Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 211 The Death of the Third Kazekage

On the other end of the phone, after hanging up, Aburame Shisei looked at the stone wall in front of him, which was covered with sealing techniques, and frowned slightly.

Because Kakuzu's phone call was so inexplicable.

First of all, it's about money. His payment was settled in one lump sum, so there was no outstanding balance.

"So, did problems still arise along the way?"

The main reason was that some conflicts developed too smoothly, so smoothly that he felt something was wrong.

He recalled the intelligence Kakuzu had brought back from Sunagakure: internal conflicts, factional struggles, financial crisis, missing ninjas...

All the clues pieced together pointed to a clear conclusion: the trigger for the Third Shinobi World War was in Sunagakure.

So he sent Kakuzu to help the poor, resolve conflicts, and stop the war.

Kakuzu did indeed succeed, conveniently saving the Kazekage and preserving this stabilizing factor. As long as the Kazekage lives, Sunagakure will not descend into chaos. And as long as Sunagakure remains stable, war will not break out there.

But this phone call made You Nuzhicheng realize that there was someone behind it all, and she was a little confused about who it was.

Aburame Shisei shook his head, banishing these thoughts from his mind.

The research on this spacetime sealing technique is in its final stage and will be completed in a little over a month.

Returning to the Snow Country to cultivate immortal insects and practice the second and third types of insect immortal techniques is the most urgent task at hand.

As for saving the ninja world and maintaining its peace, that was merely an experiment he was trying out.

I know that some things are ultimately just postponed and cannot be changed, such as conflicts between people and war.

He quickly calmed down and refocused his attention on the sealing techniques.

-

On the other side, the Third Kazekage walked alone on the road back to the village.

By this time, most of the toxins in his body had been eliminated, and his strength had almost fully recovered. The medicine Kakuzu gave him was indeed effective; that man who seemed obsessed with money turned out to be quite reliable in a crucial moment.

He was thinking about how to deal with this matter when he got back—Sasori's defection, the ninjas who died tragically, and how to face Granny Chiyo.

Just then, he stopped in his tracks, because a figure suddenly appeared on the sand dune in front of him.

Then, meeting a pair of blood-red eyes, in an instant, his heart was pierced, his body fell straight to the ground, and even the life force and blood in his body were firmly locked inside by the sealing technique.

"What a hassle. I never thought such a simple matter would require me to come and clean it up myself." The old man coughed lightly and said, "Since it was your prediction, you can take the body over there."

Before the words were finished, a black and white pitcher plant emerged from the sand, dragging the Third Kazekage's corpse underground.

At this point, the old man asked again, "Have you found out what happened to the White Zetsu that were lost before?"

"Of course, sir, that's why I started the war."

The body had already been taken away by White Zetsu, while Black Zetsu remained where he was and said, "I suspect that the one who captured White Zetsu was Shiraki, the strategist from Takigakure."

Actually, it wasn't difficult to discover this. Black Zetsu is best at stealth. As long as he acts alone, he can sense the strong White Zetsu information on the high-ranking members of the Three Kingdoms Alliance.

Black Zetsu isn't a fool like White Zetsu who would treat them as his own kind. So when White Zetsu was discovered, Black Zetsu was furious, but after the anger came fear—fear that his secret would be exposed and fear that his plan would fail.

Therefore, as the mastermind behind it all, he had to act ahead of time.

"Sir. These guys are probably plotting something behind the scenes. I underestimated them before. So, the more they try to stop us, the more we should do it. Besides, this is a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone: both provoke a war and throw the dirty water on their heads."

"A pointless game, a pointless struggle. Only once, and never again. Get busy with what truly matters. Go find me a proxy. My time is running out."

As soon as he finished speaking, the old man formed a hand seal, and his body quickly vanished into nothingness. It turned out that this body was just a shadow clone.

Sunagakure Village.

After a month of sleepless seclusion, Grandma Chiyo finally completed her most prized work.

It was a pair of puppets, a man and a woman, with lifelike faces and peaceful expressions, as if they were just sleeping.

Father and mother.

Her hands trembled as she calculated that, given enough vitality, the puppets could truly come to life—not as tools of war, but as real beings, as her son and daughter-in-law.

Just then, the door was suddenly kicked open.

"Elder Chiyo, something terrible has happened!"

Chiyo's hand trembled. She turned her head and saw a Jonin with an unprecedented look of panic on his face, saying, "The Third Kazekage... has disappeared!"

"Furthermore, according to those powerful ninjas, the last person to see the Kazekage was your grandson, Sasori of the Red Sand. Some people saw them leave the village together and head into the depths of the desert. But it's been many days now, and there's still no news."

Chiyo's face turned deathly pale instantly. She looked down at the pair of puppets that were about to be completed, then looked up at the anxious crowd outside the door, and suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.

Impossible, impossible.

Her grandson, a poor child who lost his parents at a young age and could only keep company with puppets—how could he possibly do such a thing?

Grandma Chiyo denied it again and again.

She almost succeeded. Why? Time, why didn't it wait for her a little longer?

-

At the meeting, Granny Chiyo cried out, "Impossible! I know my grandson's strength; he couldn't have done such a thing. It must be... it must be a ninja from another village! My poor grandson, he must have perished along with the Third Kazekage... Of course, it's also possible that they were just seriously injured and are currently somewhere in the desert. Search! Go find them immediately!"

Of course, the crying wasn't the point; the point was his exceptional strength. With his White Secret Technique, he released ten puppets and immediately gained the upper hand.

With her order, the search party from Sunagakure set off that very day.

More than half a month later, they found the remains of a large number of human puppets in a desert lair. The manufacturing method of those puppets was completely consistent with the style of Sasori of the Red Sand.

They also found traces of the Third Kazekage's blood, which, after examination by professionals, were confirmed to be his own. Furthermore, the blood contained residual toxins, proving that the Third Kazekage had been poisoned at the time.

All clues point to the same conclusion: Sasori of the Red Sand killed the Third Kazekage and then defected.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was extremely tense, almost oppressive.

At this moment, the representative of the pragmatist faction, suppressing his excitement, said, "The evidence is conclusive, Elder Chiyo, do you have anything else to say?"