Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

As the first rays of moonlight pierced the clouds, they simultaneously leaped toward the gentle slope.

The moment the humus collapsed beneath his feet, Naruto smelled a rusty odor even stronger than that of the battlefield.

As the dark purple canopy closed into a dome overhead, Sasuke threw out three shuriken to pin down the swaying vines.

Fluorescent moss oozes mucus from the tree trunk, and snakes that should be hibernating are coiling into chakra-conducting veins.

Naruto suddenly stopped Sasuke, who was about to form hand seals—thirty steps ahead, a dark figure in the mist was synchronizing with their breathing.

The shockwave from the summoned beast breaking through the fog blew up the entire layer of decaying leaves.

The canine creature, as tall as three people, had ice crystals clinging to every hair, and its eye sockets held not beastly pupils but two clusters of eerie blue flames.

Fragments of the Sand Village headband remained on its right forepaw, which had crushed rocks, and a chakra amplification device from the Land of Frost was embedded in the protrusion of its vertebrae.

It's a modified version of the salamander. Sasuke's Lightning Release gathers into a ball of lightning in his palm; notice the chakra resonator on its back!

Naruto had already taken to the air by stepping on the fallen giant cedar, and twenty shadow clones formed a staggered three-layered encirclement.

When the first clone was shattered into smoke by the beast's tail, the main body suddenly appeared at the lower jaw of the summoning beast, and the kunai infused with wind release pierced straight into the throat cartilage.

The moment the beast raised its head and roared, Sasuke's Chidori Spear precisely pierced the gap at the edge of the resonator.

Suddenly, a dark blue arc of electricity formed a spiderweb on the surface of the resonator, and the lightning that should have exploded was absorbed in the opposite direction by some force.

The scales on the summoning beast's chest suddenly billowed up, revealing the chakra crystals unique to the Frost Country's mineral veins.

As Naruto was thrown back, he glimpsed black threads flowing inside the crystal—just like the puppeteers' creations they had found along the way.

Change formation! Sasuke swung out his kusarigama wrapped with explosive tags, his Sharingan capturing the movement of the summoning beast's hind leg joints.

Naruto flipped over to dodge the ice spike breath, and his nine shadow clones simultaneously formed different hand seals.

The instant the summoning beast was overturned by Wind Release: Vacuum Wave, Sasuke's Lightning Release flowed along the kusarigama and into the lightest scales on its belly.

Suddenly, a vortex of chakra rose from the ground, and the resonator on the summoning beast's back emitted a grinding sound as if gears were jamming.

The eerie blue flames spread from the beast's eyes to its entire body, while the absorbed lightning energy mixed with some kind of cold energy surged within its body.

As Naruto retreated, he crushed half of a puppet arm, which clearly bore the insignia of the Sand Village puppet army.

The resonator was pushing its lifespan to the limit. Sasuke's cuffs were torn open by the reversed chakra, looking for an opportunity to destroy the crystallized hub on his chest.

Naruto wiped the blood from his eyes and suddenly remembered the bandits who had been shattered by the Rasengan three hours earlier.

As the thirteenth shadow clone vanished under the beast's claws, the main body suddenly channeled Wind Release chakra into the puppet remains beneath its feet.

The spinning metal fragments formed a makeshift shield, giving him a brief moment to form complex hand seals.

As the roar of the summoning beast shook the snow off the treetops, Sasuke's Sharingan finally detected the pulsating frequency of the crystal nexus.

Using the recoil from his lightning-style dash, he leaped onto the beast's back, the Kusanagi sword sparking orange-red against the surface of the resonator.

The eerie blue flames suddenly shrank to the size of a pinhead, and the mist from the entire forest began to gather towards the beast's mouth.

Naruto's Rasengan swelled to an incredible size in his palm, surrounded by metal fragments peeled off from the puppet's remains, along with chakra.

As the cracking sound of a mineral vein bursting emanated from the summoned beast's chest, he saw Sasuke's sword tip already touching the pulsating, azure core.

Black threads suddenly burst from the beast's right eye, like a puppet being pulled by a puppeteer.

Inside the crystal nexus that was about to be shattered, half of a face wearing a Sand Village headband emerged—it was clearly the face of Yura, a Sand Village Jonin who had already died in battle.

When Sasuke's sword was only three inches away from the Azure Core, the summoning beast's spine suddenly emitted a clicking sound like misaligned gears.

The beast twisted its neck in an illogical manner, and its right claw, carrying shards of ice, swept across.

Sasuke's Sharingan detected the signs of muscle contraction, but his body couldn't keep up with the speed of his pupils' warnings. A dull pain, like iron hooks tearing through flesh, came from his shoulder blade.

Sasuke! The moment Naruto saw the blood droplets splattered on the fluorescent moss on the tree trunk, the Rasengan in his palm suddenly doubled in size.

Five shadow clones leaped forward, stepping on the fallen giant cedars, while the main body flung its blood-stained headband at the summoned beast's left eye, and wind-style chakra formed a visible vortex at its toes.

Chapter 361 Standoff

The chakra crystal on the summoning beast's chest suddenly glowed, and Naruto's shadow clones were pierced by ice spikes one after another.

The main body forced its way through the dense barrage of ice crystals, and seventeen slits were cut into the sleeve of its right arm.

As the kunai, imbued with Wind Release, pierced the beast's forepaw, he heard Sasuke's suppressed groan as he fell to the ground.

"Don't come any closer!" Sasuke clutched his shoulder wound and retreated, blood seeping through his fingers into the lingering arcs of lightning.

The three tomoe of the Sharingan spun wildly, yet they couldn't penetrate the black threads writhing inside the summoning beast's chest.

Naruto used the Substitution Jutsu to dodge the ice spikes three times in a row, and only realized his palms were covered in cold sweat when his back hit a piece of rotten wood lying across the ground.

The crystallized hub on the beast's chest was vibrating at a high frequency, and the indigo chakra fluid unique to the Land of Frost seeped out of the crack in the resonator that Sasuke had pierced.

He suddenly noticed the puppet remains three meters away—the joints of the arm of the half-broken Sand Village emblem still had undiminished chakra conduction lines wrapped around it.

Cover me for ten seconds! Naruto ripped the transmission wires and wrapped them around the kunai handle, while the shadow clones roared and pounced into the summoning beast's blind spot.

Sasuke's Chidori spear grazed past his ear, precisely piercing the beast's nostril and triggering a furious head-shaking motion.

The instant the summoning beast shattered the seventh shadow clone with its right claw, Naruto swung to its chest, pulling on the transmission wire.

The black threads on the surface of the crystallization hub suddenly burst forth, but were eroded in reverse by the Sand Hidden Puppet Technique the instant they came into contact with the conduction lines.

The beast let out a mournful howl that sounded like metal scraping, and a chaotic flow of indigo and black chakra burst forth from the gaps in its chest scales.

Sasuke's Kusanagi sword pierced Naruto's crystal core, grazing the back of his neck, and lightning release flowed along the sword into the area where the black threads were most concentrated.

As the summoning beast's spinal device exploded, shattering gear fragments, and the two were thrown back by the shockwave, Naruto caught a glimpse of the Sand Village face deep within the crystal, revealing a strange smile.

Thirty degrees to the southwest! Sasuke's roar made Naruto instinctively roll away, and the spot where he was standing was blasted into a half-meter deep crater by the ice spikes.

The summoned beast's right eye was completely covered by black threads, its broken spine was forcibly glued back together by chakra fluid, and every step it took left footprints of spreading frost flowers on the ground.

Naruto leaned against a broken tree, panting heavily; the number of his shadow clones had fallen below the safe limit.

He reached into his ninja tool pouch at his lower back and found the last three smoke bombs. Suddenly, he noticed Sasuke dragging his injured leg toward the beast's flank.

"Are you crazy?" Naruto threw out a smoke bomb and instantly appeared in front of Sasuke, grabbing him by the collar and rolling him into a hollow at the base of a tree.

The summoned beast's breath froze the smoke into ice shards that fell in a flurry, with the nearest ice spike less than half a foot above their heads.

Sasuke broke free of his grip, the Kusanagi sword sparking as it scraped the ground: Don't look at me with those eyes that protect the weak. The wound on his shoulder reopened from the violent movement, blood dripping onto the blade and evaporating into white steam carrying the smell of rust.

Naruto punched the tree trunk next to Sasuke's ear, sending bark fragments fluttering between the two: the face of a Sand Village Jonin was embedded in the trunk of that thing!

Do you want to become the second puppet?

The standoff was interrupted by the loud crash of the summoned beast shattering rocks.

The crystal hub on the beast's chest was riddled with cracks, but the black threads were repairing the damage at an even faster pace.

Sasuke suddenly pushed Naruto away, his Lightning Release carving out scorched furrows in the ground, barely deflecting the trajectory of the summoned beast's bite.

Naruto spat out the sand from his mouth and shouted at the red pine tree in the northeast corner, "The roots are rotten!" Suddenly, his shadow clones all formed the same hand seals, and the wind-release air currents swept up the puppet remains on the ground and smashed them into the faces of the summoned beasts.

Sasuke's Sharingan instantly understood the intention, and he gathered Lightning Release chakra in his toes and kicked towards the base of the tree trunk.

The impact force generated by the two ninja techniques caused the twenty-meter-tall red pine tree to crack with a teeth-grinding sound.

The moment the summoning beast was lured into the shade of the tree canopy by Naruto's shadow clone, the giant tree crashed down with snow and ice shards.

The cracking sound of the wood fibers splitting lasted for a full five seconds.

Naruto, supporting himself on his knees, coughed violently and saw that the summoning beast's hindquarters were pinned down by a tree trunk, while its front paws were still frantically digging at the frozen ground.

The beast's chest emanated a muffled rumble as the mineral vein continued to crumble, and black threads, like maggots, poured out from the cracks in the crystal.

Sasuke planted his Kusanagi sword into the ground to stabilize his swaying body, and the bloodstains on his shoulder congealed into a hard shell on his sleeve.

The two stared at each other from ten steps apart, the struggle of the spirit beast causing the pebbles beneath their feet to bounce.

Moonlight pierced through the newly gathered mist, illuminating the increasingly intense, ghostly blue flame in the beast's eyes.

Chapter 362 Chakra Crystal Core

The moonlight shattered into silver sand in the mist, and cold sweat trickled down Naruto's neck and into the straps of his ninja tool pouch.

The frozen clods kicked up by the spirit beast's front paws flew past his ear and smashed into the rock wall behind him, leaving spiderweb-like cracks.

He could hear Sasuke's rapid breathing, mixed with the crisp sound of the Kusanagi sword colliding with the pebbles, like a broken shamisen.

Left forelimb joint! Sasuke's Sharingan drew a blood-red arc in the mist.

Naruto flipped over to dodge the sweeping beast tail, and three shuriken precisely pierced the positions indicated by his opponent.

Sparks flew from the joints covered in crystalline scales, the summoned beast let out a metallic, twisting roar, and tar-like slime seeped from its wounds.

The Nine-Tails' chakra surged within the seal, and Naruto felt as if a red-hot kunai was being stuffed into his stomach.

The horrific scene from the Land of Waves three months ago suddenly flashed before my eyes—the out-of-control Tailed Beast Cloak had scorched half of Sakura's hair, and civilians wrapped in bandages were convulsing in their sleep in the medical team's tent.

He bit down hard on the leather edge of his headband, the salty, fishy taste filling his mouth.

Sasuke's Lightning Release carved scorched furrows into the ground, but only left shallow marks on the summoned beast's breastplate.

The boy staggered backward, the blood clots that had formed on his sleeve falling off in a flurry.

Naruto noticed that the little finger of his left hand, which was forming a hand seal, was unnaturally curled up; it was the bone that had been severed by the Fuma Shuriken when he chased the Sound Ninja last month.

The summoned beast suddenly stood upright, and the crystalline layer on its abdomen rippled strangely in the moonlight.

Naruto's pupils contracted sharply—those black threads, writhing like living things, were now converging along the gaps in the crystal clusters towards his heart.

The scroll fragments I had seen in the Sunagakure archives seven days ago flashed through my mind, and the words "chakra crystal core" circled by Granny Chiyo with a vermilion pen suddenly became clear.

"Third crystal cluster in the abdomen!" Naruto roared as he threw out the last two smoke bombs, and his shadow clone leaped into the air, stepping on the raised right claw of the summoning beast.

The corrosive liquid spewed from the beast's mouth grazed the hem of the clone's clothes, turning the cedar tree behind him, which would take ten people to encircle, into charcoal.

The main body swooped down under the cover of smoke, and the wind-style chakra wrapped around the kunai handle vibrated like a buzzing bee.

Sasuke's lightning spear pierced the summoned beast's left eye at the crucial moment, and the eerie blue flames rolled back along the blade pattern of the Kusanagi sword.

The moment the beast tilted its head back in pain, Naruto pressed his entire weight onto the end of the kunai.

The sound of the wind-style technique tearing through the crystalline layer was just like the sound of ice cracking when Kakashi taught them how to fish on the ice that winter.

The black threads gushed forth like a burst dam, only to turn to ash the moment they touched the air.

Naruto was thrown back by the recoil and slammed heavily against the cliff, his mouth tasting of rust.

He saw the eerie blue flames within the spirit beast's chest cavity dimming at a visible speed, and the once indestructible crystal clusters were peeling away into sand in the morning light.

Sasuke's Kusanagi sword was still stuck in the summoning beast's eye socket, and the residual lightning from his lightning release danced between his fingers.

The boy's blood-stained lips curled into a barely perceptible smile, and the three tomoe in his Sharingan spun faster than ever before.

In the distance came the long cry of a snow owl cutting through the mist, and the first rays of dawn pierced through the clouds, illuminating the unfamiliar emblems shimmering among the crystalline fragments scattered on the ground.

A bloody gash appeared on Sasuke's right hand, and lightning chakra condensed into a dazzling ball of light in his palm.

His bones creaked under the strain as he stared at the newly formed crystal clusters on the summoned beast's breastplate, his molars nearly grinding to powder.

Chapter 363 Sealing Technique of Sunagakure

As Naruto propped himself up with a kunai, he saw beads of blood seeping from the boy's sleeve and trickling down his fingertips.

stop!

"Your chakra meridians will—" Naruto's words were cut off by Sasuke's cold laugh.

The tomoe in the Sharingan spun wildly, reflecting the summoning beast's forepaws as it gathered power.

The shockwave from the beast's claws striking the ground sent rubble flying within a five-meter radius, and Sasuke's left leg armor cracked into three pieces in the blast.

Mind your own business! Sasuke planted the Kusanagi sword upside down in the ground to steady himself, and the ball of lightning suddenly expanded to the size of a washbasin.

Naruto smelled the burning flesh; it was the smell of Chidori Stream chakra burning the skin.

Three months ago in the Forest of Death, the blood and foam that Sasuke coughed up after forcibly activating Kirin were still vivid in my mind.

The black threads on the belly of the spirit beast suddenly burst forth, condensing into seven sharp spikes that shot towards the two of them.

As Naruto threw out his last two shuriken, he saw spiderweb-like cracks appear on the surface of Sasuke's lightning ball.

The boy's knees slammed heavily into the frozen ground, but he stubbornly aimed his nearly out-of-control ninjutsu at the crystalline gap in the summoning beast's jaw.