Uchiha Hikari stared at the mechanical puppet Tokiju had brought out and asked in confusion, "What are you up to now?"
Tokiju grinned and explained, "Obviously, I'm going to send this puppet out to gather intelligence from the various villages and countries."
With that, Tokiju opened the puppet's chest, revealing the Mechanical Core inside, then immediately created a Light Clone.
Tokiju had developed this Light Clone in the Sealing Space. Unlike an ordinary Shadow Clone, it wouldn't disappear from a little damage.
Instead, like the First Hokage's Wood Clone, it could recover by absorbing light, no matter how badly it was damaged—as long as there was still light around.
Unfortunately, Tokiju's Light Clone didn't have a will of its own like a Shadow Clone. It could only be controlled by Tokiju himself.
After all, Tokiju hadn't learned the Shadow Clone Technique yet, so naturally he couldn't use it as a foundation to develop a Light Clone with its own consciousness.
As for Uchiha Hikari, a relic of the Warring States era, there was no way she could have mastered the Shadow Clone Technique developed by the Second Hokage.
Tokiju controlled the Light Clone, turning it into a ball of light, then slowly merged it into the puppet's Mechanical Core.
Once the ball of light had fully merged, the mechanical puppet immediately activated.
Tokiju split off part of his attention and tried to awaken the muscle memory he'd built up from playing with puppets in the past.
With Tokiju's efforts, the puppet began to move. It was a little clumsy at first, but gradually grew more proficient as time went on.
Looking at the puppet before him, Tokiju felt as if he were playing a VR game—except this game was incredibly realistic.
Speaking of games, Tokiju thought of something else. He wondered whether his System Space could connect to the mechanical puppet.
In theory, it should be possible.
After all, his Light Clone was only a part of his own mind that he'd split off, and still belonged to his consciousness.
With that thought, Tokiju immediately controlled the puppet to see if it could open the System Space.
At the puppet Tokiju's prompting, a translucent panel that only he could see suddenly appeared.
Tokiju was delighted. With the System Space connected, passing along information or items would be a breeze.
"From now on, I'll call you Sigurd."
PS: From now on, the mechanical puppet alias will be referred to as "Sigurd."
Tokiju nodded at the puppet. No one in this world knew Sigurd's story anyway. Borrowing the name wouldn't hurt.
At that moment, Uchiha Hikari saw that Tokiju had activated the puppet. "You're planning to use this puppet to gather intelligence?"
"Please call me Sigurd. Thank you."
Tokiju didn't answer. Instead, he controlled Sigurd to reply.
After Tokiju had carefully set things up, Sigurd's voice sounded much like his original voice—deep and rich.
Hearing Sigurd answer, Uchiha Hikari wasn't surprised.
Back in the Sealing Space, Tokiju had often liked to play both parts as a joke, to her endless annoyance.
She'd thought he'd outgrown that childish habit long ago, but now he'd picked it up again.
Looking at Tokiju's serious expression, Uchiha Hikari shook her head helplessly. "All right, all right, Sigurd. You're going to gather intelligence like this? Won't there be a problem?"
Seeing how serious Uchiha Hikari was, Tokiju stopped fooling around and said, "It's fine. You know how tough Sigurd is. As long as he doesn't deliberately get himself into trouble, nothing will happen."
That was true. Given Sigurd's durability, Uchiha Hikari had no reliable way to break through his defenses except with Amaterasu.
Although Uchiha Hikari had perhaps never been especially skilled at Taijutsu, since she'd once been a human weapon, before awakening her Mangekyo Sharingan, she'd still fought her way up from the Warring States era. Even without activating it, she was at least an elite jonin.
If she activated her Mangekyo Sharingan, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi alone would make her a Kage Level powerhouse at the very least.
And if she had enough marks from her signature eye technique, Yachihoko, she might even be able to contend with someone at the Super Kage level.
However, because her eyes weren't an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, she'd go blind after using her Mangekyo Sharingan just a few times.
So until they found an effective solution, Tokiju wouldn't let her use her Mangekyo Sharingan abilities whenever she wanted.
Uchiha Hikari knew Tokiju was only looking out for her. She didn't want to go blind at such a young age either, so she readily agreed.
As for Sigurd, his mechanical body alone was enough to let him fight Uchiha Hikari, an elite jonin, on equal terms.
Now, thanks to his ability to absorb sunlight, his offensive options had grown considerably.
If Tokiju controlled him well enough, Sigurd could even take on a Kage-level opponent.
Hearing Tokiju's words, Uchiha Hikari recalled her sparring matches with Sigurd.
Without using Amaterasu, her Fire Release Ninjutsu could barely scratch him, and genjutsu was practically useless against the puppet.
She could hit him and he wouldn't even flinch, but if he hit her, she'd be sore for ages. He was a real beast—an absolute pain to deal with.
At the thought, Uchiha Hikari felt helpless.
Despite her misgivings, she trusted Sigurd to get the job done.
The only thing she still didn't trust was the kid in front of her, who could trip over a tree branch and end up with a whole head full of bumps.
Feeling her doubtful gaze, Tokiju looked baffled. "Hey, what's that look for?"
Uchiha Hikari snorted. "Hmph. I'm worried you'll get carried away and expose yourself."
Hearing that, Tokiju was about to argue, but then he realized she had a point.
Although Sigurd looked completely different from him, they used powers from the same source. It would be easy for people to connect them.
To prevent that, Tokiju needed to come up with a plausible excuse.
After thinking for a moment, Tokiju looked at Uchiha Hikari. The moment he saw her eyes, inspiration struck.
He immediately stepped forward and clasped both of her hands, exclaiming, "Thank you, Hikari! I love you so much!"
Tokiju's sudden action startled Uchiha Hikari. Feeling the warmth of his hands, she blushed.
She quickly pulled her hands away and turned her flushed face to the side, grumbling, "Y-You're acting strange again."
Ignoring her mild complaint, Tokiju immediately pointed at Sigurd's left eye.
In an instant, Sigurd's originally emerald-green eye turned golden, much like the Eye of Light in Tokiju's right eye.
That way, Tokiju could claim that Sigurd was the thief who had taken his left eye.
As long as his left eye wasn't fully exposed, his Sigurd alias wouldn't be exposed either.
As for the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan?
Heh. Don't underestimate my skill in Sealing Jutsu.
As long as he placed a sealing formula on his eyepatch, even the Hyuga Clan wouldn't be able to spot anything amiss.
Before you continue