After Rasa left, Hoshino sat back down.
After a brief discussion, the Kazekage remained the same Kazekage, and the Reform Society remained the village's rising power.
Rasa would use the authority of his office as Kazekage to provide the Reform Society with various conveniences.
But this was only temporary.
Even Hoshino found it difficult to predict what effect such an arrangement would have on the future.
After all, his previous life had had no supernatural powers, and he had not studied politics.
He could only take things one step at a time.
Just as many people said that if Hashirama Senju had chosen unification back then, perhaps the later Shinobi World Wars would never have happened.
But who could say for certain?
The Shinobi World's history was full of chance and inevitability, and the existence of supernatural power made everything more complicated.
The chaotic free-for-alls between shinobi clans during the Warring States period had evolved into large-scale wars between shinobi villages.
That could be considered a form of progress.
Although the wars had grown fiercer and the casualties more staggering, at least they could ensure more than a decade of peace.
In Hoshino's view, the only misstep had been that "Tailed Beast balance-of-power plan."
Were Tailed Beasts strong... They were, but their strength had its limits.
Which Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages could not subdue a Tailed Beast single-handedly?
Even the strongest, the Nine-Tails, could be sent flying by a single blow from Hiruzen Sarutobi's staff, then forcibly sealed with various Sealing Jutsu.
That level of strength was nowhere near enough to serve as a deterrent.
Only if even Hashirama Senju could not defeat a Tailed Beast would the deterrent truly hold.
But if that were really the case, the Tailed Beasts would be the ones calling the shots in the Shinobi World. What place would there be for the Kage and the daimyō?
Putting those stray thoughts aside, Hoshino turned and headed downstairs.
Besides its three aboveground floors, the Reform Society's building had two basement levels.
The first basement level housed the conventional laboratories, where experts in scientific research worked on various civilian technology projects.
The second basement level was Hoshino's private laboratory. It held various research materials and secret techniques he had collected, including records of the Human Puppet Technique and Kekkei research experiments.
Hoshino walked slowly down the stairs.
The conventional laboratories were brightly lit, and more than twenty researchers were busy conducting various experiments.
Some were technicians originally from Sunagakure, while others were people he had recruited through bounties on the black market.
They were all small fry.
They were capable of researching ordinary infrastructure, but when it came to high-level research, they were plainly unqualified.
And talents like Shinnō and Hiruko were hard to come by. There had been no word of them to this day.
As for Orochimaru, Hoshino knew where he was, but now was not the time to contact him.
After all, though Orochimaru had defected, his heart was still with Konoha. It was not impossible that he had established Otogakure to prove himself to Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Unless Hoshino could give him what he wanted... some kind of technique for longevity.
The Human Puppet Technique could achieve that indirectly, but Orochimaru clearly looked down on that means of attaining longevity.
Even if he painted grand promises and talked about Kaguya, Black Zetsu, the Ōtsutsuki, and the like, Orochimaru would have to believe him.
After all, that information was far too ahead of its time; it even sounded like a tale from the Arabian Nights.
Unless he could produce concrete evidence or demonstrate a technique enticing enough to move Orochimaru.
"The time hasn't come yet..."
Hoshino sighed and pushed open the door to the laboratory on the second basement level.
Under the dim light, a faint smell of preservative hung in the air.
Three unusual corpses lay in the center of the laboratory, submerged in liquid-filled containers and exceptionally well preserved.
These were the corpses of Kekkei shinobi that Hoshino had found on an earlier mission deep in the desert with Team Eleven.
One was an Ice Release user from Kirigakure, another a Storm Release user from Kumogakure, and the last a Swift Release user Hizuki had collected in the dungeon. They had been used by the Red Sand Clan and Root for Kekkei Tōta experiments.
His idea was to combine the Human Puppet Technique with Divine Machine Hundred Refinements to create a puppet capable of using multiple Kekkei.
Fortunately, the first two corpses had already been mostly modified, and the records of the Human Puppet Technique had been very well preserved, so completing the work would not be too troublesome.
"I'll practice on the Ice Release one first..."
Ice Release's offensive and defensive abilities were indeed excellent, but Hoshino already had Magnet Release, so adding Ice Release was a bit like chicken ribs.
The same went for Storm Release. It could fire high-energy beams like lasers, but it was not very useful.
He valued the speed-based Swift Release more.
Hoshino walked up to the Ice Release shinobi's corpse and gently pressed the button beside the container.
The liquid slowly drained away, gradually revealing the Ice Release shinobi's corpse.
The corpse was that of a woman, probably in her early twenties.
After committing the detailed steps for making a Human Puppet to memory, Hoshino swiftly formed Hand Seals, and the Chakra in his body began to flow.
Although the corpse had lost its life, the Kekkei Genkai's Chakra system still remained within it.
This was the key to the Human Puppet Technique.
"First, preserve the Chakra system."
Hoshino's fingers gently sliced open the corpse's chest. Chakra seeped into its meridians like fine threads, and he carefully guided it, ensuring that the Ice Release Chakra system would not be damaged.
The process was extremely delicate. The slightest mistake would cause the Chakra system to collapse, undoing all his work.
Time passed, second by second.
Fine beads of sweat gradually appeared on Hoshino's forehead, and his Chakra consumption began to rise, but his hands remained steady as a rock.
At last, the Ice Release shinobi's Chakra system was preserved intact.
"Next, the puppet transformation."
Hoshino took a sealing scroll from a nearby shelf and gently unrolled it.
The scroll was densely inscribed with intricate runes, the core sealing formula of the Human Puppet Technique.
He spread the scroll out beside the corpse and formed Hand Seals again, channeling Chakra into it.
"Sealing Jutsu: Human Puppet Technique!"
The runes on the scroll began to glow, and strands of Chakra Threads extended from it, wrapping around the Ice Release shinobi's corpse.
The runes gradually merged into the corpse's skin, while the Chakra Threads spread through its interior like blood vessels, connecting every part of it to the sealing formula.
This step required the user to have extraordinarily precise Chakra control, and it could not be interrupted.
The slightest mistake would cause the seal to fail, or even backfire.
Gradually, the runes merged into the Ice Release shinobi's corpse, and the Chakra Threads fully connected every part of it.
Hoshino breathed a sigh of relief and slowly withdrew his Chakra.
"It worked."
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, a trace of excitement in his eyes.
The Ice Release shinobi's corpse had undergone the first step of the puppet transformation. Next came further modification and enhancement.
Hoshino walked to the other side of the laboratory and opened a huge metal cabinet.
Inside were all kinds of intricate puppet parts. Some had been seized from the Red Sand Clan, while others he had crafted with his own hands.