Chapter 337: Namikaze Minato Battles the Natural Energy Modified Sasori of the Red Sand, One Trump Card After Another [HN]

Deep within the dense forest at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Springs, the air was filled with a faint smell of decaying vegetation and an extremely unnatural silence that made one’s heart tremble.

The ANBU squad led by Namikaze Minato moved rapidly through the forest, tracking the source of the strange Natural Energy residue.

“Stop.”

Minato suddenly raised his right hand, and the entire team instantly came to a halt.

Everyone’s eyes focused on him.

His blue eyes sharply swept across the seemingly ordinary forest ahead. It was far too quiet. Even the sounds of insects and birds had completely disappeared.

“Captain, did you find something?”

An ANBU member asked in a low voice.

Minato did not answer. Instead, he slowly crouched down and brushed his fingertips across a patch of slightly darkened moss on the ground.

A trace of Natural Energy remained on the moss, almost impossible to detect, carrying a rotten aura.

Natural Energy was not unfamiliar to Minato.

After all, he had studied it with his teacher Jiraiya for a long time.

“The energy residue is very recent, and… it is mixed with the smell of blood.”

The moment his words fell, a sudden change occurred!

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Dozens of black shadows suddenly shot out from the surrounding soil, treetops, and even the air without any warning!

They moved with astonishing speed, accompanied by sharp sounds that tore through the air as they rushed straight toward the ANBU squad!

“Enemy attack! Spread out!”

Minato shouted, and before his voice had even finished, he had already transformed into a flash of golden light and disappeared from where he stood.

“Splurt!”

An ANBU member who reacted slightly too slowly was pierced through the shoulder by a black shadow.

It was actually a long bone spear!

Even more horrifyingly, after the spear struck, the Natural Energy on it began to erode his chakra and flesh like a living creature.

“Be careful! The attacks carry Natural Energy erosion!”

Minato’s voice came from the other side.

The kunai in his hand precisely knocked away another bone spear that was flying toward a teammate, and his brows furrowed tightly.

These attacks… had no killing intent.

They seemed to be driven by Natural Energy!

The ANBU members used the Body Flicker Technique to evade the attacks or blocked them with their ninja tools.

However, the black shadows attacking them finally revealed their true forms.

They were humanoid creatures with gray, decayed skin, hollow eyes, and stiff movements!

They wore tattered ninja clothing, with some of their bodies even incomplete.

Yet their bodies were filled with violent Natural Energy that was completely at odds with their lifeless forms!

“They’re dead! None of these attackers have any signs of life!”

Dead bodies had become killing puppets?

The thought made everyone’s hearts turn cold.

“Don’t fight them head on. Prioritize your own safety and find the controller!”

Minato calmly issued his order.

His figure flashed again, appearing beside an ANBU member who was being attacked by three of the “dead.”

His hands formed seals so quickly that afterimages appeared.

“Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!”

Countless shuriken flashing with cold light poured down like torrential rain, instantly covering the three “dead.”

However, these bodies strengthened by Natural Energy were extraordinarily tough.

Ordinary shuriken could only leave shallow white marks on them.

But Minato’s purpose was not to cause damage!

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

The shuriken precisely struck the joints and energy core nodes of the “dead.”

Although they failed to cause fatal damage, they successfully disrupted their attack rhythm and bought the teammates a moment to catch their breath.

At the same time, under the cover of the shuriken, several specially made three pronged kunai had already been silently embedded in the tree trunks and rocks around the battlefield.

“Using this method to control corpses… This kind of desecration of the dead…”

Minato’s eyes turned cold.

He fully expanded his perception, searching for the chakra threads hidden behind the scenes that controlled everything like a spider web.

At that moment, an extremely subtle fluctuation came from deep within the forest.

It carried a massive amount of chakra and a sinister consciousness.

“I found you!”

Minato’s figure instantly disappeared.

The next moment, he had already appeared in the canopy of a giant tree a hundred meters away.

His kunai pointed straight ahead.

A red haired boy was sitting on the shoulder of a gigantic Third Kazekage human puppet.

The boy had a handsome face but no trace of vitality. His eyes were as empty as a puppet’s.

It was Sasori of the Red Sand, who had long since defected from Sunagakure!

However, the Sasori before him seemed somewhat different from the one described in the intelligence.

The chakra radiating from his body carried the same distorted Natural Energy aura as the “dead” below.

“The Yellow Flash of Konoha… Namikaze Minato.”

Sasori’s voice was dry and emotionless, as if he were simply stating a fact.

“I didn’t expect you to find me so quickly. It seems my new ‘collection’ still needs further refinement.”

His gaze swept across the ANBU struggling to withstand the attacks of the “dead” below, and the corners of his mouth pulled into a stiff curve.

“However, there could be no better subjects for testing the effects of my new ‘technique.'”

“Sasori of the Red Sand…”

Minato’s heart tightened.

“You have actually desecrated the dead and used Natural Energy for such an evil puppet technique!”

“Evil? It is merely a different application of power.”

Sasori spoke indifferently.

“I found a ‘Spring of Life’ that gives birth to pure Natural Energy. Unfortunately, the spring is filled with a violent will that living beings cannot withstand. But the dead… the dead are perfect vessels. Look. This is the beginning of eternal art!”

His hands moved slightly, and the chakra threads spread out like an invisible network.

The “dead” below, whose movements had previously been somewhat stiff, suddenly lit up with miserable green light in their eyes.

Their movements instantly became faster and more coordinated, and the ferocity of their attacks increased several times over!

At the same time, the Third Kazekage puppet beneath Sasori slowly raised its hand.

Black iron sand began gathering like a living creature.

“Be careful! It’s the Third Kazekage’s Magnet Release: Iron Sand!”

Minato loudly warned his teammates below while rapidly forming seals.

“Magnet Release: Iron Sand Rain!”

Countless fine iron sand needles covered the entire battlefield like torrential rain.

They were fast, highly penetrating, and carried magnetic interference, greatly restricting the ANBU members’ movement and use of ninja tools.

“Flying Thunder God!”

Minato’s figure continuously flashed between several kunai he had placed beforehand.

He activated his technique and cleverly redirected or deflected most of the iron sand needles aimed at himself and his key teammates.

But his expression remained serious.

Flying Thunder God consumed a tremendous amount of chakra, while Sasori’s offensive had only just begun.

“Oh? A space time ninjutsu… truly worthy of its reputation.”

Sasori’s tone remained calm, but his attack pattern with the iron sand immediately changed.

The iron sand no longer attacked in scattered formations.

Instead, it condensed into huge prisms and spears.

It even imitated the shape of Minato’s kunai, striking with greater kinetic force and a wider range.

This forced Minato to use even more chakra for defense and redirection.

“This can’t continue!”

Minato’s thoughts raced.

His eyes locked onto Sasori himself and the Third Kazekage puppet.

‘I have to get close, destroy his control, or seal him!’

Minato moved his fingers slightly, and the kunai had already been switched.

The instant he threw it, golden light flashed.

Minato suddenly appeared behind Sasori, a Rasengan already condensed in his hand as he thrust it directly toward Sasori’s back.

However, Sasori seemed to have anticipated it.

The Third Kazekage puppet’s arm twisted backward at an unbelievable angle, and a dense wall of iron sand erupted from its palm.

At the same time, Sasori’s chest suddenly opened, revealing countless poisoned mechanism launch ports!

“Too naive, Yellow Flash. In my puppet theater, I am the rule.”

Minato’s pupils contracted.

He instantly activated Flying Thunder God and disappeared from where he stood, reappearing beside a kunai below.

The place where he had been standing was already buried beneath poison needles and iron sand.

“It’s not over yet!”

The moment Minato landed, he pressed both hands against the ground.

“Sealing Jutsu!”

Although he was not a member of the Uzumaki Clan, his extraordinary talent in sealing techniques and his exceptional chakra control allowed him to use several powerful seals.

Tadpole shaped characters formed from chakra burst out of the ground.

They wrapped around the Third Kazekage puppet and Sasori’s body like spirit snakes!

This was one of the few powerful sealing techniques he could use that was effective against puppet users.

Sasori clearly had not expected Minato to possess such a powerful sealing technique.

His control of the iron sand slowed for an instant.

A tadpole shaped seal had already wrapped around the arm of the Third Kazekage puppet!

“Interesting!”

For the first time, a trace of emotion flashed through Sasori’s eyes.

It was the excitement of encountering prey worthy of being “collected.”

“But it’s not enough!”

“Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!”

Following Sasori’s cold shout, dense mechanical sounds came from deep within the forest.

Hundreds of puppets with different forms but all wrapped in Natural Energy surged out like a tide!

Some specialized in close combat.

Some sprayed poisonous mist.

Some released ninjutsu.

Although each one was far weaker than the Third Kazekage puppet or the “dead” activated by Natural Energy, their numbers were enormous.

They were also all under Sasori’s control.

In an instant, they overwhelmed the remaining ANBU members!

The entire battlefield was completely plunged into chaos and despair.

The ANBU members not only had to evade the pursuit of the “dead,” but also had to withstand the attacks of hundreds of puppets, along with the occasional fatal Iron Sand attacks from the Third Kazekage puppet.

Minato stood at the center of the encirclement, his expression more solemn than ever.

The speed of Flying Thunder God was greatly restricted by the overwhelming numbers and attacks coming from every direction.

The sealing technique required an opportunity.

The destructive efficiency of the Rasengan against puppet cores was also insignificant when facing so many targets.

Even more troubling was that Minato could sense that Sasori’s body, the shell that looked like a young boy, also contained a Natural Energy fluctuation deep within its chakra core that originated from the same source as those “dead.”

‘He has probably transformed himself into some kind of higher level puppet that has fused with Natural Energy!’

“I have to find a weakness as quickly as possible, or… create an opportunity for my teammates to retreat!”

Minato took a deep breath, and a resolute look flashed through his eyes.

He raised his hands and formed seals.

Chakra surged around his body like boiling water.

It even stirred the distorted Natural Energy surrounding him that had been altered by Sasori.

“Oh? Are you finally going to use your trump card?”

Sasori looked at Minato with great interest, controlling the hundred puppets and iron sand as if he were enjoying the struggle of a trapped beast.

“Let me see whether the Yellow Flash of Konoha can illuminate my eternal theater!”

Golden light and a dark green tide were about to collide and create the final spark in this forest filled with death and Natural Energy.

Namikaze Minato pressed his hand against the ground.

“Summoning Jutsu!!”

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