Kaguya cautiously traversed the street, avoiding the puppets' surveillance, and arrived at a plaza.
Before entering the plaza, she heard deafening shouts.
"Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty!"
Kaguya's eyes narrowed. It was the delicate girl she had seen earlier, now standing on a tower, holding onto the railing and smiling as she waved to the crowd below.
At the base of the tower was a dense crowd of people, shouting fervently, their voices echoing through the sky.
But Kaguya sensed something was amiss. These people had no aura of life, no signs of vitality, as rigid as wooden logs. Activating her Tenseigan, she was stunned.
These people had no energy fluctuations, not even the warmth from breathing. They were all cold and devoid of temperature, clearly not human. They were puppets.
Suddenly, the girl on the tower lost her balance as if pushed by someone and tumbled over the railing, falling from the tower.
Kaguya watched quietly, frowning, but made no move to intervene. She knew someone would save her; no one would stand by and watch her die.
As expected, just as the girl was about to hit the ground, a figure dashed over like a flash of lightning and caught her mid-air. This blonde-haired man was someone Kaguya recognized, none other than Minato Namikaze, whom she had recently parted ways with.
Kaguya did not linger and turned to walk deeper into the city. Her goal was the Dragon Veins, not sightseeing.
However, the city's scale exceeded her expectations. It was an endless expanse of densely packed towers. Additionally, the buildings and towers had very similar appearances, with some looking identical, making it easy to get lost.
Moreover, the buildings and towers were covered with numerous pipes transporting Dragon Veins chakra. The overlapping Dragon Veins chakra obstructed Kaguya's Tenseigan, making it difficult to see clearly.
After three days in the city, Kaguya still hadn't found the main Dragon Veins. She felt dizzy and irritable, even having the impulse to demolish the place. She thought that if she made a big enough commotion, the mastermind, Mukade, would surely appear.
At that moment, a deafening explosion echoed from a distance, with thick smoke and towering flames visible to the naked eye.
Kaguya was startled. Using her Tenseigan, she saw several figures engaged in a fierce battle. These were familiar faces—Minato Namikaze, Shibi Aburame, and Choza Akimichi.
They were fighting a giant spider-like creature, grotesque and agile. Nearby stood the girl who had fallen from the tower a few days ago.
Kaguya's interest wasn't in them but in the intense chakra emanating from their battleground. The massive energy soared into the sky, faintly glowing with a purple hue.
Feeling a surge of excitement, Kaguya thought this might be the Dragon Veins. Without hesitation, she sped toward the source of the chakra.
"You think you can defeat me like this?" The spider creature, Mukade, taunted from the ground.
Suddenly, the spider's head spun around, opening its mouth to release countless hair-thin chakra threads, wrapping around the shattered puppet parts on the ground. These puppets seemed to come alive, floating in the air before swiftly attaching themselves to the spider creature.
More and more puppet parts covered the spider creature, gradually enveloping it. When it stood up again, the spider had doubled in size. Not only had its size increased, but its chakra had also become more powerful, and its claws were sharper, gleaming ominously.
"What?" Minato's eyes widened, his fists clenching as he stared at the spider creature. He hadn't anticipated that the puppet spider had such capabilities.
Seeing the puppet becoming stronger, Minato and his team knew they couldn't give it a chance to complete its transformation.
"Partial Multi-Size Technique!" Choza Akimichi quickly stepped forward, shouting loudly. Chakra surged through his meridians, and his extended arm instantly enlarged tenfold, smashing down on the spider monster with tremendous force. The power of the Multi-Size Technique can increase by several to dozens, even hundreds of times.
With a deafening crash, the spider monster was heavily struck, its chest caving in, and it was sent flying, crashing into the wall and creating a large hole.
"Insect Sphere!" Shibi Aburame formed a hand sign, and a swarm of black insects poured out from his body, swarming toward the spider monster and enveloping it. This was a secret technique of the Aburame clan, passed down only to direct descendants. These insects, cultivated by them, possessed various abilities.
But it wasn't over yet. Minato Namikaze leaped up, a spinning orb of light in his hand, and struck the spider monster.
"Rasengan!"
With a thunderous crash, the wall couldn't withstand the successive attacks and collapsed, debris falling down. The spider monster was also sent flying, rolling a few times in the air before falling into the large hole in the ground.
"Is it over?" Kaguya arrived just then, looking around and not seeing any sign of the spider monster. "Where is that monster?"
"It fell into the hole," Minato said, looking toward the dusty area, "but we don't know if it's been destroyed."
"With such an attack, even if it wasn't destroyed, it should be severely injured," Shibi Aburame said in a deep voice.
At that moment, the broken puppet pieces on the ground floated into the air, seemingly controlled by an invisible force, and flew toward the large hole.
"Let me show you the power of the ultimate puppet weapon I created." A low voice came from the hole.
Everyone knew something was wrong. Just as they were about to destroy the floating pieces, the ground began to shake like a sieve. Stones were jolted into the air, dust falling down, and a creaking sound came from underfoot.
"Move away!" Minato shouted, stomping hard on the ground and shooting off using the reaction force. He twisted in mid-air and landed on the sloping wall, his feet clinging to it with chakra.
Choza Akimichi and Shibi Aburame also jumped away quickly.
The ground rumbled and cracked, fissures spreading until it suddenly shattered. Amidst the rolling dust and flying debris, a giant shadow emerged.
As the dust settled, a massive creature appeared before them. This monster stood several dozen meters tall, as high as a seven or eight-story building. It was covered in thick armor that gleamed with a metallic luster. Its huge claws were like sharp blades, glinting ominously. A long tail trailed behind it, ending in a sharp blade.
"What is that thing?"
Before they could ponder, the puppet monster launched its attack, its huge claw sweeping toward them with the force of a hurricane. If it hit, they would be pulverized.
Minato and his team quickly jumped to evade, narrowly dodging the attack. The giant claw slammed into the tower wall with a thunderous crash, causing it to crumble and shatter, sending debris plummeting to the ground and stirring up a cloud of dust.