Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

He gripped the long staff tightly, and the light from the six magatama illuminated the entire stone chamber.

It's time to put an end to this farce.

The moment the sound of shattering tiles exploded atop the tower, Zero's figure darted out like an arrow.

His fingernails scraped sparks off the stone wall, fragments of his mask fell rustling onto his shoulders, and his bluish-gray face gleamed with a cold, dead-fish-like light in the moonlight—the raven feathers unique to the Dark Division fluttered in the night wind, making him look like some kind of ferocious bird that would prey on its prey.

A crisp clanging sound of metal striking metal could be heard outside the tower.

The crow's chakra fluctuations suddenly trembled violently, mixed with a stinging sensation as if it had been cut by a sharp blade.

Bai Ye's pupils contracted slightly—it was the familiar sound of an ANBU kunai brushing against his headband.

This stern-faced Sand Village elite was now leaning against the tower wall, a three-inch-long gash ripped open on his left chest, his right hand clutching half a broken piece of his Wind Shadow Pattern headband.

His gaze passed over Zero's shoulder and struck the dim light in the stone chamber, freezing instantly.

"Lord Ebizo?" The crow's voice was hoarse from choking on blood. "You...how did you get here?"

Ebizo's command token suddenly shone brightly.

He didn't turn around, but tapped the bronze arm armor of the puppet beside him with his knuckles: "Dark squad leader, you should be glad you can still stand and talk." His voice was like a thread soaked in venom, "Who did the Wind Shadow send you to investigate?"

Cha Chiyo?

Investigate me?

The crow's Adam's apple bobbed twice.

He suddenly noticed the headbands swaying around the puppets' waists—three, five, ten… all were the distinctive iron headbands of Sunagakure, and the engraving on one of them perfectly matched the one on his missing subordinate from last month. “It was you…” he staggered, the kunai slipping from his palm, “It was you who supported the puppet rebels behind the scenes!”

Those missing Chunin... those mine disasters...

“Rebels?” Ebizo finally turned his face, the eerie light of the command token cracking into tiny red glints in his eyes. “I’m clearing away the rotting flesh for Sunagakure.” He raised his hand and waved it lightly, and the nearest puppet suddenly sprang up, its bronze fingertips aimed straight for the crow’s throat. “The Kazekage is still dreaming of peace, but look at this desert—” The puppet’s fingertips grazed the crow’s earlobe and embedded themselves in the wall. “The wind won’t stop, the sand won’t stop, only sharper claws can keep Sunagakure alive.”

The crow drew its kunai with a backhand motion to block the attack, blood dripping from its chin onto the sand: "You're insane!"

"Mad?" Ebizo's laughter was laced with the ticklish sensation of sand. "Once I crush the Five Kage's throats with these puppet armies, once the power of the First Generation's bloodline grants the puppets regeneration, you'll kneel at my feet in gratitude." His gaze swept towards Byakuya. "And now—"

"Now it's your turn to get distracted."

Bai Ye's voice was like a knife chilled to the bone.

Taking advantage of the moment Ebizo turned his head, he flicked a spore smaller than a mosquito from his fingertip.

The thing, wrapped in his chakra, precisely burrowed into the crevices of the cursed seal on the back of Zero's neck—Zero was engrossed in fighting the crow and hadn't noticed anything amiss.

Bai Ye could clearly sense the moment the spores took root in Zero's body: the putrid spiritual energy suddenly surged, but was easily crushed by the scorching heat of the first-generation cells.

Immediately afterwards, a blurry image flooded into his mind: an abandoned mine, a blood-red curse mark, and countless sealed consciousnesses writhing within the mine veins.

"The mines at the boundary of the land and climate..." Bai Ye murmured, his gaze sweeping over Chiyo's taut puppet shoulder armor. "Grandma, it's time to go."

Chapter 817 Rise

Chiyo's puppet's toes left deep marks on the ground.

Her puppet arm suddenly extended, and six steel needles shot out, precisely piercing the joints of the three nearest puppets.

The puppets, driven by consciousness, paused, their bronze joints groaning in pain—this was puppetry she had practiced for fifty years, and she knew best where the Sand Village's weaknesses lay. "Go!" She grabbed Bai Ye's wrist, chakra surging into his body through the point of contact. "I'll hold off these puppets, you take the intelligence out!"

"No." Bai Ye grabbed her puppet arm with his other hand. "You and Crow go first." He tapped Chiyo's palm three times with his fingertips, a code only puppeteers would understand—"Protect the intelligence."

The cells in his spine were burning hot; he could feel his strength draining away at a visible rate, but he smiled instead. "I'll cover the rear."

Ebizo's command token suddenly exploded.

A chakra shockwave ripped off half a stone wall, and broken bricks struck Bai Ye's shoulder, only to be pushed aside by his regenerated skin. "Trying to leave?" His voice mingled with the hissing of the puppet horde. "Leave the First Hokage's bloodline behind!"

Suddenly, the crow swooped down and used its body to shield Chiyo from a puppet claw attack.

His haori was torn to shreds, revealing a gruesome old scar: "The Kazekage said that Sunagakure ninjas...shouldn't die at the hands of their own people." He coughed up blood and shoved Chiyo into the hole in the wall. "Grandma, take the intelligence...to see the Kazekage!"

Bai Ye twirled his long staff in his palm.

The blue light of the six tomoe intertwined with the red light of the First Hokage's cells on the staff. He could hear the soft crackling of cells dividing within his veins—the price of forcibly overdrawing his regenerative abilities, but he couldn't care less at this moment. "Go!" he shouted, the chakra storm unleashed by the staff sending the puppet horde flying. "I can't hold out much longer!"

Chiyo's puppet's toe paused outside the hole in the wall.

She stared at Bai Ye's blood-stained clothes, then suddenly a bronze amulet popped out of the puppet's arm—the one she had made for Kankuro years ago. "Take this!" The amulet struck Bai Ye's chest. "This thing can block one fatal wound."

The cawing of crows could be heard from outside the hole in the wall.

Chiyo's puppet figure vanished into the moonlight, leaving only a trail of bloodstains winding across the sand.

"Now only you remain." Ebizo's command token coalesced in his palm once more. "First Hokage bloodline, I want you to witness how Sunagakure rises—"

"Rise?" Bai Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the lightning at the tip of his staff crackling. "Using the consciousness of your companions as fuel, using the blood of commoners to nourish the ore, that's called depravity." He suddenly threw his staff, and six magatama exploded in mid-air, blasting the onrushing puppet horde into pieces. "A true puppeteer... exists to protect."

The Wood Release talisman slipped from his sleeve.

It was made of special wood cultivated from first-generation cells, and the runes on its surface shimmered with an emerald light under the moonlight.

The moment the talisman touched the ground, countless vines burst forth from the earth, binding Ebizo and Zero tightly.

Using the recoil, Byakuya leaped onto the roof. He could feel a burning pain in his back—Zero's chakra chain had ripped open his back, but the First Generation cells were frantically repairing the wound.

"Chase him!" Ebizo's roar was muffled by the vines below. "Don't let him carry the intelligence..."

Bai Ye did not turn back.

He ran wildly across the roof tiles, the wind whipping up his blood-stained hair.

The distant desert shimmered silvery-white under the moonlight, and he could vaguely sense the chakra fluctuations at the boundary between wind and land—that was the border of the Land of Earth, and Onoki's envoy should have already arrived.

"I have to... hold on until there..." He staggered, but forced himself to steady himself.

The images transmitted by the spores within Zero's body became increasingly clear, and the location of the mine resembled a map etched into his sea of ​​consciousness.

The sounds of pursuers behind him grew closer, but a smile instead appeared on his lips—

This farce should end now. But a new chapter is just beginning.

Chapter 818 Reenacting the Puppet War

As the moonlight churned silver frost onto the sand, the soles of the White Night's boots finally rolled over the boundary marker between the two lands.

He gripped the long stick at his waist, his knuckles turning white from the force.

The burning pain in my back felt like a live fire, and the first-generation cells made a faint crackling sound at the wound—it was the struggle between regenerative ability and overdrawn chakra.

A faint Earth Release chakra fluctuation, characteristic of Iwagakure, emanated from afar. A gust of wind, mixed with stone dust, swept past his blood-stained clothes. He squinted and saw a hunched figure emerge from the shadow of an old pine tree on the cliff edge.

“Mr. Bai.” The old ninja’s voice was like sandpaper scraping against a stone. He lifted his tattered straw hat, revealing the ferocious Iwagakure headband mark on his left cheek. “The Third Hokage is waiting impatiently.” He then pulled out a secret letter from his pocket, the edges of the parchment stained with dirt. “The location is Gray Stone Cliff. He asked me to deliver a message: Where the mountain wind blows, do not trust the sound of the pines.”

Bai Ye's fingers paused slightly as he took the letter.

The sealing wax on the secret letter was the distinctive ochre color of Iwagakure, and the pattern perfectly matched the code that Onoki had given him three years ago.

When he looked up, the old ninja was examining the bronze amulet on his chest with his cloudy eyes—it was the one Chiyo had forced on him, and it was still stained with undried blood.

“Tell the Earth Shadow.” Bai Ye tucked the secret letter into his robes, his voice colder than the night wind. “I know the secret of the ‘Ring of Contracts’.”

The old ninja's Adam's apple bobbed.

This old man, who had been working in the Dark Side of Iwagakure for forty years, felt a chill run down his spine for the first time during a mission.

He watched as Bai Ye turned and stepped into the Land of Earth. The moonlight cast a cold light on the other's blood-stained shoulder armor, like an unsheathed sword.

The night wind from Greystone Cliff, carrying stone dust, stung my face.

Onoki stood before the boulder atop the cliff, his hands behind his back, his white beard and eyebrows trembling in the wind.

Three Jonin from Iwagakure were crouching at his feet, and the green light of his Chakra Sensing Technique was enveloping the entire cliff—this was the greatest sincerity he could offer: a meeting without any traps.

"They're here," the Jonin on the left suddenly hissed.

Onoki looked up.

In the moonlight, the young man, covered in blood, walked over the rubble on the edge of the cliff, his long staff trailing behind him, making a sizzling sound as it scraped against the stone.

His right shoulder was caved in, clearly a mark of forced healing after being pierced by the puppet blade; there was a new bloodstain below his left eye, which suddenly disappeared when it approached his jaw—the regenerative ability of the first generation cells could even selectively repair wounds.

“You’re even more capable than the intelligence reports suggested,” Onoki said, his voice booming like a bronze bell.

Bai Ye stopped five steps away from him.

He could smell the earthy scent on Onoki, a mark left by long-term use of Earth Release ninjutsu. "The Tsuchikage is more composed than rumored." He drew his staff with a backhand motion, the staff spun slightly, and six blue magatama appeared—this was a display, and also a warning, "I brought Zero's puppet core."

As the last word fell to the ground, he flicked his finger.

A translucent rhomboid crystal flew out from the sleeve and hovered between the two.

A deep blue chakra flowed within the crystal, and the outline of half a human face could be vaguely seen inside.

Onoki's pupils contracted slightly.

He had seen something similar: five years ago, the puppet remains discovered on the border of the Land of Lightning also contained a core capable of devouring chakra. "The Blood Pact War..." he murmured, his cloudy eyes suddenly sharpening like knives. "You mean they want to relive the puppet war of a hundred years ago?"

“Using the ambitions of the various daimyo as fuel.” Byakuya pressed his hand to his chest, where the bronze amulet still held his warmth. “The mines of the Land of Wind are refining special chakra ores, and the puppeteers of Sunagakure are starting to use the consciousness of living people as a driving force—Ebizo doesn’t want Sunagakure to rise, he wants to turn the entire ninja world into his puppet field.”

Chapter 819 All I Want Is Time

Onoki tapped the Earth Release scroll at his waist with his fingers.

He could hear his own heartbeat—every detail the young man spoke matched the intelligence report intercepted by the Iwagakure ANBU three months prior. “What do you need?” he suddenly asked. “Iwagakure’s forces?”

Or...my trust?

"Time." Bai Ye tugged at the corner of his mouth, a smile tinged with the stench of blood and rust. "Once I tear off their masks, the great lords of various countries will be scrambling to choose sides."

But before that… “His gaze swept across the churning sea of ​​mist below the cliff,” he said, “someone needs to steady things up for me.”

Onoki stared into his eyes for a good quarter of an hour.

This old-fashioned man, who always had "interests" etched into his very bones, saw a near-mad clarity in the other person's eyes for the first time.

He suddenly raised his hand, and the Jonin on his left immediately handed him a mud pill.

The mud ball shattered upon landing, revealing a three-dimensional sand table of Iwagakure Village.

“Three hours ago, the Iwagakure garrison in the Land of Fire sent back a message.” Onoki’s voice deepened, “The Fire Daimyo’s guard has been completely rotated tonight, and even his most trusted Shadow Mage has been sent to the Southern Territory.”

Bai Ye's breathing was slightly sluggish.

He recalled a blurry list in the intelligence he had intercepted in Sunagakure a few days ago—the personal guards of the daimyo of various countries had all been replaced by puppeteers' apprentices two months ago.

“What’s even more coincidental is that…” Onoki pointed his fingertip at the outer castle of the Land of Fire in the center of the sand table, “tonight at midnight, the chakra barrier of the Land of Fire’s castle tower will undergo routine maintenance.”

The sea of ​​fog below the cliff suddenly surged.

Bai Ye could hear the faint crackling of cells dividing in his blood vessels; it was the first generation of cells warning of danger.

Looking into the undercurrent in Onoki's eyes, he suddenly realized that this secret meeting was never the end point from the beginning—

What the old Kage wanted was for him to personally sever the fuse that was about to ignite the ninja world.

"I should go now." Bai Ye bent down to pick up the long stick, then paused as he turned around. "Thank Granny Qiandai for her amulet." He touched the bronze pendant on his chest. "It saved my life."

As Onoki watched his figure disappear into the mist, he suddenly said to the Jonin on his left, "Send three teams of Iwagakure Anbu to follow them, maintaining a distance of ten miles."

"grown ups?"

“He said he needs time.” Onoki gazed at the figure that was faintly visible in the mist, his withered hand pressed against his chest. “But some things can’t wait.”

At this moment, in the Fire Country's castle tower, the lanterns in front of the white jade steps swayed in the night wind.

In the study on the top floor, the daimyo of the Land of Fire was bent over his desk, revising military reports.

He didn't notice that the sycamore leaves outside the window suddenly stopped moving—a sign that when chakra flows to its limit, even the wind has to retreat.

But a thousand miles away at Gray Stone Cliff, Bai Ye's steps suddenly stopped.

He looked up towards the east, where the sky was turning an unnatural purplish-black—the "blood cloud" created by the friction of a massive burst of chakra with the atmosphere.

"They've come faster than I expected." He chuckled, twirling the staff in his palm. The blue light of the six tomoe completely overwhelmed the red light of the first-generation cells. "Since they can't wait, then... I'll finish this."

Before he finished speaking, his figure shot off like an arrow towards the Land of Fire.

Under the moonlight, his blood-stained clothes fluttered in the wind, like a battle flag about to unleash a storm.

At midnight, the candlelight in the castle tower of the Land of Fire suddenly burst into flames.