The reason they were fighting so evenly was primarily because the Little Boy's performance was slightly superior, and it was engineered for extreme agility, leading in speed by a significant margin. This maintained a stalemate where neither side completely won or lost.
To create such a Puppet at nine years old—was this the true value of a Puppet Master's talent, second only to one in the history of the Ninja World?
However, if this was all there was, it wasn't enough.
Qingshui manipulated the Fatty, making it take heavy steps towards Sasori. Simultaneously, a row of bullet holes appeared on its shoulder, firing poisoned needles at Sasori.
Sasori waved his left hand, and the Salamander quickly moved in front of him, opening its shield.
Qingshui didn't care. Both sides knew very well that while poisoned needles and Kunai were common ranged attacks for Puppet Masters, unless you were an Uchiha with a Sharingan who could perform dazzling feats with weapon throws, these items couldn't effectively damage non-living Puppets.
He was merely forcing Sasori to use the Salamander for defense, preventing him from fully concentrating on manipulating the Black Ant, allowing the Little Boy to use its speed advantage to keep it engaged.
Then…
"*Forbidden Jutsu: Pneumatic Fist!*"
The air valve inside the Fatty Puppet's left arm opened, converting ultra-high pressure compressed air into mechanical energy. With Chakra augmentation, it unleashed a powerful punch.
The Black Ant was sent flying instantly, crashing into the wall and scattering tiny fragments of parts.
This happened after the Black Ant tried to counter the Pneumatic Fist with its six spiked arms, only to be shattered into pieces by one punch.
Sasori's heart sank.
He had witnessed the terrifying brute force of Qingshui's Puppets before, but he had still underestimated it.
Even the Black Ant, made from brand new materials, couldn't directly contend with it.
Sasori actively changed his strategy, once again using Chakra Threads to control the Black Ant against the Little Boy, while rapidly retreating and consistently keeping the Salamander between himself and the Fatty Puppet.
So far, the Fatty Puppet's only drawback was its speed.
Although its flexibility was decent, its high tonnage inevitably affected its speed.
While it was much faster than a normal person running at full speed, it was still slightly lacking compared to a ninja, for whom speed was a fundamental skill.
"I've observed that during previous missions, your Ninjutsu that uses a Puppet to unleash brute force always has a cooldown period between uses. It seems this technique consumes a lot of Chakra. If I keep wearing you down like this, do you think you'll still win?"
A slight smile appeared on Sasori's delicate face as he looked at Qingshui.
"You're welcome to try and see whether my Chakra runs out first, or if the Black Ant gives out first."
Qingshui's expression was calm, but inwardly, he was secretly pleased that Sasori had guessed wrong.
The biggest Chakra consumption for activating Pneumatic Fist was using Chakra Threads to operate the air pump and compress gas into the cylinder.
While the Chakra consumption wasn't small, under a reasonable mechanical structure, the Chakra consumption was actually far less than Sasori imagined.
The main limiting factor for the Fatty Puppet activating Pneumatic Fist was hardware — the speed at which the air pump could compress air and the air pressure the cylinder could withstand were both limited by materials.
If Pneumatic Fist was used frequently without regard for consequences, it would damage the air pump, rendering it unusable. This was essentially exchanging the Puppet's durability for a short burst of power.
Unless faced with an extremely dangerous situation, Qingshui would not make such a move.
"*Forbidden Jutsu: Branch Manipulation.*"
The Fatty Puppet instantly split into over a dozen individual pieces that flew out, rapidly reassembling in front of Qingshui.
Without Qingshui's own weight, the Fatty Puppet's speed rapidly increased, rushing towards Sasori like a tank.
"*Boom!*"
A powerful Pneumatic Fist struck the shield on the Salamander's surface, leaving a dent that was neither too shallow nor too deep.
Sasori took off, hastily creating distance, and then dodged the Senbon fired from the Fatty Puppet's shoulder by turning sideways.
To make matters worse, after being heavily damaged by the Fatty Puppet, the Black Ant's threat to the Little Boy had significantly decreased, and it appeared close to giving out.
Sasori made a decisive move, pulling the Black Ant back to his side at the cost of two of its arms being cut off.
Mechanical whirring sounds erupted as the Black Ant voluntarily detached its remaining four limbs, opening its abdominal cavity and extending thin tubes.
Qingshui, vaguely guessing what Sasori was about to do, also began to retreat, reaching out with Chakra Threads to pull the Little Boy back to his side as quickly as possible.
As Qingshui expected, a large cloud of green poisonous smoke drifted out of the tubes.
Qingshui used Chakra Threads to activate the switch on the Little Boy's mechanical arm, then quickly released the Chakra Threads and formed hand seals.
Three thin blades rapidly sprang out from the mechanical arm and began to spin, stirring up wind.
And Qingshui's Ninjutsu was already complete.
"*Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm!*"
Although it was only a relatively basic C-Class Wind Release Ninjutsu, and its power wasn't great, a strong gust of wind still surged forth, not only blowing all the poisonous smoke back but also forcing Sasori to hide behind the Salamander due to the intense wind pressure, thus avoiding injury.
However, that billowing poisonous smoke wasn't so easy to avoid.
"Cough, cough! Cough, cough, cough!"
The Salamander's four limbs suddenly collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Sasori lay on the ground, coughing loudly and spitting white foam.
"Um… are you alright?"
Qingshui used Wind Release again to disperse the poisonous smoke and asked Sasori.
"Antidote… the antidote is in my Ninja Tool Pouch…"
Sasori's face was ashen, and his voice was strained.
Qingshui rushed to Sasori's side, found him an antidote, and poured it down his throat from a water bottle.
A few minutes later, once the antidote took effect, Sasori's complexion finally returned to normal.
"I'm not saying anything, but you're really ruthless. It's just a spar, is there any need for this kind of poison?"
Qingshui secretly pocketed an Antidote Pill and complained to Sasori.
"This is just a neurotoxin made from the sap of a greenland poisonous cactus mixed with a volatile agent. Its effect is to paralyze the body and cause muscle spasms, that's all."
Sasori wiped the white foam from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and said indifferently.
"Then... do the others have an antidote?"
Sasori sneered and said, "This poison was made by me personally. Although it's not very potent, I mixed something into the volatile agent. It won't be easy for just anyone to detoxify it..."
"You two brats! Why are you releasing poison in the base out of nowhere! If you want to test poison, there are designated places for you to do it. If this weren't the Puppet Force, you two would immediately be locked up in the Anbu prison for plotting to harm villagers and threatening the village's safety!"
A voice like a gong boomed from the edge of the training ground. Sasayama of the Sand, built like a bodybuilder, walked menacingly towards them, shirtless and wearing a gas mask.
"Antidote!"
A hand as large as a cattail fan stretched out in front of Qingshui and Sasori.
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