Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

The sound of metal snapping mingled with the soft thud of blood droplets falling.

Her right puppet arm was pierced by a poisoned needle, and dark red blood seeped from the cracked wood, dripping down the puppet's joints onto the bluestone slab, blooming into small flowers.

“You are not loyal to the Wind Shadow, but to lies.” She pulled off her veil, revealing deep wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. “When the True History Court’s files are laid out, you won’t even know who you are lying to.”

Suddenly, the sound of tearing fabric came from inside the prison van.

Ebizo's withered hand emerged from the carriage curtain, his fingertips stained with silvery-gray blood—blood altered by the Shadow Substitution Technique—and was now writing four crooked characters along the carriage wall: "Saeki Kenichi".

“The person I replaced…” his voice was like a broken bellows, “should also have his name called.”

The lead shadow guard paused in his movements.

He stared at the blood-red words on the car wall, then suddenly raised the poisoned needle, but instead of stabbing Chiyo, he plunged it into his own mask strap.

The moment the mask hit the ground, he knelt down, his forehead pressed against the bluestone slab: "Mr. Saeki... was the teacher who taught me my first word..."

The distinctive whistles of Konoha's Anbu could be heard in the distance.

Chiyo clutched her bleeding right arm, looked at the subdued Shadow Guard, and then at the hunched figure in the prison cart. Suddenly, she felt that the cherry blossom scent in the wind wasn't so sweet anymore.

She pulled out the charter from her bosom and found that half a page had been soaked in blood, but the words "Representative of the Survivors" were clearly visible, like a flower in bloom.

The candlelight in the underground bookstore flickered.

Tanaka Hisashi crouched down in front of the carving board, the carving knife making a soft, crackling sound as it cut across the pear wood.

On the wooden shelf behind him, the last half-jar of pine soot ink was gleaming faintly—it was extracted from the blood-stained clothes of twenty villagers, enough to carve the last ten pages of the "List of Shadow Impersonators".

“We have to finish before the ink runs out…” He wiped the sweat from his brow, the tip of the engraving knife landing precisely on the last stroke of the characters “White Night,” “otherwise these names will sink to the ground again.” Suddenly, a candle wick in the underground bookstore burst into flames, sparks splashing onto the edge of the engraving, burning Tanaka Hisashi’s fingers.

He stared at the blank space of the three characters "Land of Thunder" on the pear wood board, his Adam's apple bobbing. The last half-jar of pine soot ink was only a little less than half a finger's depth. The memory ink, mixed with blood-stained clothes, shone dark red in the inkstone, but the true record of Lei Yingbi was sealed in the deepest part of the tattered scroll by three layers of secret seals, and the carving knife couldn't even make a mark.

"Am I supposed to follow those old scoundrels like Shi Ge and just fill in some fake name to make up the numbers?" He grabbed the carving knife and slammed it heavily on the table, causing the bamboo slips on the wooden shelf to rustle and fall dust.

The moment his fingertips touched the gold-lacquered seal on the edge of the tattered scroll, a chill suddenly ran down the back of his neck—the copper lock on the secret door of the bookstore had been pushed open from the outside without making a sound.

The woman in the indigo cotton robe stood in the shadows, her face mask revealing only her eyes, with a faint scar at the corner of her eye.

She wore a thunder pattern pendant unique to Cloud Hidden Village around her waist, and held an ink stick in her left hand, the ink stick shimmering with tiny sparks of electricity.

"The ink of the Land of Lightning." Her voice was like a mountain stream washed by thunder, clear and sharp with a metallic tremor. "The Fourth Raikage said: 'A true shadow fears not being seen, but fears being forgotten.'"

Tanaka Hisashi's carving knife clattered to the ground.

He stared at the inkstone and suddenly remembered the thunderstorm he had seen at the border twenty years ago—the arcs of electricity leaping in the clouds were exactly the same as the patterns of light on this inkstone.

"You are..." He was about to get up when the woman placed the ink stick on the table and turned to walk towards the secret door.

The hem of the green robe swept across the scattered woodblock print fragments on the ground, creating a gust of wind that made the candlelight sway from side to side.

When he reached the door, only an echo remained in the secret passage: "Moli Youbi's battle report, and the names of thirty-seven Jonin who took the blows for him."

The ink of memories within the inkstone began to surge.

Tanaka Hisashi trembled as he picked up the ink stick, his fingernails scraping the crackle pattern with a soft sound—it was indeed fresh ink, still warm from his body.

He broke the ink stick in half, and the moment the fragments fell into the inkstone, the dark red ink suddenly turned into a deep blue, like a night sky dyed by a thunderstorm.

"So Raikage's blood carries lightning." He murmured as he dipped his carving knife in the ink. Just as the tip of the knife touched the first stroke of the character "比", the pear wood board suddenly emitted a buzzing sound.

Thirty-seven overlapping figures appeared on the engraving: a young ninja charging forward with a kunai in his mouth, a white-haired Jonin using Lightning Release to shield his comrade from a blow, and finally all of them converged into a man wearing a Cloud Ninja headband, his Eight-Tails chakra surging like a tide behind him, yet gently protecting the wounded soldier in his arms.

“This is the true shadow.” Tanaka Hisashi’s tears fell onto the engraving, mingling with the ink and seeping into the wood grain. “It’s not a substitute for anyone, but a true shadow built from the lives of thirty-seven people.”

The post station outside Yunyin Village was quieter than usual.

Just as the night watchman struck the third watch, the "blood name talisman" hanging under the eaves suddenly crackled.

As the courier on night watch looked up, he saw the stack of yellow paper flaming with eerie blue flames, and golden characters floating in the flames: "Thunder Shadow is not replaced, but succeeded." The second talisman then spontaneously combusted, revealing Bi's face; the third, the fourth... the shadows of the thirty-seven Jonin merged into one in the firelight, like a breathing wall of thunder.

"It's the real shadow appearing!" someone shouted.

Dozens of villagers poured out of the thatched hut outside the post station, holding torches and casting their light in the direction of the blood-stained talisman.

"Master Hitoshi has never been a substitute!" "The names of those thirty-seven Jonin should be engraved on the Cloud Village monument!" The shouts spread through the village like rolling thunder, and soon, torches lit up the entire valley, like a galaxy ignited by a thunderstorm.

At the same moment, the air on the fourth floor of the Fire Country's History Building was trembling.

Bai Ye slid down the damp stone wall, the scabbard of his short sword brushing against the wall and rubbing off half a patch of mold.

The original scroll of the "Shadow Society" that he was looking for was said to be hidden in the deepest stone box in this layer—it was the secret agreement on the Shadow Substitution Technique signed by the five Shadows, and the source of all the lies.

The earth's veins suddenly emitted a muffled sound.

The roots of the giant wood-style tree overhead convulsed violently, and roots as thick as a child's arm crashed into the stone wall, sending pebbles scattering onto Bai Ye's shoulder.

He had just taken out his tinderbox when a hoarse whisper came from deep within the tree, like wind blowing through an empty bamboo tube: "...The fire isn't in your hands...in their eyes..."

Chapter 113 The Alternatives

It's the remnant consciousness of Aoba Mori!

Bai Ye suddenly looked up and saw a ghostly green glow seeping from the cracks in the tree roots; it was the chakra of the Wood Release core running rampant.

What sent chills down his spine even more was that the corpse wrapped in tattered cloth in the corner was slowly sitting up—it was the mutilated corpse of Fujiwara Shuichi, who had been nailed to the basement for twenty years by Shige using forbidden techniques. At this moment, black roots were crawling out of the empty eye sockets, blood was gushing from his mouth, and crooked words were written on the ground: "After returning the name... it is the severing of roots."

"So the memory resonance wasn't under my control." Bai Ye took a half step back, his back pressed against the cold stone wall.

He saw the tree roots extracting translucent fragments of memory from Fujiwara Shuichi's mangled corpse. The erased names floated like fireflies toward the basement entrance—three guards were crouching down, clutching their heads, muttering unconsciously, "Sato Kiyoshi, Hayashida Shin..." The same fluorescent light rose in their pupils, reflecting the eerie green of the tree roots.

"The spark has begun to ignite spontaneously." Bai Ye gripped the short sword tightly, the back of the blade pressed against the Wood Release mark on his palm.

He looked out of the City of Fire, where pale blue light was faintly rising from the directions of the five kingdoms—a sign that the "Blood Name Talisman" was spontaneously combusting, just like the lightning and fire of the Hidden Cloud Village.

The sound of blood and ink splashing came from the direction of the water prison. He knew that Fujiwara Shizuka was drawing on the wall again, but this time the blood words were covered by newly emerging characters: "The spark recognizes pain, not its master."

"Since it's going to burn, let it burn the deepest lie." Bai Ye bit his fingertip, and the blood dripped onto the tree roots like a falling star.

The tree roots suddenly contracted, plowing a deep trench in the ground, but then grew wildly the moment they came into contact with the drop of blood, wrapping around his wrist.

He could feel countless fragments of memories seeping into his body through his veins: the cries of villagers on the border, the dying words of a Jonin, and every stroke of blood ink that Fujiwara Shizuka wrote in the water dungeon—these things shattered the last line of defense in his heart.

“I’ll be the one to start the fire,” he said in a low voice, the dagger slicing through his palm, blood flowing down the tree roots toward the core of the giant tree.

The tree trunk emitted a tearing roar, and a beam of blue light burst from the treetop, shooting straight into the starry sky and dyeing the entire night sky a deep blue.

The people of the Fire City awoke from their sleep, gazing at the pillar of light in the sky. Some clasped their hands in prayer, while others trembled as they pulled out the blood-red talisman from their robes—unaware that this light was scattering the seeds of memory across every inch of the five kingdoms.

Bai Ye stood in the pillar of light, watching the Wood Release mark on his palm emit a scorching glow.

He heard a second boom from the east, and a third blue light rose from the south—seven, no, more places, where the Blood Name Talismans were spontaneously combusting.

These lights, like chains, connect the skies of the five countries, and at the end of the chains, a much larger shadow is rising from the darkness.

Bai Ye gazed at the gradually brightening blue light on the horizon, his Adam's apple bobbing twice.

The Wood Release mark on his fingertips was still burning hot. The fragments of memory that had flowed into his body along the tree roots now felt a new burning pain. When he used Wood Release to probe the earth's veins earlier, he felt the residual heat of the seven Blood Name Talismans that had spontaneously combusted, but the chakra residue did not contain the unique "Double Life Mark" of Shadow Substitute.

“Not a stand-in.” He muttered to himself, the short sword pressing a red mark into his palm. “It’s an ordinary ninja… no, someone from the lowest rungs, someone whose story has been buried by history.”

Suddenly, the sound of paper tearing echoed in the basement. He turned his head and saw Fujiwara Shizuka's blood-ink scroll seeping out from the iron bars of the water dungeon. The blood-red characters twisted and climbed the stone wall: "The relative of the erased has awakened."

Before the words were finished, the sound of rapid hoofbeats came from outside the City of Fire.

Bai Ye leaped to the windowsill and saw three blood-soaked ninjas smash open the city gate. Their eyes gleamed with a ghostly green like tree roots, and they clutched charred fragments of blood-red talismans tightly in their arms.

"My father was Lin Tianxin of the border outpost!" the leading youth shouted, looking up. "For twenty years, Shi Ge said he was a deserter, but the words only appeared after the talisman was burned—he died fighting for the grain transport team!"

Bai Ye's fingernails dug deeply into her palms.

He finally understood why those fragments of memory were always accompanied by wailing—the resonance of the spark had long since broken free from the framework of the shadow-stand system and had begun to awaken all the names that had been erased by power.

Wood Release spread beneath his feet, like countless silver needles piercing the ground. He could clearly sense that the resonance points within the five kingdoms were increasing exponentially, from post stations to villages, from ninjas to civilians. Every burning blood talisman was tearing apart the same web of lies.

"Lord Byakuya!"

A soft call drifted down from above.

Onodera Ren's consciousness hovered between the beams, the blood-black vines in her hair gleaming faintly. "There's something amiss in the archives." Her physical body was still guarding outside the history building, but her ability to separate her consciousness from her body allowed her to investigate both locations simultaneously.

Byakuya nodded, and the burning pain of the Wood Release mark suddenly turned into coolness—that was the connection that Onodera Ren had established with him using vines.

He could "see" from her perspective: in the deepest part of the Konoha Archives, in front of the secret compartment where the "Blue Leaf Plan" was originally stored, a ball of purplish chakra floated, its frequency exactly the same as the Blue Leaf secret order.

“It’s a fake.” Onodera Ren’s consciousness drifted closer, a drop of blood-ink seeping from the tip of the vine. “The real Aoba Command carries the warmth of the First Hokage’s Wood Release. This thing… looks like a fake created using Shadow Clone Technique.”

Blood ink dripped onto the chakra cluster, and the purple mist suddenly exploded, revealing a crystal ball embedded in the stone wall behind it.

Wood Release patterns flow across the surface of the crystal, with a blurry light and shadow floating in the center.

As soon as Onodera Ren's vines touched the sphere, memories flooded back—the face of the First Hokage, his voice carrying the steadiness of years: "If the flames ignite wildly, then the alternates shall emerge."

"An alternative?" Her consciousness trembled slightly, and the vines unconsciously tightened. "The First Generation actually left a backup plan..."

The thunderstorm in Kumogakure was more intense than usual.

The Fourth Raikage stood in the center of the council hall, gripping his Raikage sword, with three Kage kneeling before him.

The youngest of them pulled off his headband, revealing a faint blue scar on his forehead: "We are not substitutes, but memory inheritors." His voice trembled and cracked. "My grandfather was an ANBU member of the previous Raikage. He was falsely accused of treason and his name was erased. My mother used a forbidden technique to seal his memories in my blood, saying, 'One day, the truth will be revealed.'"

Bi's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

He ordered medical ninjas to examine the three people's chakra pathways—there were no "parasitic marks" unique to shadow clones, no impurities from foreign chakra, only pure lightning release bloodlines with a few faint blue strands, like threads worn by time.

Chapter 114 True Wind Returns to Dust!

"Do you know what this means?" He raised his Thunder Blade, the blade leaving scorched marks on the ground. "To acknowledge you is to acknowledge that the history of Cloud Village is tainted."

“We know.” The lead shadow guard looked up, tears mixed with blood rolling down his cheeks. “But we also know that pain is more real than lies.”

The windows of the council chamber were suddenly smashed open by a strong gust of wind.

A bolt of lightning struck down from the border of the Land of Lightning. Squinting, Bi saw an old woman standing before the Blood Name Talisman, holding a yellowed will, amidst the firelight of a distant post station.

The talisman burned to ashes with a "boom," and a thunder-patterned flower bloomed on the ground. The face of the old woman's deceased husband was clearly reflected on the petals—the name "traitorous ninja" that had been erased by the historian for twenty years.

“Word Masters.” Bee suddenly laughed, his thunder blade plunging heavily into the ground. “From this day forward, Cloud Village acknowledges you as ‘Word Masters.’”

In an abandoned house in the Land of Wind, Kazama Shin's fingers trembled slightly as he typed on his diary.

The writing of the Mother of Red Sand had faded, but every stroke seemed to be engraved into the paper: "The first envoy said that the substitute was set up to protect the true body... but later, the substitute killed the true body." He turned to the last page, and the dried sea buckthorn tucked between his fingers suddenly moved. The green vines outside the window wrapped around the broken window and left a faint red mark on the back of his hand.

"So before Luo Sha self-immolated, he wanted to burn off this line that had been twisted by power." He tore off a piece of his clothes and copied the contents of his diary with his own blood. "I'll tell you the truth for you."

That night, the blood-red talismans at the three post stations in the Land of Wind simultaneously glowed red.

People knelt and worshipped before the talisman, some crying as they pointed at the talisman: "That's the Wind Shadow! The Wind Shadow is different from the one in the murals of the History Museum!"

"True winds return to dust!" someone shouted, and the crowd echoed in unison, their voices sweeping towards the Wind Kingdom's palace like a sandstorm.

Meanwhile, in the Konoha Archives, Onodera Ren's vines were slowly creeping along the patterns on the crystal ball.

She could feel the seal loosening; in the original image, the words "candidate" began to glow with golden light, as if waiting for some opportunity—

"Lotus!" came Bai Ye's call from the direction of Shi Ge. "The resonance points of the five kingdoms are still spreading. You need to use the vines to locate the source!"

Onodera Ren's consciousness took one last look at the crystal ball, and the vines gently touched the surface of the ball.

A barely perceptible crack appeared, revealing nine blurry figures within.

She took a deep breath, and her consciousness shot out of the archives like a streak of light, leaving only the crystal ball slightly warm in the darkness, like an egg about to hatch.

The crystal chandelier on the dome of the archives swayed and cast fragmented shadows as the vines trembled, and Onodera Ren's fingernails almost dug into his palms.

As the last Wood Release pattern faded from the surface of the crystal ball, the list that appeared in the crack was like a bucket of ice water poured over one's head—on the yellowed parchment, nine lines of small cinnabar characters were laid out from top to bottom, the seventh line's two characters "White Night" were circled three times, and the annotation at the end, "Dual Source Core, if out of control, it will be replaced by the Eighth," was tinged with a chilling red.

“How could this be…” Her consciousness swayed slightly in mid-air, and drops of blood ink from the tips of the vines fell in strings. “The First Generation actually…” Before she could finish speaking, the blood ink vines on her fingertips suddenly felt a burning sensation—just now she had tried to send this message to the Guiyuan Shrine through the vines, but the vines withered abruptly after extending only a hundred meters, and blackish-brown viscous liquid seeped from the broken ends, clearly corroded by some kind of barrier.

"Silence Barrier." She bit her lip and took two steps back, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

The bronze door to the archives had closed at some point, and the chains wrapped around the door knocker were oozing a ghostly blue chakra, sealing the exit completely.

The sound of fabric rustling came from the shadows, and two figures wrapped in gray robes emerged from behind the display shelves. Only half of their bluish faces were visible under their hoods. One of them raised his hand to his chest, and his voice was like a rusty gear: "Candidate, it's time to wake up."

"Who are you?" Onodera Ren's vines instantly straightened like blades, blocking his way.

She noticed that the two men wore bronze keys unique to Shige on their waists, but lacked the Leaf Headbands that a Keeper of the Law should have—the keys had dark red fragments embedded between the teeth, like dried blood.

“We are the watchmen of the fire.” Another person spoke, his voice even hoarser. “The First Lord said that if a candidate awakens prematurely, we must guide them back to their rightful place.” As he raised his hand, his sleeve slipped down, revealing a Wood Release seal with the same pattern as the crystal ball wrapped around his wrist. “The fragment in your hand should never have been seen by outsiders.”

At the same time, Baiye, standing on the ruins of Guiyuan Shrine, suddenly staggered half a step.

He was using Wood Release to sense the ley lines of the five countries when he encountered a distorted chakra turbulence in the direction of Konoha—it was the unique fluctuation of Onodera Ren's Blood Ink Vines, but at this moment it was being torn to pieces by some force.