The boy named Ranmaru slowly opened his eyes at those words. They were a strange pair of eyes, their whites tinged with pale purple, intricate and sacred golden patterns gleaming within their pupils-the Tenseigan!
"Yes, Lord Toru."
Ranmaru formed hand seals, and the light in his Tenseigan suddenly blazed. An invisible, intangible, yet immense surge of ocular power instantly crossed the barrier of space and radiated toward the three hundred puppets in the forest!
"Hummm!"
In the silent forest, crimson light suddenly flared within the hollow eye sockets of the three hundred lifeless puppets! As though souls had been breathed into them, their chakra cores activated in an instant. In that moment, dead things came alive!
"Go." Through his ocular power, Ranmaru's voice rang out in every puppet's mind. "Remember, use the Red Eye's ability to conceal yourselves. Not even the Byakugan can see through your illusions."
As his words faded, the three hundred puppets moved. Without making a sound, they scattered like phantoms melting into the darkness, becoming three hundred deadly shadows that crept toward war-torn Konoha.
Two hundred of the puppets headed for the village's central street.
"Shhk!"
A Konoha chunin used the last of his strength to drive his kunai into a Sound Ninja's throat, then collapsed from blood loss himself. Both combatants died together.
The fighting around them remained fierce. No one noticed this corner.
Several seconds later, a dark shape slipped soundlessly out of the shadows by a wall. It was a puppet. It approached the two bodies, hoisted them up with mechanical efficiency, then melted back into the shadows and vanished. Throughout the entire process, it made not the slightest sound.
Elsewhere, a Sunagakure jonin had been surrounded by several Konoha ANBU members. He fell gravely wounded after taking several blade strikes, clearly beyond