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  Another battlefield in the desert.

  "Baki, you're insane!" Rasa gasped, clutg his wounds.

  Before him stood Baki and his men. Behind, Sasori of the Red Sand. And around him the bodies of his guards.

  This was a carefully orchestrated ambush. And the reason

  Rasa's unique Kekkei Genkai transformed chakra into magic force, maniputing Gold Dust for offense and defe was Sunagakure's most powerful on.

  If the Gold Dust entered a person's body, or a puppet's, it could paralyze them. And because Rasa's chakra was magic, magic ons were useless against him.

  This meant his abilities tered most ventional ninja tools, and he was a natural enemy of puppeteers.

  That was why he'd bee Kazekage. While his sand trol wasn't as refined as Baki's, his overall strength was superior.

  He was Sunagakure's protector. He could defend the vilge, cripple puppeteers, even gee ine by extrag gold from the desert.

  A well-rounded leader.

  But now, against Sasori, his abilities were useless.

  Sasori's fourth scroll emitted a strange chakra that coated his puppets and ons, ing Rasa's magitrol.

  It was as if Rasa, had been trapped in a pstic prison.

  al, no sand. His strength was crippled.

  Sasori truly was Suna's greatest puppeteer. Having received intel from Baki, he'd modified his puppets and scrolls, creating Anti-Rasa ons.

  He'd even developed special poison senbon, desigo disrupt Rasa's chakra trol.

  Fag a swarm of puppets, Rasa had tried to seal Sasori with his Gold Dust Imperial Funeral, but Sasori, transferring his sciouso another puppet, had easily evaded the attack.

  He'd only mao destroy a few empty puppets.

  And then, Baki had arrived, his men cutting off Rasa's escape.

  There was no respe their eyes, only ambition, a desire to cim the Kazekage title.

  Konoha had its Will of Fire, Iwagakure its Will of Stohese vilges, united by a on cause, were strong.

  But a vilge without a unifying ideology

  Its ninja were like wild beasts, driven by greed. They cared nothing for the vilge, for the Kage.

  Rasa smmed his hands onto the ground, creating a Gold Dust Wall to block Baki's Scorg Sand.

  But Baki's sand trol was superior. A few grains of burning sand pierced through, searing his skin.

  Rasa gasped, his body swaying.

  "Baki! What are you doing?!"

  "I kly what I'm doing, Kazekage-sama. This is treason. But if you die here, no one will ever know, will they?"

  "You you'd kill to bee Kazekage? Do you even care about Sunagakure? What if what if future Kazekage follows your example? What if every successor climbs to power over their rades' corpses? The vilge you'll destroy it!"

  It wasn't just about his own life anymore. Rasa saw Sunagakure's future, a future of endless bloodshed and internal strife.

  Even if there were no withis act would be recorded in history. Baki, having seized power through assassination, would likely meet the same fate.

  The Kazekage title would bee a curse, each successor killing their predecessor.

  And to maintain their power, they'd purge any dissent.

  Sunagakure would bee a wless wastend.

  And that was the best-case sario.

  If even Baki could be assassinated, his supporters, the War Hawks, would seize trol. And then his carefully crafted peace with Konoha would crumble.

  A warm vilge was doomed.

  And his daughter, Temari. What would bee of her if Sunagakure and Konoha went to war?

  He owerless to stop this.

  Baki's scorg sand tio burn through his defenses.

  He watched helplessly as Baki and Sasori approached.

  "Any st words, Kazekage-sama?"

  "Answer me, Baki!" Rasa roared.

  "All I know is if I don't kill you, I'll die. And those loyal Suna ninja they will die! The vilge will be trolled by merts. Sunagakure will be ruined! You forced my hand, Rasa. This is your fault!"

  Rasa's Gold Dust Wall shattered. A crimson senbon, tipped with Sasori's poison, pierced his heart.

  He coughed up blood, his body colpsing.

  The sky darkened, wind and sand stinging his eyes.

  Sasori approached. Hiruko's tail pierced Rasa's heart. He lifted the lifeless body into the air.

  Rasa's eyes, once filled with life, now stared bnkly at the darkening sky.

  The Fourth Kazekage was dead.

  "Troublesome" Baki murmured, a wave of relief washing over him.

  He felt no fear, no guilt, only ambition.

  Sunagakure was his.

  Except

  "Sasori of the Red Sand!" He turo the rogue ninja, his voice ced with authority. "Return to Suna. I'll pardon your crimes. You be a Suna ninja again. Anbu ander or Police Chief, a seat on the Elder cil choose your reward."

  He offered what he believed were generous terms.

  A missing-nin, regardless of their strength or affiliations, was still a missing-nin.

  Hunted, ostracized. Their skills, and their power meaningless without a vilge.

  And he, Baki, the future Fifth Kazekage, was a full pardon, a ce to recim his p Sunagakure.

  Sasori, however, stared at him with his empty puppet eyes. "Perhaps after you bee Kazekage, we discuss this further. But for now, I have no iion of returning. I've never enjoyed being a Sunagakure ninja. The vilge's fate is irrelevant to me."

  He refused Baki's offer. "We have a business arra. Nothing more. I'll be taking the Kazekage's body."

  Baki's eyes narrowed. He'd expected the refusal, but this ingratitude it angered him.

  This traitor, who'd been givehing and thrown it all away!

  He wao eliminate Sasht here and now. But that anization...

  "You have the body."

  "But we had a deal. You were to cim responsibility for Rasa's death. I'd then hunt you down, Enhang my position as a hero. It's the only way I bee Kazekage."

  "As you wish." Sasori sealed Rasa's body in a scroll, retrieving his puppets areating into Hiruko.

  The hunt would begin soon. Baki watched as Sasori disappeared, the effects of his jutsu fading.

  News of Rasa's death would spread, and he, Baki, would give chase, a hero avenging his vilge's leader.

  And even if he failed to capture Sasori, his efforts would be reized. He'd bee the Fifth Kazekage.

  "Time to begin." He and his men waited.

  But Sasori, heading towards his rendezvous with Kakuzu, entered an obstacle.

  He stopped, his gaze fixed on a shirtless, strangely scarred man.

  Sasori sidered himself and Kakuzu unventional. But pared to this creature, they were practically normal.

  The man's mouth was stitched shut, his eyelids seemingly sewn open. His body was covered in stitches. He resembled Kakuzu, in a way. But here, now he was an enemy.

  Without a word, Sasori unleashed Hiruko's Needle Jizo, a barrage of poison needles.

  The needles, coated with Sasori's potent poison, shot toward the man at blinding speed. A single graze meant paralysis, followed by a slow, agonizih.

  But the man didn't even try to dodge.

  The needles struck, their force pushing him back.

  'Is he that weak?' Sasori wondered.

  In the ninja world, the more bizarre a ninja's appearahe strohey usually were.

  His leader, Nagato, was riddled with bck rods. Konan is practically made of paper. He himself, is a human puppet. Kakuzu, with his bck tendrils. And that green-thusiast. They were all powerful ninjas.

  This stitches-covered man, he couldn't be ordinary.

  Sasori's instincts were correct. Hidan, now resembling a human pincushion, didn't fall.

  He paused for a moment, then casually brushed the needles aside.

  Six bone spurs erupted from his hands, aimed at Sasori.

  "Immuo poison?"

  "Then try this."

  "Red Secret Teique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"

  "Mag Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!"

  Sasori, no longer holding back, unleashed his full power.

  He unsealed two scrolls, summoning his most prized puppets.

  Hundreds of puppets, red robes, each wielding a unique on crafted by Sasori himself, their movements trolled by chakra strings ected to his "Performance Core."

  Thanks to the core, he could trol them effortlessly, their movements mirr his will with perfect precision.

  And thanks to the Akatsuki's generosity, he'd upgraded his puppets, many of them crafted from the bodies of fallen ninjas.

  Some could eveheir former jutsus.

  A Konoha ninja might reize them: Aburame Torune, Yamanaka Fū Root operatives, now Sasori's puppets.

  In life, they'd served Danzo. Ih, they protected Sasori.

  If not for his limited chakra reserves, Sasori alone was an army.

  And his greatest on is the Third Kazekage puppet.

  Hundreds of puppets and a rain of iron sand. Any ordinary ninja would have surrendered or fled.

  "Attack! Tear him apart!"

  The puppets surged forward, their ons—kunai, shuriken, swords, axes—aimed at Hidan.

  Hidan, however, didn't even flinch. His paiors, disabled by Orochimaru, made him fearless. He simply walked forward, shrugging off the attacks, his bone cws tearing through the puppets.

  What should have been a csh of jutsu became a brutal brawl.

  Sasori stared, bewildered. What kind of monster was this?

  The wounds inflicted by the chakra-infused ons healed instantly.

  With such vitality and regeive abilities, Sasori's eyes gleamed with greed. He had to acquire this body.

  This puppet would be his greatest masterpiece.

  No not a puppet. A new vessel.

  "Fight! Destroy him!"

  "You'll eventually tire. And these are just my weakest puppets. I do this all day."

  "Once your strength fades, your chakra runs out you're mine."

  Sasori's eyes burned with a manitensity. He gestured, and the puppets' attacks intensified.

  This wasn't a battle of skill but of attrition.

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  "You think your Five Nature Transformations impress me? You're a !"

  Professor Paradox, using ah Release variant of the Wood Human Teique, created a teer-tall earthen giant that held Kakuzu in its grasp, smming him repeatedly against the ground.

  He tinued until Kakuzu's st mask shattered.

  The dispy of brute force was visually impressive.

  This was the power of a Hokage. He'd unleashed his full strength, using jutsu Gojo Kaigetsu had never seen before.

  Earth Giant, Drought Jutsu

  Never anger a Hokage.

  Kakuzu coughed up blood, his body bruised and broken, twitg untrolbly.

  Four of his five hearts were gone.

  O, and he'd be dead.

  'What is this monster? Where did he e from?'

  Men don't cry easily. But Kakuzu felt the urge.

  It was a fair fight. The others, including Tsunade, hadn't intervened. Ahis seemingly ordinary middle-aged man had toyed with him.

  The earth giant lifted Kakuzu and dangled him before Professor Paradox.

  "Tell me how did Danzo Shimura die?"

  "It was the underground exge. The bounty was for any Konoha elder. We had intel on Danzo and ambushed him He used the Four Symbols Seal. We didn't even collect the bounty." Kakuzu's voice was weak.

  He'd been sant before Now, he was barely ging to life.

  To minimize his suffering, he'd answer any question.

  "How did he die?"

  "He used the Four Symbols Seal a suicide jutsu. He took himself out to protect Konoha's secrets. We didn't get the bounty," Kakuzu repeated.

  "So you're saying you're willing to kill for money?"

  "Of course. That's how it is." Kakuzu was resigo justify his as at this point ointless.

  "Where is yanization's HQ?"

  "Heh in the sky." Kakuzu's voice was ced with mockery. A ninja could betray a vilge, but not an anization.

  He'd already betrayed Takigakure. He wouldn't betray the Akatsuki.

  "The sky?" Professor Paradox looked up. White clouds drifted zily, obsg the sun.

  "The sky. It's in the sky. You killed Danzo I'll tear the sky down!"

  The Adamaaff, theoretically, could extend infinitely. Though it couldn't fly, it could reach the heavens. And with his Earth Release, he could create ptforms to stand on. He'd crush this anization, wherever it hid.

  "Who are you?"

  Kakuzu stared at him, bewildered. This obsession with Danzo it was as if Danzo's death had shattered his ninja way. Such devotion could only mean

  "You're the Third Hokage! Hiruzen Sarutobi?!" He blurted out.

  "Are you insane?! A Kage operating in another vilge's territory! If Sunagakure finds out it'll be war!"

  It all made sense now.

  There were no unknown, super-powered ninjas in the world. Someohis strong, with such mastery of the five nature transformations, had to be famous.

  And this obsession with avenging Danzo could only be Hiruzen Sarutobi.

  'Damn that Zetsu! His intel was worthless.'

  If even Hiruzen Sarutobi was one of Gojo Kaigetsu's guards, he wouldn't have e here. He'd have stayed in the east or the north, colleg bounties.

  He, Kakuzu, seemed destio be Konoha's enemy.

  "Any st words?" Hiruzen Sarutobi, his identity exposed, raised his Adamaaff.

  Tsunade moved to intervene. Gojo Kaigetsu's orders were to capture Kakuzu alive, for interrogation.

  But Gojo Kaigetsu stopped her. "Let him vent. Otherwise, he might do something rash."

  He feared that Hiruzen, ed by grief, might abandon his post and go on a revenge quest, hunting the Akatsuki.

  That would attract Zetsu's attention, and Nagato would likely be sent to eliminate him.

  Like a morying to storm heaven with a stick.

  Pain would simply use Almighty Push, and Hiruzen Sarutobi would be gone.

  And then Jiraiya, learning of his sensei's death, would likely follow in his footsteps.

  Gojo Kaigetsu had to prevent such a rea.

  And Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear? Orochimaru's Edo Tensei could replicate it.

  And besides Gojo Kaigetsu was ied in that jutsu.

  It was, in his opinion, the ninja world's most effit path to immortality.

  Ninjas were proo reje issues when it came tn cells. Transpntation was risky.

  In the Wood Release experiments, dozens died, only Yamato surviving. Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reination, though theoretically granting immortality, required a new vessel every three years. Kabuto, having absorbed Orochimaru's cells, had nearly been ed.

  But Kakuzu? Five hearts, no plications. He just o repce them occasionally.

  Aside from his unventional appeara ractically side-effect-free immortality. And as for his appearance, Orochimaru could surely improve it.

  Repg a heart, and rejuvenating the body ractically magic.

  And what if they used White Zetsu cells, or perhaps artificial hearts? No one would care about the ethics of experimenting on artificial humans.

  Tsunade's Yin Seal, bined with Kakuzu's Earth Grudge Fear who knew how long he could live?

  "Any st words?" Hiruzen asked again.

  Kakuzu closed his eyes, his head bowed. He'd lived for money, and now he'd die for it.

  His long life had beey.

  Hiruzen Sarutobi, seeing his silence, raised his Adamaaff.

  Boom—

  Kakuzu's body crumpled to the ground.

  A gust of wind blew sand across his lifeless eyes.

  Hiruzen Sarutobi, his staff still raised, his eyes filled with tears, murmured, "Danzo I've avenged you. They'll all pay."

  Gojo Kaigetsu approached, sealing Kakuzu's body in a scroll.

  "Feelier now, Professor?"

  "I lost trol. I should have kept him alive." Hiruzen smiled wryly. He knew Kakuzu's intel, his Earth Grudge Fear, was valuable. But his desire for revenge

  "It's alright. Avehey're meant to avenge. But ime try to trol your emotions."

  "I will," Hiruzen said solemnly.

  Gojo Kaigetsu's Six Eyes sed the area. The wind and sand, the chakra infused within it was dissipating.

  "The barrier's colpsing. Let's go find Deadpool."

  Baki's Desert Layered Imperial Funeral Seal had reached its limit.

  The unnatural sandstorm subsided. People emerged from the service stations and stared at the se.

  Puppets, scattered aroyed, littered the ndscape. Kunai, shuriken, senbon

  "What happened?" a mert whispered, his voice trembling.

  "Did Konoha and Suna fight?"

  "Look!"

  Baki, leading a group of Suna ninja, roared, "Sasori of the Red Sand! He killed the Kazekage! After him!"

  His voice carried. The news spread quickly.

  "Sasori?! Here? Why?"

  "Let's get out of here. This trade route isn't safe." Those familiar with Sasori's reputation—Sunagakure's rogue puppeteer—were uandably ed.

  If he erating here, could Konoha and Suna truly protect them?

  Merts who'd po i residered.

  "What is that?"

  Even Baki and his men froze, staring at the se before them.

  A figure, his back bearing the words "Loyal to Konoha," his body covered in stitches and blood, stood amidst a mountain of destroyed puppets. He looked like a war god.

  And Sasori?

  Carried away by a paper bird, his body broken and battered.

  Baki: I haven't even made my grara. Why is Sasori retreating? How I bee a hero now?

  Merts: A drizzle's prote 't pare to "Loyal to Konoha."

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