Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Chapter 663 Detonation Talisman

"Those are..." Bai Ye's voice trailed off.

He recognized one of the fragments as the Second Kazekage's beard and the other as the Third Kazekage's iron sand headband—it turned out that Obito had been collecting the relics of the Kazekage of each generation, using their life souls to control puppets.

“It’s time to make a choice.” Obito pressed his two Sharingan into the bronze pendant, and black liquid instantly enveloped the pendant. “Either activate this container with your Wood Release, or watch your little one become a second puppet.”

Bai Ye's back suddenly felt hot.

The patterns on the First Hokage's mask had spread all over his neck, and Wood Release chakra surged out like a raging tide, condensing into thick wooden pillars around him.

He looked down at Gaara, the boy's Eternal Kaleidoscope still spinning, but a tenderness he had never seen before surfaced in his eyes: "Back then, Father said that the failed vessel must be sacrificed... but this time, I want to be the one who succeeds."

The wooden pillar crashed into and shattered the bronze puppet.

When Byakuya leaped to the ground with Gaara in his arms, he suddenly felt the Wood Release: Root system beneath his feet burning hot.

He subconsciously looked down, and through the gaps between the intertwined roots, he saw a wisp of eerie blue light—it was Luo Sha's life force, slowly crawling along the wood fibers toward his heart.

The eerie blue light within the Wood Release: Root system suddenly surged. As Rasa's soul was separated from the wood fibers, it carried a string of fine sand grains, which condensed into a semi-transparent outline before Byakuya's eyes.

That was a youthful appearance he had never seen before—without the pallor caused by the tailed beasts, without the scars left by the puppet strings, and the Fourth Kazekage's golden eyes shone with the same burning light as Gaara's.

"You..." Bai Ye's Adam's apple bobbed, and Gaara's body temperature in his arms suddenly became scalding hot, with the tailed beast chakra frantically merging along the backs of their touching hands.

Rasa placed his hand on his back, and the Sand Village's unique wind-style chakra, like a sharp blade, tore open the gap in the wood-style defense.

"Don't ask." Luo Sha's voice carried the unique hollow sound of a life soul, and the sand on his fingertips seeped into Bai Ye's spine. "Twenty years ago, when I carved the Diversion Technique in the Wind Shadow Chamber, I sealed half a wisp of life soul into the joints of the puppets of past generations."

The Sharingan of the child in your arms is the key to unlocking the twin vessels. "He suddenly pushed hard, and Bai Ye staggered and fell into the center of the bronze puppet array. The chakra threads of the seven puppets tightened at the same time, drawing blood from his neck.

"Father!" Gaara's Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan trembled violently, and the tailed beast chakra condensed into a shield of red sand around him, only to shatter with a gentle touch of Rasa's life spirit. "You said that a failed vessel must be sacrificed..."

"This time, it's me who will be sacrificed." Rasa's silhouette began to blur, and his gaze towards Gaara was filled with an apology he hadn't uttered for twenty years. "Obito fused your Tailed Beast chakra with his Sharingan. Only by having Wood Release and Sand Release collide at the center of the puppet array can the connection between you and Madara be severed—"

The sound of metal rubbing together tears through the air.

Chiyo's afterimage suddenly burst out of the shadows outside the underground palace. Her ten fingers were wrapped in scarlet puppet silk, each thread precisely piercing the joints of the bronze puppet.

The old woman's eyes were bloodshot and sickly, and the scars she had etched on the battlefield in her youth twitched slightly with her movements: "Hyuga Ryusuke, when you stole my mechanical manual, did you ever think that I would use the detonating tag you hid in the heart of the puppet back then?"

"Old man!" Ryusuke Hyuga slammed his cane heavily on the ground, and the chest cavities of the seven bronze puppets exploded simultaneously.

Orange-red flames, carrying metal fragments, shot into the sky. Byakuya was thrown against the wall by the shockwave, but Gaara in his arms held him like a magnet, and the tailed beast chakra condensed into a protective shield around the two of them.

Chapter 664 Forbidden Technique of Sharing Life Soul

As the shockwave from the explosion grazed Bai Ye's left cheek, he heard a "crack"—the bronze mask he had worn for three years cracked with spiderweb-like fine lines, and warm liquid slid down his nose, the salty, fishy taste exploding on his tongue.

"This is..." Bai Ye raised his hand to touch the crack in the mask. The liquid on his fingertip was not his own blood, but a golden liquid imbued with the life force of Wood Release.

As the mask fragments fell in a flurry, Mei Terumi's cry of alarm pierced through the smoke: "Your face!"

In the mirror's reflection, a scar identical to that of the First Hokage was spreading from his left brow bone to his jaw, with faint blue patterns of Wood Release chakra flowing beneath the skin.

Byakuya's pupils contracted sharply as he finally recalled what the First Hokage had said at the Valley of the End: "When the Senju bloodline resonates with the tailed beast chakra, you will see our shared destiny."

"Fate?" Obito's laughter mingled with the sound of the puppet's remains hitting the ground. His right hand still held two Sharingan eyes, while his left hand slowly removed his mask.

The moment the moonlight shone through the crack, the breath of the white night almost stopped.

The face beneath the mask is clearly Gaara.

"Surprised?" The fake Gaara's lips curled into a smile exactly like Obito's, and his Sharingan swirled strangely in his eye sockets. "You think a puppeteer needs a vessel?"

No, what they need is—"

"It's a forbidden technique that allows the main body and the clone to share the same life soul," the real Gaara suddenly said.

The boy pressed his finger against the fake Gaara's brow, and the tailed beast chakra surged out like boiling magma. "What Father protected with his life soul was also the memories of the Kazekage of the past."

I smelled the Three-Tails' scent in your chakra, Obito. You fused my cells with those of the Three-Tails' jinchūriki.

The fake Gaara's expression instantly twisted.

Only then did Bai Ye notice the bluish-gray scales protruding from his neck—the mark of the experimental subjects in Kirigakure.

At that moment, the bronze pendant around his neck suddenly became hot, and gold dust poured out from the pendant, wrapping around the fake Gaara's wrist like a living thing, and then crawling along his chakra threads towards all the puppets.

"This is..." Bai Ye stared at the golden sand in his palm, suddenly recalling the handful of sand that would never dissipate in the young Gaara's palm when he first met him, "The life souls of the Kazekage of past generations?"

“No.” Gaara’s voice was as soft as a sigh. “It was Father who risked half his life for the true core of Sunagakure—”

The crimson light of the blood moon suddenly enveloped the entire underground palace.

Looking up, Byakuya saw through the crack that the moon above Sunagakure was oozing an eerie blood-red hue. The moonlight fell on the golden sand, causing the tiny particles to display the same patterns as the First Hokage's mask.

As the gold dust accumulated, it gradually condensed into a huge vortex in mid-air. The screams of the fake Gaara were torn apart by the wind, while the real Gaara closed his eyes and let the gold dust envelop his body.

Rasa's spirit appeared clearly before Byakuya for the last time, and a slight smile finally appeared on his lips: "Now you know why the First Hokage sealed the remnants of the Wood Release seal in the pendant..."

Before he finished speaking, his soul dissipated in the vortex of golden sand.

As Byakuya gazed at Gaara, who was gradually becoming transparent in his arms, he suddenly felt a warm power rising from the soles of his feet—it was the First Hokage's Wood Release, it was Rasa's Sand Village, it was all the fates he had once thought were irrelevant, now weaving into a giant net under the blood moon, following the trajectory of the golden sand.

Meanwhile, in the center of the net, gold dust continues to condense.

Something beyond the common sense of ninjas is slowly opening its eyes under the blood-red moonlight.

Chapter 665 What a familiar recipe!

The crimson light of the blood moon pierced through the cracks in the underground palace, turning the swirling gold sand into a blood-soaked amber color.

The fingertips of Byakuya still retained Gaara's gradually transparent body temperature, and his throat felt like it was stuffed with a red-hot iron block—until the golden sand suddenly solidified into an outline, he realized that he had been kneeling on the ground without knowing when.

The phantom of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, rose from the golden sand.

It was a more vivid existence than any historical portrait: a strong chest covered with dark patterned armor, wisps of hair on his forehead were tinged red by the blood moon, and even his eyes under his brows shimmered with an emerald luster that resonated with the Wood Release chakra.

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted as he saw a double totem appear on the whites of his eyes—the spiral pattern of the Konoha headband on the left and the gear mark passed down through generations of puppeteers on the right, like two carving knives simultaneously piercing his retina.

"This is..." His voice was crushed by the rustling sound of gold dust being rubbed together.

"Stop him!"

A hoarse female voice lashed down from above.

Bai Ye looked up and bumped right into Granny Chiyo's cloudy pupils.

It was a semi-transparent, lingering image of her soul, wrapped in the hem of her favorite crimson robe. At this moment, it was drawing its own life force into puppet threads as thin as hair, frantically binding them to the ankle of the First Hokage's phantom. "The First Hokage's will was not for destruction!" her voice held the sharp edge of a dying man. "He sealed the remnants of Wood Release back then, fearing that future generations would use this power to repeat the mistakes of the Warring States period!"

The phantom's steps stopped.

A deafening roar of ice shattering echoed from deep within the underground palace.

Mei Terumi's water-style technique arrived before her voice—blue chakra condensed into a nine-headed water dragon, its mouth wide open, revealing ice crystals churning in its throat, as it bit directly at the core of the golden sand vortex. "Kigakure does not accept a new order based on human sacrifice!" She stood atop the water dragon's head, her brows furrowed into sharp blades beneath her Mizukage headband, her hair whipping wildly backward by the chakra currents.

Almost simultaneously, the crackling sound of Raikiri pierced through the roar of the Water Release.

Kakashi's right hand was crackling with purplish-blue electricity as he precisely struck the point where the gold dust and puppet remains were intertwined.

His Sharingan gleamed coldly under the blood moon, and his mask was lifted by a chakra current, revealing tightly pursed lips: "The will of the Kazekage of past generations should not be used in this way."

But their attack was deflected the moment it touched the gold dust.

When Ryosuke Hyuga's puppet mechanism broke out of the ground, Byakuya smelled the rusty smell—it was the mechanism oil refined with the blood and bones of living people.

The girl's puppet strings passed through the copper rings of the crystal coffin, lifting the coffin into the air. Seven runes burned on her chest, each bearing the mark of the past Wind Shadows: "You think what's in the quicksand is a soul?"

No, it's a curse that has bound them for a thousand years by a puppet contract! Her voice suddenly rose, as if something was choking her, "To break the curse, you must..."

"We must use living people as new containers."

Obito's phantom image seeped out from the remains of the fake Gaara.

His right eye was a spinning gear, his left a crimson kaleidoscope; the two eye techniques intertwined to form a blood-red vortex, distorting the chakra throughout the entire underground palace. "Such a familiar formula, Byakuya." His voice held a morbid pleasure. "The First Hokage used Wood Release to seal the curse; you use living people to continue the contract. What's the essential difference?"

Bai Ye's fingernails dug deeply into her palms.

He finally saw clearly: what surged in the golden sand vortex was not a soul, but a vengeful spirit that had been imprisoned by puppetry for thousands of years—the spirits of Rasa, the First Hokage, and even the ancestors who died in the battles of the Senju and Uchiha. Their obsessions had condensed into monsters under the power of the Blood Moon.

"You knew this would happen," he said suddenly, his voice like a knife dipped in ice water.

Chapter 666 Liberation

Obito's illusory figure paused for a moment: "Oh?"

“Rasa said that the First Hokage sealed the remnants of the Wood Release seal in the pendant.” Byakuya touched the scorching bronze pendant around his neck, gold dust flowing from the opening and condensing into a sharp cone in his palm. “It wasn’t for the sake of inheritance, it was for…”

"It's so that the person who breaks the curse is qualified to become the new vessel." Chiyo's puppet strings suddenly snapped, and her afterimage began to dissipate. "Silly child, the First Hokage's Wood Release can contain everything, including these cursed souls... but the person who breaks the curse needs to make a sacrifice."

The temperature in the underground palace plummeted.

Byakuya looked at Gaara, who was now completely transparent, in his arms, and suddenly smiled.

His eyes stung when he laughed, as if a fire was burning from his heart to his throat: "So Rasa risked half his life to protect the pendant, not so that Gaara could inherit it, but to wait for someone willing to take the curse for him."

Obito's crimson vortex spun even faster: "You want to try?"

His answer was the dull thud of metal piercing flesh.

Bai Ye plunged the pointed tip of the bronze pendant into his own heart.

Golden dust gushed from the wound, forming a massive sealing array beneath his feet. Golden blood splattered onto the illusory image of the First Generation, causing the colossus to display a pained expression. "I bet that within the First Generation's will lies something more powerful than a curse." His voice trembled, yet his laughter grew even more ferocious. "I bet that these souls, trapped for millennia, never desired new vessels, but rather..."

"It is freedom."

The final note was like grains of sand scattered by the wind.

Bai Ye's consciousness began to blur, but in the darkness he saw a vague outline deep in the quicksand—it was Luo Sha's shadow. His hand was holding half of a puppet eye, and the pupils were filled with the same light as the golden sand.

The gold dust in the underground palace suddenly solidified into a concrete chain, stringing together Bai Ye's shaky consciousness into a thin thread.

He could clearly hear the sound of his heart pumping blood—not the usual thumping, but the hum of gold dust rubbing against metal gears, each beat carving out scalding furrows in his chest.

"Silly boy, close your eyes."

The hoarse voice, wrapped in the tingling sensation unique to thirty years of puppetry, brushed against his eardrums.

Bai Ye's eyelashes trembled, and in the blood-mist-filled vision, Luo Sha's outline was rising from the quicksand.

That wasn't a phantom; it was a real father, still warm to the touch.

He was wearing his old Sunagakure ANBU uniform from when he was young, with an old scar on his left cheek from a wind blade, and gold dust still clinging to his knuckles—he looked exactly like Byakuya when he sneaked into the puppet room at the age of twelve and stumbled upon him repairing the Third Kazekage's puppet.

"Father?" Bai Ye's consciousness suddenly cleared, and the burning sensation in his throat was replaced by an overwhelming sourness.

He wanted to reach out and touch that familiar face, but found that his arms were bound behind him by gold sand chains—not as a restraint, but more like a kind of support.

Luo Sha's fingertips traced the bloodstain on his forehead, and half of a bronze puppet eye shone with light in sync with the golden sand in his palm. "This is what your mother put in my palm before she died."

She said that the legacy of a puppeteer should not be a vessel for curses.

"But...the shadows of history..."

“All the previous Wind Shadows were wrong.” Luo Sha’s voice carried a self-deprecating laugh. “We always thought that human sacrifices could suppress vengeful spirits, but we forgot that the souls that died on the puppet strings only wanted an apology.” He pressed the puppet eye against Bai Ye’s brow. The moment the cold metal touched his skin, Bai Ye saw countless fragments explode in his consciousness: a child pierced by a puppet, a mother crying while holding her severed limbs, a vengeful spirit struggling for thousands of years sealed in sand—their faces gradually became clear, and finally they all turned into the same expression: liberation.

"Does it hurt?" Luo Sha's fingertip brushed away the bead of blood between his eyebrows.

Bai Ye shook his head, but tears fell first.

The golden chains that had bound his heart suddenly loosened, replaced by a warm, motherly embrace.

He then realized that Chiyo's afterimage had materialized and was standing beside him at some point.

Chapter 667 Ninjas, Never Betray Their Beliefs

The old woman's red robe was no longer transparent, and the puppet strings wrapped around her fingertips gleamed with the luster of mother-of-pearl. Her white hair floated in mid-air, supported by golden sand. "What the twin vessels need is..." Her puppet strings pierced precisely through the wound in Bai Ye's heart, the other end plunging into Luo Sha's chest, "is trust."

A sound like tearing silk came from the dome of the underground palace.

The blood moon's red light began to dabble, like glass sprinkled with gold dust, cracking outwards in a spiderweb pattern from the center.

Obito's phantom was torn open with crack after crack. His Mangekyou Sharingan spun wildly, while his Gear Eyes shrank. "You don't understand at all!" His voice was like the wail of a broken bellows. "Without sacrifice, there is no balance. You will drag the ninja world back to the Warring States period!"

“But at least we won’t use a child’s life to maintain balance.” Mei Terumi’s water dragon had been withdrawn at some point. She knelt on one knee on the crystal coffin shards, her water shadow headband askew at her temple, but her smile was brighter than the blood moon. “The water mirror of Kirigakure can see people’s hearts. I see no resentment in these golden sands.”

Kakashi's Sharingan suddenly contracted.

He hadn't moved. The electric current from his Lightning Blade had long since dissipated. He was now staring at the patterns of the Golden Sand Sealing Array—a perfect fusion of the First Hokage's Wood Release and Puppet Technique. "The reconciliation that successive Hokage sought, it turns out, had to be written with the blood of the Kazekage," he murmured, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the notch on his headband.