Chapter 162 The Power of Time

"Maki, the Third Kazekage was killed by Sasori. Are you angry?"

"Angry!"

"Are you furious?"

"Furious!"

"Then charge in with me!"

"Not going!"

Maki had once been a personal guard to the Kazekage and was acutely aware of his own strength. Charging in now would be pure suicide. If he stayed alive, he might manage to bring the news back to Sunagakure, at the very least ensuring the Third did not die in obscurity.

"Whether you want to go or not, you are going!"

Driven by a battle cry that could "boost morale," even if the Sage of Six Paths were standing opposite him, Pakku would bravely charge forward and lift his left hind leg to pee.

With a roar overflowing with courage, "Ura!!!" the trio of Shiramaki, Pakura, and Maki charged fearlessly toward the Third Kazekage.

"Earth Release: Rock-Stealing Sword!" Pakura pulled two longswords from the sealing earth and tossed one to Maki.

This was an extremely practical ninjutsu. Much like the Mud Wall, most ninja learned it to prevent being reduced to empty-handed combat if their weapons were damaged.

Although a single rock sword might have little effect against the Third Kazekage, much like a leash around a dog's neck, having something tangible to grip always provided an immense surge of courage.

"Shadow Clone Technique! Number One, Number Two, Number Seven, Gaea!" Shiramaki once again summoned three silly phantom clones.

"No matter how brave a lion cub is, facing a formidable hunter makes it nothing more than prey sent to its death." A supremely arrogant smirk hung on Sasori's lips; the power of the Third Kazekage made him wildly conceited.

"What? Lion cub? Where is there a lion cub?" Shiramaki Number Seven acted like a lecherous old man whose eyes were blinded by feminine charms, always managing to find yellow jokes in any sentence.

"Experience the baptism of the rain curtain—Magnet Release: Iron Sand Drizzle!" Under Sasori's control, the Third Kazekage spread the wings upon his back, summoning a wave-like surge of iron sand out of thin air to form dense, fine needles that fired rapidly toward the group, the sound of breaking air resembling a storm.

"You still want to charge?!" Faced with the overwhelming downpour of needles, Maki's previously overflowing morale deflated even faster than a thirty-five-year-old balding man.

It was not out of cowardice, but because he knew this technique was not just lethal to human bodies; even an Earth Wall would be instantly pulverized.

"Sigh... Time is the enemy of all things, whether it's hair or bananas." Shiramaki put on a weary act, as if about to light a cigarette.

"If you have a way, use it already, you bastard!" Pakura roared, watching the iron sand rain draw ever closer as terror amplified within her.

"Fufuu, Water Release." Shiramaki said calmly.

"Do you want me to spray water? I can do it, Master~" Fufuu covered her skirt with a blushing face, almost shattering Shiramaki's cool facade.

"Water Release: Evil Spring Gush!"

A massive torrent of water erupted from Fufuu's mouth, crashing into the iron sand raincloud...

Yet aside from dampening the iron sand, absolutely nothing happened.

"This is your brilliant idea?" Pakura's eyes widened in disbelief, deeply suspecting Shiramaki wanted to kill her off for the sake of his daughter's sexual orientation.

"Let time fly for a bit longer..."

"Time Distortion!"

Just as the rain of iron sand was about to fall upon them, Shiramaki opened his arms and closed his eyes, as if calmly accepting the fate of being pierced into a sieve.

His three shadow clones simultaneously hurled the Z-Drives in their hands, tracing three pale-green, silk-like trajectories through the air. Though they were replicas, they consumed the main body's Sands of Time all the same.

Wherever the green light swept, the black iron sand seemed to age years in an instant, shifting instantly from a deep black to a rusted yellowish-brown, and finally transforming into powerless iron gray that drifted down in wisps, covering Shiramaki from head to toe.

"This..." Pakura reached out and wiped a thick layer of ash from her cheek, gently rubbing her fingers together...

Iron gray... It was actually iron gray?

The power of time... actually turned iron into iron gray in an instant...

What level of power was this?

If she angered him... would she instantly turn into an old hag?

"Dad! Use it sparingly! Don't waste the Sands of Time for your own personal happiness, I still want to go out and play!" Karin roared. She knew how much Sands of Time accelerated time consumption required.

"I only used a tiny bit!" Shiramaki showed the Z-Drive hourglass to Karin; it had truly only dropped by about a fifth.

"Nani? Could it be that I've been using it wrong all this time?" Karin was dumbfounded.

"It's water. I added water, so it accelerated the rusting of the iron. Didn't you have chemistry classes in the future?" Shiramaki said disdainfully.

"Ah哈哈哈... As expected of Dad." Karin rubbed her head awkwardly.

"How is this possible... How is this possible..." Sasori stared stupidly at his hands, his expression matching that of a supreme martial arts master who had practiced esoteric internal skills in the deep mountains for seventy years, only to be mowed down by an AK upon stepping outside.

"The power of time is far beyond yours. Surrender, Sasori, you are surrounded by time." Shiramaki advised.

"Impossible! My ultimate puppet art can never lose! Take this!!!" Sasori actually abandoned the Third's signature iron sand, switching instead to modified puppet skills.

"Puppet Technique: Thousand Arms!"

Countless arms erupted from the sleeves of the Third Kazekage. While lacking the majestic grandeur of Hashirama Senju's Thousand-Armed Kannon, it surged forward like a roaring river.

The crisp, rattling sounds of collision indicated their material was not iron, but rather something resembling bamboo. Using the method of time-rusting probably wouldn't work here.

"You must have a way, right?" Maki looked at Shiramaki, placing all his hopes in him.

"If I make any demands right now, you'll agree to them, won't you?" Shiramaki glanced sideways at Maki.

"Of course!"

"Go wear a maid outfit and cheer for me from behind." Shiramaki took the opportunity to extort him.

"..." Maki was completely speechless.

"Time Interweaving."

After setting three Z-Drives, they were thrown one by one into the attack trajectory of the Thousand Arms mechanism.

Hum, hum, hum... Three translucent barriers erupted from the Z-Drives. Within the pale green space, everything seemed to press the slow-motion button, becoming exceedingly sluggish.

Shiramaki gently flicked the iron gray off his clothes and walked leisurely into the time barrier, strolling as casually as if he were holding his girlfriend's hand by the West Lake.

His three shadow clones acted like the most dedicated bodyguards, carving a path through the incoming Thousand Arms mechanism ahead.

It was like plunging into the Shura realm; countless hands twisted slowly around him, attempting to grab his body and tear him to pieces.

Yet it was not enough—far from it. No matter how much chakra Sasori channeled, the arms were always a step too slow, brushing past Shiramaki's lapels time and time again as if everything had been calculated down to the millimeter.

Reaching the Third Kazekage meant reaching the boundary of the barrier. Beyond this point, time resumed normally—and it would be the end of Shiramaki's life.

"Come out! Once you come out, it's your execution day!" Sasori had prepared thousands of hidden weapons, aiming directly at the exit. The moment Shiramaki dared to step out...

Shiramaki truly took that step, utterly fearless.

"Die die die die die!!!" Sasori laughed with a wildly distorted face, his hands dancing like someone with a seizure.

Boom, boom, boom! The three time barriers exploded simultaneously, and time returned to normal.

Countless hidden mechanisms and weapons erupted from the Thousand Arms, shooting toward Shiramaki from behind, dense enough to pierce the entire hide of an elephant. No matter how he dodged, escape was impossible.

A scornful smile crossed the corner of Shiramaki's mouth, and his entire body was instantly erased from that spot, vanishing cleanly as if he had never existed, as miraculous as space ninjutsu.

Swish, swish, swish, swish! The thousands of kunai that should have struck Shiramaki rained down entirely upon the body of the Third Kazekage instead!

Sasori had miscalculated—or perhaps because his greatest masterpiece, the Third Kazekage, had been defeated too quickly, his mindset had fractured. In his desperation to kill Shiramaki, he had made a fatal blunder.

Even when he realized it in time and immediately tried to use Magnet Release to deflect the hidden weapons, it was too late. The sheer volume and momentum were too great; after blocking only the majority, he was instantly perforated by hundreds of kunai like a sieve.

"Look, the moment I dodged, he became the unlucky one." Leaping out from the marvelous temporal rift, Shiramaki felt that the god-like perspective of peeking at the world from the fourth dimension was simply fantastic.

However, without the guidance of the Time Drive, jumping blindly into the space-time rift meant one might never return.

"So cool! So cool! Just a few minutes and he defeated a Kage! It's practically a legend! Look at our contestant Sasori's expression, it's just like a rabbit whose backside was used by a grizzly bear!" Tobi shrieked excitedly.

Sasori stood frozen in place, his chakra threads hanging limply to the ground, his face utterly blank as he continued to murmur, "Impossible, impossible..."

"Nothing is impossible, silly child. The times have changed." Shiramaki slowly walked up to Sasori and extended a wicked hand, attempting to steal the crab-meat core from his chest while he remained sunk in depression. (???)?

"Hahahaha..."

Sasori suddenly clutched his forehead and burst into wild laughter.

Shiramaki paused slightly.

"Hahahaha..."

"For the first time... for the first time... I have never seen such a power that I desired so badly..."

Sasori's voice trembled with excitement, his eyes filled with undisguised craving!

"Please... absolutely..."

Sasori grabbed Shiramaki's arms tightly.

"Hand your wonderful body over to me..."

"Are you an idiot?! Let go! My future wife will misunderstand if she hears this!"