Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

The daimyo of the Land of Fire held a vermilion pen above the military report, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

Just as he was about to call for guards, the sycamore leaves outside the window froze as if gripped by an invisible hand—a sign of highly concentrated chakra.

Chapter 820 Darui Becomes a Rogue Ninja

He turned around abruptly and saw a dark figure burst through the window. The eyes beneath the mask glowed with an eerie green light, and the thing in his right hand was not a kunai, but half a bone blade embedded with a crystal core.

"You are..." The words of his name stuck in his throat.

The moment the bone blade pierced his heart, he finally saw the puppet strings hanging from the other man's waist—those silver threads gleamed coldly in the moonlight, and their patterns were exactly the same as those on the Sand Village spy he had executed three days earlier.

As the first alarm pierced the night sky, the dark figure had already disappeared along the drainpipe.

The guards of the castle tower burst open the study door and found the daimyo lying in a pool of blood, his right hand clutching half a puppet string, blood seeping from under his fingernails.

When the news reached the Five Nations Joint Conference, Luo Sha's teacup cracked open with a fine line.

"The Land of Fire concealed the information about the guard rotation!" The Sand Village leader slammed his fist on the table, the Land of Wind crest on his forehead swaying violently with the movement. "If they hadn't replaced the Shadow Mage, how could the assassin have succeeded so easily?" His finger almost poked the nose of the Land of Fire representative, his Adam's apple bobbing with excitement. "You should have noticed the signs of the puppeteer's infiltration long ago—Ebizo warned me about it half a month ago!"

"Lord Kazekage, now is not the time to shirk responsibility." Lei Ying Ai's voice was like a resounding war drum, shaking even the bronze lamps in the council hall.

He stood up, his muscular arms braced on the stone table, lightning flashing in his pupils. "Three days ago, my Cloud Village's Anbu discovered the remains of a puppet on the border of Lightning and Fire. The chakra reaction was exactly the same as that of the former Zero Organization members." He swept his gaze over everyone present, his eyes lingering on the Tsuchikage Onoki's brow and beard. "Who is the next target?"

Is it an iron mine from the Land of Wind?

Or is it a cave in the Land of Earth?

Onoki stroked his white beard, his cloudy eyes suddenly brightening: "The Raikage is right." He tapped the table with his withered fingers. "I received news that Byakuya appeared on the border of Kazeto last night—that child's blade is faster than all our armies combined."

Luo Sha's fingers suddenly tightened, his knuckles turning white: "That madman?"

He even dared to kill the daimyo of the Land of Fire, who knows if we'll be next?

“So someone needs to keep an eye on him.” Darui’s voice came from behind Raikage.

The elite Jonin of Kumogakure stood with his arms crossed, his eyes beneath his forehead protector as calm as a deep pool. "Bai Ye's goal is to destroy Zero's puppet network, which aligns with our interests." He took a half-step forward, his gaze sweeping over the representatives of various countries. "If Kumogakure can establish contact with him, perhaps..."

"Shut up!" The representative of the Land of Fire stood up abruptly, his kimono embroidered with cherry blossoms splashed with water from the overturned teacup. "That was the regicide!"

We need to issue a warrant for his arrest—

"A wanted poster?" Ai scoffed, lightning crackling in his palm. "By the time you issue the wanted poster, the next daimyo's corpse will be cold." He turned to Darui, his voice suddenly lowering, "Your method... is it feasible?"

Darui nodded: "The Dark Guard tracked him to the Land of Fire last night, and he should be in the Wind Mountain Forest now." He took out a kunai engraved with the Cloud Hidden Crest from his pocket. "I'll take your message with me."

If he were to stop, the Cloud Village's Lightning Release troops would be ready at any moment; if not... "His knuckles turned white from clenching his fists," he thought, "at least we can delay him."

Ai stared at the kunai for a moment, then suddenly reached out and pressed down on Darui's shoulder.

The Raikage's palm was incredibly hot, like a red-hot iron: "Tell that kid, Kumogakure doesn't help madmen, but it does help those who can stop the bleeding."

Chapter 821 The Resurrected Second Mizukage

At this moment, in the Wind and Fire Forest, Bai Ye was kneeling on one knee on the decaying leaves.

A half-cut bone blade was embedded in his left abdomen. The regenerative ability of the primary cells was suppressed by some kind of toxin, and the edges of the wound were tinged with an eerie bluish-purple.

Five black-robed ninjas surrounded him in a plum blossom formation. The leader's mask was split in two, revealing half of his rotting face—marks of water-style corrosion, exactly the same as the wounds of the guards at the scene of the Second Mizukage's assassination twenty years ago.

"You..." Bai Ye wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, the blue light of the magatama on his staff flickering, "Didn't you die in the blood mist?"

"Death?" The voice from the rotting face was like a bursting bubble. He raised his hand, and the other four simultaneously formed hand seals.

Black water ripples suddenly seeped from the ground—the cursed Water Release technique—the Second Mizukage had used to trap the entire Hidden Mist Army in an illusion. "We're just..." he murmured, his fingertips tracing the cracks in his visor, "living a different life."

Bai Ye's pupils suddenly contracted.

He could feel his chakra being devoured by the black water bubble, even more greedy than Zero's puppet core.

The long staff spun in his palm, and the six magatama simultaneously exploded with blue light, shattering the black water bubble into starlight: "Puppetry driven by the consciousness of a living person... Ebizo's experiment?"

The rotting face did not answer.

The five people suddenly formed hand seals at the same time, and black bubbles surged out again, this time wrapped with tiny bone blades.

Bai Ye spun around to avoid it, but his left shoulder was slashed open with a deep wound that exposed the bone.

He groaned, and the red light of the First Generation cells finally overwhelmed the toxins, causing the wound to heal at a visible speed—but the loss of chakra made his temples throb.

"Enough." The rotting face suddenly raised its hand.

The five people retreated simultaneously, and the black water bubble shrank into the crevice in the ground like the receding tide.

He stared at Bai Ye's blood-stained clothes, a piercing laugh emanating from beneath his mask: "The gears of fate have already turned."

Before he finished speaking, the five people vanished like smoke.

Bai Ye staggered and clung to a tree trunk, only to hear the final words carried on the wind: "Next, it's Wuyin..."

Moonlight filtered through the tree canopy and fell on his face.

Byakuya took out the bronze amulet from his chest and found a crack on it—Grandma Chiyo's blessing had ultimately failed to stop this fatal blow.

He stared at the blood-stained amulet, then suddenly chuckled, his laughter mingling with the blood foam: "Gears?"

I'm going to smash it anyway.

Before he could finish speaking, everything suddenly went black.

He collapsed into a pile of decaying leaves, and the last thing he saw was the starry sky above him, obscured by dark clouds, like a cracked piece of black jade.

The night wind in the mountains swept up fallen leaves, covering his blood-stained clothes.

The distant howl of wolves mingled with the scent of pine resin, filling the air.

In his last moments before losing consciousness, he heard himself mumble: "Ebizo... the Second Mizukage's personal guard... Zero's remnant..."

Then, darkness descended.

When the damp scent of decaying leaves mixed with the bitter aroma of pine resin wafted into her nostrils, Bai Ye's eyelashes trembled.

He felt as if he were soaking in lukewarm water, his limbs felt as heavy as lead, and he had to exert all his strength to even open his eyes.

I could hear the soft sound of flowing water; there was probably a mountain stream nearby.

As consciousness gradually returned, she realized that the "warm water" was actually a burning sensation—the wound on her left shoulder was being enveloped by a kind of cool chakra, as if countless tiny needles were throbbing under her skin.

"woke up?"

A cold female voice came from above.

Bai Ye turned her head with difficulty and saw waist-length silver hair spread out beside her, and moonlight shining through the gaps in the trees onto the girl's pale face.

She knelt beside him, her left hand resting on his shoulder. Chakra seeped from her fingertips, condensing into a pale blue net of light at the wound—a medical ninjutsu unique to Kirigakure, carrying the salty scent of the sea.

"Shuiyue?" he asked in a hoarse voice, weaker than expected.

"Hmm." The girl didn't look up, the chakra fluctuations at her fingertips pausing almost imperceptibly. "You're lucky, I just happened to be passing by."

Chapter 822 The Land of Blood Mist

Bai Ye wanted to laugh, but the movement aggravated her wound, and she let out a muffled groan.

He stared at the faded blue ribbon in the girl's hair—the symbol of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, now covered in grass clippings. "Didn't you say you were going to find the 'Broken Blade, the Executioner's Blade'?" He remembered that half a month ago, on the border of the Land of Rain, this woman carried a broken blade shaped like a crescent moon, saying she wanted to find the legacy of the Mist Village Ninja Swordsmanship.

Shuiyue finally raised her eyes, her pupils glowing a pale purple in the moonlight, like glass soaked in water.

She released her grip, and the blue light of the medical ninjutsu dissipated, revealing the scabbed wound—the self-healing ability of the First Hokage's cells worked perfectly with her technique, leaving only a faint red mark. "Now I think following you might be more interesting." She untied a water pouch from her waist and held it to Byakuya's lips. "Those rusty, broken swords are nothing compared to watching you get ganged up on."

Bai Ye drank two sips of water, and the burning pain in her throat eased slightly.

He propped himself up against a tree trunk, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings—there were no signs of an ambush in the woods, not even the fallen leaves from the fight had been cleared away. "Did you clean up the scene?"

"Otherwise what?" Shuiyue picked up the long stick at her feet and threw it over. The sound of metal clashing was particularly clear in the silence. "After those men in black robes left, you lay there for three hours."

I don't want to be mistaken for an accomplice by the Hidden Mist ninja. She crouched down and rummaged through her ninja tool pouch, the leather rustling. "Oh, right, you were talking nonsense while you were unconscious."

"Oh?"

“What ‘Ebizo’ and ‘Blood Soul Puppet’?” Shuiyue replied casually, then suddenly pulled out a tattered notebook with a faded dark green cover and dark red stains on the edges. “And this, it fell next to your amulet.”

Bai Ye's hand tightened suddenly as she took the notebook.

He recognized the pattern—it was the Soul-Locking Seal unique to the Mist Shadow Division, sewn onto the spine with mithril thread. "Where did you come from..."

“I stole it before I defected.” Shuiyue tilted her head and tapped the second page of the notebook with her fingertip. “In the forbidden library of Wuyin, all the files about the ‘Blood Pact War’ were burned, leaving only this experimental log.”

I guess you'll need it.

Bai Ye's breath hitched.

He opened the notebook; the yellowed pages were covered with messy characters from the Water Kingdom, interspersed with bloody handprints and incantations.

When I saw the words "Blood Soul Puppet - Driven by Living Consciousness", the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end - it was exactly the same technique used by the ambush.

“They don’t just want to control the puppets…” he muttered to himself, his fingertips tracing a page of record with half a corner torn off, “but to resurrect something.”

Shuiyue leaned closer to look, her hair brushing against the back of his hand: "I heard rumors when I was in the Anbu that at the end of the Blood Pact War, the Second Mizukage used a forbidden technique to seal the consciousness of the ninjas who died in battle into puppets in order to turn the tide of the war."

But those puppets later went out of control, killing anyone they saw... She suddenly paused, tapping her knuckles on a line of words circled in red, "It says here that the last batch of experimental subjects were transferred to the 'Hall of Dark Water' on the border of the Land of Water."

Bai Ye's pupils contracted slightly.

He took out the bronze amulet from his chest; the cracks looked like a hideous scar in the moonlight—it had been blessed by Granny Chiyo with the secret technique of sand concealment, and could resist the corrosive effects of curses.

However, the ambush was still broken by the black bubble, indicating that the opponent's technique was more dangerous than expected.

"The Pavilion of the Dark Waters..." He put the notebook into his robes, twirled the long staff in his palm, and the blue light of the magatama reappeared. "The survivors of the Blood Pact War back then have now become tools for resurrecting experimental subjects."

Chapter 823 The Clever Onoki

That old bastard Ebizo, he was definitely up to no good.

“Ebizo?” Suigetsu raised an eyebrow. “An advisor from Sunagakure?”

What is his connection to the forbidden techniques of Kirigakure?

"Zero's puppet core technology." Bai Ye twitched the corner of his mouth. The warm current of the first generation cells flowed through his body, and his physical strength was recovering at a visible speed. "Half a year ago in the Land of Wind, I saw the puppets he drove with the consciousness of living people."

At the time, I thought it was a secret technique of the Sand Village, but now it seems... "His knuckles pressed against his temple," it's the lingering poison from the Blood Pact War.

Suddenly, the hooting of an owl echoed through the woods.

Shuiyue suddenly turned her head, and chakra condensed into a water blade at her fingertips.

Bai Ye pressed down on her wrist and shook his head: "It's just an ordinary bird." He looked at the churning dark clouds in the sky, where the moonlight was obscured to a sliver. "They say 'the next one is Wuyin,' so it seems that the things in the You Shui Mansion are related to the future of Wuyin."

"So you're going to the Land of Water?"

"Otherwise what?" Bai Ye stood up, tapped the ground with his long staff, kicking up a fallen leaf. "Since the gears have started turning, someone has to stop them."

Shuiyue suddenly laughed, her purple eyes sparkling like shattered stars: "I knew following you would be interesting." She bent down to pack her ninja tool bag, her silver hair falling to her waist. "But let me make this clear first, if we encounter any Kirigakure chasing ninjas, I won't be taking a hit for you."

"make a deal."

Before he could finish speaking, the sound of light footsteps came from afar.

The two turned their heads at the same time and saw a figure dressed in the uniform of the Iwagakure Anbu emerging from the forest mist. His face was half covered by a mask, revealing his tightly pursed lips—it was Iwagakure, the Tsuchikage's chief bodyguard.

His gaze swept over the scabs on Bai Ye's shoulder, then landed on the water blade in Shui Yue's hand. His Adam's apple bobbed: "Lord Tsuchikage..."

"Wait for me," Bai Ye said to Shui Yue, and walked towards Yan Zang.

As the forest fog thickened, their conversation was torn to shreds by the wind.

Only Shuiyue remained standing there, watching their backs as her fingertips gently traced the broken sword at her waist.

The wind ruffled her hair, scattering the notebook Bai Ye had just put down. On one page, it read: "The Blood Soul Puppet requires a living person as a catalyst. If the bloodlines of the Five Shadows are gathered..."

Yan Cang's boots rolled over the gravel on the gray cliff, each step feeling like stepping on a taut string.

Onoki sat cross-legged on the stone platform, his hands, like withered tree bark, resting on his earthen-yellow cane. His cloudy eyes gleamed coldly in the moonlight—eyes that had witnessed three Shinobi World Wars, and even the roars of the Tailed Beasts hadn't made them blink.

“Although Bai Ye is seriously injured, he seems to have obtained important information.” Iwazo knelt on one knee, sweat seeping from his forehead into his collar through the gaps in his faceplate.

Just now in the woods, the young man was covered in blood, yet he stood upright, propped up by a long stick, his eyes like poisoned rock needles.

He still remembers the tone of Byakuya's voice when he said, "Please pass on a message to Tsuchikage for me"—it was as light as a leaf, yet it sent chills down one's spine.

Onoki tapped his cane with his knuckles, sending stone chips fluttering down at his feet. "Important intelligence?" he repeated, a chuckle like sandpaper scraping against his throat. "That kid slaughtered his way from the Land of Wind to the Land of Fire, slicing up daimyo's heads like watermelons. And now he's suddenly turned into an information broker?" The tea on the stone table steamed. He picked up the cup, took a sip, then frowned and put it down—too bland, like a Kirigakure conspiracy.