Mukade, still lost in his delusions, was stabbed before he could even react.
The searing pain shot through his nervous system, making him wail like a dying beast.
"Ahhh~!"
"You bastard!"
"You ambushed me?! Where's your honor, huh?!"
Uchiha Hikaru gripped the hilt of Sword tightly and slashed at Mukade's centipede puppet again.
"Honor?"
"This is how shinobi fight. Who the hell taught you about 'honor'?"
"You've been holed up in Rōran too long. Your brain's rotted from all that dragon vein chakra, hasn't it?"
Mukade immediately manipulated his bizarre puppet body, folding its sharp insect legs in front of him to block the next strike.
"You think a sneak attack like that means anything?!"
"Let me show you the real power of my perfected form!"
The puppet's centipede legs morphed into dozens of massive mechanical arms, which launched a storm of punches at Hikaru's Susanoo.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The fists pounded against Susanoo relentlessly. Hikaru parried with Sword, but there were simply too many—he couldn't defend against them all.
Mukade cackled wildly, his expression deranged.
"Do you see it?!"
"This is the ultimate puppet—my perfect body!"
Under the relentless barrage, Hikaru's Susanoo was slowly pushed back. The surrounding furnaces and metal pipes shattered, filling the air with debris and thick dust.
As the smoke began to clear, Mukade smirked at the silhouette of Susanoo.
"The Uchiha? The so-called greatest clan in the shinobi world?"
"What a damn joke."
"I don't even know how your reputation made it out of Konoha—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
His grotesque puppet face twisted as he stared ahead. He shook his massive centipede head and looked again.
"No… no way…"
"That's impossible! You're still intact?!"
A tremendous surge of chakra erupted from Susanoo, blowing the dust away in a violent gust.
The blade of Sword in Hikaru's hand was now covered in fine cracks.
Mukade's eyes widened in sudden realization.
"Y-You bastard! You sacrificed that masterpiece! That sword was the size of your whole damn body!"
To him, Sword was a priceless treasure—comparable to the legendary tools of the Sage of Six Paths.
He'd fallen in love with it at first sight.
A weapon with a perfect humanoid form, but in essence, a weaponized puppet. His ultimate ideal—his dream creation!
And now, Uchiha Hikaru had dared to use it as a sacrificial shield!
Blood rushed to Mukade's head. His mind snapped. He roared in rage, turning all his giant hands back into bladed limbs and charging Hikaru in a frenzy.
"I'LL BURY YOU WITH MY MASTERPIECE!"
Sword shattered into fragments—but the hilt remained in Hikaru's Susanoo's grip.
He raised the hilt and slashed forward.
"Sword… take his disgusting arms off…"
"All of them."
Thousands of fragmented blades surged toward Mukade, piercing into his tangled mass of arm joints and slicing clean through the limbs and connections between torso and appendage.
"GAHH!"
Mukade howled as agony surged through him. His puppet body buckled, crashing to the ground.
The broken blades regrouped, forming two glowing brass knuckles on Susanoo's fists.
Hikaru grabbed Mukade's hideous puppet head with one hand—and began punching with the other.
"You talk big, huh?!"
"Mock the Uchiha again, I dare you!"
"Didn't you say you loved boxing?!"
"I'll show you fists the size of sandbags!!!"
Muscles bulged on Susanoo's arms, a furious sigil forming on Hikaru's forehead.
Aside from Danzo, no one else in all these years had ever dared curse the Uchiha clan to his face like this freak.
It was like lighting a lamp in the toilet—you're clearly asking for shit.
BAM!
CRACK!
SLAM!
SMACK!
BOOM!
Hikaru landed rapid-fire blows to Mukade's puppet head, mixed with face-slaps just to keep him conscious enough to feel the pain, followed by savage elbow strikes.
The brass knuckles caved in the puppet's forehead, forming deep grooves and dents.
It was brutal. It was humiliating.
And Hikaru didn't care.
He wasn't about to let this trash walk away with just a beating.
But then—he sensed danger from behind.
With a flick of his wrist, his fists turned to palms and he struck the centipede's side, sending its entire front half flying to the right.
As he turned, he saw Mukade's massive insect tail swinging like a wrecking ball toward Susanoo.
"Sword, Word Command—Shou!"
The brass knuckles transformed into a massive glowing shield, just in time to block.
But the raw force was overwhelming.
Powered by the entire dragon vein's chakra, Mukade's attack blasted Susanoo clean off its feet and into the wall behind them.
At that very moment, Naruto and Sarai arrived—and witnessed Hikaru being hurled across the chamber.
Orange-red chakra exploded from Naruto in a burst of rage.
"Brother Hikaru!"
"Lord Hikaru!"
They both cried out instinctively.
Naruto quickly formed a cross with his fingers.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—
Thousands of clones erupted into the battlefield, eyes glowing red with fury. They brandished kunai and launched themselves toward the centipede in a relentless wave.
The real Naruto stayed behind with two clones, gathering wind chakra into his hand.
A sharp buzzing filled the air.
Mukade suddenly felt an intense surge of dread.
His puppet eyes locked onto Naruto.
What is that technique?!
Empowered by the dragon vein, Mukade could see the intricate chakra structure forming in Naruto's hand.
It didn't compare to the raw quantity of chakra from the dragon vein—but those countless wind-style chakra blades…
Even if he'd never seen the jutsu before, his instincts screamed at him: this thing is lethal to puppets.
Hikaru's earlier attack had severely damaged his puppet body, but he'd been able to patch it up using dragon vein chakra.
But this jutsu…
This Rasenshuriken…
It had the potential to cut through chakra itself.
And he knew—if all those clones could use it…
He wouldn't just lose control of the puppet—his very soul, which was fused with it, would be severed.
In order to avoid exposing his real body, he had destroyed his flesh long ago and fused his soul into this puppet body via dragon vein chakra.
Flexible, powerful—but the pain was fed directly to his soul.
And Naruto's technique could destroy that tether completely.
His puppet form would be reduced to ash.
And then… there'd be no coming back.
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Bonus Chapter at 150 Power Stone
Second Bonus Chapter - 300 Power Stones
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