Using the cover of the steam and mist, the two of them slammed into each other like wild beasts.
BOOM!
The giant metal fist of the human puppet collided head-on with Akira's own.
A terrifying shockwave exploded outward. The ground suffered all over again, splitting open in a jagged gash like the aftermath of a major earthquake.
From where they stood, Chiyo and Sakura couldn't see clearly through the thick mist at all. All they could hear were the screeching sounds of twisting metal and the deep, brutal thuds of pure physical blows landing one after another.
Every now and then, boulders several meters across were blasted flying out of the fog.
The scene was downright horrifying.
Then, as the lingering heat began to fade and the mist slowly thinned, everyone finally got a clear look at the battlefield.
What they saw was the most primitive kind of violence imaginable.
The two sides were beating each other down in a pure taijutsu slugfest.
The so-called indestructible human puppet was already covered in cracks, obviously no longer able to withstand Akira's monstrous strength.
He might not have trained in Tsunade's Strength of a Hundred jutsu, but Akira's physical body was basically a human tyrannosaur. In raw force alone, he was even more terrifying than a fully unleashed Tsunade.
At that moment, Sasori felt waves crashing through his mind.
Itachi Uchiha really hadn't lied to him.
Akira was a monster.
He couldn't win in close combat.
He couldn't win in ninjutsu either, because everything he used was being countered cleanly.
How was he supposed to fight this?
Other than genjutsu, which he was terrible at anyway, Sasori felt like he was out of options.
After all the major jutsus he had thrown out so far, around twenty percent of his chakra reserves were already gone.
He still had eighty percent left, which sounded like a lot.
But Sasori knew perfectly well that even if he spent all of it, he still probably wouldn't be able to put this freak down.
Grinding his teeth, Sasori decided to gamble everything on one final move.
His hands flashed through seals again.
Iron Sand: World Order!
If I can't kill you, then I'll bury you alive in it.
As his palms came together, endless fine grains of black iron sand rose like a giant maw and swallowed Akira whole in an instant.
These iron-sand particles were incredibly fine, invasive enough to force their way into any gap. Once someone was trapped inside, escaping was nearly impossible.
After wrapping Akira into a massive iron cocoon, the human puppet didn't stop moving. Its hands formed another set of seals.
Fire Style: Scorching Flame!
The blazing fire did not shoot directly at Akira.
Instead, every bit of it was concentrated onto the giant iron-sand sphere surrounding him.
Iron conducted heat extremely well, and the internal temperature of the sand sphere began to skyrocket at a terrifying pace.
And Sasori still wasn't done.
To push the temperature even higher, he added one more jutsu.
Wind Style: Violent Storm!
Wind fed the flames, and the already savage fire turned into a true furnace of hell.
The black iron-sand sphere rapidly glowed red-hot, like a miniature sun on the verge of bursting apart.
Inside the sphere, Akira naturally felt the temperature climbing at a brutal rate.
And yet his expression didn't change at all.
Instead, another strange current of lightning burst from his body.
This time it wasn't shaping itself into a defensive net.
Instead, it became a series of agile lightning serpents that coiled and moved around him.
Outside, Sakura stared at the red-hot sphere, and her heart felt like it was being torn apart.
The fear she felt now surpassed even what she had felt when Sasuke left.
She stared at that burning iron shell so hard her nails bit into her palms, praying over and over that Akira would come through this unharmed.
Only when she saw the flickering lightning shining through the iron sphere did a thread of hope return to her eyes.
That man had already made the impossible happen so many times.
He could do it again.
Inside the sphere, a powerful and unusual magnetic field suddenly formed around Akira.
The lightning serpents seemed almost alive as they swam joyfully through it.
And then something incredible happened.
No matter how red-hot the outer shell became, the temperature around Akira himself began to drop rapidly.
That was the power of science.
Magnetic cooling.
After roasting the sphere for two full minutes, Sasori judged that the person inside had to be ash by now.
Even the iron sand was on the verge of melting into liquid metal. There was no way a human body could possibly survive temperatures like that.
So he released the fire and wind jutsus, preparing to inspect the result.
And in the next instant, the fused mass of iron suddenly burst apart.
When the dust cleared, Akira stood there completely unharmed, lightning serpents circling him, his gaze so calm it was unsettling.
Sasori's pupils shook violently. His jaw actually fell open.
How was that possible?
At that temperature, one that could melt steel, he had come out untouched?
At a thought from Akira, the lightning serpents around him burst outward in all directions.
The sudden release of energy shattered the hardened iron mass around him into powder.
Akira brushed some dust off himself and spoke in a tone so casual it sounded like he was reviewing a meal.
"That one had some imagination. Against someone else, it probably would've worked."
The line didn't do much physical damage to Sasori.
Emotionally, it was devastating.
He stared at Akira, completely unable to accept what he was seeing.
"What are you? Why won't even fire kill you?"
Akira shook his head.
"You know nothing about me. A jutsu on that level is basically just a sauna."
Seeing Akira come out unharmed, Sakura's eyes immediately filled with tears. She was so overwhelmed she nearly ran forward and threw her arms around him.
Akira didn't waste another word.
His entire body turned into a streak of lightning, instantly appearing before the battered remains of the human puppet.
"So that's it? You're out of moves?"
By now Sasori was truly at the end of the line. His methods were exhausted, and mentally he was on the verge of collapse.
When Sasori said nothing, Akira let out a disappointed sigh.
"Looks like your performance is over."
"I was hoping you'd still have one surprise left for me. Still, getting this far is already enough that you can take pride in it."