New Identity

Bang!

White smoke billowed out, and Shimizu swiftly changed into another appearance.

A white man with a square face, sharply arched brows, and a high forehead.

Put him in a suit and sunglasses, and he would be the classic image of a suited thug.

This was Keanu Reeves's face.

It wasn't that Shimizu hadn't considered taking on the appearance of someone like Beckham or Leo, but Beckham already existed here and had been famous for over a decade. He was now playing for a Major League Soccer club.

Leo, on the other hand, did not exist, but a face that handsome was practically earth-shattering. It would draw far too much attention.

Someone ordinarily handsome like Keanu Reeves was fine, and his temperament suited Gotham better too.

The commotion Shimizu made gave Penguin a fright, and he nearly thought Shimizu was about to make a move.

Even after recovering, one hand remained on the handle of his High-tech umbrella, his beady eyes fixed intently on Shimizu.

"A remarkable ability. I didn't expect that, aside from Clayface, you could pull off something like this as well."

Clayface, whose real name was Basil Karlo, had come into contact with toxic radioactive chemical waste, causing his body to mutate. His entire body could turn into a mud-like substance and transform into weapons of any shape. When soft, it could pass through any object; when hard, it could become as solid as stone. He could also turn into anyone, even replicating their genes, because Clayface himself had become different from all carbon-based lifeforms—he no longer had such a thing as genes.

This was an even more powerful transformation ability than Transformation Jutsu.

"Use this face to get me an identity."

"I understand. Then I'll need you to take an ID photo and measure your height so it matches the information on the documents. It'll be delivered in one day... uh, where are you living now again?"

"I'll come pick it up tomorrow."

Three days later.

Having acquired a new identity, Shimizu also got himself a house and a box of books.

He wasn't buying a house to speculate on it. He wanted somewhere he could make puppets in peace, and there would be quite a bit of noise. Renting would be inconvenient.

At the very least, no landlord would be willing to let Shimizu turn an entire floor into a workshop for making puppets.

Only with an identity could he purchase high-value real estate like a house.

The location did not need to be too good, since that would cost far too much.

Fortunately, Gotham was not Metropolis. Though both were international metropolises modeled after New York, housing prices in Metropolis were far higher than in Gotham.

After all, people there usually got to see sunlight, and there was also Superman. The crime rate was much lower than Gotham's.

Even so, housing prices in the area where Shimizu bought his house were not cheap, averaging over six thousand dollars per square meter—equivalent to thirty or forty thousand yuan per square meter.

So Shimizu took on another job, borrowed some money from another gang boss, then paid Penguin a hefty fifty percent fee to launder it.

After buying this seventy-square-meter house, along with the remaining materials needed to make puppets and tools such as a computer, Shimizu had less than twenty thousand dollars left.

Given Gotham's prices, as long as he did not spend too extravagantly, that money would be enough to last him a year or two.

"No point talking about it. I'll learn while making puppets!"

Shimizu picked up a book titled Microcontroller and Numerical Control Electronics and began studying it.

After finishing his work, the incarnation in the Gotham world lived a fairly leisurely life.

Every day, he was either poring over books and learning online or making puppets.

Shimizu's true body in the Naruto World, however, was busy beyond measure.

Under normal circumstances, the Sixth Division of the Puppet Force was not this busy.

But this was no normal time. It was wartime.

Shimizu had only just returned from the battlefield of the Ninja World War!

Shimizu's squad normally had only one task: processing the puppets recovered from the front lines.

Those that could still be used were repaired. Those that could not were dismantled for whatever usable parts remained.

There was some profit to be made from this, since whether a puppet was good or bad, and which parts could or could not be used, was all subject to human judgment. They could call good parts bad, usable parts unusable, and then naturally pocket them afterward.

Unfortunately, Shimizu could not do that.

It was not because he was incorruptible, but because Sunagakure was too poor and made the most of every single resource.

If corruption was discovered, the consequences were severe. Ebizo also used management methods to prevent such things from happening as much as possible.

The same batch of puppets would be reviewed repeatedly by three randomly selected Puppet Force squads. If a problem arose, the captains would investigate.

If they failed to uncover anything, the Anbu would be deployed to continue the investigation.

Anyone who could embezzle needed an influential figure pulling strings behind the scenes.

But those people were all Jonin. Leaving aside whether they would even care about such scraps, these low-grade puppets would not be handed to them for processing, and they would have no chance to handle them anyway.

There might really have been room to manipulate things, but Shimizu was unwilling to risk his promising future for such a small gain.

Still, the pay was quite generous.

At least it was a little more than what he had once earned doing missions as an ordinary ninja, and there was not much danger involved.

Moreover, these puppets were sent back in batches, so if they processed them quickly, they could still get some rest in between.

"Whew... this batch of puppets is finally finished."

Inside the Puppet Force base, Shimizu sprawled across the sofa without a shred of dignity.

Miyuki lay at the other end of the sofa.

After finishing his work, Sasori remained seated at the workbench, busy with something.

"Hey, Sasori, kids need to rest more, or it'll affect their growth!"

Seeing Sasori still grinding away while his whole body felt limp, Shimizu immediately tried to lure Sasori into joining them.

"If you keep this up, you'll lose the next time we fight. Then there won't be a time after that."

Sasori continued working, making some sort of puppet component according to the notes he had previously received from Ishido.

"Tch, don't put it like that! I'm usually very hardworking too! It's just that lately, I haven't been putting my energy into puppet-making."

Shimizu waved a hand.

The incarnation in the Gotham world had been studying diligently lately, trying to integrate engineering from modern systems into Puppet Technique.

Outside of work, Shimizu's true body had also been spending his extra time training in the Black Secret Technique.

After all, his puppet-control skills were probably the weakest in this team. Of the only two Genin, Sasori's puppet-control level was half a step above his own.

After resting for about ten minutes, Shimizu, who had been made restless all over by Sasori's grinding, did a somersault off the sofa.

"Forget it. I'll train too."

Ten Chakra Threads shot from Shimizu's hands and connected to Fatty and Tom as he began practicing the Black Secret Technique.

"Tch, aren't you a kid too? Why are all of you grinding so hard? Aren't you afraid you won't get enough rest and end up too short?"

Seeing this, Miyuki began grinding as well.

Otherwise, with the other two busy while she alone lazed around, she would look completely out of place.