Analyzing the Ninja World Starting from Konoha

"[Partial Multiplication Technique]!"

Akimichi Choji gave a low shout.

His arm suddenly swelled up, transforming into a giant hand, like a wall of flesh, which slammed down on the group of puppets.

Aburame Shiki then clasped her hands together, shouting, "[Secret Technique: Insect Jade]!"

Countless black parasitic insects swarmed out from his sleeves, forming a twisted black storm that instantly enveloped several puppets. The swarm gnawed at the chakra threads connecting the puppets' joints, making a teeth-grinding "crunching" sound.

"Bang! Bang!"

The hit puppet soldiers fell apart in pieces, and the remaining ones were also sluggish due to the interference of the swarm.

The blond-haired boy seized the opportunity to jump out of the encirclement and looked at the three people who had suddenly appeared with a look of surprise.

He scratched his head, curiously examining the strangely shaped puppets: "Strange, why have these guys become so troublesome?"

"These puppets have been enhanced by the chakra of the dragon vein, so they cannot be judged by common sense."

Minato's voice came from behind the boy. He didn't remove his mask, but instead revealed his headband, proving his identity: "We are also Konoha ninjas."

For some reason, looking at the boisterous blond boy in front of him, Minato felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if he had seen him somewhere before, but he had no idea where.

He stepped forward, checked the boy's injuries, and found that his thigh had been cut. He took out a bandage from his ninja tool bag and wrapped it around the boy's thigh. "This is Loulan. We are on a mission. You are alright now. Get out of here as soon as possible."

"Loulan?"

The blond-haired boy, who would become Naruto in the future, looked utterly bewildered. "Uncle, who are you? Why are you here? What happened here?"

A barrage of questions made Minato smile slightly, but he still shook his head: "Now is not the time to explain, we have more important things to do."

Then Minato and the other two used Instantaneous Movement to leave.

……

Inside an empty room in the city.

Minato and his two companions were hiding in the shadows.

Something's not right here.

Aburame frowned slightly. "My bugs tell me that the 'people' around here are all fake."

"I noticed that too."

Choza Akimichi's expression was grave. "The people walking on the street don't even look human."

Just then, a wisp of red sand drifted in through the broken window and coalesced on the ground into the shape of green leaves.

【Sand Instantaneous Movement】

"How is it?"

Minato immediately asked.

"The situation is worse than expected."

Without wasting any words, Aoba said directly, "The Queen is dead."

"What?!"

The three of them were startled at the same time.

Aoba then revealed all the information he had gathered.

"Six years ago, a man named An Lushan came here. He bewitched the then-queen, Sara's mother, and used the power of the Dragon Vein to build this underground city and countless puppets. When the queen discovered his ambition to conquer the ninja world with a puppet army, she tried to shut down the Dragon Vein, but he killed her. Now, he is using Princess Sara to maintain a false peace, with the aim of completely controlling the Dragon Vein."

"As for the people we see on the streets..."

Aoba paused for a moment, then said, "They were all puppets in costume. The real people were basically captured by An Lushan and taken to the underground factories to be made into puppets."

"What about Sara?"

Minato pressed for an answer.

"She is still alive, but under close surveillance."

Qingye recalled the information she had just read: "An Lushan still needs to use her bloodline to stabilize the energy of the dragon vein, so he will not kill her for the time being. But once the puppet army is completed, she will no longer be of any use."

Minato, Choza, and Shimi's expressions instantly turned serious.

What was originally thought to be a mission to protect dignitaries turned out to be a much larger conspiracy, as the person entrusted with the task had disappeared.

Minato took a deep breath, his eyes instantly filled with murderous intent.

This is no longer a simple A-level mission.

This is the prelude to war.

"Task changed!"

"Besides protecting Princess Sara, we must stop An Lushan from using the Dragon Vein to develop his puppet army. If he succeeds, the Land of Fire and even the entire ninja world will be threatened."

As soon as the words were spoken, a melodious chime rang out from the city center. Immediately afterwards, a large "crowd" suddenly appeared on the once quiet streets. They were dressed in festive attire and gathered towards the central tower.

"Today is the Queen's coronation celebration."

Aoba nodded. "Yes, the new queen is Sarah."

Minato acted decisively, immediately rearranging tactics: "In that case, let's split up. Aoba, your Sand Formation has the best mobility; go find An Lushan's puppet control room. It's riddled with chakra channels; there must be a core hub there. Destroy that, and the puppet threat will be halved!"

He turned to Ding Zuo and Zhiwei: "The three of us will go to the celebration site and find Sarah. Since she can control the dragon veins, we need to control her and find a way to shut them down to stop An Lushan's conspiracy."

"clear!"

Aoba answered crisply.

He activated his chakra again, and the sand beneath his feet surged, condensing into a floating sand cushion that lifted him slowly into the air, flying towards the direction where the chakra channels were most concentrated.

Following the chakra channels that spread throughout the city like a spider web, Aoba quickly located a heavily guarded tower.

He could clearly sense that the source of all chakra channels converged here.

Aoba didn't land on the buildings. The area was covered with chakra threads, and landing on them would trigger the guard mechanisms. This is why Naruto was chased by puppet guards as soon as he entered the city.

He controlled the sandbag to move closer to the outer wall, gently placed his palm on it, and activated his chakra perception.

This is Aoba's improved version of Earth Release: Perception Technique 2.0.

Using the earth as a medium, the range increases, but if the other party can fly, it will not be detected.

Soon, the entire phantom of the tower appeared in Aoba's mind, filled with dense chakra nodes, and each passage was guarded by puppet mechanisms.

There was no human presence, but there was a giant chakra puppet, which was most likely Centipede.

In the original anime, Centipede transformed himself into a puppet; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to control so many puppets at the same time.

Just as Aoba was thinking about how to lure An Lushan out, the tower's doors opened by themselves, and a fat man dressed in magnificent minister's robes walked out.

Aoba's gaze sharpened slightly, and the chip's scanning function was activated instantly.

[Target exhibits abnormal chakra response and extremely low biosignals, classifying it as a non-living entity... Structural analysis... identifies it as a highly anthropomorphic puppet.]

really.

Aoba knew in his heart that this guy was indeed Centipede.

After the fat minister walked away, Aoba quietly slipped into the control room.

The scene in the room surprised him as well.

At the center was a huge, specially made seat made of an unknown metal, with countless thick chakra channels connecting to the seat from all directions.

This thing is made to look like a throne; you can tell at a glance that it has the ambition of a centipede.

However, as Aoba turned his head, his heart raced; there was a side room next to him.

There was a workbench in the side room, filled with various puppet parts and tools, as well as piles of blueprints and documents everywhere.

……