Toneri was angry, and the consequences were very serious.
But he wasn't some arrogant fool either. Before using the Tenseigan, he still had a realistic understanding of his own combat ability.
After a short moment of thought, he turned his gaze—no, he didn't have eyes.
He set his target on two "frail women" who had strayed away from the main group.
Toneri's plan was simple and clever: first take down those two who looked weak, then interrogate them to find out who the bastards digging up the graves were and how strong they were.
Then, depending on their combat power, he'd decide whether to use them as hostages or just cut them down to offer their blood to his ancestors.
Once he'd decided, he acted immediately.
With Toneri's command, the puppets scattered throughout the town began to move.
At that moment, under Kushina's care, Uchiha Hikari had almost completely recovered.
She had also participated in the Hashirama Cell Transplant Project. Although she hadn't awakened Wood Release, her physique was still much stronger than before.
Watching Hikari sitting in the corner, leaning against the wall while chewing on a wild fruit, Kushina's curiosity burned brightly.
"Hikari, it seems like you and that kid Takeshi get along pretty well, huh?"
Hikari froze for a second, then took a big bite of the fruit, chewed, swallowed, and finally answered with a face full of disdain.
"That guy? Me, getting along with him? If it weren't for the fact that he freed me from that seal—and that his cooking's at least tolerable—I would've cut him in half long ago."
Just the mention of Takeshi made Hikari's blood boil. Even the fruit in her hand lost its sweetness.
"Uh... haha, well, even though that kid's got a sharp tongue, you know, he..."
Kushina tried to list a few of Takeshi's good points, but she ended up stuttering.
"Hmm... that kid's at least good-looking. In Konoha, he's definitely in the top tier. Lots of young girls like him."
"Hmph, just a pretty face. If that guy were mute, I might actually give him a few more points."
Hikari had no objections to Takeshi's looks—only to his mouth.
If she ever got the chance, she was definitely going to poison that mouth shut. It'd be better for everyone that way.
Takeshi: What did you just say?! You venomous woman!
"Ha... well..."
Kushina laughed awkwardly. She had to admit, the girl wasn't wrong—there was no way to argue.
Just as she was trying to find another excuse to continue gossiping, she suddenly sensed several unfamiliar chakra signatures nearby.
As a member of the Uzumaki clan, Kushina's sensory perception far exceeded Hikari's. The latter, still munching on her fruit, hadn't noticed the incoming danger at all.
Several chains shot out, sweeping through the areas where the puppets hid, reducing them to rubble.
When Hikari saw those chains, she shuddered instinctively.
During the Warring States period, she had fought the Uzumaki clan several times on behalf of the Uchiha. The results… were not pretty.
Even someone hailed as a weapon of war couldn't avoid being strung up and beaten by those adamantine chains.
Not to mention that in the end, she'd been sealed away by the joint forces of the Sarutobi and Senju clans, using sealing techniques supplied by the Uzumaki.
So, her reaction was… understandable.
But she quickly snapped back to reality—there were enemies nearby.
"Five o'clock direction!"
Seeing Hikari enter combat mode, Kushina called out loudly, unable to cover all directions herself.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Caterwaul!"
Hikari understood immediately and unleashed a wave of fire, forcing several puppets out of hiding.
"Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!"
Suddenly, several glowing spheres shot toward Hikari.
"Don't even think about it."
Kushina swung her chains, batting the light orbs away.
The puppet controlling those light spheres saw the chains about to pierce through it and quickly leapt back.
Under the fierce battle, the two-story building they had been resting in couldn't withstand the destruction and collapsed with a deafening crash.
Several puppets surrounded the ruins, waiting for the dust to settle.
Only the sound of falling debris echoed through the thick smoke.
After waiting a while and seeing no sign of Kushina or Hikari, the puppets prepared to move in—only to be sliced cleanly in half by flashes of golden light.
In that same instant, intense energy flared, and Hikari's Mangekyō Sharingan activated. Skeletal arms rose around her—the manifestation of Susanoo.
The bony arm slammed down, crushing the puppet that had fired the light spheres into dust.
"These are all puppets... but they're different from Sunagakure's puppet techniques. I can't see any chakra threads."
Kushina spoke quietly as a dozen more puppets surrounded them.
"Puppet techniques?" Hikari frowned, puzzled.
In her era, Sunagakure didn't even exist yet, and puppetry wasn't a mainstream technique in the ninja world.
"Yeah. Normally, puppets are controlled by puppet masters. The range is uncertain, but it shouldn't be far beyond my sensory reach. Yet now..."
Besides these puppets, Kushina sensed no other enemies.
"This technology… reminds me of something Orochimaru's lab has been working on. Some kind of long-range autonomous combat unit..."
Recently, Kushina had been invited by Orochimaru to provide Uzumaki genetic samples at his lab, and she had happened to see his latest invention.
"So you're saying the one attacking us is that Orochimaru guy?"
Hikari said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Uh..."
Kushina suddenly realized the girl in front of her might not be the brightest.
Could it be that after spending too much time around Takeshi, his stupidity had rubbed off on her too?
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