Chapter 167: The Future of Puppet Jutsu

"Sasori came looking for me earlier?"

Byakuya was a bit surprised upon hearing this. Ever since he recruited Sasori into the Akatsuki, Sasori had spent all his time holed up in the organization's lab, devoting himself to the study of puppet jutsu. He had essentially become a shut-in, never leaving the lab, except for requesting meals to be delivered and occasionally applying for more research funds.

If not for Byakuya's extensive financial backing and his control over trade guilds in the Land of Rain and neighboring small nations, the Akatsuki's budget alone wouldn't have been enough to sustain Sasori's money-burning puppet research.

However, over the past six months, Sasori has produced some useful research results and puppet inventions. Though Byakuya didn't see much killing potential in these puppets, they showed great promise when used for construction, production, and transportation. Byakuya eagerly awaited the day when Sasori would create large-scale or remotely operated puppets.

Hanzo of the Salamander nodded and said, "It seems he's had a breakthrough in puppet jutsu. But I'm getting too old for this; I can't understand those new-style puppets. Back in the day, I destroyed plenty of puppets myself…"

Seeing that Hanzo was about to start reminiscing about the past, like mostly old men at his age usually talk, Byakuya quickly interrupted, "Hanzo-sensei, let's leave those old stories aside. You should focus on training new recruits for me."

Hanzo, though cut off, wasn't upset. He chuckled, "The elite Anbus you had me train are just about ready. At best, they'll reach Jonin level. No matter how carefully I train them, they won't reach the Kage level you're aiming for. But Sasori is different. He's the grandson of Chiyo. If you can win him over completely, he'll be a valuable ally in any major undertaking."

Byakuya stared at Hanzo for a moment. This old man, who had once led Amegakure to prominence, was now showing genuine concern for Byakuya's future. Could he have really come to see Byakuya as a disciple?

However, as a reincarnator, Byakuya knew all too well the weaknesses of these characters from the story. He didn't need Hanzo to worry about such things.

With a chuckle, Byakuya said, "Thank you for the advice, sensei but both Sasori and Kakuzu are ninjas I personally recruited. I know exactly what they want, and I won't let them leave easily."

Hearing this, Hanzo was taken aback and asked, "You know what they want? Care to share?"

"Of course…"

Byakuya nodded slightly, his voice turning contemplative. "Sasori lost his parents at a young age and has always lacked familial love. That's why he became obsessed with puppet jutsu. If you show him a little care, he'll submit. On the other hand, Kakuzu may love money, but at the core of it, he's afraid of betrayal. After failing to assassinate the First Hokage, his village betrayed him, forcing him to become a rogue ninja."

"As long as I never abandon him, he'll remain loyal—to both me and money."

Hearing Byakuya's analysis of Sasori and Kakuzu, the smile on Hanzo's face stiffened. Analyzing someone's past to understand their present personality and weaknesses wasn't difficult for a ninja of Hanzo's stature. But what shocked him was the sheer extent of Byakuya's knowledge.

Sasori's past was relatively recent, so it wasn't surprising that Byakuya knew about it. But Kakuzu's history was decades old, and back then, Byakuya hadn't even been born.

Byakuya, sensing Hanzo's surprise, turned his gaze to the old man and said calmly, "As for you, Hanzo-sensei, what you care about most is Amegakure and the Land of Rain. As long as I and Yahiko can lead this country to prosperity, you'll never betray us."

The smile on Hanzo's face vanished completely, replaced by a resigned expression.

Byakuya had seen right through him. However, seeing someone's weaknesses wasn't the hardest thing in the ninja world; it was helping others realize their dreams that posed the greatest challenge. And Byakuya had that ability.

But Hanzo couldn't help but wonder about Byakuya's true identity. There was no way Byakuya could just be an ordinary descendant of the Uzumaki clan. Uzumaki ninjas did indeed possess higher chakra reserves than most, but Byakuya's chakra levels were extraordinarily high, beyond reason.

Moreover, Uzumaki ninjas didn't have access to Wood Release—an ability unique to the First Hokage. If someone else had it, they had to be connected to Konoha.

Could Byakuya be related to both the Uzumaki clan and Konoha? Could he have even orchestrated the Nine-Tails attack on Konoha?

By the time Hanzo snapped out of his thoughts, Byakuya had already disappeared.

Sensing the lingering chakra in the air, Hanzo sighed quietly and picked up his thermos. There were some things better left unexplored. He wanted to live long enough to see how Byakuya would lead the Land of Rain and what kind of storm he would stir up in the shinobi world.

In the forest near the laboratory, Byakuya found Sasori assembling a puppet.

Sasori was deeply focused on his work and didn't notice Byakuya's presence until Byakuya deliberately made a noise. Sasori turned around, his eyes complex as he calmly said, "Byakuya, you're here."

"Didn't you call me here?" Byakuya shrugged and walked over to observe the humanoid battle puppet Sasori was assembling.

This puppet was once again a human puppet, its body sourced from a bounty on the black market.

Sasori's puppet, despite being constructed from a corpse, had been enhanced with various special metals and adorned with intricate decorations, making it almost indistinguishable from a living human.

After observing the human puppet, Byakuya commented, "Not bad, you've made significant progress. Your earlier designs were too terrifying, but this one has more artistic appeal. If it were a bit more stylish, it would be even better. Also, suitable materials for human puppets are still too hard to find. I'd prefer it if you focus on creating more heavy-duty puppets. Nagato keeps complaining about the high breakage rate of the current ones."

"Heavy-duty puppets lack artistic soul. I'm not particularly fond of them," Sasori replied, his voice emotionless despite still being a flesh-and-blood human. After a brief pause, he added, "By the way, I heard about the Nine-Tails Night. You did a great job."

"How do you know about that? I don't recall telling you anything about it." Byakuya frowned. Why was everyone assuming he was behind the Nine-Tails incident?

"I still have subordinates outside. They informed me. Besides, you mentioned before that Konoha would soon pay a price. So, it's clear the Nine-Tails Night is connected to you," Sasori replied, his cold eyes locked on Byakuya. His emotions were far more complicated than his indifferent demeanor suggested.

In a way, Konoha was also responsible for his parents' deaths. Byakuya's actions seemed to have avenged him in a sense. Yet, Sasori was also shocked by Byakuya's audacity. Although both Konoha and Sunagakure were part of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, their strength differed greatly.

Sasori had barely managed to defeat the Third Kazekage through surprise and poison, turning him into a puppet. But Byakuya had stormed into Konoha, killed both the Fourth Hokage and the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki, demonstrating power beyond Sasori's imagination—perhaps enough to call Byakuya the strongest ninja in the world.

Byakuya enjoyed the way Sasori was looking at him, but he felt it necessary to clarify. "Don't get me wrong. I wasn't the one who orchestrated the Nine-Tails attack. However, the ninja who triggered it is indeed one of our organization's members. When the time is right, I can introduce you to him."

"No need," Sasori said, shaking his head slightly, uninterested in meeting the other ninja. In his mind, even if someone else had caused the Nine-Tails attack, Byakuya, as the leader of the Akatsuki, couldn't be completely uninvolved. Perhaps it was even his command.

Sasori then continued assembling the human puppet. Once the final pieces were in place, he turned to Byakuya and said, "Leader Byakuya, here is the remote-controlled puppet you asked me to develop. As long as the puppet is within a 100-meter radius of its controller, it can be manipulated remotely."

Sasori proceeded to demonstrate the puppet's abilities. After forming hand seals, the human puppet on the ground shakily stood up. Following Sasori's guidance, it began moving across the clearing, attacking the targets scattered on the ground.

The human puppet had two primary modes of attack: the first was using hidden shuriken and senbon (Needles with pointed ends) stored within its body, and the second was channeling the chakra it contained to perform the ninja techniques it knew in life.

With a sharp whoosh, one of the targets was riddled with senbon, resembling a pincushion. The other targets were destroyed by wind and fire techniques, leaving only ashes in their wake.

After all the targets were neutralized, Sasori was about to deactivate the puppet, but Byakuya held up a hand to stop him. "Sasori, keep controlling the puppet. This time, I'll be its opponent."

Byakuya extended his hand, forming the Seal of Confrontation with Sasori.

"Who would've thought you'd be this childish, Leader Byakuya?" Sasori snorted softly, but he still extended his hand to complete the Seal of Confrontation. This seal was something only academy students used, symbolizing that the two were now opponents. In a real battle, enemies wouldn't bother with such formalities, but it held a certain ceremonial significance.

Byakuya smiled. "Life needs a little more ceremony. Besides, we're comrades now, not enemies like before."

With that, Byakuya instantly moved to the center of the clearing, adopting a combat stance.

Sasori didn't suspect anything and immediately directed the human puppet to attack Byakuya. He was also curious to test the puppet's performance, and having Byakuya as a sparring partner was an unexpected bonus.

Despite facing the puppet's barrage of senbon, shuriken, and even poison gas, Byakuya handled it all with ease. He didn't counterattack, though, instead focusing on evading and defending, helping Sasori collect data on the puppet's capabilities.

A few minutes later, the puppet suddenly stalled mid-air before crashing to the ground.

Byakuya waited for a moment, making sure this wasn't a test of the puppet's camouflage, then approached Sasori.

Sasori glanced at the fallen human puppet, his expression serious as he meticulously recorded the data, mumbling, "Whether it's the endurance or the sensitivity of control, the chakra rods are far inferior to chakra strings."

Hearing this, Byakuya nodded in agreement. He could clearly sense the limitations of this human puppet. Compared to Sasori's other creations, this puppet barely possessed the strength of a Chunin, which was a disservice to the ninja it had been in life. But this was a known issue.

Using chakra rods for remote control had inherent limitations, primarily the speed of chakra transmission. It was akin to the difference between Wi-Fi and a wired connection in Byakuya's previous life—Wi-Fi could never match the speed of a physical cable. However, chakra rods offered one advantage that chakra strings couldn't: they freed the puppet from the restrictions of physical lines, allowing the puppet and puppeteer to function as two independent combat units.

At that moment, Byakuya seemed to recall something. As he picked up the fallen puppet, he asked, "Sasori, you weren't using the puppet's own stored chakra to supplement the transmission from the chakra rod, were you?"

Sasori nodded. "That's right. I pre-stored chakra in the puppet's body. Without it, relying on the chakra rods alone wouldn't have sustained the level of chakra consumption we just saw." He paused before continuing, "Unlike you and Nagato, I can't create black rods. I can only use these rods infused with chakra-conducting metal to mimic the black rods' functionality.

But that introduces new problems. This method can only work with human puppets. Regular puppets can't handle this setup. Even if I pre-store chakra in them, it rapidly depletes once they're disconnected from the main body."

Sasori smirked slightly and added, "Of course, I have no qualms about making human puppets, but your subordinates might, and the organization probably can't provide enough bodies for this method either."

As he spoke, Sasori was already imagining a scene where he mass-produced thousands of human puppets for the Akatsuki. Even for a puppet fanatic like himself, the thought was a bit unsettling.

Byakuya fell into contemplation at Sasori's words. Sasori was right: storing chakra in a human body was vastly different from doing so in a regular puppet. The difficulty levels weren't even comparable. Even someone like Nagato, with the powerful body of a Sage, chose six corpses for his Six Paths of Pain.

In the shinobi world, only two individuals had the capacity for truly remote chakra transmission. One was the rogue ninja from Sunagakure, Hiruko, and the other was Toneri Ōtsutsuki.

Hiruko relied on the power of the Dragon Vein, allowing him to control puppets remotely without regard for distance in the ancient kingdom of Roran, which had been built atop the Dragon Vein. It was a forceful method of supporting puppets.

Toneri, on the other hand, was the last of the Ōtsutsuki on the moon, wielding the power of the Tenseigan. The Tenseigan's power rivaled that of the Rinnegan.

Both approaches were extreme: one required conquering the ancient kingdom of Roran, absorbing the Dragon Vein's power, and the other required traveling to the moon to confront the last surviving member of the Ōtsutsuki clan.

If either of these were achievable, mastering remote puppet control would no longer be necessary at all.

For now, the only option seemed to be hoping that Sasori could continue his research, either by developing more efficient transmission techniques or by solving the issue of chakra storage for regular puppets. However, the current technology Sasori provided was already sufficient for their immediate needs. There was no need to rush.