"What a nuisance," muttered Sasori, frowning at the flames wrapped around his puppets that refused to extinguish. His expression was irritated—but more than that, exhilarated.
He hadn't expected such a fascinating opponent to appear in the middle of his monotonous existence. Yes, fascinating. To Sasori, Nara Kazuki was far more interesting than any ordinary jōnin.
Sasori had been gathering bodies for his Performance of a Hundred Puppets, but most were too unremarkable to warrant careful preservation. Only enemies on the level of a Kage, like the Third Kazekage, were worthy of being crafted into masterpieces.
But now, Sasori stared at Kazuki with eager delight.
Another specimen worth hunting.
"So troublesome…" Kazuki's brows furrowed as he faced Sasori. Not that he currently had brows—his chakra was almost depleted.
He had killed some shinobi earlier, sure, but to clash against someone of Sasori's caliber… It was no easy feat. And the second stage of the Flame Demon Form burned through his chakra like wildfire.
"I have to finish this quickly," Kazuki thought, fury still roaring inside him, but not enough to cloud his reason. He hadn't forgotten that Nagato was still in Amegakure. If Nagato joined the fight, things would turn dire fast. He needed to snatch something usable as evidence before escaping.
Something like…
Kazuki's gaze locked onto the black-haired puppet nearby. It wasn't the Kazekage puppet, but it was meticulously crafted—detailed, refined. Bringing it back would be enough to report.
"Die, insect!" Kazuki roared. In his Flame Demon state, he could manipulate fire into various forms. He conjured a massive hammer and brought it crashing down. At the same time, he unleashed a Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu and Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu.
The dragon's head was almost the size of the Nine-Tails'—terrifying in scale.
Then, Kazuki opened his mouth, uttering an eldritch phrase. The power of Nyarlathotep surged forth, flooding the surroundings with esoteric knowledge. Sasori faltered for just a moment under the mental barrage.
But it wasn't Sasori who reacted most strongly.
Kazuki's attention snapped sideways as the earth in the forest began to churn violently, something buried beneath beginning to stir. White tendrils surged out, and in the distance—two figures were approaching at high speed.
"Switch," Kazuki said calmly.
He grabbed the black-haired puppet. The searing heat severed the chakra threads instantly. Then he hurled the puppet in a chosen direction—and activated Switch.
Instantly, he appeared at his shadow clone's location—chakra fully replenished.
"What kind of hell mission is this? I'm out here soloing the damn Akatsuki—this is a jōnin-level mission?" Kazuki grumbled as he sprinted away. The replenished shadow clone was now buying him time, while Kazuki retrieved the puppet and sealed it into a scroll as he bolted.
He had nothing to say about fighting Sasori. Kazuki hadn't expected it at all. Besides, Sasori wasn't yet in his complete future form.
In Sunagakure, the combo of Wind Release and Puppet Technique was far too common. Kazuki hadn't thought much of it—until he struck gold and pulled Sasori.
From what he saw, Pain might've arrived as well. Any delay now and it'd be impossible to leave.
Among some fans of the Hokage, Nagato's power was considered a benchmark—if you could defeat him, you were Super Kage level. If not, well, you weren't.
Kazuki figured it was fair. After all, Nagato once wrecked Konoha single-handedly. Calling him "Super Kage" wasn't exactly a stretch.
But what really intrigued Kazuki was the white figure from earlier.
Could it have been Zetsu?
Very likely. After all, his Word Spirit Technique affected all intelligent beings in range. The more they understood, the more they suffered.
Kazuki thought about Nyarlathotep again. That entity even had a moe anime persona—Nyaruko. With such a multifaceted existence, anything was possible. Kazuki recalled having seen... certain doujinshi of Nyaruko.
Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of pressure struck him—like a planet being slammed onto his back. The crushing threat made Kazuki feel like he was about to be flattened.
Fortunately, it lasted only a second—then vanished.
Kazuki exhaled in relief.
He picked up speed. The Konoha border was now in sight. His shadow clone had just been destroyed.
The final image? A hooded woman. He hadn't seen her face, but the blue-violet hair was unmistakable.
Konan.
And the memory included a strange feeling—his body involuntarily drifting toward her hands. Nagato was definitely there.
He didn't see him, but that didn't matter.
Time to run.
Kazuki sprinted into the Land of Fire, heading toward the border patrol.
They needed to be warned. The Akatsuki hadn't gone public yet, so Nagato probably wouldn't push further, and Kazuki had taken care not to kill any civilians or raze villages. If he had, Nagato would've made him "know pain."
Kazuki's legs didn't stop. If he slowed down even slightly, he'd have to consider facing them.
When he reached the border patrol camp, he spotted a familiar ninja reviewing reports.
Seeing Kazuki, the man raised a surprised brow.
"Found nothing?"
He walked over, only for Kazuki to drop a half-charred puppet at his feet.
It didn't move.
The commander eyed the puppet strangely. Yes, they'd been told the target used puppets, but this felt a bit... too casual. Bringing back just a puppet? Kind of hard to give that a high rating.
"The attacker was a highly skilled puppet master," Kazuki explained seriously. "He could control at least three to four puppets simultaneously, possibly more."
He couldn't say it was Sasori—not publicly. Sasori's identity remained secret.
He could only describe what he saw.
"I see… And the puppeteer?" The commander frowned, glancing at the puppet. Its craftsmanship exceeded anything a typical ninja could produce. The mechanisms were sophisticated. He began to believe Kazuki.
"He had backup. I couldn't stay." Kazuki was honest. Holding off Sasori alone was hard enough. With Nagato's arrival, he had no choice but to flee. Otherwise, he'd have to join Akatsuki on the spot to survive.
"Uh... I see. So this is…" The commander looked puzzled. Was this success or failure? Kazuki claimed to have destroyed at least three puppets and brought back one, but the enemy escaped.
Ultimately, the commander just filled out the report and told Kazuki to deliver it to the Hokage.
Kazuki didn't love it, but there was nothing more he could do.
He'd let Minato decide what to make of it. After all, it was unclear how famous Sasori even was right now.
Returning to Konoha, Kazuki noticed something strange in the air—an odd mood.
Curious, but not his priority.
He went straight to the Hokage's office and handed in the mission report to Minato.
"This mission… is hard to define," Minato said, massaging his forehead. Kazuki had returned with a black-haired puppet of exceptional quality, but without any enemy corpses, it was hard to convince others. Worse, Kazuki had gone alone—no witnesses.
The situation was... awkward.
"Fourth Hokage-sama, wasn't there supposed to be a review team for this mission?" Kazuki asked. Weren't those standard for evaluating jōnin candidates?
If there was, this wouldn't be an issue.
"There was supposed to be, but…" Minato's face darkened. But then, something clicked. He looked at Kazuki, hesitated, then stamped the form: Approved.
Kazuki blinked.
Wait, what?
Was he Minato's secret love child or something?
"Don't get the wrong idea. The team assigned to assess you was... a certain secret department. But they've been busy cleaning up their own mess lately, so they didn't make it," Minato said, waving it off. He didn't mention Root by name.
Root's existence was classified. Most in the village didn't even know of it.
Kazuki got the picture.
It had to be Root.
And Danzo must've been livid after falling into one of Kazuki's traps.
But Kazuki wasn't complaining. Root watching him was never a good thing. He had no interest in dealing with them.
"Your next mission... here." Minato handed him a new assignment. "Two chūnin recently defected. After accepting a mission, they killed their teammates and fled. Intel tracked them to a rogue ninja group."
Kazuki accepted it.
Finally, something more reasonable. Two strong chūnin—likely jōnin-level—but still manageable. If it were two jōnin, it wouldn't have been his job.
"One more thing. That rogue group's leader may be jōnin-level," Minato added.
Kazuki twitched.
Of course.
Still, that made sense. And if Kazuki wanted to become jōnin himself, this was the path.
"Jōnin really is a pain," Kazuki sighed, but he took the mission anyway.
Minato gave him some downtime before it began, which Kazuki appreciated. He planned to investigate the village's current situation—and maybe make Danzo's life even harder.
Humming to himself, Kazuki returned home.
Just as he entered the Nara clan compound, he saw a familiar girl.
Another Nara. They'd once fed the deer together. But ever since his talents had blossomed, he'd been too busy for such things.
"Nara Kazuki, a woman came looking for you," she called out before he could pass.
Kazuki paused, confused.
A woman?
Suddenly, a name flashed in his mind:
Yamanaka Mai.
It had to be her.
No one else would move that fast.
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