Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

After releasing Sasuke, Bai Ye took a half-step back, his gaze sweeping across the window—the moonlight was tinged with an eerie purplish-black, and a cloud of black mist rose in the southeastern sky, within which one could vaguely see the crimson Sharingan turning.

"Outside the wall!" Yukino picked up the documents and pointed out the window.

The moment everyone turned their heads, Obito's phantom was already pressed against the outer wall of the conference room, half of his face wrapped in bandages, and his other scarlet pupil staring straight at Byakuya through the glass.

"Watch out!" Sakura's scream mingled with the sound of metal whistling through the air.

As Bai Ye spun around, he overturned a wooden table. Three shurikens grazed his left shoulder, but just as they struck the wall, they suddenly changed direction—the three kunai drew perfect six-pointed star trajectories in the air, completely blocking his escape route.

"It's a space-time ninjutsu!" Mei Terumi was standing by the window at some point, her long, light blue hair moving without wind, and a water dragon bullet she had gathered in her palm shattered two shuriken. "He's using Kamui Mark to attack!"

Chiyo's puppet threads shot out like silver snakes, wrapping around the last shuriken as the entire wall exploded with a deafening roar.

Amidst the flying debris, Obito's figure vanished into black mist, leaving only charred chakra residue scattered across the ground.

"Chase!" Sasuke wiped the blood from his face, grabbed his short sword, and charged out.

Bai Ye stopped him again, his gaze sweeping over the scratch mark on the boy's neck—it bore a striking resemblance to the wound on his left shoulder inflicted by the Ten-Tailed Cells.

"Don't be impulsive." Mei Terumi pressed down on Sasuke's shoulder, her Water Release technique forming a shield in her palm. "Obito's target is Byakuya, we need to..."

"The kids are quite interesting."

A hoarse male voice suddenly came from the overhead pillar, followed by a cold laugh from behind the vase on the left, and then a low laugh from outside the window on the right.

Everyone looked up at the same time and saw seven or eight phantoms of Obito appearing in different locations, each pair of Sharingan eyes locking onto Byakuya's throat.

Byakuya's hand, which was reaching for the kunai at his waist, paused.

He could feel the burning sensation in the wound on his left shoulder, and the agitation of the Ten-Tails cells resonated with Obito's chakra—something that had never happened before.

"The real game is just beginning."

The last sound, mixed with the sand and dust, entered everyone's ears.

The moment the phantoms vanished, Byakuya clearly saw one of Obito's lips curl into a smile that perfectly mirrored the arc of the scratch on Sasuke's neck.

Obito's hoarse voice still echoed between the beams and vases when Sakura Haruno suddenly staggered and crashed into the wall.

Her fingers, which had been gripping the medical kit tightly, suddenly loosened, scattering bandages and medicine bottles all over the floor. "Sonic attack!"

He used chakra vibration frequency—"Before she could finish speaking, her pupils began to dilate, and the whites of her eyes turned a strange bluish-gray, as if her brain had been directly struck by some invisible blunt object.

Bai Ye's molars clenched painfully.

He could hear subtle vibrations in the air, like countless silver needles drilling deep into his eardrums.

His instincts screamed danger, but his body reacted faster than his mind—he spun around and pushed Yukino into Mei Terumi's arms, then grabbed Sasuke by the back of his collar and pulled him to his side, finally crouching down to shield Sakura Haruno from the front with his back.

The old wound on his left shoulder, eroded by the cells of the ten-tailed creature, suddenly burned, as if in response to the invisible attack.

"Sakura!" Yukino's exclamation was shattered by the ringing in her ears.

Chapter 643 Tsunade's Exclusive Detoxification Technique

Chiyo's cane tip slammed into the floor with a "click," her withered fingers almost digging into her palm: "Hold your breath!"

"This is a high-frequency chakra wave that disrupts the five senses—" Before she finished speaking, Sakura Haruno's medical kit rolled out another tube of blue medicine, with her unique small calligraphy label on the glass tube: "Illusion Antidote - Improved Version".

"It's the antidote she's been researching lately!" Chiyo suddenly raised her voice, slamming her cane heavily against the vial of medicine. "Quickly, force-feed it to her!"

Obito may have triggered a genjutsu using sound waves; ordinary medical ninjutsu can't break it!

The moment Byakuya's fingertips touched the potion, Sasuke knelt down on one knee and pressed down on Sakura's shoulder.

The boy had sheathed his short sword at some point, and pinched Sakura's philtrum hard with his fingertips: "She's gritting her teeth, I can't pry her mouth open!" Mei Terumi's water-style shield opened above her head, and the pale blue water membrane reflected the sound waves back onto the wall, causing the plaster to flake off.

She bent down to pick up the medicine and scratched open the glass tube with her fingernail: "Yukino, hold her jaw down!"

The shadows of the four people overlapped in the flickering candlelight.

Yukino's fingertips were damp with cold sweat, yet she gripped Sakura's chin precisely; Mei Terumi pushed the medicine into Sakura's mouth, the pale blue liquid overflowing from her pale lips and spreading into tiny blue flowers on the floor; Sasuke's thumb remained pressed on Sakura's Fengchi acupoint at the back of her neck, a first-aid technique he had secretly learned while serving as a hostage in Kumogakure; and Byakuya's hand remained suspended above Sakura's crown, ready to probe her meridians with chakra at any moment to confirm the medicine's effectiveness.

As the last drop of medicine slid down her throat, Sakura's eyelashes trembled violently.

She suddenly coughed, her bluish-gray pupils gradually shrinking back to their normal dark color, her fingertips gripping Bai Ye's clothes tightly: "It hurts...it feels like a thousand cicadas are exploding in my brain..."

The alarm sounded gradually faded away.

Only then did everyone realize that the purplish-black mist outside the window had dissipated, and even the remnants of earth's chakra had been swept away by the night wind.

The wooden door to the conference room had been opened at some point, and a draft of sand rushed in, sweeping over the scattered medicine bottles and scorch marks left by the dirt.

"Let's go." Bai Ye tore off a piece of his shirt to wipe Ying's mouth, his gaze pausing as he swept over the mess on the floor—in the shadow of the overturned conference table, a blood-red stain was glowing eerily.

He crouched down, his fingertips about to touch it, but Sasuke had already used the tip of his short sword to pick up a piece of gravel: "It's drawn in blood."

That was indeed blood.

Dark red marks seeped into the cracks in the floor, outlining intricate patterns: a six-pointed star at the center, surrounded by spiraling runes, with tiny beads of blood clinging to each turn, as if it had just been drawn.

Byakuya sensed for a moment with his chakra, and felt a burning heat in his palm—not the stinging pain of the attack mark, but rather the residual heat after some kind of energy had been extracted.

“These are the activation traces of a summoning circle.” His voice was as deep as if a stone was pressing down on it. “Obito used chakra as a fuse, and that sonic attack just now... was probably adjusting the frequency to ensure that the summoned creature could arrive accurately.”

Chiyo leaned on her cane and came closer, her withered knuckles almost touching the edges of the runes.

Her pupils contracted slightly, and her Adam's apple bobbed, as if recalling some long-forgotten event. "Similar patterns are recorded in the ancient texts of Sunagakure." She suddenly reached out and pressed down on Byakuya's wrist, which he was about to pull back, her nails almost digging into his skin. "This blood contains remnants of a cursed seal, and the chakra fluctuations when the Three-Tails was sealed... are about 70% similar."

Chapter 644 The Sand Ninja's Puppet Technique

The sound of ninja footsteps could be heard in the distance; the ANBU of Sunagakure were arriving.

Mei Terumi patted Byakuya on the shoulder, a corner of her light blue hair fluttering in the wind: "I'll go tell them to seal off the scene." Sasuke stared at the runes on the ground, twirling his short sword in his palm: "I'll go back to my room to get my father's notes; maybe we can find some clues." Yukino crouched down, using a sealing scroll to trace the outline of the runes, her hair brushing against the floor as she whispered: "I'll have the puppet team make a copy and send it to Granny Chiyo's laboratory."

Sakura Haruno stood up, leaning against the wall. She re-tied the medical kit around her waist, her fingertips still gently rubbing the spot where she had just received the injection. "I'm going to check the sensory class to make sure Obito hasn't left any other backup plans."

The crowd gradually disappeared into the night, leaving only Chiyo squatting in front of the rune.

She took out a magnifying glass from her sleeve and carefully examined the incantations in the bloodstains by the moonlight.

The wind lifted the hem of her clothes, revealing a small cloth bag sewn inside—a fragment of a sealing technique from the Land of Whirlpools that she had treasured for forty years.

When the arc of a certain incantation overlapped with a symbol on the tattered scroll, her fingers suddenly trembled, and the magnifying glass fell to the ground with a "thud".

"Bai Ye." Her voice suddenly became very soft, as if afraid of waking something. "You said... what Obito summoned, was it a living thing, or..."

The moonlight was briefly obscured by the clouds.

When Byakuya looked up again, Chiyo had already picked up the magnifying glass and carefully wiped away the sand particles with her sleeve.

But he clearly saw that between the old man's fingers, he was holding a piece of blood-stained paper—the edge of which was imprinted with spiral patterns that were exactly the same as the runes on the ground.

As the moonlight spilled across the floor again, Chiyo's magnifying glass clattered against the edge of the rune.

Her hunched back suddenly straightened, and the veins on the back of her hands, which resembled withered tree bark, bulged out, as if old tree roots were clinging to some forgotten memory.

"Grandma?" Bai Ye squatted down and saw her staring at a spiral in the blood pattern, as if she were looking at an old friend who had come back to life.

“It’s puppetry.” Chiyo’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and her nails dug deeply into her palms. “Thirty years ago, a batch of ancient puppets were unearthed from the Sunagakure tombs. The arc of the incantations carved on the joints… is exactly the same as this one.”

"You mean, Obito's summoning circle used a lost puppet control technique from Sunagakure?" Byakuya's knuckles pressed against his chin, his pupils shrinking slightly—he recalled the burning sensation he had felt with his chakra earlier; it was clearly the residual heat from some kind of living energy being extracted. If combined with puppetry techniques...

"not only that."

A hoarse male voice came from behind the pillars.

Ebizo strode out with his arms crossed, the Sand Village crest on his waist gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

A cold smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes held the marks of years of scheming: "The puppeteers, a sect that disappeared twenty years ago, have a mark that is exactly the same as this..."

Bai Ye's eyebrows twitched suddenly.

He remembered the intelligence report mentioning that the puppeteer was skilled at using the souls of living people to control puppets, and was so insidious that he was jointly killed by the five great nations, while the survivors disappeared without a trace. "How can you be so sure?"

Ebizo pulled a half-yellowed sheet of paper from his sleeve, on which he had drawn a six-pointed star and spiral patterns in a crooked manner—it was exactly the same as the blood array on the ground. "I found it in the core of the leader's puppet when I participated in the siege." He ran his fingertip over the scorch mark on the corner of the paper. "Later, all related books were destroyed, except for this one that I kept."

Chapter 645 The Oub Bean Behind the Scenes

A light sweat appeared on Bai Ye's palms.

Obito's summoning circle, the ancient puppetry techniques of Sunagakure, the missing puppeteers... these fragments collided in his mind, sparking a flurry of activity. "To the underground library." He suddenly turned around. "Yukino, you're familiar with the texts, come with me."

Yukino, who was standing by the corridor holding the rubbing of the scroll, nodded immediately upon hearing this.

Her wispy hair was lifted by the wind, revealing pale blue veins behind her ears—traces of chakra erosion left from long periods of studying ancient scrolls.

The wooden door of the underground library creaked open, and a musty smell mixed with the stale aroma of paper wafted out.

Yukino lit the oil lamp on the wall, and in the dim yellow light, the stacked bookshelves looked like silent giants.

Byakuya's boots crushed a few specks of dust as he followed Yukino into the innermost puppetry area.

“No one has touched these books for ten years.” Yukino’s fingertips brushed across the spines of the books, pausing in front of “The Secret Records of Ancient Puppetry”.

When she pulled out the book, the cover was shedding crumbs, revealing a very fine scratch on the inside—the hidden snap on the inner lining.

A soft "click" sound.

Yukino's breathing suddenly quickened, and she pulled a roll of parchment from the hidden compartment.

On the yellowed map, seven mineral veins were marked with cinnabar, and next to them were densely written small characters: "Take the essence of the seven minerals to forge a soul vessel that can hold ten thousand souls without perishing..." Her fingers suddenly stopped, and she looked up sharply at Bai Ye: "The ore you brought back from the Desert of Wind last time!"

The pattern is exactly the same as the 'Crimson Flame Crystal' marked on the map!

Bai Ye's temples throbbed.

He recalled the mineral vein he had discovered deep in the desert three days ago. He had casually put those ore stones, which gleamed with a faint reddish light, into his ninja tool pouch, initially thinking they were just ordinary minerals. "Obito needs a soul vessel..." he murmured, "and the chakra extracted by the summoning circle is the 'nutrients' for cultivating that vessel?"

"boom--!"

The deafening explosion tore through the air.

Byakuya suddenly grabbed Yukino's wrist and slammed her against the bookshelf, causing dust to pour down from the ceiling like a torrential downpour.

Through the shattered window, he saw an orange-red fireball rise from the top of the watchtower, and a bandaged figure riding a blue-purple clay bird swooped down, a maniacal grin spreading across his face: "Art is an explosion—!"

"Deidara?" Yukino's nails dug into Byakuya's hand. "Wasn't he wanted by Iwagakure?"

"Now is not the time to think about this!" Bai Ye shouted, forming a hand seal. "Wind Release: Gale Palm!" A sandstorm suddenly rose, engulfing the two of them and rushing towards the door.

Deidara's clay bird grazed past his hair, and the aftershock of the explosion blew half a wall away.

Amidst the billowing dust, Byakuya caught a glimpse of crimson in Deidara's left eye—the markings of a three-tomoe Sharingan!

His heart sank: "Obito... was indeed manipulating things from behind the scenes."

"white night!

"Over here!" Chiyo's cane came from the left.

The old woman stood in the center of the courtyard, and ten ancient puppets emerged one after another from the shadows behind her, the copper plates at their joints gleaming coldly in the moonlight. "Trap him!" she shouted, and the puppets shot towards Deidara like arrows released from a bow.

Deidara let out a strange laugh and crushed a piece of clay between his fingertips.

But just as the explosion was about to take shape, the foremost puppet suddenly stopped moving—a silvery reflection flashed from the gap in its elbow joint, like some kind of miniature rune.

Chapter 646 The Old Fool Who Doesn't Know When He's Going to Die

The silvery sheen at the joints of the bronze puppet had not yet faded when the short sword hidden at Ebi's waist was already emerging like a venomous snake.

His hunched back suddenly straightened like an iron bow, the scabbard clinked against his palm, and the shrill whistling of the blade cutting through the air carried the ruthlessness of thirty years of sandstorms: "Old man!"

You knew all along that these puppets were cursed!

Chiyo's pupils suddenly contracted.

She had sensed a faint, strange light at the chakra connection point while controlling the puppet. At this moment, the wind from the dagger made her white hair stand on end, and she barely managed to deflect the blade by three inches after her cane struck the ground and sparked.

The blade grazed her collarbone, and drops of blood splattered onto the puppet's patterns, like cinnabar dripping onto an ancient scroll. "Are you crazy?" she hissed, but the only response was a soft "click" from all ten puppets—the kunai that had been pointing at Deidara had all turned three inches, their tips precisely pressed against Bai Ye's back.

Bai Ye's back was taut like a fully drawn bow.

He could clearly feel Yukino trembling against his lower back, and the scent of jasmine from the girl's hair mixed with the smell of blood entered his nostrils.

Ten chakra fluctuations pressed against his skin like ice needles, and he could even count the morning dew that had recently condensed on his kunai—but what froze his blood even more was the puppet's eye sockets that he caught when he looked up.

In those hollow clay eye sockets, pale golden ripples appeared, vaguely reflecting the outline of half a white mask.

“Obito…” he murmured.