"Smack!"
A human puppet crackled amid roaring flames, soon burning to pieces.
"Crunch!" Another puppet was sliced apart by a Wind Blade.
Uchiha Fugaku and Baki stood guard before the earth dragon like a pair of gatekeepers, each wielding a newly acquired sword or kunai. Watching the oncoming human puppets, they felt under considerable pressure.
Even without his original body, Sasori of the Red Sand had, in the short period since their last battle, managed to cobble together an army of dozens of human puppets of varying strength.
Facing two jōnin was no big deal for him.
"Hiss!" Shadows hidden beneath the ground lunged at the puppets Sasori was currently controlling from various angles.
The flesh core bearing the character "Scorpion" (蠍) stood out conspicuously, Making it the prime target of concentrated attacks.
Two airborne puppets were yanked back by chakra strings; they swung their weapons to decapitate the shadows. Meanwhile, Uchiha Fugaku and Baki each destroyed several human puppets from another direction.
"Huff!"
Sand and Wind Release combined in a flanking attack, yielding some results. The only one who hadn't contributed much was Kankurō… He couldn't accomplish anything with his newly obtained puppet, and it was immediately snatched back by its original owner. Left holding just a kunai, he stood off to one side, looking bitter as he watched.
Once they lost the element of surprise and could no longer launch sneak attacks, the shadows' frontal combat ability at this level of battle only served as bait to trade blows with the puppets.
"Thirty-seven puppets remain. I need to finish off these pests first…"
Sasori remained unfazed. Thirty-seven chakra strings extended from his chest cavity to the remaining puppets, flanking him from all sides and continuing to press the attack toward his objective.
"He's trying to engage in close combat—why?"
From atop his flying dragon mount, Link didn't let his aerial advantage go to his head. He watched the battlefield below with calm detachment.
In their last fight, he had been the one trying to close the distance; that suggested his opponent might have gained insight into his tactics.
With Zetsu prowling around collecting intel for Akatsuki, any technique used once would be hard to conceal afterward. That was why Link had held back some trump cards from long ago.
Logically, this battle should have gone just like before—Link pressing the attack, while Sasori either defended or fled.
He had initially assumed Sasori would retreat along with Deidara. He hadn't expected the man to stay behind alone, going so far as to discard his ring and effectively abandon Akatsuki.
Such a drastic shift between their two encounters certainly couldn't be ignored. Could Sasori have acquired some close-combat technique capable of defeating him?
Plot deviations were within Link's expectations, but the possibility of familiar characters displaying abilities never seen in the manga felt like a major curveball.
"Once this is over, I definitely need to summon the Hermit Purple and figure out who's behind all this."
Pondering thus, he ordered the shadows to continue supporting his two "enforcers" in eliminating the human puppets.
After all, for Sasori to move his core, he'd need a vessel. Summoning techniques aren't as instantaneous as Amenotejikara—you need preparation. Even Flying Thunder God requires a specific seal.
During the earlier part of the fight, Sasori had let his puppets defend him rather than shifting his core, suggesting it couldn't be transferred mid-battle.
Or perhaps if he did transfer it, he wouldn't be able to control the puppets during that time.
That made more sense: one can't possibly operate puppet strings while performing a summoning to shift one's core.
Still, Link couldn't rule out the possibility of Sasori using long-range summoning to teleport his core. Whether forward or reverse summoning, it can be quite a cheat-like technique.
Remaining composed, Link felt that between his well-padded wallet and various hidden trump cards, he had more than enough resources to face an opponent like Sasori head-on.
"Alright, Sasori. Let's see what else you've got hidden up your sleeve."
…
"It seems Sasori learned quite a bit from what was in your head, Kabuto."
From a distance, Orochimaru gazed at the fierce battle, speaking with casual interest.
It was his first time seeing Sasori so determined. Still, his experiment was indeed enticing enough to fascinate an intelligent man like Sasori.
"There was no helping it, Lord Orochimaru." Yakushi Kabuto's bandage-wrapped arms hung naturally at his sides.
Escaping Deidara and Sasori back in the Land of Rivers hadn't come without a cost. He had sacrificed plenty of intel from his own mind, triggered a Five-Element Seal, and lost both arms. If he was standing here instead of lying in a lab, it was only because the experiment had reached a new breakthrough.
He had gone from being just an assistant to volunteering as a test subject in order not to be discarded.
Strangely, he felt much less burdened now.
Maybe it was because with the Five-Element Seal on him, he couldn't be abandoned unless he died or lost consciousness?
Lost in thought, he felt the Cursed Seal on his neck begin to spread, which in turn triggered the Five-Element Seal on his body. Fine dark-purple lines snaked over his skin, making it look as if his whole body was segmented into countless parts.
"Kabuto." Orochimaru placed a hand on his shoulder.
"My apologies, Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto said softly, bowing his head in regret at losing control.
His talent for medical ninjutsu and chakra control granted him an exceptional mastery over his body, making him an ideal "test subject by nature."
Yes, the kind that gets experimented on.
The equilibrium of cursed seals and original-body cells found in Kimimaro had provided Orochimaru and Kabuto with significant inspiration, revealing that the powerful natural energy introduced by seals wasn't simply chaotic and destructive. On the contrary, it followed strict laws in how it formed and operated.
The cursed seal effectively disrupted that equilibrium, causing the natural energy drawn by the "original-body cells" to grow unstable, allowing a person to manipulate and harness the energy within them.
No matter what kind of natural energy it is, its corrosive effect on the body is unavoidable. That's also why training to achieve Sage Mode requires a huge chakra reserve—without enough chakra, exposure to overly potent natural energy results in immediate death.
What made Orochimaru value the natural energy provided by Link's seal was:
Even as it eroded and destroyed the body, that natural energy simultaneously attempted to repair it. Destruction and rebirth seemed like two sides of the same coin.
The ideal application would be infinite regeneration of the body, employing destructive power against enemies, ensuring a balance among the natural energies—yet some level of internal "destruction" was necessary to integrate oneself into that flow.
Finding that perfect threshold wasn't easy. Additionally, the cursed seal and the original-body cells heavily impacted the user's emotions, causing them to lose control with even slight mood swings.
Extensive testing on normal individuals had repeatedly confirmed this.
With his extreme skill in bodily control and his vast knowledge of medical ninjutsu, Kabuto alone could constantly linger at the brink of chaos without being reduced to powder or a puddle of sludge.
Hence, he became the only successful test subject.
Orochimaru looked quite pleased, smiling as he said, "It's about time we leave, wouldn't you say?"
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru," Kabuto replied respectfully.
~~~
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