Pupet Master in Konoha

Not long ago, in the Hokage's office…

"Let Hideki Kimura come to my house after his school training class ends."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

After the ANBU left following their orders, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, took a puff from his pipe and looked once again at the crystal ball on his desk.

At this moment, the ball displayed a scene of the little ninjas happily trying out the Pocket Puppet Beast...

Sarutobi Hiruzen hadn't expected to make such interesting discoveries just by using the telescope technique to casually check on the progress of the class.

Especially when he saw the rare smiles on the children's faces, he couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth slightly.

But when his peripheral vision inadvertently landed on a frontline report on his desk, his smile quickly faded, and he exhaled a long puff of white smoke...

Well...

As the successor to the mantle of the first and second Hokages, he didn't want to make his vision a reality and allow children to have a happy childhood.

As a qualified leader, he knew that letting children go to the battlefield early was akin to drinking poison to quench thirst and was slowly causing Konoha's demise.

It was a pity he didn't have the incredible strength of the first Hokage or the intelligence of the second Hokage.

In the face of the serious situation in the current ninja world, where both large and small ninja villages were surrounded by wolves, he really couldn't do what he wanted. How could he have the resources to care for the physical and mental well-being of children?...

Therefore, if efficiency in training could be ensured, he would be happy to see the results of the children practicing in this almost playful manner.

At least this way, it could be considered a future a little closer to what the First Hokage had hoped for.

Thinking of this, Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help but look at the handsome young man in the crystal ball who was instructing the students on how to control the puppet beast.

Hideki Kimura…

The Third Hokage couldn't help but feel a bit excited.

As the director of the Ninja Academy, he had known back then that there was a student like Hideki, who had excellent academic performance and was much smarter than his peers.

It was a pity that the ninja world was one where talent was king, and Hideki, with mediocre ninja talent, didn't receive much attention from him.

It wasn't until he learned that Hideki had mastered Sunagakure's secret puppet technique through self-study that he realized he had underestimated the boy's intelligence.

Perhaps only a genius like him could come up with such an interesting chakra training method.

In particular, the idea of breaking down chakra line training into three stages through educational materials to reduce the difficulty of learning left Sarutobi Hiruzen, a doctor in ninjutsu, even more impressed.

He even began to wonder if he could apply the same method and use educational materials to reduce the difficulty of learning certain ninjutsu.

However, shortly after his joy, Sarutobi Hiruzen realized that this teaching method seemed to have a fatal flaw.

If it couldn't be solved, then this teaching method would just be a castle in the air and would be difficult to popularize in the ninja schools.

So, the most important question now is: Has Hideki noticed this flaw and found a solution?

...

Not long after, someone knocked on the Hokage's office door.

"Hokage-sama, Kimura Hideki has been brought here."

"Let him in."

"Yes!"

Then, Hideki entered the Hokage's office.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had already put the crystal ball away, first looked Hideki up and down and then casually joked:

"I haven't seen you in years. I didn't expect you to be so tall, Hideki. You've become quite the handsome young man."

"Do you have a girlfriend now? Want me to introduce you to one?"

"Now that you're working as a teacher in a ninja school, your life and work are stable. It's a good time to achieve your life goals…"

What?

Are they really going to start pressuring you to get married when you enter the ninja world?

Since it was completely different from the serious scene he had imagined, Hideki couldn't help but be speechless.

However, considering that the fertility rate of Konoha's ninjas had been decreasing year after year and there weren't enough "leeks" to harvest, it was no surprise that the Third Hokage acted as a matchmaker.

Of course, Hideki also knew that the Third Hokage was mainly doing this to chat with him a bit, in order to shorten the distance between them.

So, naturally, he played along and said with a relaxed smile:

"Hokage-sama, please stop teasing me."

"Right now, I'm putting all my energy into completing the puppet class, so how could I have time for a girlfriend?"

Of course, the most important thing was that the Third Ninja War was about to begin. How could he find a partner now?

If the Third Hokage promised not to let him go to the front line now, even if they introduced him to a girlfriend who was more than ten years older, compulsively addicted to gambling, and even had hemophobia and a mental illness, Hideki would accept without hesitation.

When Sarutobi Hiruzen heard Hideki mention the puppet technique class, he got straight to the point and said:

"Ah yes, young people should focus on their careers."

"I heard your first puppet class today went very well. Seems like you even invented some new teaching materials?"

"You've heard about it?"

As expected, this old man is very sly and never speaks the truth.

Hideki couldn't help but curse inwardly.

He had strong chakra control and was also sensitive to chakra fluctuations around him.

So when he felt a hidden chakra fluctuation in the sky during class, he knew that the Third Hokage had been spying on him in class using the telescope technique.

However, he wasn't too dissatisfied with this after all. The more curious and interested Sarutobi Hiruzen was in his courses, the better it would be for his future plans.

So Hideki didn't wait for Sarutobi Hiruzen to say more. He took out the handle and a small fire dragon puppet and said with a smile:

"This is the educational material I designed. I wonder if it would trouble you, Hokage-sama, to try it out and see if there's anything that can be improved?"

"Easily said, easily done."

Sarutobi Hiruzen took both with a smile, but the speed of the attack still revealed his impatience.

A man remains young until he dies.

To be honest, when he saw the children trying it out in the crystal ball, he was already very covetous of the Pocket Puppet Beast. How could he miss the opportunity to play with it now?

He saw himself smoothly connecting the handle to the back of the Charmander and then using the handle to control the Charmander, causing chaos on the desk like a small monster.

Those skilled and smooth movements made people feel disheartened.

Sarutobi Hiruzen also remembered that, based on what he had just heard, he should have heard of the Pocket Puppet Beast and shouldn't be playing with it so casually right now.

Fortunately, Hideki immediately applauded in admiration and said:

"As expected of Hokage-sama, you can control it so skillfully right after starting."

Sarutobi Hiruzen saw the sincere look in Hideki's eyes and for a moment really couldn't tell if Hideki was pretending to be foolish.

However, he was happy to follow the trend. After a few superficial words to change the subject, he started spinning it around again, carefully observing the puppet beast and the handle.

"Hideki, you're very thoughtful. The design of this set of educational materials is very clever. It must have taken you a lot of time."

Although he had never systematically learned the puppet technique, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was proficient in sealing techniques and various ninja mechanical tools, could easily understand most of the design principles behind the Pocket Puppet Beast and couldn't help but admire Hideki's whimsical ideas.

But the most important thing was that he felt Hideki's enthusiasm for designing this educational material.

If he truly didn't want to teach his students well, he wouldn't have been able to create such sophisticated and complete educational materials from the start.

"Hokage-sama, you flatter me."

Hideki said sincerely:

"Actually, the materials used aren't complicated, so it didn't take me much time."

His words weren't without merit because with the help of the brainstorming magic technique, this set of educational materials was designed and completed in just one day…

But Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head and said:

"Hideki, you're too modest…"

"The most important thing is simplicity. Being able to achieve your goals in the simplest way is your real skill."

After complimenting Hideki, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt that the preliminary work was nearly complete, so he decided to get to the most important topic.

He then asked:

"But Hideki, the material cost of this set of teaching materials shouldn't be cheap, right?"