Wisps of cooking smoke rose, drifting towards the setting sun.
The lingering sunset bled alluring colors, staining the entire Sand Village a bloody hue.
"This is the third group to return from the front lines this month."
Qingshui sat at his table, watching a group of battered soldiers pass by the window opposite, and couldn't help but sigh.
His name, meaning "clear water" in the Land of Wind where water was scarce, held a good omen and was given to him by the orphanage director.
The current year was Sand Hidden Year 37.
Since the Five Great Ninja Villages were all founded in the same year, Sand Hidden Year 37 and Konoha Year 37 were the same.
At this time, the Ninja World was in the midst of the Second Great Ninja War, and it had already reached a fever pitch.
Sand Village had two main battlefronts. One was in the Land of Rain to the northeast, commanded by Elder Chiyo, with the objective of suppressing Rain Village, preventing Hanzo from leading Rain Village to become the sixth great ninja village, and plundering their resources.
The second front was directly to the east, commanded by the Third Kazekage, attacking the Land of Rivers and the Land of Fire, with the aim of securing a fertile territory for Sand Village.
However, ever since two high-ranking Sand Village shinobi were killed by Konoha's White Fang two years ago, Sand Village's previous advantage on the battlefield had gradually disappeared.
None of this concerned Qingshui for now, as he had just returned from the Land of Rain battlefield last week.
He wouldn't need to go back to the front lines for a while.
Eleven years had passed since he transmigrated to the world of Naruto.
When he first arrived, he was just a baby. It wasn't until he was three years old, when his brain had developed to a certain extent, that he slowly began to recall memories of his past life.
Since he could remember, he had always been in the orphanage in Sand Village.
Because of this, he showed maturity and wisdom beyond his age very early on. He successfully passed the Ninja Academy entrance exam and was ahead of most of his classmates in the early stages of learning.
However, in terms of ninja talent, he wasn't actually top-tier; he was only average. His background also couldn't compare to students who had high-level ninja backing them or family support.
So, when he noticed his progress gradually being overtaken by others, Qingshui chose to specialize in the unique ninja profession of Puppet Master to maintain his competitiveness.
In resource-scarce Sand Hidden, everything had to be fought for.
"The injury on my leg will take another month to heal, and my internal injuries will take even longer. During this time, I can only take on some side jobs, helping people repair puppets. I probably won't be able to take on missions for money in the short term. Fortunately, I don't have to go to the battlefield.
But before that, I need to take care of the puppet repair mission assigned by the village."
Qingshui refocused his attention on the workbench.
He had graduated from the Ninja Academy last year.
More accurately, he was forced to graduate, because seeing Konoha Village do it, Sand Hidden imitated them and sent older Ninja Academy students to the front lines.
However, the higher-ups were still somewhat humane; they didn't treat them as cannon fodder. Instead, they were responsible for tasks like guarding and patrolling warehouses, escorting supplies, and transmitting low-level intelligence. They weren't on the direct front lines, so while there was danger, it wasn't great.
Sending these older Ninja Academy students to the second line of the battlefield freed up some military strength and also allowed these ninja reserves to get early training.
However, if the front line couldn't hold up one day, they would still have to serve as cannon fodder.
Puppet Masters were a specialty of Sand Village. Their tradition was complete, their combat power was impressive, their potential was high, and their status was good. The only drawback was...
Poverty.
Especially in the already poor Sand Village.
The creation and daily maintenance of puppets were huge expenses.
"This mission… seems a little off."
Qingshui took out the mission scroll and furrowed his brows.
Repairing puppets was a normal mission, usually D-rank, occasionally C-rank, but generally with the lowest C-rank reward, which was ten thousand ryo.
This time, the village was uncharacteristically generous, assigning him a mission reward of sixty thousand ryo. Moreover, it wasn't a team mission, so he didn't have to share it with teammates.
And he only needed to repair one puppet, with a repair budget not exceeding ten thousand ryo, which would be reimbursed by the Puppet Force.
How could such a lucrative mission fall to an ordinary Genin Puppet Master like him, with no background?
"This generosity isn't normal…"
As he pondered the reason, Qingshui's gaze shifted to a puppet nearly a meter tall placed against the wall. A box popped up in his vision.
[Puppet Name]: Fatty
[Overall Parameters]:
Height: 1.5 meters
Weight: 40.22 kilograms
Material: Reinforced wood combined with lightweight metal
Energy: None
Operation Method: Chakra Threads
[Puppet Rating]: C
[Overall Evaluation]: Modified from a basic D-rank instructional transport puppet. Low cost, possesses standard Genin-level combat capability, but requires a certain level of manipulation skill from the Puppet Master.
Fatty was Qingshui's only puppet. Qingshui had made it by dismantling and enhancing an instructional puppet he bought from the Ninja Academy.
Tapping the pop-up with his mind, he saw the three-view and exploded diagrams of the Fatty puppet appear again, along with detailed parameters for all its aspects, including existing flaws.
Knowing all this made it easy to devise a plan for improvement and optimization. That's how Fatty transformed from a basic D-rank teaching and transport puppet into a C-rank puppet with combat capabilities comparable to a qualified Genin.
The panel was a skill Qingshui brought with him when he transmigrated. Aside from providing detailed data on items he created, he hadn't discovered any other functions for it yet.
At the very bottom of the panel, there was a progress bar, already filled to about eighty percent.
Qingshui didn't know what would happen when the progress bar was full, but he had a guess about how to increase it.
Normally, the progress bar would increase over time, but at an extremely slow pace, perhaps less than 0.1 percent in a month.
However, sometimes there would be significant changes.
This had happened twice so far.
The first time was when Qingshui received his acceptance letter to the Ninja Academy, and the second was when he graduated and became a Genin.
At that time, Qingshui guessed it might be related to his ninja rank and personal status.
With a thought, Qingshui looked at another puppet beside him.
This was the target for his current task.
It was a small, humanoid puppet. Its left arm was a long, segmented mechanical claw made of wood, and its right palm had a hole that could either launch Exploding Kunai or transform into a Spiral Drill.
Although the panel popped up this time, there was virtually no data beyond its name.
That was because Qingshui hadn't personally created this item.
Qingshui picked up a tape measure and screwdriver, disassembled the puppet, examined it carefully for a while, and then reassembled it.
He figured this counted as something he had manually "manufactured" himself.
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