Seisui fished out the bottle of antidote pills from Sasori's ninja tool pouch and meekly handed it over.
"Here…"
"Hmph!"
Suna Kamizuyama snatched the bottle away.
"Don't let this happen again! As punishment, you two will clean the entire base today!"
Seisui and Sasori exchanged glances.
"Do you know Water Release?"
Seisui looked at Sasori and asked.
"A little."
"That's good."
If you know Water Release, cleaning will be easier.
"Next time, I'll spar with you again. I hope you don't fall behind."
"Huh? Doesn't that make me your sparring partner, and for free? Isn't that a bit unfair?"
Seisui picked up a broom and mop, giving Sasori a dead-fish stare.
Sasori turned his head slightly.
"My grandmother worries I'll get bored alone, so she left a lot of books at home. If you're interested, every time you beat me, you can read one, until I win."
Seisui's eyes lit up.
Chiyo's collection?
She's a veteran Kage-level powerhouse, and still at her peak—definitely one of the strongest Kage-level ninja around, and the greatest puppet master in the shinobi world today.
Her collection—there's probably not a single puppet master who wouldn't want to take a look.
"Ahem, Sasori, my friend, so this time…"
"After we finish cleaning, come with me."
…
…
Thanks to Sasori's Water Release, cleaning the base went even faster than Seisui had expected.
Although Sasori wasn't particularly skilled at Water Release, and the local climate in Sunagakure naturally weakened its effect by about thirty percent, it was still more than enough for cleaning.
Even so, by the time Seisui and Sasori finished cleaning the entire Puppet Corps base, it was already afternoon.
In a beggar's imagination, the emperor must eat white bread at every meal and farm with a golden hoe. Sasori's home situation gave Seisui quite a surprise.
It wasn't that he'd never seen wealth before, but he knew how difficult it was to own such a house in the impoverished Sunagakure.
It was a sizable courtyard, built entirely from smoothly polished sandstone bricks, giving off a slightly dull yellow-white hue.
In this village where water is incredibly precious, there was even a—
A small pond, with a low-lying spring still bubbling continuously, making gurgling sounds. On both sides, transplanted poplar trees have been planted.
There are also fish being raised in the pond, and beneath the shade of the poplar trees stand two fully automatic retractable fishing rods crafted with puppet techniques.
It looks like an ordinary farmhouse courtyard, but in Sunagakure, it's a palace that money can't buy.
"The study is here."
Sasori opened a door on the left side of the courtyard.
Inside, three walls of the room were lined with bookshelves.
One bookshelf was filled with ordinary books, while the one next to it held scrolls of ninjutsu.
The remaining bookshelf in the middle was a mix of both.
"Don't touch the bookshelves on either side; Grandma has placed sealing techniques on them. The right one is specially organized with books I'm allowed to read."
Hardy, curious, walked toward the bookshelf Sasori indicated.
"Advanced Black Secret Techniques, Vol. 1," "Advanced Design and Application of Puppet Mechanisms," "Poison-Making Notes and Antidote Pharmacology," "Basics of Medical Ninjutsu," "Basics of Sand Sealing," "Monzaemon: Techniques for Using Chakra Threads"...
Books related to puppet techniques made up more than half, but there were also plenty on sealing arts, medical ninjutsu, and poison-making—an impressive and dazzling array.
"These books all belong to Grandma, so I can't give them to you or let you take them home. But you can pick any one to read here. It's fine if you can't memorize everything; I can bring you here again tomorrow."
Sasori sat down at the desk, picked up the puppet-making book Ishido had given him last time, and quietly began reading, saying no more.
Now it was Hardy's turn to be paralyzed by choice.
This entire bookshelf held over a hundred books—any one of which, if taken outside, would fetch a high price, and some were even unique volumes personally written by Chiyo.
"Medical ninjutsu and sealing arts are things I'll definitely have to learn in the future, but they can't immediately boost my combat ability, so for now, they won't help me much."
"Poison-making and pharmacy also require a foundation in pharmacology, which I probably lack, and just reading one book won't get me started—at most, I could learn a few recipes."
"I should still study puppet techniques. My current level in puppet-making is just barely adequate, and my avatar is studying modern engineering in the DC World. But when it comes to puppet manipulation, although I have the basics and have learned the introductory Black Secret Techniques, there's still a lot of room for improvement."
After some thought, Hardy finally chose the book "Techniques for Using Chakra Threads" by Monzaemon.
There's no way to memorize an entire book in one afternoon, but reading through it once is more than doable. Hardy decided to let his avatar in the DC World work in sync.
His real self read here, while the avatar recorded everything in the DC World.
Monzaemon is the highest authority in puppet techniques to date—both in crafting and manipulating puppets. Even Sasori, who in the original story possessed the Third Kazekage puppet and could control a hundred puppets at once, might not surpass him.
Their status in the field of puppetry could be compared to Newton and Einstein—one inspired the field of natural science, while the other achieved its greatest accomplishments.
Human puppets were invented by Monzaemon, and it was under his hand that puppet techniques truly formed a system. The Chikamatsu Ten Puppets were also his creation—the strongest puppet combination. As his successor, Chiyo's abilities at most approached Monzaemon's, but never surpassed him.
As for Sasori's greatest achievement in puppet techniques, it was breaking the limitation that human puppets couldn't use kekkei genkai and similar abilities, thereby raising the ceiling for individual human puppets.
For Hardy, he could understand about ninety percent of the content in Monzaemon's book, with the rest only partially grasped.
Those were more advanced topics.
After all, he was currently just a genin who could only control two puppets—even if he could sometimes defeat some chunin.
Some techniques for manipulating three or more puppets were beyond his ability to practice for now; he could only have his avatar record them for future study.
As dusk fell, and after the avatar had finished recording, Hardy was still engrossed in the book.
Creak—
The wooden door of the study was pushed open.
A tall, thin man in his forties with long eyebrows and a white cloth wrapped around his head walked in.
Sasori looked up at the newcomer.
"Granduncle."
Hardy also stood up from the desk, realizing who had arrived.
"Elder Ebizo."
Ebizo smiled and nodded at Hardy, then turned to Sasori.
"It's rare to see you outside the workshop. Aren't you going to introduce the friend you brought home?"