Naruto: Unlocking Kaido Template

Some time earlier, Zixu noticed a thin man in the ruins. The man appeared so frail that it seemed only his skeleton was holding him upright.

He stood atop a circular platform, beneath which lay a dark, bottomless chasm. At the man's feet, a massive fūinshiki (sealing ritual) spread out in all directions. Zixu felt an odd sense of familiarity, as if he'd seen this ritual pattern somewhere before.

Approaching from the shadows, Zixu moved toward the man. Suddenly, the man's hands trembled nervously, and several massive, ancient-looking brown-and-yellow puppets emerged. They lunged at Zixu, claws extended.

Despite his injuries from the earlier fall, Zixu was not someone mere puppets could challenge. A breeze stirred within the still ruins—then grew into a violent gale. Blades of wind materialized, shredding two of the puppets into powder, as if they were made of sand.

Boom! Explosions erupted from the remains of the shattered puppets. Apparently, the puppeteer had embedded bakufuda (detonation tags) inside them. Upon destruction, the tags triggered, causing the puppets to self-destruct.

As the smoke cleared, the man had stepped into the center of the fūinshiki, where a strangely-shaped kunai rested alongside a dragon scale that Zixu recognized as his own.

"So this place really is connected to me... Have I been here before?" Zixu muttered, doubts forming in his heart. But the man clearly misunderstood—believing Zixu was there to capture him.

"Even though the chakra of the Ryūmyaku (Dragon Vein) is sealed, if I fuse this fūinjutsu into my body, I too can control its limitless chakra!" the man howled with laughter. Strange runes surfaced across his body. He grasped the kunai in one hand and pulled the dragon scale with the other. A violet chakra storm erupted, centered on him, and swept across the ruins.

"Something's wrong..." Zixu tried to escape, but his injuries were too severe. The purple chakra storm gripped him like a massive invisible hand, dragging him into its vortex.

"This chakra... such power. Could it truly be... endless chakra, like that man said?" Zixu recalled the man's earlier mutterings and was forced to believe it.

"The road to death is long... I just hope I don't die this time." As the thought crossed his mind, his consciousness faded.

---

"The light shining from the heights of Rōran..."

"Emotions in disarray..."

"The Ryūmyaku must be protected..."

"Blades rain down... I gaze up at the sky..."

A soft melody echoed from all directions.

Zixu's eyes snapped open at the sound of the song.

"Where... am I?" His body ached, so he lay still for a moment, scanning his surroundings. Though different from before, the style of the architecture reminded him of the previous ruins. It seemed he was now at the bottom of a tower, the ceiling above allowing only a few beams of light to shine through.

One such beam illuminated a girl sitting on the rubble.

She sang with her eyes closed, bathed in sunlight. Her youthful face and neatly tied twin red pigtails made her seem like a child from a distant land. Her clothes were unlike those of the Five Great Nations—more reminiscent of a southern minority clan.

"Hey, where are we?" Zixu struggled to his feet, stretching. His regenerative ability had kicked in—he didn't feel nearly as bad as before.

"Ah!" The girl jumped in surprise and fled like a startled deer.

She darted toward a stone gate. Zixu intended to follow. That frail man from before had clearly caused this, and she might hold some clues.

Puchi puchi~

Purple chakra beams burst forth behind the girl. Two towering puppets emerged from the stone gate. In that narrow corridor, they loomed like mountains, blocking both her and Zixu.

"These puppets... their structure looks just like the handiwork of that chakra-drained man," Zixu muttered, casually dodging the beams. Even though his Kenchikukan no Haki (Observation Haki) couldn't foresee the future at the moment, it was enough to evade these slow attacks.

The girl had already run far ahead. If he wanted to catch her, he'd need to defeat the puppets. But to be honest, he found these puppets more interesting than the girl.

"It's too dark here. Let's take them into the sunlight for a better look." Without breaking a sweat, he severed the chakra threads controlling the puppets and dragged them out of the corridor.

Yet the moment they left the tunnel, the puppets crumbled into scrap. It was as though a critical component had been destroyed. Behind him, the stone gate slammed shut.

"Strange..." Zixu crouched, examining the shattered remains. Something vital had been missed.

"Let's head up first. There's no one else down here." Looking up at the glass ceiling, he realized he was underground.

A flicker of flame appeared beneath his feet. With a light push, he ascended the air like walking up a staircase. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Crash!

He shattered the glass ceiling with a punch. The fresh scent of sunlight and grass lifted his spirits, but even he was stunned by the sight before him.

A colossal city sprawled around him, dotted with towering spires piercing the heavens. Interwoven pipes connected the towers, and countless aerial ladders formed a tangled web, resembling a suspended subway network. The scene was oddly beautiful.

"Did I just land in the future?" Zixu quipped. Though not as high-tech as the Sky Sky, the architecture was masterful. It was clear this civilization was far from primitive.

Like a tourist in a new world, Zixu took in the sights. All he lacked was a souvenir shirt that read "I love Rōran."

But the locals clearly didn't share his enthusiasm. A squad of standardized puppets had spotted him. From every direction, puppet units surged toward him through the air.

"How very hospitable." Zixu chuckled. He stretched lazily, and green ryūrin (dragon scales) spread across his arms. His nails elongated, and a thick coat of Kuroi Yōki (Black Haki) wrapped around his claws.

Crack! A puppet's body was pierced by his claw. Despite being impaled, it still tried to charge a chakra beam in its mouth.

"I'm being honest with you... why do you all still want to pick a fight?" Disappointed that the puppets couldn't give him any intel, he smashed it outright. From his back, he pulled out a Wabō gōkin no kanabō (Wabo Alloy Mace), now dyed jet black with Kuroi Yōki.

But the flood of puppets continued. Like ants spilling from a nest, they poured out from every direction. The sea of puppets stretched as far as the eye could see—ready to swallow him whole.

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