Raid on the Outlying Villages

Pale green Chakra enveloped the man's head. Sakura frowned slightly. "Aoba, someone sealed his memories with a secret technique. I can only read fragments.

I caught words like 'puppet army' and 'Konoha barrier.'"

Kawaki Aoba's expression turned grave. "A puppet army? Is Sasori of the Red Sands planning to attack Konoha with Puppet Technique?"

He crouched and looked at the gaunt young man again. "What else do you know? The secret base's location? How many other ninja are involved?"

The young man closed his eyes, seemingly struggling.

After a while, he spoke slowly. "The secret base is in an abandoned mine east of Sunagakure. There are about fifty ninja inside, along with a lot of unfinished puppets.

That's all I know."

Kawaki Aoba stood, took a map from his tool pouch, and spread it on the ground. "The abandoned mine... It should be here."

He pointed to a red dot on the map. "

It's only thirty kilometers from Sunagakure, and the terrain offers plenty of cover. It's a good place for a secret base."

Sakura stopped using Medical Ninjutsu. "He's probably telling the truth. The memory fragments I read included images of a mine."

Just then, Naruto shouted from the distance. "Aoba! Trouble! We found a huge number of puppets!"

Kawaki Aoba immediately put away the map. His gaze sharpened. "Let's go!"

They sprinted toward Naruto. As soon as they emerged from the woods, they saw him and Iwabe Yuino fighting off dozens of puppets.

The puppets were black from head to toe, with sharp blades mounted on their arms. They moved with agility and had clearly been painstakingly modified.

"Aoba! The Chakra coming from these puppets is strange! I think they were made from living people!"

Naruto smashed a puppet's head with a Rasengan as he shouted.

Kawaki