Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

His voice faded into the night wind, but the water mirror froze into ice in an instant.

When Akamaru looked up again, that icy blue figure had already blended into the clouds, leaving only a lingering echo: "One day, you will regret your decision today."

The wooden door of the abandoned shrine creaked in the night wind, and Baiye's boots crushed half of a moss-covered step.

He held the embryo fragments wrapped in black cloth in his arms. The warmth seeped into his palm through the cloth, just like the feeling when he found the scorpion puppet fragments in Amegakure three years ago.

"Here." He stopped in the center of the shrine's main hall, where moonlight streamed through the broken roof, casting a silvery circle on the bluestone slabs.

The speed at which he formed hand seals was three times slower than usual—not because he lacked chakra, but because the warmth in his palms always reminded him of the last words spoken by the First Generation's will before it dissipated: "Kid, don't trap yourself in the past."

He knelt down, and the moment the black cloth slipped off, the golden-red core shimmered with fine, shimmering light patterns under the moonlight.

The moment his fingertips touched the bluestone slab, Wood Release chakra surged from his palm like vines, outlining a complex sealing array on the ground—a technique specifically designed to seal wills, extracted from the First Hokage's memories.

"Madara's Susanoo." He uttered a low shout, and a dark red chakra giant suddenly appeared behind him, its six arms pressing against the edge of the sealing array at the same time. "First Hokage's Wood Dragon." Another ocean of chakra surged, and a green wooden dragon coiled around the outside of the array, its head lowered, forming a symmetry with Susanoo's eyes.

The moment the embryo fragment landed at the center of the formation, the earth's veins suddenly trembled.

Cold sweat beaded on Bai Ye's forehead. He could clearly feel the suction coming from underground—it was the resonance of the will of puppeteers from all generations, Sasori's notes, Chiyo's teachings, and every puppet string he had worn down over the past three years.

“Go.” He bit his fingertip, and a drop of blood dripped onto the core. “Watch over the growth of the puppetry technique for me.”

A sudden burst of golden-red light illuminated the faded shrine, the dusty offering table, and the turbulent emotions in his eyes.

When the light faded, only a shallow indentation remained on the bluestone slab, like a flower crushed by the wind.

Golden petals suddenly drifted down from the sky.

Bai Ye looked up and caught a petal; the moment the petal touched his palm, it turned into dust.

He recalled what Scorpion wrote in his last letter: "When you feel tired someday, find a place where you can see flowers and sit down." But now, standing in the shrine covered with golden petals, his mind was clearer than ever before.

When Chiyo's wooden cane struck the shrine's wooden door, the hinges emitted a dying scream.

She leaned against the doorframe, panting, the silver strands of hair at her temples ruffled by the night wind. "White!"

Chapter 792 The Border of the Snow Country

The echo struck the crumbling wall and then echoed back into her ears.

The bluestone slab in the center of the main hall gleamed coldly, and apart from that shallow mark, there was nothing else.

She staggered over, her shoe tip kicking a crumpled piece of paper—the kind of letter paper from the Land of Fire that Byakuya often used, with marks left by the puppet strings on the edges.

The moment she unfolded it, her hand trembled.

"Grandma Chiyo: "

Don't look for me.

The path of a puppeteer should not be bound by history, just as you tore up the forbidden scroll of Sunagakure back then, just as Sasori burned down his own puppet house.

I am not a hero, just someone who chose my own path.

If one day you see a masked puppeteer in the snow, please thank him for me—he taught me that some roads must be walked alone.

The letter slipped through my fingers and drifted into that shallow mark.

Chiyo crouched down and gently touched the bluestone slab with her fingertips. The warmth seeped through her calluses—it was warm, just like the boy who always argued with her earlier.

“You brat…” She sniffed, picked up the letter, folded it neatly, and stuffed it into her bosom, closest to her heart. “I’ll save the very center of the Sand Village’s puppet arsenal for you until the end of time.”

The snowstorms in the North were more intense than I had imagined.

Bai Ye pulled the mask up a little, and the broken half swayed in the wind, revealing a golden spot at the corner of her eye.

The puppet scroll in his arms was frozen stiff, and inside lay the last unfinished puppet—modeled after himself, with unfinished wooden splinters still remaining at the joints.

"The border of the Land of Snow is just ahead." He breathed on his palm, and the white mist was instantly blown away by the wind. "I heard that the snow there can bury an entire mountain."

Before he could finish speaking, half of the mask was suddenly swept away by the wind.

He watched the shattered jade disappear into the snow, and suddenly smiled.

The wind rushed into the gap in the mask, sweeping across his cheek, much like the force with which Chiyo patted his back, much like Ai's hesitant gaze at the end, much like everything he had ever protected that was now growing freely.

He lifted his foot and stepped into the knee-deep snow.

The footprints behind him were quickly covered by the fresh snow, leaving only a blurry silhouette as he walked into the depths of the snow and mist.

Unseen by him, half a shard of a mask lay on the snow, its golden spots gleaming faintly in the moonlight, like a forgotten star.

The snowflakes from the North felt like fine needles hitting his face. Bai Yeshen stumbled towards the border of the Snow Kingdom, and when half of his mask was blown away by the wind, he didn't even reach out to grab it.

The cold wind blew through the gap in the mask, sweeping across the gold spot on his left cheek, reminding him of the warmth of Chiyo's knuckles tapping the back of his neck—the age spots on the old man's hand and the gold at the corner of his eye were somewhat similar in color.

He suddenly stopped and pressed his palm against his chest.

The sealing technique for the puppet's heart emitted a faint blue light beneath his skin; it was the mark left by the three months he had spent completely fusing the original bloodline with the core of the puppetry technique.

But now, after the burning pain from the sealing subsided, he clearly felt a strange fluctuation, drilling from his heart to his limbs and bones, like a thin thread gently pulling him towards the far north.

"Cough..." He covered his mouth and coughed softly, a drop of black blood seeping through his fingers.

This is an old ailment caused by the backlash of puppetry techniques, which should have completely disappeared once the seal was completed.

He crouched down, his fingertips digging into the snow. The biting cold surged through his veins, yet he couldn't suppress the increasingly clear fluctuation within it. "Is... another will?" he murmured to the white mist, snowflakes falling into his pupils, blurring his vision. "Scorpion said puppeteers shouldn't be bound by history... Could this be the new 'history'?"

Chapter 793 Unclaimed Wildfire

The wind suddenly changed direction, whipping up the snow curtain and heading south.

He watched as his footprints in the snow were covered by fresh snow, like a metaphor—those people, things, and events he had protected would eventually grow freely in places he couldn't see.

And he must continue along this guiding line.

“This is not the end…” He propped himself up on his knees, the unfinished puppet scroll digging painfully into his arms. “It’s just another beginning.”

In the withered forest on the border of the Land of Fire, Chiyo's wooden staff was deeply embedded in the frozen earth.

She gazed at the chaotic snow and mist in the north, her Adam's apple bobbing. She pulled a fist-sized metal sphere from her bosom—the core of Sasori of the Red Sand, its surface still bearing the spiderweb-like cracks left when Kankuro shattered it years ago.

“That brat Bai didn’t even leave a trace of farewell.” She breathed on her palm, her fingertips repeatedly rubbing the dark red patterns on the core. “But Sasori’s puppet spores can travel three thousand miles along the chakra fluctuations.”

The old man suddenly bit his index finger, and the blood splattered onto the metal core, where it was instantly absorbed.

She crouched down and pressed the core onto the snow. Brown spores emerged from the metal cracks, like a swarm of tiny black insects, hissing as they burrowed into the snow.

"Grandma is old and can't keep up with you as you climb mountains and cross rivers." She gazed in the direction where the spores disappeared, ice crystals forming in the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. "But every time you crush a snowflake, I can hear the sound."

In the meeting room of Kumogakure, the Fourth Raikage slammed his fist on the sandalwood table, causing the teacup to jump up and then fall back down, shattering into several pieces with a clang.

"That kid just packed his bags and left?" Ai's muscles bulged like iron beneath his cloak. "The Fire Country Daimyo's predicament has just been resolved, and all the countries are eyeing the loopholes in puppetry!"

“Lord Raikage,” Darui bent down to pick up the shards of the teacup, “Puppetry is a double-edged sword.”

If Bai Ye truly lets go, this power… “He paused,” he continued, “might become a wildfire without a master.”

Ai's brows furrowed into a knife-like shape, and chakra surged around him, causing the Cloud Village emblem on the wall to flutter loudly.

He suddenly grabbed the map from the table and pressed his fingertips heavily on the border of the Snow Country: "Send three secret service teams to set up chakra sensing arrays along the northern border."

A contact point was set up every ten miles; any unusual activity was immediately reported using flashbangs.

"Yes." As Darui stepped back, he noticed that Raikage's knuckles were white—the way he gripped his sword when he lost his brother on the battlefield.

In the deepest part of Kirigakure, in the water dungeon, Hozuki Gengetsu's fingertips traced the surface of a crystal ball.

Three images floated inside the sphere: a lone figure walking on the snowfield, an old woman squatting in the snow on the border of the Land of Fire, and the Raikage raging in the Cloud Village meeting room.

“Interesting.” His voice was like an icicle striking water. “The First Hokage’s bloodline, the Red Sand Spores, the Cloud Village’s chakra network…”

Suddenly, ripples appeared on the crystal ball, and the figure in the snowy field turned to look at the scene, the golden spot at the corner of the eye shining brightly in the snow.

Hozuki Gengetsu's pupils contracted slightly, and he touched the crystal ball with his fingertip, creating a ripple: "The snow in the North is about to melt."

The door to the dark room was pushed open by the sea breeze, and the salty mist rushed in, blurring his smile.

As Hozuki Gengetsu's fingertip traced the third ripple on the crystal ball, the snowfield reflected on the surface suddenly distorted into shattered stars.

He narrowed his snake-like vertical pupils, tapped the cold crystal with his knuckles, and dark blue chakra seeped into the sphere along the patterns, piecing together the shattered image—the solitary figure was standing deep in the snowfield, looking up at the snow crows circling in the sky.

Chapter 794 Puppet Scouting Technique

"Interesting." He chuckled softly and turned to walk towards the deepest compartment of the water dungeon.

The damp stone wall was covered with blood pacts from generations of Misty Shadows. He opened the bottom bronze box and took out a kunai wrapped with a talisman.

The kunai had a pale green phosphorescence on its surface, made of poisoned iron specially crafted by the Hidden Mist Village assassination squad. "Go find out what that kid is looking for." He tossed the kunai to the person in the shadows. "Disguise yourself as a wandering ninja, and don't let the Sand Village's spores or the Cloud Village's chakra net catch you."

From the shadows came the rustling sound of fabric rubbing together, and a figure wrapped in a faded straw hat bent down to pick up a kunai.

The straw rope hanging from the edge of the straw hat swept across the ground, creating ripples in the puddle—that was the Hozuki clan's unique water-style disguise technique, which could even simulate the weakness of a genin from the Land of Wind.

“Remember this.” Hozuki Gengetsu’s voice suddenly turned cold. “If he really finds the secret of the first generation’s bloodline…” He didn’t finish his sentence, but ran his fingertip across his throat, casting a knife-like shadow on the water.

The man in the straw hat nodded, and as he turned, he disappeared into the mist of the water prison.

Hozuki Gengetsu looked at the crystal ball again. The figure on the snowfield was moving, its steps more hurried than before—it seemed the force of that tethering thread had become stronger.

As Bai Ye's boots crushed the fourth icicle, he finally saw the outline ahead.

It was a stone archway covered in ice and snow. The reliefs on the lintel had weathered away, but the crossed kunai and entwined vines were still discernible. Before the battle between the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and Madara Uchiha, he had built seven such "Oath Monuments" in the northern border to seal away secrets that could not be taken away during the war.

He touched the gold spots under the mask, and his heart suddenly skipped a beat—three months ago in the underground palace of the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire, he had seen similar patterns, which were stained with the blood of the First Generation.

"When the Puppet Heart falls asleep, the Gate of Destiny will open once more." He read the words carved on the side of the door, which were frozen white. As his fingertips brushed over the four words "Puppet Heart," the sealing spell on his chest suddenly became hot.

That was a reaction that only occurred after the puppet core, which had merged with the bloodline of the first generation and the scorpion, burned like a fire in its heart, and the direction of the traction wires became clear—right inside the door, in the very center.

He untied the puppet scroll from his back, and the soft clinking of the metal rings startled three snow crows into flight.

The moment the scroll was unfurled, several chakra threads shot out from the sleeves, shattering the snow within a ten-foot radius into dust.

This was the "Puppet Scouting Technique" that Scorpion taught him, which allowed him to sense traps or living creatures within ten meters in advance.

After confirming there was no danger, he removed half of his mask, letting the cold wind blow across his burning cheeks—since merging with the bloodline, his senses had become terrifyingly acute, and he could even hear the sound of icicles dripping inside the door.

"Hoo." He exhaled white mist and stepped over the threshold.

The ground shook earlier than he expected.

First, a slight tingling sensation came from my ankle, like an electric current shooting up my bone marrow.

Then the entire ruins cracked with a "crack" sound, and ice shards fell from the dome, hitting his shoulder and instantly freezing into ice crystals.

He staggered and grabbed the stone wall for support, only to see that the stone in his palm was melting—not ordinary melting snow, but as if it had been scorched by some kind of high temperature. The stone chips turned into flowing gold dust, dripping down his fingers and onto the ground, burning honeycomb-like holes into the snow surface.

"This is..." He looked up and saw a golden light bursting forth from the ground.

The light didn't resemble chakra; it was more like some kind of living thing, piercing through the ice with scorching heat and exploding into golden rain in mid-air.

Chapter 795 Sharing a Pie

He instinctively raised his hand to shield himself, but saw the golden rain suddenly stop when it landed on his arm, as if it were being pulled by some force, drilling into his skin along his veins—the same feeling as when he merged his bloodlines three months ago, only more turbulent and more urgent.

"boom!"

A loud crash of collapsing snow came from behind.

He turned around quickly, his chakra threads already taut at his fingertips.

On the snow-covered hill, a puppet made of ice and snow is slowly straightening up.

Its joints are sharp angles with intersecting icicles, a piece of dark blue crystal is embedded in its chest cavity, and where it should be on its face, there are patterns that are exactly the same as the golden spots at the corners of its eyes.

"Finally... I've been waiting for you."

The sound was like an icicle scraping against metal, with a sizzling noise, yet it was terrifyingly clear.

Byakuya's pupils suddenly contracted, and chakra threads instantly wrapped around the kunai at his waist.

He could sense that the chakra fluctuations of this ice puppet were at the same frequency as the traction threads within his body, and even... resonated with the sealing formula on his chest.

"Who are you?" His voice was colder than usual, his fingers unconsciously stroking the edge of the puppet scroll—which contained Sasori's modified Explosion Release mechanism, enough to blast the ruins to pieces in three seconds.

The ice golem did not answer, but simply raised its arm made of ice shards and pointed to the hidden door at the deepest part of the ruins.

A deep rumble came from behind the door, like some ancient mechanism being activated.