Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

The surface of these gold dust stones revealed Chiyo's unique puppet runes, which forcefully suppressed the Nine-Tails' chakra back into the sealing space.

"Magnetic Release Sealing Technique?" Sasuke's Sharingan had evolved into its three-tomoe form. He could see the dark red blood beads mixed in with the gold dust. "A forbidden technique enhanced with the caster's blood..."

The puppet Tsunade's right arm suddenly exploded into a shower of wood chips, and twelve poison needles were launched from the hidden mechanism box inside.

Chapter 395 It Actually Exists

The puppet Tsunade's right arm suddenly exploded into a shower of wood chips, and twelve poison needles were launched from the hidden mechanism box inside.

The mysterious girl's sleeves suddenly rolled up to form a barrier, and a clicking sound, like the joints of a puppet turning, came from her body.

The poison needles struck the barrier, bursting forth with indigo flames that scorched the ground with charred spiral patterns.

"Don't ruin my new toy." A hoarse male voice came from the chest cavity of the puppet Tsunade, a voice that reminded Naruto of the Magnet Release ninja he had killed three days ago.

Suddenly, several cracks appeared in the floor, and the real Tsunade emerged from the underground chamber, the Yin Seal on her forehead emitting an ominous purple light.

"The old woman's chakra has been corrupted," Kurama warned from within the sealed space.

Naruto saw that the sand-gold chains wrapped around Tsunade were seeping into her skin, and the ends of those chains were connected to the direction of the Hokage Rock twenty meters away.

He suddenly realized that the entire village was covered by gold veins underground.

Tsunade's bloodshot eyes suddenly cleared, and as her powerful punch shattered the puppet platform, three sealing scrolls sprang out from the ruins.

The moment Naruto caught the scrolls, a sharp pain, like being sanded, shot through his palm—the surface of these scrolls was covered with fine gold dust particles.

“The Dragon Vein Seal... it really exists.” Tsunade’s voice seemed to come from deep water. Her fingers, covered in gold dust, drew blood on the scroll. “Three hours ago, Chiyo from Sunagakure sent a will via summoning beast, saying that the source of the Gold Dust Puppet Technique is a sealed ancient weapon.”

Sasuke's sword tip flicked the edge of the scroll, and his Sharingan caught the flowing chakra trajectory in the sealing diagram: "These three coordinates... are they the chakra springs of Konoha?"

“To be precise, it’s a dragon vein node.” Tsunade suddenly coughed up blood froth mixed with gold dust, her skin visibly losing its color. “The intelligence Chiyo obtained at the cost of her life indicates that the rogue ninja from Sunagakure are activating some kind of ancient seal. To stop the spread of the puppet plague, we must find three dragon vein keys before the full moon to restart the seal.”

Naruto's knuckles turned white as he gripped the scroll tightly, and the Nine-Tails' chakra uncontrollably leaked from under his fingernails.

He thought of the purple stains on the barbecue restaurant owner's apron, and of the children controlled by puppet strings. His throat ached as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper: "Where's the key?"

"Thunderstorm Canyon, Bone Burial Swamp, Molten Core Cave." With each place name Tsunade uttered, the temperature in the office dropped three degrees.

The sunlight outside the window was suddenly obscured by dark clouds, and a rumbling sound of the earth cracking came from the direction of the Fire Shadow Rock. "Each sealed location has a guardian puppet with a corresponding attribute; they are mechanical weapons left over from the Warring States period..."

Sasuke suddenly smashed the window with the hilt of his sword, and they saw the roof of the shopping street in the distance collapsing.

Five members of the Anbu were suspended in the air like marionettes, their chakra threads all converging towards the First Hokage statue atop the Hokage Rock.

The mysterious girl suddenly pressed down on Naruto's headband: "The gold dust is eroding Konoha's ley lines. It can only hold for three more days at most."

"I'm going to Thunderstorm Canyon!" Naruto ripped off his tattered headband, his azure eyes burning with crimson chakra. "That place is north of the Forest of Death. I'll use the Flying Thunder God Technique..."

"Idiot, loser." Sasuke's sword sliced ​​through the gold dust crystal on Naruto's sleeve. "Lightning Release mechanisms will prioritize attacking targets with the strongest chakra. If you bring Kurama there, you'll be a sitting duck."

The girl suddenly plunged a kunai into her left arm, but instead of blood, a silvery fluid flowed out.

These fluids condensed on the ground into miniature sand tables, clearly showing the energy fluctuations of the three sealed locations: "The most recent energy anomaly is in the southeast, where the guardian puppet of the Bone Burial Swamp has awakened ahead of schedule."

The three of them looked at the churning black silt in the sand table, where human face shapes kept emerging on the surface of the silt.

Naruto suddenly remembered that when Team 7 carried out their first C-rank mission, Kakashi-sensei had mentioned the legend of the Bone Burial Swamp—where millions of puppeteers from the Warring States period were buried.

When they reached the edge of the swamp at dusk, the stench of decay in the air had become so strong that it formed a visible gray fog.

Sasuke's Kusanagi sword suddenly unsheathed itself three inches, the blade reflecting hundreds of blood-red eyes from the depths of the swamp.

The mysterious girl's sleeves moved without wind, and a sound similar to a Buddhist bell emanated from the copper pendant at her waist.

"Wait!" Naruto suddenly grabbed the two of them by the back of their collars.

Nine-Tails chakra formed a crimson halo beneath his feet, and a ten-meter-high black wave suddenly rose from the previously calm swamp surface.

Rotten branches and human bones formed a giant skull face on the crest of the wave. The skull's teeth clashed together with a metallic clang, revealing countless poisoned puppet weapons.

A deafening roar echoed from the depths of the swamp, and Kurama suddenly let out a painful growl within the sealed space.

Naruto felt his chakra flowing backwards, and tiny gold dust particles seeped from the bulging fox whisker patterns.

As he knelt on one knee, he saw half a stone tablet emerge from the swamp mud, the inscription being rapidly rewritten by some force—the original character "封" (seal) was being twisted into the character "杀" (kill).

Sasuke's Sharingan suddenly shed tears of blood, and he saw that the flow of chakra above the swamp had all turned into a puppet string structure.

The mysterious girl's bronze pendant exploded into fragments, which formed a temporary barrier in the air, but were completely corroded by the black waves within three seconds.

Naruto struggled to his feet and discovered that his shadow clones were dissipating uncontrollably.

He looked toward the bronze gate that was faintly visible behind the black waves, and the indigo liquid seeping from the cracks of the gate was corroding the surrounding trees.

The Nine-Tails' warning overlapped with a roar from the depths of the swamp, vibrating in my eardrums: "This is not something a human should touch..."

The gray mist above the swamp suddenly condensed into a solid barrier, reflecting all the ninjutsu released by the three of them back.

As Naruto looked at the humus-like ground scorched by the Nine-Tails' chakra and instantly regenerating, the outline of a giant puppet slowly rising from the black waves was reflected in his pupils.

The densely packed Warring States period runes on the surfaces of those limbs, composed of human bones and swamp silt, gradually lit up as the moonlight shone through.

Sasuke's Kusanagi sword emitted an unprecedented mournful cry, its blade reflecting the hundreds of skeletal puppets awakening deep within the swamp.

The mysterious girl suddenly clutched her chest and staggered backward, her fingertips oozing an indigo liquid identical to that of the bronze gate.

Naruto stared at the ever-expanding puppet barrier before him, the bristling fox whisker lines on his face flickering in and out of focus.

The Flying Thunder God Kunai at his lower back was burning hot; this was the first time the Fourth Hokage's relic had reacted autonomously to danger.

When he heard a metallic grinding sound like gears meshing coming from the depths of the swamp, he discovered tiny particles of gold dust floating in the sweat on his palms.

Chapter 396: Looking for the key

The acidic fumes rising from the swamp burned Sasuke's eyes, causing them to turn red, and the three tomoe of his Sharingan spun wildly in the blood-red light.

He pressed his left hand against his right arm, which had been slashed by the wind-style attack. Blood dripped from the lightning of the Kusanagi sword onto the increasingly rapidly regenerating mud, where it was instantly swallowed up as wisps of smoke.

Multiple Shadow Clone Technique! The orange-red chakra that exploded around Naruto startled the flock of crows circling overhead, and the Rasengan formed by five hundred shadow clones simultaneously illuminated the swamp as bright as day.

The surface of the gray mist barrier rippled with water-like patterns. All attacks changed direction the moment they touched the barrier. As the overwhelming blue light spheres poured back, Sasuke's Chidori Spear barely pierced through three rebounding ninjutsu that were aimed at the girl.

"Don't use wide-range attacks!" Sasuke's roar was mixed with the smell of blood, and the purple light unique to sealing talismans shone through the scorched cloth on his back.

Naruto's main body was thrown against the bronze gate by the aftershock of his own Rasengan. Suddenly, the Flying Thunder God Kunai on his lower back burst out with dazzling golden light, tearing the Tailed Beast Outer Cloak, which was about to touch the indigo liquid seeping from the crack in the door, away by half an inch.

The girl knelt amidst the turbulent flow of chakra between the two, her silver hair ornaments stained with mud.

Her trembling fingertips hovered three inches from the barrier, and the indigo liquid climbed up her forearm along her wrist veins, solidifying in the moonlight into a vine relief that perfectly matched the surface of the bronze door.

When Naruto was bounced back to her side for the ninth time, the girl suddenly pressed down on his hand, which was filled with the chakra of the tailed beast: These runes... are crying.

Sasuke's sword tip flicked up the totem that had appeared on the girl's sleeve, and lightning illuminated the Sengoku script that flickered and changed color with the barrier: "The key is hidden in your blood." His Sharingan caught a glimpse of the six-tomoe mark that flashed across the back of the girl's neck, the gatekeeper's mark recorded in the ancient texts of the Uzumaki clan.

Naruto followed his gaze and saw Kurama issuing a deafening warning in his consciousness space, causing blood to seep from his eardrums.

The sound of gears in the depths of the swamp suddenly stopped, and the three hundred skeleton puppets turned their heads in unison to face the girl.

Naruto's Yang Release chakra surged uncontrollably toward the totem on the girl's wrist, and the golden light of the Flying Thunder God kunai collided with the indigo liquid, creating bronze-colored sparks.

Just before the puppet army attacked, Sasuke tore open the sealing scroll. The seventeen elemental shuriken from the summoned ninja tool library wove a defensive net, and the notes of metal colliding with bone surprisingly matched the ancient melody that flowed from the girl's lips.

Don't use chakra resonance! Naruto crushed the bone spurs that were aimed at the girl's back with his bare hands, and blood mixed with gold dust seeped from the burn wounds on the Tailed Beast Cloak.

The girl's mud-stained hem brushed against the ground where black datura flowers had sprouted again, and the blood-red pupils in the flower stamens that had opened closed one after another as she chanted.

When the first puppet's finger touched the tip of her flowing hair, the liquid overflowing from the crack in the bronze door suddenly flowed backward and rose into the air, condensing under the full moon into a six-pointed star array exactly like the one in the girl's eyes.

The Warring States period runes on the surface of the barrier began to peel off, and the indigo veins wrapped around the puppet's joints all turned toward the bronze door.

Sasuke's Kusanagi sword suddenly slipped from his hand and hovered three inches in front of the girl's brow. The sword no longer reflected the blood-red light of the Sharingan, but the twelve reincarnation patterns slowly opening from the depths of the door.

Naruto's Flying Thunder God Kunai, positioned on his lower back, finally broke free from the restriction set by the Fourth Hokage, but was gently stopped by the girl's bloodied fingertips just as it was about to pierce the crack in the barrier.

A rumble of chains breaking came from beneath the swampy mud. The vine relief on the girl's sleeve snaked up Naruto's arm, which was covered in fox fur, and burst into rust-green flames the moment it touched the seal on his heart.

Kurama's roar and the sighs coming from inside the door overlapped into a sound wave that shattered the moonlight. Suddenly, all the puppets adopted a posture of submission that had not been seen in a thousand years, and faced Naruto.

Naruto staggered to his feet, the Flying Thunder God kunai at his waist still humming.

The blue light shining from behind the bronze door illuminated his mud-stained headband, revealing the distorted space ahead—the stone chamber that should have existed had become an inverted forest of crystal clusters, with sharp spikes of purple minerals growing from above.

Chapter 397 Inner Demons Will Surely Manifest

These are... Sasuke's Sharingan suddenly contracted, and the three tomoe abruptly transformed into a six-pointed star pattern as he saw the chakra veins flowing within the crystal cluster.

He reached out to stop Naruto, who was about to rush forward, using crystallized natural energy.

The vine patterns on the mysterious girl's wrist suddenly became hot, and she staggered as she grabbed the crystal pillar that was stuck upside down in the ground beside her.

The moment the fingertip touched the surface of the ore, the entire forest suddenly erupted in a buzzing sound like a swarm of bees.

Hundreds of completely transparent lizards sprang from the tips of the crystal spikes, their translucent abdominal cavities revealing pulsating chakra cores.

Multiple Shadow Clone Techniques... Naruto was halfway through forming the hand seals when Sasuke grabbed his wrist, the numbing sensation of the Lightning Release chakra making him grimace.

Sasuke throws out three kunai with explosive tags attached: a physical attack!

These creatures can absorb ninjutsu!

An orange-red light suddenly shone through the smoke and dust of the explosion.

Naruto, his right arm wrapped in the Tailed Beast Cloak, smashed two leaping crystal lizards to pieces. The fragments vaporized into purple mist the instant they touched the Nine-Tails' chakra. "See that?" he smugly flicked his smoking arm. "As long as you shatter the core..."

The girl's exclamation interrupted his boasting.

The shattered remains of the crystal lizard reassembled in mid-air, splitting into more fist-sized individuals.

Sasuke's Kusanagi sword flashed with an arc of electricity, and the electric net formed by lightning release chakra temporarily kept the swarming creatures at bay: Don't let the fragments come into contact with the chakra!

As Naruto leaped backward, he stepped on a protruding crystal, and Kurama suddenly let out a low growl in his consciousness space.

As if struck by inspiration, he condensed the tailed beast's chakra into a spinning wheel of light. Wherever the orange-red light blade swept, the chakra core within the crystal lizard detached from its body like iron filings attracted by a magnet. Spiral Light Wheel! The newly developed ninjutsu tore open the purple mist, allowing the three to rush into the depths of the crystal cluster.

Sasuke caught a glimpse of the beads of sweat dripping from Naruto's hair, and his Sharingan clearly captured the subtle tremor in Naruto's fingertips.

This kind of technique, which requires precise control of chakra flow, is clearly not something that the brainless loser who can only create clones can easily master.

There! As they passed through the seventh spiral crystal pillar, Sasuke suddenly pressed down on the girl's trembling shoulder.

On an open ground a hundred meters away, a flower bud made of hexagonal crystals was slowly opening and closing, and the bronze fragments suspended in the flower's core resonated with the mark on the back of the girl's neck.

Naruto, however, stared at the wriggling shadow beneath the flower bud.

The sense of danger emanating from the Nine-Tails' chakra deepened the lines on his fox whiskers: something was wrong; the chakra flow of this thing was reversed. He pointed to the counter-rotating patterns on the crystal petals, just like the mirror trap that Kakashi-sensei had taught him.

The argument between the two was interrupted by a sudden change in the crystal cluster.

All the purple ores exploded simultaneously, and the flying fragments turned into specks of light and dissipated before hitting the ground.

A sealing array diagram from the Warring States period began to appear on the ground, and a three-meter-high phantom rose from the center of the array—it was a warrior illusion wearing armor, with a groove in its chest that was the same shape as a bronze key.

"Back off!" Sasuke's Chidori spear pierced the phantom's throat first, but the lightning disappeared without a trace.

Even more terrifying is that the absorbed chakra forms a materialized armor on the surface of the phantom, and the wind shuriken that Naruto threw also becomes nourishment for the opponent.

The girl suddenly pressed her burning wrist with the totem pattern, the vine patterns of which were dimming as the illusion intensified.

When she saw the six tomoe gradually taking shape on the phantom's chest, she finally remembered her grandfather's hoarse advice before his death—where there is a key, there will surely be a demon in one's heart.

When Naruto changed his attack position for the ninth time, he noticed that Sasuke's breathing had become erratic.

Blood and tears from overuse of the Sharingan slid down the boy's pale cheeks, burning tiny holes in the newly formed armor of the phantom.

The crystal bud that should have been storing the key was now emitting an eerie black light behind the phantom.

Chapter 398 Crystal cluster explosion

The aftershocks of the exploding crystal clusters still reverberated in the cave, and the ore debris that Naruto had crushed as he retreated was emanating an eerie purple light.

The moment the six tomoe on the samurai phantom's breastplate were fully formed, he clearly saw Sasuke stagger and crash into the rock wall—the bloodstain on the boy's right eye was particularly glaring against his pale skin.

Stop using your eye techniques! Naruto threw out two kunai that pinned the phantom's knees together, the sparks from the metal colliding carrying the blue light of absorbed chakra.

He suddenly noticed that the vine totem on the mysterious girl's wrist had faded to grayish-white, like a withered branch that had been drained of its sap.

The moment the phantom sword struck, cold sweat broke out on Naruto's palms.

The roar of the Nine-Lama in the sealed space and the burning pain in his chest from the Spirit Pearl struck at the same time. He recalled the hundred-meter-deep crater he had created in the training ground when he lost control three months ago.