Konoha: Superman template, the spoiled brat becomes strong.

Ebizo suddenly grabbed his wrist.

The old man's palms were rough like sandpaper, yet strangely hot: "If Feng Ying knew of this, he would surely send troops—"

"So they need to speed things up."

The sound of the explosion tore through the air.

The stone door to the cellar rattled loudly as it was hit by the blast of air, and dust settled on their shoulders.

Chapter 888 The Mark of the Wind Shadow's Directly Subordinate Dark Division

Qi Sui's figure squeezed in through the crack in the door, a silver hairpin in her hair askew behind her ear, a burn hole in her left sleeve, and blood dripping down between her fingers.

The short sword at her waist was still smoking, clearly indicating that she had withstood the aftershocks of the puppet's self-destruction.

“The puppet…self-destructed!” She gasped for breath, her neck veins bulging. “But before it detonated…it transmitted an image—” She pulled out a ninja tool pouch from her waist and took out a charred crystal ball. The image inside was still flashing: a dark red cloak swept past the wind statue of Sunagakure, and the eyes under the mask glowed with the same eerie blue runes as “Crow’s Tomb”.

"That's not me." Bai Ye's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

He snatched the crystal ball and pressed his fingertip against the image—the chakra fluctuations were mixed with the fishy smell of magnetic sand, a trace of the Sand Village Puppet Technique.

"Someone used my puppet strings to impersonate me and kill the Wind Shadow."

Ebizo's secret order fell to the ground with a "whoosh".

He staggered a couple of steps and grabbed the wall for support, his straw hat slipping completely off, his gray hair whipped into a mess by the blast of air: "Rasa is holding a preparatory meeting for the Five Kage Summit at the Wind Shadow Tower at noon today..."

"What time is it?" Byakuya suddenly grabbed Nanaho's wrist, and his chakra surged into her body like an electric current.

"Three-quarters of the hour of Yin (3:45 AM)." Nanami gasped in pain, but stared intently at him. "From the Land of Fire to the Sand Village, it takes at least two hours—"

"That's enough." Bai Ye interrupted her, and with a backhand, tore off the spore wristband from her wrist.

Golden lines flickered in his palm; they were from living organisms cultivated using first-generation cells, which were now oozing spores the size of rice grains.

He grabbed Crow's hand (who had somehow crept into the cellar from the culvert and was now huddled in a corner, clutching the communicator and trembling), and pressed the spore into his palm: "Tell Chiyo for me: the real enemy is hidden beneath 'loyalty'."

"Why me?" Crow's voice was trembling with sobs, and the spores in his palm were so hot that he stomped his feet.

"Because you saw the 'Crow's Tomb' move." Bai Ye's figure had already blended into the shadows, and his voice came from all directions, "Tell her that the names on the Blood Pact Stele were all sold out by their own people."

The wind outside the cellar suddenly changed direction.

Ebizo bent down to pick up the secret order, his fingertip tracing the sand-covered mark on the parchment—a mark he had made himself.

The ink was still wet, but it spread out like a bucket of cold water, blurring into a blurry mess.

When he looked up, Bai Ye's shadow had vanished, leaving only the name on the Blood Pact Stele still bleeding, like a silent scream.

Nana squatted down and pressed on the wound, the short sword clattering to the ground.

As she gazed at the image in the crystal ball, she suddenly recalled the secret letter delivered by the Finance Minister of the Land of Fire yesterday—"The daimyo is dead, a new lord is about to arrive." At the time, she thought it was just a power struggle among ministers, but now she felt a chill run down her spine: the old man's cuffs seemed to be wrapped with spiral puppet strings.

"Let's go." Ebizo suddenly grabbed her arm. "Go after Byakuya. Something's going to happen in Sunagakure."

Crow clutched the spores in his palm, the communicator vibrating on his wrist—an emergency signal from the direction of Sand Village. Amid the static, he could vaguely hear: "Wind Shadow Tower... Yellow Sand... Sealed..." He watched the two figures run away into the distance, then looked down at the Blood Pact Monument and suddenly noticed that the words "Minister of Finance" had appeared at the bottom of the monument, swollen from being soaked in blood.

At this moment, above Sunagakure, yellow sand was churning in a strange form.

On the observation deck at the top of the Wind Shadow Tower, the Fourth Wind Shadow, Rasa, clutched the urgent report he had just received, his fingertips almost piercing through the pages.

Twelve Sand Village Jonin stood behind him, the cold glint of their chakra blades reflecting on his taut jawline.

"Is the intelligence confirmed?" His voice was like sandpaper rubbing against a magnet. "That guy in the dark red cloak really used White Night's puppetry technique?"

"Yes." The ANBU leader knelt on one knee, his headband gleaming coldly. "But what's even stranger is... the puppet's chakra fluctuations contained... the mark of the Kazekage's direct ANBU."

Chapter 889 Thousand Machine Locking Array

Luo Sha suddenly turned around, and golden sand poured out from his sleeve, condensing into a sharp spear tip in mid-air.

He gazed at the churning yellow sand in the distance, a low chuckle escaping his throat: "What an enemy hidden beneath 'loyalty'... Bai Ye, you'd better catch up."

The bronze bells on the wind statue jingled in the wind, like a death knell.

The wind from Sunagakure, carrying the smell of rust, wafted into the carved window frames of the Kazekage Tower.

The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, gripped the urgent report with knuckles that turned white, the edges of the parchment serrated with fine gold dust.

Twelve Jonin stood behind him in a fan shape, the soft clanging of chakra scabbards against their armor clearly audible in the empty observation deck.

"Did the Anbu confirm the chakra fluctuations?" Rasa's voice sounded like it had been sanded, the last syllable brushing against the whistling of a wind blade.

The leading Jonin knelt on one knee, sweat dripping from his forehead protector and splattering onto the bluestone slab: "Yes... the puppet's technique does indeed have Byakuya's puppet thread patterns, but it's mixed with the markings of the Kazekage's direct subordinate ANBU." His Adam's apple bobbed. "What's even stranger is that we found... the Sand Village's unique Magnet Release crystals in the puppet's joints."

Luo Sha suddenly laughed, and golden sand poured out from his sleeve, condensing into twenty sharp spears in mid-air.

As he turned, his scarlet cloak swept across the face of a Jonin, who staggered back three steps, his lower back slamming heavily against the white marble railing.

“Anti-Secession Mark, Magnet Release Crystal—a true ‘one of us.’” He stared at the churning, blood-red sand clouds in the distance, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints. “Pass on my orders: seal off all ventilation shafts of the Wind Shadow Tower, and deploy twenty puppeteers to guard them—”

"Kazekage-sama."

A cold male voice interrupted the command.

Akahoshi emerged from the stairwell at some point, sand still clinging to the hem of his ANBU uniform.

He knelt on one knee, his ANBU headband gleaming coldly in the sunlight. "I just received intelligence that the guards at the South Gate discovered the remains of three suspicious puppets. The chakra residue closely matches that of the attackers." As he looked up, a faint hint of smugness flashed in his eyes. "Perhaps... the enemy is trying to lure us into splitting our forces?"

Luo Sha's golden sand spear tip trembled slightly.

He stared at the secret communicator on Chi Xing's waist—a black iron disc exclusive to the Dark Force captain, which was now gently rising and falling with his breath.

"Step back," he said suddenly. "Guard the gate."

Akahoshi responded with a "Yes," and as he stood up, a jet-black puppet thread ring slid out from his sleeve.

With his back to Luo Sha, he quickly twisted the silk thread with his fingertips, burying the end of the thread into the crack in the floor.

A faint sound of sand rubbing came from the direction of the ventilation duct, and he raised the corner of his mouth slightly—the "White Night" puppet hidden in the ventilation duct had already sensed the signal.

At the same time, a burnt smell wafted from Chiyo's ancestral home.

The old woman knelt on the straw mat, her wrinkled hands stroking the joints of the "Hundred Machines" puppet.

The old puppet that had been with her for fifty years suddenly trembled, and fine water droplets seeped from its lacquered surface.

Chiyo suddenly looked up, the spore particles swirling around her nose condensing in the air—pale green light particles coalescing into crooked characters: "Beware of those around you, the threads are not woven by me."

Her fingers dug deeply into the straw mat, her knuckles turning white.

The fragments of the wristband that the crow had brought were still on the table when the spiral patterns on the edge of the fragments suddenly glowed red—it was the blood pact mark of White Night giving a warning.

Chiyo grabbed the bronze bell from the table, flicked her wrist, and the crisp sound of the bell shattered the silence of the room.

"Thousand Machine Locking Array," she whispered to the void, a cold light gleaming in the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. "Activate."

The sandstorm came without warning.

Chapter 890 The Finance Minister's Hand Reaches into Sunagakure

The wind whipped Bai Ye's black cloak around him, and he raised his hand to press down the stray hairs on his forehead, the sand that seeped through his fingers stinging his cheeks.

Three puppets disguised as refugees leaped out from behind the sand dunes. The puppet on the left had its strings woven into the spiral knot that he loved in his early years—a detail known only to him and his disciple who died in the "Crow's Tomb".

"The flaw is too obvious." Bai Ye chuckled softly, tapping the ground with his toes.

Suddenly, the sand bulged up, and dark bluish-black wood sprouted from his feet, wrapping around the puppet's ankles like living creatures.

He closed his eyes, and his chakra flowed upstream along the wood—the chakra circuits in the puppet's joints unfolded in his consciousness, but got stuck at the core.

“Stable node…” he murmured, his muscles suddenly tightening. “The frequency of the Dark Side communicator?”

The wind whipped up sand and drove it into his throat.

When Bai Ye opened his eyes, his pupils reflected the shattered appearance of the three puppets—Mu Xu had crushed their power cores, and several black iron discs rolled out from the wood shards; they were the same secret communication devices that Chi Xing wore.

"The finance minister's reach has extended into Sunagakure." He pulled off his cloak to cover his head and turned to run wildly toward the supply tunnel outside the village.

Suddenly, a soft crawling sound came from the sand. He looked down at his palm—spores seeping from the golden veins were burrowing into the sand through his fingers, mimicking the soft sound of sandworms gnawing at rocks.

A slight vibration came from the ventilation opening of the Wind Shadow Tower.

Akahoshi touched the silk thread ring in her sleeve, her ear tips turning red—a signal that the puppet was about to break through the ground.

He stared at the closed conference room door, then heard Luo Sha's voice coming through it: "Pass on my orders, all Dark Guards—"

"boom!"

The entire Wind Shadow Tower suddenly trembled.

Akahoshi staggered and grabbed the wall for support. When he looked up, he saw the sand clouds outside the window suddenly condense into the shape of chains—a sign that Chiyo's Thousand Machine Lock Array was activating.

His communicator was burning hot at his waist; the Chancellor of the Exchequer's scream came through: "Retreat! The Thousand Machine Locking Array will seal off everything—"

Bai Ye's figure had already blended into the shadows of the tunnel.

He touched the spores in his palm, feeling the frequency with which they vibrated along with the sound of the sandworms.

The sound of dripping water came from deep within the tunnel, mixed with his increasingly light footsteps—in another half an incense stick's time, he would be able to bypass the village guards and sneak into the Wind Shadow Tower from underground.

Meanwhile, above Sunagakure, the chains in the sand clouds were slowly tightening.

The dampness seeping from the tunnel walls, mixed with sand, clung to the back of Bai Ye's neck.

He pressed himself against the rock wall, slowing his breathing. The simulated sound of sandworms blended perfectly with the real sound of sand grains rolling down the rock—this was the result of his stimulation of the biological nerves in the sand layer with spores.

Suddenly, the crisp sound of leather boots crunching over gravel came from ahead, extremely faint, yet it exploded like thunder in the closed tunnel.

Bai Ye's pupils shrank to slits.

He flicked the last spore from his palm, and dark bluish-black tendrils, like snake tongues, darted out from between his fingers and precisely wrapped around the intruder's ankle.

The ninja groaned and fell to the ground. The short sword had only been drawn halfway when it was pressed against the tip of the wooden shavings at his throat. The barbs on the surface of the shavings were oozing a pale green sap, which was the "immobilization poison" that Bai Ye had just concocted.

"Speak." Bai Ye crouched down, pressing his fingertips against the ninja's Adam's apple. "What message did Akahoshi send you to deliver?"

The ninja struggled violently, his pupils gradually dilating as the poison spread: "The... the puppet in the ANBU ventilation shaft... it was the Finance Minister's... method of having us impersonate Byakuya. To frame the remnants of the Land of Fire, to lure the Sand Village... to lure the Sand Village into starting the war..." He suddenly coughed violently, blood splattering onto Byakuya's hand, "They said... they said war could awaken the ninja world's supreme ruler..."

Bai Ye's fingers suddenly tightened.

Chapter 891 Synchronized Heart Rhythm

The barbs of the wooden stalks pierced deeper into the ninja's skin, and he could clearly sense the disorder in the opponent's chakra flow—it was no lie.

The Finance Minister's actions were even more ruthless than he had anticipated, using the future of Sunagakure as a pawn.

"The supreme ruler?" He chuckled softly, a chilling glint in his eyes. "The bloodline of the First Hokage? Or some sealed monster?"

The ninja's eyelids began to droop, and before his last shred of consciousness, he heard the mysterious ninja's voice: "Tell Akahoshi that his countdown is over."

The sandalwood incense at the top of the Wind Shadow Tower suddenly turned bitter.

Chiyo's fingertips tapped rapidly on the puppet's joints, the lingering sound of the bronze bell still echoing among the beams and pillars.

The "Rasa" in front of her suddenly raised its head, and the arc of the golden sand pouring from its sleeve was half an inch different from that of the real Rasa—this "pseudo-life puppet" was made by her using the chakra fragments that Rasa had shed three years ago, and even its breathing frequency was exactly the same as the real Rasa.

"Red Star is coming." She whispered to the air, her withered fingers pinching a strand of puppet string.

The spiral knot at the end of the thread gleamed faintly in the sunlight; it was a unique "heart rhythm synchronization" technique she had created in her youth, which required the thread to be synchronized with the operator's heartbeat to be activated.

In the information that Akahoshi just presented to Rasa, the way the puppet strings were tied was clearly three beats faster—it was imitation, not inheritance.

A soft sound of shattering glass came from the vent.

Akahoshi's headband was the first to peek in; his breathing was rapid, like a bellows, and cold sweat seeped from the silk threads wrapped around his palms.

When his gaze swept over "Luo Sha", his pupils suddenly contracted - the flowing trajectory of that golden sand was exactly the same as that of the real Feng Ying.

"Start it." He gritted his teeth and twisted the silk thread loop.

The creaking sound of a wooden shaft turning came from deep inside the ventilation duct.

Twelve puppets emerged one after another, their joints glowing with a faint blue light from the magnetic crystals. The spiral knots of the puppet strings swayed in the wind, resembling twelve spitting snakes.

Just as Akahoshi's lips curled up slightly, "Rasa" suddenly raised his hand—golden sand transformed into chains, precisely binding the neck of the nearest puppet.

"You think you can fool the creator by imitating the technique of Byakuya?" Chiyo's voice came from behind "Rasa".

The old woman lifted the hidden compartment behind the puppet, stepped out while holding onto the wooden frame, her silver hair floating in mid-air, supported by gold dust. "These threads lack the rhythm of 'heartbeat synchronization'—your heart beats too fast, like a mouse stealing food."