The masters who are able to be promoted to the rank of Jonin must not be weak in combat wisdom. Even when Konoha, their ally, was in trouble, they did not ask the Sand Ninja for help. This abnormal situation means that either Mizuki is a fool, or there is a greater danger in the Sand Village.

"But, logically speaking, we are the main attraction, so why are there no enemies attacking us?" Kurotsuchi was very confused about the current situation. "If the Sand Village is trying to capture the tailed beasts, that makes sense. But why is Konoha being targeted? Are they also being targeted with something very valuable? How come we know nothing about this?"

Not to mention that it was not mentioned in the intelligence exchange before the joint operation, after the contact over the past few days, nothing worth coveting was found on the Konoha side. After spending so much effort, not only is the possibility of success not high, but the gains are completely disproportionate to the efforts. This is really strange.

"We don't need to speculate on this. That's Konoha's business. Besides, it's normal for Konoha to have more secrets than other villages. There were countless ninja families, big and small, so it's not surprising that some valuable things were passed down. Just look at the fighting posture of the current Mizuki Jonin. They are things that are rarely seen outside. Apart from the fact that it seems difficult to activate and consumes a lot of chakra, I haven't found any trouble for the time being."

"Well, since we're going there, are we going to support Konoha?"

"We just need to provide appropriate support and protect Deidara. Besides, I don't think they will be in trouble for too long. A puppeteer alone, no matter how powerful, will always have a fragile body. As long as the body is found, there is no need to worry." Then, Akagi thought for a moment and carefully instructed, "We will go over to help, just as a favor. A little show of goodwill is enough."

…

The saying that a bystander sees more clearly is actually quite reasonable. Sure enough, Shuimu found the crux of the problem after a while.

"What a misconception, what a misconception. How could I be so stupid that I would ignore the brain that controls the power after I have the power..."

It is undeniable that Mizuki's Sage Mode has great hidden dangers. Although Mizuki himself has created the Sage Mode, not to mention the natural energy and the long-term hidden dangers in the future, the troubles in the short term are already obvious - the alien energy in the body is too troublesome, and it is also indispensable. The tailed beast chakra is the basis for one's own perception of natural energy. It can be reduced, but it cannot be absent. This process from nothing to something brings much more trouble than the increase or decrease of the tailed beast chakra in the body. The energy consumed is not ordinary.

The other is a collective will spirit body with jellyfish as the main body, which is a bigger problem than the tailed beast chakra. Not only does it take a lot of energy to maintain the balance of spiritual energy, physical energy and natural energy, but it also has to endure the erosion of the body by the alien spirit body. The previous version of the soul gathering array has been tried on Moonlight Gale, and the pressure on the spirit is very great. Even though Shuimu has made considerable adjustments to the one he uses on himself now, the principle has not changed much, and the problems that should arise will still exist. Shuimu does not want to mess up his spiritual world because of using the Sage Mode. This kind of control that needs to be used but rejected and guarded against once made Shuimu very troubled. If it had not been for a long time of training, it would have been difficult to do.

In this situation, Mizuki, who was distracted too much, was at a loss when faced with unfavorable situations. This was also related to his lack of concentration. He overcame some hidden dangers of other Sage Modes and was extremely skilled in controlling natural energy. He didn't even need summoning beasts to cooperate with him in casting spells like Jiraiya and Uzumaki Naruto in the original work. He could also quickly perform ninjutsu in battle. This was a big advantage. However, due to the problem of the method of activating the Sage Mode, some problems that should not have occurred occurred.

All along, Shuimu was unable to fight head-on when facing strong enemies, because he was not strong enough to fight on equal terms. He could only avoid the strong and attack the weak, even at the cost of both sides being injured. Success after success made Shuimu develop the habit of going straight to the enemy's weak points in every battle.

However, when the Red Sand Scorpion avoided fighting with him this time and hid its true form, Shuimu still wanted to find its true form and give it a fatal blow, but he ignored the fact that Shuimu, who had used the Sage Mode, was no longer as strong as before. With his greatly improved strength, he could completely launch a frontal attack on the Red Sand Scorpion's strongest point.

"My strongest point is also my biggest weakness. Once it is broken, my absolute advantage in strength will not be easily overcome by the enemy..."

It is true that the body of the Red Sand Scorpion can be hidden and not found, but without the full combat power, the Red Sand Scorpion is now at a low point. It is okay for ordinary puppets, but they are not very effective against Mizuki. Even Yamashiro Aoba can deal with them with two Genin. From the current battle situation, it can be seen that except for a pile of puppet fragments on the ground, they can't cause much damage to the four people of Konoha.

In this situation, without the powerful human puppets controlled by Baiji, only the Sandaime Kazekage's Iron Sand Jutsu can cause absolute harm to Mizuki.

While Mizuki was struggling with the puppets, the occasional Iron Sand Knot Attack and Iron Sand Scatter Attack made Mizuki flustered for a while. However, this also made Mizuki suddenly realize that there was no need for him to be so cautious as before. He didn't need to be timid and calculate anymore. If he could just break the human puppet of the Third Kazekage, then Mizuki would not need to be afraid of the Red Sand Scorpion whose strength would be greatly reduced.

"You can hide your real body so that I can't find it, but you can't hide the puppet of the Third Kazekage who attacked me, right? There must not be so many ninjas in this world who can use the Sand Iron Technique for you to be a substitute for the puppet of the Third Kazekage, right?"

Just as Shuimu thought, the human puppet that knew the art of iron sand was indeed difficult to hide, and Shuimu found its location soon.

Now that the target has been found, Mizuki no longer hesitates and orders Yamashiro Aoba, Aburame Shino and Hyuga Neji to continue searching for the real body of the Red Sand Scorpion, and then rushes directly forward to take down the human puppet of the Sandaime Kazekage.

"See if you can come out or not. Do you want to risk exposing your true self to help the human puppet?"

Judging from Scorpion's attitude in the original work, he has abandoned his human heart and instead has an extraordinary love for puppets, especially the human puppets of the Sandaime Kazekage, for whom he seems to have different feelings.

Since he already had the upper hand over the situation, it would be foolish to look for the hidden main body. If he could just destroy all the powerful puppets of the Red Sand Scorpion, then the Scorpion would not be so scary. No matter how talented a puppeteer is, without the help of puppets, he would be useless, even if he was the most powerful puppeteer in history.

With Mizuki's state in the Sage Mode, his speed and strength have been greatly improved. Even if his physical skills are not good, the speed of his advance is not something that ordinary people can react to. In the blink of an eye, Mizuki appeared in front of the puppet of the Third Kazekage with a chakra shield of the Sage Technique. Without any tricks, he clenched his right hand wrapped in Sage Technique Chakra and swung a heavy punch. The momentum he brought seemed to break the puppet of the Third Kazekage. At this critical moment, the convenience of the Sand Iron Technique was revealed. A steel barrier formed by a layer of sand iron began to block the attack route of Mizuki's right fist. Although the defense between the warehouse and the rent could not completely block Mizuki's attack, it at least provided time for the Red Sand Scorpion to react.

Under Scorpion's control, the puppet of the Third Kazekage quickly flew back, narrowly avoiding the shocking punch. However, this situation was also within Mizuki's expectations. The Third Kazekage was good at Sand Iron Technique. For Mizuki, Sand Iron Knot Attack was a powerful and hard-hitting method that Mizuki needed to be cautious of. However, like Sand Iron Time Rain, it was quite useful against opponents of a lower level, and it was also a very useful means of dealing with sieges. However, in front of Mizuki's chakra shield, it really wouldn't have much chance.

Mizuki was not afraid of this, but of Scorpion's poison and his reckless attack and delay in the dark. This kind of attack method similar to chasing others' weapons, if it were someone else, Mizuki would definitely not do this, but it is still quite effective against the puppeteer. Without the body of Scorpion under the control of the Hundred Machines, Mizuki is confident that he can fight the Red Sand Scorpion again with the help of Yamashiro Aoba and two Genin even if he does not use the Sage Mode. Of course, the premise is to eliminate the troublesome Sand Iron Technique.

Under such unfavorable circumstances, Scorpion did not lose his composure. The mechanism on the right hand of the Third Kazekage's human puppet began to activate, and a combination of knives consisting of several large swords was extended. Its excellent attack range and extremely fast attack speed prevented Shuimu from attacking recklessly at close range. The left hand also changed rapidly, and the talisman hidden in the arm began to activate, and the sealed mechanism began to appear in front of everyone. After the arm was extended, a large number of wooden arms appeared out of thin air, and the sharp parts of the arms and the blades of the knives attached to them flashed with a faint blue luster, which was obviously highly poisonous.

These wooden arms expanded rapidly, as if to block out all light in front of Shuimu's eyes, and attacked him in an overwhelming manner.

"How can this thing possibly be useful to me? You are going to use the poisonous mist hidden inside, right? How can I possibly let you do what you want?"

"Fire Style - Great Dragon Fire Technique." Shuimu quickly formed seals, and saw several huge fire dragons quickly formed, and then rushed towards the oncoming wooden arm. Under the blessing of the natural energy controlled by the Sage Mode, the fire dragons quickly expanded, and the color of the flames changed from red to orange, then to white, and finally to light blue. The feeling of the eyes became brighter and brighter, and finally turned into a dazzling bright blue-white fire dragon, and instantly engulfed the wooden arm.

Looking at the Sage Mode version of this powerful B-rank ninjutsu, Mizuki was quite satisfied with its power. Normally, to achieve such a powerful Fire Style, Nature Change could also be achieved, but the attack range would not be so large. The cumulative effect of the large flames formed by Fire Style was definitely not comparable to the few small fireballs that Mizuki usually pushed out through Nature Change.

"A simple B-level ninjutsu, with the addition of natural energy, has such a terrifying power. Then how powerful is Jiraiya's S-level senjutsu - Goemon? And how strong is Pein? It's really frightening."

However, just when the Thousand Hands Martial Arts of the Sandaime Kazekage's human puppet was powerfully defeated by Mizuki's Fire Style, Mizuki discovered something unusual inside.

"not good……"

The arm in the flames was quickly burned, but gradually a series of explosions were heard, which was definitely not the effect that could be caused by Mizuki Ninjutsu.

Shuimu realized that something was wrong and quickly retreated. Then in Shuimu's sight, with the sound of an explosion, a large cloud of purple-black poisonous fog quickly spread around along the air waves caused by the burning flames, and in a blink of an eye, it enveloped a large area.

"Since the Thousand Hands martial arts had no effect, you just detonated the poison fog mechanism and used the power of Fire Escape to quickly spread the poison fog? That was a close call..."

However, this method was just an attempt by the Scorpion to recycle waste. After all, under such a powerful ninjutsu attack, nothing could be saved. It might as well explode at the end, maybe it could have some effect. And the poisonous fog was quickly burned and deteriorated in the flames, and then quickly disappeared. Only a small amount of scattered light fog still existed sporadically, but soon, it would no longer cause any harm to the surroundings.

When everything was settled, the poisonous fog dissipated, and the flames gradually died down, the miserable figure of the Third-generation Wind Shadow Puppet appeared not far away, with many parts of its body burned black. If it happened again, it would probably be completely scrapped.

"It seems that this is the way of fighting of the strong. When I was still laughing at Shimura Danzo for being like a rat in the gutter who only knew how to scheme and plot, it turns out that I have also fallen into the thinking of the weak and cannot extricate myself. Intelligence, tactics and strategies are indeed important, but a strong will and the courage to face challenges are what are most needed."

Just when Shuimu was preparing to press on with his victory, suddenly, a few parasitic insects flew by and brought some unexpected news.

"Your true form has been discovered?" Shuimu chuckled. "At this time, are you unable to bear being exposed, or are you deliberately exposing yourself to lure me? You underestimated me too much. You came here in a hurry to grab the treasure without preparing yourself. This is really inconsistent with your calm and resolute puppet will. If you don't have other means today, you will probably die here, okay?"

Honestly, Red Sand Scorpion has many methods, but when facing a master, there are only three that really work: Hundred Machine Maneuvers, Sand Iron Technique, and Poison. The poison tactic is too accidental, and the Hundred Machine Maneuvers are directly scrapped. Mizuki is the type who is not afraid of Sand Iron Technique, but the Hundred Machine Maneuvers hurt Mizuki more. Mizuki's Sage Mode, which has gone off the track, just makes up for some shortcomings and provides Mizuki with the physical foundation to face Sand Iron Technique head-on.