It seemed however, that this particular trap was not the explosive kind as the smoke cloud typical of a storage seal being released, covered the area around the man Shiki had just knocked out.
'Wind Release: Breakthrough'
With his still low but now acceptable affinities, a D rank wind jutsu like this instantly cleared the smoke with a negligible chakra cost and thus revealed what was hidden.
'Puppets?' Shiki was somewhat shocked.
After all, what was the point of summoning puppets after the puppeteer was already knocked out or killed?
There were four puppets in total, all looking the same with long bucket shaped heads similar to the Kuroari Kankuro would use in the original timeline's future but with regular humanoid bodies except for the disproportionately long arms ending in three fingered hand tipped by long talons.
Despite the lack of a puppeteer however, the puppets still stood upright though with a hunched, idle-looking stance.
Trusting his instincts however, Shiki did not recklessly approach.
The boy's sensory abilities could detect a sort of chakra core hidden within the torso of the puppets, where the heart would be on a human.
Shiki was about to create a shadow clone so it could use Enlightened Mind's Eye to more closely analyze the puppets when the situation suddenly changed.
With mechanical noises, the four figures suddenly straightened up and leapt at the boy with deadly intent.
Despite his surprise, Shiki easily dodged the disorganized assault but the puppets quickly course corrected and gave chase, wildly waving their sharp claws.
But the boy noticed.
'They can apparently move without input but they are clumsy, inefficient and disorganized. A calm chunin could easily take out three or four in close quarters or more than ten if they had some space to work with.' He evaluated.
It was still impressive.
Autonomous puppets were something only the Otsutsuki clan of the Moon achieved and though markedly less impressive in terms of capabilities and intelligence, the puppets Shiki was currently facing could autonomously follow simple commands.
'Depending on production costs and availability of materials, they could serve as a nice fodder army.'
Determining the puppets lacked the ability to threaten him, Shiki entered research mode and decided to run some tests rather than trying to disable them right away.
Just to be safe however, he created a shadow clone to watch the perimeter with Enlightened Mind's Eye and analyze the puppets while he was at it.
As soon as the clone popped into existence, the puppets locked onto it and split into two groups but after a use of Flicker Phantom, they lost the clone and went straight back to attacking the original.
'Reach appropriately to multiple enemies but have difficulties with high speed targets and distance. They completely ignore the existence of additional enemies once they lose track of them.' Shiki mentally noted.
After dodging a couple more swipes, the boy tested out their positioning skills and the results were quite disappointing.
Shiki dodged a puppet's attack while putting himself in the path of another one and when this second puppet struck, he activated Flicker Phantom, vanishing while the second puppet crashed into the first.
'Aware of each other's position enough to not hamper their attacks and movement but only if their target does not use goading tactics and positioning to mess up their lines of attack.' The boy made another mental observation and moved on to test something else.
While the two crashed puppets were getting up, the other two charged Shiki and rather than simply dodging them, he began testing out their defenses and his conclusion was swift.
'Nonexistent.'
None of the puppets made any move to block, dodge or otherwise protect themselves.
Shiki even slowed down his speed and made sure to attack after the puppets finished their own attack because dodging or blocking a counter is harder but it was still no use.
'Maybe they don't register my attacks as threatening because I'm hitting them lightly?' The boy wondered and began incrementally increasing the power of his blows.
'Oh?'
The puppets still did not defend themselves but something else grabbed Shiki's attention.
Durability.
The chakra flowing from the "heart" of the puppets seemed to strengthen them beyond their wooden frames' tolerance.
Even when struck with force that should result in cracks or complete breakage, the puppets seemed to get up unscathed.
'Let's go a little harder then . . .' Shiki thought to himself.
Switching from defense and countering to active attacking, the boy struck one of the puppets with his full physical strength without any special techniques or jutsu to enhance him.
The puppet went flying and tumbled across the desert sand before stopping but immediately got back up.
'Then how about this?'
Using the Ryumon's Iron Body technique, a purely taijutsu based ability to harden the muscles to the limit, enhancing defensive and attack power without chakra and smashed his fist into a second puppet shattering its right arm and severely splintering its wooden torso.
Shiki then activated Flicker Phantom, using the added speed to kick the third puppet even harder, this one was completely broken into parts with its torso being half destroyed.
As for the final puppet, still fearlessly charging at him, the boy used Flicker Flash to generate a massive burst of chakra, literally exploding the wooden frame of his target into dust.
'That last one is gone but the others . . .'
The first puppet, hit purely with standard physical strength, was already charging at him, no surprise there, the boy had noticed the lack of damage inflicted.
But the other two were an honest surprise.
The second puppet, which had its arm destroyed, was back in working order, the broken right arm merely being stiff and janky due to damaged joints but was otherwise fully functional despite the splintered torso.
As for the third, it was noticeably slower and unbalanced. The flow of chakra within it was hampered and its structural integrity was compromised but it was still moving and attacking.
'So they are exceptionally tough despite only being made of standard wood, not even the high quality stuff Sunagakure uses for their puppets.'
'If they are broken into parts but the parts themselves are not destroyed, they can even rebuild themselves.'
Learning all he felt reasonably in the current situation, Shiki used his Flicker Flash to rapidly move between the puppets, sealing their chakra cores with some basic fuinjutsu and collecting them in a scroll.
'Just in time.' The boy thought to himself as he sensed the rest of his team as well as Tenki and Tomoe, arrive with Rinha Kairi and two more members of his clan, a girl about Mei's age and a man in his thirties following close behind them.
The Rinha shinobi originally being stalked were probably back in the town already, unaware they had been saved unless they were intercepted and told of the situation but the now approaching group.
The shadow clone using the Enlightened Mind's Eye to watch over the situation and analyze the puppets more closely dispelled itself and the original Shiki professionally restrained the leader of the group he had taken down, the only survivor of his ambush.
"Looks like you've already taken care of things, Shiki." Inori's exasperated voice sounded out.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -