Though he had made up his mind to kill him from the start, this puppet master ultimately perished in battle against a Jinchuriki.
"The village will remember your sacrifice."
The Third Kazekage was young, younger than the four opponents who shared this battlefield with him.
Hailed as the strongest Kazekage, he was proud, but he also respected every hero of Sunagakure who laid down their life for the village, every rank-and-file shinobi who fought for it.
Kneeling on one knee, the Kazekage in his flowing white robes spoke softly,
"You are a hero of Sunagakure. Do you have a family? In the name of the Kazekage, I will deliver your final words to them when I return to the village."
Takusaburō struggled to lift his hand. "Ka…Kazekage-sama…Sa…"
PONG!!!
The Black Ant puppet exploded with a thunderous blast!
A surge of chakra shattered the iron sand's magnetic control!
The Third Kazekage's gaze immediately snapped toward the source! Amid the billowing dust and scattered wood fragments, a solid gray-blue tail shot into the air!
Seeing it with his own eyes, he realized—this was different from what the Jinchuriki had claimed.
The sheer power of a Tailed Beast's chakra had broken free from his Iron Sand's magnetic grasp!
Shock gripped the Kazekage's heart. So young! And yet, he had already reached this level of Tailed Beast transformation! Something unheard of across the entire shinobi world!
At that very moment—
THUMP. THUMP.
Something inside Takusaburō suddenly pulsed twice.
It activated.
Rapid expansion. Swelling. Growing uncontrollably.
A searing pain from his chest shot through his entire body!
The next second—
A violent explosion erupted from within him!!!
Watching one of his village's Jōnin explode right before his eyes, the Third Kazekage was both stunned and enraged!
Though the blast did not harm him, his fury came from the sheer treachery of such a despicable tactic!
But there was no time to dwell on anger.
The dark smoke he had inhaled spread rapidly through his trachea and lungs!
A sharp wave of discomfort and nausea tore through his chest!
There was poison in the smoke!
Realizing this in an instant, the Third Kazekage immediately channeled his chakra to suppress his blood circulation and slow his heartbeat, delaying the poison's spread.
Yet the moment he landed, a wave of weakness crashed over him, an unbearable sickness rising in his throat.
"Urgh!!"
THUD!
Both knees slammed heavily into the ground!
A thick stream of dark green blood spewed from his mouth, staining the ground in an ominous sight!
His eyes burned red from the sheer agony, his pupils tinted with a sickly green from the poison seeping through his body!
His entire frame trembled violently from the pain!
The Third Kazekage clawed at his throat, his voice hoarse from the poison ravaging his system.
"Sa…Sa…Sasori!!!"
He was one of the few in the world who knew the full extent of Sasori's abilities.
To create such a swift and lethal toxin—there were only a handful in the entire shinobi world capable of it!
Hanzo of the Salamander? Chiyo?
Impossible!
Sasori. It could only be Sasori!
The very person who should have been here—but wasn't!
...
With a powerful sweep of his tail, Yagura dispersed the lingering poison gas, swiftly escaping from the toxic cloud!
His eyes gleamed with both relief and exhilaration!
Sasori had finally made his move against the Kazekage!!
He had known that Sunagakure's shinobi was one of Sasori's pawns. The moment he saw the strange reaction within the Black Ant puppet, he had immediately held his breath!
Sasori's trump card was always poison.
Had he been just a second slower in reacting, inhaling even the slightest trace—
He had no doubt Sasori would not have hesitated to turn him into another puppet instead of bothering with an antidote.
"So I was right."
A low, raspy voice echoed through the battlefield.
The Third Kazekage, half-kneeling, glared daggers at the distant Sasori, his gaze filled with seething hatred.
He used his chakra to suppress the poison, but it was already spreading throughout his body.
That single breath he had inhaled was like a spark igniting a powder keg!
But—when had it started?!
"Magnet Release's defenses are strong."
Even through the modified voice distorter of Hiruko, Sasori's arrogance was unmistakable.
And now, he had personally slain the Kazekage.
"Iron Sand's defenses are impenetrable."
Sasori's voice slithered into his ears like a curse. "But you still need to breathe."
Poison was the one surefire weapon that could guarantee victory.
From the moment Sasori had been locked in his room, pondering how to breach the Kazekage's Iron Sand defenses, he had searched for an answer.
Bladed weapons failed. Even Hiruko's tail was ineffective.
And there was no chance the Kazekage would simply stand still and allow them to test his defenses.
Was this the limit?
Sasori was a genius—arrogant, but undeniably brilliant. He refused to accept that his skill had reached a dead end.
To bow his head in the face of a challenge? To concede his own mediocrity?
That was not Sasori.
He believed there was no such thing as an unsolvable problem, no absolute defense that could not be broken.
It was only a matter of finding the right method.
If piercing his flesh was impossible—
Then Sasori would poison the air he breathed.
The toxin had to be fast-acting. It had to be lethal.
Most importantly, the Kazekage could not detect it immediately.
Yagura had first used the Hidden Mist Jutsu to obscure the battlefield.
Within that mist, Sasori had mixed the airborne toxin. The moment the Third Kazekage was lured away, the setup was complete.
...
Sasori had personally cut open the puppet master's chest, implanting a deadly toxin bomb inside.
In that critical final minute—perhaps even just thirty seconds—he had executed the finishing move of his deadly plan.
The bomb's toxins weren't just one kind, but four.
One of them was a chain reaction toxin, ensuring the Kazekage inhaled the lethal dose from the mist.
The other three were Sasori's own deadly concoctions, crafted through countless experiments combining rare desert herbs and venomous plants.
He had perfected the most lethal combination.
He had also instructed Yagura to leave the dying shinobi alive just long enough to ensure the Kazekage approached the bait.
Because he knew the Kazekage too well.
Sunagakure's leaders always elevated valuable shinobi to the rank of "heroes," glorifying them—
Only to discard them like sand when the time came.
Sasori had seen that facade all too clearly.
The same sickening expression the Kazekage had worn just moments ago—
Was the same one he had seen at his parents' funeral.
Everything had gone according to plan.
And yet, he didn't particularly favor the final explosion as a method.
That part had been Yagura's idea—to ensure the Kazekage inhaled the fatal dose in an instant.
"Art is eternal," Sasori whispered, eyes gleaming.
The Third Kazekage roared, "Sasori!!!"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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