"Secret Technique: Mysterious Peacock Method—"
A dozen or so ninja performed the jutsu in unison. The Mysterious Peacock Method was a secret technique developed exclusively by Hoshigakure. Because most of them enhanced their chakra by absorbing energy from the meteorite, their techniques could be combined without any rejection.
In fact, because their chakra shared the same origin, the jutsu became even more powerful when cast together.
A massive amount of chakra formed a peacock-like pattern, fanning out like a peacock displaying its feathers—hence the name of the jutsu.
Watching the super-peacock jutsu approach, Sasori narrowed his eyes and quickly leaped backward. His Hiruko puppet, though seemingly cumbersome, was not slow in its movements; it possessed considerable agility.
Its tail was even faster than its body. Before the Mysterious Peacock Method could strike, the tail hooked onto a large tree, using the leverage to pull the puppet out of the attack's path.
Swish, swish—
Even while dodging, he didn't forget to launch a volley of poison needles from within the puppet. A single hit from one of these needles was fatal.
Hiruko's large body naturally allowed it to conceal more complex mechanisms.
However, these ninja were not so easily hit. The Mysterious Peacock Method transformed into a chakra shield, effortlessly blocking Sasori's poison needles.
"It seems you lot have a few tricks up your sleeves..." Sasori narrowed his eyes. It was clear now that he couldn't defeat them with Hiruko alone.
Continuing to hide inside Hiruko, while incredibly durable, also made him an easy target. His poisoned needles, shuriken, and kunai were all countered by the enemy's all-in-one offensive and defensive Peacock Method.
Boom!
Sasori dodged left and right, looking somewhat battered.
He quickly spat a cloud of poison smoke at them, but Akahoshi blocked it with another jutsu. Sasori's poison wasn't potent enough to corrode a jutsu constructed from pure chakra, rendering it useless.
"Hmph. I thought a truly powerful enemy had arrived, but this is all you amount to. Die!" Akahoshi had let his subordinates attack first to gauge the enemy's strength and techniques. He hadn't expected to be facing a mere puppet master.
Poison smoke, flying needles, shuriken, and kunai were indeed a headache for a solo ninja, as a single poisoned needle could be lethal. But the Mysterious Peacock Method, with its integrated offense and defense, had nothing to fear. So, Akahoshi decided to act himself.
"Secret Technique: Mysterious Peacock Method—Sunset Stream!"
The unfurled peacock-like chakra construct began firing a continuous volley of projectiles at Sasori, each one glowing like the light of a sunset. Hiruko was struck several times. Although its armor didn't break, Sasori knew its internal structure had been damaged and loosened.
"It seems I'll have to get serious!" A cruel glint appeared in Sasori's eyes, and Hiruko's form somehow looked even more menacing.
"Hmph. You'll be lucky to leave here alive!" Akahoshi sneered and unleashed the Mysterious Peacock Method again, this time enveloping the area all around Sasori's puppet, leaving him no room to escape.
BOOM!
After a massive explosion, a figure leaped out of Hiruko's wreckage. It was Sasori's true body.
"So, you've finally shown your real self?" Akahoshi said dismissively. He had never fought a puppet master before and had nothing but contempt for their gaudy tricks.
"Allow me to show you my true power. It just so happens... I've never used this to wipe out an entire village before."
From within the smoke, Sasori's true body—or rather, his former body—slowly took out a scroll and tossed it into the air.
"Performance of a Hundred Puppets—"
Poof!
After a burst of smoke, Akahoshi's eyes widened in disbelief at the puppets floating in the air.
"So... so many? How is that possible? How can you control so many at once?"
It was common knowledge that puppets were controlled by a puppet master. But while a person might be able to focus on two things at once, could they possibly focus on three, four, five... or even ten?
No. The creator of the puppet arts, Monzaemon Chikamatsu, could only manage ten at a time. Controlling the Ten Chikamatsu Puppets was an immense mental strain, requiring one to command them as if they were one's own fingers.
But the number of puppets that had just appeared before them was far more than ten...
"There must be at least a hundred of them!"
"More than that, I think I see over two hundred..."
The dozen ninja from Hoshigakure swallowed nervously. Faced with such a terrifying number, even if each puppet was only at a genin's level, sheer numbers could overwhelm an elephant.
Sasori smiled. Though his Performance of a Hundred Puppets consisted mostly of puppets made from civilians and genin, he was pleased with the prospect of acquiring some higher-quality material today. It seemed the trip was well worth it...
At Sasori's smile, the dense swarm of puppets descended upon Akahoshi and the handful of remaining Hoshi-nin...
"The meteorite is kept in this house, correct?"
"Yes, my lord..."
Uchiha Nagi stood before an unremarkable house in Hoshigakure. Behind him was a child with vacant, unfocused eyes.
The easiest way to find something was, without a doubt, to use the Sharingan to hypnotize a local and have them lead the way.
"Go home and get a good night's sleep. Forget everything that happened tonight..."
After giving his command, Nagi sent the boy home, planting a post-hypnotic suggestion to make him forget their encounter.
Then, he slipped into the Hoshigakure compound to, well, steal something.
As someone with the soul of a modern man, Uchiha Nagi actually preferred equivalent exchange. However, he wasn't a stickler for rules. When the other party was unwilling to trade, he didn't mind "borrowing" what he needed.
The meteorite was the very treasure Hoshigakure depended on for its survival. Nagi didn't even have to ask to know they would never agree to a trade. So, he had infiltrated the village directly. It was a stroke of luck that an enemy had just attacked the village, drawing the attention of every ninja in the area...
The pitiful village of Hoshigakure had less than fifty ninja in total, from genin to jonin. And as for jonin...
It seemed they only had one: Akahoshi himself. Uchiha Nagi shook his head. For a village so lacking in presence to dream of rising up like the Land of Rain was simply unrealistic, unless Akahoshi himself could reach the level of Hanzo.
When Hanzo first appeared, he had single-handedly fought the three Sannin right after they had reached Kage-level and still held back. The gap between Kage could sometimes be vast, and other times, very small.
"Susanoo..." Walking into the building where Hoshigakure kept its treasure, Nagi activated the most basic form of his Susanoo—just a single skeletal hand.
Instantly, the room came alive with a dense array of traps: poisoned kunai, shuriken, flying needles, clouds of poison gas...
"This Hoshikage really knows how to hide his things..."
For his Susanoo, these traps were nothing more than a light drizzle, not even enough to tickle. Finally, when Nagi went to open the box containing the meteorite, sealing formula talismans flared to life all around it.
Unfortunately, for a village of Hoshigakure's level, their fuinjutsu was laughably weak...
"Break for me! Hah—"
With a great shout, Nagi expanded his Susanoo to its first-stage half-body form. A pair of skeletal hands simply spread outward, violently tearing apart the sealing formulas that crawled over the container.
The torn seals disintegrated, and Nagi chuckled as he picked up the box to examine the meteorite inside.
It was a mysterious meteorite, its composition unknown, but the energy it radiated felt absolutely boundless...
But then Nagi's brow furrowed. Although he felt like he could absorb the energy emanating from it, it also gave him a feeling of extreme discomfort. This was no illusion.
"It must contain a small amount of radiation. Absorbing its energy over a long period would definitely cause harm to the body. Fortunately, I have no intention of absorbing it myself, hehe..."
Nagi promptly took out a lead box and placed the meteorite inside. He then took out an even larger lead box and nested the first one inside it. Finally, for good measure, he added another layer of sealing jutsu on top. Only then did he feel at ease.
Though it emitted low-level radiation, he had no intention of letting this meteorite go. Forging it into a weapon shouldn't be a problem. He could make a lead-lined scabbard and add several layers of seals to both the blade and sheath.
When the sword wasn't in use, it would be tucked away in its scabbard, completely safe for its wielder thanks to the protection of the lead and the seals. Besides, a ninja's body, enhanced by chakra, wouldn't be so easily harmed by trace amounts of radiation—unlike the people of Hoshigakure, who absorbed the energy directly into their systems.
But once the blade was drawn...
A fire ignited in Uchiha Nagi's heart. He eagerly anticipated what kind of power a sword forged from such a mighty meteorite would possess. He wondered how it would compare to Orochimaru's Kusanagi Blade, or the Seven Ninja Swords.
As for the Executioner's Blade, if he could melt it down as part of the material, great. If not, he planned to toss it. Tch, it was bloody useless, couldn't even block a Tailed Beast Bomb.
Outside the village of Hoshigakure, the battle between Sasori and the ninja had turned into a bloodbath, leaving corpses strewn across the ground. Of course, none of the blood was Sasori's. He had merely lost a few dozen of his lowest-grade puppets to nearly annihilate Hoshigakure's entire ninja force, leaving them poisoned, dead, or maimed.
The dozen or so ninja who had learned the Mysterious Peacock Method stood no chance against Sasori's Performance of a Hundred Puppets. To put it bluntly, a ninja's body was fragile—a single poison needle was enough to do the job. A puppet, on the other hand, had no weak points...
In the end, only their leader was left—the Hoshikage, Akahoshi.
Panting heavily, Akahoshi was also covered in blood, though none of it was his own. When faced with the siege of Sasori's many puppets, he had grabbed a person next to him to use as a shield, narrowly escaping death.
Among Sasori's two-hundred-plus puppets, there were at least ten of jonin-level, more than twenty of chunin-level, and fifty or sixty of genin-level, with the rest being low-grade puppets made from civilians. Even with their combined strength, Akahoshi couldn't withstand the assault of so many...
Just as he was hesitating, debating whether to fight to the death, his expression suddenly changed. He sensed that the seal he had left on the meteorite had been broken.
"Ah! Someone stole the Star Stone?!" Akahoshi cried out in alarm. He immediately abandoned Sasori and bolted back toward the village.
Sasori frowned. Someone was stealing from him? From him, Sasori of the Red Sand?
He had done all the deadly work at the front, only for someone to swoop in from behind and snatch the prize he was after?
He no longer bothered with the massacred ninja on the ground and quickly followed.
Just as he arrived in front of a house in the center of the village, he saw a white-haired young man wearing a half-mask walking out...
"Bastard! You—you stole the Star Stone? Hand it over—"