The days of being a puppeteer in Konoha

Chapter 20: The Puppet Master's Battle

Nakamura was leaning against a big tree, his eyes wide open, observing his surroundings vigilantly.

Because he has already determined that the strange thing before him is either a corpse deliberately disguised to look like Kimura Hideki, or a puppet that is so lifelike that even its internal organs are perfectly restored!
Although normally the first guess is more likely, when Nakamura thinks of the black cat puppet that even he cannot tell whether it is real or fake, he subconsciously feels that perhaps the second guess is the truth.

This reminded him of what Teacher Chiyo had mentioned, the puppet that was originally created by a mechanical master.

It also disguises itself by imitating human appearance as much as possible, and then launches a fatal attack after the enemy lets down their guard.

But Kimura Hideki is too hardcore, he even perfectly restored the internal structure of the human body...

However, no matter whether it is a corpse or a lifelike puppet, it still needs someone to control it in order to move.

This also means that Hideki Kimura, the manipulator, must still be nearby!
Nakamura, who had roughly understood the cause and effect, calmed down a lot.

Fear comes from the unknown.

Once you understand the principle behind it, there is nothing to be afraid of even the strange corpse puppet in front of you.

Although Nakamura has lost his advantage and is injured, he does not continue to underestimate his opponent.

But in the real battle between puppeteers, he still has enough confidence to win the final victory!

The first thing he had to do was to find out where Hideki Kimura was.

Seeing that the corpse puppet was staggering not far away, Nakamura made a plan in his mind and began to control the mantis puppet to fly over.

"Kimura Hideki, let me show you, a wild kid, what real puppetry is!"

Nakamura first shouted, trying to use provocation to find out Hideki's location.

Of course, this is just a bonus. The conversation between puppeteers still has to be carried out by the puppets themselves...

"Drill, Mantis Dance!"

Nakamura began to output a large amount of chakra, causing the chakra lines connected to the mantis puppet to emit a faint blue light.

The mantis puppet's movements also suddenly became more agile and swift, and it began to frantically wave its front limbs' sickles, which emitted a blue glow, to attack.

The corpse puppet with Hideki's face began to move, trying to avoid the attack of the mantis puppet.

Although it is not fast, it can always dodge the enemy's fierce attacks with wonderful postures thanks to its strange movements that go against the human body structure.

Even if it is occasionally hit by a sickle, the wound will gradually heal up, as if it has the ability to regenerate.

For a moment, the two sides, one attacking and one defending, actually formed a stalemate.

"Damn it, it really isn't that easy to reveal a flaw..."

Nakamura's brows were tightly furrowed.

The reason why he launched a strong attack on the corpse puppet was to force his opponent to increase his chakra output in order to control the puppet to avoid attacks.

In this way, he can find the opponent's position through the revealed chakra lines.

But the actual development did not go as he wished.

Nakamura originally thought that once this corpse puppet was discovered, it would be very easy to deal with.

In order to completely simulate the human body, the material strength of this puppet is only at the level of human flesh, and there is not much space for installing weapons.

Perhaps the poison needle that pops out from the wrist is its only means.

And the battle just now seemed to confirm this fact.

The corpse puppet had no other means of combat except for the poison needles that occasionally popped out from its wrists.

But even such a sneak attack puppet with low combat effectiveness was able to fight on equal terms with his puppet specially used for fighting, and neither could do anything to the other!

What’s even more terrifying is that up to now, no chakra lines have appeared on the opponent’s puppet.

And this also means that Kimura Hideki hasn't even used his full strength yet...

Nakamura had to face up to a cruel fact: that he, who was trained in a professional school, was actually no match for a non-professional in puppet control...

Not to mention that this seemingly 50-50 situation was actually very unfavorable to him.

Nakamura glanced at the broken part of his calf.

Although the wound was temporarily blocked with chakra, a lot of blood had already been lost before that.

If I can't win quickly, I'm afraid I'll collapse from exhaustion and be at the mercy of others.

"It seems that we can only use the last resort..."

Nakamura gritted his teeth and began to control the mantis puppet to move around the opponent at high speed, while swinging his double sickles to chop at the surrounding air.

His plan is very simple.

Although there was no trace of chakra lines around the corpse puppet in front of him.

But just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

The double sickles on the forelimbs of his mantis puppet are chakra weapons that happen to have some chakra metal mixed in, and have the ability to cut off chakra lines.

So as long as you keep trying, the chakra lines hidden in the void will be cut off sooner or later.

At the same time, Nakamura can also roughly find the place where Hideki is hiding based on the position of the mantis puppet swinging its sickle when the corpse puppet loses its ability to move.

The reason why Nakamura did not use this method at the beginning was naturally because he was worried that Hideki Kimura would choose to abandon the puppet and run away.

For revenge, for the 30 million taels, and to find out the secret of Kimura Hideki, how could Nakamura be willing to let him get away so easily?
But at this time, Nakamura no longer cared about so much.

It would be best if you could catch the other party right now. If he runs away, at least you can save your life and then settle the score with him when you are well prepared!

"Kimura Hideki, I am willing to admit that you are the real puppeteer."

"So...hand over your life and your secrets!"

Driven by Nakamura's full strength, the mantis puppet kept swinging its sickle, trying to cut off the chakra lines hidden in the void.

For a moment, the forest seemed to be hit by a typhoon. Trees, flowers, and even small animals that could not escape were caught up in the storm of sickles. The only way to describe this tragic scene was a mess.

However, even if he achieved this goal, the scene that Nakamura imagined of cutting off the chakra line and causing the corpse puppet to suddenly fall to the ground still did not appear.

In front! Left! Right! Behind! Above!

The blade of the mantis puppet had clearly covered all sides of the corpse puppet, but there was still no sign of cutting the chakra line.

Nakamura's expression gradually changed from expectation and excitement at the beginning to confusion and disbelief.

Finally, there was only a hysterical and crazy expression on his face:

"Impossible, absolutely impossible..."

"This puppet is clearly being controlled by someone, how could it be without chakra lines?"

"I must have missed something..."

"But it doesn't matter. As long as we cut down all the trees in the surrounding area, we will definitely be able to find Kimura Hideki's location!"

Nakamura, who was at his wit's end, could only choose this most helpless approach...

It was impossible to escape directly, and his only way to survive was to force Hideki to show up before his chakra was exhausted.

However, his desperate gamble was doomed to fail.

Because once the direction of your efforts is wrong, no matter how hard you try, it will be in vain.

Poor Nakamura~
He probably never imagined that the Kimura Hideki he was looking for was not hiding in the forest, but hiding in the ground under his feet...

(End of this chapter)