Chapter 165: White Secret Technique: The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten
Chiyo frowned, looking at the kunai that had been sent flying.
"This Hyuga girl... she seems to have gotten stronger," Chiyo muttered to herself.
"But..." she dodged Saori's surprise attack with a turn of her body, then kicked her far away with a backhand. "You're still far from it."
Then, with a flick of her wrist, countless chakra threads suddenly swarmed out, rushing toward the many Konoha ninja, including Hyuga Saori.
"Puppet Technique: Human Body Manipulation."
This was a forbidden jutsu that originated from the puppet masters of the ancient battlefields. It was originally used to control corpses in battle, but after Chiyo's improvements, it could now directly control human bodies.
In the original story, this was the jutsu Chiyo had used to control Sakura in her battle against Sasori.
Faced with Chiyo's extremely well-hidden chakra threads, besides Kyosuke's squad, who had powerful visual prowess, almost everyone else around them was hit at the same time.
"Damn it! My body!" a Konoha ninja with a short sword on his back said, his face a picture of terror as he swung his sword at his comrade. Although he used all his strength, he could not stop his body from acting on its own.
There were many others in the same situation. In an instant, the order of the entire army was broken by Chiyo alone.
"This old hag is very strong. If she interferes, I'm afraid today's plan..." Saori thought, then turned and glanced at the others.
The two clan shinobi nodded to her with a solemn expression, and the three of them charged at the currently unstoppable Chiyo. As for the other, rather unremarkable ninja, he quietly moved toward Orochimaru's battle position.
"Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm."
Hyuga Saori, taking advantage of Chiyo's momentary distraction, directly used a fast-acting Gentle Fist technique.
Unfortunately, the experienced Chiyo was not so easily hit.
"Little girl, aren't you ashamed to sneak attack an old woman from behind?"
Saori's pupils suddenly contracted, seeing Chiyo's instantly vanishing figure and hearing the mocking voice from behind.
"This old hag is so fast?!" Unable to react in time, she could only force a twist of her body to avoid the impending attack as much as possible.
Fortunately, at this moment, Thirteen, who had rushed over, made her move.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall."
She had successfully captured Chiyo's Body Flicker with her visual prowess, but she had not chosen to launch a direct attack, but had instead used a more conservative defensive ninjutsu.
It turned out that Thirteen's choice was the right one.
Just as the water had enveloped Saori, the scattered kunai and shuriken on the ground around her suddenly flew up and shot at her.
Faced with such a dense attack, Saori, in her previous state, would never have been able to dodge it. If it weren't for Thirteen's decisive rescue, she would have been seriously injured, if not dead.
"Thanks," Saori said, still a bit shaken, her eyes fixed on Chiyo, who had retreated a certain distance, while also thanking Thirteen beside her.
"It's nothing," Thirteen said, shaking her head slightly. At the same time, she looked at the calm enemy before her, a great sense of pressure in her heart.
From the brief exchange just now, they could tell the huge difference in strength between them and Chiyo.
And this was with Chiyo not even using her puppets. If she were to take them out, the battle would probably be even more unfavorable.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique."
Seeing that the two of them were in a difficult situation, Seven directly used a powerful Fire Release jutsu to clear the field, and then slowly walked to their side.
The three of them thus stood side by side, facing the overwhelmingly powerful puppet master, Chiyo.
"The young people of today are really something. First, there was that brat named Uchiha Kyosuke, and now there's you, this Hyuga girl. Konoha is really lucky."
Chiyo smiled at the grave-faced group, then reached behind her and took out a scroll, which she unrolled and spread on the ground.
"Since you're all so determined, then I'll have to fight with all my might. That way, it won't be considered a breach of etiquette."
With that, her hands quickly formed hand seals.
"Sealing Jutsu: Release."
"White Secret Technique: The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten."
With a flash of white smoke, ten puppets in white clothes, with the character "gate" carved on their heads, suddenly appeared from the scroll.
These puppets were the outstanding works of the previous generation's puppet master, Monzaemon. Chiyo had once used this jutsu to conquer a city with her own strength. This showed that the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten were by no means ordinary puppets.
To take them out now meant that she was starting to get serious.
"What a troublesome old hag," Hyuga Saori's grave expression flashed for a moment, and then she took the lead and charged forward.
When facing a puppet master, especially a ninja who could control multiple puppets at the same time, a long-range battle was basically suicide. So, if they wanted to win, they had to find a way to get close to the enemy.
The three of them naturally understood this. So, as they were charging, Seven directly raised his hand and released another powerful Fire Release jutsu.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation."
Chiyo looked at the raging sea of fire, and with a slight movement of her right index finger and thumb, two red-faced puppets directly blocked in front of her. Then, with a crack sound from their arms, a huge chakra shield suddenly appeared there.
Although Seven's Fire Release jutsu was very fierce, under the protection of the chakra shield, it could not harm Chiyo herself in the slightest.
But fortunately, at this time, with the cover of the ninjutsu, Saori and Thirteen had successfully arrived in front of Chiyo.
Just as the two of them were preparing to attack, they were surprised to find that the chakra in their bodies was being sealed by some force.
At the same time, in a radius of several meters around the two of them, a barrier jutsu formula suddenly appeared on the ground.
"Barrier: Lion's Roar."
It turned out that Chiyo had, at some point, secretly set up a barrier to block chakra under her feet. Saori and the other, who were completely unaware of this, had just crashed into it.
"Young people are so impulsive," Chiyo said with a smile, looking at the two of them's somewhat panicked faces. Then, besides one ox-headed puppet that remained by her side for protection, the other nine puppets directly charged at the two who could not use chakra.
In this moment of crisis, Seven, the clan shinobi, arrived again.
However, one of the white-haired puppets suddenly turned and charged at him. Its arms, which seemed to be able to extend indefinitely, had dense spikes on them, successfully blocking Seven in place.
Because of this slight delay, the other Chikamatsu Collection of Ten had already reached Hyuga Saori and the other's side.
"Konoha brat, remember to be smarter in your next life," Chiyo said with an expressionless face, looking at the two of them. She then controlled a female puppet with two swords to split Seven, the clan shinobi's body, in two with a single slash.
However, before she could rejoice, Chiyo found that the ninja's corpse had suddenly turned into a swarm of colorful butterflies.
"This is... genjutsu?!" She suddenly remembered the crimson pupils that had flashed in her vision before.
"The Sharingan's genjutsu? What an amazing little girl. But..."
Chiyo tilted her head slightly and said to Thirteen, who had appeared behind her at some point, "This is not enough to defeat me."
Thump! The moment her words fell, the ox-headed puppet on the side came to Thirteen's side with an extremely high movement speed. Its heavy punch, with a sharp whistle, directly hit the unsuspecting Thirteen.
Watching the enemy fly back, Chiyo turned her head again with a calm expression, looking at Saori, who had taken the opportunity to break free from the barrier's restraint.
She glanced at the many puppets that were charging at her again, and Saori couldn't help but take a light breath.
"The opportunity that Thirteen bought me with her serious injuries, I will not waste it."
She gathered all her chakra in her hands, and at the same time, a faint dragon's roar suddenly sounded in the ears of the few of them.
Then, a tangible, dragon-head-shaped chakra thus appeared in Hyuga Saori's hands.
"Gentle Fist Art..."
Saori lowered her head, trying to accumulate her chakra.
When the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten's puppets arrived in front of her, she finally made her move.
She looked up, stood up straight, and threw a punch!
"Dragon Shattering Strike!!!"
Roar!
In an instant, a huge amount of chakra, accompanied by a fierce dragon's roar, thus swung toward the puppets in front of her.
Although Chiyo timely used the "Machine Light Shield Seal" to try to block this powerful ninjutsu, Saori's current strength was even greater than when she had used this move before. So, this seemingly sturdy chakra shield was completely shattered by Saori's Dragon Shattering Strike in a single exchange.
"Whew..." Saori said, panting heavily, and then slowly retreated.
Because she knew in her heart that even if this move could break a few of Chiyo's puppets, the originally disadvantageous situation would not be greatly improved because of this.
However, the few of them had not originally wanted to defeat Chiyo. As long as they could successfully hold her off and wait for Orochimaru's ambush to succeed, their mission would be considered a complete success.
But now it seemed that just wanting to hold Chiyo off was probably a very difficult thing.
If it weren't for Saori's increased strength, and Thirteen's life-risking assault, the three of them would have likely been defeated long ago.
"Damn you, Kyosuke! If you don't hurry up, you'll have to collect my corpse," Hyuga Saori muttered to herself with a sense of helplessness, looking at the six puppets that had charged out of the smoke.
It was clear that Saori's powerful strike just now had only broken three puppets. Besides the one that Chiyo had kept by her side, the remaining six were also enough to give the few of them a hard time.
The freed Seven, the clan shinobi, slowly came to Saori's side. He first looked at the direction Thirteen had flown in with a grim expression, then his hands quickly formed hand seals.
Instantly, the sound of a thousand birds chirping appeared here.
This ninjutsu was taught to him by Kyosuke before he left, in order to strengthen the three-person squad's strength, in case anything happened to them when he was not around.
Seven held the sizzling Chidori in his left hand, and at the same time, he stared at the puppets in front of him with his Sharingan.
"The master's mission is the most important. We must not make any mistakes here. Let's fight to the death."
With that, he quickly charged out.
"Sigh, how come every time he comes back, we have to fight to the death with someone?" Saori, behind him, sighed helplessly, and then also charged at the puppets on the other side.
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