Hiding in the sand, splitting into many places, starting with Arkham

Wisps of smoke rose, drifting towards the setting sun.

The setting sun seeped out alluring colors like blood, dyeing the entire Sand Village crimson.

"This is the third batch returning from the front lines this month."

Shimizu sat at his desk, watching a group of defeated soldiers walk past the window opposite him, and couldn't help but sigh.

His name had a good meaning in this water-scarce Land of Wind, given to him by the orphanage director.

The current time is Sand Hidden Year 37.

Because the five major ninja villages were established in the same year, Sand Hidden Year 37 is the same year as Leaf Hidden Year 37.

At this time, the ninja world is in the Second Ninja World War, and it has already entered a feverish stage.

The Sand Hidden Village has two main battle lines. One is in the Rain Country on the northeast side, commanded by Elder Chiyo, with the aim of suppressing the Rain Hidden Village, preventing Hanzo from leading the Rain Hidden Village to become the sixth largest ninja village, and plundering the village's resources.

The second battle line is in the due east direction, commanded by the Third Kazekage, attacking the Land of Rivers and the Land of Fire, with the aim of occupying a fertile land for the Sand Hidden Village.

However, since two Sand Hidden Village high-ranking officials were killed by the White Fang of the Leaf Village two years ago, the advantages that the Sand Hidden Village had gained on the battlefield in the past have gradually disappeared.

These things have nothing to do with Shimizu for the time being, because he also just returned from the Rain Country battlefield last week.

He doesn't need to return to the battlefield for the time being.

Eleven years have passed since he transmigrated to the world of Naruto.

When he first transmigrated, he was just a baby. It wasn't until he was three years old that, as his brain developed to a certain extent, he slowly remembered the memories of his previous life.

From the time he could remember, he had always been in the Sand Hidden Village orphanage.

Therefore, he showed maturity and wisdom beyond his peers very early on, and successfully passed the entrance exam for the Ninja Academy, leading most of his classmates in the early stages of learning.

However, in terms of ninja talent, he is actually not considered top-notch, only mediocre. His background is also not as good as those students who have high-level ninjas behind them and have family support.

So, when he discovered that his progress was gradually being caught up by others, Shimizu chose to specialize in the special ninja profession of puppeteer in order to maintain his competitiveness.

In the resource-scarce Sand Hidden Village, everything depends on competition.

He graduated from the Ninja Academy last year.

To be precise, he was 'graduated', because seeing the Leaf Village next door doing this, Sand Hidden Village followed suit, sending high-grade Ninja Academy students to the battlefield.

However, the higher-ups still have some humanity, not to the point of using them as cannon fodder, but instead responsible for guarding and patrolling the warehouse, escorting supplies, and delivering low-level intelligence. Although there is danger, it is not great.

Sending these high-grade Ninja Academy students to the second line of the battlefield can free up some troops and allow these ninja reserves to get some training in advance.

However, if the front line can't hold on one day, they will still have to become cannon fodder.

Puppet masters are considered a specialty of the Sand Hidden Village. The inheritance is complete, the combat power is not bad, the upper limit is not low, and the status is also good. The only drawback is…

Poverty.

Especially in the already poor Sand Hidden Village.

The manufacture and daily maintenance of puppets are a huge expense.

"This mission… seems a bit off."

Shimizu took out the mission scroll and frowned.

Repairing puppets is a normal mission, usually D-rank, occasionally C-rank, but it is generally the lowest reward for a C-rank mission, which is 10,000 ryo.

This time, the village is rarely generous, giving him a mission reward of a full 60,000 ryo, and it is not in the form of a team to carry out the mission, so he doesn't have to share with teammates.

Moreover, he only needs to repair one puppet, and the repair budget, not exceeding 10,000 ryo, is reimbursed by the puppet unit.

How could such a well-paid mission fall to an ordinary, unbacked, low-ranking ninja puppeteer like himself?

"This generosity is abnormally generous…"

While thinking about the reason, Shimizu turned his gaze to a nearly man-sized puppet placed against the wall, and a box popped up in his field of vision.

[Puppet Name]: Fatty

[Comprehensive Parameters]:

Height: 1.5 meters

Weight: 40.22 kilograms

Material: Combination of reinforced wood and lightweight metal

Energy: None

Operating Method: Chakra threads

[Puppet Rating]: C

[Comprehensive Evaluation]: Modified from a basic D-rank teaching-type transport puppet, low cost, has standard low-ranking ninja combat capabilities, but has certain requirements for the puppeteer's manipulation ability.

No one is wrong, one head, one first, one inside, one appearance, one existence, one look, one look!

Fatty is Shimizu's only puppet. Shimizu disassembled a teaching-type puppet bought from the Ninja Academy and added materials to make it.

A slight tap on the pop-up window also showed the puppet Fatty's three-dimensional view and exploded view, as well as detailed parameters in all aspects, including some existing defects.

Knowing these things makes it easy to write a set of improvement and optimization plans. Fatty has also become a C-rank puppet with qualified low-ranking ninja combat power as a result, from a basic D-rank teaching-type transport puppet.

The panel is the ability that Shimizu came with when he transmigrated. In addition to being able to have detailed data on the items he creates, he has not found any other functions for the time being.

At the very bottom of the panel, there is a progress bar that has been pulled to about 80%.

Shimizu does not know what will happen when the progress bar is full, but he has some guesses about how to increase the progress bar.

Usually, the progress bar will increase with time, but the speed is extremely slow, possibly not even 0.1% per month.

But sometimes there will be significant changes.

It has happened twice so far.

The first time was when Shimizu received his admission notice from the Ninja Academy, and the second time was when he graduated and became a low-ranking ninja.

At that time, Shimizu guessed that this might be related to his ninja level and personal status.

With a turn of his head, Shimizu looked at another puppet beside him.

This is the mission target this time.

This is a small, humanoid puppet. The left arm is a long, strip-shaped mechanical claw connected by sections of wood, and the palm of the right arm has a hole that can either eject exploding kunai or switch to a spiral drill.

Although the panel popped up this time, there was basically no data except for the name.

Because this thing was not created by Shimizu himself.

Shimizu picked up a tape measure and a screwdriver, disassembled the puppet, looked at it carefully for a while, and then reassembled the puppet.

This can also be considered a product manually manufactured by himself.