, with his focus overly divided, Mizuki found himself struggling when faced with unfavorable conditions. His hesitation during crucial moments stemmed directly from his scattered attention. Although he had overcome the lingering damage inherent in other Sage Modes and achieved exceptional mastery over Natural Energy—to the point where he no longer needed summoned beasts like Jiraiya or Naruto did in the original storyline—he could now cast jutsu rapidly even in the middle of combat—a huge advantage. However, due to the method used to activate Sage Mode, some unexpected flaws had also emerged.
Traditionally, whenever he faced powerful enemies, Mizuki would avoid direct fights—his strength just wasn't enough to go head-to-head. He could only dodge strong attacks and strike at weaker points repeatedly—even if mutual harm was inevitable—to achieve his objectives. Success after success ingrained into Mizuki the habit of instinctively aiming straight for an enemy's weakness every time he entered battle.
Yet now, when Red Sand of the Desert refused to engage directly and instead hid his true body, Mizuki still desperately sought to locate and deliver a decisive blow against the real target, failing to realize how different he had become since activating Sage Mode. His strength had grown vastly—now, he actually possessed the power to confront Red Sand of the Desert's greatest strength head-on.
["The strongest point is also the biggest weakness. Once broken, the overwhelming advantage in pure power will no longer be something the enemy can easily overturn..."]
Yes, Red Sand of the Desert could hide his original body where no one could find, but without full combat readiness, his current power was at its lowest ebb. Those normal puppets were nearly useless—they couldn't do much damage to Mizuki at all. Even Aoba Yamashiro with two genin barely managed to hold their ground against them earlier. As current events clearly showed, aside from piles of puppet debris scattered across the ground, Konoha's four members hadn't sustained much damage at all.
At this moment, deprived of the devastating power of Hundred Puppet Army, only the Iron Sand Body technique of the Third Kazekage could truly pose a threat to Mizuki.
While entangled with these puppets, Mizuki occasionally dodged incoming barrages of Iron Sand Gathering Assaults or Iron Sand Dispersal Attacks aimed at both him and Konoha's group, momentarily leaving him flustered. But this very chaos suddenly made him realize: he no longer needed to act cautiously and calculatingly like he used to. Why not just shatter directly the human puppet of the Third Kazekage? With Red Sand of the Desert significantly weakened afterward, there would be absolutely no reason for Mizuki to feel fear anymore.
["You may hide your true body where I can't find it—but surely you can't keep the Third Kazekage's puppet hidden from me forever?"]
"There can't be *that* many Iron Sand Body users out there for you to hide behind, replacing the Third Kazekage's puppet, huh?"
Just as Mizuki thought, a human puppet using the Iron Sand Body technique was indeed hard to conceal. Before long, Mizuki found its location.
Now that he had pinpointed his target, Mizuki wasted no time. He ordered Aoba Yamashiro, Shino Aburame, and Neji Hyuga to keep searching for Red Sand's original body before dashing forward directly toward the Third Kazekage's human puppet.
"Let's see if you'll come out or not. Are you willing to risk exposing your true form just to help a puppet?"
Based on Sasori's attitude in the original story, he had turned his back on humanity. Yet he harbored an unusual affection for puppets—especially the human puppet of the Third Kazekage, which seemed to hold special meaning for him.
Now that the battle had swung in his favor, continuing the dumb search for Sasori's hidden body would be pointless. Destroying all of Sasori's powerful puppets head-on would greatly reduce his threat. Even the greatest puppet master is helpless without their puppets backing them up—no matter how skilled they are.
Under Sage Mode, Mizuki's speed and strength were significantly enhanced. Although his taijutsu wasn't refined, the momentum behind his charge surpassed what an average person could react to. In the blink of an eye, Mizuki, protected by a chakra shield infused with sage energy, appeared before the human puppet of the Third Kazekage. Without hesitation, he clenched his right hand wrapped in sage chakra and launched a heavy punch straight ahead. The force of the strike seemed capable of shattering the Third Kazekage's human puppet entirely.
At this critical moment, the advantage of the Iron Sand Body technique became clear: a barrier made of iron sand quickly formed itself along the trajectory of Mizuki's fist. Though this last-second defense couldn't fully stop Mizuki's attack, it bought enough reaction time for Sasori's control.
Manipulated by Sasori, the human puppet of the Third Kazekage rapidly retreated backward, narrowly avoiding the earth-shaking punch. However, this exact turn of events was exactly what Mizuki had predicted. The Third Kazekage was renowned for his mastery of the Iron Sand Body technique. To Mizuki, Iron Sand Gathering Assault was powerful and direct—and needed careful handling. On the other hand, something like [Iron Sand Drizzle] might work well against weaker enemies or groups, but stood no chance against Mizuki's chakra shield.
What Mizuki truly feared wasn't this kind of technique, but rather Sasori's poison and unrestricted attacks from hiding while stalling for time. Mizuki wouldn't dare do this against anyone else—charging straight at an incoming attack like this is reckless. But when facing a puppeteer, such an aggressive strategy remained effective. Without his Hundred Puppet Army technique, Sasori's real body was vulnerable. Even without Sage Mode, with assistance from Aoba Yamashiro and two low-ranked genin, Mizuki felt confident taking him on again—as long as the troublesome Iron Sand Body technique was neutralized first.
Even in this dire situation, Sasori remained calm. The human puppet of the Third Kazekage activated hidden mechanisms within its right hand, extending a combined weapon made of several large blades. The puppet's wide reach and lightning-fast strikes kept Mizuki from trying any reckless close-range moves. At the same time, the puppet's left arm quickly transformed as well—hidden talismans activating, revealing previously sealed mechanisms. As it unfolded, an overwhelming number of wooden arms burst into existence out of nowhere. Their sharp tips and attached blades gleamed with an ominous bluish glow, clearly coated with deadly poison.
These wooden arms rapidly expanded forward like they were trying to blot out every bit of light in front of Mizuki, launching a sky-darkening wave of attacks.
"You think something like that'll work on me? Trying to pull out that poison mist trap? Not happening!"
"Fire Release—Dragon Fire Jutsu!" Mizuki quickly formed hand seals. Several massive fire dragons rapidly took shape before surging toward the incoming wooden arms. Amplified by natural energy channeled through Sage Mode, the flames rapidly expanded. Their color shifted from red to orange-yellow, then white, finally turning pale blue. Growing brighter until they became dazzlingly brilliant blue-white flames, they instantly engulfed the wooden arms.
Mizuki couldn't help but smirk as he watched his upgraded B-rank technique blaze under Sage Mode. Normally, achieving this level of elemental transformation would be impressive enough, but it wouldn't cover such a wide area. This overlapping firestorm was nothing like the small fireballs Mizuki usually tossed around casually.
"A basic B-rank move hits this hard with natural energy boost. So how insane must Jiraiya's S-rank Sage Art—Five Element Sealing Flame—be? And just how strong is Pain? Damn..."
But as Mizuki shattered the Third Kazekage's puppet's Senju Art: Kamaitachi with his fire jutsu, something felt off.
"Not good..."
The wooden arms within the flames quickly burned away, yet soon a series of explosions rumbled toward him—an effect definitely not caused by any of Mizuki's techniques.
Realizing the danger, Mizuki immediately leapt backward. As expected, following the explosion sounds, a vast cloud of purplish-black poison mist swiftly spread outward, riding the heat waves ignited by the flames, quickly enveloping a large area.
"So you're resorting to triggering the poison mist directly after seeing Kamaitachi fail? Using my own fire release to accelerate its spread... Close call."
Still, it was just Red Sand of the Desert making one last move with what little he had left. After all, there was no way to preserve anything under such a devastating attack. He might as well go all out once more, hoping for even a slight effect. However, the toxic mist itself reacted badly to the flames—rapidly burning up and degrading until only scattered wisps remained floating faintly in the air. Very soon, it would pose absolutely no threat to the surroundings anymore.
By the time everything settled and the poison mist faded, with flames dying down nearby, the battered form of the Third's Human Puppet emerged from the smoke. Its body was scorched and blackened in several places — one more hit and it'd be totally wrecked.
"This is what a real strong ninja fight looks like," Mizuki mused to himself. "I was still mocking Danzo Shimura as nothing more than a sewer rat who only knows underhanded schemes, yet I've fallen into the mindset of a weaker warrior without even realizing it. Intelligence, tactics, and strategy are indeed important — but what matters most is the strength of will and the courage to charge straight into battle."
Just as Mizuki prepared to press his advantage, suddenly several parasitic bugs flew past him, bringing unexpected news.
"The original body has been found?" Mizuki gave a slight smirk. "At a time like this, is your exposure because you couldn't hold out any longer, or is it deliberate bait to lure me in? You're underestimating me too much. Coming after the treasure in such a hurry without even preparing properly? That's not like you at all. If you don't have other tricks up your sleeve today… you might just end up dying here."
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