Chapter 39: The Puppet Master, Izayoi's Excitement

"As expected of the ultimate Eye Technique that can control the trajectory of a planet in its final form. Just the first stirring is enough to pull down a meteor from outer space using Attraction."

"Even if that Technique isn't yet in its complete form, I still have a strategic deterrent up my sleeve."

After flying for a while, Izayoi descended from the sky, using the Body Flicker Technique to move swiftly while pondering in his heart.

The power of the Tenseigan far exceeded Izayoi's expectations.

Moreover, unlike the Rinnegan, which possesses exclusive Eye Techniques and governs the rules of life and death, the strength of the Tenseigan is more prominently displayed in the aspect of destruction.

With both Attraction and Repulsion being so powerful, Izayoi eagerly anticipated the unlocking of the Tenseigan Chakra Mode.

Since his Shadow Clone had no suitable reason to leave yet, Izayoi wasn't in a hurry to rejoin his team. Instead, after returning to a certain range, he took out the scrolls gifted by his good friend and began to read them.

Earlier, he had only glanced at them briefly to verify their authenticity before putting them away.

Now, Izayoi was reading them in detail.

The scrolls he was reading weren't about Puppet Techniques; those were practically garbage to Izayoi, who could wirelessly control puppets.

What Izayoi was reading were the methods for creating Human Puppets.

"So this is how Kekkei Genkai and Ninja Techniques are preserved. This guy is truly a genius," Izayoi couldn't help but exclaim after reading for a while. "No wonder his Talent is Puppet Master (Purple). This Chakra Core has surpassed his predecessors. Even the Puppet Techniques of the Otsutsuki Clan on the moon are far inferior to his."

After saying this, Izayoi flipped through another scroll, which detailed the method for creating the Chakra Core of a Human Puppet.

The Chakra Core is the most crucial component of a puppet.

Simply using Chakra Threads to control a puppet is like playing a puppet show.

Powerful puppets are equipped with numerous mechanisms and hidden weapons, and can even utilize the Five Elements Power. These functions cannot be activated using Chakra Threads alone.

A Chakra Core must be installed in the puppet, and Chakra must be channeled into the puppet through the Chakra Threads to freely use various abilities.

How powerful a puppet is depends entirely on what the creator has installed inside it.

And Sasori of the Red Sand has carved out his own path.

Instead of using materials to create puppets, he injected materials into human bodies, turning corpses into puppets.

He then modified the puppet's heart, the Chakra Core, allowing the Human Puppet to use the Kekkei Genkai and Ninja Techniques of the deceased.

This is essentially a new school of puppetry.

As the founding father of this method, Sasori of the Red Sand truly lives up to the system's evaluation of him—Puppet Master (Purple).

In Izayoi's eyes, Sasori's Human Puppets are more suitable for him than the puppets of the Otsutsuki Clan on the moon.

"Wait…"

Suddenly, Izayoi had a flash of inspiration and exclaimed excitedly, "Perhaps I can further upgrade the Human Puppets."

Sasori's Human Puppets share a striking similarity with Nagato's Six Paths of Pain.

In the original Fourth Great Ninja War, Uchiha Obito turned Jinchuriki into Six Paths Clones, which could use the Chakra of the Tailed Beasts and the abilities they had in life.

This means that, like Human Puppets, Six Paths Clones can retain the abilities of the deceased.

The only difference is that Human Puppets require Chakra Threads for control, and the Six Paths of Pain cannot stray too far from the Outer Path, or they will lose their signal.

However, the Tenseigan can compensate for both of these flaws.

The wireless puppets of the Tenseigan can be freely controlled as long as the puppets remain within the visual range and the Chakra Core still contains Chakra.

Even within the spatial channel connecting the Moon and Earth, the puppets can still receive signals.

If such puppets could also use Kekkei Genkai and Ninja Techniques, and replenish Chakra remotely, wouldn't they be equivalent to an army of Reanimation Jutsu without immortality or a legion-style Pain army?

The more Izayoi thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

However, he had not yet unlocked Yin-Yang Release and could not fuse the three elements.

But he could first create a large number of puppets and, once he unlocked Yin-Yang Release, simply insert the Yin-Yang Release: Black Receiver to upgrade them.

That night, Izayoi smoothly rejoined the team.

Apart from Hinata, neither Team 8 nor the convoy had any idea that the massive meteorite had actually been summoned by Izayoi.

Having deliberately taken a detour to avoid the Akatsuki duo, Team 8 and the convoy spent an additional three days before reaching their destination.

During this time, they also bypassed a mountain village where a Chakra presence stronger than Kurenai Yuhi's was detected. The place where Mr. Nishimura and his people lived was a remote mountain village.

Such villages were common in the Land of Rivers.

However, villages that discovered mineral resources and knew how to mine and sell them were quite rare in the Land of Rivers.

This made Mr. Nishimura particularly valuable.

Due to the poor conditions of the mountain village and the fact that they arrived at noon, Kurenai declined Mr. Nishimura's hospitality. She took out the mission scroll, had him sign it, and left a positive review before leading Team 8 back.

Unlike their journey on foot, Team 8 returned using the Body Flicker Technique, leaping several meters, or even over a dozen meters, in a single bound.

At this speed, they would be back in the Leaf Village in at most two days.

This was the difference between shinobi and ordinary people.

In this abstract world of technology, shinobi were also versatile tools, the most useful workhorses.

"This was your first C-rank mission. Share your thoughts."

After using the Body Flicker Technique until they were tired and then walking, Kurenai looked at Izayoi and the others and asked.

"It was exhausting," Izayoi answered honestly. "At first, there was a bit of novelty, but afterward, it was just physical and mental torment."

Hinata and Aburame Shino nodded in agreement.

"Escort missions are like that—not only dull and time-consuming, but the pay is pitifully low," Kurenai said with a smile. "But our mission was special. The Land of Rivers is densely forested and has treacherous terrain. We even nearly encountered an S-rank rogue ninja and a mysterious powerhouse. Few C-rank missions are as unlucky as ours."

"Fortunately, we had Hinata's Byakugan, or this trip could have ended badly."

At the end, Kurenai reached out and patted Hinata's head.

"It was my duty," Hinata said softly.

"Such a good girl. Too bad it's wasted on Izayoi," Kurenai decided to give Hinata a helping hand.

Little did she know, both Hinata and Izayoi had their own plans.

The two simply smiled without speaking, ignoring Kurenai's attempt to assist.

Two days later in the afternoon, Team 8 finally returned to the Leaf Village.

They had spent exactly half a month on this C-rank mission.

For their hard work over the past two weeks, each of them received an exceptionally high reward... 23,000 ryo.

This reward was indeed unusually high for a C-rank mission.

Since the village would deduct a portion, and the Jonin Instructor would take another part, the remaining reward was divided into three, leaving them with 23,000 ryo. This indicated that the total reward for this C-rank mission must have been over 100,000 ryo.

The reward for C-rank missions usually ranged from 30,000 to 100,000 ryo.

Having a reward of over 100,000 ryo made the time spent on this mission justifiable.

However, if given the choice, Team 8 sincerely wished they hadn't taken on this C-rank mission.

Seemingly noticing their exhaustion, Kurenai Yuhi smiled and said, "I'll give you three days off. Go home and rest well."

"Yes," they replied.

Team 8 disbanded on the spot.

"Izayoi-kun, see you tomorrow," said Hinata, who was also unusually tired and didn't go to Izayoi's house this time.

Having only bathed a few times during their time in the wild, she now just wanted to go home, take a bath, sleep, and then appear before Izayoi in her best condition.

Even Physical Stamina Healing couldn't help in this situation, so Izayoi had to use a special method to comfort Hinata.

Suddenly, Izayoi leaned down and kissed Hinata's forehead, then waved with a smile, "Go home and get a good night's sleep. See you tomorrow."

After saying this, Izayoi disappeared using the Body Flicker Technique.

Hinata stood still for a few seconds, then quickly looked around. When her eyes met the amused gaze of a woman nearby, her neck and cheeks flushed red from bottom to top, and with steam practically rising from her head, she ran away in embarrassment.

(End of Chapter)