Hiding in the sand, splitting into many places, starting with Arkham

"You're right, but this is already his limit. Of course, he also wants to defeat Konoha and free the village from the desert's wind and sand."

"Then who is to blame for the deaths in the village?"

Although not explicitly stated, Kiyomizu knew that Sasori's implication was to ask who was to blame for the deaths of his parents.

Logically speaking, this matter was not something a mere genin like him should know.

Elder Chiyo had also been concealing the truth about Sasori's parents' deaths from him, only telling the young Sasori that his parents had gone to a very distant place and would not return for a long time.

However, as he grew older, these matters could no longer be hidden from the naturally precocious Sasori.

Kiyomizu was silent for a while, carefully considering his words to avoid saying something he shouldn't, and finally squeezed out a correct but meaningless statement.

"Whoever killed the people is to blame. If Konoha killed them, then blame Konoha."

"But the one who started the war was the Third Kazekage. If he hadn't started the war, people wouldn't have died."

Why is this kid so stubborn!?

"No, it still would have happened, and even more people would have died."

Sasori tilted his head.

"Because we are very poor. The village is not wealthy. It is surrounded by vast deserts. In the entire Land of Wind, deserts and Gobi deserts account for more than 70% of the area, and more than 85% of the land is uncultivable. Yet, most of the resources and wealth are taken by the daimyo and those nobles to maintain their extravagant lives, even reducing the village's funding for this purpose."

"Our Sunagakure Village's annual funding is the least among the five major countries. Without funding, the village cannot develop, and may even regress. While other villages are developing, our village is regressing. In the end, the village will become a small ninja village that anyone can bully, leading to the village's destruction. And the Land of Wind, having lost its village, will also perish."

"At that time, many people will die in the Land of Wind, so many that it will be ten times more than everyone you've seen in your life. Therefore, to avoid this situation, the Third Kazekage can only lead us to fight and seize more resources and better land to support more people."

It is very difficult to explain the relationship between war and productivity to a child, especially one who has received a semi-literate ninja-style education. Kiyomizu could only try to explain it from an angle that a ninja could understand.

As ninjas, they only need to learn two things: kill and complete missions.

After thinking for a few seconds, Sasori decided to put these things aside and get back to the main topic.

"Let's talk about those things later. Today, I want to compete with you. That puppet you made that puts people inside the body is a bit special, different from the mainstream puppets in the village. I want to test its power."

Kiyomizu looked deeply into Sasori's eyes and said earnestly:

"Okay, after the fight, I hope you can think about what I said. If you have any questions, you can come to me."

To avoid being turned into a puppet in the future, Kiyomizu felt it was necessary to guide Sasori's thinking.

At least he had to teach him to think in a more normal way, so as not to let these geniuses who have no one to teach and think they are very smart come up with some messy ways to solve problems.

The two walked out of the room and came to the puppet troop training ground, releasing their respective puppets.

Kiyomizu used his hands to eject chakra threads to connect the fat puppet to cover himself, and manipulated it with his right hand. The chakra threads from his left hand drilled out through the gaps in the glove part of the fat puppet and connected to the little boy.

Using chakra threads to manipulate puppets does not completely affect one's own body posture.

The thirty-five-year-old Sasori can simultaneously manipulate hundreds of puppets with the chakra threads released from just one piece of flesh.

The key to manipulating puppets lies in the manipulation of chakra threads.

Of course, the gestures of fingers and arms can also improve the chakra threads' manipulation of the puppet, which can maximize the combat power of a single puppet.

Naturally, Kiyomizu can't do what Sasori did in his prime. Normal puppeteers only use their fingers to fire chakra threads to manipulate puppets.

He doesn't need to be so complicated either. He only needs to use the Hiden Technique's two-minded technique when controlling the fat puppet to fight, and manipulate the little boy with the fingers hidden under the puppet's gloves.

That is, using five chakra threads from one hand to manipulate the little boy, and five chakra threads from the other hand to manipulate the fat man, and coordinating the various parts of the body.

Sasori also connected chakra threads to Black Ant and Salamander, using one hand to manipulate Salamander to protect the main body, and the other hand to manipulate Black Ant to launch an attack.

No mistakes, one hand first, one inside, one capacity, one at a glance!

"Black Secret Technique: Hand Manipulating Dance."

Still the same move he used when performing the mission before, Black Ant's six arms were instantly extended. Not only was the length much longer than White Ant's, but the tips and the adjacent two sections of the tubes were made of metal, looking like six foldable spears.

"Black Secret Technique: Rapid Performance Method."

The little boy also revealed his mechanical claws and rotating saw blades and began to fight fiercely with Black Ant.

The former's speed was obviously above Black Ant's, but the latter had more claws and more other mechanisms.

The two fought inextricably, evenly matched, and soon changed the rhythm—cutting off the opponent's chakra threads to affect the other party's control of the puppet.

Kiyomizu raised his eyebrows and glanced at Sasori in surprise.

"Black Ant, Salamander… In the future, there should also be a Crow, and with Sasori's ability, he will also modify and upgrade the puppets."

In the future, Kankuro used Black Ant and Crow during the Chunin Exams, and after becoming a Jonin in Shippuden, he added Salamander.

Being used all the way to Jonin level shows that Black Ant and Salamander were upgraded to Jonin level in the future, and it also shows that the foundation of these two puppets is quite good.

At least, in Kiyomizu's judgment, Black Ant should also be ranked in the B-level puppet category.

Both use the Black Secret Technique. Although Kiyomizu's puppetry has improved a lot compared to the past, there is still some distance compared to Sasori.