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"Damn it."
"Not yet?"
Rasa looked at the Sealing Squad members bustling around half the mountainside, his anxiety growing more evident as he subconsciously mumbled.
At this moment, Pakura, who was beside him, had completely calmed down.
Although it had been delayed for many days, for their current operation, it was already quite fortunate.
However, the Konoha Ninja had, after all, discovered some clues just before the mission was about to be completed.
The previous few Konoha squads could barely be led astray by the surrounding barrier, but after encountering a combination of Hyuga Ninja and Inuzuka Ninja, the misleading ability of this temporary barrier was completely insufficient.
Monzaemon-sama has already gone to deal with those guys.
In order to make the Konoha Ninja misjudge as much as possible, 'That Person' didn't even bring a single person with him.
Under normal circumstances, as an experienced Kage-level expert, it should not be a problem for him to deal with a mere Konoha reconnaissance squad.
It's just…
If that were truly the case, why hasn't he returned yet?
Pakura was wary.
However, seeing Rasa, who was even more anxious than her, she naturally couldn't voice her concerns and instead comforted him in a low voice:
"Relax."
"Monzaemon-sama was the first to learn the puppet jutsu created by Nidaime(2nd)-sama and, based on that, created the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets."
"Throughout Sunagakure, there is no one more skilled in puppet jutsu than him."
"Even if Konoha sent an entire Jonin squad, 'That Person' will surely be able to delay them for a while."
Upon hearing this, Rasa glanced at the woman beside him, looking at her calm and indifferent expression, and her comforting tone, feeling inexplicably annoyed deep down.
The spear head of his inner thoughts unconsciously turned towards the person beside him.
What's with that cold expression?
Since it wasn't your idea, does it mean that whether this mission succeeds or not has nothing to do with you?
I, on the other hand, have staked my future as Kazekage, the prestige of Lord Third's disciple, and have taken on all the responsibility myself!
Incompetent rage.
Unbeknownst to him, he clenched his fists, but did not reveal a single trace of this dark emotion, suppressing it all within his heart.
"...That's true."
He continued to look at the massive sealing array in front of him.
It had stood for a hundred years, still unyielding, and only after ten days and ten nights of deciphering did it finally begin to loosen.
Though still somewhat blurry, Rasa could already vaguely sense the enormous Chakra source sealed within the center of the mountain.
That feeling made Rasa look forward even more to the sight of it breaking free.
However, just as he was anticipating it...
Monzaemon's serious voice suddenly came through the puppet headphones they were wearing.
"You two, you've been discovered!"
"Stop them."
Rasa and Pakura were both stunned.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"
Poison needles shot out from 'Monzaemon's' mouth, raining down densely on Namikaze Minato, who was close at hand.
At this critical moment, Minato's neural reactions were incredibly fast.
The Rasengan in his hand instinctively lifted, while his other hand completed a hand sign, his brain perceiving the distant spatial seal, and his legs curled up, ready for impact.
The next moment, his figure abruptly vanished.
When he reappeared, he was already behind the roots of an ancient tree far away, the Rasengan hitting the ground with a dull thud.
"Damn it."
Minato rubbed his shoulder, which had hit the tree trunk, and poked his head out from the crater made by the Rasengan, glancing towards Monzaemon and muttering softly:
"The coordination between Rasengan and my dashing and dodging movements is still a bit uncoordinated, isn't it?"
For high-speed Ninja who inflict damage with taijutsu and Ninja tools, rashly changing their tactical system or fighting with immature tactical combinations is a very dangerous thing.
Evidently, although Minato had learned Rasengan, there were still some flaws in its coordination with high-speed combat.
"And that Sunagakure Ninja..."
In his perception, that body should have been the Chakra source.
How could it also be a puppet?
"Hehehehehehe—"
"Kekeke Kekeke!"
As if sensing his confusion, Monzaemon simply dropped the act, letting out a series of hoarse, low laughs, and arrogantly declared:
"Didn't expect that, did you?!"
"This is the culmination of my life's work!"
"As long as I transform my body into a puppet and then control it from a super long distance with my brain, wouldn't I be the most powerful in the Ninja World?!"
"It's such a simple thing! Why did I spend decades without realizing such a simple thing?!"
"Foolish, foolish, foolish, foolish!!!"
Clearly, this was why Sawara Kiri preferred to spend a little more time rather than bother with this guy in combat.
No main body.
No matter how many times they were shattered, these puppets would repair themselves by replacing parts.
Monzaemon shouted frantically, his puppet head spinning like a small motor, making creaking sounds as it rotated three hundred and sixty degrees at high speed.
Until finally, it stopped with a 'thud'.
Facing in Sawara Kiri's direction.
However, when he looked at Sawara Kiri, he saw that the other party was looking back at him with a sarcastic smile on his face.
"Then I truly appreciate your effort."
"Brat! Can you understand too?" Monzaemon laughed, "How much painstaking effort I have put into the Way of Puppetry!"
"Since that's the case, I'll grant you a complete corpse later."
"This is a great favor, you know."
Sawara Kiri's tone, however, was cold: "I meant, dragging our entire squad here, I truly appreciate your effort."
Monzaemon's expression froze.
What's going on?
As if sensing his confusion, Sawara Kiri's smile grew more joyful, and he said gently: "Although you, old man, might not have noticed, I am actually an incredibly powerful sensory Ninja."
He raised his hand, pointing east: "Although the situation inside isn't very clear, such a large temporary barrier must surely be something only 'you' could have created, right?"
Monzaemon's movements completely froze.
"You—"
Hearing this, Namikaze Minato and Uchiha Megumi immediately understood.
These words were specifically for them two.
"Not only that."
Sawara Kiri slowly said: "The three of us here are all standard high-speed Ninja."
"Monzaemon-senpai."
"Can you keep up?"
The moment these words fell, Monzaemon's two eyeballs seemed to pop out of their sockets, and the many puppets on the ground, which had been cut into parts, had somehow reassembled themselves.
His voice suddenly became extremely sharp:
"Watch how I'll slaughter you!!!"
However, that last sentence was like a signal.
Before he could act, Uchiha Megumi, whose figure was half-hidden behind Sawara Kiri, had already completed the hand signs in her hands and suddenly flashed out from behind him.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
With a roar, a surging wave of fire, like a flood, continuously poured out towards Monzaemon, covering vegetation for tens of meters around.
Flames soared into the sky.
However, when the flames died down...
The three members of the Sawara Squad had already vanished from his sight.
At this moment, Monzaemon completely realized the gravity of the situation and immediately rushed towards the barrier, simultaneously sending a message to Rasa and Pakura.
He didn't know.
In a large tree hollow several hundred meters away from him.
A trembling Yakushi Nonō was diligently treating the few injured individuals whom Namikaze Minato had barely managed to bring back, while also constantly staying alert to the movements outside.
Weak, pitiful, helpless.
At the same time, outside the two factions of Konoha and Sunagakure.
An uninvited spectator was quietly waiting in a patch of grass outside the sealing grounds, silently gazing at the distant mountainside barrier.
His dark figure was half-hidden among the ancient tree trunks, his upper half extended, one hand cupped over his brow like a sunshade, gazing far into the movements within the barrier.
He sighed repeatedly.
"Oh dear, oh dear?"
"Humans are truly a more annoying and resilient species than cockroaches."
"Back then, I spent a lot of effort helping the Senju seal that 'anomaly'—that woman, clearly not Indra's reincarnation, yet even the 'Asura' of that year was almost killed by her."
"Now, are they going to release her again?"
"What a bunch of reckless fools."
"However..."
Black Zetsu looked at the distant mountain barrier, then glanced towards the direction where Sawara Kiri and the others were fighting, clicking his tongue slightly.
—This is the miracle called 'humanity'.
To achieve his goal of saving his mother, Black Zetsu had never slacked off for a single moment in these thousand years, diligently monitoring every corner of the Ninja World.
Konoha Village, being of utmost importance, naturally couldn't be an exception.
Therefore, he was the first person in the entire Ninja World to discover Sawara Kiri's undercover identity and true strength.
Until now, his observation of Sawara Kiri had lasted for a considerable amount of time.
It was due to this person's appearance that the balance of the Ninja World had tilted slightly, and the subsequent unfolding of the plot gradually began to exceed his expectations.
The scales of fate were about to tip.
This phenomenon made Black Zetsu increasingly anxious, and he also had to start considering whether to add more weight to Uchiha Madara.
"Uchiha Wuming..."
"Can Madara truly master the Mangekyo Sharingan called 'Yachihoko'?"
"What's more, there are so many types of Mangekyo Sharingan techniques."
"If he accidentally gets killed, wouldn't that be a huge joke?"
"..."
After a long deliberation, he finally sighed helplessly:
"This is a tricky matter, indeed."
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