The days of being a puppeteer in Konoha

Chapter 13 The Origin of Puppetry

After the performance show specially arranged by Hideki, the young ninjas all became very interested in learning the chakra line manipulation technique.

Hideki naturally wishes that everyone could join the big family of puppetry class and contribute to his puppetry development system.

However, as a teacher, he had to pour some cold water on everyone because of his professional ethics. He changed the subject and said:

"Of course, chakra lines are not without their drawbacks..."

"First of all, as I mentioned before, the output, shaping and manipulation of chakra lines all require the user to have excellent chakra control, which cannot be mastered overnight."

"The second issue is the consumption of chakra."

"Especially for ninjas with average chakra control, if they want the ninja tools they control to have sufficient speed and destructive power, they have to continuously output a large amount of chakra."

"Even if you want to get the cutting ability like steel wire, you need a high-density chakra line that condenses a large amount of chakra."

"So considering the cost-effectiveness, ninjas have always preferred to use steel wire to control ninja tools rather than using precious chakra to make chakra wire.

"This situation did not change until the Second Kazekage Shamon invented the puppet technique..."

Hideki paused for a moment here, giving the young ninjas in the audience some time to digest what he had said.

Then he continued:

"You may not know that although it was indeed Kazekage Shamon who invented the puppet technique, puppets themselves already existed before that."

"And its original source is the traditional mechanical technique."

"Mechanical techniques are a branch of the history of the development of ninja tools."

“Its greatest feature is that it can cleverly control things with the help of mechanical power, thus achieving magical effects that are beyond human power’s reach.”

"Everyone should have learned some simple methods of setting up traps in school. That is actually the most basic mechanism technique."

"And the so-called puppets, in the beginning, were just devices hidden inside puppets to assassinate the enemy."

"But at that time, people generally used steel wires and mechanical structures to drive and control puppets."

"This also caused the puppets at that time to either have stiff movements or be very bulky, making it difficult to use them directly in battle."

Having said that, Hideki suddenly realized that more and more little ninjas were staring at his sleeves.

It seems that everyone has figured out his routine, and subconsciously thought that a small puppet would come out from inside as a demonstration...

But how could Hideki be so easily guessed by them?

He just raised his hand slightly, and then a loud "coo" sound rang out over the warehouse.

The little ninjas who were fooled by a feint quickly looked up in the direction of the sound.

Then they discovered that on the beam above the platform, there was a red bird creature with a slightly round body.

But before the little ninjas could react, it had already pounced forward with its legs, ready to spread its wings and fly...

Then, the next moment, without even a few flutters in the air, it plummeted like a red comet, smashing a large hole in the solid platform...

This...what the hell is this?

The young ninjas were speechless at this unexpected development. They could only stare blankly at the teacher who had to use a lot of effort to use the chakra line to pull the fat bird stuck in the pit out like pulling a carrot...

After putting the fat bird away, Hideki couldn't help but wipe his sweat and said:
"This is the traditional puppet that I restored based on the information from classic books. Although there was a small accident, it just allows everyone to understand more intuitively why I said they are too bulky..." The little ninjas only then saw the true appearance of the fat red bird.

It looked like a plump, red owl, but this time none of the students mistook it for a living thing.

The accident just now was naturally one of the reasons, but more important was the appearance of the owl.

Just like the human body model in biology class, its appearance is actually divided into two parts right in the middle.

One half is a vivid red owl, while the other half has no disguise at all, directly showing the complex mechanical structure inside the puppet.

And for the sake of demonstration, Hideki did not use chakra threads this time. Instead, he went back to basics and shot out a few steel wires from his sleeves and connected them to the owl puppet, using them to control it.

So, under Hideki's control, the owl began to flap its wings clumsily, and then walked back and forth on the platform with its feet.

The young ninjas were also able to see firsthand how complex the internal mechanisms were in order to transform the teacher's controls into the actions of the puppet.

At this moment, they truly understood what the teacher had just said.

This traditional puppet is stuffed with all kinds of mechanical devices. How could it not be bulky?

Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Hideki immediately retracted the wire and nodded.
"And what changed this situation was, of course, the chakra lines."

Then several clearly visible chakra lines shot out from the fingertips of Hideki's right hand.

Once the owl, which had stopped moving, was connected, it started moving again, and its movements were much more agile than before.

"As you can see, the chakra line is highly manipulable, making it very easy to replace steel wire to control the puppet, and the effect is even better."

"More importantly, as long as you master enough skills, even many of the puppet's mechanical structures can actually be replaced by chakra lines."

As Hideki spoke, a very curious scene appeared in front of the little ninja:
I saw that the mechanical devices inside the owl began to fly out one after another and fall onto the platform, but the owl itself was still alive and kicking on the platform.

Since Hideki deliberately did not hide the chakra lines this time, everyone can clearly see that once each mechanical device flies out, there will be chakra lines to supplement its location, thus replacing the function of the former.

As more and more mechanical devices were replaced, the owl's movements became lighter and more flexible.

That’s right, my stomach is almost emptied, how can I not be flexible?

Hideki's commentary continued:

"As you can see, depending on the puppeteer's level of chakra control, most of the mechanical structures in the puppet, except for the weapons, can be gradually replaced by chakra lines."

"This will not only reduce the chance of mechanical failure, but the biggest benefit is that it can greatly reduce the weight of the puppet."

"In this way, puppets are no longer a bulky trap that can only be used for assassination, but a real killing machine that can gallop on the battlefield."

"And the hidden weapons built into the puppet also mean that the chakra line doesn't need to condense too much chakra to increase its lethality. All it needs to do is focus on controlling it."

"Even in terms of manipulation, the chakra line can use the principles of pulleys and levers to reduce consumption."

"It's not hard to see that the chakra lines and puppets just make up for each other's shortcomings, while also making the advantages of both more prominent. It's simply a combination made in heaven."

By the time Hideki said this, there was very little left of the mechanical device in the owl puppet.

The owl, which had been struggling to walk, now walked very fast, even using the long platform as a runway, and its speed increased...

Finally, accompanied by another high-pitched "coo", the owl pounced forward again the moment it ran to the edge of the platform...

(End of this chapter)