By the time Hardy crawled out of the Formentor puppet, dizzy and disoriented from being thrown, the young boy had already been bound by Black Ant's long, segmented arms and was unable to move. The mechanisms on the Salamander's back and sides had been completely dismantled, and Sasori himself had been captured by the ox-faced puppet, dangling by his collar like a prisoner.
"You both did very well."
Chiyo controlled the ox-faced puppet to set Sasori down, praising them with a cheerful smile.
She couldn't be more satisfied with Hardy and Sasori's performance.
When she was their age, she might not have been so outstanding herself.
"Sasori, you rely too much on your own judgment during battle, leaving yourself no backup plan. When you make a move, you don't think ahead to what comes next—how your enemy might respond, or how you should counter them. But at the critical moment, you often hesitate. This could easily lead you into a desperate situation in future battles due to a single careless mistake."
Chiyo put away her puppets and began to critique Hardy and Sasori.
"In terms of puppet control and developing puppet functions, you've done well. What you need most now is to meet more people, spar with different types of ninja, and gain more combat experience."
Chiyo found a stone to sit on, while Hardy and Sasori sat on either side of her.
"As for you, Hardy, your mission experience is much richer than Sasori's. You've even been on the battlefield before, though not at the most dangerous front lines. Your practical experience is decent, but there are still some shortcomings."
"You lack experience fighting enemies stronger than yourself. Perhaps this is because you've made rapid progress in the past year—your strength has grown faster than your combat awareness. Also, your fighting style is a bit different from traditional puppet masters, which brings its own issues."
"You call the Formentor puppet an 'armored-type puppet.' Wrapping the puppet master's body inside the puppet does improve your self-preservation. With the right combination of puppet features, your offense isn't bad either—provided your puppets are of high enough quality. I have confidence in you there. But the same problem remains: if you encounter an enemy stronger than you who manages to break through your armored puppet, what will you do?"
Chiyo looked Hardy in the eyes as she asked.
"I can only run. If the enemy can do that, it means the boy puppet has either been destroyed or is being held off by other enemies. And if they can defeat Formentor, their combat ability is definitely far above my own."
Hardy thought for a few seconds and answered simply.
Chiyo nodded in satisfaction.
"A good analysis. Although you usually operate in squads during missions, so your teammates shouldn't let the puppet master's real body fall into danger, once you encounter an overwhelming threat, the ability to escape and survive becomes crucial."
As Chiyo spoke, she took out two ninja scrolls from her tool pouch.
"These two scrolls contain the same content: two jutsu. One is the Mechanized Shield Seal I just used—a B-rank jutsu for use with puppets. It uses puppet mechanisms as a medium to transform chakra into a tangible defense. Its strength depends on the puppet master's chakra and the quality of the chakra circuits in the mechanism. Even now, this is still my most commonly used defensive ninjutsu."
"The other is my personal secret technique: the Art of Swift Wind."
Chiyo extended a finger, around which a tiny vortex of wind swirled.
"After the First Ninja World War, I studied the Lightning Release Chakra Mode from the Hidden Cloud Village, trying to develop a Wind Release Chakra Mode suitable for Sand ninja. In my complete vision, it would be like the Wind Release: Vacuum Sword, with sharp wind chakra covering the entire body—not only providing powerful cutting ability, but also using wind's dispersal to deflect and redirect enemy attacks, and even granting tremendous speed through wind's acceleration."
At this point, Chiyo sighed.
"But the Lightning Release Chakra Mode was the result of generations of research by the Raikage's lineage, even before the Hidden Cloud Village was founded. My own achievements in ninjutsu are respectable, but how could I compare to the lifelong efforts of top experts across generations? Still, I did gain some insights, and that is what you two will..."
---
He saw the Wind Release: Swift Wind Technique.
"So, what does this Swift Wind Technique actually do?"
Since Sasori was not much of a talker, Hardy took on the role of keeping the conversation going.
"Speed. By channeling Wind Release chakra through several major acupoints in the body and releasing it, you propel yourself forward and reduce air resistance, thereby greatly enhancing your own speed. For a puppeteer, having sufficient speed undoubtedly increases their chances of survival on the battlefield."
Chiyo then went on to explain in detail to Hardy and Sasori the training methods for these two jutsu.
The Mechanism Shield Seal requires the puppeteer to pre-construct a chakra circuit inside the relevant puppet mechanism using materials with good chakra conductivity. When the puppeteer injects a large amount of chakra into this circuit in a short period, the chakra is materialized upon release, providing strong defense.
The strength of the defense depends on the materials and design of the circuit, as well as the quality and quantity of chakra the puppeteer is able to inject.
This is a puppet technique with both a high lower and upper limit for defensive power.
As for the Swift Wind Technique, it is divided into several stages.
The first stage is relatively easy to get started with. As Chiyo described, it involves channeling wind-natured chakra through several major acupoints in the body to increase movement speed. The overall difficulty is only slightly lower than some standard B-rank jutsu.
The second stage requires mastery of wind-natured chakra transformation, as well as a certain level of shape transformation, to form a membrane of wind chakra covering the body's surface.
Although its defensive power is not particularly strong, it allows for yet another leap in speed, on top of the already enhanced movement.
This stage is already quite difficult—after all, just the nature transformation of chakra is at a jonin level of difficulty, and Chiyo herself is at this stage.
As for further progress, Chiyo merely proposed a theoretical idea, hoping future generations could perfect it.
That is, just like the Raikage lineage of the Hidden Cloud Village, to develop a complete Wind Release Chakra Mode.
However, to achieve this, one's mastery of Wind Release must reach the pinnacle, and the user must possess a physical body no weaker than the Raikage's.
Without an extremely strong body, it would be impossible to withstand the violent chakra unleashed when activating Wind Release Chakra Mode.