"This is actually kind of easy."
An hour later, Shimizu emerged from the forest with exactly fifteen kilograms of materials and returned to the edge of the oasis.
The lynx bones and white ironwood made up most of the weight—3.4 kg for the former and 9.8 kg for the latter. The remaining materials included things like plant sap to be used as adhesive.
Training Field One encompassed the entire Emerald of the Wind oasis, as well as a large surrounding area of desert. A spacious training plaza had been built on the terrain, including public training tools like wooden dummies for taijutsu practice and targets for throwing ninja tools.
In the open space in front of these facilities stood eighty basic crafting workstations.
"You have two hours. I expect results that will satisfy us. Once the time is up, you'll be split into groups to engage in sparring matches, where you'll demonstrate the puppets you've built and your manipulation skills."
Suna Jonin Sazan Kamiyama clasped his hands behind his back and surveyed the eighty young puppet users who had just returned with their materials and taken their places at the tables.
"You may begin."
At the command, Shimizu quickly picked up the tools laid out on the table and got to work.
First, material processing. He crushed a portion of the herbs he'd brought back and added clean water to them. Then, he disassembled the lynx bones, roughly shaped them with files and blades, and placed them in the herbal solution.
This had to be the first step. If the lynx bones weren't fresh, their ability to conduct chakra would drastically diminish.
This would be the core of his puppet.
Next, he cut, shaped, and dried the white ironwood, then polished the snake fangs and the lynx's claws and teeth.
Shimizu already had a fully formed concept in mind for the puppet.
And now, the system panel has begun updating.
[Puppet Name]: ??
[General Specs]:
Height: ??
Weight: ??
Materials: White Ironwood, Reinforced Bone Material...
Energy Source: None
Control Method: Chakra Threads
[Puppet Grade]:?
[Overall Assessment]: A puppet is currently in production...
All materials were listed freely on the left side of the panel. As he processed them, Shimizu could manipulate them virtually in real-time, simulating assembly with a mere thought.
This meant that while he was still processing the materials, he already knew what the final product would be.
[Puppet Name]: Unnamed
[General Specs]:
Height: 60 cm
Weight: 14.20 kg
Materials: White Ironwood, Reinforced Bone Material...
Energy Source: None
Control Method: Chakra Threads
[Puppet Grade]: D
[Overall Assessment]: A hastily assembled small, agile puppet. Simple in structure, equivalent to a mid-tier ninja academy student in combat power. Contains multiple design flaws.
After finishing the initial material processing, Shimizu closed his eyes where he stood and began making virtual modifications through the panel.
The center of gravity was too high—which hurt stability. But too low would reduce flexibility.
⇒ Solution: Extend the tail for balance.
Leg joints were swapped to a ball-and-socket joint design to enhance articulation.
Optimized mechanical structure, and adjusted chakra hub and thread connection points...
In mere moments, Shimizu had corrected all the major flaws.
He even gave the puppet a name.
[Puppet Name]:Tom
[General Specs]:
Height: 60 cm
Weight: 14.26 kg
Materials: White Ironwood, Reinforced Bone Material...
Energy Source: None
Control Method: Chakra Threads
[Puppet Grade]: C–
[Overall Assessment]: A small, life-like puppet with excellent agility. Possesses the combat capability of a rookie Genin, with a few minor design flaws.
Tch!
No doubt about it—he'd casually built a puppet with Genin-level power.
Of course, the materials played a huge role.
Any material Shimizu selected would never be subpar. Even if there wasn't enough time for full refinement, his basic-level processing already outclassed the components used to build his previous "Fatty" puppet—originally just a converted training model.
A shame there was a 15 kg limit. Otherwise, he really would've tried building a B-rank puppet.
While Shimizu was deep in this brainstorming mode, he stood out starkly to those around him.
Other puppet users were either still processing materials or had started drawing out blueprints. Only Shimizu stood motionless, eyes closed, rooted to the spot.
Scorpion (Sasori) glanced at him, then looked away indifferently and returned to sketching his design.
He had tried once before to build a puppet purely from mental design, skipping blueprints entirely.
But the result had been constant errors during assembly.
Even if nothing went wrong, he still had to draw schematics—most revisions were done at that stage. Once a puppet was built, fixing problems became exponentially harder.
This guy might be putting on a show, or maybe he was stuck, or maybe—just maybe—he really had talent. But either way, it didn't concern the others.
Most just threw him a curious glance and returned to their own work.
"…This kid…"
Sazan Kamiyama furrowed his brows, visibly displeased as he looked at Shimizu.
What kind of puppet maker works like this?!
Even he—a top-ten puppet master in Sunagakure—would never dare build a puppet without first drawing schematics!
The jonin standing beside him, Ishido, had a look of confusion on his face. But deep down, his thoughts were racing:
Did I misjudge him?
Or is this kid actually a once-in-a-generation puppet prodigy?
Just then, under the gaze of the two Jonin, Shimizu opened his eyes.
Design complete. Time to get to work.
He began the fine detailing of the puppet he'd roughly shaped, constructing the skeletal structure piece by piece. Every movement was fluid, confident, and exact—as if he were answering a test using the official answer key.
But everyone knew… that shouldn't be possible.
Sazan Kamiyama's expression was now one of undisguised shock.
As a Jonin-level elite puppet user, he could easily see that even though the puppet wasn't finished, its design was clearly well thought out.
Copying an answer key would always be faster than figuring it out yourself.
Kamiyama had given everyone two hours. Shimizu spent half an hour on materials, closed his eyes for a bit, and then used only about twenty minutes to finish construction.
Less than an hour in total, and Shimizu's puppet was already complete.
Meanwhile, the faster among the others was just now beginning to assemble.
Except for that red-haired boy—
Sasori's progress was already more than halfway done.
(End of Chapter)