Pupet Master in Konoha

Now, let's shift the camera to where Hideki is.

In the dim light of the lantern, Hideki can be seen sitting cross-legged in a cave about ten meters underground, his fingers moving through the air as though he were playing music.

At the same time, the tip of each finger released a line of chakra that extended upwards, controlling the corpse puppet on the ground to continue spinning with the opponent.

Yes, the curious corpse puppet on the ground is indeed Hideki's masterpiece.

With his radar perception ability, he naturally realized someone had been tailing him for a while.

So, just in case, while exploring the Valley of the End, he found an opportunity to hide underground and let a specially crafted puppet replace him.

And the events proved that his caution was not in vain.

When the enemy mistook his highly realistic puppet for a sneak attack, the vast gap in intelligence made the outcome clear.

The reason the enemy couldn't find any chakra threads connected to Hideki is because they are directly linked from the puppet's feet to the ground!

However, while the enemy applauded his deception, Hideki relied on a C-ranked ninjutsu to pull it off:

Earth Escape · Hidden Dragon Technique.

This technique turns the ground into fine grains of sand using Earth Release chakra, allowing the user to move freely underground like an earth dragon.

Since Hideki had to focus most of his energy on controlling the puppets, he didn't delve deeply into ninjutsu.

But this Earth Dragon Hidden Technique was one of the few ninjutsus Hideki dedicated considerable time and effort to.

Besides the fact that Hideki's natural chakra affinity is earth, the main reason for his focus was that this ninjutsu is excellent for escaping...

Being someone who values his life, Hideki certainly wouldn't discard a skill that saved him.

He had also used brainstorming to improve this technique.

Now, he could not only turn the earth into sand but also compress it into rock blocks to reduce its size, creating an underground cavity like the one he was using as a temporary shelter. This allowed him to control puppets or avoid enemies.

If there's an emergency, Hideki could even live underground for over half a year with food, water, and oxygen tanks prepared in his storage scroll...

However, this Hidden Earth Dragon Technique is not without flaws.

The most criticized defect is that it's hard to clearly understand the situation above ground when buried.

Though the ninjutsu scroll for this technique comes with a set of methods for gauging the location and number of enemies based on vibrations, this can only be used for escaping or sneaking. If you want to precisely control puppets underground through chakra threads, this ability is obviously insufficient.

Otherwise, Hideki wouldn't have had to invent this tactic.

Nakamura, of course, never considered the possibility that Hideki was hiding underground.

In fact, this problem had long been a concern for Hideki.

In other words, controlling puppets without relying on direct sight has always been a problem that puppet masters have been working hard to solve.

Because the puppeteer themselves is the biggest weakness of the puppet system.

If they can eliminate the need for direct observation, then the puppeteer can hide more secretly, rather than worrying about being affected by both sides' AOE ninjutsu in the battlefield...

Although Hideki originally had radar perception, which allowed him to sense his surroundings easily, the principle of this technique is to detect the environment by analyzing chakra reflection waves, which causes some delay.

It's fine for understanding terrain or finding people and objects, but it's somewhat inadequate when used in the rapid battles of ninjas.

Fortunately, radar perception still gave Hideki some inspiration.

But this inspiration would have to wait until recently, when Hideki's chakra control reached a new level, to be fully realized:

In fact, the concept behind the inspiration was very simple.

In Hideki's previous life, radar seemed to have been invented based on bats' ability to identify locations by listening to sounds.

This time, Hideki referenced a creature that can also understand its surroundings to some degree without using its eyes: spiders.

Spiders can easily detect slight vibrations in their webs and quickly determine if prey has gotten caught in the web, indicating its location.

Hideki based his technique on this principle, creating something he called Chakra Net.

As the name suggests, Hideki relies on his powerful chakra control to release a large number of thin chakra lines in all directions with the puppet at the center.

These chakra lines connect with the surrounding environment, forming a three-dimensional interconnected web.

Although the lines have no strength and can be broken if touched, they are like spider silk. Once someone passes through them, the vibration is quickly transmitted through the puppet and eventually reaches Hideki.

Based on the received information, Hideki simulates the scene around the puppet in his mind, using this as a basis to control the puppet to fight.

Though it sounds complicated, in reality, the touch, vibration, transmission, analysis, and operation are almost completed in the blink of an eye without much delay.

Of course, with Hideki's current mental strength and chakra control, he still can't perfectly restore the scene in his mind.

Thus, when using this technique, his puppet control level is only about 30% of the normal level and still requires further improvement in the future.

Another unexpected surprise was that although the original intent of this technique was to control puppets remotely, Hideki soon discovered that this ninjutsu could also be used on himself, allowing him to more accurately detect and avoid enemy attacks in close combat.

Therefore, this ninjutsu was named by Hideki as the Spider Detection Technique.

"It should be almost time."

Hideki glanced at the pocket watch placed on the ground and saw that nearly ten minutes had passed, so he murmured to himself.

Just as Nakamura had thought, Hideki was indeed stalling for time.

A wounded beast becomes more dangerous.

Although Hideki is 99% sure he can defeat his opponent without suffering injuries, in this world of ninjas with all sorts of strange abilities, it's better to be cautious.

That's why he remained quietly underground, waiting for his enemy to destroy themselves.

Of course, what Hideki was waiting for wasn't the enemy collapsing from excessive blood loss, but something happening faster.

Just now, Nakamura made the most accurate judgment in a short time and directly cut his calf, which really impressed Hideki.

If the toxin had only spread through the blood, Hideki would have had enough time to stop it from reaching his whole body.

However, what Nakamura didn't know was that, besides the poisoned needle, Hideki's poisoning method also involved chakra lines that deeply penetrated his body after the needle was inserted...

Before Nakamura decided to cut his calf, Hideki's chakra lines had already penetrated deeply into his body with the poison.

Though Nakamura temporarily inhibited the spread of toxins after taking many antidotes, he still couldn't fully detoxify.

Because the poison Hideki used wasn't a commercially available product but a collection of highly toxic plants he had unknowingly gathered while searching for materials in the ninja world.

Even Hideki himself didn't have the corresponding antidote.

Therefore, no matter how effective the antidote made by Chiyo is, when facing a variety of unstudied toxins, it can only throw up its hands in defeat...

It can be said that the moment the enemy was poisoned, the outcome was already decided...

Indeed, Hideki didn't take long to sense that the enemy had fallen to the ground through the Spider Detection Technique, and at the same time, the enemy's puppet also stopped moving.

The result had been decided.

Though Hideki had no idea who his opponent was by name, what their trump card was, or even what they looked like, he had indeed defeated the opponent.

And this is how Hideki has always fought, as simple and boring as always...

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