Chapter 1020

The blade plunged viciously into Ma Ji's shoulder, and though Ma Ji was a veteran who had suffered many wounds in his time, he now felt a soul-rending agony, a sensation that shot straight to the crown of his head and made his eyes roll back as he passed out cold.

Scorpion's mood was excellent at the moment, especially since she had already prepared herself for a one-on-one fight against the Tailed Beast.

But after catching up to the fleeing Gaara and his two companions, the other side was completely out of sorts, their weakened appearance as if they had been completely drained dry.

"This is the level of a Tailed Beast? It's just a Chunin Exam, hmm, it seems I need to reassess certain things." Scorpion's eyes stayed fixed on Gaara, as if she hadn't noticed the alert Kankuro and Temari at all—in fact, there was no need for that at all.

As the creator of the puppets on Kankuro's body, and especially after careful observation finding that there were hardly any new modifications in the later stages, Scorpion was already unwilling to pay him any attention; after all, with these "failed products" she wouldn't even bother to mention, and would forget existed if she didn't see them, the height this puppet-master junior could reach as a weapon was just that much.

And Temari was ignored even more by her—she had just defeated Ma Ji, the most skilled Wind Release user among the Sand ninja, and moreover she had magnanimously spared his life to deliver a message to the Sand Village; this little girl who still needed her fan-type ninja tool to amplify her jutsu's effect posed no threat at all, and even if she stood still and let her attack, it wouldn't make the slightest difference.

"The Sickle Weasel should have reached the Sand Village by now, just hold on a little longer." Temari's fan in hand unfolded, and from the very start she had no intention of holding back.

After all, being able to wound Ma Ji and so many Sand ninja in such a short time, even if it was Gaara....

Shaking her head, Temari quickly drove the thought from her mind—if that monster were let out, regardless of whether the enemy was defeated, Kankuro would probably be the first to head to the Sanzu River.

For a moment, the mechanical sounds of the puppets operating and the whistling of gripped wind tightly surrounded Gaara's group of three, and Kankuro directly released the three puppets he was most proficient in using.

Because Gaara still looked half-dead, Kankuro didn't hesitate and directly controlled "Black Ant" to swallow Gaara into its belly, then used the most defensive Sawfish to unfold its shield and protect "Black Ant," while he himself controlled "Crow," which had the most attack methods, standing at the very front.

"Will it work?" Temari asked while directly biting her finger, smearing her fresh blood onto the fan's surface; the summoning jutsu written in special ink was instantly activated, and the Sickle Weasel messenger far away in the Sand Village was immediately summoned forth.

"Ah!" With a slight movement of her hand, the "Crow" that had been holding still instantly seemed to come alive, four hands popping out blades, spears, swords, and sickles—multiple weapons—each surface dark with a black gleam. It turned out that after the match ended, Kankuro had habitually coated every single blade with a poison whose formula only he knew. "Should be able to hold on, right? Until the Fourth or Granny Chiyo gets here!" The opposite side directly assumed an all-out defensive stance, seemingly wanting to desperately protect the useless Gaara, while Scorpion showed not the slightest tension, even more relaxed than when facing Ma Ji and the others earlier, not putting these two juniors in her eyes at all.

"I'll play with you for a bit, kindly reminding you not to make the same mistake as Ma Ji." Because she didn't want things to be too boring, Scorpion directly reminded them, "The so-called general weakness of puppet masters you learned from him is completely meaningless against me; I am an oddity who specializes in forbidden puppets, and the forbidden among the forbidden." A black substance flowed out from beneath her long robe, not water but some kind of fluid.

"Iron Sand"—even though the two sides hadn't yet clashed, but at this moment despair arose; as for what the trick they learned from Ma Ji for defeating a puppet master was.

It was to bypass the puppets and strike directly at the puppet master himself; and now the other side had produced a second answer.

An answer from long ago, because it could never be used again, it was forgotten by the Sand Village.

"We probably can't hold out that long," Kankuro drew the scroll from his waist, and then one by one, whether finished or half-finished, he unsealed them all without hesitation.

Because the Sickle Weasel was still weaving a powerful Wind Release jutsu on the fan's surface, Temari, who could only maintain a state of holding the iron fan motionless, naturally also saw the black stuff that was spreading; even though she didn't know what it was, she could hear the despair in Kankuro's tone. For a moment, the Sickle Weasel's speed became even faster—none of them would play by the rules.

Hyuga Hiashi had recently felt that something was off, but not only the Hyuga clan, the entire Konoha was gradually returning to the right track, the attitude of the people on the streets had once again returned to what it was like before the attack during the Chunin Exam, yet he just felt a certain unease.

"Is that so, Young Lady? You've been locking yourself in your room all this time, and even ordered them not to approach?"