A pungent, metallic scent filled the air.
Pakura's sharp nose twitched, her brows knitting slightly as she recognized the odor immediately—it was blood, but mixed with something strange and chemical, like formaldehyde.
"Damn woman…"
Hiruko clutched his bleeding forehead, his hand trembling with rage as crimson trickled down his fingers. If Zetsu hadn't intervened at the very last second, Pakura's blade would have slit his throat clean through.
Boom!
Boom!
From the sandy battlefield, a dark shadow rose. Sasori of the Red Sand leapt gracefully to his feet, his snake-like eyes narrowing into slits as they locked onto Pakura. His gaze was that of a predator assessing the strength of its prey.
Pakura's stance tightened. The air between them grew tense, sharp as a drawn blade. She recognized him instantly—the crimson hair, the puppet tail swaying menacingly behind his cloak.
"You're… Sasori of the Red Sand," she muttered, disbelief flickering in her voice.
Across the battlefield, Neji Hyuga descended silently from the sky, the radiant glow of his Tenseigan fading away. The sand below was littered with corpses, the golden dunes stained deep red by the blood of fallen Sand ninja. The smell of iron and death hung thick in the air.
The Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion had torn through the enemy like a storm. To Neji, it was effortless—like slicing melons and chopping vegetables.
He exhaled slowly. Though more than half of the chakra he had absorbed earlier was now depleted, his body felt strangely invigorated. His spirit was sharper than before, his blood humming with life.
The Dragon Vein's chakra… he thought.
The Dragon Vein was a power drawn from the earth itself—an eternal flow of energy that carried the planet's vitality. As long as he used it, his wounds mended, his fatigue vanished, and his body regenerated continuously.
Of course, it wasn't the same as Hashirama's divine healing or Tsunade's Byakugō Seal. But the regenerative quality of the Dragon Vein was still formidable—something that needed testing in true battle.
Turning his gaze to a single surviving Puppet Jonin writhing on the ground, Neji stepped forward. His right palm glowed faintly green as he activated the Curse Wheel Sealing Heart Technique.
"D-devil! You're a devil!" the man screamed.
Neji's hand pressed lightly against the ninja's forehead.
A faint hum echoed, and the man's body froze mid-scream. His eyes turned blank and lifeless. Neji peered into his memories like flipping through the pages of a book.
Moments later, he opened his eyes, his expression thoughtful.
So the team he had just wiped out was only a vanguard unit. The main pursuit force—led by none other than Pakura of the Swift Release—was still en route.
And not just any Pakura. This was the film version, the one who had awakened her bloodline limit to its fullest potential.
Neji's eyes narrowed. "Interesting."
He took out a small vial of amber liquid—the Dragon Vein Purification Elixir—and drank it in one gulp. A pulse of golden energy rushed through him as he began advancing toward the enemy once again.
If Sunagakure won't give up, I'll make them fear me instead.
After a few kilometers, Neji frowned. The silence was wrong. Not a single presence in sight—no chakra, no movement.
His instincts screamed danger.
He launched forward, running across the dunes like a phantom, the sand whirling beneath his feet.
After several minutes, his Byakugan sight caught something—two dark silhouettes about five kilometers away. But the chakra signatures were faint… almost nonexistent.
"Dead bodies?"
He blinked. "Was the tracking unit wiped out already? Then who…?"
With a burst of speed, Neji darted forward. The distance vanished in seconds.
And then he saw them clearly.
Two figures stood amid the sandstorm—one cloaked in Akatsuki's black and red clouds, a tail protruding from his back. The other was a pale, bandaged man with white hair.
Neji's eyes hardened. "Sasori of the Red Sand… and Hiruko?"
His thoughts raced. So Hiruko really joined Akatsuki in this timeline.
Ever since the Uchiha clan left Konoha and joined the Hidden Cloud, the ninja world's entire balance had shifted. Many events were now unfolding differently from the original history. Hiruko's early appearance was just another ripple in this altered world.
But even if his foreknowledge was fading, Neji was far beyond relying on destiny now.
He assessed Sasori silently. Once a prodigy of Sunagakure, Sasori had taken puppetry to its zenith—so much that he had turned himself into a human puppet. Before that, he had slain the Third Kazekage, the strongest in Suna's history.
Yet, something about that tale had always bothered Neji.
The Third Kazekage wasn't weak. His Magnet Release could suppress the One-Tail Shukaku itself. And every Kage was heavily protected by elite guards.
So how could Sasori have killed him alone?
Neji's eyes darkened. He must have had help.
And there was only one person with both the motive and the power—Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage.
As Neji pondered this, he noticed Pakura lying unconscious among the corpses nearby. Sasori and Hiruko had clearly annihilated her team. Hiruko casually hoisted her up, tossing her onto a grotesque synthetic beast.
Neji murmured, "According to the movie, Hiruko needs to absorb five Kekkei Genkai: Swift, Steel, Dark, Storm, and Sharingan. So that's why he's after Pakura… but he probably hasn't obtained the Sharingan yet."
At that moment, Sasori's sharp eyes shifted toward Neji. He could sense the enormous chakra surging within him—dense and ancient like the earth.
"Such power…" Sasori's voice was low, cautious. "You must be the one who stole the Dragon Vein."
Neji smirked faintly. "So what if I am?"
Hiruko's eyes gleamed greedily. "Sasori! Help me capture him! Ten—no, twenty new materials for your art!"
Sasori sighed. "You researchers never learn."
Still, Neji's calm arrogance stirred Sasori's pride. As one of Akatsuki's elite, he was used to others fearing him. Only Pain had ever truly intimidated him.
"You're arrogant," Sasori said coldly, raising a scroll marked with the kanji for three. "Then witness my greatest masterpiece."
A plume of smoke erupted as a towering puppet emerged—its body encased in black iron sand swirling with magnetism.
Neji's eyes narrowed. The Third Kazekage…
The Magnet Release Human Puppet—Sasori's ultimate weapon.
Sasori's chakra threads danced as he manipulated the puppet, the iron sand swirling like a living storm.
Pakura stirred weakly nearby, her eyes widening as she recognized the puppet. Hiruko, too, froze.
"That… that's the Third Kazekage?!" Hiruko gasped. "He truly died by your hands?"
Sasori's tone was indifferent. "Rasa and I worked together. He got the title of Kazekage, and I gained the perfect art."
Pakura's face turned pale. "You're lying! Rasa would never—"
Sasori chuckled darkly. "Naive girl. Do you think a man as ambitious as Rasa would wait decades for power? He came to me himself. Together we slaughtered the Third and his guards. And now, the same man who betrayed his master sent you here… to die."
Neji watched silently. Pakura's expression twisted between disbelief and fury.
It all made sense. Rasa's paranoia, his cruelty, his obsession with maintaining power. He had killed his own teacher to ascend, and now, fearing Pakura's growing strength, he was eliminating her too.
The ninja world's power struggles were as merciless as ever.
Sasori turned back to Neji. "Enough talk. You'll make fine material for my next creation."
The Third Kazekage puppet raised its hand, and black iron sand shot into the air, condensing into thousands of deadly senbon.
Neji's Tenseigan flared. In an instant, his body glowed with azure light.
Boom!
A wave of invisible force exploded outward, crushing the rain of senbon and hurling them back like a reversed storm.
Sasori's eyes widened. "That repulsive force…!"
It was eerily similar to the Deva Path's Almighty Push—something only the Rinnegan could perform.
Neji extended his hand again, chakra rippling like a storm tide.
Sasori retaliated, the iron sand swirling into a massive triangular prism that tore through the dunes like a blade. Its magnetic pull distorted the air itself.
Neji's expression didn't waver. He exhaled slowly.
"Divine Air Palm!"
A sphere of condensed chakra burst from his palm, roaring across the desert. It struck the iron prism head-on.
The explosion that followed shook the earth. Sand rippled outward like a tidal wave as the prism shattered into countless black shards. The glowing sphere surged through the debris, unstoppable, crashing straight toward Sasori—
—and the battle for the desert began in earnest.
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