When Satori heard Seiki's words, his heart sank.
After sensing his physical condition, he became even more furious and let out an enraged roar.
It wasn't just his wings—over a dozen parts of his body now bore the mark of the Flying Thunder God technique.
He had originally considered whether to sever his wings as a last resort to escape. Now though, unless he severed every part of his body, there was no way he could break free from Seiki's control.
Thinking this, Satori launched an energy blast directly at Seiki.
"Just die already!"
"Your mind seems to have lost its composure. How pathetic—a monster capable of reading minds yet unable to control its own heart!"
Seiki stood still without dodging. Just as the energy blast was about to engulf him, he raised his hand and deployed a Space-Time Barrier.
The next instant, the redirected energy blast appeared directly behind Satori.
A thunderous explosion erupted.
Terrifying waves of energy radiated outward. Severely wounded, Satori staggered downward toward the ground.
Naturally, Seiki wouldn't miss this opportunity. He instantly teleported over, grabbed Satori by the tail, and proceeded to slam him around violently.
Seeing this, Naruto couldn't help but sweat as he mentally upgraded just how dangerous he considered "Big Brother" Seiki to be, "This isn't just scarier than Sakura—it's clearly even more terrifying than Lady Tsunade!"
At this moment, Anlusan, who'd been beaten into questioning his own existence, quickly tried to flee. He jumped forcefully, landing on the ground before rapidly running away.
To hell with destroying the Five Great Nations! Right now he just wanted to find a quiet spot to lay low and recover.
However, Naruto and the others wouldn't allow him to leave so easily.
"Captain Yamato, quickly stop him!"
"Understood. [Wood Release: Infinite Binding Roots!]"
Massive trees sprouted and wrapped around the giant puppet like a zongzi. However, the next moment, several beams shot through gaps in the vines, emitting dazzling light that directly destroyed the wooden prison.
Although brief, this delay gave everyone enough time to catch up.
"If you won't let me go, then all of you shall die!"
The giant puppet roared, grabbing a nearby tall tower and swinging it like a club.
"This strong?" Yamato sucked in air with surprise before immediately beginning to seal at top speed.
[Wood Release: Great Forest Wall!]
The towering forest suddenly burst forth, forming a protective wall in front of them. Taking advantage of the moment when the puppet's attack got blocked, Asuma quickly made hand signs and exhaled flames onto the forest wall.
Meanwhile, Mizuki clung vertically to the side of a tall tower structure, blowing hurricane-force wind into the massive flames above.
[Wind Release: Super Great Breakthrough!]
With wind fueling the fire, the flames rapidly surged and spread across the puppet's body.
"Aaaa! You damned brats!" The giant puppet thrashed wildly while occasionally firing energy beams from its mouth.
"You idiot, explain yourself clearly! I'm definitely not a kid anymore—if anything, I should be considered a big ghost, right?" While reinforcing the puppet's burning state with more Wood Release techniques, Yamato couldn't help but retort.
Seeing this, Asuma and the others instinctively lowered their opinion rating for Wood Release techniques another notch.
So your Wood Release's just firewood for the flames?
"Big ghost… hmph. Captain Yamato, send me in!"
"Got it!"
Yamato extended a vine from his palm, hooked Naruto's ankle, and flung him forward with tremendous force.
"Witness my Big Ball Rasengan!"
"Meanwhile, Guy had dashed over as well.
'[Leaf Strong Whirlwind!]'
The giant puppet was kicked squarely in the head by a single powerful strike, crashing down with a thunderous roar.
[Teamwork victory with seniors!] Naruto cheered. But his joy didn't last—he watched the shattered head of the massive puppet regenerate and rise back up.
'Fools! Didn't I say this kind of attack is useless against me!' Anlusan laughed loudly. 'Unless you can destroy me faster than my recovery speed the way *he* did, no matter how many times you try, these attacks won't work!'
As he spoke, he still felt some lingering fear. That bastard looked violent and reckless, but actually every attack landed precisely on his weak points. His insight and experience were completely incomparable to these brats'.
If he hadn't known regular Puppet Masters usually only had one or two puppets, and Sunagakure's entire Puppet Brigade wouldn't have much stockpile to begin with, he might suspect that guy gained experience through dismantling Sunagakure's puppet forces piece by piece.
Yamato stood there dumbfounded—they couldn't possibly replicate Seiki's ability to destroy the puppet multiple times per second!
'Damn it, this guy looked so weak yet is so troublesome!' Naruto felt frustrated in his heart. When he saw this giant puppet being brutally beaten by Aniki Seiki, he had thought this puppet monster was weak.
'The only solution is temporarily shutting down the Dragon Veins.' Mizuki fixed Sāra with a cold gaze. 'You can do it, right?'
Still mourning Loulan's losses, Sāra was caught off guard by Mizuki's frigid stare. 'Ah? Oh—yes, I can.'
'Then get moving! We'll hold him off.'
'This fellow really works under Master Seiki? So cold like an ice cube!' Though grumbling internally, Sāra obediently ran toward the underground courtyard.
At this moment, Satori, who had been continuously beaten, caught this subtle emotional fluctuation.
'Dragon Veins? That's right, that's my only hope!' Having realized he couldn't shake off Seiki, Satori also prepared to gamble everything. 'Only by devouring that chakra will I have a chance to defeat this kid!'
'However, I mustn't reveal my intentions yet. When that queen leads me to the Dragon Veins, that will be my moment for the final strike!'
With this thought, Satori forced himself to endure the pain as Seiki continued attacking him, purposefully acting wildly as he charged toward Asuma and others. '[Even if I die, I'll take your companions with me!]'
'Too bad, you won't accomplish anything!' Seiki trapped Satori in a Water Prison Technique, then exhaled a breath of cold air, instantly freezing the water prison into an ice prison.
The airborne Satori became an icy mass once more, plummeting downward.
'However, now isn't the time for sealing just yet!' Though he'd contained Satori, Seiki wasn't planning to seal him immediately.
Just like in a Pokémon game from Seiki's past life—you always had to weaken them nearly to death before capturing.
Of course, if he had something like the Yin-Yang Energy from the Sage of Six Paths—a metaphorical 'Master Ball'—then immediate sealing would naturally be possible. Without such advantages though, better to patiently follow the proper process.
Meanwhile on the battlefield, the group surrounding Anlusan was initially startled by the commotion caused by Satori. However, just as they were about to grow worried, they saw the monster fall down as an ice sculpture and immediately felt things had become dull.
However, Anlusan's attention was caught by the ice sculpture. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend! I have to save it!"
Without a second thought, he ignored the attacks from Naruto and the others and fired a few beams of light toward the ice sculpture.
The ice shattered instantly, and Satori, caught off guard, was sent flying by the blast. It was only then that everyone noticed a big hole where the ice sculpture had been.
"What the...?" Anlusan first showed confusion, but suddenly realized upon seeing the big hole in the ground. "Could this beast have actually broken free from the ice long ago but pretended all along to still be frozen while secretly digging a tunnel down to the underground courtyard?"
"Wait, does that mean I ruined its plan?" Anlusan suddenly figured it out and looked up—only to meet Satori's fierce glare head-on. He immediately shrank back his head with a hurt expression and a little pout, shouting, "It was just a misunderstanding!"
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