Pupet Master in Konoha

Before formally using the Brainstorming Technique, Hideki had to make some preparations.

First, he stood up, closed the office curtains, shut the door, and then moved to the open space in front of his desk.

Hideki then took a storage scroll from his sleeve, unrolled it, opened it, and pulled out six hats.

The hats resembled the traditional wizard hats and came in different colors: red, yellow, green, blue, black, and white.

Each of the hats had gemstones matching their colors embedded in them, with strange, barely visible patterns drawn around them.

Hideki first took the blue hat and put it on. After thinking for a moment, he placed the white, red, and green hats on the table.

Once everything was set, he began forming hand seals.

"Shadow Clone Technique!"

In an instant, three clouds of white smoke erupted, and three figures, identical to him, suddenly appeared in front of Hideki.

As soon as they appeared, they rushed to grab the hats on the table without waiting for instructions from the main body.

After two sharp whistles, two of the shadow clones had grabbed the red and white hats.

The third shadow clone, who had been delayed due to positioning, could only grimace, approach the remaining green hat, and mutter:

"I know this is a parody of the Six Thinking Hats, but couldn't we change the green hat to another color?"

The "thinking hats" were actually a method of managing thoughts that Hideki had encountered in his past life.

It compares different perspectives of thinking with different colored hats, allowing people to think more systematically and thoroughly by changing "hats."

For example, Hideki, as the main body, wore the blue hat, representing planning and leadership. He was responsible for regulating the entire thought process and coming to a conclusion in the end.

The white hat represented objectivity and focused on gathering information, while the red hat represented emotion and centered on feelings and perceptions.

The yellow hat represented optimism and provided a positive perspective, while the black hat represented pessimism and gave negative and skeptical opinions.

The last hat represented creativity, naturally... No, it was for innovation, tasked with providing solutions to problems and fresh ideas.

To make better use of the three minutes of genius time he had each day, Hideki borrowed the idea of the Thinking Hats to approach problems more comprehensively.

And because of the existence of shadow clones, Hideki didn't need to change the "hats" one by one to shift perspectives; instead, he directly assigned specific thinking angles to both the main body and the shadow clones.

This way, not only could he think more holistically, but the shadow clones, thinking from different perspectives, could also communicate in real time, aiding in the generation of unexpected inspiration.

In theory, there should be six people, the main body and the shadow clones, to make this technique work at its best.

Unfortunately, Hideki's chakra wasn't sufficient, and the more shadow clones he had, the greater the strain on his brain.

Therefore, after numerous trials, creating three shadow clones was the optimal choice for Hideki.

Once the third shadow clone reluctantly grabbed the last hat and wore it, Hideki's body and the shadow clones sat cross-legged in the open space.

Seeing that the shadow clones were ready, Hideki raised his sword finger with his right hand in front of his chest and whispered:

"Brainstorming Technique."

As soon as he finished speaking, the four thinking hats shot out chakra lines, clearly visible, from the gems and connected to each other, forming a blue square.

At the same time, the heads of the three shadow clones tilted back, their eyes turned white, and their delicate faces distorted slightly, as if they were experiencing considerable pain.

The strange patterns around the gems of the thinking hats became clearly visible, forming a series of faintly glowing runes.

Hideki had never had the time or resources to systematically learn sealing techniques, so he had only learned a little.

Therefore, the function of these runes derived from sealing techniques was quite simple: to limit the flow of chakra in the chakra line.

In this way, although the speed of information exchange would decrease, the strain on the shadow clones' brains would also lessen, preventing them from exploding due to overload. The overall effect would be better.

As for the main body, Hideki closed his eyes and concentrated, his expression not as exaggerated as that of the shadow clones.

Since the main body's brain wasn't a disposable element that would be a waste to explode, it wasn't responsible for the specific thinking task.

Hideki's job at that moment was simply to evaluate and control the various ideas generated by the three shadow clones through exchanges and rapid brainstorming, judging whether to keep exploring in the corresponding direction.

Even so, processing a large amount of information in a short time still gave Hideki a headache for hours afterward.

However, compared to the effect of this technique, the price paid was already very worthwhile.

And after using this technique many times, Hideki also discovered an unexpected joy it brought.

Perhaps similar to the principle of muscle training, Hideki found that his mental energy increased slightly after every headache.

Though the effect was very subtle, these small things added up, gradually allowing Hideki to develop a fairly strong mental fortitude.

In addition to gradually prolonging the time before the shadow clone's head exploded, the technique also made Hideki feel more comfortable controlling chakra.

Thanks to this, he was able to master the technique of controlling puppets with chakra threads in just a few years.

Therefore, Hideki had consciously adjusted the Chakra Limiting Technique of the Thinking Hat, to create an appropriate load on his brain for training during the execution of this technique.

Three minutes quickly passed.

At that moment, the heads of the three shadow clones began to smoke, and then exploded one by one, leaving only three hats falling gently to the ground.

The remaining chakra of the shadow clones began to return to its original form, and the memories of what had just been thought also flooded Hideki's brain, giving him another headache.

However, Hideki couldn't help but stand up in surprise at the enormous harvest and shouted:

"Eureka!"

But Hideki didn't start organizing the results immediately. Instead, he pulled out a bottle of strawberry milk he had prepared in advance and drank it all at once.

The brainstorming in just three minutes had consumed a lot of sugar in his body, and he had to replenish it immediately.

After replenishing the sugar, Hideki massaged his temples to relieve the headache while pacing back and forth in the office, and then began to organize his gains:

"A solution this simple, how did I not think of it before?"

"The reason it's difficult for the little puppet beasts to be used as teaching material right away is that the students probably aren't even capable of making chakra threads right now, so they can't practice with them at all."

"But the creation, maintenance, and even manipulation of chakra threads are ultimately the external manifestation of chakra control."

"So, as long as I can have the effect of training chakra control, there's no need to limit myself to using chakra threads from the start."

"Maybe we can first design an auxiliary ninja tool."

"Even if the students don't know how to create chakra threads, they can still use them to control puppets while exercising their chakra control."

"It's like learning to ride a bike and adding training wheels."

"Instead of letting the kids fall and get frustrated at first, it's better to give them help so they can experience the fun of riding a bike first, and maybe they'll progress faster."

"Of course, how to prevent them from becoming dependent on the 'training wheels' is also an issue that needs attention."

In just three minutes of genius, Hideki had figured out how to improve the little puppet beasts so they could meet the requirements to become teaching material.

To avoid forgetting the details, Hideki quickly lay back in his seat and began furiously writing in his notes.

When he put down his pen, Hideki realized he had written over ten pages of dense notes.

Since it not only contained the basic form of the teaching material but also how to update it to match the students' level, Hideki had made many plans.

"Everyone will be amazed tomorrow."

Hideki looked at the teaching materials he had just designed and imagined how surprised the young ninjas would be when they saw the finished product, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curve with pleasure.

But it wasn't time to rest yet.

Although Hideki still had a headache at that moment, all he wanted was a good night's sleep.

But to produce the teaching materials before tomorrow's class, he had to start preparing immediately…