Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Obito's phantom let out a final scream, shattering into dust the instant the Blood Moon completely disintegrated.

Suddenly, the golden sand surged back into Bai Ye's body as if it were alive. He could feel the vengeful spirits that had once gnawed at his heart climbing up his blood vessels, gathering into a warm ball of light in his throat, and then scattering into countless golden butterflies with a "poof".

"Is it over?" Rasa's hands began to turn transparent. He winked at Byakuya, just like when he taught him to assemble puppets back then. "Give Gaara a hug for me. That kid... is stronger than I thought."

"Wait!" Bai Ye tried to grab him, but only touched a handful of gold dust.

Chiyo's body was also dissipating. She tugged at the puppet strings one last time and whispered in Byakuya's ear, "Go to Konoha and see. That child's headband has a gap; someone needs to fix it."

The moment the morning light pierced through the cracks in the underground palace, Bai Ye suddenly opened his eyes.

He lay on the cold stone ground, the wound in his heart had healed, leaving only a pale pink scar—no, that wasn't a scar.

He raised his hand to touch his neck, where new patterns were emerging beneath the skin: the spiral patterns of wood leaves and the puppet gears meshed perfectly, like two intertwined petals.

"woke up?"

Kakashi's shadow loomed over.

He held the bronze pendant in his hand, the newly engraved words on the inside gleaming faintly in the morning light: "Ninja, never betray your beliefs."

"Who carved it?" Bai Ye propped himself up to sit up.

"I don't know." Kakashi tossed the pendant to him, his Sharingan gleaming slightly behind his lenses. "But I guess it's for those who have waited for a thousand years."

Mei Terumi suddenly pointed to the entrance of the underground palace.

Everyone followed her gaze—on the desert outside Sunagakure, the giant puppet horde that had been rampaging was slowly kneeling down, golden starlight surging from their empty eye sockets—the souls of the Kazekage of past generations, drifting towards the direction of the rising sun.

“A new puppet army…” Bai Ye murmured.

"He's waking up," Kakashi finished for him, his voice carrying a rare hint of amusement.

As dawn broke, Bai Ye suddenly frowned.

He touched the fusion emblem on his neck, which was burning hot, the temperature traveling through his veins to his heart, as if something was crawling up from underground.

A faint sound of gears turning came from deep within the underground palace, as if some ancient mechanism had finally been awakened.

Chapter 668 Puppet Tide

The chill of the underground palace seeped into the Shura-patterned battle armor through the cracks in the stone, and the fusion emblem on the back of Bai Ye's neck was so hot it almost burned through his skin.

He unconsciously pressed there, the spiral and gear patterns under his fingertips wriggling like living things, even his heartbeat humming with metallic vibrations—this was not the burning of uncontrolled chakra, but more like the excruciating pain of some ancient, dormant contract being awakened.

"Those puppets... are not Obito's relics."

A hoarse female voice rang out, brushing against Bai Ye's earlobe. Startled, Bai Ye turned around and bumped right into a semi-transparent phantom.

Chiyo's afterimage had somehow solidified beside him, her withered fingers gripping his wrist tightly, her nails almost piercing his skin. "It's the 'seed' that Hyuga Ryusuke planted twenty years ago."

"Grandma Chiyo?" Byakuya's pupils contracted sharply.

He remembered that when the Blood Moon collapsed, Chiyo's soul had already scattered into golden dust. Now, this afterimage, with its eerie blue cracks at the edges, was clearly a forcibly condensed soul. "How could you..."

"No time to explain!" Chiyo's voice was hoarse like a broken bellows. Her other hand suddenly pointed to the dome of the underground palace—Mei Terumi had somehow leaped onto a broken pillar, her light blue chakra condensing into a blade in her palm. "Watch your step!"

Before she could finish speaking, Mei Terumi's water-style technique slashed down like a silver dragon. With a deafening boom, dust billowed from beneath the shattered bluestone slabs, and hundreds of bronze puppets burst forth from the ground.

The dark patterns at their joints glowed with a ghostly green light, each one flashing in sync with the bronze pendant around Bai Ye's neck, as if strung together by an invisible thread to form a resonant string.

"The ultimate vessel for a puppeteer requires the chakra resonance of twin hosts."

A sinister male voice, mixed with the sound of gears grinding, exploded out, and Bai Ye suddenly looked up.

The bronze puppet at the head opened its jaws, and Hyuga Ryusuke's voice seeped out from its metal throat, "Do you really think the souls of the Kazekage of the past can rest in peace?"

Their chakra was sealed into the puppet's core long ago, now—"

"Now it's your turn to be the sacrifice!"

In an instant, Byakuya formed hand seals, and the First Hokage's Wood Release chakra surged throughout his body like molten lava.

His Wood Dragon Technique twisted in mid-air—the bronze puppets in the front row simultaneously formed Wind Release seals, and the yellow sand of the Sandstorm Burial wrapped around the branches of the Wood Dragon, reflecting the attack back intact.

"It's the Kazekage's battle memories!" Kakashi's Sharingan darted around, his Lightning Blade hovering in his palm but hesitating to strike. "These puppets are mimicking the ninjutsu trajectories of past Kazekage. Your Wood Release and their Wind Release... are they resonating?"

resonance.

Bai Ye suddenly remembered the burning sensation that had cramped up her neck and spread through her veins.

He looked down at the pendant, where the newly engraved words "Ninjas never betray their beliefs" were now burning hot. The dark patterns on the bronze puppet's joints perfectly matched the engravings on the inside of the pendant—this was no coincidence, but a double mark that Hyuga Ryusuke had planted long ago!

"Use my puppetry core to temporarily disrupt the resonance frequency!"

Chiyo's scream pierced her eardrums.

The moment Bai Ye turned his head, he saw her illusory fingertips flick out silvery puppet threads. Those threads, which should have been transparent, were now tinged with blood red, and they actually pierced into his illusory heart.

The afterimage's body began to disintegrate, but a ghostly blue light surged from the wounds, covering the nearest bronze puppet like a large net.

"Grandma!" Bai Ye rushed over to pull her, but only touched a wisp of mist that was gradually dissipating.

Chiyo's face suddenly became clear before it collapsed. Her sharp edge as the "Number One Puppet Master of Sunagakure" in her youth pierced through the cracks in her remnant soul. "Ryusuke wants to lock the Kazekage's chakra and Wood Release chakra into the puppet to create an immortal weapon of war!"

Your fusion emblem... is the key he needs!

Chapter 669 Research on Illusion Antidote

The bronze golems suddenly let out a piercing shriek.

The puppets shrouded in Chiyo's phantom moved noticeably sluggishly, and the dark green patterns on their joints turned into a murky gray-black. However, more puppets crawled out of the underground palace and surrounded the group.

Mei Terumi unleashed her Water Mirror Technique around her, reflecting hundreds of empty bronze eyes; Kakashi's Lightning Blade finally struck, but was sucked into the joint markings the instant it touched the puppet, disappearing without a trace.

"The chakra was absorbed?" Cold sweat beaded on Mei Terumi's forehead. The Water Dragon Bullet she unleashed disintegrated into tiny droplets the instant it touched the puppets. "These puppets... are absorbing ninjutsu?"

Bai Ye's nape was burning hot, almost to the point of smoking.

He could clearly feel the veins beneath the fusion emblem throbbing, each throbbing synchronized with the rotation of the bronze golem's gears.

When Ryusuke Hinata's voice rang out again, he could even hear the other's cold laughter hidden behind the puppet horde: "Don't rush, wait until the resonance reaches the critical point... you will see with your own eyes what a true puppet tide is."

An even more violent tremor came from deep within the underground palace.

Byakuya's Wood Release chakra surged out uncontrollably. He hurriedly bit his tongue, the blood exploding in his mouth, and finally managed to calm himself down.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Chiyo's afterimage had completely dissipated, leaving only a blood-stained puppet thread on the ground—the pattern on the thread's tail was exactly the same as the fusion emblem on his neck.

“So… you knew all along,” Bai Ye said softly.

He picked up the piece of puppet silk, and the moment his fingertips touched the end of the silk, the entire underground palace suddenly shook violently.

The central group of bronze golems began to separate to both sides, revealing a newly opened crack in the ground. From the dark crack, one could hear the sound of some creature swallowing its saliva.

"Byakuya!" Mei Terumi's water mirror suddenly shattered. "Watch out behind you—"

Before he could finish speaking, all the bronze golems simultaneously turned their heads toward the crack in the center of the underground palace.

In their hollow eye sockets, the dark green patterns suddenly turned into a glaring scarlet.

Deep within the crack, something was climbing upwards. Amidst the sound of metal scraping against the stone wall, a hoarse yet excited laugh rang out: "Finally... this day has come." The metallic scraping sound in the underground palace crack suddenly rose to a sharp buzzing sound, and a hunched figure was lifted to the surface by the mechanical arm of a bronze puppet.

Ryusuke Hinata's left eye was completely covered by gear patterns, with dark bronze metal spreading from the eye socket to half of his face, and tiny transmission chains could be vaguely seen wriggling under his skin.

His withered right hand gripped a half-bronze fragment tightly, and what seeped from between his fingers was not blood, but a ghostly green puppet lubricant.

"Why do you think Chiyo researched antidotes for illusions?" His hoarse laughter mingled with the grinding of gears. "She knew all along that puppetization was the only way to sever your connection with Madara—"

The words stopped abruptly.

The bronze puppet in the front row suddenly twisted its neck, its empty eye sockets aimed at his throat.

The once docile mechanical figures, now puppets with their strings removed, had their dark green patterns at the joints turn scarlet. Hundreds of bronze arms rose simultaneously, and poisoned kunai sparked against the stone wall.

"Do not!

You should be attacking Bai Ye!

It was the one with Wood Release chakra—"Hyuga Ryusuke staggered backward, crushing half of the puppet's remains beneath his feet.

His scream was drowned out by the clanging of metal as the nearest puppet swung its bronze arm blade, slashing a deep, bone-revealing wound into his left shoulder.

Chapter 670 Water Mirror - Tornado Breakthrough

Lubricating oil mixed with dark red blood gushed out. As he staggered backward, clutching his wound, he knocked over the offering table, scattering the spirit tablets of past Feng Ying all over the ground.

The fusion emblem on the back of White Night's neck was so hot it almost burned through her skin.

He stared at the bronze pendant on his chest—the pendant, engraved with "Ninjas Never Betray Their Beliefs," was trembling violently, as if pulled by some gravitational force to break through his clothes. "Wait!" He instinctively reached for the pendant, only to see an invisible force suddenly shoot out from the core of the puppet array, wrapping around the pendant like a steel cable, and snapping the silver chain with a "crack."

The bronze pendant flew through the air toward the center of the underground palace, and wherever it passed, the dark patterns on the joints of all the puppets shimmered with a golden-red luster.

Byakuya's Wood Release chakra surged uncontrollably along the broken chain. He could clearly feel the First Hokage's power being drawn away—the purest life energy he inherited from Hashirama's cells when he fused the Senju and Uchiha bloodlines.

"Don't let the puppet absorb the First Hokage's chakra!"

That was reserved by Madara—Chiyo's remnant soul suddenly condensed from the void, her figure was even fainter than before, almost transparent and about to melt into the stone wall, "Quickly use your blood!"

Only the Uchiha...

Before he could finish speaking, the puppet in the very center suddenly opened its scarlet eyes.

Two beams of blood shot out from her eye sockets, piercing precisely through Chiyo's remnant soul.

The phantom emitted a piercing shriek and instantly disintegrated into countless tiny golden grains. One of these grains landed on the back of Bai Ye's hand, burning him so much that he gasped for breath.

"Water Mirror - Tornado Break!" Mei Terumi's shout pierced through the chaos.

Her light blue chakra was almost transparent, clearly indicating that she had overexerted herself—just now, in order to protect Kakashi, she had taken three water jutsu attacks that were deflected by the puppet.

At this moment, she formed a dragon seal with both hands, and the water mirror behind her shattered simultaneously, sending hundreds of water tornadoes swirling towards the puppet group from all directions.

The bronze puppet shattered in the water blades, its gears and joint parts falling like rain.

As the last puppet's head was shredded into scrap metal by the waterspout, Byakuya's gaze swept across the center of the underground palace—Hyuga Ryusuke was kneeling amidst the wreckage, half of his face completely metallic, while the other half was turning to sand at a visible speed.

"Believe... Gaara..."

A hoarse whisper mixed with the sound of sand rubbing together.

Ryosuke Hyuga's body suddenly disintegrated into golden quicksand. The grains of sand briefly coalesced in the air, forming a line of crooked characters.

Byakuya's pupils suddenly contracted—this was Chiyo's most proficient Golden Sand technique, but as a member of the Hyuga clan, it was impossible for Hyuga Ryusuke to master both the puppet and Golden Sand techniques of Sunagakure!

"boom!"

Large chunks of rock suddenly fell from the dome of the underground palace.

Bai Ye instinctively spun around to dodge, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw half of Obito's spiral-patterned mask being reassembled at the core of the puppet array.

The broken pottery shards floated in the air, slowly pieced together by some kind of black chakra. From the black mist overflowing from the eye holes, one could vaguely see the crimson three-tomoe jades rotating.

"That's... Kamui's chakra?" Kakashi's Sharingan suddenly throbbed with pain. He staggered, grabbing onto a broken pillar for support. "Impossible, Obito was already..."

The words were abruptly cut off by a muffled thud.

Bai Ye suddenly felt a tightness around his waist—the broken bronze pendant had flown back at some point and wrapped around his waist with the remaining silver chain.

Even more bizarrely, the golden quicksand that had crumbled from Hyuga Ryusuke was frantically gathering, forming a vortex beneath his feet.

The sand clung to his calves as it climbed upwards, eventually carrying him toward the broken wall of the underground palace.

"Baiye!" Terumi tried to pull him back, but was thrown against the stone wall by a sudden sandstorm.

She coughed up blood, and as she struggled to lift her head, she saw the figure of Bai Ye, enveloped in golden quicksand, crash through the broken wall. Amidst the flying debris, she could vaguely hear a deafening roar coming from afar—it was the direction of Sunagakure, the direction of Kazekage-ro.

Chapter 671 The Child of the Cursed Seal

As the gravel whistled past his ears, Bai Ye's fingernails almost dug into his palms.

He could clearly feel the silver chain wrapped around his waist oozing corrosive chakra, and every inch of his skin covered in gold dust felt like it was being roasted on fire—this was not an ordinary sand concealment technique at all, but more like some kind of living thing gnawing at his flesh.

"boom!"

The broken wall collapsed behind him, and Bai Ye was thrown into a messy courtyard.

The eaves of Fengying Tower were within reach, yet his feet still uncontrollably dragged the swirling golden sand forward.

The moment he looked up, he saw Gaara kneeling in the corridor.