Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

Two plumes of white smoke appeared, and two stones cut in half fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, not far away, two Cloud Village Anbu ninjas who had escaped using the Substitution Technique quickly retreated.

During the process, both of their feet were covered in lightning chakra, clearly indicating that they were using some kind of lightning-based speed-enhancing ninjutsu.

Upon seeing this, Kirito's entire body was instantly covered in blue-white electricity, transforming into a blue-white bolt of lightning as he charged forward.

For a moment, the two sides engaged in a high-speed chase.

Unfortunately, although the speed boost from the two Cloud Ninja's Lightning Release Acceleration Techniques was no less than that from Kirito's Lightning Release clones using the Lightning Strike Technique, their physical strength was insufficient for them to use this Lightning Release Acceleration Technique for an extended period, and Kirito quickly caught up with them.

"You guys from the Hidden Cloud Clan have really sharp noses; you found me again so quickly."

Kirito looked at the two Cloud Village Anbu ninjas in front of him who had decided to fight him to the death, and sneered.

The ANBU of each major ninja village are not to be underestimated. His lightning clones have been showing their faces in public recently, and soon after they appear in a human settlement, ANBU ninjas from Kumogakure and Iwagakure will come knocking on their door.

He has experienced many assassination attempts like today.

He didn't find it annoying at all; on the contrary, he enjoyed it.

Because these ANBU ninjas from major ninja villages are all very strong, and those who came to hunt him down were mostly Jonin.

Like these two Cloud Village Anbu ninjas in front of us, one of them is a Jonin.

These Jonin usually possessed some decent Lightning Release ninjutsu from Kumogakure. He would kill these Jonin and then use the Spirit Transformation Technique to steal their Lightning Release ninjutsu.

Unfortunately, none of these people knew Lightning Release Chakra Mode.

"Who exactly are you? Why do you keep impersonating a ninja from Kumogakure and creating conflict between Iwagakure and Kumogakure?"

One of the Cloud Village ANBU ninjas wearing a cat mask angrily questioned Kirito after hearing his sarcasm.

Kirito naturally wouldn't answer the enemy's question. The reason he didn't attack immediately was that he was waiting for their companions to arrive. These Cloud Village Anbu members had some kind of special communication method, and the Cloud Village ninjas' movement speed meant they would arrive soon.

"Make your move! This guy is waiting for our other companions to arrive. You go quickly, I'll hold him off."

Another Cloud Village ANBU ninja with Jonin-level strength discerned Kirito's intentions, shouted sharply, and immediately formed hand seals to unleash a ninjutsu attack.

However, before he could complete the hand seal, his head was separated.

After activating the cursed seal, the Lightning Release clone unleashed the Lightning Strike Secret Technique with all its might. The speed it generated was such that only a Kage-level expert could react steadily. A mere ordinary Jonin had no time to react and was directly beheaded by Kirito with a single strike.

"asshole!"

Upon seeing this, the Cloud Village Anbu member wearing a cat mask cried out in grief, and a terrifying surge of chakra erupted from his body.

Upon seeing this, Kirito decisively retreated.

"Oh!"

The next moment, a terrifying explosion occurred, creating a crater with an area of ​​nearly twenty meters.

At the same time, a firework appeared in the sky.

Realizing he couldn't escape, the Cloud Village ANBU member decisively used a powerful self-destruct ninjutsu that resulted in mutual destruction, releasing fireworks as a warning to his comrades not to approach.

"Pity."

A hundred meters away, Kirito looked at the firework that appeared in the sky and sighed.

These are fireworks used by the Hidden Cloud Village for their retreat. After these fireworks are displayed, no other Hidden Cloud Village ANBU ninjas will come here.

He then decisively used the Thunder Strike Secret Technique to quickly leave.

Meanwhile, in Konoha, at the Senju clan's training grounds, a duel between Kirito and Tsunade is taking place.

At this moment, Kirito was sitting on the back of a giant tortoise, and above his head, a large crimson bird was circling, its wings and tail feathers covered with crimson flames.

Chapter 158: Tsunade's Blessing, Kiss, and Necklace

"You brat, where did you find these two powerful puppets? And when did you learn the puppetry techniques of Sunagakure?"

Looking at the turtle beneath Kirito and the large bird above his head, Tsunade immediately recognized the two beasts as the legendary sacred beasts, Genbu and Suzaku. However, these two sacred beasts were clearly just puppets, and extremely powerful ones at that, which puzzled her.

She had seen many puppets in Sunagakure before, most of which were humanoid. Beast-type puppets like Kirito's did exist, but they were rare.

The reason is that the manufacturing cost of humanoid puppets is much lower than that of beast-type puppets. After all, there are far more details to deal with in beast-type puppets than in humanoid puppets, and it is more complicated to create chakra meridians similar to those in a human body.

The two beast-shaped puppets in Kirito's hands are clearly the finest of their kind, and their cost is estimated to be astronomical.

She knew Kirito was rich, but she never expected him to be this rich. She had a good eye; the two beast-shaped puppets in front of her were almost entirely made of metal, and without a doubt, these metals were very rare chakra metals.

Otherwise, the wings and tail feathers of the Vermilion Bird puppet on its head wouldn't have shown signs of flame after receiving Kirito's fire chakra.

Furthermore, the Xuanwu puppet beneath him, after receiving Kirito's water-style chakra supply, quickly became covered with a layer of water armor, and a puddle of water appeared beneath it.

Finally, when exactly did this kid learn puppetry? He usually follows her to learn medical ninjutsu, yet he still has the mind to learn puppetry, a skill that is easy to learn but difficult to master.

"Grandma told me that Kirito has a very high talent for learning sealing techniques, which means that his mental calculation ability is very strong. Skills like puppetry are indeed very suitable for him. If he can learn puppetry and obtain a few powerful puppets, his strength will indeed be greatly improved."

It seems I have to show my true skills this time, otherwise it would be incredibly embarrassing if I lost.

Tsunade thought to herself.

"Don't worry about where they came from, sister. Just know that I spent a lot of money to create these powerful ninja tools. As for the puppet technique, it's nothing special. I learned it in a little while."

Upon hearing this, Kirito smiled slightly and then twitched the middle finger of his left hand.

The Vermilion Bird puppet above its head suddenly let out a loud bird cry, and then, like a real bird, it used the wind power emission system formed by the wind release chakra on its body and a fixed sealing array that could generate strong winds to soar quickly in the air.

Upon seeing this, Tsunade's eyes widened in surprise.

A flying puppet! This Vermilion Bird puppet is actually a flying puppet.

She originally thought that the reason why this Suzaku puppet could fly was because Kirito used chakra threads to suspend it. Many Sunagakure puppeteers had mastered this kind of puppet control technique. She never expected that it would actually be a real flying puppet.

Kirito felt a little smug when he saw the surprise on Tsunade's face, but when he thought about the cost of making the two sacred beast puppets, his smugness vanished.

These two sacred beast puppets were commissioned by him to be made by the top ninja tool master of the Ninja Village at a cost of nearly 100 million, not including the cost of the materials used in their creation.

He only commissioned the people of Takumi Ninja Village to make the parts for these two puppets; he was responsible for the design and assembly of these two sacred beast puppets.

Both puppets are made of chakra metals of different attributes. The Suzaku puppet's wings and tail feathers are made of fire-attribute chakra metal, while its torso and head are made of very light wind-attribute chakra metal. The Xuanwu puppet is mostly made of water-attribute chakra metal, while its tail snake is made of lightning-attribute chakra metal.

In order to gather the chakra metal from the two sacred beast puppets, Kirito secretly used Hattori Masanari's identity to buy up almost all the chakra metal traded between the Land of Rain and the Land of Earth in the past six months, spending nearly a billion in total.

Therefore, the cost of these two sacred beast puppets is at least over one billion.

That much money is enough for Sunagakure to train dozens of Jonin and support a large-scale war.

In fact, Sunagakure is not incapable of creating flying puppets; the main problem is that they are not cost-effective.

Kirito's creation of the Suzaku puppet was based on techniques he learned from two top puppeteers from Sunagakure, Akasuna and Sunagakure. He simply optimized and improved these techniques and added some sealing techniques to them.

Both puppets are designed with two sets of chakra pathways, allowing Kirito to control them simultaneously to unleash two different ninjutsu in battle.

Furthermore, it contains more than a dozen chakra scrolls of various sizes as energy reserves. Combined with the highly conductive chakra metal on its body, this greatly enhances its continuous combat capability, allowing Kirito to control it without worrying too much about running out of chakra.

"You brat, still being stubborn. You'd better tell me now, or I won't hold back when I teach you a lesson."

Seeing that Kirito was unwilling to talk, Tsunade immediately used her fist and palm to perform a combined attack, staring coldly at Kirito and saying that she was about to teach her disobedient younger brother a good lesson.

"Then it depends on your abilities, elder sister."

Kirito said with a grin.

He specially invited his dear sister Tsunade to come and train with him today, with the aim of using Tsunade to test the strength of these two sacred beast puppets that he had spent a lot of money to create.

In Konoha today, Tsunade is one of the top ninjas besides the Third Hokage, Sakumo Hatake, Homura Uchiha, and Danzo.

He definitely couldn't ask the Third Hokage, Homura Uchiha, and Danzo for help. Orochimaru and Jiraiya weren't in Konoha either, so he had no choice but to ask Tsunade for help.

"Alright, today I'm going to show you what I'm capable of."

Tsunade immediately said.

After saying that, she stomped her heel hard on the ground.

Painful feet!

The ground trembled violently, and a huge crack appeared from under Tsunade's right heel, quickly spreading towards the Genbu puppet beneath Kirito.

Upon seeing this, Kirito twitched his left index finger, and the Genbu puppet immediately sprang into action, quickly dodging the ground fissure created by Tsunade's Painful Heaven Kick.

At the same time, the black snake on the tail of the Xuanwu puppet spat out a huge lightning spear.

Lightning Release: False Darkness!

Tsunade's current strength is very close to that of a Kage-level powerhouse. As someone with the bloodlines of the Senju and Uzumaki clans, her chakra reserves are now even more terrifying than Nawaki's, estimated to be the combined chakra of more than ten Jonin-level individuals.

In addition, she possesses four chakra natures: water, earth, wind, and fire, and is proficient in various ninjutsu. Among them, the water and earth chakra natures are of a high level, conservatively estimated to be level three.

Based on her greater proficiency in Earth Release ninjutsu, her Earth Release level is 4.

She is also a very powerful taijutsu ninja with considerable physical strength. She has mastered two powerful taijutsu skills: Super Strength Fist and Painful Heaven Kick. Painful Heaven Kick not only has great destructive power, but also gives her amazing burst speed.

Finally, she is also a top-notch medical ninja, extremely skilled in various medical ninjutsu, and has a thorough understanding of human anatomy and chakra pathways. Once she gets close enough to strike, it's almost always a fatal wound.

The giant lightning spear came hurtling towards her, but instead of retreating, Tsunade advanced and charged straight at it.

Faced with the rapidly approaching giant lightning spear, her approach was very simple and brutal: she gathered astonishing chakra in her fist and unleashed a powerful punch.

"Bang bang bang~"

A powerful chakra shockwave appeared instantly, shattering the giant lightning spear that was attacking from the front, turning it into fireworks of lightning chakra.

With her full speed bursting forth, Tsunade covered the distance of over a hundred meters between herself and Kirito in a single breath. Without holding back, she once again gathered a large amount of chakra in her fist and threw a punch at Kirito on the Genbu puppet.

Superhuman strength punch!

The next moment, Kirito moved two fingers on his left hand, and a surge of chakra immediately appeared on one of the tortoise shells on the Xuanwu puppet. A chakra shield instantly appeared, completely enveloping Kirito on the tortoise shell.

It was the Sand Hidden Puppet Technique: Machine Light Shield Seal.

"Boom!"

A tremendous roar followed.

Tsunade's powerful punch was blocked by the chakra shield formed by the Machine Light Shield, and the Genbu puppet under Kirito remained completely still, clearly having successfully blocked Tsunade's powerful punch.

However, Tsunade's monstrous strength punch was indeed formidable, easily blocking the chakra shield formed by the mechanical light seal of powerful ninjutsu like Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique, which now showed numerous cracks.

Conservatively speaking, if Tsunade unleashes her monstrous punches one or two more times, the chakra shield will definitely not be able to withstand it.

"You little rascal, this shield's defensive capabilities are pretty good."