Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 317 Scorpion's Regeneration Core

Chiyo's surprised expression froze completely, her mouth so big it could fit a whole egg.

She trembled all over, her lips moving but unable to utter a word: "This face—I can't be mistaken, this is—the Third Kazekage!"

The Konoha ninjas were all taken aback—no, they were so shocked they were almost overwhelmed.

Tenten asked, "This is the Third Kazekage? But how did the Third Kazekage end up in Sasori's hands, and... in the form of a puppet?"

Chiyo was still reeling from the shock when she heard the question and automatically replied, "The Third Kazekage, praised by the Sand Village ninja as the strongest Kazekage of all time, suddenly disappeared more than a decade ago and has never been found."

"At that time, the atmosphere of war was already very strong. Friction often broke out between Sunagakure and Konoha. The villagers believed that Konoha had sent someone to assassinate the Third Kazekage."

"So they simply launched an attack on Konoha without the Kazekage, thus beginning the Third Shinobi World War."

Chiyo shook her head with a bitter smile and sighed dejectedly, "Who would have thought that it was Sasori, who disappeared with us back then? It was Sasori who killed the Third Kazekage and took his body away to make a human puppet."

"The disappearance of the Third Kazekage, which directly triggered the Third Shinobi World War, was actually committed by my grandson, Qian—"

"Why didn't I die in the last war?!"

In fact, Chiyo's inner breakdown was even stronger than she showed. The moment she saw the Third Kazekage's puppet, she knew that Sunagakure no longer had a place for her.

Sasori of the Red Sand has taken on two Kazekage.

The assassination of the Third Kazekage to create a human puppet triggered the Third Shinobi World War, and all the Sand Village ninja who died in the war were blamed on Sasori.

A few days ago, he attacked Sunagakure, killing countless Sunagakure ninjas and kidnapping and murdering the Fifth Kazekage.

It can be said that the entire village of Sunagakure harbors a grudge against Sasori of the Red Sand.

Sasori is a rogue ninja, and the Sand Village ninja can't catch him, but Chiyo and Ebizo are in the Sand Village.

They were all elderly people, some of whom could die at any moment. How could Chiyo and her brother leave Sunagakure and become wandering rogue ninja?

Moreover, they fought for Sunagakure for 50 years, and their son, daughter-in-law, and grandson all died on the battlefield fighting for Sunagakure.

Not only their relatives, but also their teachers, classmates, students, and subordinates all died on the battlefield and were buried in Sunagakure. Her roots were in Sunagakure. Rather than becoming a rogue ninja, Chiyo would rather commit suicide to atone for her sins.

The problem now is that even if she commits suicide, she cannot cleanse herself of her sins.

Not to mention protecting Chiyo's own reputation after death, she couldn't even guarantee that her own body wouldn't be left to rot in the wilderness, and even her younger brother Ebizo wouldn't have a good ending.

At this moment, Chiyo has only one chance to cleanse herself of her sins and allow her body to rest in peace in Sunagakure.

That is to exchange one's own life for the life of the Fifth Kazekage.

Chiyo smiled bitterly: "I thought it was a technique prepared for Sasori, but now I can only use it on Gaara."

"Thank goodness I learned this technique, otherwise it would have been true despair."

Thinking of this, Chiyo finally let go of all her reserve and pride and bowed her head to Jiraiya.

She pleaded with utmost sincerity, "Jiraiya, and everyone in Konoha, please do your utmost to help Sunagakure kill the rogue ninja!"

Jiraiya felt a pang of unease as he looked at the elderly woman before him, her hair white and her body hunched over, pleading tremblingly.

Involuntarily, he thought of the amazement he felt when he first met Chiyo during the Second Shinobi World War.

That was on the battlefield of the Land of Rain. The 30-year-old Chiyo was mature and beautiful, with a voluptuous figure that far surpassed Tsunade's flat-chested appearance at the time.

Her hair was as red as blood, like a scorpion, and it still danced and leaped in the rain, like a burning flame.

As the commander of the Sunagakure puppeteers' unit, the dashing Chiyo commands with composure, rigor, and boundless passion, shining like a desert rose.

Then, Jiraiya was hit by a poisoned needle from some unknown puppeteer, and collapsed to the ground from the poison.

Chiyo's image at that time was firmly imprinted in the young hearts of the three legendary Sannin of Konoha, and it deepened with each confrontation.

But the passage of time is always the cruelest knife. The once heroic and spirited Third Hokage fell into decline and old age, and the once fiery beauty grew white hair and eventually became a wrinkled old woman.

Jiraiya took a deep breath: "Okay, I promise you."

"Sunagakure is an ally of Konoha. Our mission is to rescue the Fifth Kazekage, and the bastard who killed the Fifth Kazekage is the enemy of our mission."

Jiraiya pointed at Sasori of the Red Sand: "Konoha ninja, follow me and kill him!"

Because there was no formal appointment, the young Chunin and the simple-minded Might Guy dared to defy Jiraiya's will.

However, Jiraiya's seniority was too great, making him the de facto commander of the rescue team. When he and Kakashi remained inactive, neither the Ino-Shika-Cho squad nor Aburame Torune would take action.

As Jiraiya gave the order and led the attack, the Konoha ninjas no longer hesitated and skillfully launched their attack.

On the battlefield at this moment, Sasori of the Red Sand revealed the Third Kazekage's trump card, but failed to gain the expected advantage.

Sasori of the Red Sand manipulated the puppet of the Third Kazekage, forming the "未" (unknown) hand seal with his hands. He then used Magnet Release chakra to summon an overwhelming amount of iron sand, which formed black waves before activating his secret technique.

【Magnetic Release: Iron Sand Rain】

Like ocean waves, the iron sand surged rapidly, some of it spinning and grinding to form countless fine needles, which were then sprayed at high speed toward the Chunin of Konoha.

The overwhelming barrage of iron needles was just like a torrential rain, falling densely and indiscriminately.

Before the iron needles even arrived, the air compressed by the iron sand projectiles turned into gusts of foul-smelling wind, causing the Konoha ninjas to frown and wish they could cover their nostrils with their hands.

Clearly, these iron needles are coated with an extremely potent poison; even a slight prick to the skin could be life-threatening.

However, the poison needles were nothing to Naruto Uzumaki of Team 7, because he was also skilled in Magnet Release.

Naruto simply raised his hand and created a sufficiently large and strong electromagnetic field without forming any hand seals, easily guiding the poison needles to the side.

However, this dangerous ninjutsu is different for Team 3. The highly poisonous needles are extremely effective against Might Guy and Rock Lee, and also put a lot of pressure on Neji Hyuga.

When the first wave of iron needles covered the ground, Might Guy had to open the Sixth Gate, using a violent chakra storm to scatter the poison needles and protect himself and Rock Lee.

Neji Hyuga could only frown and turn around, using the secret technique of the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist style, "Return to Heaven".

After being freed from the "Caged Bird" bondage, the shackles that had been weighing on Neji's mind were lifted, and his strength improved rapidly as a result. At only 17 years old, he was already close to the level of the clan leader, Hiashi Hyuga.

Neji's mastery of Gentle Fist is also unique, possessing his own distinctive style. His "Rotation" can even form a spherical chakra shield, like an extra-large "Rasengan," possessing indestructible destructive power.

The poisoned needles that landed on the [Return to Heaven] were all broken and deflected; even the venom dripping from the needles could not penetrate the [Return to Heaven] mechanism.

Defense.

In the third class, only Tian Tian was completely at ease, strolling leisurely through the torrential rain of poison needles, yet not a single needle hit her.

Every day, he even had the leisure to take out a sealed scroll and collect a batch of poison needles.

Seeing the difficulties her team was facing, Tenten shouted to Naruto, "Naruto, you guys are in charge of dealing with this Third Hokage puppet."

"Don't worry, Sister Tiantian. I don't know about the Third Kazekage, but this puppet doesn't have much power. I'll definitely be fine with it."

After saying that, Naruto no longer concealed his strength.

He extracted a massive amount of Magnet Release chakra, and without using any ninjutsu, he purely used chakra to compete with the Third Kazekage's puppet for control of the iron sand.

The originally precise and orderly form of iron sand collapsed. Not only could it no longer gather, but discharge lines also appeared due to the struggle between the two powerful magnetic forces.

Naruto Uzumaki wasn't alone. He activated his Magnet Release chakra, pushing the iron sand far away or high into the sky, quickly emptying the area around the Third Kazekage.

Without needing a verbal reminder, Sasuke Uchiha, upon seeing this scene, gathered a large amount of Lightning Release chakra, which coalesced into an arc of electricity on his right hand.

Lightning Release: Chidori

Sakura Haruno jumped behind Sasuke in perfect unison, grabbed his legs and lifted him up, then used her superhuman strength to push against the soles of Sasuke's feet and throw him away at high speed.

A dazzling streak of light flashed, and the Third Kazekage's puppet was pierced through the chest by the Chidori. Its entire structure was destroyed by the Lightning Release chakra, and its limbs, head, and other parts fell to the ground.

The greatest advantages of human puppets are twofold. First, the puppet has its own chakra, and second, the ninjutsu solidified within its body allows the puppet to use the ninjutsu it was best at in life without consuming the puppeteer's chakra.

In terms of combat, human puppets have a huge advantage.

But nothing in this world is absolutely perfect.

Because it requires puppet strings to mobilize the puppet's chakra and then control the puppet's chakra to activate ninjutsu, there are two extra steps in terms of command and control.

Human puppets inevitably react slower, even slower than ordinary puppets.

This gave Naruto and his friends the opportunity to play dumb and launch a surprise attack.

Actually, Naruto didn't initially intend to use this move because he had already demonstrated Kage-level strength when facing Itachi Uchiha.

Logically speaking, the trick of pretending to be weak to deceive others shouldn't work.

However, when Naruto joined the battle, he noticed that Sasori's attention was focused on Chiyo, and he even paid more attention to Might Guy than to him.

Therefore, Naruto Uzumaki deliberately suppressed his strength, only showing the strength of a Jonin, causing Sasori of the Red Sand to gradually ignore him.

Until Tenten shouted out her request, Naruto suddenly erupted, and before Sasori could react, he used his speed to destroy the puppet with lightning speed.

It wasn't until the Third Kazekage's puppet broke that Sasori finally realized he had overlooked the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki's strength. He had forgotten Itachi's warning to him before.

This was certainly not without reason; it was a miracle resulting from the combination of Tenten's "luck probability" and Naruto's careful concealment.

[Luck Probability] Amplifies the probability of Sasori ignoring Naruto, turning what is almost impossible into a habitual and taken-for-granted occurrence.

Seeing Naruto achieve a decisive victory, Tenten smiled with satisfaction.

She turned to a delighted Might Guy and exclaimed, "Guy-sensei, Class 7 has already taken down the Third Kazekage's puppet, we, Class 3, can't fall behind!"

Might Guy was moved to tears by the perfect teamwork of Team 7.

Upon hearing his student's words, he was immediately filled with fervor and shouted, "Youth should not be wasted! Let's go together and defeat Sasori of the Red Sand!"

Xiao Li's eyes also blazed with youthful energy as he shouted, "Oh my! Youth!!"

Two streams of green chakra transformed into two whirlwinds, instantly rushing towards Sasori of the Red Sand, punching and kicking the handsome puppet.

The Eight Gates technique provides a comprehensive boost to taijutsu. Once the fifth gate is opened, the speed can exceed the limits of human vision, and only the Sharingan and Byakugan can see it clearly.

Meanwhile, the two martial arts masters who had opened the sixth gate were frantically spinning and attacking Scorpion, exceeding the physical limits that the puppet could handle.

Before Sasori got close, he had countless ways to deal with Might Guy and Rock Lee. He could also use a large number of puppets in conjunction with his transformation technique to set up various traps, making the two straightforward taijutsu ninjas dizzy and disoriented.

However, once the two got close, Scorpion lost the ability to switch between puppets and could only rely on the puppets on his own body to cope.

Might Guy and Rock Lee activated the Sixth Gate, unleashing tremendous power in their punches and kicks. They could take down ordinary puppets in one hit, and also inflict great damage on Sasori's puppets.

In just a few seconds, Scorpion's body was covered in cracks, and even his tail was kicked off by Might Guy. The break was right at the mouth on his back, rendering him useless.

Even worse, the cracks in the human puppet's chest armor unfortunately intersected, causing the armor plates to fall off and exposing the core regeneration core.

Because of the tragic loss of his parents in childhood, Scorpion began to think about the fragility of life from the time he was old enough to understand.

Like Itachi Uchiha, children who think about overly heavy issues too early and lack life experience may develop distorted thinking.

As a result, Itachi and Sasori both went astray and became mentally ill at a young age.

Itachi Uchiha attempted to destroy his own clan, taking on the "sin" he had imagined, and passing on the "hope" he had imagined to Sasuke Uchiha.

He ignored the pain Sasuke was enduring, and indulging in self-pity, he continued to harm his younger brother, driving Sasuke to become a psychopath as well.

If it weren't for Naruto's unreasonable talk-no-jutsu, which made Sasuke ignore all his pain without reason, Sasuke would never have been able to return to being a normal person.

Sasori, like Orochimaru, has a fanatical desire for eternity.

He relinquished his human body and spirit, transforming himself into a human puppet, retaining only the regeneration core that provides chakra, thus achieving a kind of eternity.