Hikari's Susanoo descended with the low roars of Suzaku and Seiryu, its impact causing the hard floor tiles to crack like a spiderweb.
Everyone leaped down from Suzaku and Seiryu's backs.
This was the vast plaza in front of the floating castle, paved with smooth, mirror-like, deep black stone slabs.
Dozens of black stone pillars stood around the plaza, carved with twisted star patterns that emitted a faint, cold light.
But now, this plaza, which should have been solemn and dignified, was filled with chaos.
Click, click, click-
The grating sound of joint friction echoed everywhere!
Hundreds upon hundreds of puppets surged like a tide born from the shadows of the plaza, silently and swiftly closing in, a dark mass radiating piercing malice.
The main force was still those common puppets wrapped in tattered brown robes, with bandages covering their faces, their bandaged faces turned towards the group in the center… they were the most numerous.
Mixed among them were two distinctly different types.
One type had slender, short builds, like seven or eight-year-old girls.
They wore strangely tailored kimonos… the upper half was made of deep brown, matte fabric, while the lower half was a bright red, blood-colored pleated skirt, paired with white long socks and small wooden clogs.
The most bizarre part was their heads… The heads were not wrapped in bandages, but instead, they had flawless, porcelain-white doll faces, their mouths curved upward in a fixed smile, revealing serrated, sharp teeth, with white hair cascading like a waterfall down to their ankles.
The other type was scarce in number, only three.
They were tall, nearly adult-sized, dressed in elegant black attire, their faces covered by matte-textured black masks.
Their positioning was clearly higher than the other puppets, hidden behind the common ones, their movements more refined, every slight shift exuding a pressure far exceeding that of a Jonin!
Before the encirclement could fully close, an even more immense presence suddenly descended.
The castle's massive, multi-person-high doors swung open silently. Clustered around by six exquisitely crafted maid puppets, a figure dressed in the traditional plain white robes of the Otsutsuki Clan slowly walked out.
His pale white hair was tied into a knot at the back of his head, his expression arrogant and icy… this was Otsutsuki Shuto.
Standing to his left was a white-haired boy who was noticeably much younger… this was Toneri. His youthful face held a trace of curiosity and panic as he was warily guarded behind by two tall butler puppets.
Shuto coldly scanned the surrounded group with his [Mind's Eye], as if appraising lifeless stones.
When his Mind's Eye gaze fell on Hizashi, especially on the bulging veins at his temples and those pure white eyes, his icy expression cracked for the first time, showing clear astonishment!
"The Byakugan actually managed to find this place? What manner of beings are you?" Shuto's voice carried suppressed fury and a trace of incredulous bewilderment, as if the presence of the Hyuga Clan's bloodline here was the deepest desecration of this sacred space.
However, his confusion did not last long before being replaced by an absolute desire for control.
He let out a contemptuous laugh, raising his right hand palm-up as if to crush ants, an invisible force communicating with some colossal entity hidden deep within the castle.
"No matter. Under the gaze of this Divine Eye, all who defy shall turn to dust! Awaken, the wrath of our ancestors!"
Boom-!
The tops of the two thickest stone pillars at the edge of the plaza suddenly lit up with a blinding white radiance!
The light flowed and converged, accompanied by a sound like the shaking of mountains, as a stone statue as massive as a mountain peak began to rise from the edge of the plaza!
The upper body of this statue was majestic, while its lower half seemed to disappear, replaced by countless stacked, giant shell-like rocks, layered upon each other resembling the bloated body of a hermit crab, firmly adhered on the ground.
Its enormous head was incredibly clear, its sculpted face somewhat resembling that of Hamura, the younger brother of the Sage of Six Paths, with two giant horns growing from its head.
Most terrifying were its two thick stone arms, each over five meters in diameter, covered with uneven, knotty patterns like mountain rock, containing terrifying power enough to shatter mountain ranges!
The moment the statue took form, Shuto's cold command echoed across the plaza: "Kill them!"
Hum-!
The encirclement abruptly tightened!
The three different types of puppets, upon receiving the command, unleashed killing machines finally freed from their last restraints, transformed into a surging tide of death, rasping and clicking as they fiercely pounced!
Gleaming short blades, Chakra-infused fists and kicks, merciless tearing and biting… all aimed directly at the group at the center of the encirclement!
"Kimimaro, Kanon, clear the field!" Menma's voice remained cold and steady, utterly unfluctuating.
His figure shifted slightly, already moving like a ghost to meet one of the black butler puppets.
"Understood!"
"Leave it to me!"
Kimimaro's Byakugan was fully active, battle intent burning in his pupils. The surface of his skin instantly undulated as if boiling!
"Dance of the Camellia!"
Shing-
A savage bone spear over three meters long shot out from his right forearm with a shriek that tore through the air!
Simultaneously, from his left arm, shoulders, spine, and the outside of his legs, countless sharp bone spikes of various shapes pierced through his clothing, abruptly sprouting!
At this moment, he had transformed into a storm of bones covered in thorny blades, fearlessly charging into the area most densely packed with common puppets!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Where the bone spear swept, whether it was the tough brown robes or the hard wooden-stone composite skeletons, everything was instantly pierced and torn apart!
The bone spikes, following his wild spinning advance, drew the oncoming puppets into a grinder-like whirlwind of slicing and crushing!
The sharpness of bone mingled with shattered puppet limbs flying in all directions, a strange odor of decayed wood and rust spreading through the cold plaza.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains!"
Kanon slammed her palms together and pressed them fiercely into the ground!
The Uzumaki Clan's immense Chakra within her erupted violently!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Seven massive Chakra Chains, thick as pythons and flowing with ancient golden sealing formula, shot forth from her back like enraged dragons breaking free from the earth!
The chains, imbued with peerless strength and the Chakra-destroying nature of sealing techniques, lashed out… strangling, whipping, piercing!
Every swing of the golden whips sent dismembered limbs and shattered husks flying in all directions!
The puppets that tried to approach, ambushing from the flanks or rear, were all reduced to debris under the chains' onslaught!
Through her power alone, she violently tore open an expanding clear zone on the left side of the plaza!
"Leave these toys to us!" Shisui shouted, his newly matured Three-Tomoe Sharingan spinning rapidly!
"Afterimage Clone!" His figure instantly split into dozens of afterimages, blurring the line between real and fake. Shuriken poured forth like a torrential downpour, accurately targeting the joints of the oncoming common puppets and the fragile neck connectors of the maid puppets.
His real body, meanwhile, closed in on one of the butler puppets like a ghost!
Hizashi moved almost in sync with him!
While the Sharingan tracked the enemy's movements, his Byakugan's field of vision had already locked onto the Chakra Flow Points of another butler puppet and over a dozen maid puppets.
Even puppets needed to circulate Chakra throughout their bodies to move.
Therefore, Hizashi, who could see these Chakra Flows clearly, was not to be outdone. He immediately unleashed his strongest technique!
"Eight Trigrams: One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!"
Hizashi's figure shot forward like a hawk, his palms wreathed in a shimmering aura of blue chakra!
His movements were fierce and swift, focusing on the core principle of precise strikes to Chakra Points, further enhanced by the robust power of a Taijutsu Jonin!
Palms filled the air!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The palm strikes were brutally sharp!
The heads of two maid puppets, delicate and fragile like porcelain dolls, exploded into fragments under his Chakra-infused heavy palm strikes! Their headless bodies twitched and collapsed.
The joints of the three ordinary puppets on the side were shattered and disintegrated in an instant!
His figure weaved at high speed through the puppet horde. Every slap, every block, precisely dismantled the siege.
Coordinating with Shisui's rapidly moving afterimages, he relentlessly suppressed the offensive capabilities of the two butler puppets!
Within the flurry of palm strikes and finger jabs, there was a subtle, peculiar rhythm… broad and powerful, yet concealing exquisite and clever force.