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NBB Chapter 75: Fire, Thunder, and Puppets
🕑 Added 2025-06-18 03:11:40 +0000 UTCAs Amegakure and Iwagakure forces began to mobilize, battle had already erupted near the ruined temple on the border.
“Chidori!”
With his right hand crackling with lightning, Kakashi suddenly lunged toward Uchiha Itachi. But just as he was about to strike, Itachi tilted his body slightly and dodged with ease.
At the same moment, Itachi grabbed Kakashi’s arm—his Sharingan beginning to spin.
Genjutsu flared in an instant. But something felt off.
The Kakashi inside the illusion was already engulfed in flames—it wasn’t the real one!
[Bang—!]
Just to his side, the real Kakashi burst up from underground, thrusting Chidori toward him again!
“Your genjutsu... I'm afraid it doesn't work on me.”
As he spoke, the Kakashi clone shattered, and a surge of lightning surged across Itachi’s body.
“A lightning clone, huh?”
Itachi remained calm. The moment Kakashi’s attack connected, his own body dissolved into smoke—
A Shadow Clone.
“Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!”
Itachi reappeared off to the side, already weaving hand signs. A massive fireball surged toward Kakashi with a deafening roar.
[Boom—]
As the explosion echoed, Kakashi vanished from the spot. But Itachi immediately spun around—he had already sensed the real Kakashi closing in again!
“This is bad...”
Uchiha Itachi inwardly cursed. Kakashi’s tactical prowess had always been exceptional—now even more so, with that altered Sharingan of his and his constant wariness against genjutsu.
“And the worst part is… I already used Susano’o just now. My eyes…”
Though Kakashi was visibly weakened, Itachi wasn’t doing much better.
After getting caught up in Kitagawa Gen’s scheme, his condition had significantly deteriorated—but he had no choice now but to press forward.
...
“What exactly is your organization after?”
While Kakashi and Itachi were locked in a layered exchange of counters and clones, Jiraiya and Kisame were going at each other head-on.
Neither man lacked chakra—and neither was holding back.
“Sorry. I can’t tell you that.”
Kisame evaded another of Jiraiya’s strikes and let out a cold snort.
“I’m a shinobi. I don’t just go around revealing secrets. Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet!”
“Tch. Stubborn bastard.”
Jiraiya cursed under his breath, but inwardly he was on high alert. Even without a nearby water source, Kisame had conjured such a powerful Water Release technique—he couldn’t afford to underestimate him.
'That chakra reserve of his… And that blade—it absorbs chakra too. This guy’s more troublesome than most.'
Even as the thought crossed his mind, Jiraiya had already finished weaving his hand signs.
“Fire Release: Giant Flame Bullet!”
A roaring inferno surged forward to meet the rushing water dragon. As flame and water collided, a thick mist erupted across the battlefield. But Jiraiya didn’t hesitate.
Standing in place, he scanned left and right—and then, in a flash, formed another seal.
“Now! Wild Lion’s Mane Technique!”
At the same time, Kisame’s Samehada came swinging down from behind him—but Jiraiya’s hair instantly extended and whipped toward Kisame’s wrists and legs, attempting to bind him.
“Tch… Troublesome…”
Kisame cursed silently, immediately changing the direction of his blade to slice through the thick mane of hair.
He was getting seriously annoyed. Running into Konoha again and again—what rotten luck.
Kisame wasn’t the only one irritated. Sasori, by this point, was utterly frustrated.
He was supposed to have the advantage—but somehow, he was being completely countered.
“Fast, strong, uses Flying Thunder God, and has swordsmanship on par with a master… And worst of all, he’s immune to my poison.”
Hidden among the puppets of his Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets, Sasori’s mood couldn’t be worse.
He had prepared after receiving intel from Kakuzu—but this brat was far more troublesome than he’d expected.
This Lightning Release Chakra Mode… it looked bizarre, but the intense heat from it had actually dispersed and burned away his poison.
It reminded him unpleasantly of the time Konan came to recruit him.
That woman had relied on explosive tags to blast away his toxins, using the heat to ignite and neutralize the poison. This brat was employing a disturbingly similar method.
“Looks like you’ve run out of tricks.”
At that moment, Kitagawa Gen, cloaked in violet lightning, stared at the puppets swarming the sky and suddenly spoke.
“I admit your poison is impressive—but it doesn’t work on me. And your puppets… they can’t even keep up.”
“What a mouthy brat.”
Though clearly frustrated at being countered so thoroughly, Sasori still responded in a low voice.
“I did underestimate you. But how much longer can you keep this up?”
“I could leave whenever I want. I’m only here for intel anyway.”
Gen shook his head as he spoke, one hand reaching into his tool pouch.
“Besides, I think I’ve figured out what this mission is really about. You’re after Deidara, aren’t you?”
“…”
Sasori raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Gen didn’t seem to care and continued with a slight smile.
“No need to deny it. I’ve already run into Hoshigaki Kisame—and Hidan, too. So I have a rough idea.”
“I’m just curious… Aren’t you supposedly under contract with Iwagakure? Aren’t you worried about Ōnoki getting pissed off?”
Sasori fell even more silent. If they weren’t concerned, they wouldn’t be sneaking around like this. But what stunned him most was just how much this kid seemed to know.
“Well, not my problem. Whatever you’re up to, you can explain it to them yourselves.”
As he spoke, Gen suddenly smiled, and a scroll appeared in his hand.
“Friendly reminder—everyone that was meant to show up is already here. So I’ll be taking my leave now. But before I go…”
Just as the words left his lips, he tore the scroll open—dozens of kunai rained down from within.
“Flying Thunder God?”
Sasori’s expression tensed. He instantly went on alert. If he could dodge or deflect all of the kunai, then he wouldn’t need to worry. Meanwhile, he readied his poison—whether it worked or not, he wasn’t going down without a fight.
But just as the kunai scattered—
Gen raised one hand, chakra flashing briefly.
“Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!”
“What?!”
In the blink of an eye, dozens of kunai multiplied into hundreds—no, thousands. Sasori felt his breath catch.
All of them marked for Flying Thunder God?
Or just one? Which one?!
There was no time to think.
The violet lightning surrounding Gen flared—
and in an instant, he vanished.
[BOOM—]
[BOOM—]
[BOOM—]
His figure flickered like a ghost, striking in rapid succession. Each reappearance came with a resounding explosion.
And in the space of just a few heartbeats—
half of Sasori’s puppets were obliterated.
“Damn it!”
Sasori’s heart trembled. He had already ordered his puppets to intercept the kunai, but there were simply too many.
As he watched Gen’s figure flicker through the air, felt the roaring chakra, and witnessed his own puppets being shattered one after another—
—for the first time, Sasori truly understood what Ōnoki must have felt.
Namikaze Minato had once wiped out 50 Iwa-nin in the blink of an eye.
Now, Sasori was watching his carefully crafted puppets be obliterated just as easily—instantly and mercilessly.
“Is that you—Namikaze Minato?!”
Just as the last of his puppets was about to be destroyed, a sudden, furious roar echoed from the sky.
“What the…?”
The voice struck everyone like a thunderclap. All the combatants instinctively froze mid-battle, their expressions changing at once.
And then—
A column of pure white light came crashing down from the sky, slamming straight into Sasori’s position!
He was momentarily stunned.
That beam of light tore through his remaining puppets in an instant, piercing even the dense Iron Sand Wall he had just erected—as if it were made of paper.
“Shinra Tensei!”
At that moment, another figure appeared. With arms spread wide, a wave of immense energy erupted from his body.
[Vmmmm—]
The instant the two energies collided, the world was bathed in blinding white.
The explosive roar shook the heavens.
The earth cracked violently beneath them, and the surrounding mountains shuddered—rocks tumbling in all directions.
A heavy plume of smoke rose high into the sky.
From a distance, it looked like a mushroom cloud erupting over the battlefield.
Far away, on the edge of the combat zone, the figures of Gen, Jiraiya, and Kakashi emerged.
Jiraiya stood frozen, staring toward the origin of the blast—his eyes filled with disbelief.
“Impossible… That’s impossible…”
