Beware of insects?
Jiraiya was baffled by this piece of intelligence from Mount Myōboku.
He pinched his chin and pondered for a long time, an image of the Kikaichū appearing in his mind.
He muttered to himself:
"Could it be that someone remarkable has appeared in the Aburame Clan?
Could the Child of Prophecy come from the unassuming Aburame Clan?"
At that thought, Jiraiya hurriedly gathered the things on his desk,
leaped straight out the window, and disappeared into the moonlight in a few bounds.
Sunagakure, Sasori's puppet workshop
Mukai had come to check on Sasori's progress in making the exoskeleton mecha.
Seeing Sasori looking troubled, he asked:
"Hey, stingy Sasori, why the long face?"
Sasori rested his head on the table and used Chakra Threads from one hand to lift a steel plate thirty centimeters wide.
"Mukai, you spend money like water draining from a bathhouse.
I've run into a problem with that power-assisted exoskeleton mecha you designed. How am I supposed to drill holes through the sides of these sturdy metal armor plates?
There's no drill bit long enough that can also bore through tough iron armor!
Can't we use puppet materials like wood or insect shells instead?"
Sasori's personality really had become much more cheerful. He had even learned to make snarky remarks and give people nicknames.
Hearing what was troubling Sasori, Mukai immediately showed him the carbon dioxide laser he had newly developed.
Under his precise control, a perfectly straight hole appeared in the armor plate, accompanied by a wisp of smoke from the burning metal.
"Come on, which other plates need holes?
Let's hurry while I still have some Chakra left."
All ten of Sasori's fingers moved, dragging over the materials that needed work with Chakra Threads.
"This is the laser you were talking about?
An invisible power of destruction,
it's practically comparable to Ōnoki's Dust Release!
Did you manage to fuse a Kekkei Genkai?"
As Mukai controlled the carbon dioxide gas chamber to produce the laser, he explained the principle to Sasori.
Hearing about all the complicated and precise preparations Mukai had to make beforehand,
Sasori immediately abandoned the idea of using the technique on a battlefield.
What a joke. The preparations alone took more than ten minutes.
In that time, he could have already cut an enemy down more than ten times.
Ninjas usually relied on ambushes and catching their enemies off guard. Who would fight a positional battle with you?
Mukai, however, was not discouraged.
Just because it was not feasible now did not mean it would not be useful in the future.
Even if it could not yet be used in small-scale ninja duels,
the precision machining made possible by this laser was still a highly efficient tool.
There would be bread eventually! There was no rush.
The two bickered as they worked and assembled the parts.
Having emerged from the gloom in his heart, Sasori was much more talkative now.
Soon, two completely different sets of unpowered exoskeleton armor appeared in the puppet workshop.
The first to be tested was the exoskeleton mecha Mukai had designed especially for Sasori.
In the open space outside the puppet workshop, Sasori put on the inner armor, which had clasps for carrying storage scrolls,
and carefully climbed into the puppet mecha.
The inside of the mecha was not spacious. After sitting down and briefly familiarizing himself with it, Sasori began connecting his Chakra Threads.
Mukai had designed this special puppet mecha single-handedly,
and many of its features were tailored specifically to Sasori.
As the front of the puppet mecha quickly closed,
darkness descended before Sasori's eyes.
This kind of darkness had always been what Sasori feared most.
His breathing grew rapid, but fortunately,
through the mecha, he could hear Mukai's encouraging voice outside:
"Sasori, don't be nervous. Take it slowly. First, try connecting to the puppet mecha
and making it move!"
Hearing that reassuring voice, Sasori felt much of his fear of darkness and loneliness dissipate.
He took a deep breath and shared his consciousness with the puppet, a skill essential to a puppeteer. His vision suddenly opened up.
Thanks to the puppet mecha's height, his viewpoint was considerably higher now as well. He spoke in a slightly distorted voice:
"I feel great. The Chakra Metal conducts my consciousness, letting me feel as though I've possessed the puppet.
Mukai, if you could control Chakra Threads, you'd definitely be a puppet genius too!"
Standing nearby, Mukai watched the towering steel creation come to life, smiling like a proud old father.
He had designed quite a few humanoid mecha back in school, but limitations in their power sources meant they had ultimately remained on paper.
Chakra really is amazing!
He continued to encourage him:
"Sasori, try the other functions. We can improve anything that has a problem!"
The mecha's main body was inspired by Hiruko, the Human Puppet Sasori would modify later on.
For a puppeteer whose own body was weak and who specialized in controlling mechanical puppets,
protecting the main body had always been a subject other puppeteers had tirelessly studied.
Switching places with a puppet, concealing the main body, using clones, and so on were all products of that research.
The mecha Mukai had designed for Sasori discarded that line of thinking entirely.
The mecha's main body, which resembled a spacecraft cockpit, had a shell made of refined steel a full centimeter thick!
In this era, even the armor worn by samurai from the Land of Iron was only two millimeters thick!
In its current combat form, it could completely enclose Sasori, leaving no blind spots in its defense!
The mecha had a variety of attack methods. First was the Senbon launcher in its head, which could fire needle-shaped Senbon.
Next were two enormous metal arms controlled from the inside.
Their joints were flexible, and the iron fists formed by their steel fingers were bigger than Mukai's head!
Behind the puppet mecha was Hiruko's signature long, retractable metal tail.
Besides helping it maintain its balance, the long tail was also a flexible means of attack.
Seated inside the puppet mecha, Sasori could flexibly control the two enormous metal arms to perform delicate movements.
Under the control of his Chakra Threads, the two enormous metal arms were as flexible as Sasori's own.
Grabbing, punching, striking with the edge of a hand, and extending blades to cut were all exceptionally convenient.
He could also divide his Chakra Threads to control multiple parts at once.
Sasori, who had already mastered using Chakra Threads with all ten fingers, could easily control one arm's movements with three threads.
That way, he could control both metal fists, the tail spike, and the Senbon launcher in the head at the same time.
Because of the puppet mecha's enormous weight, movement was still a major headache, even with Sasori's Chakra Threads helping reduce its weight.
Until he had developed an electric motor and an energy-storage device,
Mukai would not consider tracks or wheels.
He had designed two methods of movement for the puppet mecha: jumping and charging in a straight line after building up power.
Besides using Chakra Threads to control its mechanical arms and legs for gorilla-like movement on all fours,
the mecha had reverse-jointed legs fitted with springs to build up power.
Mukai had designed a compression energy-storage mechanism into the mecha,
with multiple sets of high-strength spring steel working in tandem.
After being steadily wound up from within by a ratchet, they could release their stored energy in an instant.
That enormous burst of spring force was enough to propel the heavy, sturdy puppet mecha a full five meters in a single jump!
That unexpected leap would surely take an opponent by surprise!
The cushioning force from landing would not go to waste either. With the help of the stored energy,
it could immediately jump more than three meters again without needing to wind the ratchet!
When a clumsy hunk of iron danced across the battlefield, it would surely be a spectacular sight.
The straight-line charge was an enhanced version of this energy-storage mechanism.
Power was built up simultaneously in the bionic flea-like hind legs and the steel arms gripping the ground.
When released together, they would send it charging at high speed in the chosen direction!
At that point, the puppet mecha's enormous kinetic energy and acceleration, combined with the crescent-shaped blade mounted on its samurai-helmet-like head,
would turn it into a sharp plow and let its enemies experience true despair!
Inside this unusual steel creation, Sasori felt something completely different from carefully controlling puppets as he had in the past!
He was just like a Taijutsu ninja with incredibly strong defenses now!
Following the test procedure, Sasori tried the puppet mecha's final function: ejecting and controlling it from outside.
The back of the two-meter-tall steel puppet suddenly sprang open, ejecting Sasori straight out.
Even then, Sasori could still control it with the Chakra Threads in his hands!
What a brilliant idea!
Sasori was extremely satisfied with the steel puppet mecha, and a rare smile appeared on his face.
"Mukai, you're a genius!
What did you say you wanted to name this puppet?"
Mukai naturally would not reuse the name Hiruko, which represented Sasori's lonely, tragic fate.
He folded his arms and said smugly:
"Mountain God! This is your very own Mountain God Mecha!
Although this is only a prototype of the Mountain God Mecha,
believe me, we'll make even better mecha in the future!
I hope that with this puppet mecha, you can be as brave and fearless as a mountain god from now on!"