The puppet master corps was a force unique to Sunagakure. Puppet masters were also a branch of ninja, using chakra strings to control puppets in battle, and possessed formidable combat power.
During the Third Shinobi World War, Sunagakure's puppet masters caused enormous trouble for the other ninja villages. Those puppets feared neither pain nor death; even if they were smashed to pieces, they would still try to kill the enemy before them. Unless the puppet master controlling them from the rear was killed, it was difficult to stop the puppets' movements.
For that very reason, this force was feared by the other villages. Senju's lofty status was directly related to the fact that she was currently Sunagakure's strongest puppet master.
But puppet masters were not invincible. Because of their reliance on puppets, their own taijutsu and ninjutsu were relatively weak. Once a ninja of the same rank got close, it became extremely dangerous.
Moreover, puppet masters were scarce. Even in Sunagakure, there were fewer than a thousand of them.
The reason their numbers were so low had much to do with how difficult they were to train. This profession, passed down from the ancestor of puppetry, Monzaemon, demanded exceptional talent—especially finger dexterity, where the requirements were practically abnormal. A large number of candidates were eliminated from the outset.
And even after becoming a puppet master, there was still a long road ahead. The effort required for each additional puppet one controlled was unimaginable. In present-day Sunagakure, anyone capable of controlling more than two puppets had to be at least a Special Jonin-level puppet master. Anyone who could control three puppets would naturally receive the title of Jonin.
And that was not all. If controlling puppets was difficult, crafting them was even harder. Puppets that could be controlled by puppet masters