Moments after Karin smashed apart Sasori’s puppet armor, a figure jumped out of the smashed parts, causing Chiyo’s eyes to widen in shock. That figure had spiky red hair and greyish, brown eyes with a facial expression that showed no emotions; this was Sasori’s real body. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to have aged a single day since Chiyo last saw him.
However, before she could comment any further on that, Sasori took out a scroll and unfurled it, revealing the kanji for three written on it. Then, with a puff of smoke, a new puppet appeared.
“T-Third Kazegake-sama!?”
Yet again, Chiyo was surprised due to the puppet looking very similar to the Third Kazekage, but before she could comment any further on that, blades shot out from the puppet’s right arm as the puppet approached Karin at high speed.
Karin saw the poison gleaming on the blades and immediately jumped backward. However, the Kazekage puppet was faster than her and still managed to reach Karin, who swiftly moved her chains to block the blades.
A loud clang echoed through the cave as Karin’s chains blocked the blade-filled arm, which immediately started entangling the arm. Sakura appeared next to the puppet and punched towards it in an attempt to destroy it while Karin was stopping it from retreating, but the blades detached themself from its arm, allowing it to slip away.
Meanwhile, Chiyo took out two scrolls as well, and moments later, two puppets were floating next to her, which both had some resemblance to Sasori. Although Sasori’s face was still unmoving, there was clearly some annoyance in his voice when he started speaking.
“The first puppets I created and which I made to resemble my parents, huh? Do you really think you can face me with tools I myself created?”
“We’ll see about that. You don’t really believe that I left them unchanged and didn’t add anything new, did you?”
Sasori scoffed at Chiyo’s words, and after a few finger twitches, his puppet’s mouth opened up, allowing black iron sand to flow out of it.
“These two puppets you are using are mere compies made to resemble a human, but this one is the real thing. I made it out of the Third Kazekage’s body, and as such, it can use his signature jutsu. His Iron Sand. I call it, Human Puppet.”
Chiyo’s face became solemn when she saw the iron sand move and immediately spoke to Karin and Sakura.
“Be careful; he can freely move the iron sand and shape it however he wants. Additionally, immediately discard everything you carry with you since he can control those things as well.”
Luckily, neither Karin nor Sakura used metallic equipment. Usually, Karin used her seals and chakra chains to fight, while Sakura specialized in taijutsu.
While Chiyo was explaining the Third Kazekage’s jutsu, Sasori made his move as hundreds of small sand clumps started hovering around his puppet.
“[Iron Sand Drizzle]”
A barrage of iron sand projectile was shot at Karin, Sakura, and Chiyo. Like the previous few times, Karin was surrounded by a chakra sphere, but this time, it actually started destabilizing as soon as the first projectiles impacted it, causing a frown to appear on her face as she began to enhance it with more seals.
On the other hand, Chiyo moved one of her puppets in front of her and made it lift its arms towards the incoming storm, causing a chakra shield to raise in front of Chiyo.
Meanwhile, Sakura chose a less elegant option, as she simply smashed her first into the ground, resulting in a huge stone formation raising in front of her, blocking the sand.
While Karin and Sakura overcame the attack without a scratch, Chiyo’s puppet was heavily damaged due to the iron sand seeping into its joints, demonstrating why it was so dangerous.
“Ohh? all of you managed to get out of that without a scratch; how impressive.”
Although Sasori’s words may sound like a praise, considering his face still showed no motions, it could only be seen as mockery.
Then, the iron sand started moving yet again, but it formed into a gigantic cube and an equally gigantic pyramid this time. Although it showed only for a split second, a smirk appeared on Karin’s face when she saw the much bigger targets.
Karin immediately jumped back to return the vanguard position back to Sakura, who was slightly surprised by her action but assumed that Karin was plotting something.
The pyramid shot towards Sakura, but she dodged it by jumping backward. However, while she was jumping, the huge cube flew towards the spot she wanted to land on to crush her as soon as she arrived.
Sakura wasn’t worried in the slightest as she felt the familiar tuck of chakra strings taking control of her body, slightly shifting her trajectory in mid-air, so the cube would barely miss her.
While jumping backward, Sakura started gathering chakra into her fist, and as soon as she landed next to the cube, she smashed her fist into it, resulting in it crashing against a wall and embedding itself inside it.
Before Sasori could comment on that inhuman display of power, Karin landed on the cube with a smirk on her face. Her four chains entangled the cube to stop it from moving while her hands moved at lightning speed, engraving hundreds of seals into the cube within seconds.
Sasori wanted the iron sand cube to move away from Karin or at least split it up into smaller parts, but the more seals Karin drew, the less control he had over it.
So, he made the pyramid dissolve back into iron sand and shot another barrage of sand projectiles at Karin, who continued drawing seals as if she didn’t even notice the attack.
Chiyo appeared in front of Karin, and just like her puppet previously did, she lifted her hand, causing a chakra shield to raise again while showing off that she had turned her right arm into an artificial one.
“I Have no clue what you are doing, but this should be worth it, right?”
A smirk appeared on Karin’s face as she finished drawing seals and started injecting chakra into her creation.
“Naturally. [Uzumaki Sealing Style: Magnetic Enhancement.]”
The whole cube started glowing, and moments later, Sasori noticed that he had lost control of the iron sand. Additionally, all the iron sand and even the metal weapons in close vicinity to the cube were pulled towards it.
“Well, this will only stay active for a short while, so let’s finish off the Kazekage puppet while all his iron sand is trapped.”
Sakura and Chiyo looked at the iron cube that now looked like a weird work of art due to all kinds of things sticking to it with fascination before they nodded their head in agreement and refocused their attention on Sasori.
Meanwhile, Sasori inwardly frowned when he saw one of his greatest masterpieces being disabled so easily. Although he could still use the Kazekage puppet, what was the point in doing so when its most significant advantage was gone?
So, he put it back into its storage scroll and removed his coat without any hesitation.
“Very well, it has been a long time since I used myself.”
Karin, Sakura, and Chiyo couldn’t help but look at Sasori’s body in bewilderment. Although Karin and Sakura already found it slightly weird that Chiyo turned one of her arms into a puppet, it seems like Sasori took an even more extreme approach.
“Y-You actually turned yourself into a puppet, Sasori?”
