Hardy did not see Chiyo again until the third day after the war ended.
Perhaps because Konoha had paid such a heavy price—avenging her son and daughter-in-law in part—Chiyo seemed to be in high spirits.
"I've read the battle report submitted by Chiran. You did well."
Chiyo sat in her chair, looking at her apprentice with increasing satisfaction.
In this battle, Hardy's squad had taken down a total of twenty-six Konoha shinobi. According to post-battle statistics, eleven were chunin and two were special jonin.
Undoubtedly, for a squad composed entirely of shinobi under thirteen years old, this was an achievement to be proud of.
"It wasn't all my doing. Baki and Pakura are excellent teammates as well," Hardy replied, shaking his head.
"Mm. Now that Dan Katō is dead, Konoha has lost a troublesome figure. Jiraiya was also seriously injured while rescuing Tsunade. Hanzō's Amegakure forces took a direct hit from the Four-Tails Jinchūriki's Tailed Beast Ball and suffered heavy casualties as well. The fighting should be less frequent from now on, so I'll have more time to teach you."
"Ah, that's wonderful! I have so many questions I'd like to ask you, Chiyo-sensei."
Hardy pulled a small notebook from his pocket.
It was filled with questions he'd encountered while practicing ninjutsu and puppetry.
It must be said, having a good teacher in the ninja world was no less important than having a good bloodline.
A ninjutsu inheritance with kage-level potential was enough to close the gap with almost any bloodline limit, save perhaps the Sharingan or Wood Release.
Chiyo's explanations were thorough. Many of the problems Hardy faced at this stage were ones she had encountered herself. Even if she couldn't provide a direct answer, she could at least point him in the right direction for further thought and experimentation.
In terms of ability, Chiyo is indeed very well-suited to instruct Hardy. There's no need to elaborate on her puppet mastery—before Sasori rose to prominence, Chiyo was known as the number one puppeteer in the ninja world for several decades. In fact, even if Sasori in his prime were to face off against Chiyo, the latter might not necessarily lose.
As for Wind Release, Chiyo's proficiency may not be at the absolute pinnacle, but it far surpasses that of an ordinary jonin.
Regarding Lightning Release, while Chiyo isn't particularly adept at it, it's still a breeze for her to guide someone like Hardy, who is just starting to learn Lightning Release.
"Incorporating the Art of Swift Wind into puppet manipulation? That's a good idea, but there are two hurdles you need to overcome."
Chiyo raised a finger at Hardy.
"The structure of a human puppet is based on a normal human body. In theory, there are chakra circuits formed by the internal meridians, but these can never compare to the meridians inside a real human, let alone puppets made from other materials.
At the same time, the chakra used to control a puppet is your own, which is most compatible with your body. That's why we can perform ninjutsu relatively easily. But whether it's a human puppet or an ordinary puppet, when your chakra flows through it, both the loss and the difficulty of control increase exponentially."
"There's another challenge: once you've condensed your chakra into chakra threads, to perform ninjutsu, you must have an extremely high level of chakra transformation to revert it back into a form suitable for ninjutsu. This makes performing ninjutsu through a puppet at least two levels harder than doing it with your own body.
What's more, if you want to use the secret techniques or kekkei genkai ninjutsu that the human puppet possessed in life, the difficulty rises even further. This is an almost impossible task. If your chakra control is already at that level, why not just use your own body to unleash even more powerful ninjutsu?"
Chiyo took a sip of tea and sighed:
"I, as well as Sasori's parents, have all worked hard on this and achieved some results. Currently, the most effective method is sealing techniques—similar to creating explosive tags, sealing chakra into talismans or scrolls to release ninjutsu. But even so, it's still quite difficult."
This is roughly equivalent to creating Wind Release, Water Release, Lightning Release, and other versions of explosive tags.
However, the reason explosive tags are currently the mainstream in the ninja world is largely because, during their creation, gunpowder and fire oils can be used to enhance the power of Fire Release.
Moreover, Fire Release is relatively powerful among the five basic nature transformations, and over the long years, the process of making explosive tags has become a highly developed system in the ninja world, reducing their production cost.
Developing explosive tags for other elements not only costs more, but the results are usually not as good as the regular explosive tags, so naturally few people pursue it.
That is, until later.
Sasori not only created human puppets that could inherit kekkei genkai, but also made two scrolls: one that could shoot flames hot enough to instantly melt kunai, and another that could unleash a high-pressure water jet like Water Severing Wave.
"But that's for ordinary puppeteers. For someone like you, who hides inside your own puppet, you might be able to control the puppet with chakra threads while your real body hidden inside uses ninjutsu. But you must realize the difficulty: not only do you need to multitask, you at least have to be able to form hand seals with one hand."
Chiyo took another sip of tea and continued:
"Before that, you at least need to master the nature transformation of Wind Release. That's all for now. Do you have any other questions?"
"Master Chiyo, as you know, my puppet is quite badly damaged, so…"
Hardy rubbed his hands together and grinned.
"Alright, I'll make arrangements. Your Tenth Squad and the Ninth Squad will take turns on duty every morning and afternoon. That should free up time for you to repair your puppet. As for materials, I'll allocate half of this round's battle merits to you. If there's any material you want—so long as it's not S-class strategic supplies—just take it."
Chiyo waved her hand generously.
"Thank you, Sensei!"
…
…
"The sunny weather is so beautiful, red flowers and green grass everywhere…"
In the new world, Hardy was in his own small courtyard, working out with two stone locks, humming casually to himself.
After so many days of exploration, he had figured out all the information he could at the moment.
First, the era.
He had already guessed from the architecture and technology that it wasn't too early in history, and as it turned out, his hunch was right.
It was now the 45th year of Meiji, which is 1912.