Chapter 161: First Battle Against Ice Release

Chapter 161: Chapter 161: First Battle Against Ice Release

Watching Sasori and the Ice Release human puppet glide rapidly along the ice track, Hyuga Kagami’s expression darkened.

He stopped in his tracks, then leapt onto a large tree.

Sasori immediately came to a stop as well and smiled.

"If I kill you here, I doubt anyone will ever find out."

Sasori hadn’t taken Pain’s order to capture Kagami alive seriously in the slightest. That was because he simply didn’t believe that the so-called Kamigami Kagami had spoken of possessed the power to threaten the Akatsuki.

As far as he was concerned, rather than going through all the trouble of capturing Kagami alive, it would be much simpler to kill him outright and turn his corpse into a human puppet.

Beneath Kawa’s mask, Hyuga Kagami slowly activated his Byakugan.

After confirming that none of the other Akatsuki members had followed them, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief while rapidly considering his options.

But Sasori gave him no chance to catch his breath.

He immediately raised both hands, chakra threads extending from his fingers, and shouted softly,

"Ice Style: Thousand Flying Ice Needles!"

In an instant, the Ice Release human puppet clasped its hands together.

Under the influence of its Ice Release chakra, the moisture in the air gradually condensed, transforming into countless ice senbon that gleamed with a chilling light.

They hovered silently in midair—

all of them aimed directly at Hyuga Kagami.

Hyuga Kagami’s expression immediately stiffened.

With the insight afforded by his Byakugan, it took him only an instant to determine that the ice senbon suspended in the air had sealed off every possible escape route, forcing him into a deadly situation.

"Tch. Looks like I won’t be getting away after all!"

He had originally thought that after provoking infighting within the Akatsuki, he would be able to slip away without much trouble. He hadn’t expected Sasori’s mobility to increase so dramatically after acquiring an Ice Release human puppet.

"I still underestimated these Akatsuki guys."

After inwardly lamenting his miscalculation, Hyuga Kagami composed himself and focused all his attention on dealing with Sasori.

Sasori said coldly, "You still haven’t lost your will to fight? Unfortunately for you, the one you ran into is me!"

With that, Sasori abruptly swept his hand forward.

The countless ice senbon suspended in midair shot toward Hyuga Kagami atop the tree all at once, accompanied by a chorus of sharp, whistling sounds.

"Water Style: Water Flow Wave!"

Almost at the exact moment Sasori made his move, Hyuga Kagami completed his hand seals.

A thin, elongated blade of water shot from his mouth, slicing through the large tree beside him. He then spun around and kicked the severed half of the trunk straight toward Sasori.

At the same time, he tucked his body in and concealed himself behind the massive piece of trunk hurtling toward Sasori.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Countless ice senbon slammed into the tree trunk, blasting wood chips in every direction!

But Hyuga Kagami, hiding behind the trunk, didn’t escape unscathed either.

In a single instant, dozens of ice senbon pierced his body—

blood spraying everywhere!

However, the tiny ice senbon weren’t powerful enough to stop the tree trunk hurtling toward Sasori.

Boom!

With a thunderous crash, the tree trunk slammed heavily into the spot where Sasori had just been standing.

Hyuga Kagami, who had been hiding behind the trunk, stomped down hard on it. Using the resulting recoil, he launched himself into the air and closed in on Sasori, who was retreating through the air.

At that moment, a mocking smile appeared on Sasori’s face. With a light wave of his hands connected to the chakra threads, he said,

"Ice Style: Ice-Binding Coffin!"

The Ice Release human puppet under his control immediately pointed a finger at Hyuga Kagami as he charged toward Sasori.

In an instant, a stream of water wrapped around Kagami’s right arm and froze solid, transforming into frigid ice that radiated an intense chill!

Yet Hyuga Kagami didn’t even turn his head.

Without so much as looking at his trapped arm, he swung the kunai in his hand and severed his own right arm, which had been bound by the Ice Style technique.

Then, without breaking his momentum, he lunged straight at Sasori!

Hyuga Kagami’s movements were simply too fast.

It was almost as though he had already decided to sacrifice his right arm before Sasori had even made his move.

Before Sasori could react, Kagami was already in front of him, and the kunai in his hand successfully plunged into Sasori’s chest!

Sasori barely managed to deflect the attack somewhat with taijutsu before kicking Hyuga Kagami viciously. Using the recoil from the kick, he once again flew backward.

Even as the two separated in midair, neither remained idle.

Hyuga Kagami bit his finger and formed a hand seal with one hand before shouting with difficulty,

"Summoning Technique!"

Poof!

After a burst of white smoke, a massive, powerfully built wild boar appeared in the forest.

The one-armed Hyuga Kagami landed steadily on the boar’s back and shouted,

"Run!"

The wild boar, which still had a striped tiger dangling from its mouth, froze for a moment.

Clearly, having been summoned for the first time, it still wasn’t quite used to the experience. But after receiving Hyuga Kagami’s command, it immediately kicked its hooves into motion and took off at a mad sprint.

Meanwhile, Sasori looked down at the kunai embedded in his chest—and at the long string of explosive tags attached behind it, already giving off a sharp hissssss.

Without the slightest hesitation, he unfurled a scroll.

Poof!

Amid a burst of white smoke appeared a puppet resembling a scorpion, complete with a long mechanical tail.

It was none other than the defensive puppet Sasori had personally created—

Hiruko.

The instant he landed, Sasori rolled to the side and slipped inside Hiruko.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Almost at the exact moment Sasori concealed himself within Hiruko, the explosive tags he had torn away began detonating against the puppet’s exterior.

Only after quite some time did Sasori crawl out of Hiruko in a sorry state.

He glanced at the somewhat damaged Hiruko, his expression frighteningly dark.

There was no doubt about it.

Even a defensive puppet couldn’t completely withstand explosive tags detonating at such close range—especially when there had been more than just one.

Sasori then swept his gaze across the surroundings.

By now, Hyuga Kagami had long since disappeared without a trace. The only thing left behind on the battlefield was Kagami’s severed right arm, still encased in ice.

With a gloomy expression, Sasori walked over to the severed arm.

He controlled the Ice Release human puppet to release its Ice Style technique, then picked the arm up.

Just then, that familiar hissssss reached Sasori’s ears.

Almost instinctively, he hooked a finger under the sleeve of the severed arm and pulled it open—

only to discover that the inside of the sleeve was covered in explosive tags!

"This...!?"

......

Meanwhile, on Hyuga Kagami’s side.

Kagami lay weakly sprawled across the wild boar’s back. Only after resting for quite some time did he finally reach into his ninja tool pouch, pull out some bandages, and roughly treat the wound on his right shoulder.

Afterward, he propped himself up into a sitting position and glanced back, wanting to confirm whether the enemy had caught up.

Seeing that Sasori was nowhere behind them, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It was then that he noticed the wild boar was still carrying that dead tiger in its mouth.

He slapped the boar on the head.

"Eat, eat, eat! Food is all you ever think about! We’re running for our lives here! Can’t you at least drop that dead tiger first?!"

The wild boar let out a disgruntled grunt, seemingly complaining to Hyuga Kagami that it had gone through a great deal of trouble to catch this tiger in the first place.

Kagami knocked it on the head again.

"Drop it already! Staying alive comes first!"

The wild boar grunted a few more times.

Then it opened its mouth wide and, in a single gulp, swallowed the entire dead tiger it had been carrying.

With its belly now bulging, it continued lumbering forward in an unsteady run.

Hyuga Kagami was immediately rendered speechless.

"You damn pig! We’re on the verge of getting killed and you’re still thinking about food!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Suddenly, a series of explosions echoed from behind them.

Calculating the timing, Hyuga Kagami knew that the trap he had left behind had just been triggered.

This was one of the advantages of fighting with a clone body.

As long as he was ruthless enough toward himself, the range of tactics he could employ became incredibly broad, and they could be extremely deceptive as well.

Forget ordinary shinobi—

even a ninja of Sasori’s caliber could still fall for them...