Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

"My puppet eye can temporarily seal it—" As he raised his hand, the mechanical gears in his left eye suddenly shattered, and dark purple chakra mixed with tiny grains of sand surged out, "Catch!"

Bai Ye instinctively raised her hand.

The moment the gear struck his forehead, a blinding golden light exploded before his eyes.

Wood Release chakra surged uncontrollably from his palms, growing wildly into vines on the ground. Rasa's puppet eyes, like red-hot branding irons, etched some scorching incantation into his consciousness—a Sand Concealment technique that only the successive Kazekage could perceive, the contents of a scroll inscribed with the word "inheritance" that Chiyo's grandmother had secretly placed in the puppet's abdomen when he was twelve years old.

"Snapped."

The scroll unfurled automatically in his palm.

The golden blood stopped flowing and instead began to condense into tiny runes, which climbed up his arms to his neck and finally covered his entire body.

Obito's black rod grazed past his ear, but sparks flew the instant it touched the golden emblem—the emblem wasn't chakra, but more like some kind of living creature that could devour and attack.

"The twin containers are ready..."

Chapter 683 The Body is Also a Puppet

The phantom images of past Shadow Souls suddenly emerged from the core of the throne.

The Third Tsuchikage's rock helmet, the Second Mizukage's steam, the First Raikage's lightning, and even Madara Uchiha's flames—their voices overlapped, causing rubble from the underground palace's dome to fall like a torrential rain.

Obito's Mangekyou Sharingan trembled violently, the tomoe on his Sharingan nearly shattering. He abruptly took two steps back, black Zetsu tentacles forming a barrier behind him: "Impossible... this resonance frequency..."

"white night!"

Gaara's shouts mingled with the roar of the sandstorm.

The moment Byakuya turned his head, the golden light from the mechanical eye blinded him—it wasn't ordinary chakra, but the chakra of a tailed beast, carrying the temperature of magma, belonging only to the Jinchūriki of Shukaku.

Golden sand seeped from the boy's fingertips, and the force of the sand flowing around his waist and abdomen suddenly increased, as if it wanted to knead his whole body into the sand.

"Watch out!" Suikyo suddenly appeared beside the two of them, and Mei Terumi's water blade pierced through Obito's barrier. "That Sand Stream... the chakra fluctuations are wrong!"

Bai Ye's heart skipped a beat.

He could feel Gaara's chakra surging in the sand, like a wild beast being awakened.

The boy's mechanical eyes, which should have been a cold, hard metallic color, were now tinged with an eerie crimson, echoing Obito's Sharingan.

And in their overlapping shadows, a third golden line is growing—it is the fusion of the Hashirama Crest and the Sand Village Puppet Technique, the answer about the "true Sand Village" that Grandma Chiyo had placed in his arms before her death.

An even more violent tremor came from the depths of the underground palace.

Obito's laughter was drowned out by the sound of falling pebbles, while Gaara's sandstorm, enveloping the white night, was slowly turning towards the Bronze Throne.

The boy's mechanical eyes reflected the light from the core of the throne, and something was awakening within that light, like a covenant that had been dormant for a thousand years, finally finding its key.

"Gaara?" Byakuya called to him softly.

The sand suddenly tightened, almost breaking his ribs.

The boy's voice, mixed with the screeching sound of sand rubbing together, was so low it seemed to come from underground: "Look... the real Sand Village."

Those were Chiyo's last words before she passed away.

Behind them, Obito's Mangekyou Sharingan suddenly cracked with crimson color.

The moment Gaara's sandstorm swept Byakuya towards the Bronze Throne, Byakuya's ribs were almost crushed to pieces.

Sparks flew from the metal shell of the boy's mechanical eye amidst the violent vibrations, and the puppet gear of his left eye snapped off, landing at his feet with dark purple chakra—it was a legacy item that Rasa had nurtured for twenty years with the soul of the Kazekage.

"The cursed seal requires... the heartbeat of a living person." Gaara's voice was like a piece of iron polished with sandpaper, and he coughed up golden dust with every word he spoke.

Bai Ye then noticed that the patterns on the boy's neck vibrated in sync with the emblem on the back of his own neck, and two golden chains of light pierced through their hearts, intertwining into a spiral in mid-air.

He instinctively pressed his hand to his chest, the sound of his heartbeat beneath his palm making his eardrums ache—it wasn't his own, it was Gaara's.

The two hearts were beating at the same frequency, like two war drums being struck at the same time.

"This is... Twin Resonance?" Bai Ye felt a bitter taste in his throat.

He remembered what Grandma Chiyo had once said: true puppetry is not about manipulating inanimate objects, but about making the souls of living people resonate.

At this moment, amidst the overlapping heartbeats of the two, he could clearly hear the faint sound of Gaara's blood flowing, the rumbling of the Tsurugi-no-T ...

Chapter 684 It's Your Choice

"Grandma!" Rasa's spirit suddenly pierced through the sand flow and reached out to grab Gaara's detached mechanical eye.

But Chiyo's afterimage was even faster—the old woman's fingertips, made of golden sand, condensed into the last puppet thread, which "hissed" into the crevice at the bottom of the throne.

Spiderweb-like cracks immediately appeared on the bronze surface, and a low laugh came from the depths of the underground palace, like a rusty sword scraping against rock: "You will never understand what true eternity is."

That was Madara Uchiha's voice.

The Hashirama crest on the back of Byakuya's neck suddenly burned. He looked up and saw the phantom of the First Hokage disintegrating—golden chakra turned into quicksand, enveloping the core of the throne. The First Hokage's face and Chiyo's afterimage overlapped for a moment, as if two wise men from different times had completed some kind of dialogue at the last moment.

When the golden sands dispersed, the bronze throne was gone.

Seven pitch-black wooden coffins were arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper in the center of the underground palace. The coffin lids were engraved with the marks of the Kage of each generation: the wood release pattern of Hashirama Senju, the fire fan of Madara Uchiha, the rock helmet of the Third Tsuchikage... In the very center of the open space, a line of blood-red characters was seeping from the ground, as if they were branded on stroke by stroke with the blood of a living person: "Ninja, live in the present."

“This is…” Gaara’s sand flow suddenly loosened, and Byakuya staggered and grabbed the nearest coffin.

The engravings on the surface of the wooden coffin were burning hot in his palm, resonating with the Wood Release chakra within his body.

He turned to look at Gaara, the crimson of the boy's mechanical eyes fading back to the familiar dark gold, as he looked up at the dome of the underground palace—a crack had appeared there at some point, letting in moonlight.

But that wasn't ordinary moonlight.

A new golden moon is rising in the sky towards Sunagakure.

It was smaller than the original moon, but it was blindingly bright. In the halo, Obito's outline could be vaguely seen: his Mangekyou Sharingan was shattered into pieces, his black Zetsu tentacles hung down like charred vines, and that sinister smile still lingered on his lips.

“That’s…” Gaara’s voice trembled, “and the other dimension that attacked the village before…”

"It's Obito's technique." Byakuya clenched his fist.

He could feel tiny fragments of spacetime floating in the air, like crumpled pieces of paper.

The light from the golden moon fell on the seven coffins, and the engravings suddenly lit up, as if responding to some kind of summons.

The words written in blood were placed in the very center of the empty coffin, their red color glistening with moisture, as if they had just been written.

Bai Ye's gaze swept over the line of words, and his Adam's apple bobbed—he thought of the "contract" that the first generation had not finished speaking before his death, the "inheritance" scroll that Grandma Chiyo stuffed into the puppet's abdomen, and the Sand Concealment Technique that Rasa used to carve into his sea of ​​consciousness with the puppet's eyes.

All the fragments pieced together a blurry shape in his mind, while the line of blood-red words, like a key, was gently knocking on the door of his heart.

Gaara suddenly grabbed his wrist: "Brother, those blood words... are glowing."

Bai Ye lowered his head.

Unbeknownst to him, a layer of fine gold dust rose from the surface of the blood-red characters, flickering with his heartbeat.

He stretched out his hand, and when his fingertips were still three inches away from the blood-red words, ripples suddenly appeared in the air, as if someone had thrown a pebble into the unseen water.

"white night."

The call was soft, yet it struck his heart like a hammer blow.

He looked up and saw the phantom of the First Hokage reappear—this time without gold dust or chakra light, just the appearance of an ordinary old man, with the gentle look he had seen in the stone statue in the village history museum. "It's time for you to make a choice."

The golden light from the blood-red lettering suddenly intensified, stinging his eyes.

Chapter 685 The Essence of Puppetry

From the cracks in the dome of the underground palace, the light of the golden moon flowed down like liquid metal.

Bai Ye's fingertips were still three inches away from the blood-red words when the air suddenly rippled like water. The echo of "It's your turn to make a choice" still lingered in his ears, and the gold dust on the surface of the blood-red words rose up as if alive, condensing into tiny runes in mid-air.

"Close your eyes!" Gaara's sand stream suddenly wrapped around his waist and pulled him to the side.

The boy's mechanical eyes regained their crimson hue, reflecting the dome in his pupils—the golden runes were weaving a massive curse seal above Sunagakure, centered on the moon. Each line resembled a chain scorched by fire, crashing down with a burnt smell.

Bai Ye's back slammed against the coffin engraved with the Third Tsuchikage's Rock Helmet. The engravings on the surface of the coffin suddenly became hot, burning his shoulder blades.

He then realized with a start that he was covered in a cold sweat, his hair stuck to his forehead, and even his breathing was trembling: "This is... the first generation's sealing technique?"

"It's worse than that."

A hoarse female voice came from above.

Bai Ye looked up and saw a semi-transparent figure emerging from the shadow of the coffin—it was Chiyo.

Her silver hair was no longer tied up with a red ribbon, but scattered into a misty silver veil, and the puppet prosthetic eye in her left eye gleamed with a ghostly blue light. "That's a backlash."

The First Hokage used Wood Release to seal the core of the Puppet Throne, but the seal would wear down over time, like... like trying to wrap fire in rags. "She reached out, her fingertips piercing through Bai Ye's shoulder, yet precisely grabbing his wrist and pulling him into the crack in the underground palace," The Moon Wheel technique was triggered by Obito's space-time jutsu, and now the backlash was threatening to unleash all the power of the seal!

The crack was so narrow that only one person could squeeze through sideways. When Byakuya was half-pushed and half-pulled into it by Chiyo, his lower back scraped against the rough stone wall, causing him to gasp in pain.

But the pain was even worse between his eyebrows—Luo Sha's voice suddenly exploded in his mind, like sand rubbing against glass: "Don't move!"

Quicksand surged from the cracks in the ground, enveloping a translucent, crimson-gold figure.

Rasa's right cheek still bore the scar from Orochimaru's assassination attempt, but his left eye shone with an astonishing light, a resolute brilliance befitting the Kazekage: "The Wood Release within you is resonating with the coffin; if this continues, you'll be drained into a dried-up corpse." He raised his hand, cradling half a pitch-black puppet eye in his palm, the pupil swirling with the unique Magnet Release patterns of Sunagakure. "This is a spirit I nurtured with half a lifetime's worth of chakra; it can temporarily suppress the resonance."

Before Bai Ye could react, Luo Sha's hand was already pressed against his brow.

The excruciating pain was like steel needles piercing his mind. Countless fragments flashed before Bai Ye's eyes: the puppet workshop in the desert, the ancient scrolls eroded by the wind, and the smile that Luo Sha had hidden in his sleeve when he first used the Sand Concealment Technique.

He staggered and clung to the stone wall, blood seeping from under his fingernails, when he heard Rasa's voice grow distant: "Remember, the essence of puppetry... is control."

Before he finished speaking, the golden emblem suddenly spread from his heart to his entire body.

It was the spiral pattern of the First Hokage's Wood Release mixed with the wind pattern of the Sand Village, moving like a living thing under his skin.

Bai Ye looked down and saw that the engravings on the seven coffins on the ground were echoing this emblem—the wood release pattern of Senju Hashirama sprouted green shoots, the fire fan of Uchiha Madara rose with ghostly flames, and even the stone helmet of the Third Tsuchikage cracked open, seeping out yellowish-brown chakra.

"Oh no." Chiyo's phantom suddenly faded further, her finger pointing to the center of the underground palace. "The puppet horde... is reassembling."

Bai Ye followed the tip of her finger and looked over.

The broken puppets that were originally scattered in the underground palace had somehow stood up, with blackish-red liquid seeping from their severed limbs, gluing the broken joints back together.

Chapter 686 Human Puppet - Salamander

The old puppet in the front row turned its head, and a ghostly blue light shone from its empty eye sockets—it was Chiyo's most prized "Salamander" puppet from her youth, which had long been destroyed in the battle of the Valley of the End.

“They are absorbing the power of the moon.” Chiyo’s voice trembled; this was the first time Byakuya had seen her show such panic. “The puppeteers’ pursuit of ‘eternity’... requires human sacrifice.”

The first generation sealed the core, but the backlash would transfer the cost of the seal to living beings...

"elder brother!"

Gaara's roar mingled with the rumble of the golden quicksand.

Byakuya turned his head and saw the boy's soul falling from the crack in the dome, his body wrapped in the Shukaku chakra he knew best, the sand in his hair shimmering like shattered gold in the moonlight.

His mechanical eyes turned completely gold, with runes resembling the moon swirling in his pupils. "Get out of the way!"

The vortex is going to suck your soul away!

Only then did Bai Ye notice that the blood-red characters in the center of the underground palace had somehow turned into a blood-red vortex, frantically devouring the surrounding chakra.

Chiyo's phantom had half of her sleeve torn away, and Rasa's soul was struggling on the edge of the vortex. His puppet eyes were burning hot against Byakuya's brow, so hot that he almost fainted.

"Catch!" Gaara threw the gourd from his waist, and golden quicksand wrapped around Byakuya's waist like a living dragon.

As Bai Ye was being pulled toward the rift, he caught a glimpse of the reconstructed puppets suddenly raising their arms—blurred chakra trails appeared at their joints, resembling the hand seals of past Kazekage.

Severe pain, bright light, and the stinging sensation of sand entering the throat.

When the white night crashed heavily onto the sand outside the crack, the moonlight had already turned cold and clear again.

He sat up, clutching his aching brow, and saw Gaara kneeling beside him, the gold of his mechanical eyes fading, blood seeping from his forehead.

Above the distant Sand Village, the golden moon was slowly dissipating, leaving only a few wisps of runes.

“Just now…those puppets.” Bai Ye’s voice was hoarse. He touched his brow, where the warmth of the Luo Sha puppet’s eyes still lingered. “Their movements…like they were learning something.”

Gaara wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the sand condensing into fine sand on his fingertips: "I saw it too." The boy's voice was as light as the wind, "Like...like the ninjutsu of the Kazekage of the past."

A muffled sound suddenly came from the direction of the underground palace.

Bai Ye looked up and saw that the engravings on the seven coffins had dimmed at the same time. Only the empty coffin in the middle had a faint green light seeping out—it was the First Hokage's Wood Release chakra.

He clenched his fist, the warmth of the coffin's engravings still lingering in his palm.

A familiar, profound power is awakening within me, like a giant tree that has been dormant for many years beginning to sprout new branches.