After fooling around with Pakura for a while and managing to steal a kiss, Hattori finally settled down and returned to crafting his puppets.
Due to the materials available, Hattori started by making twenty Sword Master puppets. Using the leftover scraps, he then crafted five hundred explosive puppets.
Compared to the stylish Sword Master puppets, these explosive puppets were much more rudimentary. Aside from being waterproof and remotely controllable, they looked quite grotesque.
In short, these explosive puppets were only fit for night-time aerial bombing. They weren't versatile and had very limited use.
In the past, Hattori's perfectionist nature would never have allowed him to make such "defective" products, but he no longer cared as much. To him, time was too precious to waste on disposable explosive puppets.
Now, his primary focus was on crafting sealed puppets.
"The puppets are ready; now it's time to seal the chakra pearls and chakra into them," Hattori muttered to himself.
To avoid waste, he selected a [Basic] water-type chakra pearl and extracted a small amount of chakra.
Then, using the Four Symbols Seal, he bound both into an Sword Master puppet.
When the sealing was complete, the chakra pearl vanished, and a ring of blue sealing runes, with the character for "Seal" at the center, appeared on the puppet.
Simultaneously, the attributes of the Sword Master puppet transformed:
**[Name: Sealed Puppet - Mist Concealment]**
**[Level: 19]**
**[Attributes: Attack 200 / Defense 100 / Durability 100]**
**[Sealed Skill: Basic Mist Concealment Jutsu, which creates a fog obscuring a 10-meter radius. Each use consumes 10 MP.]**
"Hmm?"
Seeing the puppet's stats, Hattori frowned. He decided to add another [Basic] water-type chakra pearl to the puppet.
This time, the primary attributes remained the same, but the skill improved:
**[Sealed Skill: Basic Mist Concealment Jutsu, creates a fog obscuring a 20-meter radius. Each use consumes 20 MP.]**
Noticing the change, Hattori's eyes lit up, and he quickly sealed in eight more water-type chakra pearls.
This caused an even greater enhancement:
**[Sealed Skill: Intermediate Mist Concealment Jutsu, creates a fog obscuring a 100-meter radius. Each use consumes 100 MP.]**
"Perfect!"
Pleased with the enhanced skill, Hattori replicated the process to create nine more Mist Concealment puppets.
After completing these ten sealed puppets, he was left with only six [Basic] water pearls.
He then sealed these ten Mist Concealment puppets in a storage scroll.
Once done, he took out sixteen [Basic] earth-type chakra pearls.
These pearls had dropped from the Iwa-nin he had defeated when they attacked Sunagakure. Thinking they might be useful, he'd kept them.
His prediction was correct.
After sealing an earth-type chakra pearl into an Sword Master puppet, the puppet's attributes changed:
**[Name: Sealed Puppet - Hardening]**
**[Level: 19]**
**[Attributes: Attack 200 / Defense 300 / Durability 300]**
**[Sealed Skill: Basic Hardening Jutsu, which grants additional armor and durability. Each use consumes 10 MP.]**
"Not bad!"
The hardened puppet excited Hattori. He had been frustrated by the damage his puppets took in battle, but this hardening skill offered a solution.
"Too bad there aren't more earth-type pearls!"
He regretted not gathering more pearls when he raided Iwagakure—he felt as if he'd lost a fortune!
However, he quickly brushed off the regret and resumed making hardening puppets.
With fifteen earth pearls left, Hattori contemplated how many hardening puppets to create.
After weighing his options, he decided on four hardening puppets.
Adding three pearls to the first puppet he had made, he divided the remaining twelve pearls among three additional puppets.
Soon, he had completed four hardening puppets:
**[Name: Sealed Puppet - Hardening]**
**[Level: 19]**
**[Attributes: Attack 200 / Defense 900 / Durability 900]**
**[Sealed Skill: Basic Hardening Jutsu, which grants additional armor and durability. Each use consumes 40 MP.]**
Hattori nodded with satisfaction.
"Now that I'm done with basic sealed puppets, it's time to try making advanced ones!"
With that, he took out a set of [Superior] water-type chakra pearls.
These pearls were obtained from mid- to high-level Water-nin during the recent battle, so Hattori only had around thirty.
Though they were limited, Hattori wasn't stingy. To craft a powerful sealed puppet, he immediately used ten of the pearls on a blank puppet.
Once again, upon completion, the puppet's stats transformed:
**[Name: Sealed Puppet - Water Cannon]**
**[Level: 39]**
**[Attributes: Attack 1000 / Defense 100 / Durability 100]**
**[Sealed Skill: Intermediate Water Cannon Jutsu, capable of firing water bullets at targets. Each use consumes 100 MP.]**
"Whoa! A high-attack, long-range puppet?"
The puppet's attack value of 1000 excited Hattori.
"With 1000 attack power, even a Kage-level opponent could be severely hurt!"
Hattori remembered that the Third Kazekage had about 1300 health points, while Chiyo had slightly over 900.
In theory, this puppet could kill Chiyo outright and gravely injure the Third Kazekage if they were hit unprepared.
Of course, this was merely a hypothesis. At their level, hitting them would be no easy feat.
Nevertheless, Hattori quickly formulated a battle plan in his mind.
"First, use Mist Concealment puppets to create a thick fog. Then, have the hardening puppets keep the enemy occupied within the fog. When the moment is right, launch a sneak attack with the Water Cannon puppets. This strategy should work perfectly!"
With that, he took the remaining twenty-four [Superior] water pearls and created three more Water Cannon puppets.
These had eight pearls each, giving them an attack of 800.
For Hattori, an 800 attack was still more than enough!
So, he happily stored the four Water Cannon puppets in a storage scroll.
After sealing them, he patted the scroll with satisfaction.
"Chiyo's sealed puppets are called the 'Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu.' Since I've got eight more than she does, I'll call mine the 'Eighteen Puppet of the Sword Master.' Yes, I'm truly a genius at naming things!"
*(End of Chapter)*