Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Chiyo slammed the teacup down on the sandalwood table, splattering tea stains onto Ebizo's clothes: "Are you crazy?"

Using a puppet virus as a bargaining chip?

That thing can even corrode scorpion puppets; leaving it in the Land of Wind will only cause a backlash sooner or later! Ebizo slowly wiped his clothes with a handkerchief, a cold smile floating in the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes: "Backlash?"

If the White Night can control the virus, then we can control the White Night.

Once he has dealt with the daimyo of each country, the Land of Wind will become the new balancer—

"The Balancer?" Chiyo's withered fingers clenched the puppet scroll at her waist, her knuckles turning white. "How many villagers did Sasori kill with his puppets back then?"

"Now you're going to hold something even more dangerous in your hands?" She suddenly tore open the scroll, revealing the puppet of Sasori of the Crimson Sand in the moonlight, the gold patterns on its scarlet trench coat gleaming coldly. "I've lived for seventy years, and I only understand one thing: some poisons require a more potent antidote."

Ebizo's pupils contracted slightly.

He recognized the puppet; it was Chiyo's most treasured heirloom, something even Sasori hadn't been allowed to touch when he was alive. "You're going to seek refuge with Byakuya?" His voice deepened.

Chiyo cradled the puppet in her arms, turned, and walked towards the door, her wooden clogs tapping crisply on the floor. "It's not about surrendering," she paused, turning her head slightly, the beauty mark at the corner of her eye flickering in the candlelight. "It's... for that child, a weapon that can save his life."

Chapter 770 Holding forbidden techniques, who is in charge?

The door slammed shut, and Ebizo stared at the half-empty council chamber, his knuckles pressed against his temple as he sighed deeply.

The cawing of crows came from outside the window, and he suddenly remembered the puppet letter that Byakuya had left three days ago: "If you want the Land of Wind to not be swallowed up by the flames of war, let Chiyo bring Sasori of the Red Sand to see me." It turned out that the child had set up the scheme since then.

Suddenly, the floor of the hot spring resort shimmered with a fine silver light.

Bai Ye opened his eyes, and the patterns of his Sharingan slowly rotated in his eye sockets—the Puppet Web Formation was complete.

He could see the Fourth Raikage of the Land of Lightning charging toward Gengetsu Hozuki of the Land of Water, his sword in hand, while the latter's Water Release technique was already gathering in his palm; he could hear the ninjas of Iwagakure in the Land of Earth roaring at the communicator, "The Kazekage has betrayed the agreement!"; and he could sense that Rasa's chakra fluctuations were becoming increasingly chaotic, and Shukaku's voice was almost drowning out his consciousness.

"It's time for them to taste what it's like to be manipulated." Byakuya tugged at the puppet strings, and Raikage's sword collided with Hozuki Gengetsu's water dragon in mid-air, the shockwave from the explosion sending surrounding trees flying.

He leaned against the broken wall, watching the array swirl in the moonlight, when he suddenly frowned—a very faint chakra fluctuation was approaching the hot spring from the direction of the Land of Fire's capital.

The fluctuation was subtle, like a snake slithering through the grass, but it couldn't escape his Sharingan.

“Hamura Shinobu…” he murmured the name, the puppet threads at his fingertips quietly wrapping around the headband at his feet.

The Hyuga clan's eight trigrams gleamed coldly in the moonlight, as if echoing the sneer in his heart.

Tonight's web is only half-finished.

The lines carved by the moonlight on the broken wall suddenly twisted—the serpentine chakra fluctuation finally became visible.

Three figures wrapped in black cloaks emerged from the shadows of the back alley of the hot spring resort, their bluish chins visible only beneath their face masks.

The leader's fingertips were coated with poisoned kunai, and he was about to stab Bai Ye in the back of the neck when a white light shot up from his feet.

The Hyuga clan's Bagua headband suddenly lit up in the moonlight, and Hyuga Hiashi's puppet darted in with Bagua steps, its Gentle Fist precisely striking the assassin's Jianjing acupoint.

"Hyuga Style: Empty Palm!" The puppet's voice hummed mechanically as its palm strike blew the kunai from the assassin's hand. "A traitorous ninja from the Land of Fire, wielding a forbidden kunai—who is ordering you?"

Byakuya leaned against the broken wall, the lines of his Sharingan slowly shrinking in his eye sockets.

He should have thought of this earlier—how could Hamura Shinobu, who had climbed to the position of acting daimyo, not have a backup plan?

In the puppet letter he left in Daming Prefecture three days ago, he deliberately revealed the location of the hot spring resort, intending to lure this venomous snake hiding in the shadows.

"Lord Shadow!" The assassin's companion drew his dagger and rushed forward, but the puppet grabbed his wrist.

The cracking sound of dislocated joints startled the night crows, causing them to flutter into the air and reveal the Fire Country crest on the assassin's neck—the edges of the deliberately scratched crest were still stained with fresh blood.

"It's Lord Hamura..." Blood and foam spilled from the leader of the assassins' throats; the poison on their kunai was clearly mixed with a silencing agent. "He said that as long as you are killed, the Land of Fire... the Land of Fire will not be divided up by other countries..."

Bai Ye crouched down, his fingertips tracing the scratches on the assassin's neck.

The wound was so clean; it was clearly something Hamura had personally inflicted to conceal his identity. "Greedy people always think they can reap the benefits." He stood up, and the puppet threads shot along the earth's veins towards the capital of the Land of Fire—an emergency daimyo meeting was underway there, the chakra fluctuations of the representatives from various countries rising and falling violently with the chirping of the communication bugs.

Chapter 771 Returning to the Original Intention

"My lords," Byakuya's voice spread through the puppet threads to every communication insect, "the acting daimyo of the Land of Fire, Hamura Shinobu, has ordered a rogue ninja to assassinate a ninja who is trying to quell the war." He paused, and his Sharingan showed the scene inside the capital's council hall: Hamura's teacup clattered to the ground, and tea smeared dark stains on the hem of his robe embroidered with cherry blossoms.

"Evidence?" Hamura's voice trembled, yet he forced a cold laugh. "Just the last words of a few rogue ninja—"

“The Hyuga clan’s Byakugan never makes a mistake.” The puppet of Hyuga Hiashi turned around, and the chakra orb of the Byakugan illuminated the cut on the assassin’s neck. “This wound perfectly matches the curve left by the paper cutter when Lord Hamura was pruning the bonsai three days ago.”

A collective gasp filled the council chamber.

The pipe belonging to the representative of the Land of Earth fell to the ground with a "thud," and the envoy of the Land of Lightning slammed his fist heavily on the table: "Well done, Land of Fire!"

The air in the hot spring resort suddenly became thick and sticky.

The puppet forms of the First Hokage and Madara emerged from the center of the Bagua formation, their translucent chakra bodies enveloped in the remnants of Wood Release and Susanoo.

The First Hokage's eyes were as deep as an ancient pool, while Madara's lips still held his usual cold mockery: "Why are you unwilling to accept our will?"

Bai Ye took a half step back, and the metallic taste in his throat surged up again.

He should have realized long ago that the origin of the puppet virus could ultimately be traced back to these two progenitors—back then, they used puppetry to seal away the tailed beasts, but planted the seeds of soul-devouring within the technique. "You created puppetry," he tore off half of his mask, revealing a tightly pursed mouth, "but forgot that it was originally a tool to protect people, not a chain to enslave souls."

Madara's pupils suddenly contracted, and cracks appeared on his chakra body: "Do you know what it takes to seal our will?"

"The earth's veins are depleted?" Byakuya pressed his fingertips against the puppet's heart embryo in the center of the Bagua formation, the emerald green of Wood Release and the scarlet of Sharingan intertwining in his palm. "Or is it my life?" He chuckled, his chakra flooding into the embryo like a tidal wave. "But it's better than letting more people, like Sasori and Rasa, be eaten away by your 'will' and left as empty shells."

The first generation's gaze suddenly softened.

He reached out and touched the embryo, chakra condensing into a seedling at his fingertips: "So...you wanted to bring puppetry back to its original purpose."

"Shut up." Madara's voice was hoarse and broken. "This kid doesn't understand at all—"

"boom!"

The earth's veins suddenly emitted a muffled sound.

The puppet's embryonic heart emitted a blinding white light, and a clear heartbeat shook the broken walls of the hot spring pavilion, causing dust to fall.

All the puppet viruses attached to the chakra threads, like ice and snow meeting the sun, surged along the earth's veins toward the embryo, condensing into a golden cocoon in mid-air.

Bai Ye's knees slammed heavily against the bluestone slab.

He could feel the embryo frantically draining his chakra, and even the patterns on his Sharingan were beginning to blur.

But when he looked up, he saw that Rasa's chakra fluctuations suddenly stabilized, and Shukaku's roar became distant; the collision of Raikage's and Hozuki Gengetsu's chakra also weakened, as if a pause button had been pressed.

“It’s done…” He gasped as he tore off the last half of the mask, the moonlight, like shattered jade, shining on his pale face.

His young face, still bearing traces of immaturity, was already covered in fine beads of sweat. "Now... it's my turn to write the ending."

"white night?"

A panicked female voice came from the entrance of the hot spring resort.

Chiyo stood in the moonlight, holding the puppet of Sasori of the Red Sand, her wooden clogs making a soft, clattering sound on the bluestone slabs.

Her pupils contracted sharply, as if she had seen something that shouldn't exist—the "mysterious assassin" wanted by ninjas from various countries was just a boy barely twenty years old.

Bai Ye looked up and met Chiyo's gaze.

He wanted to laugh, but could only manage a twitch at the corners of his mouth.

The tremors of the earth's veins continued, and the heartbeat of the embryo grew clearer and clearer, like the pendulum of some destiny slowly striking a new prelude.

Chapter 772 No One Knows Beneath the Mask

The moonlight sliced ​​the broken walls of the hot spring resort into fragments of light and shadow, and the sound of Chiyo's wooden clogs shattered into stars on the bluestone slabs.

The red eye of the Sasori puppet in her arms reflected the white light, overlapping with her suddenly contracting pupils—the boy's pale face and the figure in her memory who always squatted in the corner of the Sand Village puppet workshop, with chakra threads as thin as hair wrapped around his fingertips, overlapped perfectly.

"You...you are the 'Child of the Red Sand' who disappeared back then?" Her voice trembled with a rare tremor for an elderly person, and the puppet strings in her arms slipped uncontrollably from her sleeves, leaving a winding silver trail on the ground.

Memories from thirty years ago suddenly resurfaced: the genius boy who could make puppets mimic human breathing disappeared on a full moon night, clutching half a broken puppet core, and even the most elite tracking team in Sunagakure couldn't find a trace of chakra.

Looking at the beads of sweat on the boy's forehead, her throat tightened—it turned out he wasn't defecting, but carrying an even heavier burden.

Bai Ye's fingertips paused on the fragment of the mask.

His chakra was almost completely drained by the embryo, and the lines of his Sharingan were so faint that they seemed to melt into the depths of his eyes, but when he heard the words "Child of the Red Sand," his heart still skipped a beat.

His identity was exposed sooner than expected. The Dark Guard of the Land of Fire, the Five Kage's kill order... He quickly reached for the spare Yaksha mask in his pocket. His breathing only stabilized when his fingertips touched the lacquer coated with deadly poison.

"boom--"

A muffled sound came from the direction of the mountains and forests, like the beating of some kind of mechanical heart.

The Inuzoku Puppet's tracking force has arrived.

Byakuya listened intently and recognized the sound as the "living locator" modified by Hamura Shinobu—each artificial heart was bound to his chakra characteristics.

He looked down at the limp dog at his feet, the modified puppet still with the chakra threads he had just planted inserted into its neck.

"I'll lend it to you." He gritted his teeth and pressed his fingertips against the core of the puppet on the back of Inuzomi's neck, letting the First Hokage's Wood Release chakra seep in like a thin stream.

Inuzou's pupils suddenly glowed with a pale green light, a sign that the technique for sensing emotions had been activated.

Byakuya pulled on the chakra threads and planted a command in Inuzo's consciousness: "Go to the Daimyo's residence in the Land of Fire, take the main road, and make your heart beat faster every 15 minutes."

The dog's joints made a soft clicking sound, and it actually managed to stand up while holding onto the broken wall.

As it turned, the moonlight just happened to brush past the locator on its waist—in the tracking team's perception, the puppet's chakra fluctuations perfectly overlapped with the characteristics of the "mysterious assassin."

"Grandma Chiyo." Byakuya put on his mask, his voice hoarse from depleted chakra, but he deliberately spoke in a slow and deliberate tone. "If you want to talk about the past, let's wait until I seal up the hole in the earth's veins." He kicked aside a half-gravel at his feet and, taking advantage of Chiyo's momentary daze, lifted the bluestone slab beneath his feet—the entrance to the secret passage of the Land of Fire was hidden beneath the ruins of the hot spring resort, an escape route he had prepared three months ago for today.

As the musty smell wafted up from the secret passage, he heard Chiyo whisper behind him: "If Scorpion were still alive... how happy I would be..." Her voice was cut off by the dull thud of the stone slab closing.

Meanwhile, the stretcher team from the Land of Wind was trudging through the border jungle.

Rasa's body was still burning hot, but Shukaku's chakra was no longer piercing his mind like a barrage of arrows.

In his coma, he saw a blood-red desert, and a figure wearing a yaksha mask stood on the sand dunes, his voice like sandpaper: "If you do not break free from the shackles of fate, you will eventually become another puppet-like victim."

"Cough..." Luo Sha suddenly opened his eyes, cold sweat soaking through the animal hide on the stretcher.

He gazed at the swaying treetops above and suddenly realized that Shukaku's roar was as weak as if it were coming from behind a layer of felt—the force that had been trying to drag his consciousness into darkness had truly receded.

Chapter 773 Suffering a Setback

"Stop." He pressed down on the wrist of his subordinate who was about to continue carrying the stretcher. "Pass on my order: halt the pursuit of Byakuya." His subordinates exchanged glances, but he closed his eyes briefly. "Also...send a team of sensory ninjas to Shukaku's sealing altar to find out the source of the abnormal chakra over the past two months."

In the underground chamber of Kirigakure, Hozuki Gengetsu was crushing the third perception crystal.

Purple chakra smoke swirled in his palm, but not a trace of the stench of the puppet virus could be found.

His fingers tapped out a regular rhythm on the stone table, and his three-tomoe Sharingan slowly rotated in the shadows.

“Interesting.” He chuckled and crushed the last piece of crystal into powder. “A sealing technique that can frustrate the wills of both the First Hokage and Madara… Young man, you’ve been hiding something much deeper than I thought.”

A gust of wind suddenly rushed into the ventilation vent of the sealed room, causing ripples to appear on the water mirror on the wall.

The sky in the direction of the Land of Fire was reflected in the mirror, and several eerie green spots of light were moving rapidly along the ley lines of the earth—those were the location markers of the Inuzoku Golem misleading the pursuers.

Hozuki Gengetsu's smile deepened. He raised his hand, and a water blade formed at his fingertips carved a deep mark on the stone table: "Don't be so smug... wait until I find the flaw in your sealing mechanism..."

The night wind swirled grass clippings into the secret passage, and Bai Ye slowly moved down, supporting herself against the damp stone wall.

He could feel the tremors of the earth's veins weakening, and the heartbeat of the embryo growing fainter.

But when he touched his chest, there remained a seedling formed from the First Hokage's chakra—a disguise more solid than any mask.

The sound of dripping water came from ahead, mixed with the muffled thud of a dog's heart in the distance, like the beating of an invisible war drum.

He tugged at the chakra threads to confirm that the dogwalker's locator was still steadily releasing false signals before tearing off a piece of cloth from his collar and wiping away the nosebleed that kept seeping from under his mask.

"The game has only just begun," he whispered into the darkness.

Hozuki Gengetsu's fingernails dug deeply into the stone table, and his three-tomoe Sharingan drew a ghostly blue arc in the darkness.

When the last piece of the perception crystal shattered into dust, he finally confirmed it—the puppet virus wrapped in Byakuya's chakra had completely disappeared, as if it had been devoured by some living thing.

“Interesting.” He licked his lips, and the water mirror on the stone table suddenly rippled, reflecting the scene of the entrance to the secret passage of the Land of Fire.

Several figures dressed in white coats from Konoha were climbing up the mountainside, their medical kits gleaming coldly in the moonlight. "Konoha Medical Team?" He chuckled softly, tapping the edge of the water mirror with his knuckles. The image in the mirror suddenly magnified—the crescent-shaped scar behind one of the figures' ears was a distinctive mark of the Hidden Mist Anbu.

Bai Ye's fingertips suddenly stung under the bluestone slab at the entrance to the secret passage.

He crouched beside the damp stone wall, chakra threads spreading out along the cracks in the floor tiles, the memory puppets at their ends transmitting every sound wave from the outside world into his ears. "An outbreak of epidemic on the border of the Land of Fire, requiring support"—this excuse was too clumsy. The Konoha medical team's code should be "Akita Inu's tail," not something like "Maple leaves covering the Hokage Rock."

More importantly, one of them had a breathing rate three times faster than normal, which was an instinctive reaction when wearing a voice changer.

“Here it comes.” He tugged at the chakra threads, and the puppet’s eyeballs hidden in the crevice of the rock slowly rotated.