The Puppet Masters Are Mine, Sweeping Through

As one puppet after another charged toward him, Chiyo seemed not to notice.

"Yomi Higan!"

Chiyo's Mangekyō Sharingan slowly spun as his gaze locked onto Ebizo and the Puppet Masters in the distance.

The six-petaled Manjushage pattern bloomed eerily within his scarlet eyes.

Under the domain of "Yomi Higan," Ebizo and the others' bodies rapidly withered.

The puppets that had reached Chiyo collapsed like scrap metal after losing control from their masters, scattering into pieces across the ground.

Dark red blood flowed from Chiyo's bloodshot eyes, trailing down his cheeks and dripping onto the ground.

His expression was cold as his Mangekyō Sharingan vigilantly swept across the area.

His Mangekyō Sharingan had caught something unusual just now.

Ebizo had anticipated the attack long ago. The Ebizo from before had not been his true body.

A sharp whistle suddenly tore through the air!

Chiyo abruptly leaped left. A dark blue blade nearly grazed his neck, the gust it created cutting painfully against his skin.

It was a Humanoid Puppet.

Unlike the crude creations of ordinary Puppet Masters, this puppet was entirely black, with precise Chakra conduction devices embedded at its joints. It moved as flexibly as a real person.

Sharp blades sprang from its arms, their edges glinting with a dark blue poisonous sheen. They had clearly been coated in deadly venom.

This puppet... was Ebizo's trump card?

Chiyo shut the eye that had just used Yomi Higan and activated the Body Flicker Technique.

He rapidly retreated, but the puppet followed like a shadow.

Its blades struck in an unbroken chain, forcing him to evade again and again.

Chiyo narrowed his open Mangekyō Sharingan slightly.

His gaze fixed on the puppet, and the Sharingan caught sight of the azure Chakra threads.

Following those threads, Chiyo immediately located Ebizo's likely hiding place.

Boom!!!

Just as Chiyo considered how to temporarily suppress the puppet and launch an assault on Ebizo's position—

A golden figure crashed into the battlefield like a cannonball.

A fist carrying terrifying monstrous strength slammed heavily into the puppet's chest before Chiyo.

"Get lost!"

With Tsunade's furious shout, the precise puppet was blasted backward and smashed into a sand dune, sending yellow sand flying everywhere.

Chiyo froze, then turned to look at Tsunade beside him.

She was breathing slightly hard, blood staining her fair cheek, yet her gaze was exceptionally sharp.

Her fist remained extended from the punch, while Chakra faintly churned between her knuckles.

"Don't push yourself."

Knowing she had reached her limit, Chiyo spoke in a low voice.

Tsunade shook her head. Her gaze fell upon his eyes, and her expression became complicated.

"Your eyes..."

Chiyo fell silent for a moment, then gave a light laugh.

"It's fine. That one is a little tired, so I'm closing it to let it rest. I'll tell you the rest once we've driven them back!"

Tsunade nodded seriously, her gaze returning to the puppet slowly climbing out of the sand.

Its chest had caved in, but it was still moving. Its joints gave off a teeth-grinding scraping sound.

"This thing... isn't an ordinary puppet.

"That old fox Ebizo has probably brought out everything he had hidden away."

Chiyo nodded, his Sharingan slowly turning.

"Its core isn't in its chest. It's in its head."

Tsunade's lips curled upward as she shot Chiyo a surprised glance.

"Then I'll take it apart!"

Before her words had faded, she charged forward again. Her monstrous strength erupted, cracking the sand beneath her feet in a spiderweb pattern.

The puppet swiftly retreated, crossing the blades on its arms to block as a switch on its shoulder opened.

Senbon wrapped with Explosive Tags shot out from within.

A flash of fire appeared.

A violent explosion rang out.

Tsunade used the Body Flicker Technique to evade the blast, circling around to close in on the puppet.

A sweeping kick shattered its left arm!

At the same moment Tsunade moved, Chiyo vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.

Chiba's figure flickered as he raced into the distance.

The surrounding scenery sped past. Behind a huge boulder, he finally spotted a figure.

Found him!

As expected, it was Ebizo!

The Mangekyō Sharingan Chiyo had closed opened once more, instantly locking onto Ebizo as the blood vessels in his eyes multiplied again.

Hot blood surged out and streamed down his cheeks.

"Yomi Higan!!"

Chiyo controlled the invisible ripples, concentrating them toward Ebizo.

Ebizo stared at Chiyo with wide eyes.

"Damn it!"

He felt as though an immense force had bound his entire body. Then, his consciousness began to blur.

His skin instantly shriveled and darkened.

In the blink of an eye, he was drained dry and crashed heavily to the ground without a trace of life.

At the same time—

Tsunade's punch blew apart the puppet's head, exposing its core mechanism to the air. It flickered with a dangerous Chakra glow.

"It's over."

Tsunade said coldly, raising her fist once more.

Crack!

The puppet's core suddenly shattered on its own, and a cloud of purple poison mist erupted in an instant!

"Tsunade! Get back!"

Chiyo whirled around, his heart jolting as he shouted sharply.

Though he had warned her, it was clearly too late.

Seeing Tsunade about to be swallowed by the poison mist, Chiyo could no longer worry about the consumption of his Dōryoku. The ocular technique in his other eye suddenly activated.

"Karma Cycle!"

The poison mist suddenly vanished.

Tsunade stood there in a daze.

"Aaaah!"

The screams of Sand Ninja suddenly rang out in the distance.

Tsunade turned to look.

Among the most densely gathered Sand Ninja—

The purple poison mist suddenly appeared, corroding several ninjas at once like sulfuric acid.

Wherever the poison mist spread, the sand hissed as it was corroded into pits.

The Sand Ninja who realized what was happening immediately began forming hand seals.

"Wind Release: Gale Palm!!"

The Wind Release dispersed the poison mist, but they had already been reduced beyond recognition.

A combat squad of twenty or thirty people had been wiped out just like that...

Chiyo returned to Tsunade's side.

"That guy is dead!"

Hearing his voice, Tsunade raised her gaze to meet his.

Then, seeing the blood on Chiyo's face, her heart clenched.

"You..."

Before she could finish, Chiyo reached out and rubbed her head, cutting her off.

"The wounded and the Medical Ninja still need you."

After saying that, Chiyo turned his gaze toward the remaining Sand Ninja.

After forming hand seals, his figure vanished.

When he appeared again, he had already charged into the Sand Ninja crowd.

"It's that Uchiha!!"

His sudden appearance immediately caused everyone to point Kunai, shuriken, and other weapons at Chiyo.

Before they could act, Chiyo Uchiha's gaze swept over them.

The Six-Petaled Blood-Colored Manjushage pattern was as vibrant as a rose.

"Yomi Higan!"

Invisible ripples spread outward from Chiyo as their center.

A cold power that suffocated them with terror seemed to seize the throats of their lives.

Before nearly a hundred Sunagakure ninjas could react, they felt a bone-chilling cold seep from deep within their marrow.

Their skin withered and cracked at a visible rate, their muscles shrank, and their vitality was forcibly drawn away by an invisible hand.

"Thud! Thud!"

Ninjas fell in waves.

Chiyo stood in the center of the battlefield. The six-petaled Manjushage in his Mangekyō Sharingan slowly rotated, the crimson in his eyes like karmic flames from hell.

In an instant, more than half the ninjas on Sunagakure's battlefield had been eliminated.

The sound of difficult swallowing rose up.

A Jonin's hand holding a Kunai trembled, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

The bizarre and horrifying sight before them—

Undoubtedly shattered their understanding of ninjutsu and deepened their fear of the unknown.

"Impossible..."

He stared at Chiyo Uchiha, his eyes wide.

"How could a technique on this scale possibly..."