"It was easier than I thought."
An hour later, Hardy emerged from the forest with exactly fifteen kilograms of materials, arriving at the edge of the oasis.
The lynx's bones and the white ironwood made up most of the weight—the former weighing 3.4 kilograms, the latter 9.8 kilograms. The remainder consisted of other materials, such as plant sap for making adhesives.
Training Ground No. 1 encompassed the entire Wind Jade Oasis and a large stretch of the surrounding desert. A huge training plaza had been built there, equipped with several communal facilities, such as wooden dummies for taijutsu practice and targets for ninja tool throwing.
In the open space in front of these facilities, eighty basic workbenches had already been set up.
"You have two hours. We hope you can produce results that satisfy us. After two hours, you will be divided into groups for combat trials to showcase your puppets and your control skills."
Suna-no-Sayama stood with his hands behind his back, sweeping his gaze over the eighty young puppet masters who had just arrived at their benches with their materials.
"Begin."
At the command, Hardy immediately picked up the tools on the table and got to work.
Step one: process the materials. He quickly ground up some of the herbs he'd collected, added clean water, then dismantled the lynx's bones. After rough-processing them with files and other tools, he soaked them in the herbal solution.
This had to be done first—if the lynx's bones weren't fresh, their chakra conductivity would drop sharply.
This would be the core of the puppet he was about to make.
Next, he cut, processed, and dried the white ironwood, then polished the snake fangs and the lynx's claws and teeth.
Hardy already had a clear plan for his creation.
At that moment, his system panel began to change.
[Puppet Name]: ??
[Overall Parameters]:
Height: ??
Weight: ??
Materials: White ironwood, reinforced bone material...
Energy Source: None
Control Method: Chakra threads
[Puppet Rating]: ?
[Overall Evaluation]: A puppet in the process of being constructed...
All the materials were now freely listed in the panel's left box. As he processed them, Hardy could simulate their assembly at will with just a thought.
In other words, as he worked on the materials, he already knew what the finished product would be.
[Puppet Name]: Untitled
[Overall Parameters]:
Height: 60 cm
Weight: 14.20 kg
Materials: White ironwood, reinforced bone material...
Energy Source: None
Control Method: Chakra threads
[Puppet Rating]: D
[Overall Evaluation]: A hastily assembled small agile puppet. Simple structure, equivalent to a mid-level ninja academy student in combat power, but with many flaws.
After finishing the initial material processing, Hardy closed his eyes and began making adjustments in his mind via the panel.
The center of gravity was too high, affecting stability, but lowering it too much would reduce agility. The best solution was to lengthen the tail for better balance.
He redesigned the leg joints with ball bearings to further enhance flexibility.
He optimized the mechanical structure and modified the chakra hub and thread connection points...
In an instant, Hardy swiftly corrected the puppet's flaws, even giving it a name.
[Puppet Name]: Tom
[Overall Parameters]:
Height: 60 cm
Weight: 14.26 kg
Materials: White ironwood, reinforced bone material...
Energy Source: None
Control Method: Chakra threads
[Puppet Rating]: C-
[Overall Evaluation]: A small biomimetic puppet, excellent agility, possesses the combat power of a newly promoted Genin, with a few minor design flaws.
Tsk!
As expected of me—effortlessly creating a puppet with Genin-level combat power!
Of course, the materials played a crucial role.
Any material chosen by Hardy was bound to be of high quality. Even without time for fine processing, these basically prepared materials were superior to those used in the Formentor puppet he'd previously modified from a teaching model.
It was a pity there was a fifteen-kilogram limit; otherwise, Hardy would have liked to see if he could make a B-rank puppet.
While Hardy was brainstorming, his behavior looked rather odd to others.
Other puppet masters were either still processing materials or sketching design diagrams. Only Hardy stood motionless, eyes closed, rooted to the spot.
Sasori glanced at Hardy, then indifferently looked away and continued drawing his own design.
He had tried making puppets without design diagrams—just simulating everything in his mind and building directly.
Drawing design diagrams was a cumbersome process, after all.
But in practice, skipping this step led to constant mistakes during assembly.
Even if you didn't make mistakes, you still needed to draw the design.
Because usually, the initial modifications are all done on the design drawings. Only after the puppet is completed do they check for any missing or flawed parts and make further adjustments.
This person might just be making a scene to attract attention, or perhaps he's at his wit's end, or maybe he really does have some genuine skill—but none of that has anything to do with them.
The other puppet masters didn't pay much attention to Hardy either. At most, they glanced over out of curiosity before refocusing on their own work, continuing with their puppet-making.
"This kid…"
Suna no Sasayama frowned, looking at Hardy with a hint of displeasure.
What kind of puppet master works like this?
Even he, one of the top ten puppet masters in Sunagakure, wouldn't dare to skip the design drawings when crafting a puppet!
Standing beside Sasayama, Ishido wore a look of confusion, but inside he was even more shocked and uncertain.
Could he have misjudged this kid?
Or is it possible that this child truly is an unprecedented genius in puppet-making?
Under the watchful gaze of the two jōnin, Hardy opened his eyes.
The design is complete—time to get to work!
He proceeded to the next stage of fine-tuning the roughly shaped puppet, beginning to construct the main skeletal frame. His movements were smooth and unhesitating, as if every action had been pre-planned, giving off the impression of someone filling out test answers while looking at the answer sheet—utterly fluid.
But everyone knew that was impossible.
Sasayama's expression was filled with astonishment.
With his discerning eye as an elite jōnin-level puppet master, how could he not see Hardy's design?
Although the puppet wasn't fully assembled yet, it was clear that the design was quite complete.
Copying answers from the key is always faster than working them out yourself.
Sasayama had allotted two hours for the task. Hardy spent half an hour processing materials, then closed his eyes for a short while, and the subsequent puppet-making took just over twenty minutes.
In less than an hour, Hardy had already finished making his puppet.
Meanwhile, among the others, the fastest had only just begun.
Except for that red-haired boy.
Sasori's progress was already more than halfway done.