Chapter 276 Susanoo in Might (Part 1)
"Naruto! Sasuke! Don't waste your chakra! These puppets can repair themselves!" Neji shouted, reminding the two of his discovery.
"They seem to be trying to guard this place, Neji. What's in there?" Naruto asked after his main body arrived beside Neji.
"Probably the enemy's lair?" Neji replied.
"In that case, let's charge in together." Naruto glanced at the cave, gritted his teeth, and said.
Soon, Naruto led Neji to Sasuke, who was bombarding him with Lightning Release ninjutsu. He grabbed Sasuke's shoulder, and the next moment, pure Nine-Tails chakra surged into their bodies, instantly covering their skin with a layer of red chakra light.
"This is... the power of the Nine-Tails?" Neji looked down at the chakra waves on his body. At this moment, the amount of chakra within him was more abundant than he had ever experienced before.
Sasuke felt an immense surge of chakra within him, clenching his fist tightly. He also sensed the fusion of the two ocular powers in his eyes accelerating under the pure chakra's influence.
"Get ready, just charge in!" Naruto slammed his fist down, his chakra flames surging like boiling water. Then, he raised his hand, a Rasengan several meters in diameter gathering in his palm. He threw it at the sea of puppets before him, shouting, "Let's go!" As soon as Naruto
finished speaking, the three of them accelerated simultaneously. Lightning, wind, and the Eight Trigrams seal intertwined behind them. Almost instantly, they burst through the gap created by the giant Rasengan, carving a path through the puppets' inescapable net.
Once inside the cave, Neji turned and threw a force field bullet that Tenten had given him. A blue force field flashed by, instantly immobilizing the puppets enveloping them, turning them back into dust.
The three ventured deeper into the cave and soon reached a lake within.
Without hesitation, they leaped in.
Upon entering the lake, a strange cloud of bubbles rushed towards them, and the moment they touched it, the genjutsu within enveloped them.
"Foolish brat, wake up!" Inside the sealed space, Kurama rested its chin on one hand, its other fingers gently manipulating Naruto beneath it.
The next instant, Naruto snapped back to reality, turning to see Neji and Sasuke already trapped in the genjutsu.
Naruto could only use his chakra to pull them along, continuing onward.
During their journey, a flash of purple light appeared in Sasuke's eyes, freeing him from the genjutsu.
...
Neji, meanwhile, drifted into a daze amidst the chaos, arriving at a certain location.
"This is... the family cemetery?" Neji looked up and surveyed his surroundings. Then, one figure after another slowly appeared in his vision, and Neji remembered where he was.
This was his father's funeral.
Inside the family cemetery, two members of the branch family carefully placed a few of his father's personal belongings into a small pit that looked like it had just been dug. Ironically, his father had given everything for the Hyuga, including his life, but in the end, even his body couldn't be buried in the family cemetery.
Neji watched as the last handful of earth was laid on top, then turned and saw his younger self. Standing before the tombstone, he was only five years old, the headscarf he wore to conceal the ugly caged bird image already damp from the misty rain.
The child's small face was expressionless. Neji wanted to reach out and touch his younger self's head, but after a moment's thought, he withdrew his hand.
Neji didn't see any members of the main family at the scene. To them, it was only natural for the branch family to sacrifice themselves for the main family; a dead branch family member was worthless.
However, not long after, Neji keenly sensed a gaze watching him from behind.
Turning around, he saw his uncle watching from a distance in a corner of the cemetery.
Then… the surrounding scene changed rapidly.
"A genius from the branch family! So what? Once a caged bird, always a caged bird!"
Neji looked at his younger self, surrounded by several children of the main family elders in a corner of the clan compound, their fists and feet raining down on him.
He could have easily defeated them all, but the Caged Bird Seal on his forehead prevented him from even lifting a finger. Even if they hadn't yet mastered the technique of using the Caged Bird Seal, the mere thought of throwing a punch would bring him unbearable torment.
Then, one afternoon, his uncle told him that the Hokage intended to take him as a disciple. From that day on, everything changed. He became the esteemed young head of the Hyuga clan, the ugly Caged Bird Seal on his head was removed, and the young bird, bound by its cage, could finally attempt to soar freely.
"My clansmen on Earth, is this your experience?" Suddenly, an aged voice sounded behind Neji.
"Who?" Neji whirled around.
...
"Hey! Neji! Wake up!" In a daze, Naruto's voice rang in Neji's ears.
Neji opened his eyes blankly, looking at Naruto and Sasuke in front of him, and rubbed his temples. "Was that a genjutsu?"
"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "Luckily, Kurama helped me break free of the genjutsu, otherwise it would have been really dangerous."
"Where is this?" After standing up again, Neji looked around, taking in the lush forest, the huge lake in front of him, and the giant spherical object above him, and was also taken aback.
"I don't know." Naruto shrugged. "After breaking free of the genjutsu, I led you guys straight ahead, and then we got here.
" "Anyway, let's determine our location first." Neji said, taking out a map and a positioning device from the scroll.
However, after a few operations, Neji's expression grew increasingly serious.
"What happened?" Naruto asked hurriedly.
"The positioning device… malfunctioned?" Neji frowned, then took out another device. "Try this one. This device can directly connect to the mainframe inside the research institute. After determining the direction, we can change locations later and pinpoint our location on the map."
However, after Neji input chakra into the positioning device, to his and Naruto's disbelief, the pointer on the dial tilted upwards!
"The village… in the sky?" Naruto looked in the direction of the pointer but could only see a clear blue sky.
"We're probably no longer in the ninja world," Neji said after taking a deep breath.
"Let's try searching for Hinata's whereabouts first," Sasuke suggested.
"That's true." Neji nodded, then took out a new device and input chakra.
"Found her!" A few minutes later, Neji's face lit up with joy. The signal from Hinata's life monitor on the device was exceptionally clear.
"There!" Neji looked up at the huge spherical building above the three of them.
"So, we're really on the moon?" Naruto shrugged, looking up at their target.
"The problem now is, how do we get up there?" Naruto said. "Who among you can fly?"
"I'll do it." Neji said, taking out a set of mechanical devices from the sealing scroll and starting to put them on. After putting on the equipment, Neji tried to activate it, and then the armor on his waist and legs simultaneously emitted a burst of blue flames. Neji's body also floated up slowly under the recoil of these flames.
"Let's go!" After confirming, Neji nodded to Naruto and Sasuke, then reached out and grabbed their outstretched hands. The three of them accelerated towards the spherical structure in the air.
Just as the three of them approached the sphere, its surface suddenly reacted. A layer of black runes flashed, and countless holes appeared on the surface of the sphere. Countless puppets riding flying machines poured out from them, rushing towards the three of them.
"Is this never going to end?!" Naruto saw this, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, a layer of golden-red eyeshadow had appeared at the corner of his eyes.
"Sage Mode?" Sasuke, though unable to see it yet, sensed the unusually active natural energy around him and turned to look in Naruto's direction.
"Sage Art! Rasenshuriken!" Naruto raised his hand, condensing a large Rasengan and infusing it with wind-attribute nature transformation. Under the influence of wind-attribute chakra, the Rasengan became flat and sharp. Naruto hurled it, and the giant Rasenshuriken whistled through the enemy ranks, instantly slicing every puppet that touched it in half.
Neji also took this opportunity to bring the two of them to the barrier of the spherical structure.
"Sealing barrier?" Neji frowned as he looked at the runes appearing on the surface of the barrier.
"How's it going? Can you handle it?" Naruto asked while throwing Rasenshuriken behind him.
"It'll take a few minutes." Neji took a deep breath and began to examine the sealing runes on the barrier.
"Hurry up! There are more and more puppets!" Naruto urged, watching the increasing number of puppets in front of him.
"Sage Art: Lightning Release: Vermilion Bird!" Just then, Sasuke, holding Neji's other hand, formed hand seals and entered Sage Mode. He created a vast sea of lightning with Sage Chakra, followed by a loud phoenix cry. A giant bird made of lightning took flight from the sea of lightning, flying towards the densest area of puppets before exploding. The fine crackling
electricity instantly engulfed the massive number of puppets, and the dissipating lightning returned to the sea of lightning in the sky.
Naruto abruptly turned to look at Sasuke, who grinned upon sensing Naruto's gaze: "What, you didn't think you were the only one who could learn this, did you?"
After the lightning bird exploded, the remaining puppets began to gather again. However, as the lightning fell into the sea of lightning, another loud phoenix cry rang out, and the exploding lightning phoenix underwent a rebirth within the sea of lightning.
"This technique can be repeated continuously until my Sage Chakra runs out, which should buy you about five minutes. Is that enough?" Neji asked.
"That's enough." Neji nodded and began to focus on breaking the seal on the surface of the barrier.
Five minutes later, as the sea of lightning in the sky completely dissipated, Neji found the key to this sealing technique. After violently inputting chakra, he pried open a crack in the surface of the barrier, and the three of them rushed in.
After entering the building, the three of them dodged the puppet army, then concealed their auras and hid their figures before letting out a sigh of relief.
"Let's find Hinata first." Neji swallowed a soldier's ration pill to recover his chakra, then took out the device displaying Hinata's life signal.
The three of them stealthily moved through Toneri's palace, and at this time, in a bedroom in the palace, Hinata slowly woke up.
"You're awake." Seeing Hinata wake up, Toneri, who had been guarding Hinata's bedside, sat up from his chair and walked towards Hinata.
Hinata instinctively assumed a defensive stance upon seeing this. "Who are you?"
"My name is Otsutsuki Toneri. Strictly speaking, I share the same bloodline as you." Toneri activated his Byakugan.
"What do you want? How is Hanabi?" Hinata watched Toneri approach and assumed the starting stance of Gentle Fist, but she found that she couldn't mobilize even a tiny bit of chakra within her.
"Don't waste your time," Toneri said. "As for my purpose, our clan has been watching over the ninja world from the moon. However, what we have seen is endless war. Your village is even planning to launch a war that will sweep across the ninja world. I am tired of all this, so I intend to destroy this evil world at its source and then rebuild a new one."
"You won't succeed. The Hokage will definitely stop you." Hinata took a deep breath and gritted her teeth.
"Your Hokage? Is it that Hagoromo descendant named Uchiha Touko?" Otsutsuki Toneri said. "I admit he's strong, and I'm no match for him now. But once my eyes complete their evolution, he'll be nothing more than a mortal before me." "
Your eyes... Byakugan? I had no idea the clan's Byakugan could rival the Mangekyou Sharingan."
Hinata's eyes flickered. As a member of the reconnaissance team, Hinata was trying to extract as much information as possible from the other side.
"Hahaha." Toneri laughed loudly. "So, this branch of your clan in the ninja world has even lost its clan's heritage? The Byakugan's potential is even greater than the Sharingan of a Hagoromo descendant. Once it completes its evolution, the Mangekyou Sharingan? What a joke!"
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(End of Chapter)