Protecting Sara, Hoshiyomi turned and saw a rotund figure sweep into the bedchamber, followed by a massive host of puppet soldiers.
The crowded ranks of puppets packed the once-spacious chamber like sardines in a tin.
Hoshiyomi, however, paid them little mind. His gaze locked on the corpulent Anrokuzan — Mukade — and he spoke coldly:
"You know me?"
Mukade smiled at him. "Who hasn't heard of the famed Konoha's Silver Moon?"
Hoshiyomi was feeling somewhat disoriented by the Ryūmyaku's time travel and felt that the events unfolding now were already beyond his prediction. However, Hoshiyomi had no patience for deducing the truth. He looked at Mukade, yanked the trembling Sara behind him with one hand, and with the other, swiftly drew the Mikazuki Munechika from his waist:
"It's good that you know me. I'll give you one chance: tell me everything you know honestly, and I'll leave you a complete corpse," Hoshiyomi said.
Mukade's cheek twitched, then he burst into arrogant laughter. "So it is Gekko Hoshiyomi. How arrogant of you to speak like that. Let me see if you can still say such things after you witness my puppet army."
Mukade's face twitched oddly. With a wave of his hand, the puppet army raised their weapons.
Hoshiyomi looked at those puppets, his eyes full of disdain:
"To think you'd take the Ryūmyaku's power and use it only for puppets. That's all you can do?"
As he spoke, Hoshiyomi casually swung the Mikazuki Munechika, but in the next second, a massive sword energy instantly stunned the other two individuals present.
One slash. The sword energy formed by this one slash swept through the entire bedchamber. Never mind the puppet soldiers present; even the walls of the entire bedchamber were left with huge slash marks from Hoshiyomi's single strike.
Boom!
This wasn't just the sound of simple puppets being shredded; it was the thunderous roar caused by the sword energy tearing through the entire wall.
Sara looked at everything before her in shock. She never could have imagined that this seemingly handsome-but-otherwise-useless uncle could create such a scene with a single swing of his sword.
The puppet army that had just crowded the entire room was actually all cut in half by this one slash. Not only that, the unabated sword energy even pierced directly through the wall, flying straight out.
By now, Sara had lost all other thoughts in her mind. Only two words remained in her thoughts: So strong.
Just then, Mukade's voice rang out again: "Don't underestimate me, Gekko Hoshiyomi. The Ryūmyaku's power is far more than that."
At his words, violet chakra light flared around Mukade's hands. The scattered puppet pieces began to float and rapidly reassemble. Bit by bit they coalesced into new, more advanced puppets.
"Fire!"
With Mukade 's loud shout, those puppets began firing chakra bullets one after another, scaring Sara pale.
Looking at the dense barrage of chakra bullets, Hoshiyomi also curled his lip. He had no intention of wasting energy blocking these chakra bullets head-on.
With a single step of Shunpo under his feet, Hoshiyomi instantly disappeared from his original position. The chakra bullets flying towards him weren't advanced enough to track him, and all hit the bedchamber wall, instantly blasting a huge hole in it.
Rubble from the bedchamber wall fell from high altitude, frightening the people below into screams of panic.
Hearing these screams, Sara's face turned pale. Clutching Hoshiyomi's arm, she hurriedly said: "We can't go on like this. If we keep fighting like this, the citizens below will definitely get hurt."
Hearing this, Hoshiyomi didn't call her troublesome. He looked at Sara behind him and revealed a smile: "You really have the bearing of a queen. Since that's the case, I'll send you down."
"Eh? What do you mean by that? Don't tell me—"
Before she could finish, Hoshiyomi had already moved.
"Hold on tight!"
With that, Hoshiyomi grabbed Sara and leapt straight into the massive hole the puppet army had blasted through the wall.
Sara's piercing scream cut through the air as the two of them plummeted rapidly from above.
Hoshiyomi moved his fingers in a sword seal. The Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade on his back swiftly unsheathed and steadily appeared under Hoshiyomi's feet.
Listening to Sara still screaming behind him, Hoshiyomi gave her a flick on the forehead with his finger:
"Stop screaming, we're almost on the ground."
Sara looked around blankly and only then realized that she and Hoshiyomi were standing steadily on a long sword as they descended.
Only when they descended to a very low height did Hoshiyomi put Sara down:
"I'll give you five minutes," he said calmly. "Get your people to safety. The destruction that's coming might be… a little wide-ranging."
Sara stood dumbfounded for a moment before nodding. By the time she came to her senses, Hoshiyomi had already soared back toward the shattered palace.
Not daring to waste another second, Sara shouted for her people to follow her and escape.
Even though she was now a puppet queen with little actual power, her voice still carried authority. Coupled with the very real explosion that had just shaken the city, the terrified citizens of Roran quickly chose to flee under her command.
Once Hoshiyomi confirmed from above that the civilians were clear, he finally sighed in relief. Now he could fight without worrying about collateral damage.
Seeing the puppet army rushing toward him, Hoshiyomi grinned — and struck.
Air-Shattering Draw Slash!
Where the huge ring-shaped sword energy passed, the puppet army hovering in the air all turned into scrap copper and iron, scattering all over the ground.
And Hoshiyomi didn't waste any more time. Stepping on the Grass Long Sword, Kusanagi Blade, he swiftly flew back to where Mukade was. Before Mukade could say anything more, Hoshiyomi had already sent a sword energy flying at him.
In the face of Hoshiyomi's sharp sword energy, Mukade, whose physical prowess wasn't outstanding, had no way to avoid it. The sword energy almost instantly cut off nearly half of his body.
But strangely, there was no blood. The sliced half of his body disintegrated into mechanical parts, which, under the glow of purple chakra, reassembled themselves onto him.
"It's useless," Mukade sneered. "Before the power of the Ryūmyaku that I command, all your attacks mean nothing."
As he spoke, his body continued to reconstitute, and countless puppet fragments that Hoshiyomi had destroyed earlier began to fly toward him as well.
Within seconds, Mukade's form swelled from a bloated man into a towering puppet giant. Looking down at Hoshiyomi from above, he raised a massive hand.
"Now," he said with a booming laugh, "it's my turn to strike back."
The story from here won't follow the movie's plot exactly — it's going to be much more interesting. I'm not sure if everyone will like the upcoming setup, but it's worth looking forward to!