Chapter 78: Human Puppets Achieve Merits

Chapter 78: Human Puppets Achieve Merits

The once peaceful and bustling Konoha was suddenly plunged into war, and the entire central street descended into chaos.

Villagers and ninjas alike were caught completely off guard by the sudden attacks from their supposed allies, the Sand ninjas, and the Sound ninjas who had infiltrated unnoticed.

While fighting back, they quickly dispersed according to Konoha's safety manual, organizing the villagers to head towards the shelters.

Due to the lack of manpower, the Konoha forces were in a very disarrayed state, quickly falling into a disadvantage, giving the Sand and Sound ninjas the illusion that Konoha ninjas were nothing special.

Members of the Anbu and the various ninja clans mobilized en masse.

The former mostly headed towards the plaza, intending to protect the Third Hokage; the latter protected their clansmen and the villagers, leading them towards the Hokage Rock shelters.

As a result, the Hokage Building and the ninja clan compounds were currently in their weakest state of defense and sensory awareness.

Pop—

A sound like a balloon bursting echoed in a forest outside the village.

The surprisingly large cloud of white smoke didn't even have time to spread before being dispersed by a gust of wind.

Three hundred and one puppets wearing black cloaks embroidered with red clouds appeared out of thin air.

The faces of the vast majority of these three hundred and one puppets were wrapped in white bandages, revealing only their foreheads and eyes, making it impossible to distinguish which puppets were purely material constructs and which were human puppets made from corpses, retaining the abilities they possessed in life.

Standing in front of these puppets was also a figure wearing a black cloak.

If any members of Akatsuki were present, they would undoubtedly call out the word "Leader."

That's right, this figure was none other than Pain Tendo.

To be precise, it was Izayoi using a Transformation Technique to become Pain Tendo.

Golden-level chakra control granted Izayoi powerful chakra manipulation abilities, not only allowing him to fuse two and three nature transformations into new nature transformations using the Super Hurricane Consecutive Spheres but also making his Transformation Technique nearly perfect.

Sensory ninjas, unless they were powerful enough to identify chakra fluctuations and had previously identified Izayoi's chakra, would be unable to see through Izayoi's Transformation Technique.

After taking out all the puppets stored in the large scrolls, Izayoi didn't waste any words. He formed a single hand seal, created three Shadow Clones with a large amount of chakra, and then his main body vanished in a Body Flicker Technique.

That's right, the Izayoi using the Transformation Technique to become Pain Tendo was the real body.

The Izayoi in the plaza was just a Shadow Clone.

That was why the Shadow Clone hadn't played childish ninja games with Gaara; after all, its resistance to impact was too poor.

As soon as the three Shadow Clones appeared, they began to cooperate.

The first one formed a hand seal and used the Transformation Technique, also turning into the appearance of Pain Tendo, then vanished in a Body Flicker Technique, acting independently.

The second Shadow Clone also used the Transformation Technique, turning into an ordinary person wearing sunglasses, and then used the Body Flicker Technique to speed towards the Naka River.

At the same time, the power of the Tenseigan remotely activated the chakra cores of the three hundred puppets.

These puppets instantly came to life, all turning into blurs as they dispersed.

Only the small puppet, shorter than the others and different in appearance, which was also the three hundred and first puppet, remained standing in place.

This small puppet's face was also wrapped in bandages, but its eyes were much more beautiful than the other puppets'. Not only were they crystal clear like gemstones, but they also had a red glow flickering within.

This small puppet was Ranmaru, who had been made into a human puppet.

The third Shadow Clone's task was to protect Ranmaru while also providing chakra to Ranmaru's chakra core.

At this moment, Ranmaru's eyes shone with intense red light.

Around the three hundred dispersed puppets, red powder suddenly appeared out of thin air, and then their bodies slightly twisted, like mirages, suddenly disappearing from sight.

Even the Byakugan's penetrating vision couldn't detect their presence.

This was the Byakugan's natural enemy, the Red Eye ability that could use chakra to create images to interfere with the enemy.

With the help of the Red Eye, two hundred of the puppets silently arrived in the central street, like Hayate Gekko using the Transparent Escape Technique, observing the three-way battle between the ninjas.

By this time, the war had already resulted in many casualties. The streets and rooftops, even the alleys and hidden corners, were littered with lifeless corpses or severely wounded individuals who couldn't continue fighting and had to hide.

These people hid themselves well, and some clever ones even took out their portable tools to blend in with the surrounding buildings.

Unfortunately, in the face of the Tenseigan's far-sightedness and penetrating vision, none of them could escape detection.

A portion of the puppets began to move.

Red powder appeared out of thin air, the puppets' figures materialized, they picked up the corpses of the dead ninjas, and then vanished into thin air once more.

The ninjas who inadvertently witnessed this scene all thought their eyes were playing tricks on them, some even suspecting they were under a genjutsu.

Unable to investigate further, they had to suppress their curiosity due to the enemy's attacks.

Whether they were Konoha ninjas or Sand and Sound ninjas, the puppets didn't let any corpses go.

As for the severely wounded ninjas, except for the Konoha ninjas, the puppets approached the others and delivered a finishing blow.

Thwack—

The sharp blades installed on the puppets shot out, either piercing the ninjas' necks, stabbing into their chests and twisting, or decapitating them, but they deliberately avoided damaging the heart.

To create a human puppet, the complete heart had to be preserved to create the chakra core.

"None."

"None."

"Still none..."

The Shadow Clone standing next to Ranmaru watched everything the puppets did.

Emotionless words continued to escape its lips.

Clearly, the scene it wanted to see hadn't appeared.

However, the Shadow Clone didn't feel discouraged. Instead, it raised its hand in a gesture and whispered, "Initiate Plan B."

As if hearing its words, the Shadow Clone already in the Naka River cave, responsible for controlling the three hundred puppets, immediately switched to a new batch of puppets to deliver the finishing blows.

These puppets were all made from corpses, human puppets retaining their abilities from before death.

Furthermore, the strength of these human puppets far surpassed what they had possessed in life.

This was because the chakra within them belonged to Izayoi, and they were controlled by Izayoi's Shadow Clone.

Apart from not having the Yin-Yang Release: Black Receiver rods inserted in them and being unable to use the Tenseigan's abilities, Izayoi could use ninjutsu through these human puppets.

Thus, the Shadow Clone controlled the human puppets to cooperate. Some were responsible for finishing off the wounded ninjas, while others no longer concealed themselves, revealing their figures and joining the war.

In a flash of lightning, a human puppet appeared behind a Sound ninja responsible for assisting the Sand ninjas. Its arm, modified with puppet technology, ejected a sharp blade wrapped in Lightning Release nature transformation, piercing through the Sound ninja's body from behind and twisting violently.

"So... so fast!"

The Sound ninja, unaware of a fourth enemy, left behind only these words as he looked at the blade piercing his body before falling silent forever.

"Who is it?"

"Anbu? No, Anbu doesn't wear this uniform. Who is this guy?!"

"Be careful, his Body Flicker is fast, and his concealment abilities are strong."

Watching the suddenly appearing human puppet, the nearby Konoha ninjas, Sand ninjas, and Sound ninjas all became more vigilant.

Whoosh—

After killing the Sound ninja with a single strike, the human puppet raised its hand, revealing a hollow palm, and then condensed a dazzling golden light, firing a light bullet towards a Sand ninja.

"It's one of ours, attack!"

Seeing this scene, a Konoha ninja's eyes lit up, successfully fooled by the human puppet.

"Wind Release..."

Just as this Konoha ninja was about to form hand seals and unleash a Wind Release attack on the Sand ninja...

The human puppet's figure suddenly appeared in front of him, similarly piercing his body with a single strike.

Blood flowed from the wound, staining the clan emblem on his clothing red.

The Shimura clan, skilled in Wind Release.

After killing this Konoha ninja, the human puppet suddenly stopped in place, no longer moving.

Swish—

A cold glint flashed past, and a short sword severed the human puppet's head.

Looking at the bloodless human puppet, the Special Jonin who had used Konoha-Style Swordmanship to take it down frowned and said, "A Sand Village puppet, why would it kill its own people?"

Losing a single human puppet didn't bother Izayoi's Shadow Clone in the slightest.

On the contrary, several Shadow Clones, including Izayoi's main body, all showed expressions of delight.

Because... it dropped!

In the perspective of Izayoi and his Shadow Clones, after the human puppet killed the Shimura clan ninja, a green beam of light flew out from his body towards Izayoi's main body.

A green skill entry, when decomposed, would only yield a random two-digit number of points, not even a fraction of a purple skill entry's value.

But Izayoi was very pleased.

Because with his current strength, the probability of dropping both low-level and high-level skill entries was extremely low.

How low?

If luck was bad, even elite Jonin like Zabuza Momochi and Raiga Kurosuki, as well as Kekkei Genkai users like Haku and Ranmaru, wouldn't drop a single low-level skill entry.

Similarly, Izayoi hadn't seen skill entries drop from Sasuke Uchiha and the Hyuga sisters for a long time.

From graduation until now, only Rock Lee had provided Izayoi with two blue skill entries.

But now, a human puppet killing an enemy had suddenly caused a green skill entry to drop for Izayoi.

This not only meant that Izayoi could obtain skill entries by having human puppets defeat and kill enemies.

If this wasn't triggering an extremely low probability, then it meant Izayoi's guess was correct: even if his strength reached the peak, the Talent Skill Entry System still hid a mechanism to increase drop rates!

After all, even the skill entry levels were something he had figured out himself.

Naturally, there were more than just a few mechanisms.

Heaven never seals off all paths; you just have to dare to think and dare to act!

To confirm whether it was triggering an extremely low probability, the Shadow Clone immediately controlled the human puppets in the street to indiscriminately attack the ninjas present.

They mercilessly killed the Sand and Sound ninjas.

As for the Konoha ninjas, they either found opportunities to knock them unconscious or sacrificed the puppet to make the opponent lose their ability to fight, then acted as if they were about to kill them, giving the surrounding Konoha ninjas a chance to intervene and save them.

After killing a few Sand and Sound ninjas, Izayoi and his Shadow Clones once again saw a blue beam of light fly out from a Sand ninja wearing a flak jacket, heading towards Izayoi's main body.

The mechanism truly existed!

Izayoi, transformed into Pain Tendo, couldn't help but let the corners of his mouth turn upwards.

And the Shadow Clone in the Naka River cave, taking advantage of the fact that Jiraiya hadn't yet noticed the human puppets and realized they were all wearing Akatsuki uniforms, quickly controlled the few strongest human puppets in the central street, used the Red Eye's invisibility to retreat, and all headed towards Izayoi's main body's location – Root!

(End of this chapter)

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