"Secret Art: Peacock Method—"
Over a dozen Ninja simultaneously performed a Ninjutsu, the Peacock Method. This was a secret art developed exclusively by the Star Hidden Village because most of them absorbed energy from meteorites to enhance their Chakra. Therefore, there was no repulsion when casting the Jutsu together.
Instead, because they shared the same origin, the Ninjutsu's power was even greater when cast.
A large amount of Chakra formed a Ninjutsu resembling a peacock pattern, like a peacock fanning its tail feathers. This is why this Ninjutsu is called the Peacock Method.
Sasori narrowed his eyes, looking at the Ninjutsu that resembled a super peacock, and quickly jumped backward. His hiruko seemed bulky, but its movements were not slow; it possessed agility.
Moreover, its tail was faster than its body. Before the Peacock Method could hit him, the tail hooked onto a large tree, using the leverage to evade the Peacock Method's attack.
Whoosh, whoosh—
While evading, he didn't forget to throw a pile of poisoned needles from his puppet's body. These poisons were fatal if they struck.
The hiruko's large body naturally allowed for larger hidden mechanisms.
However, these Ninja were not so easily hit. The Peacock Method transformed into a Chakra escape, easily blocking Sasori's poisoned needles.
"It seems you still have some tricks up your sleeves..." Sasori narrowed his eyes. It was clear now that relying solely on hiruko wouldn't be enough to defeat the opponents.
Continuing to hide inside hiruko, though it was incredibly sturdy, it was also a target for the enemy. Poisoned needles, shurikens, and Kunai were all countered by the Peacock Method's offense-defense integration.
Boom! Sasori dodged left and right, somewhat disheveled.
He then quickly sprayed a wave of poisonous smoke at them, but it was directly blocked by Star Hidden Village's Red Star using Ninjutsu. Sasori's poisonous smoke was certainly not powerful enough to corrode a Chakra-constructed escape technique, so it naturally had no effect.
"Hmph, I thought the enemy who came would be much stronger. This is all there is to it. Die!" Red Star had just let his subordinates attack first to test the enemy's strength and Ninjutsu. He didn't expect the opponent to be merely a Puppet Master.
Poisonous smoke, flying needles, shurikens, and Kunai were indeed troublesome for a lone Ninja, as a single poisoned flying needle could kill them. However, the Peacock Method, with its integrated offense and defense, feared nothing, so Red Star decided to act personally.
"Secret Art: Peacock Method, Sunset Streamer—"
The unfurled Peacock Method continuously fired Ninjutsu resembling a sunset at Sasori. Sasori's hiruko was hit many times. It seemed not to have breached its defense, but Sasori knew that the internal structure had been damaged and loosened.
"It seems I can't hold back any longer!" Sasori's expression turned grim, and hiruko appeared even more terrifying.
"Hmph, let's see if you can even survive!" Red Star sneered, casting the Peacock Method again. This time, it covered the entire area around Sasori's puppet, leaving him nowhere to escape.
Rumble!
After an explosion, a figure leaped out of hiruko. It was Sasori's true body—
"So you finally revealed your true form?" Red Star said disdainfully.
He had never fought against a Puppet Master before and dismissed such flashy tricks.
"Let me show you my strength. Coincidentally, I haven't used it to destroy a Ninja Village yet..." Sasori's true body, or rather, his former body, slowly took out a scroll from the smoke and threw it into the sky.
"Puppet Performance of a Hundred Mechanisms—"
Bang!!
After a burst of smoke, Red Star opened his eyes wide, staring in disbelief at the puppets floating in the air.
"This... so many? How is this possible? How can you control so many?"
It is well known that puppets are controlled by Puppet Masters, but a person can multitask, but can they multitask three, four, five, or even ten things at once?
No, the creator of Puppet Jutsu could only multitask ten things. Chiyo, the founder of Puppet Jutsu, could only control ten guard puppets because controlling ten puppets as if they were extensions of one's arms was extremely taxing on the mind.
The puppets Sasori had just summoned were definitely more than ten... "This, there must be at least over a hundred, right?"
"More than that, I see over two hundred..."
Over a dozen Ninja from the Star Hidden Village subconsciously swallowed. Such a terrifying number, even if each puppet was a Genin, a large quantity could still lead to overwhelming defeat.
Sasori smiled. Although his Puppet Performance of a Hundred Mechanisms involved a large number of puppets, most of them were commoners and Genin. He thought it would be worthwhile to acquire some higher-quality materials today... As Sasori smiled, a dense swarm of puppets directly rushed towards Red Star and the dozen Ninja from the Hoshigakure. — — — —
"The meteorite is in this room, correct?"
"Yes, sir..."
Uchiha Nagi stood in front of an unassuming room in the Hoshigakure, with a dazed child behind him.
The simplest way to find something was undoubtedly to use Sharingan to hypnotize someone from the Village and have them lead the way.
"Go back and get a good night's sleep. Forget about tonight's events..."
After Uchiha Nagi finished speaking, he sent the little boy home, simultaneously implanting a hypnotic suggestion for him to forget everything that happened tonight once he returned home.
Then he infiltrated the Star Hidden Village, cough, to steal something—
As a soul from the modern era, Uchiha Nagi actually preferred equivalent exchange. However, he wasn't rigid; when the other party refused to engage in equivalent exchange with him, he didn't mind "borrowing" it... As the Star Hidden Village's treasure, vital for its survival, Uchiha Nagi knew without asking that the other party would certainly not agree to an exchange, so he directly infiltrated. He happened to see what looked like enemies entering the Village ahead, and all the Ninja in the entire Village were drawn to them...
Poor Star Hidden Village. From Genin to Jonin, there were less than fifty in total. As for Jonin... it seemed there was only one Jonin, the Star Hidden himself. Uchiha Nagi shook his head. A Village with such a lack of presence, yet still dreaming of rising like the Land of Rain, was truly unrealistic, unless the Star Hidden himself could become as powerful as Hanzo.
When Hanzo first appeared, he could single-handedly take on the newly promoted Kage-level trio of Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade, and still have strength to spare. The difference between Kage-level Ninja could sometimes be vast, and sometimes very small.
"Susanoo..." Uchiha Nagi walked into the room where the Hoshigakure stored its treasures and activated the most basic Susanoo, just half a skeletal hand.
Subsequently, the room began to reveal dense mechanisms: Kunai smeared with poison, shurikens, flying needles, poisonous gas... "This Star Hidden really knows how to hide things..."
These were mere trifles for Susanoo, not even enough to scratch an itch. Finally, when Uchiha Nagi directly opened the box containing the meteorite, trap talismans also appeared around it.
Unfortunately, the Sealing Technique of the Star Hidden Village's level was simply too weak... "Break for me, Haa!—"
Uchiha Nagi roared, and Susanoo expanded to its first state, a half-body. A pair of skeletal hands directly spread outwards, violently tearing apart the spell symbols that had climbed onto the body.
After being torn open, the seal immediately fell apart. Uchiha Nagi chuckled as he picked up the box to look at the meteorite inside.
A mysterious meteorite. He still didn't know its composition, but the energy it emitted made Uchiha Nagi feel an endless supply... But then Uchiha Nagi frowned, because although the energy emitted felt like it could be absorbed into the body, it gave him an extremely uncomfortable feeling, and this was not an illusion.
"It probably contains a small amount of radiation. Absorbing its energy into the body for a long time would definitely cause harm to the body. Too bad I don't plan to absorb it into my body, hehe..."
Uchiha Nagi then took out a lead box, put the meteorite inside, then took out a slightly larger one, creating two layers of lead boxes. Finally, he added another Sealing Technique on top before feeling relieved.
Although it carried slight radiation, he still wouldn't let this meteorite go. If it were forged into a weapon, the problem would likely be minimal. He could make a lead-lined scabbard, and then add a few seals to both the sword and the scabbard.
When the sword wasn't in use, it would be sheathed. With the protection of the Sealing Technique and lead, there was no worry about harming the owner. Moreover, Ninja bodies have Chakra and wouldn't be easily harmed by trace radiation, unlike the people of Star Hidden Village who directly absorbed it into their bodies.
Once the sword was drawn... Uchiha Nagi's heart burned with anticipation. He also looked forward to seeing what kind of power such a powerful meteorite would yield when forged into a sword. He wondered if it could compare to Orochimaru's kusanagi sword, or the seven ninja swords.
As for kubikiribōchō, if it could be melted down and used as part of the material, that would be great. If not, he planned to discard it. Bah, it's useless, it can't even block a Tailed Beast Ball—
Outside the Hoshigakure, Sasori and the Ninja were locked in a bloody battle, with corpses strewn everywhere. Of course, the blood wasn't Sasori's. He had only lost a few dozen of his lowest-grade puppets, yet he had nearly wiped out all the Ninja of the entire Star Hidden Village. Some were poisoned, some were dead, and some were maimed.
The dozen Ninja who had learned the Peacock Method simply couldn't withstand Sasori's Puppet Performance of a Hundred Mechanisms. To put it plainly, a Ninja's body is fragile; a single poisoned needle can finish them. A puppet, however, has no weak points anywhere on its body...
Finally, only the leader, the Star Hidden, Red Star, remained...
Red Star was panting, also covered in blood—not his own. Facing the siege of Sasori's many puppets earlier, he had grabbed a nearby person as a human shield to escape death.
Among Sasori's more than two hundred puppets, at least ten were Jonin-level, over twenty were Chunin, and fifty or sixty were Genin. The rest were low-level puppets made by commoners. But with so many ants, even an elephant can die. Red Star couldn't withstand the siege of so many people...
Just as he was hesitating whether to fight to the death, his expression suddenly changed, because he sensed that the seal he had left on the meteorite had been broken.
"Ah, someone stole the Star Stone??" Red Star was greatly surprised. He immediately ignored Sasori and turned to run back into the Village.
Sasori frowned. Someone was stealing something? Stealing from his Sasori of the Red Sand?
He was fighting for his life out front, yet someone behind him had directly stolen the spoils of war he was supposed to claim?
He no longer cared about the Ninja on the bloody ground and quickly followed.
Then, as he arrived in front of a house in the middle of the Village, he saw a white-haired young man with a half-mask walk out...
"Bastard, you, you stole the Star Stone? Hand over the Star Stone—"