Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

After hearing his explanation, Shen Er's initial enthusiasm cooled down considerably.

No matter how advanced or multifunctional an ordinary puppet may be, it can never compare to the human puppets of the First and Second Hokage. What he truly desires are human puppets and the core secrets behind them that contain the chakra of the deceased.

However, he was only slightly less expectant, not exactly disappointed.

After more than two years, Konoha finally achieved a breakthrough from zero to one in the puppet technology tree.

The beginning is always the hardest, but things will only get smoother afterward. The technology for making ordinary puppets has already been cracked, and the research progress will only accelerate. The day when the secrets of human puppets are unlocked is not far off.

Nara Masato continued to explain the technical difficulties to Shinji.

The puppets themselves are very hard. When combined with ordinary metals and puppet forging techniques, the overall hardness can exceed that of steel, making it difficult for kunai and shuriken to penetrate the surface defense.

This is also the key reason why Sunagakure's ordinary puppets are so troublesome for other ninja villages.

Most of the ninjas in the village are genin or chunin, with limited chakra reserves, so they can't unleash ninjutsu many times. Their main means of fighting and killing enemies are kunai and shuriken.

The puppeteer controls puppets that are almost immune to physical attacks, and in direct combat, he is simply unreasonable.

If the raw materials for making the puppet are replaced with special chakra metal, various special attributes can be added.

Effects such as fireproofing, waterproofing, and dust repellency...

After listening to his story.

Shen Er first affirmed the efforts of their puppet research group, and then said: "Your next core goal is to quickly master the technology of making human puppets, and focus on deciphering the core principle of preserving chakra from one's previous life."

"Of course, the research and development of ordinary puppets cannot be stopped."

Now that we have mastered the basic technology, we must explore its value and make the most of it.

Shen Er's mind flashed through the abilities and characteristics of those aliens, and he immediately rattled off a series of research requirements: "The research focus for ordinary puppets should include adding fire resistance, resistance to gravitational pull, resistance to physical attacks, resistance to chakra absorption, immunity to mental intrusion, and prevention of X-ray vision..."

He listed a large number of customization attributes in one go.

Each one is specifically designed to counter the abilities of the Otsutsuki from outer space.

The wisdom of ninjas possesses limitless possibilities!

Compared to the Otsutsuki, whose fighting methods rely entirely on their innate bloodline, ninjas can develop a series of reliable ninjutsu and secret techniques through their wisdom.

Just like some settings in American comics that Shen Er is familiar with, humans can develop "Sentinel robots" specifically to counter various mutants, or develop "anti-armor" against superhumans.

That's exactly what Shen Er wanted.

He wanted to continuously iterate and evolve Konoha's local puppetry technology, eventually creating specialized super ninja tools: the Anti-Toneri Puppet, the Anti-Momoshiki Puppet, the Anti-Kinshiki Puppet... specifically designed to counter all attacking Otsutsuki powerhouses.

Now, it's time for fantasy.

Even after withdrawing his fantasy,

Looking up, I saw Nara Masato with a worried expression.

While these ideas proposed by Shen Er are not entirely impossible to realize, the difficulty is so great that it seems like a long way off.

There is a huge gap in both manpower and research funding, and the institute's eleven researchers are simply unable to complete the task.

“My Lord, what you’re saying is too difficult to achieve, and there’s absolutely no possibility of it being realized in the short term.”

Nara Masato looked troubled and reported the truth.

Shen Er raised an eyebrow slightly, somewhat surprised.

He thought the other party would directly assert that it was impossible, but unexpectedly they only said that it was extremely difficult.

It's difficult, not impossible...

Even the Nara people, known for their intelligence, did not completely deny it, which gave Shen a boost of confidence.

He reassured and encouraged them, saying, "It's alright, we have plenty of time. The village will fully support this project, and research funding is unlimited, so there's nothing to worry about."

"As for manpower, it will be in place gradually."

"The Ninja Academy has already opened a science class to train relevant talents. Once the first batch of students graduate, they will all be assigned to the research institute to become your assistants and fill the research gaps."

With the third generation's assurance, Nara Masato's tense expression finally relaxed.

A group of people, one heart, one goal...

The atmosphere was excellent, just as the Third Hokage had said when he recruited them: everything was for the sake of making Konoha great again.

Since that's the case, Nara Masato didn't hold back and immediately stated his request: "Third Hokage, if possible, I hope the village can collect as much chakra metal as possible, the more unique the better."

"The puppet characteristics you just mentioned are simply too much for ordinary metals to withstand, even if the research institute overcomes all the technical challenges. Chakra metal is the only solution to achieve special effects such as fire resistance, gravity resistance, and resistance to mind control."

"Okay, I'll arrange this myself."

After finalizing all the details, Shen Er didn't linger and turned to leave the laboratory.

The puppet research group has now successfully produced results and is on the right track.

In contrast, another key research project, the Secret Techniques Research Group, has trained some grassroots talents, but the core leaders of the project, Orochimaru and Hiruko, are still in their third year at the Ninja Academy.

There is still a long time before the two graduate and take over the project.

There are no shortcuts; all the groundwork and preparations can only be left to time to settle.

There can be many assistants, enough to steadily advance the research progress and complete 99% of the basic work for the project. But the most difficult breakthroughs are precisely those last 1%, which require the inspiration of a genius to complete.

However, Nara Masato's words reminded him that while puppetry techniques could be improved gradually, various special raw materials could be stockpiled in advance to prepare for the subsequent creation of puppets.

"Raw materials..."

Shen Er immediately thought of the batch of chakra metal stockpiled by Kirigakure, a high-quality material that Kirigakure had painstakingly prepared for forging ninja swords, which he had long coveted.

We had already made preparations on our side.

Once Nakime's Heavenly Delivery Technique is in place, they can set off at any time to seize this batch of metal from Kirigakure and replenish the research institute's material reserves.

Chapter 192 Orochimaru's Father-Son Fighting Plan: The Collapse of His Biological Father

Three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Konoha 24th year.

Shen Er's appearance remained unchanged.

He was currently in the Hokage's office, reviewing intelligence.

In these three years, Konoha has seen a surge in newborns, with many transitional newborns being born.

After the war, Uchiha Kagami returned from the front lines with a woman by his side, and the two soon had a child. He had inquired about the woman and learned that she was a refugee Kagami had rescued on the battlefield. He took pity on her and took her in, and the two naturally became a couple.

Mikoto Uchiha was also born at the beginning of this year.

In addition, a few days ago Tsunade secretly came to tell him that she would be a big sister next year.

The birth of the rope tree is not far off.

The eldest grandson of the First Hokage, a disciple of the legendary Sannin, the prince of the Land of Fire… bearing a dazzling array of titles, yet fundamentally a weakling. My deepest impression of him is that he was killed during the Second Shinobi World War after stepping on an explosive tag.

Well, let's see if we can salvage it. If he doesn't have any ninja talent, then replacing Tsunade as the daimyo in the capital would be a good use of his abilities.

Regarding the capital city.

Uchiha Setsuna did not disappoint Shinji. Last year, he became one of the Guardian Ninjas and successfully leaked some of the Edo Tensei data to Reiwa Yai without any suspicion from him.

After Hyuga Koichi, who was stationed in the capital, confirmed with his Byakugan that Kazuya would secretly go to the capital's cemetery to steal corpses every month.

Others may not understand He Zai's behavior, but Shen Er clearly understands that stealing corpses is practice for developing the Earth Escape Reincarnation Technique.

The perspective shifts to the ninja world.

In contrast to the lackluster performance of the new generation of ninjas in Konoha, the other four major ninja villages have seen a continuous emergence of new stars.

The sons of the Third Raikage, Rasa of Sunagakure, Yotsuchi of Iwagakure, and Yagura of Kirigakure—these future Fourth Hokage of their respective villages have all come into the world… Only the original Fourth Hokage of Konoha remains unknown.

The name Minato Namikaze cannot be found in the birth records at Gospel Hospital.

"Judging by the timeline, it should be around the next year or two."

With Minato still alive, the Fourth Hokage's position certainly wouldn't have gone to him. But that doesn't stop them from specifically training him as a henchman; the Yellow Flash is still very important to Konoha.

I pulled myself back to reality.

Two major events are coming up soon.

One:

The Silver Saints are graduating from the Ninja Academy in the next couple of days. Orochimaru, Tsunade, and the others are all around eleven years old now.

Konoha's talent development program has reached a crucial juncture. With Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Hiruko joining the research, the program will take a significant step forward.

Second:

Uchiha Yan and Nakime have both mastered the Heavenly Delivery Technique.

Once Nakime arrives in Konoha, she can even attack Kirigakure in her true form and steal their special chakra metal.

Intelligence indicates that Kirigakure has not yet completed the forging of the seven ninja swords.

Based on the timeline of the first Seven Ninja Swordsmen's appearance, the forging of the swords wouldn't be completed until thirty years later in Konoha. The subsequent selection and training of seven wielders would then take several more years.

When the Second Shinobi World War broke out, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist made their first appearance, annihilating the Land of Whirlpools in one night, thus leaving behind a terrifying reputation in the shinobi world.

However, even if the ninja sword is completely forged, it can theoretically be melted down and reforged to extract the chakra metal inside.

There was plenty of time to plan the robbery.

The reason why we did not follow the example of robbing Kumogakure this time and dispatched the Earth Grudge clones to cooperate with Uchiha Yan was that the Land of Water was too dangerous.

As far as I know, Madara Uchiha was in the Land of Water at that time.

Furthermore, there are indications that he has already used genjutsu to control the Third Mizukage.

This vice-ninja god, who is over fifty years old, is still extremely threatening. If the main body had not gone there in person, I would not have been able to feel at ease.

He is clearly incredibly strong, yet he remains cautious.

He got up and went to the window, forming a mudra with his hands.

戌－酉－申－未－亥!

"Spirit Transformation Technique!"

A pale white spirit separated from his body and, like a ghost, passed through the walls of the Hokage Building.