Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

The former Kazekage, who always wore a red robe, was now soaked to the bone. The Shukaku mark on his forehead shone with an eerie purple hue, and what surged in his right eye socket was not the familiar yellow sand, but a scarlet vortex—the pattern of which resembled the Uchiha's Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, but with a few strands of gold thread wrapped around it.

"His right eye is mimicking the Eternal Kaleidoscope!"

A hoarse female voice suddenly rang out in my mind.

Bai Ye turned around abruptly and saw Chiyo's remnant soul piercing through the golden sand barrier. Her fingertips, glistening with fine gold dust, were pointing at Gaara's nape: "Quickly, lift up his collar!"

The reminder sent a jolt through Bai Ye.

He twisted his wrist forcefully, his fingernails scratching his palm and drawing blood, using the weight of the blood droplets to break free from his restraints.

The moment his fingertips touched Gaara's nape, he was struck dumb—there were dark patterns beneath that skin, and the patterns were exactly the same as the fusion emblem on his left chest!

"Ding--"

The sound of something cutting through the air arrived before the killing intent.

Asuma's shuriken grazed Byakuya's ear and embedded itself in a pillar, the sealing runes on the blade gleaming with a faint blue light.

Byakuya instinctively pushed Gaara towards the pile of puppet wreckage, his words caught in his throat: "Konoha's Anbu started twenty years ago..."

The words stopped abruptly.

He saw Asuma's pupils suddenly shrink to pinpoints, and the Dark Squad leader's body stiffen in place, his shuriken still held in his half-raised palm—in the void behind him, half of a spiral-patterned mask was emerging from the black mist, and the three-tomoe Sharingan reflected Asuma's pale face.

"Obito?" Asuma's Adam's apple bobbed, his voice trembling.

As a Jonin who had experienced the Third Shinobi World War, he knew that mask all too well. "Impossible...you should have..."

"puff!"

Changes occur suddenly.

The golden sand at Gaara's feet suddenly split into two streams. One stream, wrapped with dark red blood droplets, pierced through Byakuya's heart, while the other, like a venomous snake, coiled around Asuma's throat.

Bai Ye spun around to avoid it, but felt a burning sensation as the sand grazed his ribs. Looking down, he saw that his skin under his clothes had turned purple.

Asuma reacted extremely quickly, forming hand seals with his left hand to summon a chakra blade and sever the sand flow, while his right hand remained fixed on the half-mask.

"The cursed seal is alive!" Chiyo's remnant soul trembled violently in the sandstorm, her body disintegrating into puppet threads. "It's searching for a twin host..."

Before he could finish speaking, the last strand of gold dust was swallowed by the blood bead.

Byakuya's gaze returned to Gaara, the silent man now curled up with his head in his hands, inhuman whimpers escaping his throat.

The emblem on the back of his neck became clearer and clearer, and it began to resonate with the mark on Bai Ye's left chest—it felt like ants were crawling under his skin, the bronze pendant suddenly became hot, and the silver chain against his waist vibrated slightly.

"Click."

A very faint cracking sound.

Bai Ye looked down and saw the bronze patterns on the pendant slowly unfolding, with a few strands of gold dust being absorbed into the gaps and condensing into tiny scales on the metal surface.

Just as he was about to touch it, a deafening roar suddenly came from afar—it was from the direction of the center of Sunagakure Village, where the head of the Shukaku statue was cracking, and half of a pitch-black mechanical arm was vaguely visible in the yellow sand.

Gaara's sobs turned into roars.

Bai Ye felt the silver chain around his waist suddenly tighten, and the pendant vibrated more violently, as if something was awakening from the metal.

He gazed at the crest on Gaara's neck that echoed his own, then at Obito's mask, which was being reassembled, and a bitter feeling rose in his throat—it turned out that all the assassinations that started from the Daimyo's residence in the Land of Fire were just a prelude; the real game had only just begun.

At this moment, the bronze pendant wrapped around his waist was greedily absorbing the gold dust in the air, and the armor plates gleamed coldly in the moonlight, as if waiting for a certain moment to fully awaken.

The bronze pendant trembled like a living thing at Byakuya's waist, and as the armor plates climbed up the silver chain to the back of his hand, his fingertips just touched the curse mark on Gaara's nape.

The stinging sensation came first, before the feeling of rejection.

Chapter 672 The Hidden River

Like two magnets repelling each other, the force exploded from the point of contact. Byakuya was jolted back two steps, and the blood that seeped from his fingertip instantly solidified into dark red crystals the moment it touched Gaara's skin.

Gaara's sob suddenly rose, the gears in his right eye socket clicked, and the originally scarlet vortex began to glow with the same cold light as the bronze pendant—a metallic luster that did not belong to any known chakra attribute.

"Rachel!"

Asma's roar tore through the air.

The Dark Squad Captain's right hand was completely covered in blue electricity. He stared at the bronze puppet arm that had suddenly grown out of Gaara's side, which was stabbing toward Byakuya's back in a strange arc.

The moment the Lightning Blade struck, Byakuya saw the patterns on the surface of the puppet's arm—the joint structure was exactly the same as that of the damaged puppet in the secret chamber of the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire. When the Lightning Blade severed the arm bone, what seeped out of the cut surface was not machine oil or chakra, but cell tissue with a bluish-gold fluorescence.

"This is..." Asuma's pupils contracted sharply, and the electricity from Raikiri crackled at his fingertips, "Hashirama cells!"

Bai Ye's breath hitched.

He had seen the First Hokage's cell sample that Tsunade had shown him; that life energy, capable of autonomous proliferation, was now gushing out from the broken end and condensing into tiny tree buds on the ground.

Gaara suddenly raised his head, the Sharingan in his left eye socket and the gears in his right eye socket turning simultaneously, two lines of bloody tears sliding down his pale cheeks: "The vessel... needs a living person to continue the story..."

"follow me!"

Chiyo's remnant soul suddenly pierced through Byakuya's chest, and her hand transformed into a golden sand chain that wrapped around his wrist.

Bai Ye was pulled and staggered, but the moment he touched her remnant soul, he heard a faint cracking sound—this was the last time she would manifest. "The underground palace waterway!" the old advisor's voice was hoarse, like metal scraping, "When Luo Sha built the altar for Shukaku, he buried an underground river beneath the statue!"

The stench from the water's surface first rushed into my nasal cavity.

When Bai Ye was dragged into the waist-deep waterway, dirty water mixed with blood and sand was still dripping from her forehead.

Chiyo's lingering soul gradually became transparent beside him, yet she still used gold sand to draw ripples on the water's surface.

The moment the ripples spread, the image in the reflection began to distort—a young Gaara, no more than ten years old, stood barefoot in the center of the altar, opposite him was Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, wearing a Konoha headband.

“...Father said the vessel needs to be twins.” Gaara’s voice was choked with childish sobs. “But Shukaku is clearly only one.”

Hashirama's palm pressed on his head, and the Sage Chakra behind him surged like green flames: "It's not a vessel for a Tailed Beast, but a different kind of vessel."

The puppeteer's ultimate ritual requires a living person to continue the bloodline, just like when Madara Uchiha used Hashirama's cells to revive him...

The water surface suddenly exploded.

Chiyo's remnant soul completely disintegrated into golden dust. As the last grain of sand brushed past Byakuya's ear, he heard her whisper, "Stop the fusion... Twin sacrifice..."

When it resurfaced, the moonlight had changed direction.

Bai Ye wiped the water off his face and looked up to see the entire sky of Sunagakure shrouded in blood—Gaara stood on the ruins of the Shukaku statue, his left Sharingan and right Gear Eye spitting out streams of golden-red sand. Countless cracks appeared in the ground beneath his feet, and countless puppet arms emerged from the ground, each joint of which was embedded with a bud cultivated from Hashirama cells.

"The ultimate ritual of a puppeteer requires the blood of twin sacrifices." Gaara's voice became androgynous, as if a man and a woman were speaking at the same time. "The bronze pendant on your body is a key forged by the First Hokage using the bloodlines of the Senju, Uchiha, and Sunagakure clans."

And he… “His right hand pointed to Asuma,”—the fuse Konoha had buried for twenty years.

Asuma's chakra blade burned in his palm as he stared at the group of puppets reassembling beneath Gaara's feet—the broken puppet limbs were merging, gradually outlining a tall figure: wide robes, wooden clogs, and Sage Chakra floating behind him, clearly the silhouette of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju.

The bronze pendant in the white night suddenly became incredibly hot.

The armor plates had covered his entire arm, and the patterns on the pendant's surface were fully unfolded, revealing half of a magatama embedded inside—which fit perfectly with the outline of the curse mark on Gaara's neck.

He could hear a heartbeat coming from inside the metal, one beat, two beats, resonating with Gaara's pulse.

"coming soon."

The whispers of the white night were torn apart by the sound of the wind.

Just as the phantom of the first generation was about to touch Gaara's head, the golden sand on the ground suddenly began to boil.

The sand grains, stained lapis lazuli by the Hashirama cells, were visibly fading back to pure gold, coalescing at the feet of the phantom into the rudimentary shape of a throne—a hollowed-out backrest, armrests inlaid with Shukaku scales, and at the very top, a half-full magatama-shaped indentation.

Chapter 673 Eternity and the Final Throne

The moonlight was shattered by the blood-red clouds, and the First Hokage's illusory knee slammed heavily into the ground, causing the ruins of Sunagakure to crumble and dust to fall.

Golden quicksand surged across the cracked earth, wrapping around the illusory figure's waist and abdomen as if it were alive, and in the blink of an eye, it piled up an openwork chair back—a pattern even older than the Shukaku statue, each engraving oozing dark red, like congealed blood.

"That's the Puppet Master's 'Eternal Throne'!"

A hoarse female voice pierced the sound of the wind.

Bai Ye abruptly turned his head and saw that Chiyo's remnant soul was no longer transparent; the golden sand beneath her feet solidified, and her withered fingers gripped his wrist tightly. "She needs a twin host—"

The words stopped abruptly.

A burning sensation suddenly shot through the back of Bai Ye's neck. The fusion emblem crawled across his collarbone as if it were alive, and golden blood seeped into the sand along the patterns. When it connected with the golden sand patterns on the throne, the ground of the entire Sunagakure village trembled.

He gritted his teeth and grabbed Chiyo's arm, only to find that he was no longer touching nothingness, but skin as warm as old tree bark—this was impossible, the remnant soul should have dissipated long ago.

"My father's puppetry never requires living people!"

Luo Sha's roar exploded from the ground.

By the time Bai Ye caught a glimpse of the golden sand suddenly rising up, like a sharp blade cleaving through the blood cloud. Reddish-brown chakra gushed out from the sand grains, condensing into the phantom of the Fourth Kazekage.

Rasa's forehead ornament was askew, and her eyes were red-rimmed. "Chiyo, what did you hide back then?"

Just as the phantom's hand was about to touch the throne, Gaara's pupils suddenly burst forth with dazzling golden light.

Two crimson beams of light pierced through the clouds, one piercing Bai Ye's left shoulder and the other going straight into the core of the throne.

The excruciating pain caused Bai Ye to stagger half a step, but he heard a cracking sound as if his bones were dislocating—the pillar of light contained tiny wood buds, which were interstitial cells!

He ripped off the bronze pendant with his backhand, and half of the magatama shone brightly at the same time as the curse mark on Gaara's neck, the sound of his heartbeat making his eardrums ache.

"Madara engraved the contract into the cells of the First Hokage!" Chiyo's nails almost dug into Byakuya's flesh, her long golden hair moving without wind. "The bet between Hashirama and Madara back then was not a reconciliation, but a life-extending act with their bloodlines!"

You and I, Ai-Luo... are the vessels they chose!

"Water Mirror: A Panoramic View!"

Mei Terumi's sudden shout startled everyone.

The Mizukage of Kirigakure knelt on one knee, his palm pressed to the ground, and pale blue chakra spread like a spider web, instantly causing dozens of water mirrors to rise from the ground.

Each mirror reflects a different scene: the blood pact between the First Hokage and Madara at the Valley of the End, the spells sealed by the successive Kazekage with sand, and even the scene of Byakuya being stuffed into a bronze pendant as a child—it turns out that the pendant was not a talisman at all, but a key.

"So Gaara's twin eyes..." Asuma's chakra blade flickered as he stared at the image of ten-year-old Gaara on the altar in the water mirror. "The twin sacrifices back then weren't vessels for tailed beasts, but were prepared for this broken throne?"

Bai Ye's breathing suddenly became rapid.

He could feel two forces tearing at his body: one was the vitality brought by Hashirama's cells, which crawled into his heart like vines; the other was the cursed power in the golden sand, which surged into his brain along with his blood.

Even more terrifying, the phantom of the First Generation beneath Gaara's feet was fading, and half of the magatama on the throne was beginning to float automatically, drawn closer to the opening by some force.

"Byakuya!" Mei Terumi suddenly grabbed him by the back of his collar. The water mirror reflected the blood seeping from the Shukaku scales on the throne armrest. "That thing is draining your chakra!"

Chapter 674 I've Always Been Inside the Puppet

Gaara's consciousness... is fading!

Byakuya looked up at Gaara.

The boy's eyes had lost their former resilience, leaving only an empty crimson. Golden-red sand flowed from his seven orifices, condensing into a giant sand hand behind him, which was slowly pressing towards the indentation at the top of the throne.

At this moment, Rasa's phantom knelt down, and fine sand particles floated in his reddish-brown chakra. It was clearly the "Grave Guardian Seal" passed down from generation to generation by the Kazekage—it turned out that he had known about this ritual all along, but chose to keep it a secret.

“Grandma Chiyo…” Bai Ye looked down at the old woman who was still clutching him, and suddenly noticed that her golden sand was fading. “You said you wanted to stop the fusion… Is it too late now?”

Chiyo's eyes suddenly welled up with tears.

Gold dust leaked from between her fingers and drew a tiny array at their feet. "Use your blood to irrigate this array... to temporarily sever the connection between the throne and Gaara."

But then... "Her voice grew weaker and weaker," Madara's backup plan was among the puppets... be careful of Obito...

Before she could finish speaking, Chiyo's body suddenly disintegrated into golden dust.

Bai Ye instinctively reached out to grab it, but only grasped a handful of warm sand.

At almost the same time, the concave jewel on the throne suddenly emitted a dazzling golden light—his half of the jewel had floated above the gap, just three inches away from being completely fitted.

A rumbling, thunderous tremor came from the ground.

Bai Ye looked down and saw the golden sand on the throne flowing, wrapping around his ankles like a living thing.

In the distance, the puppet remains that should have formed the original phantom were rearranging themselves, and the budding cells at the joints suddenly grew wildly, outlining a silhouette wearing a vortex mask in the blood cloud.

"coming soon..."

Byakuya bit his tongue, and the sweet, metallic blood mixed with gold dust was sprinkled onto the array drawn by Chiyo.

The moment the array glowed blue, he heard Gaara's roar pierce through the blood clouds, and he also heard the crisp sound of chains breaking inside the throne.

But what was even clearer was the low laughter coming from the group of puppets, with a familiar hoarseness: "After waiting for so long, it's finally about to begin."

Suddenly, gold dust surged in like a tidal wave.