Body Flicker Technique and the Puppeteer's Secret (Part 3)

After Tekki dropped his armor, everyone looked at his arm and saw that a large patch of muscle had turned light purple. Clearly, Shuichi's attack was quite powerful. If he hadn't been fully armed, he would probably have lost more than half of his fighting ability by now.

"Show me what other tricks you have up your sleeve, or this game will be over soon." Shuichi presented himself as an arrogant genius, whether he could fool others or not, he genuinely wanted to further investigate the secrets of the Puppeteer, which required Tekki's cooperation.

Tekki didn't give up. Although he knew his attacks would have a hard time hitting the agile Shuichi, he still believed he had a chance to win because all of the puppet's weapons were coated with a nerve-paralyzing Toxin. If it even grazed the opponent's skin, the situation would be different.

Despite the pain in his arm, he once again exerted all his strength to control his puppet.

"Whoosh..." Several paper-ball-like pellets were ejected from the puppet and exploded near Shuichi, sending up a large amount of smoke over the area.

Tekki stared intently at the smoke; he couldn't believe his opponent would be hit by such a simple tactic.

To determine the victor now, the only option is to use the key Hidden Weapons within one's puppets for close-range attacks. This requires risking being caught by Shuichi at close range; long-range attacks would simply waste the puppets' internal reserves and would be completely ineffective against the opponent.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..." A large number of dark shadows appeared in the smoke that had not yet completely dissipated, as if something was attacking them.

When the shadowy figure burst out of the smoke, what appeared before Tekki was a Shuriken and Kunai, which he couldn't possibly dodge at his current speed.

With a flick of his hands, the insect puppet disintegrated in half, and several fragments of iron plates briefly floated in front of the Tekki under the control of Chakra Threads.

"Thump, thump, clang, clang..." A large number of ninja tools hit the shield and his body. He managed to block several difficult-to-defend points with the small shield, while the other Shuriken only hit the parts of his body covered with steel plates. He successfully defended against Shuichi's Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.

As the smoke cleared, Shuichi wasn't too surprised to see the Shuriken scattered near the Tekki. He knew Sunagakure would definitely share this information; he just wanted to test the Puppeteer's skills.

"You want me to get close? So you can win with poison?"

In the original work, Chiyo and Sasori were both at the pinnacle of Puppeteer, Shuichi remembered their attack methods clearly, so he could see through Tekki's thoughts at a glance.

"That's exactly what I wanted to know, so let's go."

Having made up his mind, Shuichi charged straight at Tekki, not using the Body Flicker Technique, but instead using pure Taijutsu running techniques.

As the two sides drew near, Tekki's puppet once again controlled its head to fly towards Shuichi, this time accompanied by small Hidden Weapons flying out along the way. Due to the relatively close proximity of the two sides, the threat of these Hidden Weapons was amplified.

Shuichi. He pulled a Kunai from his ninja tool bag and, relying on his lightning-fast reflexes and Taijutsu skills, knocked all the Hidden Weapons away as he slowed down slightly. "Clang, clang, clang..."

"Crack!" The Body Flicker Technique was activated suddenly. This time the distance was very short. Shuichi arrived at the side of the puppet's head and slashed at the edge of the thing with Kunai.

A soft "hiss!" was barely audible, as if nothing had happened. But Tekki didn't let the opportunity pass; the puppet head spat out a blade and turned to stab Shuichi at close range.

Shuichi quickly crouched down, the stab flying over his head, and his other hand swiftly swung towards the edge of the puppet's head.

It seemed like he was just waving his hand at the air without hitting the puppet. Many people in the stands were wondering what Shuichi. Then they saw the puppet head suddenly lose control and its flight path was lost. It was just carried by inertia and floated towards the wall of the arena.

"Bang!" After crashing into the corner wall, the puppet head fell to the ground, with some small parts scattered around it.

"It's Chakra Threads. Tekki Chakra Threads have been cut, but what's the point? Just reconnect the Chakra Threads, won't you?" As a teammate, Yukari had some understanding of the Puppeteer profession.

She felt that it was completely abnormal for Shuichi go to such great lengths just to sever Tekki's Chakra Threads. Did he not know anything about the Puppeteer?

Seeing that his puppet head had lost control, Tekki did not panic. He once again gathered the chakra in his body to form Chakra Threads that connected to the puppet head, controlling it to fly back to the puppet's main body.

"Some parts in this section are damaged and have temporarily lost their function, but it's not a big problem." The entire puppet was assembled by Tekki himself, so he probably knows it better than his own body; he can tell the puppet's condition with just a glance.

"Just as I expected." After performing a series of actions that no one could understand, Shuichi retreated to a safe distance, as if he was somewhat afraid of the puppet's own Hidden Weapons attacks.

Through the previous probing and personal experience, Shuichi now fully understands what Puppet Technique is all about.

There is probably no one in Konoha who understands Puppet Technique better than him now. This secret technique developed by the Second Kazekage only began to show its potential during Second Shinobi War, less than ten years ago.

Outside of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Konoha and Puppeteer rarely clashed, so Konoha doesn't know much about Puppeteer to this day.

Most ninjas only know that they can control puppets, that they are a special unit of Sunagakure, extremely small in number, and that their methods are unpredictable and difficult to defend against, but detailed information is not very clear.

Based on his conjectures about the original work, Shuichi repeatedly recalled the Puppeteer's battles, and even some explanations from Chiyo and Sasori. Through this test, he directly confirmed the key information about the Puppeteer.

As previously mentioned, a normal ninja's chakra cannot remain in the body for too long after leaving the body, at most about 2 to 3 seconds. This is chakra that has not undergone any changes.

After undergoing Nature Transformation, chakra exists in the outside world in a new form. For example, fire and wind have very low capacity to withstand changes, so their existence time is relatively short, but still much longer than pure chakra. Earth and water, on the other hand, have higher capacity to withstand changes, so they can exist for a much longer time.

There is another way to keep chakra outside the body without any changes: using Yin Release. (Natural Energy should also have this effect, but we won't discuss that here.)

For example, the Nara Clan's Shadow Imitation Technique is an application of Yin Release.

The Susanoo of the Uchiha Clan is similar. Powerful Yin Release Chakra forms the outer model of a samurai, and the user fills it with their own chakra. In this way, the chakra can easily exist outside the body without causing unnecessary waste.

Shuichi's two previous attacks, though seemingly casual, were actually probes based on his own assumptions.

The first time, he attached a small amount of Wind Release chakra to the Kunai. Because it was an ordinary Kunai little conductivity, he had to maintain a high intensity of chakra output, which not only damaged the Kunai but also made it very weak.

The effect was very poor. When I tried to cut it, I could clearly feel a membrane on the outside of the Tekki Chakra Threads, but I didn't manage to cut it.

The second time, Shuichi positioned his palm in a special direction, allowing his fingers to align with the side of the Chakra Threads. Upon touching the Chakra Threads, he released his own chakra through his fingers towards the Tekki, neutralizing the Chakra Threads. Then, he quickly mobilized his Wind Release chakra, and this time, with a light touch, he severed the Chakra Threads.

After this test, he has reached a conclusion: the core of Puppet Technique is the Chakra Threads, not the puppet itself. It is a Yin Release technique, very similar to the shadow techniques of the Nara Clan.

This also explains a question he had when watching Hokage in his previous life: although the Puppet Technique has limited combat power in the late game, it is a very powerful technique in the early and mid-game and it is easy to form combat power. So why does only Sunagakure have it? And why are there so few of them?

Controlling just one puppet grants the strength of Chunin, while controlling two or three grants the strength of Jonin. With Chiyo and Sasori as role models, there are no obstacles from Chunin to Kage. This system can even easily defeat many weaker Kekkei Genkai. No village would not be tempted by it.

If Puppet Technique could be learned simply by spending money and resources, then other ninja villages would surely follow suit. Even the most complex puppets wouldn't leave a village helpless, would they? Other ninja villages might lack metal materials, but their financial resources are arguably no less than those of Sunagakure, so researching a few puppets would be a piece of cake for them.

However, there are actually no Puppeteer outside of Sunagakure, and even the number in their own village is pitifully small. This is because it is a secret technique developed like Magnet Release, and it is a Yin Release technique that requires a very high level of talent to master.

It's estimated that even Sunagakure itself can't find many people to train with. Otherwise, wouldn't it be wonderful to have a Puppeteer in every squad? Sunagakure's mid-level combat strength would immediately leap to the highest in the Shinobi World. They would do anything to achieve this, even if it meant selling everything they owned. What does money matter?

Once this conclusion was established, it became clear that the Puppeteer was not the kind of master craftsman who controlled puppets with strings like in the previous life, but rather someone who first created a puppet that could receive chakra. The advantage of this puppet was that it could carry more weapons than a human, its attack range could be adjusted at will, and it was immune to damage.

The puppeteer's terrifying power lies in its ability to create a system where the opponent is unaware of where, when, or how the puppeteer will attack.

"So the key is still chakra," Shuichi thought to himself. "Chakra Threads are like wired network connections; controlling puppets through chakra is similar to playing first-person RPG games in my past life."

Shuichi couldn't analyze exactly how it worked. Yin Release techniques are generally closely linked to Mental Energy. For example, the Mind Transfer Jutsu of the Yamanaka Clan can completely control the bodies of living people.

Since puppets are inanimate objects, it should be feasible to use Chakra Threads to transmit one's Mental Energy and make the puppet act entirely according to one's wishes.

For example, just like Chiyo used Chakra Threads to control Sakura's body in the original work, if she really relied on manual skills to dodge Sasori's attacks, Sakura would probably have been killed long ago. It must have involved using Mental Energy to control Sakura's body from a distance.

Sakura must also trust her completely, because the Chakra Threads are difficult to control living people and will break if they break free even slightly.