"Not bad. This so-called ultimate dōjutsu can supposedly alter a planet's trajectory in its final form, and even on its first 'fetal stirring,' it lets me use gravity to pull down a meteor from outer space."
"Even if that jutsu isn't yet complete, I've now got a card up my sleeve for strategic intimidation."
After flying some distance, Izayoi landed, switching to rapid Body Flickers on foot while thinking all this over.
The Tenseigan's power had exceeded even his own expectations. Unlike the Rinnegan's rule-based "life and death" manipulations or its special individual techniques, the Tenseigan's strength seemed focused mainly on raw destruction.
With gravity and repulsion alone this formidable, he couldn't wait to see what would happen once he unlocked Tenseigan Chakra Mode.
Because his shadow clone didn't have a good excuse to leave just yet, Izayoi wasn't in a rush to rejoin the group. Instead, once he was back within range, he took out the scroll he'd received from his "good buddies" and gave it a closer look. Before, he'd only skimmed enough to confirm it was genuine and tucked it away. Now he had the time to read it in detail.
He didn't bother with the puppet-techniques scroll. For someone able to remotely control puppets without distance limits, that stuff was basically junk. What he really wanted was the method for making human puppets.
"So that's how he preserves a target's Kekkei Genkai and ninjutsu. That guy really is a genius."
After a few minutes of reading, Izayoi let out a low whistle. "No wonder his entry is 'Puppet Master (Purple).' His chakra-core concept surpasses anything that's come before. Even the puppet arts of the Otsutsuki on the moon can't compete."
He flipped to another scroll containing the process of forging the puppet's chakra core. That core was the puppet's most vital part.
Merely using chakra threads to control it like a wooden puppet show wasn't enough. A strong puppet might have all kinds of hidden compartments, traps, or even Five Elements powers.
Those abilities can't be activated by chakra threads alone. The puppet needed an installed chakra core, so you'd transmit chakra from your threads into the puppet, letting it operate all sorts of functions.
The puppet's capabilities depend entirely on how it's built internally. But Sasori had carved out his own path. Rather than molding puppets from raw materials, he injected those into an actual corpse, effectively turning a human body into a puppet.
Then he modified the puppet's "heart"—the chakra core—so these human puppets could use the Kekkei Genkai and ninjutsu they had in life. It was an entirely new puppet sub-branch. As its founder, Sasori definitely merited the system's label: "Puppet Master (Purple)."
In Izayoi's eyes, Sasori's human puppets were more suitable for him than the Otsutsuki clan's puppets on the moon.
"Hold up…"
Suddenly, a spark of insight flashed in Izayoi's mind, lighting up his expression. "Maybe I can upgrade these human puppets even further."
Sasori's human puppets bore some similarity to Nagato's Six Paths of Pain. In the Fourth Great Ninja War, Obito converted the Jinchūriki into "Six Paths" bodies, each able to wield the Tailed Beast's chakra and their original abilities.
This implies that both the Six Paths and human puppets can preserve their previous owners' techniques. The only difference is that Sasori's puppets rely on chakra threads, while Pain can't go too far from the Gedo Statue or they lose signal.
But the Tenseigan could fix both limitations. With Tenseigan's "wireless puppet" ability, as long as the puppet remains within his extended field of vision and still has chakra in its core, it's fully controllable—even inside the spatial corridor linking the moon and Earth, the puppet would still receive signals.
If these puppets also retained Kekkei Genkai and ninjutsu, with chakra resupplied remotely, wouldn't that be almost like having an Edo Tensei-style immortal army, or a Pain Corps on a massive scale?
The more Izayoi thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. He hadn't unlocked Yin–Yang Release yet, so he couldn't merge everything, but he could first build a boatload of puppets and then, once he acquired Yin–Yang Release, simply insert those black rods into them to upgrade them.
That evening, Izayoi rejoined the team without a hitch. Apart from Hinata, no one in Team 8 or the caravan realized that the giant meteor had actually been Izayoi's doing. Taking an intentionally roundabout route to avoid the "Art Duo," it took them three extra days to reach their destination. Along the way, they bypassed another mountain settlement with a chakra signature stronger than Kurenai's.
Nishimura's home turned out to be in a remote mountain village. Places like this were common in the Land of Rivers, but one that discovered a mineral vein and knew how to mine and sell it was rarer—making Nishimura's presence even more special.
Because the village was too run-down and it was midday, Kurenai declined Nishimura's hospitality.
She pulled out the mission scroll, had him sign it and give a positive review, and then led Team 8 back. Unlike before, they returned using rapid Body Flickers—covering several or even a dozen meters in each leap.
By traveling like this, they'd need at most two days to make it back to Konoha, underscoring the massive gap between ninja and ordinary people in this somewhat "abstract-tech" world.
"Tell me—this was your first real C-rank mission. How was it?" Kurenai asked the three as they paused to rest from all the Flicker jumps.
"Tiring," Izayoi said flatly. "It felt fresh at first, but then it was nothing but physical and mental fatigue."
Hinata and Shino nodded in agreement.
"Escort missions are always like that—pretty dull, huge time sink, and the pay is nothing special," Kurenai said with a laugh. "Still, ours was a bit unusual. The Land of Rivers is mountainous and rugged, plus we almost ran into an S-rank missing-nin and some mysterious ninja. Few C-rank missions are this unlucky."
"Thank goodness for Hinata's Byakugan; otherwise we might've been in real trouble."
Saying so, Kurenai patted Hinata's head.
Hinata just responded softly, "It's what I'm supposed to do."
"So well-behaved—Izayoi's a lucky guy." Kurenai decided to give Hinata a nudge in his direction, unaware that Hinata and Izayoi already had their own plans. The two only smiled and kept quiet, ignoring her hint.
Two days later in the afternoon, Team 8 finally arrived back in Konoha. This C-rank mission had taken them half a month. For all that work, each of them received quite a generous payoff: 23,000 ryō apiece.
That was indeed high for a C-rank—meaning the total commission must've been around the tens of thousands of ryō. After the village took its cut, and the Jonin's share, what remained divided by three was still 23,000 each. Not surprising it took half a month.
But given the choice, Team 8 would rather not repeat an escort mission like this. Sensing their weariness, Kurenai smiled. "You've got three days off—go rest up at home."
"Yes, sensei."
They split on the spot.
"Izayoi-kun, see you tomorrow."
Exhausted, Hinata—who had only bathed a few times in the wild—wanted nothing more than a long soak and a good night's sleep, to show up at Izayoi's place in top shape tomorrow.
And because the Uzumaki "Physical Healing" didn't help with plain old fatigue, Izayoi had a more "special" approach for her. Suddenly, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to Hinata's forehead, waving with a smile. "Go get some good rest. See you tomorrow." Then he flickered away.
Hinata froze for a couple of seconds, then furtively looked around, noticing a mischievous older lady's gaze on her. Her entire face and neck flushed bright red, steam practically puffing from her head as she darted off.
~~~
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