Chapter 362: A Giant Puppet, Centipede's Last Trump Card
Just at this moment.
At the entrance of the underground space, a figure scrambled out from the debris, looking thoroughly disheveled.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
"What happened here?"
"What a huge cloud of smoke and dust..."
The new arrival wore the iconic green tactical vest of a Konoha shinobi. It was Yamato, who had been dragged through the currents of time alongside Uzumaki Naruto.
Right now, Yamato was completely bewildered. The second he poked his head out from the rubble, a terrifying storm of chakra blasted him straight in the face, nearly throwing him backward.
That chakra... Yamato was entirely too familiar with the suffocating, burning sensation it carried.
The Nine-Tails! And it was an extremely high-intensity surge of Nine-Tails chakra.
'Did Naruto go berserk?'
Yamato's heart skipped a beat. Ignoring the thick layer of dust coating his uniform, he leaped straight down into the cavern.
"Naruto! Calm down!"
While still suspended in mid-air, Yamato's hands blurred as they formed a rapid sequence of seals.
"Wood Release..."
However.
The moment his boots hit the stone platform and his eyes adjusted to the dim, dust-choked lighting, the hand seals he was forming froze completely.
What exactly was he looking at?
Two Narutos?
But... why?
There was absolutely no sign of the boy losing control to the beast. The oppressive red chakra cloak was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the person standing there was actually smiling at him.
Heavenly Might Naruto offered a bright, entirely too-familiar wave at the stunned Jonin.
Yamato blinked, his face completely blank.
Then, his neck snapped to the side, his wide eyes landing on the blonde man standing nearby. Minato Namikaze.
"What exactly is going on here?"
Yamato felt his brain short-circuit, unable to process the sheer absurdity of the scene.
'Who am I? Where am I?''Why is the Fourth Hokage still alive? Why are there two Narutos?'
Minato Namikaze offered a wry, somewhat apologetic smile. He walked forward and gently patted the frozen Yamato on the shoulder.
"The situation is quite complicated."
"You can understand it as... the butterfly effect caused by time travel."
"But now is not the time for explanations."
Minato's expression sobered instantly, the warmth leaving his face as his sharp gaze fell upon the pitch-black abyss below the platform.
Although Mukade had been struck down and sent plummeting into the depths, Minato could feel the ambient energy. The Ryūmyaku flowing beneath them had not subsided in the slightest. Instead, the ancient power had grown violently restless, churning like a boiling sea.
"The structure here is unstable."
"We must evacuate immediately."
Uchiha Akira's voice rang out at the perfect moment, cutting through the heavy atmosphere with absolute clarity.
"You are Yamato, correct?"
Although it was their very first meeting, the sheer aura of a superior emanating from the depths of Akira's soul instinctively made Yamato's muscles lock up. The air around the Uchiha felt impossibly heavy, carrying the metallic tang of blood and unquestionable authority.
"Wood Release is exactly what we need now."
"Build a path and get everyone out."
Yamato's mouth opened, his subconscious instantly wanting to retort, 'Who are you to order me around?'
But the moment his eyes met Uchiha Akira's dark, bottomless gaze, every single word died in his throat.
What terrifying pressure.
It was a cold, calculating dread that seized his lungs—somehow even more frightening than the explosive, bone-crushing fury of Lady Tsunade.
"Yes, sir!"
Yamato's body moved entirely on its own, reacting faster than his conscious mind. He snapped to attention, delivering a crisp, rigid salute.
A second later, realization washed over him, and he desperately wanted to slap himself across the face. Why was he blindly obeying a total stranger?
Yet, the crumbling rocks and groaning pillars around them proved the stranger right. The situation was critical.
Yamato shoved his pride aside and stopped agonizing over the bizarre chain of command. He dropped to a crouch, slamming both palms flat against the trembling stone floor.
"Wood Release: Four-Pillar House Technique!"
Chakra surged into the earth. Countless thick, sturdy wooden pillars violently erupted from the rock walls. Instead of forming a traditional structure, Yamato manipulated the dense timber, forcing the logs to intertwine and spiral upward like a massive, coiled serpent.
In the blink of an eye, a wide, reinforced wooden staircase bridged the gap, leading directly toward the surface.
"Quick!"
"Everyone hurry and run across the wooden bridge!"
Sara finally recovered from the paralyzing shock of the battle. Forcing down the raw, bitter grief of her mother's death, she straightened her back and displayed the true, unyielding demeanor of a queen.
"Don't crowd!"
"I am Sara! Trust me!"
Her voice echoed through the cavern, carrying a desperate strength. With the Queen's direct command, the previously chaotic and panicked crowd finally found their center. Order emerged from the madness.
The ragged, emaciated laborers supported one another, their bare feet slapping against the smooth wood as they rushed up the bridge toward the promise of sunlight.
At this moment, the cavern gave a sickening lurch.
The massive load-bearing pillars of the underground space began to groan and splinter under the unbearable weight of the shifting earth above. Jagged chunks of debris rained down from the ceiling, smashing into the stone platforms.
"This is bad!"
Minato Namikaze's expression shifted drastically.
"Mukade fell down, but he destroyed the power core here on his way. This entire place is going to collapse!"
"There are so many people, there's no way we can evacuate everyone in time on foot!"
Just as the panic threatened to rise again, two figures dashed out from the group simultaneously, their hands locked in the exact same hand seal.
"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Bang, bang, bang!
Two massive, overlapping clouds of white smoke exploded across the platform.
When the smoke cleared, a massive sea of Uzumaki Narutos and Heavenly Might Narutos stood shoulder-to-shoulder. The sheer volume of orange and black tracksuits made the scene incredibly spectacular for a brief moment.
It also made the platform incredibly crowded.
"Hey! That me over there!"
The original Uzumaki Naruto pointed a challenging finger at Heavenly Might Naruto, his blue eyes burning with a fierce, competitive spirit.
"Let's have a competition!"
"Let's see who saves more people!"
"The loser has to treat the winner to ramen!"
Heavenly Might Naruto cast a cool, sidelong glance at his alternate self.
"Childish."
"But since you want to give me free money, I won't be polite."
Without waiting for another word, the Shadow Clones of both Narutos surged forward like a tidal wave. They completely ignored whether the terrified refugees agreed to the rescue method or not. They simply scooped the laborers up, hoisted them over their shoulders like sacks of rice, and bolted.
"Um... I can walk myself..."
A frail, middle-aged man weakly protested as he bounced against Uzumaki Naruto's shoulder.
"Less talk, old man!"
"This is about the results of the Ichiraku ramen challenge!"
"Hold tight!"
The army of Shadow Clones sprinted frantically up the spiraling wooden bridge Yamato had created, their boots thundering against the timber. The originally sluggish, agonizingly slow evacuation instantly turned into a fast-forward playback.
Finally.
Driven by the fierce, petty competition between the two Narutos, the cavern was cleared. The very last civilian was unceremoniously dumped outside the underground cavern.
The moment the final clone rushed out of the tower's main entrance, the structure behind them gave way.
The ancient tower let out a deafening, agonizing roar as it collapsed inward. A massive shockwave of displaced air blasted outward, sending a thick pillar of smoke and pulverized stone shooting high into the sky.
Outside, the two Narutos immediately began bickering, aggressively pointing fingers as they argued over who had hauled more people to safety.
But before a winner could be declared, the ground beneath their feet suddenly began to tremble violently.
"It's not over yet?"
Kakashi's visible eye narrowed into a dangerous slit, his grip instantly tightening around the handle of his kunai as he dropped into a low stance.
Boom!
The center of the ruins exploded outward.
A grotesque behemoth slowly rose from the shattered earth. It was a monstrous, multi-legged amalgamation of wood, steel, and jagged armor—the giant puppet Mukade had reconstructed using the boundless power of the Ryūmyaku.
"I am immortal!"
Mukade's distorted, mechanical voice echoed across the wasteland, dripping with absolute arrogance.
"Within this Ryūmyaku, I am a god!"
"A god?"
Uchiha Akira stood perfectly still, his dark eyes sweeping over the ugly, thrashing amalgamation. A cold hint of absolute disdain flashed in his gaze.
"It's nothing more than a pile of junk."
"Naruto."
Akira's voice was quiet, yet it cut through the roaring wind with effortless command.
Heavenly Might Naruto instantly snapped his spine straight. The playful, competitive smirk vanished from his face, replaced by the deadly, focused intensity of a true shinobi.
"Shut him up."
"Yes, Teacher!"
Heavenly Might Naruto didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second. His body instantly transformed into a blurred afterimage, his feet kicking up a cloud of dust as he launched himself directly at the towering monstrosity.
"I'm going too!"
Seeing his counterpart charge, Uzumaki Naruto absolutely refused to be left behind.
"That kind of giant brute, watch me send him flying!"
The two Narutos split up, one flanking left and the other flanking right. Both charged fearlessly toward the giant, thrashing monster.
Looking down at the two tiny humans rushing his colossal form, Mukade let out a brazen, metallic laugh that shook the ground.
"Overestimating yourselves!"
One of the massive, articulated puppet arms reared back and smashed a colossal fist down toward Heavenly Might Naruto, intending to crush him into paste.
Heavenly Might Naruto didn't even flinch. He kicked off a piece of falling rubble, executing a sharp, mid-air twist that completely defied common physical sense.
While smoothly evading the devastating downward smash, he extended his right hand. A blinding blue light flared in his palm as chakra spun and compressed with terrifying intensity.
"Great Ball Rasengan!"
On the opposite side of the beast.
Uzumaki Naruto used the brief visual cover of a sacrificial Shadow Clone to launch himself directly at Mukade's exposed abdomen.
"Taste this!"
"Rasengan!"
Although the sphere in Uzumaki Naruto's hand was one size smaller than Heavenly Might Naruto's massive attack, the dense, grinding rotational force contained within it was in no way weaker.
Two deafening, grinding explosions rang out almost simultaneously.
Mukade's heavily reinforced puppet shell instantly shattered under the dual impact of the terrifying, spiral-destructive forces. Wood splintered and metal shrieked as two massive, gaping holes were violently blasted straight through the gigantic body.
"We did it!"
Uzumaki Naruto landed heavily on his feet and excitedly pumped his fist into the air.
"Did you see that! The power of This Great Lord!"
However, across the battlefield, Heavenly Might Naruto's expression did not relax in the slightest. Instead, his eyes narrowed, his face turning incredibly solemn.
"Retreat quickly!"
Without waiting for an answer, Heavenly Might Naruto lunged forward, grabbed the collar of Uzumaki Naruto—who was still busy posing—and violently yanked him backward in a massive leap.
The very moment their boots left the ground.
The scattered, burning fragments of the shattered puppet suddenly froze in mid-air. As if drawn by some immense, invisible magnetic force, the jagged pieces of wood and metal instantly flew back toward the main body.
Sickly purple Ryūmyaku energy surged wildly from the earth, wrapping around the broken machinery like glowing veins.
In just two short seconds.
The two massive, smoking holes blasted through Mukade's body clicked and locked back together, completely restored to their original, undamaged state.
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