Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

The temperature in the sealed room plummeted.

The seven crystal coffins emitted a buzzing sound simultaneously, and the souls of the successive Wind Shadows suddenly opened their eyes.

The First Kazekage pressed his hand against the coffin wall, his turbid pupils churning with millennia of chakra: "The bloodline of the Uchiha rogue ninja... dares to lay a finger on the Kazekage's seal!"

"Wait, I didn't..."

Bai Ye's explanation was interrupted by an even more violent tremor.

The ground cracked open like a spider web, and fine sand and gravel suddenly floated up, gathering into a vortex at the top of the sealed room.

Mei Terumi's water mirror suddenly reflected the scene outside the village—a mirage-like illusion rose above the usually arid Wind Desert, where the flags of the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning could be vaguely seen fluttering in the air, and the shadow in the very center was exactly the same as the pattern of the mineral on Byakuya's neck.

"That's..." Gaara's sandstorm suddenly surged back towards the exit of the secret chamber. "The chakra fluctuations outside the village are wrong, it's like..."

"Take care of what's in front of us first." Asuma's kunai was already stained with blood—his arm had been slashed by puppet threads, leaving a deep, bone-revealing wound. "Who exactly are you?"

Byakuya stared at the Sharingan in Gaara's eyes, then looked at the surging illusions in the water mirror.

The burning sensation of the ore overlapped with the stinging pain in his blood, and he finally understood the meaning of Obito's last words: what his father left behind was not betrayal, but a truth heavier than betrayal—and this truth was now sweeping towards Sunagakure and the entire ninja world along with the illusions outside the village.

Suddenly, the sand vortex in the dome of the secret chamber emitted a piercing shriek. Gaara's sand stream abruptly recoiled the moment it touched the exit, and golden sand grains condensed into a miniature storm in his palm: "Chakra fluctuations materialized!" Before he finished speaking, Mei Terumi's water mirror cracked with a spiderweb pattern, but before shattering, it reflected the last image—on the wind desert, a ten-story-high wooden puppet was rising from the ground, its scarlet puppet lines piercing the clouds like giant pythons.

“That is…” Asuma’s Lightning Blade danced in his palm, blood dripping down his arm onto the ground, “The defensive barrier outside Sunagakure has been torn to shreds!” As soon as he finished speaking, a muffled thud came from the stone wall of the secret chamber, as if a huge object was hitting the outer wall.

Chapter 655 What are you going to do!

"Back off!" Mei Terumi's water dragon bullet smashed through half of the stone wall first.

Amidst the dust and smoke, the giant puppet's arm burst through the wall, its vermilion lacquer gleaming eerily purple in the moonlight.

Asuma's Lightning Blade struck the puppet's joints with a cracking sound, revealing runes bearing the Uchiha clan crest from the broken wood. "This isn't ordinary puppetry!" He staggered back, his bangs curling from the electric current. "The chakra in the crest... it's Obito's!"

The cracks in the water mirror suddenly closed, and blood beads seeped from Mei Terumi's fingertips—she was forcibly maintaining the mirror's surface with her chakra.

The scene in the mirror shifted abruptly. The Fire Country Daimyo mechanically drew a short sword from his waist, the tip pressed against his throat; the Lightning Country Daimyo's mouth gaped into a grotesque "O," a hoarse roar escaping his throat: "Assemble all ninja forces... march on the border of the Fire Country..."

"Obito is manipulating the daimyo of various countries!" Mei Terumi's water robes surged violently, water droplets condensing into sharp water blades around her. "He wants to replicate the fuse that ignited the Third Shinobi World War!" Her gaze swept over the blue mineral at Byakuya's neck. "Your body is the source of resonance! Those puppet strings are connecting all those being controlled through you!"

White Night's eardrums were buzzing.

He finally understood why the daimyo's reactions always had a strange mechanical quality whenever he tried to assassinate them—it wasn't that his technique had been broken, but rather that Obito had already planted more subtle threads within them.

The puppet threads on his wrist suddenly became scalding hot, and they seemed to be drilling into his heart along his blood vessels, as if trying to forcibly extract something.

“The resonance must be cut off!” His voice had a metallic, scraping quality to it.

The bronze pendant felt warm in my palm, and the cloud and thunder patterns had completely come to life as flowing light.

Gaara's Sand Stream suddenly wrapped around his wrist: "What are you doing?" The boy's Sharingan spun even faster, and the three tomoe reflected the movement of Byakuya about to pierce his heart.

“Seal the resonance point with my blood.” Bai Ye’s fingers gripped the tip of the pendant. “This pendant is made from fragments of a container. My mother said… it can draw out something from within the bloodline.” What he didn’t say was that the moment the pendant pierced his skin, fragments of memory flooded back—himself at seven years old, pinned to an altar, his father’s Sharingan reflecting a bloody light: “This is to prevent something even more terrible…”

The moment the blue blood splattered, the secret room became as bright as day.

Rune patterns grew from the wounds, like living chains wrapping around every puppet string.

The giant puppet's movements suddenly stopped, and blue smoke rose from its joints.

But the next second, a semi-transparent phantom appeared on Byakuya's chest—Obito's half-face was wrapped in bandages, and his other Sharingan glowed with a scarlet light: "Finally willing to open the container on your own? Madara-sama has been waiting for this day for too long."

"Don't even think about it!" Gaara's sand stream shot towards the phantom like a sharp arrow, but it pierced right through the ball of light and shadow.

The boy's sand shield suddenly condensed into a spiral beneath his feet, forcibly dragging Bai Ye into the ground: "Trust me! The ley lines can sever your connection with the puppeteer!" His voice was rough, as if from the friction of sand, "Father's chakra is saying... this is the only chance."

In the darkness underground, the sand current carried the two of them down at breakneck speed.

Byakuya's consciousness gradually blurred, but at the last moment he caught a glimpse of the relief on the cave wall—two blurry figures, one wearing Uchiha clan clothing and the other wearing a Kazekage hat, their palms pressed on the same stone surface covered with runes.

“That is…” His words were drowned out by the roar of the sandstorm.

Chapter 656 Illusion Antidote

The vibrations from the earth's veins traveled along the sand, and Bai Ye's head slammed against the sand wall, causing him to gasp in pain.

The darkness in their vision was pierced by a dim yellow light—Gaara's sand flow suddenly receded, leaving the two of them in a semi-circular underground palace.

The torches on the rock wall swayed in the air currents, and he finally saw the relief he had just glimpsed: the outlines of two figures were clearly raised and recessed on the stone surface. The headband of the person on the left was engraved with the Uchiha clan crest, and the edge of the hat on the right had the distinctive tassels of Sunagakure hanging down. The two people's palms were pressed together on a stone slab covered with incantations. In the center of the stone slab was a bronze pendant, exactly the same as the one that was still bleeding from Byakuya's palm.

"So you used your Sharingan to obtain puppetry, but shifted the cost onto the successive Kazekage..." His voice was hoarse as his fingertips gently traced the crack on the edge of the straw hat on the relief—the curve of that crack was exactly the same as the old wound on the joint of Granny Chiyo's doll.

The air in the underground palace suddenly became thin.

A pale golden fluorescence seeped from the stone wall, as if someone had kneaded fragments of gold into the mist.

Chiyo's figure emerged from the misty light. Her silver hair, no longer bound by a red ribbon, cascaded down like a waterfall. The left side of her face still bore the scar from Scorpion's sting, while the right side glowed with a lifelike radiance. "Why do you think I would use myself as a puppet?" Her voice was much softer than in life, like a withered leaf falling on water. "The contract between the First Kazekage and the Uchiha clan used the Kazekage's bloodline as a catalyst to seal the Sharingan's curse into the puppet technique. Each Kazekage's lifespan is a continuation of this curse."

"Mother-in-law?" Bai Ye's throat tightened.

He had seen Chiyo's doll in Sunagakure, but this phantom was a hundred times more lifelike than the doll—the beauty mark at the corner of her eye was glowing, and her fingers unconsciously rubbed the puppet string pouch at her waist, a small gesture she always made before battle in her previous life.

"boom!"

The rock strata at the top of the underground palace suddenly cracked open.

Rasa's Sand Release hat crashed down first, his right shoulder wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage, his left hand forming a Sand Release hand seal. Wild sand particles enveloped Sasuke and charged straight at Byakuya's face: "Hand over the puppeteer's legacy!" The Fourth Kazekage's chakra was like a burning flame, scorching and distorting even the air. "The bronze pendant you wear was melted down from half of the First Kazekage's heart!"

Sasuke was wrapped in a cocoon by the sand, with only his pale face showing.

His right hand was pressed against his chest, and through his clothes, one could see the dark blue veins pulsating under his skin—the marks of being controlled by the puppet strings.

Bai Ye instinctively stepped back, but the pendant on her wrist suddenly became hot.

The originally solidified cloud and thunder patterns came to life, crawling along the back of his hand to his fingertips, each line absorbing the sand particles in the air.

The golden sand grains seemed to be attracted by a magnet, crashing against the pendant with a "whoosh," and in the blink of an eye, they condensed into a bronze puppet beside him: about two zhang tall, with wind-attribute chakra stones embedded in its joints, and the three ancient characters "大野际" engraved on its mask—the oldest puppet weapon in Sunagakure, the legendary weapon used by the First Kazekage to suppress the tailed beasts.

"Child of the Wind Shadow, how many Sharingan are in your eyes?" Onogi's voice was like two bronze pieces colliding, making the underground palace hum.

Its right hand slowly rose, its fingertips pointing at Sasuke's face.

Sasuke's pupils suddenly contracted.

His body, enveloped by the sand flow, suddenly struggled violently. A small bloody crack appeared at the corner of his left eye, and his three-tomoe Sharingan slowly rotated in the bloody mist: "How did you know..." Before he could finish speaking, the sand flow tightened around his throat, and the rest of his sentence was lost in the wind.

"Why do you think Chiyo is researching antidotes for illusions?"

Chapter 657 Early Wind Shadow

A sinister male voice came from the deepest part of the underground palace.

Obito emerged, wrapped in a tattered Akatsuki robe. Black blood seeped from the bandage on his left cheek, while a puppet eye riddled with gears was embedded in his right eye socket, the pupil of which was a spinning Sharingan phantom.

Seven broken puppets followed at his feet, each with Obito's black rods stuck in its joints. "She discovered long ago that the early deaths of the Kazekage were not due to the Tailed Beasts, but..."

"Shut up!"

Mei Terumi's waterspout poured in from the entrance of the underground palace, carrying Gaara's cursed sand straight for Obito's throat.

The Fifth Mizukage's water robes billowed like a raging sea, and water droplets dripping from her hair condensed into ice spikes in mid-air: "The Water Mirror of the Land of Fire told me that you used puppet strings to alter the memories of the daimyo of various countries!" Her chakra pressed down on Byakuya, making it almost impossible for him to breathe. "Now, use your blood to cleanse these sins!"

Obito's puppet eyes suddenly burst out with a blinding red light.

The seven puppets at his feet simultaneously raised their arms, and the chakra bursting from the tips of their black rods formed a barrier that shattered the water tornado.

The cursed sand pierced through the barrier, scorching a blackened hole in his left chest: "Interesting..." He licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, "But you shouldn't be worried about me—"

His puppet eyes turned toward the white night.

The bronze pendant suddenly vibrated violently in Bai Ye's palm.

The cloud and thunder patterns began to crack, revealing a dark red core inside, like a drop of blood that had congealed for thousands of years.

He could hear a faint cracking sound coming from inside the pendant, as if something was awakening from deep within.

The bronze joints of Onogi emitted a harsh grinding sound as his fingertips, which were originally aimed at Sasuke, slowly turned towards his heart.

"White Night!" Gaara's voice came from the entrance of the underground palace.

The boy's sandstorm armor was riddled with cracks, but his left Sharingan shone brighter than ever. "The pendant is absorbing your life force! It's going to..."

"I know." Bai Ye looked down at the pendant in his palm.

Fragments of memory sliced ​​through his consciousness like sharp blades: the blood-red light on the altar, his father's bloodstained Sharingan, his mother's words as she placed the pendant in his palm—"If one day it begins to devour you, then..."

Obito's puppet eyes suddenly shrank to the size of pinheads.

The puppets behind him raised their heads at the same time, their empty eye sockets glowing with a scarlet light.

Bai Ye's fingers gripped the edge of the pendant.

The red light emanating from the crack made his pupils glow, and he could feel the temperature at the core of the pendant breaking through the critical point, like a fireball about to explode.

Ōnogiwa's bronze arm was already pressed against his back, and the chakra fluctuations burned his skin through his clothes.

"Looks like we need to put an end to this," he said softly.

The red light at the core of the pendant suddenly surged.

The torches in the underground palace went out at the same time, leaving only that red light like a small sun, stretching everyone's shadows long.

Chiyo's illusory image gradually dissipated in the red light. She glanced at Byakuya one last time, her lips clearly saying, "I'm sorry."

The sand flow of Luosha suddenly solidified.

He gazed at the light in Bai Ye's palm and suddenly remembered his father's dying words: "When the bronze pendant turns as red as blood, the curse of the wind shadow..."

Suddenly, the bronze chest cavity of Ohnogiwa cracked open, revealing a dense array of gears inside.

Amidst the roar of turning gears, Bai Ye heard the pendant's core emit its final buzz—the sound of the self-destruct program activating.

Chapter 658 Then Feed Him Well

The air in the underground palace solidified into a tangible substance in an instant.

The red light emanating from the core of the bronze pendant pierced through all the shadows, and the gears inside Onogi's chest emitted a dying groan, each metallic friction feeling like it was scraping against everyone's nerves.

Bai Ye's fingertips were deeply embedded in the cracks at the edge of the pendant, and the skin on his palms was cut raw and bloody by the metal, but he felt no pain—he could clearly hear his heart beating, each beat faster than the last, as if he were racing against the countdown to the pendant's self-destruction.

His mother's dying words suddenly echoed in his ears: "If it starts to devour you, feed it with your blood." He stared at the red light pulsating in his palm, his Adam's apple bobbing, and he swallowed back the taste of blood that rose to his lips.

"Get back!" Rasa's sand suddenly wrapped around Gaara's waist like a living thing, pulling the boy violently towards the entrance of the underground palace.

The Fourth Kazekage's forehead veins bulged, and his Sand Release chakra almost burned through his skin: "That thing is draining the earth's ley lines! The entire underground palace will be—"

"boom!"

Sasuke's piercing scream tore through Rasa's voice.

The youth, who had been wrapped in a cocoon by the sand flow, suddenly broke free of his restraints. The lightning gathered on his right arm twisted in a spiral, with three more branches than a normal Chidori.

His pale face flushed crimson from chakra overload, the bloodstain from the corner of his left eye splitting all the way to his brow bone, his three-tomoe Sharingan spinning wildly in the blood mist: "This body... doesn't belong to me!" His voice was a mixture of two tones, one a sob of his own, the other a chilling wind that swept across a tombstone, "But your life must belong to me!"

The moment the Thousand Birds Spike pierced Bai Ye's back, excruciating pain shot through his entire body like an electric current.

Bai Ye staggered and crashed into the bronze arm of Da Yeji, tasting the full flavor of rust.

He could feel something sticky crawling out of the wound—Obito's phantom emerged from the bloody hole in his back, half his face still wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, the Sharingan phantom in the puppet's eyes greedily devouring his chakra: "Very good, this vessel is more resilient than expected... Let me see what you've hidden—"

"you guessed wrong."

Bai Ye suddenly opened her eyes.

The dark red Sharingan slowly rotated in its socket, and a tiny swirl pattern, like a burning flame, condensed in the center of the three tomoe.

His right hand gripped Sasuke's wrist as he held Chidori tightly, chakra seeping into the other's body through his skin. The puppet strings controlling Sasuke instantly emitted a burnt smell: "What the First Hokage left me was never some kind of ninjutsu." His voice was deeper than ever, like a roar from the earth, "It was the eyes that see through all cycles of reincarnation."

The air inside the underground palace suddenly trembled violently.

Countless semi-transparent figures emerged from the red light at the core of the pendant—the First Kazekage wrapped in a robe with animal patterns, the Second Kazekage wearing a straw hat, the Third Kazekage with a scar on his forehead... Their hands were overlapping, wrestling with another dark shadow.

The shadowy figure had the face of Madara Uchiha, a grin stretching to its ears: "I've been using the flesh and blood of the Kazekage to nourish my Sharingan, and the curse of the Sharingan to suppress the puppet technique. I've been setting this up for a thousand years! You think burning the pendant will break the cycle of reincarnation?"

"Father!" Gaara's Sandstorm Armor shattered completely, and he staggered toward Rasa, only to be stopped by the Fourth Kazekage's sand wall.

Chapter 659 Greed is the Curse

Rasa's straw hat was nowhere to be seen, and his white hair was blown wildly by the tremors of the earth. He looked at the souls fighting in the air and suddenly smiled with relief: "So we weren't cursed by the tailed beasts, but by the greed of our ancestors... Gaara, come here." He opened his arms, and the sand flow wrapped around the boy and fell into his arms.